Inilah Rahasia Cara Belajar Ilmuwan Dunia!

Menjadi kreatif di zaman modern saat ini sudah menjadi sebuah kewajiban. Suatu negara tentu akan menghadapi banyak masalah jika negara tersebut kurang memberdayakan sumber daya manusianya untuk bisa menjadi kreatif. Menjadi kreatif itu luas maknanya. Kreatif dalam berkarya, kreatif dalam berpikir bahkan berkreatif dalam menyelesaikan masalah.

Dalam belajar sains atau IPA, guru dan siswa seharusnya perlu mengenal latar belakang dari ilmuwan dan bagaimana mereka bisa menciptakan konsep ilmu/ suatu rumus. Dalam realita bahwa umumnya guru dan siswa juga mengenal konsep dan rumus dan proses pembelajaran kerap kali bercorak membahas rumus dan soal-soal saja. Sangat tepat rasanya kalau guru dan siswa juga mengenal proses kreatif para ilmuwan (seperti Albert Einstein, Thomas Alfa Edison, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin dan lain-lain) dalam menemukan suatu fenomena lewat membaca buku biografi mereka.

1) Einstein, cara berbicaranya pada masa kecil tidak begitu menarik. Kemampuan berbahasa atau berbicaranya sangat lambat. Melihat kondisi itu orang tuanya sangat prihatin sehingga ia berkonsultasi dengan dokter. Karena kemampuan berbicaranya yang lambat membuatnya pernah gagal di sekolah dan kepala sekolah menyarankan agar ia keluar dari sekolah. Tentu saja ia memberontak kepada sekolah yang mengusirnya dan menganggapnya sebagai anak yang sangat bodoh.

Pada masa kecil, Einstein adalah anak yang baik dan ia punya karakter suka menolong, karakter ini membuatnya makin cerdas. Kemampuan berbahasanya memang lebih rendah dibandingkan kemampuan numerika atau matematika. Ia tidak pernah gagal dalam mata pelajaran matematika. Sebelum ia berumur lima belas tahun ia telah menguasai kalkulus diferensial dan integral yang dipelajarinya secara mandiri/ otodidak. Saat di sekolah dasar, dia berada di atas kemampuan rata-rata kelas, namun ia memiliki kegemaran untuk memecahkan masalah rumit dalam aritmatika terapan. Orang tuanya ikut mendukung minat Einstein dalam matematika. Ia membelikan buku-buku teks sehingga ia bisa menguasai pelajaran angka-angka selama liburan musim panas.

2) Thomas Alfa Edison, ia belajar bagaimana cara menemukan lampu. Sebelum lampu pertamanya menyala ia melakukan 5.000 eksperimen yang selalu berakhir dengan kegagalan. Namun cara berpikir yang dimiliki oleh Thomas Alfa Edison sangatlah positif dan tahan banting, ini membawanya kepada kreativitas tingkat tinggi.

3) Isaac Newton, lahir di Woolsthorpe- Lincolnshire,Inggris. Ia adalah seorang fisikawan, matematikawan, ahli astronomi, filsuf alam, alkimiwan, dan teolog yang berasal dari Inggris. Ayahnya yang juga bernama Isaac Newton meninggal tiga bulan sebelum kelahiran Newton. Newton dilahirkan secara prematur; Ketika Newton berumur tiga tahun, ibunya menikah kembali dan meninggalkan Newton di bawah asuhan neneknya.

Newton memulai sekolah saat tinggal bersama neneknya di desa dan kemudian dikirimkan ke sekolah bahasa di daerah Grantham dimana dia akhirnya menjadi anak terpandai di sekolahnya. Saat bersekolah di Grantham dia tinggal di-kost milik apoteker lokal (William Clarke). Sebelum meneruskan kuliah di Universitas Cambridge (usia 19), Newton sempat menjalin kasih dengan adik angkat William Clarke, Anne Storer. Namun Newton memfokuskan dirinya pada pelajaran dan kisah cintanya menjadi semakin tidak menentu/ putus begitu saja.

Keluarganya mengeluarkan Newton dari sekolah dengan alasan agar dia menjadi petani saja, bagaimanapun Newton tidak menyukai pekerjaan barunya. Kepala sekolah King's School kemudian meyakinkan ibunya untuk mengirim Newton kembali ke sekolah sehingga ia dapat menamatkan pendidikannya. Newton dapat menamatkan sekolah pada usia 18 tahun dengan nilai yang memuaskan.

Newton diterima di Trinity College Universitas Cambridge (sebagai mahasiswa yang belajar sambil bekerja untuk mengatasi masalah keuangannya). Pada saat itu, kurikulum universitas didasarkan pada ajaran Aristoteles, namun Newton lebih memilih untuk membaca gagasan-gagasan filsuf modern yang lebih maju seperti Descartes dan astronom seperti Copernicus, Galileo, dan Kepler. Ia kemudian menemukan teorema binomial umum dan mulai mengembangkan teori matematika yang pada akhirnya berkembang menjadi kalkulus.

4) Charles Darwin lahir tanggal 12 Februari 1809 di Shropshire, Inggris. Ia anak ke lima Robert Waring Darwin. Ia belajar sesuai dengan kurikulum berbahasa Yunani Klasik. Ia tidak memperlihatkan prestasi yang banyak secara akademik. Kemudian ia mengambil jurusan kedokteran tetapi tidak banyak memperoleh kemajuan. Untuk itu ia melakukan usaha lain agar bisa maju. Ayahnya menyarankan Darwin untuk menjadi pendeta dan belajar di Christ's College untuk belajar teologi. Tetapi ia juga tidak memperoleh kemajuan, ia malah senang berburu dan permainan menembak.Ternyata Darwin mempunyai minat dalam mengkoleksi tanaman, serangga, dan benda-benda geologi. Ia tertarik dengan bakat berburu sepupunya William Darwin.

Darwin mengembangkan minatnya dalam serangga dan spesies langka. Naluri ilmiah Darwin didorong oleh Alan Sedgewick, seorang ahli bumi, dan juga didorong oleh John Stevens Henslow, seorang professor botany. Darwin kemudian menjadi naturalist (pencinta alam) dan ikut melakukan ekspedisi dengan HMS Beagle. Tim ekspedisi HMS Beagle berlayar dan mengunjungi banyak negeri di lautan Pasifik Selatan sebelum kembali ke Inggris melalui Tanjung Harapan Baik di Afrika Selatan, dalam rangka mengelilingi dunia.

Darwin juga sangat dipengaruhi oleh pemikiran Thomas Malthus, dengan bukunya “Essay on the Principle of PopulationI”. Buku tersebut mengatakan bahwa populasi seharusnya bertambah sesuai dengan batas persediaan makanan, kalau tidak maka akan terjadi persaingan untuk memperebutkan makanan. Setelah membaca buku ini, Darwin memfokuskan teorinya bahwa “the diversity of species centered on the gaining of food - food being necessary both to survive and to breed”- semua jenis spesies terfokus dalam memenuhi kebutuhan makanan dan makanan berguna untuk kelangsungan hidup dan untuk berkembang biak.

Dari paparan di atas terlihat bahwa sukses seorang ilmuwan berskala dunia tidak jatuh dari langit, atau diperoleh saat kelahirannya. Kesuksesan sebagai ilmuwan diperoleh melalui proses kreatif (belajar kreatif) selama hidupnya.

Tidak semua orang memiliki kemampuan berganda yang hebat, Einstein misalnya pada masa kecil tidak beruntung dengan kemampuan bahasanya, namun ia mengembangkan kemampuan yang lain. Einstein bisa melejit pada bidang matematika. Bagi kita, mungkin bisa melejit pada bidang olah raga, musik, organisasi atau pada bidang lain.

Kesuksesan seorang anak juga akan terbentuk dengan dukungan orang tua seperti yang dialami Einstein, atau dukungan tokoh lain seperti yang dialami oleh Darwin. Tidak mungkin seseorang bisa sukses untuk skala nasional, apalagi untuk skala internasional kalau mereka tidak betah membaca. Newton membaca gagasan-gagasan filsuf seperti Descartes dan astronom seperti Copernicus, Galileo, dan Kepler. Darwin dipengaruhi oleh pemikiran (buku) Thomas Malthus, nah bagaimana dengan anda ? Orang bisa sukses karena memiliki karakter tidak mudah putus asa, Thomas Alfa Edison, misalnya, sangat tahan banting dan tidak suka mengeluh. Sebelum menemui sebuah lampu pijar yang bisa menyala, ia harus melakukan 5.000 kali eksperimen di bengkel milik ayahnya.

Bagaimana proses belajar kreatif para ilmuwan berskala internasional ?

Cukup simple yaitu miliki suatu bakat atau minat dalam bidang ilmu (misal dalam seni, fisika, kimia, sejarah, ekonomi, geografi, dll), kemudian kembangkan minat tersebut dengan belajar keras dan lakukan otodidak. Mintalah dukungan dari orang terdekat, termasuk guru. Miliki karakter yang tahan banting (tidak suka putus asa dan mengeluh), miliki minat dan kesenangan membaca yang mendalam untuk menambah wawasan. Untuk sukses maka diperlukan puluhan, ratusan atau ribuan kali latihan.

source: http://www.wikimu.com/

The Revolving Door's Bearings Overheat - Two Examples of the Health Care Insiders Who Keep it Spinning

Two recent stories illustrate a kind of conflict of interest affecting government health care policy. Note that neither story appeared in any one media outlet, but had to be pieced together from several sources, not all contemporaneous.

The Peripetatic Architect of Health Care Reform Implementation

Here is the story of Steve Larsen's latest career move, per the Wall Street Journal,

A top official in charge of implementing the federal health-care overhaul said Friday he would step down in mid-July, shortly after the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the fate of the law.

The official, Steve Larsen, heads the office at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that oversees most of the insurance provisions in the 2010 law. Those include setting up exchanges for consumers to shop for plans and obtain subsidies for premiums, establishing rules on how much money insurers must spend on medical benefits, and administering a federal program to provide insurance for consumers with pre-existing conditions.

Mr. Larsen said in an interview that his departure was '100% for personal and family reasons,' and that he hadn't considered the timing of the court decision. He cited his need to pay tuition for his college-bound children,...

The Wall Street Journal coverage made it sound like Mr Larsen was fleeing his post to avoid dealing with how the Supreme Court's decision on the Obama administration's health care reform law might complicate future functions of his office,

Mr. Larsen's departure highlights the challenges the administration will face once the Supreme Court rules. If the court upholds the law, the administration has a 2014 deadline to put it in place, including persuading states to set up the exchanges or establishing them on states' behalf.

If the court strikes down the law's key requirement, that most individuals purchase insurance or pay a fine, federal officials will have to establish whether they can make the remaining insurance elements of the law work, which would face stiff opposition from insurance companies and from Republican lawmakers who have pledged to overturn the law.

If the court voids the law entirely, officials will have to start undoing hundreds of its requirements that are set up to take effect or are, in many cases, already in place.

It only briefly mentioned where Mr Larsen was going, ostensibly in hopes that a better salary would aid in his tuition payments,

[he] said he would be working at a health-services business unit of UnitedHealth Group, an insurer

On the other hand, a report from Bloomberg suggested that UnitedHealth thought he would be well worth his salary,

Larsen will be executive vice president at Optum, a health services and information technology company that is part of UnitedHealth Group Inc., of Minnetonka, Minn., the company confirmed. UnitedHealth Group is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurer in the United States in terms of policyholders and revenues.

'We are excited to welcome Steve Larsen to Optum,' company spokesman Matthew Stearns told BNA in an email. 'Steve's extensive, broad-based experience in health care will further enhance the support Optum provides to the health system and consumers in a rapidly evolving environment.'

It is funny how that experience seemed to be about crafting the regulations under which Optum, or at least its parent corporation would have to operate.

But wait, there is more. Bloomberg also mentioned that Mr Larsen had previously gone from a state government health policy position to the insurance industry before he wound up at the CCIIO.

Prior to joining the Obama administration to implement PPACA, Larsen served in a number of capacities at Amerigroup Corp., a public managed care company serving Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries, according to his biography on the CCIIO website. Larsen also was Maryland insurance commissioner for six years, chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission for Gov. Martin O'Malley (D),...

To clarify, Amerigroup is a publicly-held, Fortune 500 for-profit corporation (look here).
So in summary, and in chronological order, as best as I can establish it, Mr Larsen went from a Maryland state government policy position that affected health (and other insurance) companies, to a health insurance company (Amerigroup), to a US government policy position that affected health insurance, and now to another health insurance company (UnitedHealth).

The Peripatetic Legislative Policy Director

Brett Roper moved in the opposite direction, to government from industry, and to the Republican legislative majority, not the executive branch now controlled by the Democrats. Early in June, on the Republic Report,

In late 2010, as Congressman John Boehner (R-OH) prepared to take the gavel as Speaker, he hired a lobbyist named Brett Loper as his new policy chief. Loper left his job at the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a lobby group for medical device-makers, to join Boehner.

The Association did not seem to sad to see him go,

Republic Report reviewed ethics forms disclosed filed with the House clerk’s office, and noticed that Loper actually received a $100,147 bonus in 2011 for leaving his medical device lobbying group and becoming a public servant.

But wait, there is more. Loper also previously made more than one transition between government and industry. As Politico reported in 2010, before Loper worked for the Advanced Medical Technology Association,

Loper worked in senior positions for then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and as the House Ways and Means Committee Republican staff director under then-ranking member Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana

But wait, there is still more. In 2011, the Atlantic reported,

In December, Boehner hired Brett Loper to be his policy director. At the time, articles focused on Loper's previous job as a lobbyist for the Advanced Medical Technology, where Loper vigorously resisted attempts to reduce the deficit by fighting cuts in fees to his clients proposed by the Obama administration.

That is part of the story.

But missing from the pieces about Loper have been his connection to the Abramoff scandal and knowledge of how to use government money to 'nfluence'legislators.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a photo of Loper (far right), basking in the tropical sun of the Marianas Islands, with Michael Scanlon (center), Jack Abramoff's partner in crime.

What is Loper doing in the Marianas?

As a staff member for Tom Delay, Loper was part of a mission to deliver money from the "favor factory," otherwise known as the Appropriations Committee of Congress, to two legislators in the Marianas, Norm Palacios and Alejo Mendiola (between Scanlon and Loper, above). In exchange for money for their two pet projects, Palacios and Mendiola agreed to switch their votes and support Abramoff's key ally in the Marianas, Benigno Fitial, in his bid to become Speaker of the House there.

The gambit worked. Fitial won. Abramoff -- whose lobbying contract to the Marianas had been canceled -- was re-hired by the Marianas. In that capacity, Abramoff resumed lobbying for the continuation of abusive labor practices in the islands. (For more on this, see my film, 'Casino Jack and the United States of Money.') Abramoff also continued to make sure that the grateful garment factory owners flowed campaign cash to key mainland Republican legislators, including Tom Delay.

Note that according to the Washington Post web-page on the Abramoff scandal,

Former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on March 29, after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to cooperate in an investigation into his relationshps with members of Congress. Sources familiar with the federal probe have told The Post that half a dozen lawmakers are under scrutiny, along with Hill aides, former business associates and government officials.

The scandal prompted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio) to give up their leadership posts,...

So Mr Larsen went from Republican senior legislative staff positions, during which time he associated with the now admittedly guilty Abramoff, to an industry trade association, and then back to a Republican senior legislative staff position.

Summary

So here are two recent good examples of a particular type of conflict of interest involving government and health care corporations. Both cases are of people who have made multiple transitions through the "revolving door" between the health care corporate world, and government agencies and organizations that are involved in policies that affect that world.

These transitions' multiplicity appears to represent a conflict of interest because these peoples' frequent revolutions through the door might diminish any sense that they ever have a primary interest on behalf of any immediate employer when another employer on the other side of the supposed arms' length government-industry relationship is always beckoning. Thus the people involved appear to have become members of a peculiar class always in transition, and hence more attuned to self-interest than to promoting the health of patients and the population (which ought to have been the primary concern for government leaders.) As Matt Kelley on the Compliance Week blog wrote in response to the Larsen story,

if you ever wonder why so many Americans feel like their country is slipping away from them, the revolving door—the sense that a private club of success exists in this country, and most Americans don't get to go through it, but merely live with the dictates of those who do—is a big reason why.

As we wrote before health policy in the US, in particular, has become an insiders' game. Unless it is redirected to reflect patients' and the public's health, facilitated by the knowledge of unbiased clinical and policy experts rather than corporate public relations, expect our efforts at health care reform to just increase health care dysfunction.

Physicians, public health advocates, whatever unbiased health policy experts remain must educate the public about how health policy has been turned into a corporate sandbox. We must try to somehow activate the public to call for health care policy of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Banking as the Standard Healthcare Should Look Up To On Medical Information Security?

At past posts "Don't Worry, Your Electronic Medical Records Are Getting Safer With Every Passing Day", "Another Episode of "But Don't Worry, Your Records are Safe..." and "Still More Electronic Medical Data Chaos, Pandemonium, Bedlam, Tumult and Maelstrom: But Don't Worry, Your Data is Secure", "Don't Worry, Your Records are Safe - Part IV" and others, I wrote on the issue of medical record security.

Banking has been held as the standard as to which medicine has been compared, with medicine being called archaic and behind the times for its reliance on paper.  Banking security is cited as a reason why electronic medical records can also be secured.

There's this:

Fraud Ring In Hacking Attack On 60 Banks 

June 27, 2012

Some 60m euro is stolen from bank accounts in a massive cyber raid, after fraudsters raid dozens of banks around the world.

By Pete Norman, Sky News Online

Sixty million euro has been stolen from bank accounts in a massive cyber bank raid after fraudsters raided dozens of financial institutions around the world.

According to a joint report by software security firm McAfee and Guardian Analytics, more than 60 firms have suffered from what it has called an "insider level of understanding".

"The fraudsters' objective in these attacks is to siphon large amounts from high balance accounts, hence the name chosen for this research - Operation High Roller," the report said.

"If all of the attempted fraud campaigns were as successful as the Netherlands example we describe in this report, the total attempted fraud could be as high as 2bn euro (£1.6bn)."

The automated malicious software programme was discovered to use servers to process thousands of attempted thefts from both commercial firms and private individuals.

The stolen money was then sent to so-called mule accounts in caches of a few hundreds and 100,000 euro (£80,000) at a time.

Credit unions, large multinational banks and regional banks have all been attacked.

Sky News defence and security editor Sam Kiley said: "It does include British financial institutions and has jumped over to North America and South America.

"What they have done differently from routine attacks is that they have got into the bank servers and constructed software that is automated.

"It can get around some of the mechanisms that alert the banking system to abnormal activity."

The details of the global fraud come just a day after the MI5 boss warned of the new cyber security threat to UK business.

McAfee researchers have been able to track the global fraud, which still continues, across countries and continents.

"They have identified 60 different servers, many of them in Russia, and they have identified one alone that has been used to steal 60m euro," Kiley said.

"There are dozens of servers still grinding away at this fraud – in effect stealing money."

That's all very reassuring.   Let's put all of our personal medical secrets online ASAP.  Don't worry, your information's safe and secure.

-- SS

Random Thoughts -- Drinking with Dinner?

One of the things that was an oddity about my upbringing, was that my parents always frowned on drinking with dinner.  Anything even water, any meals I just chose dinner.  We didn't drink with meals.  Sometimes tea or water or diluted juice afterwards, and later in life this seemed to have been relaxed.  But the notion as I understood it was that you weren't supposed to wash your food down.

Whenever I went to a friend's house for dinner I was always asked what I wanted to drink.  Usually water or milk was offered, but occasionally soda too (that last one I think because I was a guest).  I would usually just decline as I didn't really like drinking milk.  To me most of their foods were more moist than I was used to anyway -- everything from salads with creamy dressing to white bread to breaded and fried fish vs. broiled.   

In my binging days, I probably consumed the most milk of any time in my life.  Outside the little cartons in grammar school, I've probably only truly drank a half dozen glasses of milk in my lifetime.  But in the binge days, how does one inhale a box of cookies?  Well, dunking in milk of course.  When I had pizza or fast food out with friends, I was already at an age where for some reason I had diet soda.  But one has to wonder how much more easily/faster that burger goes down the hatch when "washed" there with sips of anything in between.   Binge eating was almost always accompanied by drinking something -- usually diet soda or coffee.  Milk wasn't drank, it was used to soak ;-)  

I wonder how much of the overeating in general these days might be due to our national infatuation with drinking something all the time, both between meals and with.