The View From the Outback© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen, in my 7th decade. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. Some insights come from talking with ham-radio operators in every major country and such idyllic places as the Cook Islands. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 15 years. Since most visits to my pages come from searches, I am no longer trying to keep on a regular schedule for updating the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. Oct. 2, 2005: The Brady Campaign to Control Gun Violence has hit a new and despicable low. They are promoting ads overseas and in U.S. newspapers that warn people that if they come to Florida they could be killed by Florida gun owners. This stems from an amendment to existing law. Previously, gun owners could only use their weapons if they first attempted to withdraw and avoid a confrontation, and were permitted to shoot threatening individuals only inside their home or property. Now, the law says they can use "deadly force" if they "reasonably believe" that firing their gun is necessary to prevent a crime or serious injury. This is the same tempest in a teapot that arose when Florida first got its concealed weapon law. The dire predictions about murder and mayhem by gun owners never became a real issue. I am a little more sensitive to the issue of gun crime of late. Not long ago, about four miles from my house, four people were murdered for no reason. A pastor and a deacon were killed in a church parking lot after a service. Two innocent women, returning from horse-back riding, were killed not far from the church. The shooter eventually took his own life. Texas laws prevents holders of concealed weapons permits from carrying their weapons on the premises of a church, synagogue, or other established place of religion, if those places have posted a sign that conforms strictly to the sign prescribed by the legislature. In today's climate of religious foment and hatred by different groups, it makes little sense to prohibit guns in churches by those who have passed the close scrutiny required to obtain a concealed-weapon permit. No offense to any religion, but God cannot protect you from a crazed gunman - whether you are in a grocery store or a church. Related to the above: For decades, there was a statutory provision in Texas that you could carry a handgun in your vehicle if you were in a "travel status," (even if you did not have a concealed-weapon permit) but nobody could agree on what "travel status" meant. The case law was antiquated. Now, there is a presumption that a person is in a "travel status" if they have a handgun in their vehicle. The burden is on the state and local courts to prove otherwise if you are arrested. Of course, anyone in Texas can carry a rifle or shotgun in their vehicle without a permit. This tends to make rural Texas a more polite society. The new Texas law regarding handguns and travel status is: House Bill 823. HB 823 provides for a legal presumption in favor of citizens; that they are travelers if they are in a private vehicle with a handgun that is not in plain view, they are not otherwise engaged in unlawful activity (DWI, etc.) nor otherwise prohibited by law from possessing a firearm, and not a member of a criminal street gang. Oct. 1, 2005: A new study, of records of existing patients, not a controlled study, indicates that taking a statin reduces the risk of suffering a bone fracture. Once again, one has to ask why you would take a drug with many potential serious side effects, when there are natural ways to prevent bone fractures. Among those are taking in more calcium, either in foods such as milk, cheese, broccoli, etc., taking calcium supplements, and engaging in weight bearing exercises, such as walking. Doing modest free-weight exercises for the upper body would also be advised. Even the practicing medical community is becoming weary of all the claims for statins. As noted in the "Harvard Heart Letter" for Sept., 2005: .... statins, the cholesterol-reducing drugs that seem good for almost anything that ails you these days." At about the same time as we are being told of yet another wonder for statins, which once were touted only for lowering cholesterol, we find evidence there may be associations between low cholesterol and suicide, stroke, depression, and even violence. At the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association, Dr. Xuemei Huwang described a possible link between low cholesterol and an increased risk for Parkinson's disease. In the study, compared to men with LDL cholesterol levels higher than 135, those with levels between 91 and 135 were 6 times more likely to have Parkinson's, and those LDL levels below 91 were 4 time more likely. Huang cautioned that doctors needed to balance the benefits and risks of medication used in achieving 'optimal' cholesterol levels." This is now one of several studies that show the benefits of higher cholesterol readings, especially in the elderly. So, Gramps, enjoy your Pecan pie, as I did for lunch. More and more, you are on the winning side of the cholesterol debate. In the view of many, the FDA took a step in the wrong direction when it approved the statin Lipitor to be prescribed to people to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack - to many diabetics who have risk factors for heart disease. The FDA also approved prescibing Lipitor to reduce the chance of stroke in people without diabetes but who have multiple risk factors. While there is some scientific evidence to back up the claims that statins may reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke, the evidence is based on a limited number of studies, in which the pharmaceutical companies nearly always had a vested interest in the outcome. It seems premature for the FDA to approve statins to be prescribed as preventatives for heart attack and stroke. If anything, they are merely lending the government's cachet to what was already being done. Doctors have been prescribing statins in greater quantities than for any other medication - often "off label." Now, they will be emboldened even further. In the Outback for Tues, Aug. 2, 2005, I made some rather harsh judgements about the initial design of the Space Shuttle and suggested it is worn out and ought to be permanently grounded. I further said that the efficacy of the International Space Station (ISS) was also questionable. Imagine my delight when the NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, later said the ISS and the Space Shuttle program were both mistakes! That took some real guts. Think about the implications of what he said. Does he have another job lined up? Brazil is going to have a referendum to decide if the sale of all types of guns and ammo should be banned for everyone except the police and military. In the Oct. 23 referendum, all adults from 18 to 70 must participate. Brazil had 36,000 firearms fatalities last year. Early public opinion polls show that more than 70 percent of respondents say they support the ban. Somebody has done a magnificent snow-job on them, or the polls are flawed. The comparisons to the hype over the Brady Bill in the U.S. are obvious. It would be tragic mistake to ban guns from civilians. Washington, D.C., became the murder capital of the U.S. afer handguns were banned in private hands. After a 27-year mistake, the House voted to overturn the D.C. gun ban. As the bumper stickers say "Only Criminals Will Have Guns." Ask your friends in England how the handgun ban has played out there, as another example of abject failure. But, note that ALL those from 18 to 70 in Brazil MUST vote. The U.S. Congress might consider such a "must vote" rule. Americans are becoming more and more apathetic about voting and more disenchanted with government at all levels. At least the "must vote" rule would finally quash the often disingenuous claims that the poor and minorities are "not given a fair chance to vote." As soon as a statewide ID was required to vote in one state, one of the black bleeding hearts went on TV said it was a "poll tax," because poor people could not afford the $20 for the ID. How come so many "poor people" can afford cable TV or satellite TV, but they cannot afford a one-time $20 charge for a photo ID? Give the ID free to those below the poverty line, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, whatever - and stop your whining - and trying to turn everything into a racist issue. Blacks need some new leaders with a vision of how to be upwardly mobile, instead of those who constantly preach victimization. As former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, points out, "the majority of poor people are white." Welfare laws should reflect some reality. If a single woman has a child, provide her with welfare and job training. Having one child without a live-in father or herself having a job is a sad mistake. Having a second, third, and fourth child in these circumstances is stupid. We should be compassionate for those who make a mistake, but be resolute with those whose conduct is simply stupid. The U.S. is going to ban imports of beluga caviar and other beluga products from the Caspian Sea on Friday, due to a lack of details of a plan to conserve the fish, which is listed as being threatened with extinction. The United States consumes 60 percent of the world exports of beluga caviar. At $200-an-ounce, beluga caviar is about half the price of gold! The few times I have eaten caviar, I found it nearly unpalatable. It certainly is an acquired taste. I think it is mostly a symbol of affluent snobbery. I'm willing to bet that if you offered caviar (without calling it caviar) to folks who have never tasted it, and told them it was actually the eggs of Carp fish from the Mississippi river - that cost $1 a pound, many, if not most, would spit it out and say "What the hell is wrong with you people who claim this is a delicacy?" New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter has received racist hate-mail calling him a "traitor to his race" for dating white women. How ridiculous. His father is black. His mother is white. How can he be a traitor to his "race"? Which race? If he dated black women, would he be a traitor to his race on his mother's side? Jeter said on "60 Minutes" that when he first came to NYC to play for the Yankees, a lot of people thought he was Hispanic and would speak Spanish to him! Please read "The 'One Drop' Theory Still Haunts Blacks" in the Outback for June 19, 2004 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac91.html) and "Halle Berry - First Half-Black Woman to Win an Academy Award" on May 15, 2003 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac58.html). These two articles should help you put these dumb racial arguments into perspective. I first started using WordPerfect back in the DOS days when I worked as a consulting contractor for a firm in Dallas that produced high-end legal software packages. Poor WP has been bounced around from company to company, finally ending up with some recent stability at Corel. Corel finally got the message that many users had been saying for years, "We just want a word processor and maybe a spread sheet and not a Swiss Army Knife." WordPerfect Office 12 Home Edition is the answer, with WP and Quattro Pro spreadsheet the main components. I bought it from newegg.com for $69.00 - for the full program, not a lite version. It is faster than WP 11, has new features, and is a terrific bargain. You can save files in many formats including .PDF, several versions of MS Word, and html. Spreadsheets can be saved as MS Excel docs. Microsoft Office docs are imported with good rendering, and on and on. After many early years of using Word and working with people who use it, I am in the camp that says WordPerfect is a far superior program. Now, for $69.00, you can make your own judgement. There was a $20 rebate, too, but I did not apply as I thought the $69 price was eminently fair. Dear Mr. Gates and Ballmer: Millions of us have not used Internet Explorer for years. It is clunky and outdated. As you prepare for IE7, think about all of us who download several html Web pages a day. In Firefox, if we select "Web Page, html only," that remains the default choice until manually changed. In IE6, the default is always "Web Page, complete," regardless of our last download selection. Most of us are not interested in downloading graphics of people and scenes we have seen a thousand times. Also, it is a complex task to rename a complete Web page download, but a simple one to rename an html-only page download. Even with your new Tab functions, very belatedly, if you do not allow the last download mode to become the default, IE7 will remain a buried icon on many computers. Sports fans who wonder which games will be in HiDef can check www.hdsportsguide.com for complete listings for two weeks in advance. If you don't have a HiDef set and a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), you will be kicking yourself when you finally get both. The combination of a HiDef TV and a DVR is orders of magnitude more satisfactory than an analog TV and a VCR, especially if you never learned to program the VCR. You don't need a 60-inch TV to enjoy HiDef. Buy a much smaller set and sit closer. Oprah Winfrey managed to make the president of Hermes look like a fool on her TV show. She was refused entry to their Paris store on the grounds that the store was closing. It is clear that Oprah thinks the refusal was because she is black. Probably a good guess. She also looked kind of frumpy that day, not chic enough for the snobby clerk's tastes, no doubt. But, the hapless president made a huge mistake when he said on her show that the clerk "did knot know who you were." Oooops. So, our policy is only to admit rich and famous black people? He said that Hermes was instituting sensitivity training. Oprah reacted like she had just scored a winning touchdown and was spiking the ball in front of the defense. A shameful abuse of her prestige and power. The matter could have been resolved without having the president of the company on the show to be publicly humiliated. And, Oprah, when you go to France, you should expect to be insulted. It's part of the charm of Paris. Most of us white people have been insulted over the decades. So, don't feel like the black Lone Ranger. On the same show, Oprah announced that she was giving $10 million to Katrina relief. She basked in the ovation she got and added "of my own money." Oprah made about $225 million last year. Ten million dollars is about 4 percent of her income for one year. She has to make substantial contributions to avoid paying high taxes. I find it disingenuous when very wealthy people like her stand on a stage and expect to be revered for cutting her tax burden by donating to Katrina. The 4 percent of income is substantially less than many people tithe to their churches each year - without standing up in front of the congregation and taking a bow. So much was made of "Oprah giving away a car to everyone in audience." The car company gave the cars away. They knew they would get good exposure on Oprah. Oprah was just the shill for the deal. There must a line around the block at Harpo Productions of companies wanting to get a "product placement" or a mention on Oprah. Oprah has a good heart, but she is getting a little overbearing. Why was I watching Oprah in the first place? Treadmill. Waiting for JEOPARDY! to come on, which has switched to a later time in the Dallas market and moved to CBS. Update Oct. 27, 2005: Oprah's $10 million gift for Katrina is even more of a self-serving gesture than I thought. The New York Times reported today that "A little-noted provision in the tax relief package to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina is shaping up as a windfall for charity and a drain on government coffers. It allows donors who make cash gifts to almost any charity by the end of this year to deduct an amount equal to virtually 100 percent of their adjusted gross incomes, double the normal limit of 50 percent of income. The tantalizing prospect has set off a financial scramble among some wealthy donors and charities vying for their dollars." Would Ellen DeGeneres be violating some kind of Lesbian blood oath if she wore a dress to host the Emmy Awards? Is it not an insult to women that she and other Lesbians seem to be adamant about not wearing dresses? In an Emmy promo, Ellen wore a long-flowing gown. She appeared to be very uncomfortable in it, like she was about to take part in a potato gunny-sack race. Too bad. Although I find her only mildly amusing, I think she is quite attractive and would take a shot at her if she were to follow the precedent of her former lover and switch sides. I would buy her a dress for the occasion. From Wal-Mart, of course. I would not be willing to take a big gamble on the satifactory conclusion of the episode. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that will take carbonated soda drinks out of schools, as part of a plan to cut down on childhood obesity. The bill allows drinks that contain at least 50% fruit or vegetable juice. The average carbonated soda (non-diet drink) contains about 150 calories. The average fruit-juice drink of the same volume has about 150 calories. Diet soft drinks should have been allowed in schools, but there are probably some fruitcakes in California who would object to the artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks, claiming they cause Cancer. How fast do the kids run out at lunch or after school to grab their Mountain Dew or Red Bull - or whatever else is their passion? You can't legislate morality or food choices. Did Arnold have any stock in, or get promotional fees from any fruit juice or vegetable juice companies? Just a thought, considering how dumb this law is. Several news sources reported the "recent finding" that typing sounds on a keyboard are distinctive enough to be decoded. What an Epiphany for the University of California! This technique has been used by intelligence agencies for at least 40 years - or longer. One headline said "....Big Brother May be Listening." This is one more idiotic attempt by the opponents of the government's investigative powers to curb crime and prevent terrorism. The chance of your phone being tapped are about the same as the odds of winning the lottery. The chances of your computer keyboard being decoded are infinitesimal in the grand scheme of computer invasions. In all the talk about rebuilding New Orleans, I have found only one mention of the obvious - and that was in a short letter to the editor. The terrorists are not as smart as we think they are, or they would have blown the New Orleans levees long ago. But now that they have seen the enormous personal suffering and huge economic impact of Katrina breaching the levees, they must already be drafting plans to blow the levees once New Orleans is rebuilt. One can understand that people who live there are passionate about their city. The planners, local, state, and federal, need to think long and hard about spending billions of dollars only to see the New Orleans flooding replicated by a few well-placed explosive-laden small boats. Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans is a piece of work. First, he waited too long to order the evacuation and failed to follow the written disaster plan which called for using public buses to evacuate those without cars. Next, was his statement that there might be 10,000 dead in New Orleans (to evoke national sympathy, as if we were not sympatheic enough already).Now, he is pushing prematurely to let people back into the city, while the infrastructure is still largely crippled, the water and crud left behind is toxic, and another storm could force another evacuation. I read somewhere that he was thinking of moving to Texas. If he does, we hope he does not run for public office. Our state and local governments are screwed up enough without him adding to the confusion. On your cell phone contact list of phone numbers, you might consider adding and entry for ICE (In Case of Emergency). I put my son's cell-phone number under this heading. I am not sure how many people know what ICE stands for, but the more of us who talk about it, the faster the word will spread. Recent reports of studies in several countries indicate that the use of a cell phone does not contribute to the growth of brain tumors. The data was from 4,231 people, of whom 678 had an "acoustic neuroma." An acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor (not cancerous) and is often associated with hearing loss, since such a tumor can impinge on the acoustic nerve. As is so often the case, you can find contradictory studies. A team of researchers in Stockholm, Sweden, found that people who used a cell phone regularly for 10 years had almost a four-fold chance of developing an acoustic neuroma tumor on the side of the head where the cell phone was usually held.
One Swedish study found that the incidence of brain tumors was higher among rural users than urban users. GSM cell phones (and perhaps others) adjust their transmit power depending on how strong the received signal is. If the phone sees a strong received signal, it reduces transmit power. If it sees a weak signal (average rural use), it pumps up the transmit power. More transmit power means more radio-frequency energy is close to your brain, if you are holding the phone to your ear. A weak incoming signal and jacked up transmit power also means shorter battery life. (More about all of this in an upcoming Outback article.) You can wear yourself out researching whether cell phones cause tumors, benign or cancerous, since there are many studies and much scientific speculation on the subject. Perhaps the best way to be on the safe side is to use and "ear bud" and external mike on a long cord. This moves the Radio-Frequency energy away from your brain - and inversely proportional to the square of the distance, as I recall. Many new phones have speaker-phone capability. This puts the phone further from your ear and thus your brain. People with pacemakers are cautioned not to have their cell phone in a shirt pocket on the side of the implanted pacemaker, for example. Some people complain that their cell phone causes a buzz in their computer speaker, even when in standby mode. The fact is that there are minute amounts of radio-frequency energy emanating from a cell phone, whenever it is turned on - more when you are engaged in a call. The cure for the computer speaker buzzing is to move the cell further away, or perhaps use ferrite chokes and beads on the speaker leads. Update: Nov. 10, 2005. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from cell-phone companies regarding class-action lawsuits claiming damages from cell-phone use. So, the lawsuits will go forward. Five class-action lawsuits were filed in state courts seeking damages, including money for wireless users to buy a headset or reimburse those who had already had purchased one. Health advocates have expressed concerns about radiation causing problems ranging from headaches to tumors. But the wireless industry has pointed to U.S. government statements that scientific evidence so far has not shown any health problems associated with wireless phone use. On balance, the lawsuits for cell-phone related injury seem to be on the losing side of the evidence, but we will see what juries make of all of this technical and medical mumbo-jumbo. Some thoughts about Acoustic Neuromas and medical treatment for hearing loss. Some time back, I had a sudden and dramatic hearing loss in one ear. One minute I could hear a clock ticking, the next minute I could not hear a thing. I went to my family physician. He removed a lot of wax from my "good" ear and told me that I had "fluid in the impaired ear." He gave me some antihistamine pills and told me to take them for about 10 days. After the pills ran out, there was no change in the hearing in the bad ear. I went to an ENT doctor. I told them a small fib that I had been referred by my GP (this referral business is very suspect, except to keep people from wasting time with specialists they don't need). The ENT had no ready explanation. He said that I did not have "fluid in my ear," and the delay in seeing him might cost me my hearing in that ear. He said that the hearing loss could have been the cumulative effect of my rifle and handgun shooting over decades, it could have been the result of a virus or a sinus infection. It could have been a mini-stroke. Or, he said, it might be a brain tumor! The doctor neglected to mention the type of tumor he suspected and that it was a benign type of tumor. A gross oversight to someone who had his soul mate die from the complications of a cancerous brain tumor! He suggested I schedule an MRI. I declined, saying that I wanted to study the matter. He prescribed a 10-day course of steroids, which is a common practice in cases like mine.
As to what was probably a faulty diagnosis by my GP and the possible loss of hearing from the delay in not seeing an ENT, the audiologist who did my test told me that when you have hearing problems, don't consult anyone else. Go immediately to an ENT. Well, that was two people who reinforced the point. Somewhat late for me. I don't think I will be visiting my GP again. This was not the only time I was unhappy with his course of treatment and referrals. Time for a fresh face. Acoustic neuromas are slow-growing non-cancerous tumors that develop on a nerve linking the brain and the inner ear. The most common first symptom is hearing loss, but as the tumor grows it can push against brain tissue. If not treated, they can be life-threatening. Such tumors are very rare, occurring in about one person per 100,000 in the general population. In patients with hearing asymmetry, it is believed that only about 1 in 1,000 has an acoustic neuroma (source: National Institutes of Health). After hours of research on reputable medical Web sites and in my medical library, I concluded that if I had a slow-growing tumor, I would have noticed a gradual loss of hearing as the tumor grew and impinged on the nerve linked to the inner ear. And I had recently gone through a sinus infection, which cleared up on its own after about 7-10 days. That sinus infection and the guns were the more likely culprits. I shoot right-handed and the right ear was the impaired one. When I returned to the ENT doctor after my steroid treatment, I came armed with research, pictorials and other information about hearing loss and specifically about acoustic neuromas. I told the doc that I was going to show him quotes and pictorials and in each case please tell me where I was being misinformed by my research. I had no dizziness, facial drooping, unsteady walk, loss of balance, vertigo or any of the symptoms associated with the tumor, but I did have tinnitus - mostly it sounded like a fan running in the other room at high speed. This most patient doctor, with whom I was not arguing, but only asking him to challenge my research, went over each point and expanded on some. Finally, he basically admitted that it had become a "standard procedure" to order an MRI in cases of dramatic hearing loss. But, he congratulated me on my fastidious research and suggested that the odds were that I did not have an acoustic neuroma. I resisted the MRI for many reasons. One, it would have involved injecting a dye into my brain that would offer contrast for the MRI picture. I am basically opposed to putting anything foreign into your body for a diagnostic, especially in the brain - unless is absolutely, positively, necessary. Two, the anxiety of having a brain MRI was great. I have little faith in the doctors in the city where the MRI would be read. I have seen their act with my soul mate, myself, and others. I told the doc, "I would rather not know what is going on in there." I could envision one or more doctors telling me that I had suffered a stroke, or a blood vessel was about to burst, or they needed to drill into my brain to do a biopsy on a suspicious object. Third, since there was only a remote chance that I had an acoustic neuroma, I wanted to avoid a very expensive procedure - even though Medicare and my supplemental insurance would have paid for it. Doctors are "test happy," and this is one reason medical costs are so high. Several people have sued an MRI manufacturer for injuries they claimed they suffered as a result of malfunctioning MRI machines. Even if I had a small acoustic neuroma, the operation to take it out can have many possible serious unintended consequences, including facial paralysis on one side, permanent hearing loss on the affected side, possible persistent headache, and many more. I talked with a friend who had his tumor surgically removed. It was a nightmare. He developed some leaking in the area of the removed tumor and had to have another surgery. Among other complications. Another technique is a "gamma knife" procedure, where the tumor is irradiated. One airline pilot who had the gamma knife treatment had no further problems and was returned to flight status. A person with the very-slow growing acoustic neuroma needs to consult with competent specialists, such as a neurosurgeon, to make a decision if simply tracking the tumor's growth is appropriate, and if treating the tumor is required, to discuss the several surgical approaches and the gamma-knife procedure. I may have made a very big mistake in deferring on the MRI. But, until I start slurring my words, or my eyes go in and out of focus, or I loose my balance and fall several times, or I get persistent headaches (which I seldom have), I am sticking by my decision. When the ENT doctor examined me and did a full audio test on my ears, he said that there was not much he could do for me on the "bad" ear, unless I wanted to try a direct injection of steroids into the inner ear by a specialist in Dallas. No thanks. That sounded like a procedure that was a little too tricky for my tastes. At least now, I was only deaf in one ear. What if the needle slipped or went in too far, etc.? I said that I would pray for a miracle. The doctor nodded as if to say that is what it would take - a miracle. So, I began to "will" my hearing to come back, one day at a time. I also increased the dosage of supplements that might improve blood flow in the brain, and thus blood flow to the inner ear - such as L-Arginine and Ginko Biloba. Several months later, the rattling (like a broken speaker) in my bad ear is gone. Although I can't yet hear normal conversation in that ear, I can plug my good ear, turn up the TV volume just a bit and hear voices and music fairly clearly. I am going to keep on willing a 1% improvement every week or so. And if I had a brain tumor (acoustic neuroma), how could my hearing improve on its own? No, I did not stick my head in the microwave. And you wonder why I am skeptical about doctors. Not all doctors, of course. I idolize my heart surgeon, my cardiologist, and my dermatologist. But their selection came as a result of persistent searches for the best I could find. None of them are in the city where my GP resides, or where the ER Physician's Asst., (posing as a doctor) told me I had mild Congestive Heart Failure when I went in to be checked for possible carbon-monoxide poisoning! I wrote at length about that ER travesty of medicine in an earlier Outback - and how livid my cardiolgist was when he read the screwed-up ER report and examined an X-Ray that had no business being taken in the first place. One of my "good" doctors is in Dallas, one in Sherman, Texas, and one in Tyler, Texas. My main medical mentor, who has a very large clinic of assorted specialists, is also in Dallas. Obviously, I choose carefully. Have truck, will travel up to 2 1/2 hours to appointments. Among the many good sources of information on hearing and hearing loss is: www.american-hearing.org www.anarchive.org is "Acoustic Neuroma Patient Archive," which is loaded with information about AN and case histories written by patients with Acoustic Neuromas. I would think that this is must reading if you have an AN and are trying to decide what type of treatment option to choose. Then, armed with the alternatives and possible outcomes, you should consult with one or more surgeons or clincs who specialize in this type surgery - or radiation treatment. On a five-mile drive to the post office, I had an inspiration - I think. We have been to Venice, Italy, and seen a city of canals built on a platform supported by stanchions driven deep into the ground. We have been to Bangkok, with its many canals and houses built on stilts far above the waterline and seen families living on houseboats. We have seen the ocean-front homes built on stilts to avoid high-water. We have lived in a mobile home in Tornado Alley in Texas with steel straps over the top connected to screw-in anchors deep in the ground. For New Orleans, and other areas where houses are likely to be flooded out or washed away, build the houses on pontoons. You build a pier-and-beam house, and the platform upon which it rests is a series of steel pontoons. The house is anchored to the platform/pontoon base with steel angle plates with large bolts, similar to how conventional house walls are anchored to the concrete foundation. The pontoons are tethered by up to six steel cables which are connected to very large screw anchors deep in the ground, similar to the anchors that connect to guy wires on tall TV, microwave, and cell-phone towers. A lot of the framing is done with steel beams instead of 2 x 4s. The roof is made of steel, which is bolted in many places to the steel roofing girders. (Steel roofs are becoming popular in N. Texas, which is prone to very high winds, heavy rain, large hail, and tornadoes.) The steel cables that tether the underlying pontoons are on winches that can be cranked to let out or take up slack in the cables. Many ham-radio towers, called crank-up towers, use this crank and cable system to lower the tower before a storm and raise it after the storm has passed. The sewer, water, and gas lines will all have to be flexible and expandable, either coiled under the house so that they can extend upward as the house rises, or be a sort of accordion construction, similar to the plastic or metal vent pipe at the rear of your clothes dryer. Safety valves will exist where the gas line comes out of the ground, so that if the flexible line breaks, a shutoff valve will automatically close. The same for the sewer outlet. At a minimum, the gas and sewer lines should have an auto shutoff valve that would close as soon as the house lifted off its normal level. As the water recedes, you crank up the slack in each of the tethering cables, until the house is eventually back on the ground. There could be steel "registering posts" used on the four corners, with opposite steel hollow tubes on the corners of the house, to ensure that the house sits back down in its original location. Since there is a crawl space under the house, between the pontoons, it is a simple matter to connect any water, sewer, or gas lines that got severed. The underlying pontoons will not be obvious, as a siding or trellis-like siding will cover the area from the floor that forms the basic platform down to the ground. Untold numbers of cars and trucks in New Orleans were flooded to the roof or beyond and are not salvageable. A type of Zodiac-boat car-flotation device could be devised. At the first sign of flooding, the car is driven onto the flat rubber flotation device and inflated with it own air bottle, like a life vest. To keep the car-boat from floating away, it would need to be tethered. In place of the old horse tether in the yards of many old homes, you could have a decorative car-boat tether. And each house could have a small inflatable Zodiac-type boat with paddles in the attic, as a last resort to evacuate, or to help neighbors, or to paddle down to the family-owned grocery, which is also on pontoons - and "high and dry." I am not an engineer or an architect. But if I thought of these ideas on a five-mile drive to the post office, surely America's brightest can find some kernel of inspiration in these thoughts and refine them. Ignore this concept if you like, city planners and builders of New Orleans. But, you can count on the terrorists blowing the levees once you build up the city. Put this in the time capsule and someday someone may say, "That guy had some good ideas. And a reasonable warning. Maybe we should have listened." Perhaps the best suggestion was made in a letter to the editor. Fill in the low spots in New Orleans with landfill until all of the former low spots are perhaps 20 feet above sea level. Parts of Manhattan (NYC) were formed this way. Return to the List of TopicsCOPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I beg your forgiveness for the many mistakes that creep in. Suggested Reading From Past Columns Click Here for Suggested Reading List Archive of Back Issues Media List of Addresses and e-mails Postal Service State Abbreviations, etc. Postal Service Abbreviations - Richard C. Rhodes End |