Y's Men of Westport/Weston
Y's Men of Westport/Weston
Larry Gastwirt
5/10/12
After 30 years with Exxon Mobil, where incidentally he was a member of a team led by no less a luminary than our own Mike Belaga, Larry Gastwirt, our speaker last week, joined the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, where he was appointed Affiliate Professor of Management and Engineering Management and Director of the Howe School Alliance for Technology Management. He brought with him a bevy of his own beautiful cheer leaders; the topic of his presentation was “Innovation in a socially networked world”.
He defined “innovation” as the “introduction of something new”. Examples were the smart phone, the i-Pad or, more dramatically, the American Revolution that introduced the concept of liberty and justice for all.
To be useful, innovation had to lead to the creation of value – this was a long torturous path and most innovations failed. But innovation had been the engine of growth for the world’s economy. A Google study of the use of the word “invention” showed how it had taken off after the Industrial revolution and then the word “innovation” had exploded after 1945 and surpassed “invention” in 1970. A Business Week article suggested that “vibrant innovation” was needed to get the United States out of its current economic predicament. He cited the need, that perhaps came as no surprise to us, for the country to:
- get its finances in order
- reduce foreign oil dependency
- reduce intransigence in politics
- strengthen the nation’s infrastructure, and finally
- strengthen research and innovation
Moving on to a discussion of “Social Media”, he defined this as an “on-line environment aimed at enabling a potentially massive community of participants to collaborate productively”. Examples, of course, were Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia and so on.
This led him on to discuss “Social Networking” that was the use of social media to enable collaboration. An outstanding example of this was Amazon’s “Mechanical Turk” that was a crowd sourcing Internet marketplace that enabled computer programmers (known as Requesters) to co-ordinate the use of human intelligence to perform tasks that computers were currently unable to do. The Requesters were able to post tasks known as HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), and responders, known as Providers could then browse among the tasks and respond to them for a monetary payment set by the Requester. Larry had done this in preparation for his talk to us, asking – what might be the content of a talk on social networking to a group of savvy (?) retired men and he offered a reward of 40 cents (about what we’re worth, I suppose). He received 15 responses within 14 hours, some of which were quite thoughtful, several from non-American sources and most about 100 words in length although one went on for 500 words.
The power of social networking was extraordinary. It had led, for example, to Verizon dropping its $2 fee for its credit card, to Susan G. Komen backing down on the decision not to support breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood, to Bank of America’s aborted $5 service charge - 300,000 people let BofA know what they thought about that idea.
IBM connected 300,000 employees around the world to continuously contribute and improve decision making and on a human level, in Hungary there was the case of a 16 year old boy who was suffering from pancreatitis for the 6th time. This was posted on Twitter and suggested diagnoses poured in within hours.
Another product, besides Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, was InnoCentive.com that could leverage external partners to contribute to internal innovative initiatives. Procter & Gamble used it for 40% of their new products. And in the field of arctic oil-spill clean-up – an industry outsider, applying his knowledge of cement mixing, suggested a way to break up a frozen oil slick and was awarded $20,000 for his idea.
There were dangers to social networking – an increase in pornography, identity theft, postings of misinformation and (a nice example) a lady who, for $5, promised to testify, before anyone, to anything you wanted her to say. However, there was no denying the fact that social networking was transforming the way we communicated.
In response to the question: was social networking disruptive to the way of the world? - Larry said No, social anthropologists looking at hunter gatherer tribes or the distinction between chimpanzees and humans, had noted that our ability to learn from one another and to collaborate, was a fundamental human quality that brought out the best in our species.
This was an interesting and thought provoking presentation even for a Luddite like me. On the Peter Knight scale of 1-10, I awarded Larry an 8.
Col. Christopher Hayden
4/26/12
Our speaker last week was Chris Hayden, retired TV producer and broadcast executive and now a Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol.
In his introduction, Paul Burger told us that Chris was one of 8 regional commanders. He was domiciled in Portland, Maine and had responsibility for the North East sector.
Chris described the function of the CAP that was the volunteer, i.e. unpaid, side of the Air Force engaged in inland search and rescue – for example they led the hunt for lost millionaire balloonist, Steve Fossett in 2007.
On December 5, 2011 the CAP celebrated its 70th year in operation having been created by FDR in 1941 under a presidential Order just two days before Pearl Harbor. Their first order of business, as a volunteer group flying their own private planes at just 1,500 feet, was to seek out German submarines then menacing the Eastern seaboard and radio their positions back to the air force. Because of the time it took for the air force to follow up, many subs escaped and the CAP were later equipped with depth charges that did considerable damage to the u-boats.
The CAP was responsible only for Stateside operations – not overseas, and they were engaged in pilot screening and early military training. They flew targets for the air force and conducted searchlight training, both of which were extremely hazardous.
After the war, President Truman decided that the Patrol would continue as a 501-3C entity under Congressional charter and funded by Congress. In 1948, they became an auxiliary of the Air Force and were tasked with all inland search and rescue, a cadet program and public education.
Today there are no more private aircraft in service. $26 million was provided by Congress for infrastructure although the Patrol was still a voluntary organization. Chris described the organization structure headed by the Secretary of the Air Force and divided among 8 regions. Each operating unit was known as a “Wing”. The plan now was to replace all aircraft with the Cessna 182 that was technically very advanced; pilots adopted “heads down” flying as they were guided by electronic systems. They were no longer restricted to search and rescue and had been used extensively, for example, by FEMA during Hurricane Irene in August last year.
The total complement of the CAP was 61,000 but of these only 3,000 were active pilots. The remainder worked on ground rescue operations as well as training and the cadet program. Chris himself was working on a program of aviation professionalism. Statistics showed that safety numbers were improving and most importantly there had been no fatalities in the last 3 years.
Today the CAP was involved in drug interdiction, range support, route surveys, a glider program and also in the training of operators of surrogate predators.
In Q and, the question was asked – why fixed wing and not helicopters? Too expensive.
- Why gliders? They had been donated and were used to train and motivate cadets.
- As a volunteer force, was it hard to recruit members? Yes, difficulty to get people to leave their jobs but they did manage to draw people from across the country to assist with the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The involvement of the CAP saved $100 million according to Chris.
- What were the minimum requirements to fly for the CAP? A license, medical and bi-annual review. However, 200 hours were need for certain missions such as low altitude, low speed (90 knots 10 degree flaps) surveillance flights.
This was an informative and very interesting look at the CAP that earned a 9 on the Peter Knight scale of 1-10.
Reflecting Absence – May We Never Forget
Architect Michael Arad designed Reflecting Absence, the newly opened memorial to the tragedy of 9/11. On May 3 he gave Y's Men of Westport Weston a moving presentation about the memorial and the design process through which it evolved.
Arad is the London born son of an Israeli diplomat. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a masters degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture.
He lived near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. After hearing about the first crash – which he thought was an accident – he went to his roof top and saw the second plane “come south, down the Hudson and crash into the South Tower.” A long hour later he watched as the tower telescoped in on itself on that crisp, clear blue-sky morning.
Walking around the city over the next few days he sensed that “everyone was a New Yorker.” He felt a “sense of community, (something previously) unimaginable to most New Yorkers.”
Stopping in Washington Square around 2:00 a.m. a few days after the attacks, he shared the park silently with many others. “I realized the important role that public places play in our civic life… They're the glue that binds us together as a society.”
Arad was struck by the “loss, the voids in the river the absence of the towers reflected.” He sought to create a metaphor to “remember the dead while embracing the living.”
He began sketching in his study, what he called “a private act, creating a memorial I might want to visit someday.” From his sketch he built a model, set it aside for a year then came back to it. He became one of 5,201 entrants in a 2003 contest, one of eight finalists, and, ultimately, the winning designer for the memorial.
Arad called the award “a huge privilege.”
The World Trade Center’s master planner, Daniel Libeskind wanted the memorial 30 feet below ground level, a literal display using the slurry walls of a building no longer standing to depict the tragedy of 9/11.
Arad wanted a street level memorial, an expansive open space rather than an object. He built “a plaza where people could gather” on eight of the 16 acres of the original site. His space is integrated with the surrounding city, yet set off sufficiently that visitors can develop their own interpretations of its meaning and bring their own understandings to it.
His bare design reminds us of the absence in our lives brought on us by the deaths. Twin reflecting pools dominate the space, each with built where the towers once stood, each with 30 foot tall waterfalls cascading down their sides and flowing into voids symbolizing the surface of the Hudson River. The space beneath is galleries enabling visitors to look through the cascading water into the voids of the missing Twin Towers.
Construction began in 2006. But not before the design was questioned, critiqued, changed and changed again by all manner of people – urban planners, architects, elected officials, and, not least, survivors' families.
Financial, practical and political considerations forced design changes. One particularly contentious item – still not resolved to everyone's satisfaction - was how to list the names of the 2,982 who died in the 1993 attack and on 9/11.
One group wanted them alphabetically, which would preclude listing together related people not sharing a last name. Mayor Bloomberg suggested a random listing that proved unacceptable. Victims' families and first responders wanted victims listed by organization – with responders seeking the addition of rank and unit designations.
The decision was made to group people near their friends, family members and co-workers, and to identify first responders. Families who died on the airplanes are listed together, as are office colleagues and fire companies.
Names were carved into the polished horizontal surfaces of the granite “tables” making up the perimeters of the pools, where people can see and feel and remember the names of those who lost their lives.
Arad noted that the completed design differs from his initial conception, though “the core remains.” One example is the addition of more than 400 swamp white oak trees to what critics had called “too austere” a presentation.
He said the eight year design and construction evolution taught him one great lesson, “you can accept change.”
For those interested in a short tour of the memorial, this link opens up a YouTube video of Michael Arad escorting Kurt Anderson of WNYC’s Studio 360: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xBfiJkratE
The memorial’s site may also be of interest: http://www.911memorial.org/design-overview.
Roy Fuchs
Michael Arad
5/1/2012
Our speaker last week was, Michael Arad, architect and designer of the National September 11, Memorial. I was not present - Vin Gallogly kindly provided these notes.
In his introduction Paul Burger, told us that Michael was born in London, the son of an Israeli Diplomat and was educated at Dartmouth and Georgia Tech.
Michael opened his riveting, illustrated, talk by saying that when he started on the design of the memorial, he was young and resistant to changes to HIS design. He learned along the way that change did work, most notably when, in 2006, he started working with “allies”, particularly Mayor Bloomberg and his staff.
Development of the Memorial began with his own 9/11 experience. He was at home in Manhattan, saw smoke from the tower and thought there was a fire. Then he saw the second plane and knew it was an attack. He bicycled toward the towers, found his wife and then went home.
He was hugely impressed with how New Yorkers responded – with courage, compassion and stoicism, as they gathered in places like Washington Square and Union Square, united by the enormity of the occasion. This was the emotional background that led him to ask: What sort of Memorial might he create?
He took photos of the site from his rooftop and placed them on a closet shelf in his apartment and made some initial sketches. Eventually a master plan was developed for the 16 acre site that was 30 feet below street level and consisted of four unequal spaces with five buildings around the area where the twin towers had once stood.
In June of 2003 the Design competition for the Memorial was announced.
Michael’s plan retained the empty spaces that he had previously drawn and modeled. He ringed the voids with waterfalls placing the names of the deceased on walls under the falls. This would allow visitors both recreation and recollection as they would be able to walk and sit behind the falls.
Late in 2003 he was chosen as one of the eight finalists and toured the now cleared site. He was struck by the tall slurry walls, part of the original site preparation for the Towers. Why not use the slurry walls in the museum?
Working with the jury, he made many changes including the use of London Plane trees, staggered in rows, and the inscription of the names of the victims on the wall behind the water falls.
In 2004 his design was selected. Now he faced the challenge of changes to allow for such amenities as an information desk, visits by buses, school groups, handicap access and so on.
A full scale mock up of the weirs that would create the 30 foot waterfalls was tested in Toronto, in the winter, to ensure that they would work in freezing conditions. A Daily News photograph of firemen kneeling during a September 11 memorial service reinforced the idea that the galleries were for public and private viewing. Two years of changes followed that included, for example, debate on how the names of victims should be recorded. Mayor Bloomberg, chairman of the memorial committee, took on the task of resolving the issue and sent out letters to victims’ families to ask if they wanted names grouped with those with whom they had been associated in life.
Michael noted out that the original towers had chamfered corners and he could recess the base so that a chair could roll up. He now believed the chamfered corners would permit the names to be in a continuous ribbon and not end and begin at each corner. Change was good.
Michael was happy that people were giving life to the Memorial. Over two million persons had visited in the last six months.
In Q and A, he was asked:
1) How did one obtain tickets?
A. Timed Tickets were free at 911memorial.org.
There were also tickets every day in addition to time tickets, he would be happy to arrange for a Y’s Men visit.
2) Did he have any interface with the proposed Islamic Center?
A. No. It was two to three blocks away and he was opposed to any religious base at the site itself.
3) Did he obtain any guidance from the Vietnam Memorial?
A. Maya Ying Lin was one of the 13 jurors but he had no interaction with her. He did try to contact her when the lower galleries were eliminated. She ducked his call.
4) Did he have any say in structures at the site?
A. No - the only suggestion was to use the slurry wall in conjunction with the museum.
On my scale of 1 – 10, Vin Gallogly gave Michael Arad’s talk a 10.5 that rather ruins my scoring system but seems to have been well deserved – thanks Vin!
Dr. Elan B. Singer, MD
4/19/12
Last week we were exposed to blood and guts at the hands of Dr. Elan Singer, a specialist in reconstructive surgery.
The title of his talk was “Plastic Surgery: what you don’t see on TV” which he illustrated with a slideshow. He began with pictures of the over-treated faces of ladies whose attempts to improve their appearance had gone horribly wrong. By contrast, the other form of plastic surgery directed at victims of burns or other accidents, including war injuries, was the one he focused on. Here the aim was to improve both the function and the appearance of those parts of the body that had been damaged.
Dr. Singer volunteered his time and expertise on a pro bono basis in a number of ways. The first that he told us about was a visit in 2005 to Nigeria where he and a small medical group were the guests of the Governor of the State of Edo. The governor proudly showed them his estate that included a golf course complete with a wandering, ornamental ostrich. This contrasted sharply with the local hospital where facilities were minimal. A photograph showed the doctor scrubbing his hands under a faucet before operating but in reality no water ran from the faucet; it was provided by a nurse pouring it from a jug. Most of the cases were burn victims from an accident that occurred 4 years earlier. The State heating and cooking oil monopoly had contaminated the oil with gasoline that had exploded when lit for cooking. Photographs showed survivors with their skin, for example, welded from chin to chest so that their heads were immobile and mouths hideously distorted. The doctors were able to restore mobility and make significant aesthetic improvements. There was always the danger of infection and one of Dr. Elan’s concerns was follow up care after they left. He noted that there were only 40 plastic surgeons in the whole of Nigeria, a country if 158 million, whereas there were 40 in the one block in Manhattan where he lived.
The next set of slides recorded his visit to Haiti in January of 2010 just 3 weeks after the devastating earthquake. Out of the capital Port-au-Prince population of 1 million, 250,000 were estimated to have died in the first 5 minutes as most of the buildings collapsed. The majority of cases he treated involved open wounds and fractures that needed amputations if they had not been treated immediately. Again, the risk of infection was very high. There was no electric power and they had to operate using flashlights. Dr. Singer described some of the skin grafting procedures in detail. Lack of infrastructure meant that there was nowhere to send the patients after surgery because the houses were almost all destroyed. The 82nd Airborne and many NGO’s such as the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders had combined to provide tents and food to try to provide essential needs. Clearly this had been a harrowing experience the suffering from which was still ongoing because of poverty and corruption at the official level.
The third part of Dr. Singer’s talk was dedicated to the Walter Reed National Medical Center where he worked one week-end a month. He explained that, after 2001, the tempo of wounded warriors shot up and the ratio of those wounded to those killed in action was 10:1. This was an improvement but also reflected the fact that many were living with devastating injuries. He described how the first hour after a serviceman was wounded was referred to as the “golden hour” during which, if treatment could be given, the chances of survival were high. He described the 5 echelons of treatment beginning with the corps man on the spot, passing through secondary and tertiary care, then the treatment center in Germany and finally Walter Reed. He then described some of the advanced forms of skin grafting and prosthetics that came from “harvesting” skin, muscle or even bone from healthy parts of the body.
In Q and A, he was asked about synthetic skin grafts. These were good but there was no substitute for natural skin as the outer surface.
How long did re-hab typically take? For a wounded serviceman, it could take 4 ½ days to reach Walter Reed, then 7-10 days for the wounds to be properly cleansed and swelling to subside, then the big operation followed by 3-4 months of re-hab that was continued at the serviceman’s home – probably 1 year in total.
If a fibula was substituted for a humerus, could it bear the weight? The body was remarkably good at adapting to different needs and yes it could.
How about the mental problems and suicide rates after release from hospital? This indeed was a major problem for the wounded and PTSD was increasingly recognized as a condition that had to be addressed on an ongoing basis.
This was a rare look at a branch of medicine that is all important as we work our way through two long and devastating wars, presented by a doctor who was both a specialist and a remarkable philanthropist. On the Peter Knight scale of 1-10, this was an informative, if a little overwhelming, 8.