TECHNOLOGY IS GREAT WHEN IT WORKS

It was always great to get a new toy on Christmas morning or for my birthday. Of course, depending on the present, the newness often wore off after a day or two, and the thrill was gone. There were of course those exceptional presents (i.e. a bicycle) that continued to bring pleasure, or at least provide usefulness, long after my birthday. I find the same thing with technology, such as the Blackberry cellphone I acquired last year, and now can hardly do without.

Along that same line, I recently became aware that the Windows Vista operating system comes prepackaged with a speech recognition module. For those of you who are not aware of it, I was the primary initiator of the use of voice recognition in our radiology practice, in which we annually dictate several hundred thousand radiology reports yearly using voice recognition, with the radiologist dictating and immediately signing the reports for electronic distribution within minutes of when the examination was accomplished.

Anyone with a minimum amount of technical expertise and a maximum amount of patience can ultimately a use voice recognition to speed and enhance the process of placing spoken thoughts into a print document. At the beginning, this is very inefficient, but once it becomes second nature, then it removes the barrier of the pen or keyboard, and thoughts can flow freely onto the page, virtually without conscious effort.

Of course there are several downsides to this. First, you tend to prattle on when there's really nothing worth actually saying. Second, when you get really good at it, you begin to assume that it is perfect and you don't proofread your documents, and send them wherever they are going even though they are actually not nearly so perfect as you thought.

Having used consumer voice recognition products as well as (very expensive) professional voice recognition products, the recognition system embedded in Windows Vista (and available for download for XP and other versions) is just about as good as anything I've ever used. You will need to spend $60.00 or more for a good microphone with active noise cancellation, but that's about it. The tutorial built into the package was quite good, but there will still be a lot of frustration before the novice feels comfortable with the technology and the result. You'll soon find it easier to say Hashimoto's thyroiditis rather than type it. I will say it again, Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Good luck to you; I'm off to write the great American novel!

GLOBAL WARMING MUST BE A REGIONAL THING

Our condo is at the end of the cul de sac on the right

There is no question that the earth is in a period of global warming. The cause of global warming is less certain; certainly manmade additions to the atmosphere play a contributing role, but it is simply a question of how great or how little the role is.

The polar ice cap is melting and the polar bears are losing their habitat, and the Colorado winter is no longer cold enough to kill the pine beetle and their larvae, so now we're losing the lodgepole pine across the mountain west.

There certainly though seem to be some regional variation in the weather patterns. I have just experienced the coldest days of my entire life, and in fact the coldest days for anyone living in this locale for more than 100 years. In the middle of a series of night time temperatures well below zero was a record setting night of 31° below zero last Thursday. (absolute temperature, not wind chill! ) We also experienced a bit of snow, as you can see from the picture above. The snowfall was not a record, but it added to the overall sensation of cold.

There is nothing evil or sinister about the winter, and without the cold temperatures and moisture, the flora and fauna of the warm six months of the year could not exist. And I guess there's always the philosophical point that the experience of pain is necessary in order to appreciate pleasure. Thus this spring we will be absolutely bursting with joy in Iowa.

What I'm reading these days

In the last couple of weeks, I've had enough time to read three good books. Here are brief reviews that might, or might not, tweak your interest:

BLINDSPOT
Everyone needs a little escape fiction now and then, but this novel has a several unusual aspects. This short novel is a first effort by two historians, Jane Kamensky of Brandeis University and Jill Lepore of Harvard. I would describe it as a murder mystery set in pre-revolutionary Boston, using a portrait painting Scott, an artistically talented "fallen" woman, an educated slave, and various members of Boston society in 1764 to weave a tale of boddice-ripping romance (tinged with a touch of homo-erotocism), slavery and emancipation, women's liberation, and of course, justice. It is written in period language/grammer, and uses a first-person narration by the Scott artist, with simultaneous first-person narration by his apprentice "boy" (as letters to a friend in New York.) The historical picture of period Boston is, I am told, quite accurate, and if only for that alone it was interesting enough for spare-time or travel reading.

DON'T SLEEP, THERE ARE SNAKES
Back to nonfiction, how about a book about lingustics? Seriously, why care about a language spoken only by 4-500 Brazilian Indians, isolated along a short stretch of the Maici River, a tributary of the Amazon in central Brazil. As writer Daniel Everett points out, only by being able to talk to them in their native, uncorrupted, tongue will we learn of their culture and life-beliefs, and how these are similar or (in the case of the Pirahãs (pee'-da-hans) different from other cultures.

Dan Everett started life as a missionary-trained linguist, and was sent to the Pirahãs to learn their language so that he might produce a New Testament in their language and thus bring them to Christ and salvation. He spent the better part of 30 years with this small group, with furloughs to Sao Paulo and elsewhere and breaks to get his PhD in Linguistics and later as a scholar in residence in Noam Chomsky's program at M.I.T. (Chomsky, among other things is considered the father of modern linguistics). Even so, it seems that Everett uses this knowledge of the Pirahãs language to disagree with Chomsky's theory of universal grammar as an inbuilt feature of the brain.

His wife and three young children went with him to live in a primitive, isolated environment, and over the years became the only outsiders accepted to some extent, because no one else had successfully managed to learn the Pirahãs language and speak with them conversationally.

The Pirahãs are unique in that they have no religious beliefs or "origin" stories (No other known culture has lacked these). They just accept things as they are, including illness, injury and death. They are always content and happy with thing as they are/happen. Introduced by Everett to the Pirahãs, social psychologists from MIT thought they were possibly the "happiest" culture in existence.

The first part of the story is a narrative of his life among the Pirahãs, and for me, the more interesting. The second part of the book which explains in more depth the linguistic science, is a bit more pedantic, and frankly I just skimmed this section.

For 200 years, missionaries have failed to convert a single Pirahãs. In the end, the Missionary himself was converted. Unfortunately, when he ultimately "came out" as a non-theist, it brought a considerable reaction, and ultimately a divorce from his wife who had been at his side most of the years in the Amazon.

MISQUOTING JESUS
Here I don't want to get into a debate over the inerrancy of the bible. I include it because (a) it was one of the last three books I read, and (b) it dovetails nicely with "SNAKES" in that it is about language - in this case printed language.

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC he has served as both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

In this work, directed at the lay public, Ehrman used his many years as an academic textual analyst, concentrating on the bible, to describe how textual analysis can be applied to ancient manuscripts, particularly biblical texts, to determine among the various versions which are most likely correct.

Here is an excellent review by Anthony Campbell. I could say more, but not better, so click to Campbell's review and decide on your own.

OUT OF THE FLAMES

Yes, I know I said "three" books, and I already talked about this one in the past, but it's simply one of the best books I've ever read. By Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone, it's about many things, including religious history, rare book collecting, and the early history of publishing after Gutenberg. I recommend this wonderfully readable book to friends at every opportunity.

When We Are Part of Nature

It has been a good year for feeling the wonders of nature. From our perch in the Cedar Rapids condo, we are often eye-to-eye with waterfowl, hawks, and occasional eagles. We had three fox kittens raised in our backyard last summer (link to that post), and of course herds of deer regularly cross the grounds of our condo.

Estes park gives us another dimension. We rarely see bighorn sheep, but this week we saw 3 herds in two days, more or less up close. The picture above was from about 20', the closest I have ever been to one of these in the wild. (If your browser has had enough time to download the full fidelity image, a click on the picture will enlarge it.) As one friend said "when my wife looks at me like that, I know I'm in trouble!).

Boxing day evening, I took Barbara to the Fawn Brook Inn (link), one of our all-time favorite restaurants. That night on the way back to Estes the roads were a Little icy, so we were going quite slow. What was clearly a large gray wolf, at least twice the size of a large coyote, crossed slowly right in front of us. They have been trying to re-establish the wolf population in small areas of Montana and Wyoming, but sightings in Colorado are extremely rare (map). Sorry, we didn't get any pictures of our own. Here is one I copied; ours looked just like this one:

I believe we are part of nature, and Barbara and I relish these opportunities to experience the awe that these encounters trigger within us.

Winter Migration Underway

The Motorhome and New Tow Car

In Catalina State Park, AZ

Here we are in AZ again, on our way to Palm Springs, where Barbara will enjoy the sunshine and from where I will commute.\

As last year we moved in stages, but this year we are doing it a little differently by getting out of Iowa before the snow and ice hit. In return for giving up a third+ of my income, now I get quite a bit of time off, so we left Cedar Rapids on Nov 17, just before the temp hit single digits and the snow came. Our first destination was again Catalina State Park in north Tucson (the same place we were trapped by the river last year: )

While Barbara visited with Anne/RC in Phoenix and Karen/Brian in Tucson, I flew back to work for a couple of weeks, and then returned to move the RV to our site in Outdoor Resorts Palm Springs. Last week we drove back through Phoenix where I caught a plane back to Iowa to work again, while Barbara continued on to Albuquerque.

Today Barbara, along with Anne/RC, Karen/Brian, and John Matthew/Rachael who had all flown to Albuquerque, celebrated Barbara's father's birthday with him. I hated to miss it, but then I'm underwriting the whole thing, so I did need to be here working.

We are doing our part to support Detroit. Last summer we gave up our 1996 Buick and 1998 Ford for 2008 Buick and Saturn SUVs. In view of GM's troubles, I feel good about buying American. Barbara's Buick Enclave is perhaps the best car we've ever owned, and the Saturn Vue (Pictured above) has worked out well. Both are quiet, smooth, loaded with features, and, so far, reliable with a "quality" feel. I think GM and Ford have the vehicles, and I hope they can restructure their overhead to allow them to be competitive once more.

Great for a rainy weekend

I love BookTV, the weekend programming on C-Span 2.

Where else, in one weekend, can you hear lengthy talks, usually with Q&A sessions, with many well-known and diverse writers. Only this past weekend I heard Jessie Ventura, Ralph Reed, Stephen Pinker, Alice Schroder, David Horwitz, Lee&Roger Peterson (Peterson Field Guide to Birds), Christopher Buckley, T. Boone Pickens, Allan Greenspan and others give talks or long interviews and take unscreened questions.

It's usually informative, though sometimes I strongly disagree with the speaker. I find particularly interesting the unscripted comments made informally in the Q&A sessions. About half the talks/interviews I would enjoy, given the time to watch; the others I skip.

Many of the sessions are available as podcast, and can be downloaded for listening while walking or on longer drives. I prefer to watch the speakers however, and occasionally they have visual media with the formal talks.

Sometimes I have already read the books, sometimes I am motivated to buy and read them, and sometimes I'm convinced I don't need/want to read their book.

Granted, not every weekend has such a notable lineup, but often there is. If you have never sampled this programing, running continuously for 48 hours starting at 0800 most Saturday mornings, you may be pleasantly surprised if you give it a try.

Yum!

La ZIZ

For those of you living locally, I have a restaurant recommendation for you.

(click Picture to enlarge)

Barbara and I were for some reason thinking this was a Greek restaurant and decided to give it a try last Saturday. We found a couple of things to our surprise.

First, it is Lebanese, not Greek.

Second, we have eaten this food before, just at another location and a long time ago. It is owned/run by a Lebanese couple who used to have a restaurant down on 16th Street SW, at the back corner of a large furniture store. We ate there a few times, and then were very disappointed one day to arrive and find them permanently closed. . . that was many years ago. She has now reopened at this new site and has developed a good lunch crowd with no advertising whatever. They are open in the evenings as well; closed on Sunday.

I strongly recommend the falafel plate. The sandwiches are ~$4, and the plates are ~$7-9.

This unpretentious strip mall Lebanese restaurant is out on Center Point Road, just north of Boysen Road, and next to Roasters Coffee shop for those of you who have been by there. The menu is short but all the food is cooked to order. They have no web site I can provide, and I doubt they ever will. Give it a try.

ART (&) HISTORY

The Plan: For the second time in 3 weeks, Barbara and I looked a few days ahead and saw what is not all that common; a weekend with both of us uncommitted and with good weather. Yes, there was a pile of paperwork to be done. Yes, there was yard work needing to be finished before the snow falls. Yes, the laundry pile was overflowing. No, we were not about to be responsible and stay at home to do all those things; gas was $2.55 and falling and there were lots of cheap hotel rooms waiting in Des Moines. We took the old Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30) which we consider more picturesque than I-80. The harvest was underway and the greens and golds of the rolling hills were beautiful to watch go by on the 2-hour drive.

We had two main objectives in Des Moines; the Art Museum and Salisbury House.

Saturday afternoon: The Des Moines Art Center is a small collection in a uninspiring original building, with a new wing that makes up in design for its modest size. I will be honest. I have trouble with a 2' square canvas with white paint holding a place of honor (as an example of minimalism) in a civic collection of art. Not to mislead you, I did enjoy the time there, and there were a few notable works (if it is an Edward Hopper or a Georgia O'Keeffe it has to be notable I presume?) I wouldn't go to Des Moines just to visit it however.

Saturday evening: We tried a new restaurant, Sage, on University just west of 65th. You can check out the menu at the Sage web site. Barbara had a wonderful spinach-cashew-strawberry salad. My Cesar salid was pretty standard. For an entree, I had Duck breast and duck confit on risotto with a duck reduction sauce, and a pumpkin cake with soft goat cheese topping desert. Barbara had a good pasta dish, though it was a little spicy. They have a large selection of wines by the glass, and about 50 different 1/2 bottles on the extensive wine list. I was pleased with a glass of Four Vines Zin; Barbara said the water was excellent.

Sunday: The Salisbury House , unlike the Art Center, is worth a trip and an afternoon if you are in Iowa. Salisbury House is considered one of the "American Castles." Built by Carl Weeks, a pharmacist who made millions before the depression selling a cosmetic mix of powder and cold cream, it is more or less a copy of a 16-17th century English manor house near Salisbury Cathedral in England, built with a more or less unlimited budget and with 20th century conveniences, it does a credible job of transporting one back in time (we visited many of these old manors when we lived in England in the 70's.) It was in the hands of the teacher's institute for a number of years, but is now owned by a preservation organization that is doing a fine job of restoration. Some random pictures of Salisbury house follow: