Notes from the Lagging Edge

God help me. Now the cat has a new smartphone.  I told him that he couldn't afford it, but he went and got one anyhow. He says, "All the other cats have one. Why can't I have one.  I want to be cool, too."

He says he got a good deal on an iPhone 4. He's already downloaded an ringtone that sounds like a small rodent trying to escape.

He's already staring to behave like the other addicted smartphone users you know.  Whenever he enters a room, he puts it on the floor in front of him so he wont - god forbid -  miss an incoming email message or tweet.  If you say something like "I wonder if I should go fishing tomorrow..." he is tapping away, checking the weather and tide tables for you, making you look at the display.

This is the thing about people with new gadgets: they make you to look at them. Those of us who are un-enamored by technology toys cannot understand why squinting at a tiny screen is so enchanting.  "I feel so connected, now," he purrs, after entering the password for our wireless router.  "I don't need the computer anymore.  Did you know I can deposit checks with this thing?"  I decided not to remind him that he does not have a bank account, nor does he receive any checks.  "Who gets checks these days?" I mumble.

But the point is lost on him, enthralled as he is - because his gadget has empowered him beyond all reason.  He can now do stuff that he would never even think of doing.  How did he exist before angry birds? Who even dreamed of playing solitaire on their phone?  I despair over the irony: he is more connected to the cloud, and more dis-connected from the household.  He is spared the awkwardness of polite conversation.  His ego is defined my the newness of his device.  I taunt him by speculating that the reason that he got a good deal is  because everyone else is waiting for the iPhone5 to come out.  Cruel, but fun.

OK kitty, I am happy that you can look up all the local restaurants within three blocks.  Yes, it is truly impressive that your smartphone can be used as a compass or a flash light or a magnifying glass --stuff we all need everyday, I'm sure.

Ok, now put it away and let's talk.

Bring 'Em Home

The two parties are engaged in a furious battle for undecided so-called independent voters in November.  Both are accusing the other's plan as bad for America.

The Republicans are claiming that Obama care will cut billions from medicare, implying that the cuts would be chopping services to elders.  The intent as I understand it is to reduce the administrative costs.  So this is intentionally misleading.

 I have no doubts about the costs hidden in the thousands of pages of gobbledygook that was declared law through a loophole and not via a majority vote (which I find outrageous).  I just wish there was an unbiased source that could be consulted to tell the truth about each side's programs, benefits vs costs.

The Ryan budget will cut spending in social programs but would INCREASE the military spending at a time when most Americans want to REDUCE military costs.   I think most voters, even seniors realize that the medicare and other "entitlements" need to be controlled, lest the US go the way of Greece, California et al.

Seniors could favor a proposal that does not directly affect them, but not if it does not require equal cuts in the military budget, which most people believe is bloated and wasteful.  Ron Paul was right on this issue, and anyone who claims to be a constitutionalist would have to agree with him.  Lord knows we could use a bit more domestic security on those borders and inner city neighborhoods. Bring em all home.

Testing Geezers

My observation: the quality of driving has decreased in recent years correlating to the increase of gadgets in the car - especially phones, GPS, and visual data centers - all these distractions at 70 mph escalates the probability of mayhem.

I recently participated in a test at a prestigious local university, to examine the effect of distractions by voice- activated gadgets on senior drivers while behind the wheel.  The target age group was 60-69.  I was given a series of tests by a pretty young scientist wearing a low cut blouse that emphasized the perkiness of her ample bosom. I guess this is standard office (and lab) garb for young folks these days.  She explained that the extensive questions and problems were designed to establish a base line for emotional and physical state, and to assess cognitive ability.  There were the usual questions about health and wellness, and some easy problems like drawing a clock face with the time set to ten past two.  The there were some tougher cognitive tests such as recalling a series of random words in a list, or a sequence of numbers.  Despite the (admittedly pleasant) distractions of my interrogator's cleavage, I did pretty well on these tests.

The second part of the test was actually on the highway in a specially outfitted car that recorded everything from my blood pressure and heartbeat to the movement of my eyes.  Cameras and sensors could detect whether I was looking straight ahead, at the console or the mirrors.  They also recorded everything I said in answer to questions.  A human being, a nice young fellow, sat in the back seat. The driving part took about 2 hours with me driving from Cambridge to Milford and back via main highways (I93, I495).  During the two hour drive I was presented with challenges such as programming the GPS to a specific address via voice commands, and finding a specific station on the radio, also via voice commands.  Also I made a few test phone calls with  hands free mobile phone.  Every now and then the recorded voice instructions would present me with a cognitive challenge, similar to the test above, where the voice would say a series of random  numbers and I was to recall the number one or two places back in the list.  This is hard to do sitting at a desk across from an attractive scientist; it is really hard when you are in thick traffic driving 70 miles per hour.   Needless to say I did not do so well under real rush hour driving conditions.

Brad, the monitor who was riding with me was not allowed to talk to me except to clarify instructions or test related topics.  He resisted my urge to engage in small talk. ( I can't help it; if someone else is in the car with me, it is natural to want to chit chat. Do you live around here? How do you like your job?  How did you get into this line of work? ) The only thing I found out was that he was a mechanical engineer.

At the end, they thanked me, and paid me a small honorarium for my time and willingness to be a lab animal.
I very much hope the results of such tests are helpful to the design of cars and devices for future drivers.  The chief problem that I experienced is that even though you can input search values with a voice command  (eg "Find previous address"), the device responds with a list of possible hits via a screen, so you are still forced to look away from the road for a second.

At 60 MPH a lot of things can happen during the brief time you are not looking at the road.  One of the losses we experience as we age is the ability to multi-task (which really means switching the focus of attention very rapidly).  This places geezers at increased risk correlating to the level of distractions in the car.

Clearly, distractions for drivers are nothing new, nor are they the exclusive province of older drivers.  About 15 years ago,  I rear-ended a Subaru that had stopped for a traffic light. We were crawling along in rush hour traffic.  I had heard  a joke on the radio and was jotting down the punch line on a pad on paper on my knee, when the Subaru stopped for the changing light.  It was a small accident, but I learned how even a moment of distraction can make a costly difference, even at 10mph.  Ironically, I can't remember that joke.

My experience confirms my belief that after age  65, drivers who have had several accidents and ALL drivers over 70 should be re-tested on the road every four years.  I would also support adding a cognitive test to all drivers being retested.  There also needs to be tighter monitoring of people with medical conditions that might impair their ability to drive safely.

The incorporation of ever more sophisticated gadgets into autos is inevitable.  It will be a huge design challenge to make them safe for the aging driver population.

"You Didn't Win That"

The Olympic coverage reminds us how politicized everything in our lives has become.  We do not celebrate the achievements of foreign athletes or teams. Medal tallies by country are fodder for bar room and coffee shop discussions.  Everyone wants the US to be "Number One" even though the other athletes might have  performed better.

Peggy Noonan in WSJ Op-Ed  recounts the remark of a friend, watching Michael Phelps winning another gold medal.

"How about that Michael Phelps? But let's remember he didn't win all those medals, someone else did. After all, he and I swam in public pools, built by state employees using tax dollars. He got training from the USOC, and ate food grown by the Department of Agriculture. He should play fair and share his medals with people like me, who can barely keep my head above water, let alone swim." 

At first it seems a clever riposte to the oft-repeated Obama sound-bite that has had conservative pundits all in a twitter ("You didn't build that.").   But after some consideration, I think this is, ironically,  illustrative of the truth behind Obama's un-cropped remarks.  He was not saying that successful businessmen did not earn their success, rather, he stressed that no one accomplishes anything entirely on their own.  If you accomplished something you benefited from an education, a supportive infrastructure, previous research...much of which were funded by your fellow taxpayers. The sentiment is unpopular with ego-maniacal CEO's who think they are gods who deserve 50 times more pie than any of the other team members.

I'm thinking, "How about that Michael Phelps.  He's a fast swimmer.  Lucky for him that he got so much help from his parents who sacrificed time and money so he could get coaching and a place to swim every day during his youth. Most people with athletic promise aren't that fortunate. He personally worked hard and deserves the glory for his excellent performance; I'm sure he is thankful to those who supported him over the years.  He couldn't have done it without them "

Idiots in the Breakdown Lane

Here in Massachusetts, during "rush hours" it is perfectly legal to drive in the breakdown lane on certain (posted) roads.  This counter-intuitive use of the BREAKDOWN lane often mystifies out-of-state travelers who may find themselves experiencing a mechanical problem or flat tire.  It is not uncommon for some unfortunate family on a road trip to be wiped-out by a sleepy commuter who was anxious to get to work,barreling down the breakdown lane at 60 or 70 mph.

The state police do not like the use of Breakdown Lanes (BL) for travel. The initial case for opening-up the BL was to spread out the pressure of traffic to another lane, but any fool can see that you are just deferring the logjam to another location ahead where the traffic needs to merge again. unsurprisingly, it has proven ineffective as a deterrence to traffic tie-ups; we still have virtual gridlock on all major highways during rush hour.  Furthermore the use of the BL as a TL blocks the free access of emergency vehicles to get to accident sites.

A sensible implementation of this exception would be
1) The maximum speed limit in Breakdown Lanes is 30mph.  (The BL should not be used as a Passing Lane)
2) Vehicles stopped in breakdown lane are assumed to be unable to travel and you must go around them slowly.
3) Vehicles exiting from Travel Lane have right-of-way at exits. BL drivers must yield.

The idiots who typically drive 70 mph in the Breakdown lane probably cause more accidents and near misses than the statistics reveal.

Perfect Iced Tea

People are always asking me how I make such perfect Iced Tea.  It's really easy and quick, and I don't mind sharing the secret.  Here's what you do:

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil.  I use a saucepan.
2. Remove from heat and add 7 tea bags*
3. Steep for EXACTLY ten minutes, (Use a timer) stirring the bags around every few minutes to release flavor.
4. When timer dings remove tea bags.
5. Let sit on counter another 30 minutes or so to cool (do not put in fridge or add any ice yet)
6. Pour into container, using funnel  (I use a 59oz plastic juice container), and  add another cup of cold water. This makes a total of 7 cups of ice tea.
Now you can store in fridge until you need it, or leave on counter.
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* you can substitute one or two flavored tea bags (lemon, berry, mint, etc) for added zing.

Cloudy tea is caused by cooling the tea too quickly (eg putting it on ice while still hot)
If you have cloudy tea you can fix it by heating it up and then allowing it to cool slowly.  This is why "sun tea" is never cloudy.

For stronger tea, add another teabag or two to but 1 bag per cup seems strong enough to me.

This is so easy and it takes only a few minutes while you are doing other kitchen chores.

Your Welcome

Olympic Yawn

There seems to be a general positive buzz over the Summer Olympics being held in London.  The quadrennial congregation that supposedly pits the best athletes in the world against each other is a big deal.  I genuinely would love to be excited about the competition but I find the whole thing to be a way over-commercialized and over commented upon.  And the politicization of the results, focusing on medal counts by country sullies the air around the awards podium.  The commentators will just not shut-up.  In one race, Michael Phelps was lagging slightly in his lane, and the color commentator started wondering if Michael's career was over, finally out of steam, past his prime, tired and beaten.  A few laps later Phelps had made up the slack and won the race.  The yakker said, "I take back everything I just said."  So, exactly why did we need your "expert" bloviation?

I don't like watching swimming anyhow; it is about at uneventful as a competition can get: bang, splash, splash,splash, turn, splash, splash, splash, etc....  And the gold medal winner is a mere .34 seconds ahead of the silver.  I don't believe that a five minute swim should be decided by a fraction of a second; I think it should be considered a tie, since silver and bronze medal awardees are consoled as "losers".

In fact, I do not like watching gymnastics either, especially the pommel horse and the balance beam. These events just leave me cold.  The scoring of gymnastics is subjective.  The kids who go to Olympics spend their lives preparing these difficult stunts, and most of them go home in tears because of one stumble or mis-step.  I don't like watching their disappointment.  (One hopes they will eventually find a successful career working at Cirque du Soleil, because there is precious little use for these skills outside of unpaid athletic competition events)

Some "sports" clearly do not belong in the Olympics.  Beach Volleyball comes to mind, Badminton, synchronized swimming, Water Polo, and Ping Pong, to name a few.  I do not deny that some of these activities demand athletic skills and may even be fun to watch for some viewers, but to my mind they do not rise to the level of Olympic competition.

I prefer to watch team sports, where there is a discreet score, with points expressed in whole numbers.  A goal, a run, a basket, etc.  Or individual competition where points are measured by KO's or Bulls-eyes.

So, perhaps I am out of sync with the popular definition of sports/entertainment, again.  It's not all negative, I enjoy watching the events with the mute button clicked, and I usually fall into a sweet slumber by the third lap.  I do not care who wins.