http://positivesharing.com/2007/11/a-question-for-the-americans-out-there/ 

One of the blogs I read is Chief Happiness Officer. He is about making work a happy place. He just posted a question for Americans. What do you think? Is this the way American work is?

Last night, ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson did a report on the U-2. This is the plane my brother, Lt. Col. Jon “Huggy” Huggins, flies.

The three-minute video is hosted on the ABC site. I’d include it here for you, but ABC doesn’t like that. So all I can do is link to it. You have to pretend to watch a 30-second commercial before the video starts.

For the video, news reporter Jonathan Karl is allowed to fly in one of the four 2-seat U-2 trainers.

(In the information below, I’ll note the “time stamps” of the video.)

The first section (0:10) shows the U-2 taking off. If you look closely you’ll see little “training wheels” under each wing. These keep the wings level because the U-2 only has the one main landing gear right in the center. Watch and you will see these fall off (about 0:16) as the plane begins to get lift and take off.

Also, as the plane takes off (about 0:18) you get a good side view to see the modifications made for the 2-seat trainer. That second “bubble” behind the main cockpit allows the training instructor to sit, while the student sits in the main cockpit up front. For these “courtesy rides”, they put the visitor in the back.

In addition, in this same sequence, you get a nice look at the landing gear … one set of two wheels smack dab in the middle of the plane, not under the wings like most planes. When the plane lands, the pilot has to keep “flying it” on the ground, using the wings to keep it level and to keep it from tipping over and having one wing drag. But, the wings have titanium skids on the end for those times the pilot doesn’t quite do that. The little tiny wheel in the tail, keeps the tail from dragging.

The video shows them putting one of the space suits on Jonathan Karl. For the pilots, these suits are custom fitted, down to measuring the lengths of each finger joint in each hand so that the gloves fit exactly. The helmets are also custom fitted by, in effect, making a mold of your head. (For Jonathan, they put him in one that fit “close”.)

The suit also has “air conditioning”. Without it, you overheat in seconds. The “air conditioning” is adjustable, even allowing you to adjust the air blowing over your face and over the palms of your hands.

In the video when Jonathan is in the plane and climbing (about 1:30) you can see the “new” cockpit of the U-2. You see that the old mechanical altimeter has been replaced by an electronic “glass” altimeter. The “glass cockpit” is relatively new in the U-2. On my personal/hobby site I have photos of the 2001 early version of the cockpit, and the first delivered version, from April 2002.

Note also the pictures of the Earth you begin to see at about 1:45.  How high is the plane? High enough to clearly see the Earth’s curvature!

At about 1:57 Jonathan talks about the ability to fly outside of a country’s boundaries, but still look inside the country. One way to think of this is to think about your neighbor’s back yard. If you want to look into his back yard, you don’t actually have to go into his back yard. Instead, you can stay in your back yard and get high enough to look over his fence.

If you are interested, I have lots more information on the U-2 on my personal/hobby website in the U-2 section.

Also, check out this other post about my brother getting his promotion to Lt. Colonel … four years late.

As many of you know, I have a cat, a beautiful, all black female named Spot. So this story about Oscar caught my eye.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/328
  
The NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL of MEDICINE
  
Volume 357:328-329 Number 4
  
A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat
 
David M. Dosa, M.D., M.P.H.
  
  Oscar the Cat awakens from his nap, opening a single eye to survey his kingdom. From atop the desk in the doctor’s charting area, the cat peers down the two wings of the nursing home’s advanced dementia unit. All quiet on the western and eastern fronts. Slowly, he rises and extravagantly stretches his 2-year-old frame, first backward and then forward. He sits up and considers his next move.

  In the distance, a resident approaches. It is Mrs. P., who has been living on the dementia unit’s third floor for 3 years now. She has long forgotten her family, even though they visit her almost daily. Moderately disheveled after eating her lunch, half of which she now wears on her shirt, Mrs. P. is taking one of her many aimless strolls to nowhere. She glides toward Oscar, pushing her walker and muttering to herself with complete disregard for her surroundings. Perturbed, Oscar watches her carefully and, as she walks by, lets out a gentle hiss, a rattlesnake-like warning that says “leave me alone.” She passes him without a glance and continues down the hallway. Oscar is relieved. It is not yet Mrs. P.’s time, and he wants nothing to do with her.

  Oscar jumps down off the desk, relieved to be once more alone and in control of his domain. He takes a few moments to drink from his water bowl and grab a quick bite. Satisfied, he enjoys another stretch and sets out on his rounds. Oscar decides to head down the west wing first, along the way sidestepping Mr. S., who is slumped over on a couch in the hallway. With lips slightly pursed, he snores peacefully — perhaps blissfully unaware of where he is now living. Oscar continues down the hallway until he reaches its end and Room 310. The door is closed, so Oscar sits and waits. He has important business here.

  Twenty-five minutes later, the door finally opens, and out walks a nurse’s aide carrying dirty linens. “Hello, Oscar,” she says. “Are you going inside?” Oscar lets her pass, then makes his way into the room, where there are two people. Lying in a corner bed and facing the wall, Mrs. T. is asleep in a fetal position. Her body is thin and wasted from the breast cancer that has been eating away at her organs. She is mildly jaundiced and has not spoken in several days. Sitting next to her is her daughter, who glances up from her novel to warmly greet the visitor. “Hello, Oscar. How are you today?”

  Oscar takes no notice of the woman and leaps up onto the bed. He surveys Mrs. T. She is clearly in the terminal phase of illness, and her breathing is labored. Oscar’s examination is interrupted by a nurse, who walks in to ask the daughter whether Mrs. T. is uncomfortable and needs more morphine. The daughter shakes her head, and the nurse retreats. Oscar returns to his work. He sniffs the air, gives Mrs. T. one final look, then jumps off the bed and quickly leaves the room. Not today.

  Making his way back up the hallway, Oscar arrives at Room 313. The door is open, and he proceeds inside. Mrs. K. is resting peacefully in her bed, her breathing steady but shallow. She is surrounded by photographs of her grandchildren and one from her wedding day. Despite these keepsakes, she is alone. Oscar jumps onto her bed and again sniffs the air. He pauses to consider the situation, and then turns around twice before curling up beside Mrs. K.

  One hour passes. Oscar waits. A nurse walks into the room to check on her patient. She pauses to note Oscar’s presence. Concerned, she hurriedly leaves the room and returns to her desk. She grabs Mrs. K.’s chart off the medical-records rack and begins to make phone calls.

  Within a half hour the family starts to arrive. Chairs are brought into the room, where the relatives begin their vigil. The priest is called to deliver last rites. And still, Oscar has not budged, instead purring and gently nuzzling Mrs. K. A young grandson asks his mother, “What is the cat doing here?” The mother, fighting back tears, tells him, “He is here to help Grandma get to heaven.” Thirty minutes later, Mrs. K. takes her last earthly breath. With this, Oscar sits up, looks around, then departs the room so quietly that the grieving family barely notices.

  On his way back to the charting area, Oscar passes a plaque mounted on the wall. On it is engraved a commendation from a local hospice agency: “For his compassionate hospice care, this plaque is awarded to Oscar the Cat.” Oscar takes a quick drink of water and returns to his desk to curl up for a long rest. His day’s work is done. There will be no more deaths today, not in Room 310 or in any other room for that matter. After all, no one dies on the third floor unless Oscar pays a visit and stays awhile.

Note: Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscar the Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deaths of more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing staff members to adequately notify families. Oscar has also provided companionship to those who would otherwise have died alone. For his work, he is highly regarded by the physicians and staff at Steere House and by the families of the residents whom he serves.
 
Source Information
  Dr. Dosa is a geriatrician at Rhode Island Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University — both in Providence.

Recently I was exploring the TED website (TED.com) looking for information on the brain.

(I’ve written before about TED.)

One item I found was a presentation by Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness.

Dan explains in his presentation a bit about how our brain simulates situations without having to actually experience them (e.g., would you want liver and onions ice cream?), how we artificially create happiness, how we change our mind about what will make us happy and how we can be very wrong about what will make us happy.

I think it is worth the time (21:28) to view it.

We’ve always had some fascination with Pandas. Recent efforts to breed them have had some success. Six pandas were born in captivity in China in 2006. They grow from a birth weight of 100 grams (3.5 ounces) to a full grown weight of 160 kilos (352 pounds).

Pictures of new born pandas have been making the email rounds recently. This blog has those pictures.

www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/07/newborn-pandas-cute.html

Tanner Christensen has posted on his Internet Hunger site, the results of an interview he had with me.

 Did I really say that stuff?

(Note that if you are clicking on my blog, depending on your browser security you may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU )

For years and years, those of us in Corporate IT have known that there is not a shortage of skilled, capable technology workers, despite the lamentations of the business lobby. The claims of a shortage is a sham designed to allow more H-1B visas.

The business lobby has countered that there are “rules” designed to protect the American worker and that H-1B visas are only granted with an American worker cannot be found.

About 2 months ago I found the website of Professor Norm Matloff. Long a critic of the H-1B system, Dr. Matloff has documented the system abuses at some length. His lengthy report (entitled On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Non-Immigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related Occupations and written at the request of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform) provides extensive documentation of the lack of a shortage and the abuses of the system to just hire cheap labor and discriminate against older American workers.  

[If you or someone in your family is directly affected by this, I strongly encourage you to at least skim the report and check out his website. It is an eye-opener. In my view, Dr. Matloff's data shows that contrary to claims, it isn't America's decline in technology which requires us to use these visas. Rather, it is the prevalent use of these visas which is, in part, responsible for the decline!]

His various reports and documents have confirmed what I have known for some time.

Now, a YouTube video has done even more. This video provides excerpts from a law firm’s seminar in which a panel explains how to technically comply with the law all the while skirting the intention of the law. In particular, they explain how to advertise for Americans but ensure that they will never find one.

Take the 5-minutes to watch this to learn how the system really works.

As you listen to the debate on immigration reform, and as you listen to the business lobby cry in their soup about the lack of qualified Americans, remember this video. There are plenty of qualified Americans. Business just doesn’t want to hire them and is scamming the system, the government and the American public.

Thanks to an entry at What’s Up - 365 Days of Skywatching I learned that …

On this day in 1881, Sir William Huggins made the first photographic spectrum of a comet (1881 III) and discovered cyanogen (CN) emission at violet wavelengths. Unfortunately, his discovery caused public panic around 29 years later when Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet. What a shame the public didn’t realize that cyanogens are also released organically! More than fearing what is in a comet’s tail, they should have been thinking about what might happen should a comet strike. Tonight look at the wasted Southern Highland area of the Moon with new eyes… Many of these craters you see were caused by impacts - some as large as the nucleus of Halley itself.

Has anyone ever asked you, “What do you do?”?

Po Bronson, in his book, What Should I Do With My Life?, calls this “the great American cocktail party question”.

The man in the video below is Paul Potts. What does he do?

It is tempting to answer that he is a mobile phone salesman. After all, he works in a store (Car Phone Warehouse) that sells mobile phones and he sells them.

His hair is a bit short.

His suit is a bit inexpensive.

But, somehow, I don’t think selling mobile phones is what he really does.

As you watch the video, watch those who are watching Paul. Watch those initial faces … the expressions of doubt. Then watch them transform.

Perhaps it will bring a small tear to your eye.

(Note that if you are clicking on my blog, depending on your browser security you may need to click twice to start the video.)

If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

The YouTube page has more information on the man and the event.

Also see this article http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21904047-2,00.html

A friend sent me a link to this guy’s video. Perhaps it is because I’m totally untalented in art, but I found this fascinating. He creates this painting using spray paint in about 10 minutes.

Here is his website: http://www.sprej.com/.

He does custom paintings as well, including landscapes, wildlife and even portraits.

(Note that if you are clicking on my blog, depending on your browser security you may need to click twice to start the video.)

If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the Google Video page with the video, just click here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1246174515665636969

There are several from him at Google Video. Here is one more.

(Note that if you are clicking on my blog, depending on your browser security you may need to click twice to start the video.)

If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the Google Video page with the video, just click here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8220494559090617837

All that in 10 minutes!