...is not featured in any beer ads. It's not Robert Norman Smith.
It may be Theodore Roosevelt. He wrote a definitive text on naval warfare while he was in university. He had about ten jobs. He was a first-class performer in about five or six more fields than should properly be possible. And he not only survived an assassination attempt, he correctly diagnosed that the open gunshot wound was not grave, and proceeded to give his scheduled speech before seeking medical attention.
Here's to Theodore Roosevelt, who did not do things by half-measures.
This after a pilot project to improve hand-washing compliance in a small number of hospitals. NYT has the story: before the project, 50% compliance; now, 75%.
Why is this interesting? In the US there's 90,000 deaths due to health-care-associated infections every year. Unwashed hands are a major vector for these infections. It's a multi-billion dollar problem, again just in the US.
This short report [pdf] on the project is interesting throughout. The numbers are amazing, the final goal (90+% compliance) is still in the distance, and the practical approaches to getting there are at turns fascinating and bizarre.
Lean Six Sigma approach to hand washing? Really?
The Vancouver Art Gallery occupies a leftover courthouse from 1905. Vancouver's main public library branch is a big, practical box full of books with a nonsensical facade patterned after the Colosseum.
It could be so much worse.
Meet Edmonton's new Art Gallery of Alberta. It's not a Gehry ripoff, honest! The architect who designed it spent much less than a decade in Gehry's office. (Via Colby Cosh).
I have an imaginary evil twin, named Beau. Beau is a very wicked alter ego, and does all sorts of things I wouldn't contemplate: devilish advocacy, reading Ayn Rand novels, trying to get pregnant women to drink more.
Wait, I did that one? I'm sure I had a good reason....
Anyways, the other day I was talking to Beau about health care, and Beau seemed eager to engage me. I of course believe that medicine is great, but Beau, well, he reads a lot and then sometimes I think he says things just to annoy me.
This is Beau:
Why do you hate Cuba so much, anyway? Good health care, you know, world class. Okay, so what about Costa Rica, then? They spend about 1/16 what the US does on health care and they live just as long as average Americans.
Apropos of nothing at all, here's a list of consumer goods I don't need, but would enjoy tremendously.
Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens (auto focus; i.e. F-series or later)
camera bag to hold one SLR, one other lens, and a big honking flash.
big honking flash (Metz 48 AF-1, Pentax AF540FGZ, or even some old non P-TTL flash)
Decent full-size tripod
Contour HD helmet cam.
Make magazine subscription
iPhone
Trip to Greece
Kensington Expert "Mouse" trackball. Seriously, why is the best trackball ever made called a mouse?
Alcohol
Something nice for my Wii
I want to say, on several matters great and small, to the principals involved: You are trying to solve the wrong problem.
