more crossword notes

Utah was the 45th state.

rive, v.

1. To rend or tear apart.
2. To break into pieces, as by a blow; cleave or split asunder.
3. To break or distress (the spirit, for example).
   
   [Middle English riven, from Old Norse rfa.]

Adds a bit of tone to the name Rivendell, eh?

Latin notes:

"Road for Caesar" is iter. It means "the way".
"To be" for Brutus is esse. Think "essence"...

Easy but neat:
Spaces: 4
Clue: West & Jemison
Answer: ( here )

A little harder:
Spaces: 5
Clue: Pack to the future?
Answer: ( here )

Link - http://www.uclick.com/client/spi/fcx/ (note there's a new puzzle each day)

On risk analysis and absentmindedness

This interview transcript illustrates some of the chicken-and-egg factors in creating systems that prevent errors. But this one bit on root cause analysis caught my eye...

I think the term ‘root cause analysis’ is an unfortunate one. It implies that there’s some real root, there’s some cause back there which set the whole thing going like a chain reaction. But of course, there’s never one cause. So I don’t really like the term, but I do like what it implies, which is to go back from the immediate sharp-end people, from the immediate things that went on, and ask questions: ‘What was it that provoked this person to do this particular unsafe act? And what were the decisions upstream from that, that left those people for example, short-handed, or with inadequate tools or equipment? What decisions were going on?’ say on the Board level, in the tension between protection and production. But it’s a finite process.
- Jim Reason, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Manchester.

This is something I've run into with RCAs. Either mgmt is looking for one simple thing to fix and doesn't want to deal with the overall system, or (in the shrinkwrap world) the documentation necessary may not exist. Le sigh.

As a bonus, from the same interview, on the Columbia accident: ( Read more... )

quotes on philanthropy

Living in Seattle it's fairly common to see stuff on the Bill & Melinda's pet funding program in the media. One thing I've always liked about the Gates Foundation is its focus on results & how the money is being used. Or to quote from the Time Persons of the Year article:

"He wants to know where every penny goes," says Bono, whose DATA got off the ground with a Gates Foundation grant. "Not because those pennies mean so much to him, but because he's demanding efficiency....[W]hen Bill Gates says you can fix malaria in 10 years, they know he's done a few spreadsheets."

I also like this excerpt, which sums up the practical approach:

Think globally. Act carefully. Prove what works. Then use whatever levers you have to get it done.

The challenge of "stupid poverty"--the people who die for want of a $2 pill because they live on $1 a day--was enough to draw Gates away from Microsoft years before he intended to shift his focus from making money to giving it away. He and Melinda looked around and recognized a systems failure. "Those lives were being treated as if they weren't valuable," Gates told FORTUNE in 2002. "Well, when you have the resources that could make a very big impact, you can't just say to yourself, 'O.K., when I'm 60, I'll get around to that. Stand by.'"

I grew up with Sally Struthers doing her bit on late-night infomericals. It's funny: the more emotional a charity appeal is, the less likely I am to respond. But then, I don't expect ads to be impartial either....