Around The Blogs #2

This is the second part of my weekly look at interesting posts on other blogs. Part 1 was posted yesterday.


Today we begin with a lengthy chain of links. Coyote Blog led me to Prof. Mark J. Perry, who led me to the Economix blog of the New York Times, which comments on a book available on Amazon. Here's an excerpt from Catherine Rampell of Economix.

The graph shows inequality within a country, in the context of inequality around the world. It can take a few minutes to get your bearings with this chart, but trust me, it’s worth it.




Here the population of each country is divided into 20 equally-sized income groups, ranked by their household per-capita income. These are called 'ventiles', as you can see on the horizontal axis, and each 'ventile' translates to a cluster of five percentiles.

The household income numbers are all converted into international dollars adjusted for equal purchasing power, since the cost of goods varies from country to country. In other words, the chart adjusts for the cost of living in different countries, so we are looking at consistent living standards worldwide.

Now on the vertical axis, you can see where any given ventile from any country falls when compared to the entire population of the world.

. . .

Notice how the entire line for the United States resides in the top portion of the graph? That’s because the entire country is relatively rich. In fact, America’s bottom ventile is still richer than most of the world: That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants.

Now check out the line for India. India’s poorest ventile corresponds with the 4th poorest percentile worldwide. And its richest? The 68th percentile. Yes, that’s right: America’s poorest are, as a group, about as rich as India’s richest.

Kind of blows your mind, right?

There's more at the link - and yes, it certainly does make me think!


Next, Rev. Paul of Way Up North (in Alaska) cites an interesting entry in the police blotter of Unalaska:

Officers responded to a report of an assault at the Bering Fisheries processing facility, and found that a drunken man had begun beating himself in the face after he and his roommate had argued jealously about their mutual love interest.

As Paul said: "Reckon the gentleman had just a bit too much to drink?"

I was even more taken with the police blotter entry above that one:

A man phoned police to report that a submarine had surfaced in the vicinity of Captain’s Bay. Responding officers found neither the caller nor any evidence of a submarine in the area. The caller, who was not positively identified until the following day, told police that he was close friends with a man who had also recently reported a similar event before going missing, and that he had phoned police in a sort of absurd remembrance for his lost friend.

I mean . . . WTF??? Perhaps Robert W. Service said it best: "There are strange things done in the midnight sun . . . "


Tanker over at Mostly Cajun has two entries this week (he's a busy boy!). First, he cites a friend in Israel who has a most entertaining encounter with a local traffic cop. I won't quote from it, but it's sheer poetic justice in action! Worth reading.

Then, he quotes a 2006 obituary that had me in fits of laughter. Here's an excerpt.

True to Fred's personal style, his final hours were spent joking with medical personnel while he whimpered, cussed, begged for narcotics and bargained with God to look over his wife and kids.

. . .

Always an interested observer of politics, particularly what the process does to its participants, he was amused by politician's outrage when we lie to them and amazed at what the voters would tolerate. His final wishes were "throw the bums out and don't elect lawyers" (though it seems to make little difference).

. . .

You always knew what Fred was thinking much to the dismay of his friend and family. His sons said of Fred, "he was often wrong, but never in doubt". When his family was asked what they remembered about Fred, they fondly recalled how Fred never peed in the shower - on purpose. He died at MCV Hospital and sadly was deprived of his final wish which was to be run over by a beer truck on the way to the liquor store to buy booze for a double date to include his wife, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to crash an ACLU cocktail party.

More at the link. Sounds like the kind of man I'd have been proud to call my friend!


Finally, Nurse K at Crass-Pollination has some advice for EMT's, couched in language she feels they will understand. (One gets the impression she was somewhat annoyed with them at the time.)

Patient fall down go boom. Patient hit head. Patient have gash on head go bleedy-bleedy. Medic treat boo-boo with gauze and kiss. Patient have neck pain. Patient might have cracky neck. Cracky neck maybe lead to patient no walky and no breathy. No breathy patient bad. Patient need collar. Medic no ignore necky pain!! If patient no want collar because makey neck hurt, give patient more pain medicine or have EMT student holdy patient arms down. Use backboard to tie down. Do something.

Again, more at the link.

I'd love to see my buddy Ambulance Driver's response to that . . .





Peter