Dogtown – Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town by Elyssa East

Dogtown is one funky little book. It is a non-fiction book about an inland area named Dogtown near the City of Gloucester, Massachusetts. The area was a village in the colonial era but was soon abandoned and has not been inhabited since. It is legally a commons area, owned and administered by the city, but it has been pretty much ignored. The area has inspired some famous artists (Marsden Hartley is the most famous) and poets but there has been some strange stuff including a very brutal murder. The book is ultimately about whether places in and of themselves can be evil.

It’s an interesting question. It seems that some places we find good or inspiring. The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, Mesa Verde have all been described as great places. Why can there not be evil places. I don’t know. Back in my pipeline construction days there were some areas that just gave me the willys and there other areas I loved. While geocaching out in the boonies right on the Red River which is the Oklahoma – Texas border I found myself in an area that spooked the crap out of me. Researching it later I found that was a popular body dumping spot and there were allegations of satanic rituals carried out in a nearby Indian cemetery. I didn’t know any of this when I was at the site. I do know, I found the cache and got out of there as fast as I could.

Years ago, I was scouting a route for a pipeline in southwest Louisiana in a very remote swampy snaky area. I was going down a dirt road that kept getting worse and worse and came upon an area where there were a lot of shacks. The shacks looked like they had been relocated from somewhere else and just scattered randomly across a field. Some of them didn’t have doors or windows. It looked kind of abandoned. For some reason my pucker factor was pretty high. I came up on a group of about a dozen kids. They looked to be about three or four years old up to about 10. The thing was, none of them were wearing a stitch of clothing. They were totally naked, boys and girls both. They looked at me then started throwing dirt clods at the car. So I backed up quite a ways back to the main road.

I routed the pipeline clear around that area. I still wonder what the deal was.

Anyway, I don’t know why a guy in Oklahoma found a quirky history of a ghost town in Massachusetts so interesting except I am interested in the power and energy of places.

I give the book 2.5 stars out of 4. I liked it.

My World – Washington Irving Park – Bixby, Oklahoma

Washington Irving, author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” took and extended trip to the West including parts of what is now Oklahoma way back when. He and his party camped on the Arkansas River near what is now called Washington Irving Park in Bixby, Oklahoma. It is not used very much and its a great place to walk the dogs and let SuperPizzaBoy ride his Triton, a three wheeled self propelled vehicle.

The dogs and the kid.

Very nice trails for exploring.

I loved the snaky shadows of the trees.

An Amphitheater built by the local Rotary Club. In the shadows is a seated statue of Washington Irving. He has a very long suffering look on his face.

SPB and the dogs having a little talk with Mr. Irving.

A great time was had by all. But there is an opportunity for reflection for the outside world.

The park has a memorial to those who perished in the World Trade Center attack. The memorial includes an ibeam from one of the buildings.

Check out My World Tuesday for other views of our world.

John 10:14-16

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

(NIV)

Check out That’s Baloney for other pairings of photographs and scripture.

Okie Blog Awards

If you are an Oklahoma Blogger please consider taking a look at the Okie Blog Awards. It is an annual contest that tries to find the best Oklahoma Bloggers in a broad array of categories. The great thing is that Oklahoma Bloggers submit the nominations for Oklahoma Blogs and Oklahoma Bloggers vote on the blgs nominated. This year there is a process to minimize the “gaming” that sometimes goes on in blog contests.

First it is a great way to let people know about blogs you find interesting and second you can find out about other blogs in the state that you may not know about.

Submitting nominations is very easily done by email. Check out the link above for the details but don’t delay. The deadline is February 3.

Algebra, Death, National Health Plans (or lack thereof) and YOU!!

Several days ago I wrote about the 2010 Statistical Abstract of the United States and how much fun we can have with that. Together we explored the lack of effectiveness of our lack of a national health plan. You can Discover More about the scientific aspects of health here. We spend more money per capita than any country on the planet and we have some of the worst results in terms of longevity.

We also found out that we have about 46 million Americans who are not covered by health insurance.

Lets turn out attention to that and what it means. OK, now anybody with math anxiety, take a few deep breaths and just fast forward to the end. You get a “speed pass” and it doesn’t cost you anything. Nothing but the best for Yogi’s Den readers. Check out what a speed pass costs at Disney World and you will appreciate me. One can also get healthcare for procedures like smas facelift.

OK, you math, data, and rational thinking fans out there, here goes. Glenn Beck fans and other nostalgia buffs, you are welcome to come along also.

There was a study published in September 2009 in the American Journal of Public Health that said that the death rate for those people in the United States who do not have health insurance is 40% higher than the death rate for those who do not have insurance. The article is titled “Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults.” You can find an abstract at the link above. The cheapskates want $20 to download the full article (maybe I’m the cheapskate, I don’t know – but I didn’t spend the $20.) Now lets be clear about the source. The American Journal of Public Health is a peer reviewed journal. That means, unlike Fox News or CNN, things have to be verified by other scientists before its published.

So anyway, the news media popped up everywhere, like here, and reported that this meant that 45,000 people a year were dieing because they didn’t have health insurance. I have googled and binged and searched and I can’t find the link between the 40% higher death rate and 45,000 more deaths per year annually.

So, lets see if we can do it!! With statistics and math! Wow.

So off we go to the Statistical Abstract.

We find in Table 127 that the total death rate in the United States is 815 deaths per 100,000 population as of 2006.

We find in Table 12 that the total population in 2006 was 298,363,000. (I’m going to use 300 million just to make the number more manageable.

So the number of deaths at 300 million population =

815 deaths per 100,000 people * 300,000,000/100,000 = 2,445,000 deaths per year.

OK, so what if everybody had insurance? How many deaths then.

The 815 deaths is for the actual mix of people. 46 million don’t have insurance so this means that 300-46 or 254 million people do have insurance.

Let X= the Death rate per 100,000 people for those with health insurance.

That means that 1.4X = the Death rate per 100,000 people for those without insurance.

So the total deaths of people per year that have insurance = X* 254,000,000/ 100,000
= 2,540 X

And the total deaths of people per year that don’t have insurance is 1.4*46,000,000/ 100,000
= 644 X

We are cooking with gas now folks.

So the total number of deaths in the US = 2,540 X + 644 X = 3,184 X

Remember, the total number of deaths is 2,445,000

So 3,184 X = 2,445,000

So X = 768 deaths per 100,000 insured people per year

and 1.4 X = 1,075 deaths per 100,000 uninsured people per year.

So, if everybody had insurance then the death’s per year would be

= 768 per 100,000 * 300,000,000/100,000 = 2,304,000 deaths per year.

Compared to the actual guestimated 2,445,000 deaths per year

So excess deaths per year due to uninsurance = 2,445,000 minus 2,304,000

= 141,000 per year.

So, I think maybe the published estimate of 45,000 excess deaths per year may be reasonable once somebody got through correcting for health condition, age, risk factors, etc (I mean if somebody shoots you or you die in a car accident it’s not affected by your insurance status.)

So lets go a step further. Forget the moral part of letting people die unncessarily, lets talk about the cost. If you go to table 124 you will find that in the year 2000, the total cost of somebody dieing was $192,772 in the year 2000. That includes the present value of remaining life’s earnings, etc. Lets say the cost with a little inflation is now $200,000 per death.

So the extra 45,000 deaths per year would costs $45,000 * 200,000
= $9 billion dollars per year.

The money is fine. I would just as soon have the people living.

What’s your take on all this?

New Car Buying

Sweetie’s old 2003 Highlander needs either fixed or replaced. The heater and the air conditioning doesn’t work and the check engine light is on. Young SuperPizzaBoy has been kind of hard on the back seat.

So spend some money or get a new one? Who doesn’t like a new car. Lets go!!

Here she is at breakfast all set to go.

Off to Riverside Chevrolet we go. We are looking at Chevy’s Traverse. We had not looked at American cars in years but hey we are loyal American Republicans wanting to help our economy out. Our salesman is Eric. A very nice young man, an OU fan even.

Here is Eric showing Sweetie the car.

Later we go to the showroom to get brochure’s and stuff. You know what we find in the showroom.

Now that is what I call a family car! I could find a few geocaches with that thing. Is there anything prettier than a new car in a show room. Lets do some ciphering. That car is worth about four Traverses. Or about twenty 2003 Toyota Highlanders. I’m pretty good at ratios aren’t I? Problem is we have only one 2003 Highlander. Anybody know where I can get nineteen others?

Let’s check back with Sweetie to see how she is doing.

Looking at cars is FUN!!!!

So we end up fencing with Eric a little while. Then the sales manager shows up. He’s also a nice guy. We fence with him for a little while. We mention that we are going to look at Toyota’s. Hey they also have a Toyota Dealer, Riverside Toyota. Wow, good for them. Hey, and Eric can sell us one of those. Ready, Set, Go to the Toyota dealer with Eric in hot pursuit.

Ooops, sorry, we test drove on and don’t like the new Highlanders. Sorry Eric, gotta go! See ya!

So now we run to the Nissan dealer. We are going to check out the Murano. Cost is quite a bit more than the Traverse. But they are cool. Back up television cameras, ipod plug-ins (we played my Miles Davis. They didn’t want to hear Metallica). Blue tooth this and that, leather seats, dual moon roof, heated seats, safety features out the wazoo.

A really nice salesman, Simon, demonstrates the car for us. Lets see, only three Murano’s equal’s one Corvette.

Simon is cool. See’ya Simon. Time to go test drive a Honda CRV.

Hey we survived the first day of car buying. We don’t have a car yet. You know, lets just get the old girl fixed and drive her another 50K and see where we are at? I don’t know. Stay tuned.

Right now, I’m downing an adult beverage.

Skywatch Friday

The sun is shining again in Oklahoma!

Indulge me, please, one more shot from my office window.

For views of the sky from all over the world please check out Skywatch Friday.

Avatar the Movie

Sweetie and I saw Avatar the other day. I don’t really know what to say about it except that the Writer, Director, and co-Producer James Cameron has gone from King of the World to King of the Universe. How does one guy do so much.

It is a science fiction action adventure romance flick. It is well over two hours long but doesn’t seem like it. The movie is flawless in my opinion and will probably change the way movies are made in the future. We saw the 3D version and I strongly recommend it. The 3D effects in previous movies were intrusive in a “Wow, look what we can do with 3D!” gimmicky riff. In this movie, its just part of the movie.

As far as taking the kids. There were lots of kids watching the movie but we didn’t take our 11 year old and I think it would be much too intense for him. You know your kids best and use discretion.

Check out the official movie web site. The movie web sites these days have tons and tons of stuff to look at and do and all sorts of information.

I give this movie four stars out of four. You have to see it. I’m not sure that its the next Star Wars but it is a darn good movie.

Official Avatar Movie

Kicking Portugese butt and not winning?

Wow, the annual nerd’s dream has come out, the Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010 has come out. You can buy the book but why would when you can get on the web site and browse all sorts of data to your heart’s content. Its published by the Census Bureau and it is FREE!

What are you going to use it for? Well when the lefty and the righty pundits and politicians are yakking about this and that about our country you come over here and check it out. You can find out the real deal. You can download it into excel and do your own ciphering and graphing. You to can be a pundit but instead of doing it the Oprah method (Just talk about your feelings) and you can use information and data (I love Oprah, so don’t be jacking with me.)

Lets take the big health care debate. Forget about whether you are for or against the plan being hammered out by the House and Senate Democrats. One basic question everybody has is: “How many uninsured people do we have in this country?”

This web site on table 151 says that 45,657,000 people in 2007 did not have health insurance in the United States. So now you are in the know on that fact. That fact is not good or bad. Its just a fact. Its up to each of us decide whether we think that is acceptable or something needs to change.

Isn’t this fun? Lets try something else. Some of the righties say “We have the greatest health system in the world!” (That makes me so proud.) Some of the lefties say “We are way down the list on life expactancy!” (Oh, I am so ashamed!) You know what I say. I say, my copays and deductibles are going up, my coverage is going down.

Well, lets look at the data. Now wouldn’t you think that if we had the greatest health care system in the world that we would could measure that somehow? How about life expectancy at birth? I mean the whole point of medicine is to keep people living long productive lives? Isn’t it. Hey lets look at the data. They have the data for industrialized countries. Lets rank them. (I tried to format this all nice and pretty but it is not happening, sorry) I had to use 2004 data because some of the countries didn’t have up to date data.

Country 2004
Iceland 79.2
Switzerland 78.6
Japan 78.6
Sweden 78.4
Australia 78.1
Italy 77.9
Canada 77.8
Norway 77.6
New Zealand 77.5
Spain 76.9
Netherlands 76.9
United Kingdom 76.8
France 76.7
Greece 76.6
Germany 76.5
Austria 76.4
Ireland 76.4
Belgium 76.0
Luxembourg 75.9
Finland 75.4
Denmark 75.4
United States 75.2
Portugal 75.0
Korea, South 74.5
Mexico 72.7
Czech Republic 72.6
Poland 70.7
Slovakia 70.3
Turkey 68.8
Hungary 68.6

Huh, uh, the United States is number 22, you gotta be kidding me. Hey, don’t worry though, we are kicking some major Portugese butt!!

Well lets look at the list again, United Kingdom, socialist, Canada, socialist, Denmark, ditto, Sweden, ditto, Hey they are all socialists. Socialist you know what that is. Its when they are communist but you are trying to be polite. Here is the deal. Yeah, they have us beat by a few years but all their money goes to health care. That’s it! That is where they are spending all their money. Their economies are being dragged down by health care costs. Not us, we are free!!!

So guess, what, yeah you are catching on, Lets Look at the Data. (I should make this into a board game.) Lets take the same list of countries and rank them by % of Gross Domestic Product. (New Zealand didn’t have the data.)

Country 2004
United States 15.2
Switzerland 11.4
France 11.0
Belgium 10.7
Germany 10.6
Austria 10.3
Portugal 10.0
Iceland 9.9
Canada 9.8
Norway 9.7
Denmark 9.5
Netherlands 9.5
Sweden 9.2
Australia 8.8
Italy 8.7
Greece 8.3
Hungary 8.2
Spain 8.2
Finland 8.1
Luxembourg 8.1
Japan 8.0
United Kingdom 8.0
Ireland 7.5
Czech Republic 7.2
Slovakia 7.2
Mexico 6.5
Poland 6.2
Turkey 5.9
Korea, South 5.4

(New Zealand didn’t have the data)

USA, USA, USA, We’re number one!! Uh, oops, number one is not good! let me see, the USA spends 15% of our GDP on health care and the United Kingdom, where life expectancies are longer, spends just a little over half as much. Wait a minute, they are the socialists. We’re the capitalists. We spend 50% more than Portugal, and get the same results? Or we spend three times what South Korea spends, and gain 0.7 years of life expectancy? What’s up with that?

I don’t know, should we keep doing the same thing or should we look at changing things?

Or, I have a better idea. Lets just keep saying that we have the best health care system in the world! That’s the ticket. Maybe it’ll happen. Or not.

Legally Blonde

Sweetie and I went to see the touring edition of the Broadway musical “Legally Blonde.” It is a lot of fun and is well done and we enjoyed it tremendously. Check out the show’s web site. Lots of good information their as wells as links to Youtube videos of segments of the show.

The lead was played by Becky Gulsvig. She was a ball of fire on stage. Check out her website. It has links to her blog. (She hasn’t posted for months but I bet she is busy.)

Her website linked to this Youtube video that intersperses her performance with an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

It was a lot of fun. I give it 3 stars out of 4.

YogisDen.us

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