{"id":112355,"date":"2022-05-17T13:27:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T18:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=112355"},"modified":"2022-05-18T11:24:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T16:24:56","slug":"doctor-curmudgeon-you-can-count-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=112355","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae You Can Count On It!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=112355\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=112355\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-112356 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/NMAH-DOR2010-0104-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/NMAH-DOR2010-0104-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/NMAH-DOR2010-0104.jpg 730w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist\/cardiologist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My IPhone has a cute little computer. (Since the thing is seated right here atop my desk, I am obligated to be complimentary)<\/p>\n<p>And my computer affords me access to a plethora of ways in which to make calculations.<\/p>\n<p>In a previous column, I wrote a panegyric to my old slide rule.<\/p>\n<p>But now the time has come to honor another calculating device.<\/p>\n<p>My Abacus!<\/p>\n<p>It originally came from the Greek word, abax, which means table.<\/p>\n<p>And the Greek word may have been derived from a Semitic word, abq, which means sand.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I recall the time when we couldn\u2019t count further than ten, because the only method of keeping tallies was by using our fingers and toes.<\/p>\n<p>My delight knew no bounds when in 2700 BC, the Sumerians developed the abacus. It was a delicious counting board that I could just carry around with me. But I stopped doing that, because it was a stone tablet and became too heavy.<\/p>\n<p>I was happier in 1200 CE when the Chinese developed the suanpan (Which means counting tray) I remember it well. It looked similar to my own modern abacus and was so much lighter than the Sumerian stone calculator.<\/p>\n<p>When in college at the University of Chicago, I proudly carted around the slide rule my boyfriend gifted me with.<\/p>\n<p>More years passed and I returned to the abacus. I became adept at adding and subtracting. My fingers flew around the tablet, rapturously moving the beads.<\/p>\n<p>Then I entered medical school and my abacus languished as I acquired a small Texas Instrument\u2019s calculator. For a few years, we got along well\u2026until my first computer reared its head.<\/p>\n<p>But the abacus remains as an icon of beauty, convenience and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>I recall an anecdote about the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman. And I quote from Wikipedia:<\/p>\n<p>Feynman vs the abacus<\/p>\n<p>Physicist Richard Feynman was noted for facility in mathematical calculations. He wrote about an encounter in Brazil with a Japanese abacus expert, who challenged him to speed contests between Feynman&#8217;s pen and paper, and the abacus. The abacus was much faster for addition, somewhat faster for multiplication, but Feynman was faster at division. When the abacus was used for a really difficult challenge, i.e. cube roots, Feynman won easily. However, the number chosen at random was close to a number Feynman happened to know was an exact cube, allowing him to use approximate methods.[51]<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, this old Luddite does truly possess an abacus. Although no longer used, because over the years, my abacus skills have lapsed into disuse, it occupies a place of honor on my bookshelf.<\/p>\n<p>And once a decade, it is even dusted!<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Curmudgeon suggests &#8220;Bitter Medicine\u201d, Dr. Eugene Eisman&#8217;s story of his experiences&#8211;from the humorous to the intense&#8212;as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n<p>Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. &#8211;on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bitter-Medicine-Doctors-Year-Vietnam\/dp\/0615874347\">Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.<\/p>\n<p>SERMO <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sermo.com\">www.sermo.com<\/a> \u201ctalk real world medicine\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist\/cardiologist My IPhone has a cute little computer. (Since the thing is seated right here atop my desk, I am obligated to be complimentary) And my computer affords me access to a plethora [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28867],"class_list":["post-112355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-doctor-curmudgeon-you-can-count-on-it"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112355"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}