January 2009
NY Times: Hospital Patients Usually Cannot... →
This is no surprise to Spork. But the article does not make it completely clear why this is so. While most doctors do introduce themselves to hospital patients by saying, “Hello, I am Doctor So-and-So,” they usually speak very fast (and often have a thick foreign accent) and their nametags are often not readable from the position of the bedridden patient. And the doctors almost never...
Survival of the Fittest
Sometimes the theory is too simple. Especially when it comes to deer.
WatchBroken Legged Doe, January 26, 2009
From "No Such Agency" to "Need Staff ASAP"?
Spork's How-To and How-Not-To advice on...
Rearranging/Inserting posts on a Tumblr blog
A blogging note by Spork Major:
Spork just discovered this morning that new features on tumblr.com make it possible (but not very easy!) to change the order of posts on a tumbleblog and/or insert new posts between two older posts. This is Good News because Spork has often been very frustrated when she has posted things in the wrong order on the Sporkworld Microblog or when she really needs to...
Wanted: Comments and Collaboration on Mobile...
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/16548
I, Spork Major, aka Millie Niss entered a contest which asks participants to propose a healthcare innovation that would “nudge” people into better health without coercing them.
My idea is to create a mobile phone-based interactive medical diary program for people with severe chronic illnesses. It is an extension of the medical diary I...
The Woes of YouTube
Spork posted a video version of her “Farewell to W” fireworks display on YouTube, because that seemed like the only way to get any traffic to the piece. Unfortunately, the version on YouTube takes a while to load and is quite blurry, so one can barely tell what words are used to make the fireworks. The original Flash version starts instantly, with only a very slight delay for the...
“Even if the oath provision of the Constitution is taken literally, all that...”
– James Niss, Esq.
NY Times: Doctors in Hawaii can now make "house... →
Internet-based medical visits (using a voice and chat program with optional webcam, like Skype) were introduced last week by Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Hawaii. Patients will access a web site to request an immediate “visit” from a panel of doctors who will be on-call 24-hours a day. The “visit” will cost them $10, with an optional additional charge to extend the visit....
Spork's "Farewell to W" on YouTube →
Huge crowd gathers at Columbia University to... →
Barack Obama graduated from Columbia College in 1983. Spork graduated 10 years later, in December 1993 (but officially she is Millie Niss CC ‘94 because she finished a semester early, and so her official graduation year is 1994).
But why does Obama never mention Columbia? Everyone knows he went to Harvard Law School, so presumably he did well enough at Columbia to get into a top law...
5 tags
“We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the...”
– Gregory B. Craig, White House counsel, January 21st, 2009
Overheard in the White House Map Room on...
Chief Justice Roberts: Are you ready to take the oath?
President-Elect Barack Obama: I am. And we’re going to do it very slowly.
Oath of Office, Take 2 →
Obama transposed two words in the oath he swore at the public ceremony, after Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts, not using any notes, made a similar mistake as he prompted the new president:
After a day’s worth of chatter over whether the president had been properly sworn into office — he transposed a couple of words in the oath after being incorrectly prompted by the chief justice — advisers...
Quicktime Version of "A Farewell to W"...
Watch
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
A Farewell to W →
A modest new Flash work by Spork Major, to remember the W years. The code for drawing fireworks is new, but the structure of the piece is based on an older work, News from the Earthquake Zone, which Spork did in collaboration with Regina Celia Pinto to honor the victims of the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake.
Spork plans to make a Quicktime (video) version of the piece, making use of the feature...
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Boston, April 1965. A minister, Jim Reeb, who graduated from Boston University’s School of Theology, was severely beaten in a civil rights demonstration in Selma, Mississippi. King, who also graduated from BU’s School of Theology, came to Boston and led a march.
A student at the time, I joined the march, took a few photographs, and wrote my first published poem.
NY Times: Privacy Issue Complicates Debate on... →
Spork is very relieved to finally see the privacy issue addressed in the discussion of computerizing medical records. Although Spork has frequently suffered from the inability of her various doctors and hospitals to communicate amongst themselves, Spork is more concerned about preventing people from accessing her medical records without her permission than about improving efficiency by making...
Lichias & Romãs / Lychees & Pomegranates →
More on Pomegranates (and lychees) from Pintor by Regina Célia Pinto
Pomegranate bushes in Rio
Photos courtesy of Regina Célia Pinto
Sad News: The Pomegranate Season is Over
Pomegranates (and blueberries, in summer) are Spork’s favorite fruits. Aside from their tastiness, sentimental value (Spork was taught to eat pomegranates by her father in her tenderest youth), and cultural significance (cf. the Unicorn Tapestries and the myth of Persephone), pomegranates provide an activity, not just a snack. (It takes a lot of effort to eat a pomegranate.)
Spork got in...
“We have now had three ice storms in the first ten days of the year. This kills...”
– A Downstate Spork
Presidential Spam Update
Two spam emails; no contest results. Low key, tasteful spam from “Barack Obama” was followed by cheesy (quoted below), crasser spam from “pic2009.” The presidential spam has a decidedly Illinoisan, “pay-to-play” feel to it (this description is thanks to Spork Minor) and it raises ethical concerns about the new administration, but I find myself feeling more...
“Don’t miss your chance to get official collectibles bearing the Inaugural...”
– Presidential Inaugural Committee 2009
Botox Company gets federal approval to sell... →
This news item alone could drive up the price of glaucoma drops for people who will go blind without access to them. (The version marketed for eyelash-lengthening will be sold under a different name and is a gel rather than eyedrops, but that will not stop off-label use of the regular glaucoma drops.) Aside from that, and from what this says about society’s decadent nature, it is a real...
Czech EU Presidency Fooled by Art Scam →
Author of book mentioned on Sporkworld named to... →
Spork thoroughly enjoyed Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge (co-authored with Richard Thaler), but as she said in her one sentence post on it, she found his policy proposals to be rather disturbing. Now Sunstein has been named to an obscure but important post informally referred to as the “Regulation Czar.” Spork has read part of another book by Sunstein (Infotopia, which he was sole...
Elizabeth Alexander (Inaugural Poet)'s web site →
Good News: The Inaugural Poet, Elizabeth Alexander, is a Real Poet with a respected body of work. I, Sick Spork, read her first collection years ago and I actually liked it and remembered it when I read poems from that collection on her website this evening.
Bad News: One of the poems on her web site is about childbirth and uses the words “crotch” and “poop” in the first...
Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell, December 2,...
In her letters to Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop mostly restricted herself to text. But in this letter, she sketched an object. This is such a rare departure from the written word, that it takes on an almost magical aspect.
Perhaps it is the nest itself, not only the violence within the nest, that captivated her.
Brazilian web.artist Regina Celia Pinto was similarly captivated by these...
The most money-grubbing inauguration ever?
Last week, Spork heard on the radio that the Presidential Inauguration Committee was holding an essay contest to get tickets and a hotel room for the Presidential Inauguration. While Spork is too sick to attend the Inauguration, she thought the contest was a good opportunity to raise awareness about Behcet’s Disease and other rare diseases. So she decided to enter the contest, with a...
Spork's Entry To Inauguration Ticket Essay Contest
I am one of many Americans who look forward to Barack Obama’s presidency because I hope the new administration will fix our country’s broken medical system. I suffer from a rare autoimmune condition, Behcet’s Disease, which has left me wheelchair-bound and visually impaired. I am a multimedia artist and a blogger (my mother and others collaborate with me when I cannot sit at a...
Spam from Presidential Inaugural Committee:
Dear Mildred, To celebrate Barack Obama’s historic inauguration, graphic artist Shepard Fairey has created an unforgettable limited edition poster. Make a donation of $20 or more to receive your official inauguration poster.
...
"Gut Feelings" fails to convince
Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book Blink was inspired by research performed by German psychology professor Gerd Gigerenzer. The ideas and findings are interesting, and have been quite influential as a result of the success of Gladwell’s book. Unfortunately, Gigerenzer’s own book on the subject, Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious, is deceptive and poorly...