IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Two Utterances - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Two lines that really set my nerves on edge are "Why should I have to ......" or the frequently heard "How come they get .....", always seeming to come from someone who thinks they're getting something less than their fair share of heaven only knows what, or that someone else is getting more than their fair share of that something.

I've known people who seem to keep ledgers in their heads. It's like there's some kind of adding machine that keeps working out a bottom line that keeps getting revised and which illustrates some sort of obviously uncorrected outrage while asking either overtly or implicitly: "Don't you agree with me?????"

I find I have precious little tolerance for such mindsets.

Mr. Malcontent from the hospital gurney is merely one example: https://licn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2021/05/leave-your-sense-of-justice-at-home-john-dunn-consultant-ambertec-pe-pc.html

I hear it coming from politicians, from elected officials and from wanna-be officials. One really angry voice on the radio caught my attention with (my paraphrase) "You think that??? You just wait 'till I get elected and you'll see what happens then!!!!"

Yes, threats are also part of the baggage.

A basic respect for civics and civility, a basic grasp that there are people out there who have different circumstances and different needs compared to one's own, these traits seem very much absent from much public discourse. That lack of respect seems to have roots.

My wife who taught high school offered an interesting perspective. Many modern adults never learned in elementary school to stand in line in size places. That minimal failure to require compliance has now escalated, expanded and to my thinking, has run amok with Covid-19 and has led to the tragic results of 800,000 deaths in the US alone.

My urgent suggestion is that if you who are reading this have not been vaccinated, please get vaccinated.

Please don't be like the mother of two I read about in the news who feared vaccination side effects, who did not get vaccinated, who then contracted the Delta variant of Covid-19, who was placed on a respirator for a month and who then died.

Please see: 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/a-missouri-woman-didnt-want-a-covid-19-vaccine-for-fear-of-side-effects-she-caught-the-delta-variant-and-died/ar-AALLjAZ

Simpletons and Calculus - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Back in MA101 in college, back in my first calculus class, the subject was taught very badly.

In retrospect, just a few minutes of insightful commentary would have made things a whole lot easier, at least for a simpleton like me. Now that I have reached the (ahem) revered status of septuagenarian, I would like to offer a few remarks from which some of my successor simpletons might hopefully reap some benefit.

The basic calculus concept is called the "first derivative", but what does that phrase mean? The first derivative describes the rate at which the value of one variable changes in response to a change of some other variable. The value of the "dependent" variable,  depends on how the value of the "independent" variable is made to change.

Imagine a toddler running unfettered around a playground. Where that toddler runs to at any time is very much an independent variable, but where the parent runs to while chasing that toddler is very much a dependent variable. (Now where did that child go?? Oh!! Over there.)

The ratio of the two variables' incremental changes is expressed as a fraction,  "dy/dx", which is what we mean by the phrase "first derivative". We call this fraction "dy/dx" where "y" is the dependent variable and "x" is the independent variable. The "dx" is some teeny, tiny, teensy-weensy, little itty bitty change in the value of "x" for which there dependently arises the "dy" which is also a teeny, tiny, teensy-weensy, little itty bitty change in the value of "y". We look at this "y versus x" relationship as that itty bitty change goes smaller and smaller and smaller in the limit to zero. Easy huh??

Treating "dy" and "dx" as two new variables in themselves where the "dy" as the dependent variable and "dx" is the independent variable, we can do the same thing again to get the second derivative which we denote as d²y/dx². We can keep on doing this over and over to find the third derivative, the fourth derivative and so on and so on. Still easy, huh??

This whole process so far described is called "differentiation". Doing differentiation isn't usually too hard and as the MA101 course unfolded, this concept should have been presented clearly. It is fairly easily grasped so that even someone like me can manage to deal with it.

The process of going the other way is called "integration".

The less readily evident process is in doing integration. Quite frankly, most cases of doing integration require a bit more intellectual prowess than this writer can muster. The thing that I failed to realize in my first encounter with integration was that my professor couldn't do it either!!!

That being so, various geniuses of this world have striven over the durations of their lifetimes to tabulate their answers to integration examples. We (meaning you, me and my professor) can find their results, the products of their work efforts, in books we often call a "Table of Integrals".

My mother (a math major) gave me a Pierce's Table of Integrals that had been published in 1910. It's a very thin, very graceful little hardcover book. By comparison, when I attended New York University in the early 1970s, I found Table of Integral books in the NYU  library which were so large that they required two hands to keep from dropping them to the floor while trying to pick them up from a bookshelf.  

It was impressive.

Yeah!! Ri - i - i - i -ght - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Many years ago, there was an article in The Sunday New York Times magazine about an extraordinary young man who was described as being a genius.

As an example of his intellectual ability, at the age of seven or eight if I recall, he had been playing with numbers and discovered that if you took the square of the sum of two numbers, the result was the sum of the square of the first number plus the square of the second number plus twice the product of the two numbers. He had asked his father why this was so.

At his tender age, with no instruction in algebra, he had discovered The Binomial Theorem.

(a+b)² = a² + 2ab + b²

Being of high school age at the time of the article, there was some discussion of his possible future career in Philosophy. The big obstacle to that career path was very disturbing.

He had by then become aware of Doctors of Philosophy having just delivered their latest research papers at major symposiums attended by thousands, who having concluded their presentations, were then subjected to some anonymous voice from somewhere in the auditorium shouting out "Yeah!! Ri - i - i - i -ght." and thereby losing their credibility and having their careers torpedoed.

Deniers of COVID-19 information play on that same impulse. So do other deniers. Sound bytes play into that misconduct too.

Please don't fall prey.

Vass You Dere - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Someone offered words of caution on a local bulletin board about the Omicron variant. This is what that person wrote:

"Just a note, this covid variant is extremely contagious! Everyone around my family and I are getting it, including neighbors, friends, and relatives, as well as a close relative whom we just recently lost. And there is not going to be a funeral or wake because of covid. It appears that those that have not been vaccinated can still get seriously ill, but those who are vaccinated only get mild symptoms. AND there are people I know that are getting it a SECOND TIME, so even if you are vaccinated and even if you had it before, you can still get it again and if you have not been vaccinated but got it, you too can still get it again! BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"

The following was offered by someone else in reply:

"It appears that those that have not been vaccinated can still get seriously ill, but those who are vaccinated only get mild symptoms." Do you have evidence for this claim? Given how recent the omicron wave is, combined with still circulating delta, I haven't seen any good data that demonstrates that unvaccinated (a large % of whom will have had prior infection) are getting significantly more ill from omicron than vaccinated. If you have seen such data, please share.

This demand for first hand proof is rebuttal of widely reported facts. We are living in a world where we each have our own educations, our own training and our own occupations. We are compelled to depend on the veracity of those who are properly qualified in other fields for the results of their efforts.

The phrase "Do you have evidence for this claim?" is absurd and is an attempt to deny to us vital medical information. This classic example of this single-line denial is from early 20th century comedy radio as in the following Google search result.

3D Printer - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, on Election Day just before the pandemic, we went to our local polling place which was a local library. As we entered the building, we came across a fascinating demonstration in progress, an operating three dimensional printer.

I couldn't interpret the alpha-numeric display, but just watching this thing chugging away with the process itself was fascinating.

The Tsk, Tsk Factor - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

An interviewee on the radio the other day offered the opinion that those who have accepted anti-Covid-19 vaccinations and those who have not accepted them are utterly hardened into their respective positions.

Anyone who has so far refused to be vaccinated, the speaker predicted, will continue to refuse for any of a multitude of reflexively recited pseudo-reasons, mostly guided by ideology and not by rational thought.

Their own medical vulnerabilities are disregarded as are their likelihoods of passing along infections to other people. Also, their refusals are probably facilitating developments of new Covid variants.

However, one possible aberration leading to vaccination refusal has not been mentioned, at least not to my having noticed. Think of that as the "Tsk, Tsk Factor" as in:

"You ... waited ... all ... this ... time ... and ... now ... you're ... first ... coming ... for ... your  ... first ... shot ... ?    Tsk, tsk.   You ... did ... know ... better ... didn't ... you."

Fear of embarrassment can have a deterring effect too.  Vaccination cards do show the dates of injection.

"You ... waited ... HOW ... long ... to ... get ... vaccinated ... ???"

I have no remedy for that kind of thinking, but it might be another factor of which to be aware.

Theory - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Definitions of the word "theory" were found at the following URL:  

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theory

Deniers of evolution sometimes exclaim "That's only a theory!" to imply that paleontological science is false. By that sort of thinking, one could deny the validity of electrical circuit theory, of atomic theory, of quantum mechanical theory, of mathematical theory and so forth simply by choosing '6b' text above as the only valid definition of the word itself.

This is a head-in-the-sand mind set.

Deniers of COVID-19 realities are very much in the same mold. People who are conjuring up their personal equivalents of '6b' such as the vaccine was developed too fast, the vaccine is a secret surveillance tool, the vaccine is intended to sterilize its recipients and so forth are '6b-ing' themselves while exposing themselves and everyone else to increased COVID-19 risks.

Never mind the Ivermectin or the Hydroxychloroquine stories. The only real protections any of us have, even though not 100% guaranteeable, come from vaccinations, masking, distances and proper sanitary habits.

Leave '6b' behind.

Chalked Tires - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I got up early one day and before making breakfast, I took a drive to the local supermarket to pick up the day's newspapers and a few groceries. It was a quick errand but look at what I found on the tops and bottoms of my car tires and on the pavement when I got back to the parking lot.

There is a nearby main roadway with a 30 MPH speed limit, with traffic lights, with "No U-Turn" signs and with a one-way cross-street which intersects that main roadway.

On most days on that main roadway I get to see speeding cars being driven through red lights, drivers making illegal u-turns (often several of each in any one day) and occasionally, a car being driven the wrong way on that one-way cross street.

Rarely, if ever, have I seen any traffic law enforcement in response.

However, the local guardians of our public safety were fortunately alert enough to spot yours truly as a potential public menace who might have exceeded a three hour parking limit. It seems that I came within two hours and forty-one minutes of being ticketed.

Sleep well tonight knowing that our public safety is assured.

Noticing Something, Land O Lakes - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

For many years, dairy products supplied under the Land O Lakes brand name came in packages that bore a familiar image, that of a Native American woman:

Recently, objections to this illustration were raised which prompted the company to remove that central image:

The two views above were screen shot from a Google search result.

However, while in the grocery store one recent day, I noticed a delivery in progress of Land O Lakes products where on the corrugated cardboard of one of the shipping containers, I saw the following:

No further comment needed.

Hospital Atrocities - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E.

The following essay relates to very disturbing and distressing matters. Many may find the contents of this essay to be shocking. Please be prepared.

I recently brought a patient to a hospital emergency room (ER), someone who was suffering from suspected food poisoning and who was very ill. Unfortunately, the events that transpired during our several hours present were astonishingly inappropriate and unprofessional.

1)         First issue:

We were told to be seated in the waiting room where it was 1½ hours before a technician called the patient in to have a blood sample taken. Shortly later, back in the waiting area, the patient suddenly needed to get to the nearest rest room from which in a few moments, the emergency alarm cord was pulled in a call for help.

When I saw the flashing red light, I ran into that rest room to find the patient in a toilet stall and on the floor, unable to stand and having just vomited blood into the toilet bowl. I sought help from hospital staff who did NOT respond and who inexplicably took umbrage with me for having asked for their aid. There was no apparent regard for the apparent medical emergency.

It was a security guard who had the common sense and the decency to render assistance by bringing a wheelchair so that the patient could be brought out from that toilet stall.

It was then another two hours before the patient was eventually brought in for medical attention.

2)         Second issue:

A young woman was brought to the admissions desk in a wheelchair while in terrible pain, curled up in a near-fetal position, crying and pleading for help. Her two companions suspected appendicitis. Instead of immediate medical care, she was told she would have to wait in the waiting room because there were four patients ahead of her.

Finally, someone else of hospital staff appeared and upon seeing that situation, took that woman in for admission.

3)         Third issue:

The above mentioned food poisoning patient's medical tests indicated that although there had been much suffering and that the suffering was likely to continue further, there was no medical danger and that the patient could be safely released to go home. As the time had become late, I asked about, and was told in response, that ER hours for patients' visitors would not be a problem because there was no official time limit for visitors in the ER, only a seven PM limit for visitors to hospital rooms elsewhere in the facility. The patient's attending physician actually wanted me to stay at hand while preparations were made for discharge and release.

Unfortunately, the supervisory "Charge Nurse" in the ER made a sudden and apparently arbitrary decision that I could not stay, that I could not comply with the doctor's wishes since the time was past seven PM and that I would have to leave, not to go back to the waiting room, but to exit the building altogether and wait in the parking lot until all discharge procedures had been carried out.

A clearly embarrassed security guard informed me that there was no choice.

The attending physician spoke up on our behalf to the "Charge Nurse" but to no avail. Because of that "Charge Nurse" acting with apparent authority-intoxication, and in my view with sadism, I was forced to leave the building for what turned out to be fifteen minutes. Upon my being telephoned to return, I re-entered the ER where I saw no apparent difference in occupant density of the ER areas.

To my knowledge, no legal actions are planned in light of any of the above although I can envision someone else under the same circumstances seeking legal redress.

I have brought these matters to hospital administrative attention in the hope that staff misconduct of the kind I have described would be properly addressed and corrected.

Part of me thinks it is unlikely.