Hoping this will be my third day in the office with no one else there in a row.
16 thoughts on “December 30, 2024: Empty Nest”
I'm working today, but nobody else in my department is so I'm just going to do some project mop up, clean out my email, file my expense report and call it a year. I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve, it will be the first time we've gone out to celebrate the new year in 20 years or more.
With the end of the year upon us, what is something interesting that happened to you but was not life altering? Not talking about a milestone (i.e. child getting married, new job, etc.) but something more out of the ordinary.
I'll start. I met someone who survived the 1989 Sioux Falls plane crash! She told us all about the entire experience. I kinda remembered when it happened but to hear first hand someone living through that was fascinating (and terrifying).
I was too young to remember but I recall reading about it from a detailed analysis by Kyra Dempsey. If you ever want to read about the good and bad of airplane crashes, this is the blog for you.
Ironically, I do feel safer flying after reading stories such as the UA 232 crash. The NTSB recommended inspections be done by two people rather than one (the preemptive fix), there are new certification tests to contain ejected fan blades (fixes what actually happened), more stringent rules around how the fan blades are made (..pre-preemptive fix?), and finally manufacturers included shutoff valves in the hydraulic lines and warnings when they activate (fixes a whole category of problems). The results of this crash exemplifies the best parts of the air industry and why it is so safe these days.
In law school I did a lot of work on health care law, specifically centered on quality improvement and error reduction (if you ever get surgery you'll now be asked a million times which limb, etc. - it wasn't always that way). The best model was the airline industry.
I agree the NTSB generally does a good job of identifying preemptive action aircraft maintainers and crews can take, and that flying professionals generally learn from their less fortunate colleagues’ mistakes. And air-traffic controllers are some of the most unheralded critical workers around.
But my faith in the multinational corporations that manufacture the airframes (looking square at you, Boeing) and airlines is at an all-time low. Nobody wants to be on the flight that identifies the need for preemptive action in the future or has the misfortune of resulting in a whole airframe being grounded for yet another round of investigation.
I had a coronary calcium scan done last month. Everyone on my family line has had heart disease and heart attacks, often with huge blockages in their arteries. I don't exercise enough. eat too much red meat and trans fats, and I'm 70 lbs overweight, and even though my other risk factors right now are low, I decided to pony up the money just to see how they were doing. As it turns out, my blockage right now is exactly 0%.
So maybe my family line has less of a heart history problem and more of a chain smoking history problem. Me (and my brother) are the first ever to not smoke or work in factories with heavy chemicals.
I was meeting this professor from the U of M for coffee to talk about PhD programs there, and in talking about math, was starting to explain to him what an Erdős number was, and he says, "My Erdős Nunber is 2."
I was a news producer in Cedar Rapids when that happened. Landing a plane with no hydraulics for flight control, no landing gear, steering using just the thrust of one wing engine, it was a phenomenal feat of piloting. One of the Sioux Falls stations did a series of reports on all the emergency crews and first responders and the impact of the crash on their lives. It won the Iowa Associated Press award in the documentary category that year. I came in second place for a series of reports I produced on Alzheimer's disease.
Oh, my one interesting thing. I was in Salt Lake City for a work event in March or April and had gate checked my bag so was waiting for it at baggage claim. A really big dude with face tattoos and a couple of other guys with him came in and sat down a few seats down from me. After a few minutes a woman walked over and talked to him and got his autograph, so I figured he was famous somehow. But I had no clue who he was until I got home and did some digging online and figured out it was Jelly Roll.
I'm working today, but nobody else in my department is so I'm just going to do some project mop up, clean out my email, file my expense report and call it a year. I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve, it will be the first time we've gone out to celebrate the new year in 20 years or more.
It would take me the entirety of 2025 to clean out my email. That’s where all the records of all my everything is.
I make it a point to delete all "completed" email threads. If I really need it, it's in the Deleted folder.
With the end of the year upon us, what is something interesting that happened to you but was not life altering? Not talking about a milestone (i.e. child getting married, new job, etc.) but something more out of the ordinary.
I'll start. I met someone who survived the 1989 Sioux Falls plane crash! She told us all about the entire experience. I kinda remembered when it happened but to hear first hand someone living through that was fascinating (and terrifying).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232
I was too young to remember but I recall reading about it from a detailed analysis by Kyra Dempsey. If you ever want to read about the good and bad of airplane crashes, this is the blog for you.
Admiral Cloudberg is amazing. Although between the Admiral and blancolirio, I would not say I fly more blissfully than I did in the past.
Ironically, I do feel safer flying after reading stories such as the UA 232 crash. The NTSB recommended inspections be done by two people rather than one (the preemptive fix), there are new certification tests to contain ejected fan blades (fixes what actually happened), more stringent rules around how the fan blades are made (..pre-preemptive fix?), and finally manufacturers included shutoff valves in the hydraulic lines and warnings when they activate (fixes a whole category of problems). The results of this crash exemplifies the best parts of the air industry and why it is so safe these days.
In law school I did a lot of work on health care law, specifically centered on quality improvement and error reduction (if you ever get surgery you'll now be asked a million times which limb, etc. - it wasn't always that way). The best model was the airline industry.
The World According to Garp effect, I call it.
I agree the NTSB generally does a good job of identifying preemptive action aircraft maintainers and crews can take, and that flying professionals generally learn from their less fortunate colleagues’ mistakes. And air-traffic controllers are some of the most unheralded critical workers around.
But my faith in the multinational corporations that manufacture the airframes (looking square at you, Boeing) and airlines is at an all-time low. Nobody wants to be on the flight that identifies the need for preemptive action in the future or has the misfortune of resulting in a whole airframe being grounded for yet another round of investigation.
Reminds me a lot about this story, which led to this song.
I had a coronary calcium scan done last month. Everyone on my family line has had heart disease and heart attacks, often with huge blockages in their arteries. I don't exercise enough. eat too much red meat and trans fats, and I'm 70 lbs overweight, and even though my other risk factors right now are low, I decided to pony up the money just to see how they were doing. As it turns out, my blockage right now is exactly 0%.
So maybe my family line has less of a heart history problem and more of a chain smoking history problem. Me (and my brother) are the first ever to not smoke or work in factories with heavy chemicals.
Yay, and yay.
I was meeting this professor from the U of M for coffee to talk about PhD programs there, and in talking about math, was starting to explain to him what an Erdős number was, and he says, "My Erdős Nunber is 2."
I was a news producer in Cedar Rapids when that happened. Landing a plane with no hydraulics for flight control, no landing gear, steering using just the thrust of one wing engine, it was a phenomenal feat of piloting. One of the Sioux Falls stations did a series of reports on all the emergency crews and first responders and the impact of the crash on their lives. It won the Iowa Associated Press award in the documentary category that year. I came in second place for a series of reports I produced on Alzheimer's disease.
Oh, my one interesting thing. I was in Salt Lake City for a work event in March or April and had gate checked my bag so was waiting for it at baggage claim. A really big dude with face tattoos and a couple of other guys with him came in and sat down a few seats down from me. After a few minutes a woman walked over and talked to him and got his autograph, so I figured he was famous somehow. But I had no clue who he was until I got home and did some digging online and figured out it was Jelly Roll.