Well, I went to give blood last night, and this time they allowed me to do so. My iron was good, and for once I wasn’t taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection.
Since it had been so long, and they didn’t know when they’d get me back in good shape, they took twice as much — or rather, twice as many red cells. It’s an interesting process. They pump out a lot of your blood, running it through a machine that removes the red cells, then pumps back your plasma along with a little salt water to make up for any volume lost in the process. It’s pretty weird.
But I recommend it. This way, it’s twice as long before they expect you to be back. Also, counterintuitively, the needle is smaller — even though it has two channels in it, one for taking and one for putting back.
That’s not all that’s surprising about it. I made the higher iron requirement, and I made the weight fairly easily. But if I had been a woman, I would not have. Here’s the rule:
To qualify as a donor on the ALYX System, males must be at least 5’ 1 and weigh at least 150 pounds, and women must be at least 5’ 5 and weigh at least 175 pounds.
Why is that? I don’t know. I asked, and was told it had something to do with body density.
Now that I think about it, it’s probably ungallant of me to point this out, since there were two ladies in front of me giving double red cells — both of whom we now know weigh more than I do. Hey, I didn’t make the rules.
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Brad,
1) Let me speak for the entire blog by saying we are all glad you’re not a woman with that mug of yours.
2) Thanks for highlighting again the persistent need for blood donors. My wife and I give two or three times a year and I get great satisfaction out of the knowledge that one of my patients could potentially receive our blood when I order a transfusion in the hospital.
3) On a different subject, I wonder if you are interested in trying a blog experiment. As you know, I’m interested in blogging for results (broadening my perpective, reading innovative thoughts or solutions, laughing out loud, etc) not just for the usual sport (partisan Rollerball).
I’m on the Equity Funding committee for the Rex transition team and would very much like to use the blog to solicit ideas that could be included in our report to be delivered on Jan. 9th. If you would like I will write briefly about the issues we are studying, pose some questions and then see if we can harness the power of the blog.
What do you think?
Paul, as a feisty rollerballer (although I have my share of conservative beliefs) I think that is a tremendous idea.
What I find is a severe lack of knowledge about education – beyond narrow in scope but highly publicized scores and personal experience in a handful of schools.
Regarding equity funding and equity in general, I have one big point to make. Competent teachers make decisions about where they teach based on courses they will teach and the system of discipline of the students much more than money. I wouldn’t take an extra 20k a year to teach at the worst schools in which students run wild and I’d teach classes I don’t like. I’m quite sure I’m not alone. Simply throwing money at teachers will not pull them into these districts.
Kudos Brad for giving blood. I haven’t done so in about 5 years. That was a bad experience (I nearly feinted) but perhaps I’m just being a baby. Apparently what happened was my blood pressure which is low, combined with a rapid pumping of blood put me over the top.
As for education, Paul I hope you’re not opening up a can of worms. That subject seems to get everyone’s adrenaline going. My only suggestion is that something significant needs to be done in the area of discipline. Anecdotaly I keep hearing so many stories about kids with severe discipline problems that continue to attend public schools. I’m sure it’s much easier said than done but a significant improvement in discipline would be a great start. An expansion of the alternative school concept might be the way to go.
I donated a pint of my O – last week. The questions still floor me. Sharing needles, homo sex, especially when its a 22 year old cutie asking them. Oh well, that’s life these days, unfortunately. But kudos to all who give blood as it surely is needed.
Anything that is done in education has to somehow help families, I think. Too many families have no atmosphere conducive for learning much of anything, and too often very little idea of how to discipline well. So whatever steps are taken, if it doesn’t incorporate the support of parents/family members (or some functional substitute, if there is one), won’t accomplish a whole lot, I fear.
Paul, that’s a great idea. Please write us something. I think it will be helpful, and I’m as eager as you to do something useful.
Dave, thanks for giving. I was really surprised at how easy the double-red thing was. You should try that next time. It takes longer (31 minutes in my case), but the needle hurts less.
I’m O positive myself. They’re always looking for that. It’s common, but everybody can use it. Or is it O neg that everybody can use? I think that’s it. But anybody with a positive RH can take O pos.
All,
The Rex transition team Equitable Funding Committee is considering three basic questions:
1) How do you define an adequate education?
(actually the state supreme court set “minimally adequate” as the benchmark, but let’s shoot a little higher). Only by defining what an adequate education is can we address what an adequate funding level is.
2) What is the best way to collect money for education? HR 4449 passed in the last session shifted some of the burden from property tax to sales tax. Is this wise? Are there other funding mechanisms the state should consider?
3) What is the best way to distribute the dollars collected to fund education? Is the current system in which funding varies widely from district to district based on the tax base the best one? Some states (i.e. Vermont) put all their education dollars in one pot and then divides it so that every student receives the same amount of state funding. Would a system like Vermont’s be better than what we have?
What I’m hoping for is ideas rather than commentary. Concentrate on looking forward rather than into the past. One of our members said that our committee would have to “give up all hope on creating a better yesterday.”
I don’t expect you to research your answers, but be as specific as you can in the solutions you propose. If it’s a good idea, the committee will research it for you.
So the focus is on adequacy, collection and distribution. Comment on any or all. Also, there are four other committees 1) Choice (sorry, Karen Floyd fans, but I suspect that’s primarily public school choice) 2) Innovation 3) Accountability (the focus is on PACT testing)
4)Teachers. If you have any great ideas for Rex in these areas I will pass them along.
Thanks for your help.
1) How do you define an adequate education?
There are many standards across the nation concerning educational adequacy. Years ago when I was in the military, I had the opportunity to be become acquainted with people from all geographic regions in he US. Young people from upper state New York impressed me as being the best educated. Perhaps we should adopt their standards (including the Regents exam).
2) What is the best way to collect money for education?
The best way to collect money is on the federal level rather than the state level because most of the nation’s wealth is concentrated outside of the South and the Midwest due to Globalization, free trade, and free market capitalism. Since corporations today only pay about 13% of the taxes, and since most wealthy corporations are located in other geographic regions, it makes sense to implement a federal tax on corporations to pay for education.
Given the political reality however, funding for education will continue to be provided on the state level. We therefore need to eliminate all regressive sales taxes and middle class property taxes to pay for education. Corporate taxes, capital gains taxes (on the wealthy), estate taxes (on the wealthy), income taxes (on the wealthy), and luxury taxes should pay for education and all other state government needs.
Also, many Western countries have a wealth tax that is used for a variety of state functions. Perhaps we can use a wealth tax for educational funding here.
3) What is the best way to distribute the dollars collected to fund education? Vermont’s system is fine.
Paul, one of the most important committee functions seems to be missing, that is, Culture, Control, and Discipline. If many of the failing schools are not brought into some aspect of an orderly and safe environment, then most of the other ideas will not germinate when planted. How is the Rex team addressing those issues?
O Neg is the universal “donor” so as one of those I am very popular with the vampires. But I can ONLY receive O neg. At least that is what the experts have always told me.
Good on ya Brad. Donating blood is a good thing to do for fellow man, and I appreciate people who do it. By the way, this is the kind of charitable act that Mary accuses you of never doing. Wonder how she’ll twist this into a knot so as to somehow attack you for never volunteering or doing good things? Ed
The federal government has no legal authority under the Constitution to collect any taxes or distribute any monies for education at any level.
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