Ice Storm

See Your Internet Life on Pipl

Pipl bills itself as "The most comprehensive people search on the Web."

It may be.

Enter your name and find out parts of your life that still remain long after you have moved on.

Pipl brings up your Internet life in numerous categories, such as:

• Public Records
• Archives
• Personal Profiles
• Professional and Business
• Photos
• Web Pages Blog Posts
• Documentation
• Contact Details
• Background Reports
• Publications

For example, I was a judge for the Society for Technical Communication in 2002. 

I had not thought about it since, until I searched my name on Pipl and saw some photos and, yes, there I was...and there I am. 

There you may be as well. Find out on Pipl.

U.S. States Rated "C" in Emergency Preparedness

When I used to do civil defense work in the early 80's, I found the scientists, researchers, and doctors were way ahead of most people in sounding the alarm about impending emergencies. 

Sadly, the politicians in charge ignored them and their expertise. 

Nothing has changed since then.

We ignore this warning at the risk of our families and nation.  

Find the 2018 National Preparedness Report here.

Overall Results: C-  The results of the 2009 Report Card present a picture of an emergency care system fraught with significant challenges and under more stress than ever before. The overall grade for the nation across all five categories is a C-. This low grade is particularly reflective of the poor score in Access to Emergency Care (D-). 

Because of its direct impact on emergency services and capacity for patient care, this category of indicators accounts for 30 percent of the Report Card grade, so the poor score is especially relevant. This category also incorporates many of the issues that states have identified as their top areas of concern.²⁴ These include:

• Boarding of patients in emergency departments and hospital crowding
• Lack of adequate access to on-call specialists
• Limited access to primary care services
• Shortages of emergency physicians and nurses
• Ambulance diversion
• Inadequate reimbursement from public and private insurers
• High rates of uninsured individuals

The grades for the other categories are slightly better, but not strong enough to pull up the full national average. Both Disaster Preparedness and Quality and Patient Safety Environment receive a C+, Public Health and Injury Prevention receives a grade of C, and the Medical Liability Environment receives a grade of C-.

Top ranked states  (highest to lowest)	Bottom ranked states  (lowest to highest)
1. Massachusetts  2. District of Columbia  2. Rhode Island  4. Maryland  5. Nebraska  6. Minnesota  7. Maine  8. Kansas  8. Pennsylvania  10. Delaware  10. North Dakota  10. Utah	51. Arkansas  50. Oklahoma  49. New Mexico  48. Nevada  47. Oregon  46. Idaho  45. Arizona  44. Kentucky  43. Michigan  42. Wyoming

Disaster Preparedness

The overwhelming effects of Hurricane Katrina on the medical infrastructure and emergency medical response capacity of an entire region highlighted our nation’s vulnerability to major disasters. However, federal funding in this area has been lacking. For example, only 4 percent of funding from the Department of Homeland Security goes to emergency medical system preparedness.^37,38,15 

As a result, although numerous states have made considerable investments in infrastructures and systems to respond to the health and emergency medical needs that may arise as a result of a natural or man made catastrophe, the overall grade in this category is a C+.

The top ranked performers in this category include the District of Columbia, Maryland, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota. All of these states share some commonalities in this area, including having received relatively high rates of federal funding per capita to support disaster preparedness compared to other states. 

They have written all-hazards medical response or ESF-8 plans, which are shared in most cases with EMS and essential hospital personnel. Some have high bed surge capacity and written plans to address special needs populations and supply medications for chronic conditions in the event of a disaster. 

They have relatively high rates of nurses and physicians registered in a state-based Emergency System for Advanced Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals. In addition, these states have instituted communications and notification systems, and have held drills and training for medical staff, emergency personnel, and essential hospital personnel. The lowest ranked states for Disaster Preparedness include Tennessee, Idaho, Alaska, Arkansas, and Nevada."

U.S. Capitol Visitor's Center Photowalk

Rather than the chaos of trying to figure out how to visit the various U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives buildings, it provides one focal point from which to enter the Capitol complex. Security, thank God, is very, very tight at the entrance especially, but throughout the edifice. 

The People's House has a new visitor's center called the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. It is a wonder to experience and will restore your faith in the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress.

The U.S. Capitol Police are professionals and get you through quickly but with the proper regard to prevent some jihadi or deranged individual who will be drawn to attack the beauty of these buildings and what they represent as symbols of American Democracy.

Two of the most innovative features of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center are:

• You first report to a visitor's desk and are issued a bar coded pass. You wear one half of the bar coded pass on your shirt as you progress through the buildings
• A guide issues you headphones so you can hear her talk about the exhibits and history without hearing other guides guiding other groups about at the same time. 

Everyone will experience their visit in a different way. Below are a few photos of my visit.

With No Apologies Poem

It is not easy reading a poem about Sarah Bernhardt at the Frederick Coffee Company in Frederick, Maryland. 

Obstacles include chatty Hood College students, frantic AA Meeting drop ins, and hissing espresso machines blaring in the background at Daniel Armstrong's Dreamer's Poetry Series at he Frederick Coffee Company. ..but I tried.

With No Apologies, the poem I read, follows.

With No Apologies

"Legend remains victorious in spite of history." Sarah Bernhardt

After Paris, London and New York

In a life lived on stage with real drama,

Here I am among the Hollywood philistines

With their youth and money and brashness

And lines that can be said and re-said

To a forgiving camera; the theatre does not forgive.

I knew my lines and made them mine,

There was no one holding a cue card for me,

I stood before the audience and saw their faces,

All of them, and how they reacted to what I said

In plain sight, not like these Hollywood charlatans,

With their retakes and magical camera tricks

To hide every verbal and physical blemish.

That wily Marcel Proust created the actress La Berma

In his novel In Search of Time inspired by me.

Puccini’s Tosca was written for me.

I sat for famous painters and painted and sculpted myself.

During the Great War I performed for the troops

At the front lines and they gave me the Legion of Honor.

Illegitimate child of a courtesan…what did they know?

I owe Hollywood nothing…it was my role in Queen Elizabeth

That allowed Adolph Zukor to eventually found Paramount.

Here’s one for all the Hollywood hopefuls:

I have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

They seek fame; I sought the life-force behind words,

Words that create history...I was not acting…I was creation.