What I Learnt Today

I like the way that ANZAC day is commemorated in the Northern Rivers. I suspect it is similar in many country towns.

The bravery and sacrifice of past and current military are of course central to the day. As happens everywhere, the marches in Alstonville, Lismore and Ballina are lead by our verterans. Some of our current service men and women march behind.

But the march has also become a celebration of all those people who belong to the other groups that

contribute to our community. Many of these ‘civilian’ marchers spend the whole year sacrificing their time in the service of others.

So today cheer on the SES volunteers, the Surf Life Savers and the Rural Fire Brigade. The Ballina Brass Band is inside a catte truck! There goes the Community Service Clubs, endlessly raffling and sizzling to raise money to build new facilities for the cmmunity. The Scouts and Girl Guides, and the Navy and Air Force Cadets are marching in time – well, almost in time – under the watchful eyes of the men and women who lead teach each week.  And give a special loud clap to the Indigenous Sporting and Support Groups.

Here come the residents of the nursing home, passing along the route in buses- some of them are waving their Australian flags, and those who can’t are helped by the wonderful nurses who look after them. They need a specially loud cheer.

And finally each of the schools and pre-schools march along behind their school captians – the special banners held high. They look quite the part in their uniforms. All the High School and Primary Schools – Government, Catholic, Christian – together in one parade. Its hard to pick out any particular little ones among the crowd – so better take a photo of all of them.

Many of the children wear the medals that belonged to great grandpa or grandma. A special day to be proud of our elders.

Join with your neighbours to line the streets, clap and cheer. Take the opportunity to thank all those people who help us. And then its over. Only thirty minutes! Now that’s a morning well spent.

Some criticise Anzac day as a celebration of war. I know that my father and uncle, like many others who served in WW2, preferred not to remember so publicly. I don’t believe they ever marched.

However, it seems to me that Anzac Day has become unique in the calendar as a celebration of connectedness. We feel connected with our parents and grandparents who lived through WW1 and WW2 and somehow still made good lives for themselves and for us. And we feel connected with the all those people who form our own communities – from the residents of our nursing homes to the little ones just starting school.

I like it like that.

Lest we forget.

What I Learnt On 25th April in other years

25th April 2011 Paddy Bugden, VC

2 sodium atoms walk into in a bar.

One says to the other: “I think I’ve lost an electron”.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m positive”

Hat Tip @dianthusmed via Twitter

What I Learnt On 23rd April in other years

23rd April 2011 Is Chocolate Good For You?

Can a cat be both alive and dead?

Achilles – or the tortoise?

Can a machine
be truly intelligent?

Can you fit an infinite number of guests in your infinite hotel – even though it is full?

How can you age more slowly than your twin brother?

What would happen if you went back in time and shot your grandfather? That might be better than if he came forward in time to shoot you?

The UK’s Open University explains six of philosophy’s great paradoxes – in one minute each – delightful.

Hat tip – <http: />Creativ.co

What I Learnt On 22nd April in other years

22nd April 2011 Sports People are Awesome

Richard Wiseman thinks this may be the most beautiful video ever.

What I Learnt On 19th April in other years

19th April 2011 Back of a Webpage

Go Caine

What I Learnt On 17th April in other years

17th April 2011 Appspin: You Don’t Know Jack

There are many astounding things about the US Health System

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that doesn’t provide health care for all its citizens, despite spending considerably more per person than any other country.

“It’s generally agreed,” says Dr. Elliott Fisher, of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy,” that about 30 percent of what we spend on health care is unnecessary. If we eliminate the unneeded care, there are more than enough resources in our system to cover ever.”

Some communities in America achieve excellent health outcomes at a much lower cost than others. There is massive variation from one town to the next in the treatments of the same conditions. As a result, some U.S. counties spend $17,000 per year on the average Medicare patient, while others spend less than $7,000 per year with results that are just as good.

A PBS documentary, “U.S. Health Care: The Good News” looks at a few of these high-quality, low-cost regions of the country, to find out how they do it.

Common to the low cost communities is a focus on Primary Care and the Medical Home.

You can view the full 50 minute program at http://video.pbs.org/video/2198039605/

The work of the Dartmouth Institute is also highlighted in an article published in the New Yorker by Atul Gawande.

More is not better . The more money Medicare spent per person in a given state the lower that state’s quality ranking tended to be.

“The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care” is available at www.dartmouthatlas.org.

What I Learnt On 14th April in other years

14th April 2011 Mt McKinley: Because it’s there