You cannot make this up.

While police and medics were clearing up that disaster, 27-year-old Matthew Mitchell attempted to navigate his Chevy Impala through the swirling sea of flashing lights of the fleet of police cruisers and ambulances on the scene. Unfortunately, he plowed into the life-flight chopper’s tail fin. (Damages to the chopper were minor and it was apparently able to whisk an injured woman to a local hospital.)

A DPS trooper on the scene quoted Mitchell thusly:

“Why was the helicopter flying so low?”

via East Texas DWI Mayhem Kills One, Injures Three, Damages MedEvac Chopper, Spawns Stupid Quote of Year – Houston News – Hair Balls.

Condolences to the family of the deceased.

via @Skepticscalpel on twitter.

A remarkably well written and approachable look at the Eurozone financial problems, and ours.

Merkel cannot say no. She leads the country whose arrogant un-neighborliness the European Union was set up to abolish. But she cannot say yes without violating the law and colluding in the looting of the people who voted her into office. So she and her government are in the position of a man who yearns to get divorced but has religious scruples against it.

via €gads! | The Weekly Standard.

First, a startling CT image at their site, and after you see that, a little Emergency Medicine:

Brazilian police have released X-ray images of an Irishman they allege swallowed dozens of cocaine capsules in an attempt to smuggle the drug out of Sao Paolo….

The medical images show 72 bags packed with the drug in his gastrointestinal tract.

via Coked up: Man had 72 drug bags in belly – World news – Americas – msnbc.com.

From the CT image (which is cool, go see it) this represents the forethought-involved “Packer”, as opposed to the ‘cheese it, it’s the cops, swallow the drugs’ “Stuffer”.

Packers think ahead, carry a lot of drugs, and (if memory serves) are more likely to die if their packaging ruptures. Stuffers, though, are much more likely to show symptoms, get brought to ED’s (via the cops), and live to stuff another day.

I wonder what 2 pounds of cocaine sells for in Ireland…  (It’s not enough to spend the rest of your life in a Brazilian prison).

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama enjoyed a beer with Dakota Meyer on the patio outside the Oval Office Wednesday. The president will present Meyer with the Medal of Honor Thursday during a ceremony at the White House.
…
“Meyer asked the staffer if he could have a beer with the President,” Carney said.

“POTUS invited Dakota to come by the White House this afternoon.”

via President pauses for beer with future Medal of Honor recipient – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs.

Good for you, Mr. President.

This is the kind of thing I really like:

Nine years ago, an idea was hatched at Outback headquarters to send meals to troops in combat, starting with Afghanistan in 2002.

Outback co-founder, Trudy Cooper, told me that it was a natural thing to do since their headquarters is so close to MacDill Air Force Base.

“We already serve meals to our military, how hard could it be to take them meals where they fight?” she asked.

via Operation Feeding Freedom | A Soldier’s Perspective.

How hard, indeed.

Go, and read about their efforts, and this years’.

Then patronize Outback. They deserve it.

I try not to think about this, as it makes me sad and deeply angry. Neither is good for me in the long run. Embarrassingly, I have yet to watch United 93. I need to, but I don’t want to. I know I won’t be happy with my reaction. Tears and rage are a bad mix.

Yeah, lotta I’s in that paragraph. Others died, many were amazingly heroic, most were innocent victims. Life is like that, deeply unfair.

My post last year on this says most of what I have to say from a personal perspective. Nothing profound.

Since then a few friends, and a zillion people I’ve never met but owe a huge debt of gratitude to have literally gone to war to do their duty, and hopefully prevent a recurrence of a cowardly attack on the US. I think some luck and a lot of skill is why we haven’t been hit again. Thank Yous to all our men and women in uniform, then and now. I need to buy a lifetime of beers…

And, My First Haiku:

Never Forgive
and Never Forget.
Bin Laden is fishfood
I’m happy ’bout that.

Eternal Vigilance is the price of Freedom. Note: not giving away our rights in a vain plea for safety and security. Don’t let that happen.

A picture’s worth a thousand words a second…

via Ace.mu.nu

Very cool. Good for all involved.

A Formula One fan has had his wish of a new bionic hand fulfilled after a plucky letter to boss of the Mercedes GP Petronas team, Ross Brawn.

via BBC News – F1 team grants teenager hand wish.

I have a few things I really like. Vacation trips to SoCal (nearly always to Disneyland), silly and trivial but fun events there, and a nearly Holy Grail trip to In-N-Out Burger are some of my favorites. I’m easy to please, really. Attainable fun and gastronomic happiness in one trip. Bliss.

(I’m not an expert on pleasure. I’m the weirdest extrovert you’ll meet, in that I will include everyone very happily in my public life, and by that I mean I have a blog, I tell people about all the superficial things in my life (I just had my pond filled in, and I have bored everyone at work with that), I’ve blogged a lot of things people know about, and I keep my private life and friends private. You might be surprised that things happen I don’t blog. You might not. It depends on what you know of me.)

Therefore, things I like I tend to Really Like. This explains why I go to the same places for fun. I’m sure there’s a psychological problem/answer there.

As if by magic, one of the forbidden SoCal-only objects has been deposited in my world: In-N-Out has come to Mohammed. (I’m not Mohammed, it’s a metaphor, no bombings please). My anticipation, thrill really, was shared by the family. To say we’ve followed the construction and timeline of this Parthenon of Patties would be an understatement. Never in the history of our collective, extended family has one fast food joint focused our attention so meatily.

I had the Forbidden Burger tonight! And, it was a burger. Away from its normal surroundings, the pseudo-exotic locale, it was a decent burger, average fries, and a good milkshake. (My choice is not for the calorie conscious).

I felt like I finally had a date with the Prom Queen and found out she’s a shallow, dumb person who also isn’t into me. (I’m not personalizing this intentionally, except it’s personal). I could taste the disappointment. Pun intended.

My title isn’t quite right. I wanted it, I got it, and the failure was mine. It was a good burger, perfectly adequate, served with a smile, and as close in taste as a 1,500 mile breach can be. It’s that it wasn’t eaten There, in The Place. And therefore it wasn’t right. Dang it.

Now I’ve diminished something I liked, a lot, and have learned the big lesson. Don’t screw up the things you like, and where you like things is a huge component as to why they’re liked.

I’ve lost something I’ve loved, and now at best I can like it again, in its rightful place, someday. Context matters.

That would have been a better title. I just had to work through it.

Seems like a lot to get into a tweet. I’d cut the guy some slack on that…

When Gov. Rick Perry emerged from back surgery on July 1, he tweeted that his “little procedure” — a spinal fusion and nerve decompression designed to treat a recurring injury — had gone “as advertised.”

The possible presidential contender didn’t reveal that he’d undergone an experimental injection of his own stem cells, a therapy that isn’t FDA approved, has mixed evidence of success and can cost upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.

via Perry’s Surgery Included Experimental Stem Cell Therapy — Rick Perry | The Texas Tribune.

 

He defends Marines and sailors with love and tenacity, protecting them as any Marine would protect a brother-in-arms. He is the epitome of man’s best friend, shielding service members from the enemy while providing companionship and camaraderie. His name is Willy Pete, and he’s a warrior, a protector, a friend. He’s also a dog.

via Photo: Willy Pete Watches over Marines.

via Michael Yon‘s Twitter feed.

If you needed to find an example of government action designed to make citizenry cynical and disillusioned look no further than this story, from WFAA:

DALLAS — Dallas will keep $2,000 found by a teenager in a parking lot last February.

The money will go into the city’s general fund — not back to Plano high school student Ashley Donaldson, who found the cash in an envelope at the Pavillion Shopping Center in North Dallas.

(The video.)

This after being told she’d get it if nobody claimed it. I found this story on Hot Air, who described it as wall-punching material. They were correct.

So, how much is $2,000 to the city of Dallas? (Hint, their 2010-11 budget is $2,795,393,655 (it’s in the 2011 .pdf file) Two Billion with a B.) 2000/2795393655=  7.15×10-7, or, 0.000000715%

So, you can see they need the money. Certainly means more to the City of Dallas than a 15 year old girl.

An astonishingly unserious look at the budget problem.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.) said Friday that she will not support the 2012 budget passed by the House last week.

“I don’t happen to support Congressman Ryan’s plan but at least he had the courage to put forth a plan to significantly reduce the debt,” Collins said on “In the Arena” a program on WCSH 6, a local NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine.

…

Collins, who is one of several centrists in the Senate Republican Caucus, did not say specifically what she opposed in the House GOP plan, but she did say that she would like to begin moving the government towards solvency by eliminating ethanol and farm subsidies as well as funding for an extra engine for the F-35 fighter jet.

“There are lots of opportunities to consolidate and save money,” Collins said.

via Collins is first GOP senator to oppose Ryan budget proposal – The Hill’s Floor Action.

I’m not a policy wonk, but I know BS when I hear it.

The Ryan plan proposes to reduce 10 year deficits by 5.8 Trillion, so 580bn/year for 10 years (as an average).

Senator Collins’ proposal: kill off farm subsidies (20bn/yr), Ethanol subsidies (best number I could find was 6bn/year) and kill off the GE ‘second engine’ for the F35 project. I couldn’t find hard numbers for that cost (I suspect there aren’t any that are founded in reality), but found one site that said just futzing with the consideration was costing someone a million a week. Crummy assumption, so let’s say it’s costing that much every day rather than every week. It’s a place to start, so, $365M/year, as a low-ball number, before production. All these numbers may be way, way, off, but let’s use them for illustration.

So, 26.365Bn/yr x 10 years = 263.65 Billion dollars. Which is only 5.537 Trillion short of the Ryan plan goal. Or, to look at it another way, this would knock 4.5% off the Ryan 10 year total. Leaving another 95.5% of the total to be discovered elsewhere.

Perhaps she has a whole lot of consolidating in mind. Maybe she’s going to write a check to cover the balance. Whichever, this statement is politician speak for ‘I’m not going to be the naysayer without a plan, I’m going to point out the things I’d cut as a way of showing I have some ideas, too’. But it’s patronizing when you run the numbers, and discover she’s not the least bit serious.

I’ve been reading about our financial problems, and the idea that we can kill off government checks to NPR and Foreign Aid and we’ll be fine is nuts. It’s not that they’re not worth doing, but it’s such small change that it’s barely even a start. There are no easy answers.

Everyone’s ox gets gored before this gets fixed, and pretending we can cut some fluff or a program that only directly affects a few isn’t serious.

Very neat. Via @CardioNP on Twitter.

3 April 2011. Also: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Hi-Res Photos 2:

via Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Hi-Res Photos.

From a High School friend who went the Navy path, and keeps in touch: RadGuy in West Texas…

My background in nuclear power. I completed 6 years in the US Navy’s nuclear program. I qualified at the Nautilus (S1W) prototype in Idaho, and was assigned for several years to a nuclear power guided missile cruiser. My last year in the Navy was spent planning and performing repair work on submarine, cruiser and carrier nuclear plants. As a civilian, I spent 5 years doing inspection and testing in the engineering department at one of the largest (1250+ megawatts per unit) nuclear plants in the United States. I ended up with a reasonable amount of knowledge enlightened by a great deal of practical experience.

Why is this on a medical blog dealing the Emergency Medicine? The EM system has evolved in a way that the nuclear power industry has not. In EM, many trained technicians have been added over the years; ranging from EMS first responders in the field, to the various techs in-house in most EDs. Having a group of people trained to perform specific tasks not only speeds care, but it allows those dealing with the most serious problems to act with greater focus.

The nuclear power industry has not evolved in a similar manner. An irrational fear of nuclear energy has left power plant operations to be a great mystery, and made outcasts of those who run the plants. This has left us with a very small number of operators run massive plants. Typical coverage might be 4 or 5 operators in the control room, and a similar number out in the plant. In my civilian career, that would be perhaps a dozen per unit, on a two unit site approaching 10,000 acres. Yes, there are more than a thousand other employees, but only around slightly more than 20 on site that are trained and allowed to operate equipment. The high level of engineering and verbatim compliance with written procedures allows this to work. Highly trained people do certain things in a pre-planned certain order.

In Japan we have seen a large, multi unit plant hammered by a huge earthquake and a tsunami. The earthquake was of a severity far beyond what the plant was designed for. All power was lost, and bad things started to happen that could not be coped with by the onsite staff.

The immediate need was for power, and circulating water. A group of trained responders should be available to provide these things from self contained equipment they bring with them. A modern nuclear plant is built on a truly vast scale. Careful modification will be needed so that these crews may begin to provide the needed services without help from the plant operators. The task is to arrive, hook up the needed services, and let the trained plant operator operate the needed equipment inside the plant.

All the equipment should be of a size to be carried in or behind standard size vehicle, say a large pickup or van. The equipment must be self contained, and be simple to operate. These units should be sized to be contained in a large pickup, or towed in a reasonable sized trailer. When needed, they should be suitable for air transport.

A fair standard would be 300 hp class diesel engines, attached respectively to generators, pumps, and air compressors. These should be of a robust but ordinary commercial design. Fuel tanks sized for around 24 hours of operation.

On the plant side, design must allow vital systems to be accessed from outside, with ordinary hand tools. I propose color coded and number steel access plates on the outer walls of various plant buildings. Crews can unbolt the cover plate, expose connections, and hook up the appropriate service.

In Japan, the first need was a power connection for each unit. Assume that first responders begin to arrive around three hours after the initial event. Whether they arrive by road, air, barge or train does not matter. The first units to arrive connect to the first power panel for the assigned unit. This power is not to run plant equipment, but rather to provide power for instrumentation, control and communications. For each unit, this is well within the capacity of a single portable diesel.

Once there is power for communications, and more direct intervention can begin. As additional power units arrive, they can be attached to single plant loads, those deemed most vital at the time. Examples might be a small number of pumps, or even a single large pump. It could be power for a single set of motor operated valves. The power units would be attached under the direction of the operators for each plant. These could be emergency feed pumps, fire pumps, isolated HVAC systems.

Besides power, there may be a need for cooling water. From photographs, it appears the circulating water intake structure in Japan was badly damaged. If the systems are intact, portable power can run some of the pumps. With damage such as occurred in Japan, connections similar to standard dry standpipe fire systems should be provided for in an individual basis for vital loads. This could be heat exchangers for cooling anything from the plant emergency generators, to decay heat removal systems. Single fire engines, or trailer mounted pumps can then provide water for individual loads.

These small interventions will provide time for other needed repairs, and for more trained plant operators, engineers and technicians to arrive. From the available information from Japan, perhaps a dozen such portable units would have allowed things to progress much more slowly. Indeed, with timely intervention and a bit of luck fission products would not have been released.

It is time to accept nuclear power as a part of daily life. The communities that use the power from these plants can also provide support in emergencies. Truly, we are all in this together.