Half truths and whole lies

Nearly two years ago, I thought about "Where to begin?" in writing and the option of not beginning at the very beginning but in the middle of the action. The tactic can also be used in nonfiction, but in that case there is a moral imperative to not distort the actual sequence of events to direct sympathies in a particular direction. Emotions change depending on how an event is reported.

Here's a recent event from some local news: Trapped in his bathroom during a raging fire, a man and had to be rescued by firefighters and rushed to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

If that is what you read, you'd likely feel very sorry for the man who suffered in a fire.

That account is correct, though it is not what is highlighted in the news story headline.  As it turned out, the man who had to be rescued set the fire himself.  He caused property damage that left many tenants homeless and caused another man to need treatment for smoke inhalation. His motive for arson? He was angry about being evicted. Some people may think anger of that sort justifies destruction that harms other innocent people, but most people would lose all sympathy for an arsonist.
Half a truth is not only a whole lie but a way to misrepresent the arsonist as victim.

Cutting out the actual background to events completely changes our perceptions and distort who is in the right and who is in the wrong. That is well-illustrated in a story of reaping what you sow in "The Little Red Hen." If you jump to the end of the story without the beginning, the hen sounds selfish and mean. She tantalizes the other animals with the freshly baked loaf and then refuses to share with them. Clearly, then she's the bad guy.


But that's not the point of the story at all. It only makes sense if you read it from the beginning and see that at every step involved in baking the bread, she had asked the others to share in the work. They always refused. That's why she said they can't share in the results. If you're committed to a narrative that demonizes red hens, then you'll leave out the crucial steps along the way to the baked bread. while fiction does allow you to set your boundaries where you will, a news report needs to be more comprehensive about the beginning, middle, and end.

Holographic Imaging Aids Surgeons

It looks like something out of a science fiction film: a human heart floating in mid-air in such a way that a doctor can walk around it and see it in action from all sides. This technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the way surgeons get to see inside their patients. Already tested in pilot programs, the technology should start appearing in medical care facilities in 2016.

Fans of the television show Grey's Anatomy got to see a holographic clip of the technology in an episode that aired this past spring. In We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Burke arranges for Cristina to go to Zurich where she gets to see a hologram of the heart they are to operate on. In reality, the work on the technology behind the holography was performed in Israel by RealView Imaging.

Read more in 

Holographic Images for Healthcare

SaaS cuts down on sick visits

onically, seeking out healthcare can actually spread germs contained in a room packed with patients. If you've recently been in such a situation, and been forced to wait an hour or even longer to be seen, you might have thought, as I did, "there has to be a better way." There is, thanks to SaaS.

SaaS makes it possible for patients to use any web-enabled device to access convenient and affordable healthcare. It does not just give information like you'd find on WebMD, but a  personalized diagnosis and even a prescription--if warranted--at a cost that is just slightly higher than standard insurance copayments

Minneapolis-based Zipnosis is the company that developed the SaaS platform. It promises "online diagnosis and treatment in minutes" for $25. 

Read more in 

SaaS Replaces Sick Visits

Device to diminish driving while drowsy or distracted

Like the directive to buy low and sell high to make money in the stock market, the principle of keeping your eyes on the road to be safe when driving sounds simple but remains elusive. With countless distractions and our own tendency to drive while sleep deprived, many of us fail to give driving the full attention it deserves.

Fortunately, analytics technology offers a solution to alert drivers when their attention wanders. Read more in 

Realtime Data Targets Drowsy & Distracted Driving

A smarter phone for use by the visually impaired

For the visually impaired, the empowerment offered by suitably equipped smartphones provides more than convenience -- it represents independence!

Today's smartphones offer the computational power of yesterday's desktop computers, coupled with intuitive, easy-to use interfaces, all small enough to fit in our pockets.

For the visually impaired, however, it's been another story. The visual design of such devices has largely rendered them useless to those who can't see. Taking up the challenge of making mobile devices useful for the vision impaired, Project Ray has launched the "world's only multi-purpose assistive tools with integrated Internet services."

Read more in

Smartphones for the Blind

Tablets for a better hospital experience

Tablets have already made a place for themselves in healthcare as doctors use them to upload information to patient electronic health records. Successful pilot programs have proven that there are even more benefits to be realized from putting tablets into the hands of patients. 
Read about two successful pilot programs in 

Tablets for Patients: Pilot Programs Demonstrate Benefits

For more ways in which such technology can be tapped to improve the patient's hospital experience, see 

Tablet Computers: The Way Forward for Better Patient Experiences

Behold, no w!

Today I read part of a Smithsonian article. It lost me when it got to the quote that began, "Low and behold." That was almost as painful to read as "it's" standing in for the possessive form of the pronoun. It's not "low" but "lo" in the context of the expression. Ah, but you might say, "lo" is not a word. True, we don't use it, but in the context of the expression, it's a shortened form of "look." That's the explanation offered in http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/lo-and-behold.html:
" Lo in this and its other meaning, which is more akin to O!, has been in use since the first Millennium and appears in the epic poem Beowulf."
It also offers the first written record of the full phrse, "lo and behold"  in an 1808 letter in theCorrespondence 1787–1870, of Queen Victoria's lady of the bedchamber - Lady Sarah Spencer Lyttelton:

"Hartington... had just told us how hard he had worked all the morning... when, lo and behold! M. Deshayes himself appeared."