[Update] Another Bad Guy

And it's an airline employee. Is anyone surprised when an airline employee turns out to be racist, sexist, homophobic, or amazingly ill-informed on matters of religion or culture?

This time, it was a flight attendant (the story doesn't say what sex the attendant was) who, when a passenger went comatose, told a doctor offering to help, "“Oh no, sweetie, put [your] hand down. We are looking for actual physicians or nurses or some type of medical personnel, we don’t have time to talk to you.”

The doctor's problem? She was black and female and we all know that unless you are a white male, you can't be an actual physician or nurse‽^†

The airline in question was Delta, but it hardly matters anymore. All of the American airlines are dreadful, as are most of the European. I met a multi-million miler while waiting for a delayed flight once who told me that he consistently got better service on African airlines, where at least the crews were pleasant and the atmosphere congenial.

The radius for driving rather than flying increases every year. I'm up to twelve to fourteen hours, depending upon how long I'll be at the destination. Most of my colleagues are up in the six to eight hours, although some have reached ten.

If this country had a decent high-speed rail system, there wouldn't be a domestic airline flying.

Update

The Washington Post has a follow-up article. It helpfully includes a photograph of the doctor in question. In the future, all flight attendants will be required to carry a copy of this photograph, so that in case of an emergency, they can see what a doctor looks like. I was going to add "in 2016", but the first black doctor in the United States, James McCune Smith, earned his degree in 1837, graduating at the top of his class. The first woman doctor in the United States, Elizabeth Blackwell, earned her degree in 1849, although the medical establishment was so appalled that she was forced to practice in Europe for several years. Perhaps that could be Delta's new motto: "The Airline Most Recommended by Antebellum Doctors".

^†The character at the end of the sentence is the beloved interrobang. It expresses those cases where excitement and puzzlement mix. In this case, why would the flight attendant not assume that the woman was at least a nurse? Has she never seen a person of color as a medical professional before? Where does this flight attendant live? Mars? I live in a state that has a black minority of only 2.1% and I have had both black doctors and nurses. Routinely. This flight attendant is a racist idiot! See how handy an interrobang is? It summed up a whole paragraph in one character. In fact, it summed up a whole character in one character.

Product Marketing 101

I do a little graphic design work for fun, which of course means that I get boatloads of spam from companies selling stock photography, fonts, and various odds and ends. I've managed to eliminate most of the really awful stuff, so most of what I get is high quality, if generally not of much use. For example, the last week consisted of a rather remarkable run on coffee mug mockups. These are Photoshop files that let you take your graphics and project them onto a mug, as viewed from any of a number of locations, including full or empty, on the desk or in the hand, or even in an attractive gift box. It's how you market designs without the expense of having to actually make the mugs. Last week, for some reason, I got about ten of these, including various sizes, materials, shapes, and other characteristics. As I said, they're all very well done, but I'm not really interested in selling mugs this week.

There are also vast numbers of templates for dance clubs, bars, sporting events, etc. You basically fill in the appropriate names and dates and print off a few hundred to get hung on bulletin boards around college campuses and bus stops. The quality of these range from mediocre to unspeakable, but they probably accomplish the desired result and at almost no cost. I've got these packing off to my spam filter.

In between lies the stock photography. About a decade ago, there was a stock photography model who ended up in every computer ad for every company on Earth. She became known as "everywhere girl" and was eventually located in real life, where it turned out that she was a college student who made a couple of hundred dollars one day having about a thousand photos taken of her using various computers, carrying them across campus, sitting in classrooms, etc. Ironically, she was completely unaware that she had become an internet sensation.

If you have a need for a one-off photo, there are many services that can sell you one, with the appropriate rights for reproduction (please don't just grab them off the web—that's a good way to get sued). If you are going to do a series of ads or if you are doing a presentation, you might want to get a number of related photos, either of the same style or the same people. These come about a dozen at a time with titles like, "Excited Interracial Business People", which is a group of young, mixed race and sex professionals demonstrating more enthusiasm in a business meeting than would normally be expected. There are also healthy numbers of "Attractive dark-haired woman with perfect skin and makeup". Sets such as these are available in every imaginable combination of ethnicity, hair and eye color, makeup or natural, and range from prudish to mildly titillating. Women outnumber men about ten to one in these sets, which is indicative of something.

Today, in the utterly non-titillating line, I received an offer for fourteen photos of a "Happy girl in a pink dress with balloons is standing on the background of the waterfront". Indeed, there is a blonde woman, whom I would consider to beyond the age of "girl", being in her late twenties, wearing a long pink dress and standing on large rocks that look like a breakwater jutting out into the ocean. She has long hair, is wearing what appears to be a tiara, although I suspect that it is a hairband of some kind, and she has a bundle of about a dozen balloons of the same color as her dress. The balloons are not inflated with helium, so in a couple of the pictures, she is holding them above her head. In all but one of the pictures, she has a rather vacuous smile, with the exception being one in which she is blowing a kiss. There is no conceivable erotic value and with the possible exception of anti-psychotic drugs, there is no possible product that you could imagine using these to sell. Although well-exposed, they have no artistic merit and it's really not possible to think of any potential use for them.

This is a perfect example of a product without an audience. I am almost tempted to buy the set to use in a presentation on building a product without doing customer research. I believe that it falls within 'fair use' to show you a tiny version of one of the photos, just to provide context.

Should you think of a use for this set, I'd love to hear it. Also, suggestions as to how she got out onto those rocks in that dress would also be appreciated.

Great Moments in Product Design

So, on Wednesday, Aphrodite and I were invited to the elementary school where our kids had gone to speak to the students about our careers as engineers. These were pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students, fairly evenly divided.

Aphrodite, being who she is, gave an excellent talk on Test Engineering, with photos and videos. Me, being me, did a design exercise on how to build a bug catcher. The kids were good and had lots of good ideas (way too many, but that's typical of adult design exercises, too).

One boy, probably in kindergarten, proceeded to give me the single best design that I'll ever hear. He politely raised his hand and waited until he was called upon. When it was his turn to speak, he very precisely described how, if you wish to catch spiders, you need a bowl with steep sides about this high (using his fingers to indicate about an inch). You set this on the floor and then you place a dead hand in the middle and all the spiders will come and be trapped in the bowl.

A dead hand?

Yes. Spiders are really attracted to dead hands.

Several other students solemnly agreed that dead hands worked especially well for spiders, His teacher was frantically trying not to laugh out loud. I looked at him as he stood seriously looking back at me, waiting for feedback, and said, "I'll be sure to get the test engineers working on that, but I think that we may have trouble getting it past Product Compliance and the Branding departments."

He nodded knowingly and we continued the exercise.

I've Wondered About That, Myself

When in Doubt, Order a Pizza

Courtesy of the Washington Post, we have another Good Guy™

After Hurricane Matthew scraped the Florida coast, a Nebraska man worried about his 87-year-old grandmother. Her phone was out and the emergency services were overwhelmed, so there was no one to check on her. Until he had a stroke of genius.

He called her local Papa John's Pizza and had them deliver a pepperoni pizza. On the part of the order where special instructions go, (like, don't try to pet the dog) he asked that the delivery person call him when he dropped off the pizza. The delivery guy did so and grandma was found to be safe and sound, although living in the dark and without communications.

So, here's a Good Guy award for Palm Coast Papa John's Pizza and another for a thoughtful (and clear-thinking) grandson.

It's Going to Be One of Those Days

A gnat just flew into my coffee cup and drowned.

I'm sure that there are both an emoji and a German word for this, but I don't know either.

Back to the Amazon

When I began to revive this blog, I never expected that the most popular entries would be Amazon's butchery of my interests. Still, these are the most viewed, according to Google, so I'll keep doing them. In the near future, I'll throw in Netflix, which makes Amazon look positively brilliant. The latest couple of checks of Amazon recommendations have actually produced far too many bloopers for a single blog entry, so this will be spread out over the next week or so. Since it's the gift that keeps on giving, I can't help but hope that there may be even more goodies waiting.

We'll start out with some self-help books. I'm always trying to lose weight and get into better shape. Having met remote members of my family tree, I know that I resemble the Lithuanian side of my heritage, but I'm about to give it up on blaming genes and simply call it a result of incompetent Intelligent Design:

Just to be sure that I wasn't missing anything, I expanded the list. Nope, this time Amazon has completely wandered off the feedlot and is now meandering at random. I do recommend the Don Norman book as an excellent introduction into product design. It's a fun read.

Sticking with our polka dot theme, it might be interesting to see what young adults are reading these days. I can remember a summer of Herman Hesse when I was thirteen, so almost anything is possible. Having said that, Norwegian branding design was still unexpected.

I better expand this list, too. Just to see what's back there:

A J.K. Rowling short story collection—understandable and certainly more appropriate. One Hundred Years of Solitude and a supporting trivia book? I can dig it. A little sophisticated (says the kid who was reading Hesse at thirteen), but magical realism is a great literary style and after this, the quality of the reader's school essays is bound to improve (although her or his grades may not).

But what's that lurking on the very edge? Virginia Woolf? To the Lighthouse?

I confess to never having read Woolf. Mark it down as one of my many character faults. The problem is that I never felt the need for a primer on how to be an angst-ridden adolescent. I had to read the reviews and the Wikipedia summary to get an idea of what it might be about. At this point, I think that I'll spare any teenagers for whom I might feel the need to buy a book from both Woolf and Hesse. Gabriel García Márquez seems to be a much better choice, or maybe a copy of A Confederacy of Dunces. I'll pass on the Rowling, too. Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes would both be better reads.

Wow. Totally heavy. Let's close this with a couple of my favorite insights on the part of Amazon. First, what I can only presume is an ethical guide to cloning:

Then, when I went back a week later, I found that it had been replaced by an eighteenth century dialogue on the existence of God:

I can only imagine the conversation in the operating room.

"Sarah, do you think that this is a metastasized region or a separate tumor?"

"John, a very small part of this great system, during a very short time, is very imperfectly discovered to us; and do we thence pronounce decisively concerning the origin of the whole?"

"I see your point, but the question is whether we should excise the whole bowel or just this region."

"You alone, or almost alone, disturb this general harmony. You start abstruse doubts, cavils, and objections: You ask me, what is the cause of this cause? I know not; I care not; that concerns not me."

"You know, Sarah, you're right. This guy's a walking corpse anyway. Let's cut the whole thing out, sew him up, and we can still catch half-price appetizers down at TGIFridays."

"But for my part, whenever I find myself disposed to mirth and amusement, I shall certainly choose my entertainment of a less perplexing and abstruse nature. A comedy, a novel, or at most a history, seems a more natural recreation than such metaphysical subtleties and abstractions. Or, barring that, an order of fried green beans and a Long Island iced tea would go down right fine."

A Sound of Thunder

This would be a spectacularly bad month to announce that you've invented a time machine. I can imagine angry crowds with pitchforks and torches outside the laboratory. Take care not to step on any butterflies.

Just in case.

Profiles in Courage

This blog isn't intended to discuss politics as such. I have strong opinions on the topic, but I don't particularly want to use this platform to share them. There are plenty of other good news sites, blogs, and miscellaneous sources for news and views.

Having said that, this blog is called Broken Symmetry, and one example of broken symmetry is false equivalence: where two wrongs (or rights) are treated equally, despite their disproportionate natures. Another sad, but real, example of broken symmetry is the lack of courage displayed by individuals, corporations and other organizations, and governments on things that matter, while they trumpet their trivial stands against meaningless threats.

I suppose that this is the counterpoint to the "Good Guys" concept that I introduced recently.

So, this presidential campaign season has demonstrated many examples of courage and cowardice. In several cases, I will admit that I was well and truly wrong about an individual or institution. In others, I was unfortunately correct. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge a few of these, given the rather amazing events of the past couple of days. Please note that I am making no attempt to be fair and/or balanced. I don't call a joystick a multifunction control lever and I don't call a pathetically limp excuse an act of courage. If you disagree with some or all of these, more power to you. I would advise that you can find reading more to your liking elsewhere on the Internet.

This week's award for Best Self-Inflicted Wound by a Corporate Legal Department goes to NBC, which had the Donald Trump sexual assault video tapes and sat on them, because they were afraid of being sued. Finally, a staff member leaked the tapes to The Washington Post, who immediately verified their reality and then published them. What's genuinely amazing is that even I know that a public figure has almost no legal protection from the publication of factual information. Any lawsuit by a candidate for President about a video made while he was the "star" of a reality television show would be laughed out of court. Obviously, the WaPo receives a Good Guy award for its publish and be damned attitude.

On a similar note, the New York Times publication of Donald Trump's state tax returns, showing that he has likely paid little or no income taxes for many years is noteworthy only compared to the pathetic television "news" networks. The Times, and many other newspapers, have long and bold histories of breaking these kinds of stories. This is a reason to keep paying for them: even in the era of instant Internet information, there is still a place for genuine journalism.

We have some individual Good Guys, as well:

• Mitt Romney—This is one that I feel strongly about. I underestimated the caliber of the man when he ran for President. I would like to apologize for that. I don't agree with his politics, but I give him full credit for integrity.
• George H.W. Bush—I have always believed George the First to be one of the most intelligent men to hold the office of the President of the United States. There were times when he did not live up to the standards of a good guy, such as when he became Reagan's running mate after calling him out for "Voodoo Economics", but he has redeemed himself repeatedly this campaign season
• Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Alicia Machado, Gonzalo P. Curiel, and Elizabeth Beck—All private citizens who displayed dignity and courage when attacked by publicly attacked by Trump. (Yes, Curiel is a judge and technically not a private citizen, but he had done nothing to deserve the attack, except his job.)
• The long list of journalists and columnists who have kept reporting on Trump, despite threats, insults, and general malice from the man.

The list of individual Bad Guys is too long for a blog entry, but there are some who deserve special mention. With luck, history will piss on all of them:

• John McCain—Is being reelected to the Senate when you are eighty years old really more important than your personal pride and integrity?
• Bob Dole—I listened on NPR as Dole was interviewed and said that despite the fact that Trump was not qualified to be President, Dole would support him anyway, because he (Dole) was a lifelong Republican and you don't turn your back on that. I literally yelled at the radio that Dole was a lifelong American, a war hero who sacrificed his arm for his country, and a genuine patriot and that those things seemed a hell of a lot more important than belonging to a club for old, rich, white men.
• Paul Ryan—Any hope that he had of rising above the title of "weasel" has been thrown away.
• Ted Cruz—Donald Trump insulted him and his family, yet he continues his endorsement. I can't speak for his hands, but he has marshmallows for cajones.
• The long list of television "news" people who have kept kowtowing to Trump, despite all evidence indicating that he is Nixon's and Agnew's political love child.