Tag: plebs

Above My Pay Grade

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

In quite a few, often intelligence / spying films, out of the USA people use the admonition “it is above your pay grade” to silence junior colleagues and prohibit their access to information. Others say “it is above my pay grade” to plead ignorance. Those on high salaries and with positional power have access to more information and things best kept away from lowly plebs which would not, could not possibly, understand. There are secrets only for the worthy, the elite etc.

I think I have inadvertently upset the applecart here, by examining the CT and MRI images, even having the temerity of printing captured images out. With one exception, our female GP, there has been a weird knee-jerk reaction to being presented with these images. Clearly it is a job demarcation problem for a non qualified pleb to impinge on the wisdom and expertise of a specialist radiographer. Oops, my bad. It is above my pay grade to download image viewing software and examine in detail images.

In France medicine is conducted in silos. A doctor asks a specific question of the radiologist in their silo. He/she replies in short coded statements to the adjacent silo. There is no need for the non specialist to examine images. It is efficient if not comprehensive.

I have had X-rays of my knees and feet done today. They look to me, at first pass OK, so we wait for the written write up which I will get before any GP appointment.

This morning, I have been looking at this Nature Comms Article

Genetics implicates overactive osteogenesis in the development of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis

Anurag Sethi, J. Graham Ruby, Matthew A. Veras, Natalie Telis & Eugene Melamud

Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 2644 (2023)

There are some nice graphics.

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Since I have been looking into diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) I keep reading that the causes are not well understood. Given that it is widespread I ask the question, “why has there not been vast research in the area? It would be of enormous benefit to find a cure / assistance.”

It is a disease of old gits and nowhere near as sexy as cancer or brain surgery. There must be petabytes of images by now.

Clearly it is above my pay grade to ask such a presumptuous question of deity.

According to Nature Comms. I clearly have enhanced overactive rates of osteogenesis.

Does that mean that I get more boners than average? No.

Curiously osteoarthritis seems genetically counter-correlated with DISH. Technically I have a fair fit with the left column above.

Because I have no pay grade any more, no positional power, and no power by association it is probably best that I keep my gob shut and my nose out of the affairs of people way more important than I. I am a relatively poor, increasingly disabled socially non viable being. No way am I a big cheese in the grande fromagerie of life.

Obvs it is for the high and mighty to discuss things amongst themselves. The lofty air up there is way above my pay grade.

It does beg the question, “If you were to come visit me after your death, what would you say, what might you ask?”

“What might you expect me to say or do?”

In my opinion if I were writing a grant proposal, I might start….

DISH detrimentally impacts on the quality of life of more than 15% of the adult population therefore it is both timely and cost effective to understand better the aetiology of the disease so that early stage prophylactic interventions can be developed. Thereby enhancing both recurrent healthcare cost reduction and quality of life outcomes.

But that is above my pay grade.

Magical Thinking and Arrogance

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

I am already bored with the endless TV footage of Trump with his droning on, bragging and put downs of anyone who is not him. His magical thinking in which his actions and words are free of real world consequences is crass. It was so nice to have had a few years without him soap boxing on a daily basis into the media. Oh well we have a few more years of this. If he imagines endorsing Tesla is going to promote sales globally, he may be mistaken. The MAGA sheep may buy but a Trump endorsement is not a good sales pitch worldwide. He may have a “Bud Lite” effect.

Maybe I should contact Dignitas soon.

Not surprisingly the conflict in Ukraine has not been solved in a day. Without the EU further sanctions are unlikely to upset Putin. Trump is the new poster boy for BRICS. He does not perhaps, get this.

Magical thinking, I the Don will get Vlad the Impaler to stop war in Ukraine, “Ta-dah!”

With friends like Trump who needs enemies?

A lot of people have some kind of magical thinking which arises out of their arrogance.

People can be so damned cock-sure without basis that they are blind, myopic and practising auto-proctology, looking with pride at their own sphincters. They are caught up in their own bubble-world. They imagine that the world loves them, that it will flock to them, kowtow, and share of the radiant brilliance of their self-diagnosed omniscience. It may not occur that they are wreaking havoc into the web of life because of their self-centred egotistical obsessions. They would not give a shit in any case.

Trump is a mirror for many, a mirror into which they fear to look with honesty. Humanity has called forth the likes of him. He is a sign of the times.

“Me first, ME, ME, ME. Everyone else is nasty and mean, only I am the hero. They, the plebs, do not understand. The world is against me, conspiring, poor me. It is not fair mummy.! They don’t appreciate me and see just how lucky they are to have me!!”

There is a problem that when some do not get their own way emotional drama results. I have never heard a US president slag off his predecessors with such glee. It is not statesman like nor edifying. It is petty.

Marcus Aurelius he is most certainly not.

This soap opera cannot be cancelled by network. It looks like running for few years yet, even if the ratings drop.

I wonder exactly how much damage can be done in four years?

That remains to be seen and perhaps endured.

Talking Behind Someone’s Back and Fait Accompli

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

At the moment there is a bit of furore in the press that Trump et al. are taking with Putin et al. behind the backs of Ukraine, Europe and the UK. They are doing this in the Machiavellian home of Saud.

People seem not to like this yet they talk behind the backs of others on a regular basis. It is a play straight out of the forceful manipulation handbook / playbook, cobble together some cunning plan and then present it to the absentee(s) as a fait accompli. Should they not accept they are branded ungrateful and non-cooperative even if they have to bend over grab their ankles and take it up the arse without lubricant.

The praetorians always know what is best for the plebs. The plebs should thank their lucky stars.

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Behind closed doors cabals are not inclusive. They may pretend and profess to be, but that is bullshit.

These cabals are part of what is euphemistically termed “management practice”. The 1922 committee is an example of behind doors stitch up. I have been on the periphery of such behaviours and perhaps on the receiving end of fait accompli. It is a Don Corleone offer even without the nocturnal equine encouragement.

Wherever actual transparency as opposed to the public relations version of that is absent, gossip spreads faster than Covid 19 at a race meeting / piss up. I saw firsthand on Twitter / X how misinformation and BS spread faster than a Los Angeles wild fire blown by a warm breeze.

A forced “agreement” rarely has longevity. A contract based on gossip and hearsay lacks solid foundations.

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I have never myself appointed a spokesperson or port-parole so if any charlatan pretends to speak on my behalf, they are lying. If someone says behind closed doors that they know what I am after, what I might want / like they are delusional, mendacious and manipulative. Yet I could not stop anyone from casting themselves as such. People may speculate, that is at best inaccurate and at worst dangerous.

Many people are so sure that they know how to sort a situation out, how to bring it to a close. Such premature omniscience is rarely able to hold back adamant opinion. It rarely occurs to these that they may be wrong. One cannot change the view of an adamant dogmatic by persuasion.

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Do you talk behind people’s back?

Do you make cunning plans without inclusive consultation?

Are you a Trump mini-me?

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