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The Lovely Bones

At long last, I've caught up with several million others and read Alice Sebold's 2002 megaseller, The Lovely Bones. I'm a fan of magical realism, à la Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Margot Livesey's Eva Moves the Furniture. But even I had doubts about a book whose 14-year-old narrator is murdered in the second sentence of page 1 and tells her tale from heaven.

When it came right down to it, this book turned out to be much more than the summer page-turner I'd pegged it for. The writing is graceful, the characters are well developed and engaging, and the plot is enriched by a true 1970s American sense of time and place. The grief of Susie Salmon's family and community is touching both in its immediacy and as it merges into memory and history. Susie's personal heaven, while a bit treacly for my taste, scarcely interferes with the grittier quality of earthly events. But her maturing empathy for the quirks and failings of those she has left behind proceeds incongrously, in leaps and spurts that must perhaps be attributed to the mysteries of heavenly time.

The Lovely Bones also strikes me as much less a "woman's book" than I had expected. The male characters -- especially Susie's father and her murderer -- display contradictions and complexities that are both unique to themselves and consistent with the predicaments of their time.

This book will make a terrific movie one of these days, far easier to accept on its own terms than the Showtime series Dead Like Me, for example. Although I'm reluctant to use the term "cinematic" to compliment a novel -- hating, as I do, the thought that the novel may have been written primarily with ambitions of becoming a screenplay -- The Lovely Bones is cinematic, literary, and a gripping read to boot.

Informaticon:Replacing the myth of the self-made manfrom the Responsible Wealth project

"Google is a powerful example of the ways in which societal investment creates a fertile ground for private wealth creation. Our taxpayer-funded institutions, which enable the Google wealth explosion to occur, are unparalleled on the
planet. Consider the role of public research, regulated market mechanisms,
property rights protections and the many other elements of publicly subsidized
infrastructure that make the Google story possible. . . .

"[C]ompanies like Google are built on a foundation of taxpayer-funded research and development. The company emerged out of the research and technology synergy of Stanford University and Silicon Valley. Its entire existence is built upon the growth of internet technology, a creation of federally-funded research. . . .

"[C]onsider how the accounting scandals behind Enron and WorldCom affected the market value of dozens of publicly-owned technology companies. Hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth vanished overnight. Wealth expansion depends on trust, credible institutions, access to information and independent oversight. Cook the books, shake the public trust and then
watch the wealth disappear.

"Google’s founders seem to be aware that they didn’t create all this wealth on
their own, and that they have obligations to the community. Google CEO Eric
Schmidt told Forbes Magazine in 2001: 'Lots of people who are smart and work
hard and play by the rules don’t have a fraction of what I have. I realize I don’t
have my wealth because I’m so brilliant. Luck has a lot to do with it.'

"Admitting the role of luck, society’s investment and other advantages is the first
step in having a realistic discussion about the true sources of success and opportunity
in the U.S. economy."

from I Didn't Do It Alone: Society's Contribution to Individual Wealth and Success, by Chuck Collins, Mike Lapham, and Scott Klinger

Robo doc: The latest, greatest doc-in-the-box

Granted, I'm a city girl -- but the last time I heard the phrase "doc-in-the-box" was about six years ago, in an Ohio suburb, when I needed urgent medical care. Until yesterday, that is, when USA TODAY's daily Tech News made me aware of InTouch Health's remote presence healthcare technology, otherwise known as "robo doc."

Johns Hopkins University Hospital is one of five hospitals around the nation participating in a study sponsored by the manufacturer to test "whether physicians can adequately assess their patients from afar using secure wireless Internet connections and robots equipped with cameras and TV screens." The study will look at how well patients recover, how many post-surgical scans and procedures they require, and how they rate robotic bedside manner.

If you can't imagine a computer gliding into your hospital room to check on how well you are recovering from major surgery, have a look at the video clip that accompanies the USA TODAY article.

Dr. Louis Kavoussi, a renal surgeon at Johns Hopkins and the study's lead investigator, is a big fan of the computer on a gliding platform. After returning home from operating on patients, he operates the robo doc with a joy stick, from his basement. Kavoussi says the robot allows him to spend twice as much time talking to patients as would otherwise be possible. He says patients prefer remote contact with their own doctor to personal contact with the doc on duty. The patient interviewed by USA TODAY backs him up.

Full disclosure: Kavoussi has a financial interest in the product, which is intended to function as a doctor- or nurse- "extender" as the population ages and we begin to experience a shortage of medical professionals. Favorable press articles posted on the InTouch site feature robo docs in senior care facilities.

As an aging boomer, I have no doubt there's a robo doc or maybe an entire robo hospital in my future. No one can accuse me of being uncomfortable with information technologies or failing to appreciate their growing role in healthcare. But viewing the video clip made me recall every negative hospital experience, every post-surgical ache and pain I have ever experienced. I'm all for high tech, but at times when I'm hurting and vulnerable, I'll take high touch every day of the week.

Take a look at the video and let me know how it strikes you.