DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

We have seen the future, and it sucks.

Archive for April, 2011

Is Cursive Dead?

30th April 2011

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Of course not — there’s an app for that….

I am constantly amused by the extent to which those who consider themselves — and are certainly considered by their friends — ‘progressive’ reveal a deep desire to abandon industrial civilization and get back to a Rousseauian primitive state in which we all sit around like Eloi and have a good time in a lovely world where everyone is happy and nobody has to see anything she doesn’t like. And they never seem to realize that the Morlocks lurk underneath and do all of the nasty bits and will eventually present the bill.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Is Cursive Dead?

A Blog About Bad Tipping

30th April 2011

Freeberg, as usual, says all that needs to be said.

I tend to agonize much more about take-out. I drive over, she swipes my card, out comes a paper tape for me to sign and it’s got “gratuity” on it — I’m not even looking at my food yet and here I am filling the damn thing out. What’s the food gonna be like? Are they going to bollux it up? Lose track of the order and make me wait an extra twenty minutes? If I don’t know any of this, then why am I tipping?

If a ‘gratuity’ is a necessary part of the price, then why is it not included in the price? Forced ‘gratuities’ are like taxes – they distort the market for a product and make it more difficult for consumers to make informed choices.

If I choose not to pay over and above the formal price of a meal, I don’t see how the ‘waitperson’ has a beef with me, as oppose to his or her employer, who is deliberately paying them a sub-market wage on the expectation that the customer will make up the difference.

I suppose this is just another instance of the ‘entitlement’ mentality that is dragging down our culture. Ah’m agin’ it.

 

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Libertarian Open-Borderites Refuted

30th April 2011

Dean Ericson speaks for the adults.

You kids don’t get it. You sit here splitting libertarian hairs, counting angels on pinheads, spinning out your abstract theories as if they mattered. Listen; in your open-borders fantasyland libertarianism is dead, dead, DEAD! And you and yours are dead. What the hell do you think happens when 100 million foreigners from around the world come pouring in here? They all sit around sipping espresso while discussing the finer points of libertarianism? — it’s laughable! Listen; they wage a merciless politics of my-group-against-all-others, a savage struggle of competing peoples to see who comes out on top and garner the spoils and who shall be plundered and ruled. For pete’s sake use your imagination, try to see what would actually happen, try getting your thinking out of the lazy rut of your precious ideology and *imagine* the reality.

Unfortunately, ‘movement libertarians’ (such as those who run–and inhabit–tReason magazine) are intellectually arrested adolescents, whose concerns are adolescent concerns — I want sex! I want drugs! I want rock & roll! — rather than the concerns of adults, and whose perspective is correspondingly narrow. Perhaps equally unfortunately, our civilization has produced a society so rich and secure that they have the room to bloviate in this fashion without being brought up short by reality, as would quickly happen in a more primitive state of society, full of evil men who think that others exist for their own profit and amusement. People like Mohammed, for example.

MORE: Yes, what would you do? Cut a road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER: Yes. I’d cut down every law in England to do that.
MORE: And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned on you … where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted with laws from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s, and if you cut them down … do you really think you could stand upright in the wind that would blow then?

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Libertarian Open-Borderites Refuted

‘Weather Is Not Climate Unless People Die’

30th April 2011

Read it.

 

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They Sure Don’t Make Pyrex Like They Used To

30th April 2011

Read it. And watch the video.

Most people probably don’t think of Corning as a crime fighting company, but when it sold its Pyrex brand to World Kitchen in 1998, the company accidentally made the illegal manufacture of crack cocaine more difficult—a fascinating example of unintended consequences.

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A Victory for Property Rights in California “Blight” Case

29th April 2011

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If pretty much any area can be declared blighted and condemned, no one’s land is safe unless, of course, they have a lot of political clout.

The trial court ruling is only the first step in an ongoing legal battle. California courts are historically very deferential to blight condemnations, and it’s certainly possible that the trial court will be overruled, at least on some issues.

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Royal wedding: Archbishop backs William and Kate’s decision to live together before marriage

29th April 2011

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Still anticipating that day when the Church of England gives up on that whole ‘Christianity’ thing as not being sufficiently hip and trendy.

Next Thursday, say.

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Is America Ready for the Return of National Offend a Feminist Week?

29th April 2011

The Other McCain does his bit.

To be unmarried and childless is the feminist ideal of liberation from male-dominated heterosexist tyranny. “Feminism is the theory; lesbianism is the practice,” as Ti-Grace Atkinson once boldly proclaimed. However, understanding that some women may not be able to attain the sterile nirvana of lesbianism, feminists have encouraged heterosexual women to pursue anti-family practices such as cohabitation, promiscuity, unwed motherhood and divorce.

Unenlightened persons sometimes object that such behaviors do not actually increase happiness for women. But the goal of feminism is not to increase female happiness. The goal is to maximize male misery.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Is America Ready for the Return of National Offend a Feminist Week?

Jihadist Website Cites Classified Information

29th April 2011

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A popular jihadist website has reposted a classified list of British intelligence agents, with names and the location of their postings. The post is the most recent example of Islamist websites citing classified intelligence data, released by whistleblower groups like Wikileaks and Anonymouse.org.

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Jihadist Website Cites Classified Information

Ancient Teeth Show Neanderthals Were Righties

28th April 2011

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Along with widespread right-handedness indicating that these ancient hominids possessed language-ready brains, humanlike inner-ear fossils show that Neanderthals’ ancestors could hear all the sounds employed in modern tongues, Frayer asserts.

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Nine Americans Methodically Killed By Afghan Pilot at Kabul Airport

28th April 2011

Read it. And ignore the video.

An Afghan Air Corps pilot, angered by an argument with nine American trainers at Kabul airport, pulled a gun on the Americans, disarmed them and methodically killed them, officials said today.

The shooter then apparently shot and killed himself.

The Afghan military said the gunman was a 20 year veteran of the Afghan Air Corps who had gotten in an argument with the American trainers during a meeting in a conference room at the Afghan Air Force headquarters.

A U.S. official told ABC News they believe the pilot left the meeting after the argument, then returned and forced the Americans to remove their weapons before shooting them with a U.S. provided M9 semi-automatic weapon.

Must have been that ol’ Islamophobia getting him down.

This is the seventh time this year that coalition soldiers or Afghan security forces have been killed by either members of the Afghan security force or insurgents impersonating them.

Remind me why we’re still in that flea-bitten country. I don’t see a damned thing there worth the loss of a Corporal’s hangnail.

Posted in Living with Islam. | 2 Comments »

‘Government, Too, Has Trouble Selling Buildings’

28th April 2011

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See, here’s where Donald Trump might be an asset.

For more than six years Akridge, a developer in Washington, had its eye on a 10-story office building in Bethesda, Md., which had been vacant since the National Institutes of Health moved out in 2002.

But the federal government did not put the building on the market until November 2009. By then, of course, the real estate market had slumped. Akridge and its partner, Rockwood Capital, a real estate investment fund in White Plains, finally bought the building last October, paying $12.5 million, less than the $14 million asking price.

What? The Federal government lose money? But that’s What It Does!

Yet various obstacles make it difficult for the government to unload buildings it no longer wants.

For one thing they must first be offered to other federal, state and local agencies. Officials also have to ascertain if the building has a community use — say, for a homeless shelter.

I am not making this up.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

Calling animals ‘pets’ is insulting, academics claim

28th April 2011

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Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they insist.

Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned – who should instead be known as “free-living”, the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.

The call comes from the editors of then Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue.

I am not making this up.

UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg has a hard time with it, too:

I think my pro-animal views are pretty well known and I don’t want Cosmo to think I am a snake in the grass, but you’d have to be crazier than a loon, if not downright batty, to buy into this monkey business. I don’t want to rat these guys out, but they should understand that they are the canaries in the coal mine leading to the end of civilization. If we listen to this bull we’ll all go to the dogs. I mean seriously, don’t have a cow, man. I am all for treating animals humanely, but this is a horse of a different color. When I read it I felt like a deer in the headlights. This dog just won’t hunt.

 

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France Telecom employee sets himself on fire

28th April 2011

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Ah, those French; so impulsive.

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Turkey plans to build waterway bigger than Suez and Panama canals

28th April 2011

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He said the canal would be some 28-31 miles in length, 492 feet wide at the surface, and have a depth of 82 feet.

The canal, to be built on the European side of Istanbul, will link the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea and will be large enough for supertankers to pass through.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Turkey plans to build waterway bigger than Suez and Panama canals

UK: Three out of four benefits claimants are fit for work

27th April 2011

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… which would be more significant if there were any work to be had.

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French air traffic controller stabbed to death at work

27th April 2011

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The killer had stabbed him three times in the throat, lung and chest, police sources said, adding that the killing took place in a secure zone accessible only with an identity badge. Prosecutors launched a murder investigation.

The French, they’re so impulsive.

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Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target

27th April 2011

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That’s some fine Religion o’ Peace™ you got there, Mohammed.

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target

Vacaville Inmate Sues State For Sex Change Surgery

27th April 2011

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Lyralisa Stevens was born as a male, but for years has received estrogen therapy in the process to become female. Stevens was convicted in 2002 for murdering a woman in San Bernardino over a $400 clothing debt.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | Comments Off on Vacaville Inmate Sues State For Sex Change Surgery

LinkedIn Takes A Data Dive To Examine What’s In A Professional Name

27th April 2011

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With enough data, we can analyze the world.

Note that the #1 CEO name in Australia is Bruce.

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Municipal extortion and full employment for lawyers

27th April 2011

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Government service corrupts, and absolute government service corrupts absolutely.

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The Great Stagnation, in agriculture

27th April 2011

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Overall, it is neglected knowledge just how much the “Green Revolution” has slowed down since the 1990s.

Thank you, environmental movement.

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Libya: tribal chiefs call on Col Gaddafi to go

27th April 2011

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Any country that has politically significant ‘tribes’ is not a civilized country. Sorry, but it just isn’t.

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Do the Work: Steve Pressfield looks at the new publishing order

27th April 2011

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Amazon has something that old-school publishers do not: it knows who buys its books. Simon & Schuster doesn’t know that. Stephen King doesn’t know it. I don’t know it. But Amazon does.

Amazon has a database of the names and e-mail addresses of every one of its customers who has bought not only books by the actual author it wishes to promote, but all other similar books by similar authors.

And Amazon has permission from most of these customers to alert them when a new book they might like comes down the pike. That is HUGE. That’s a game-changer.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Do the Work: Steve Pressfield looks at the new publishing order

UK: Pub singer’s ‘racism’ arrest over Kung Fu Fighting performance

27th April 2011

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Simon Ledger says he fears he will end up with a criminal record for performing the 1974 disco classic at a seafront bar on the Isle of Wight on Sunday after two people walking past apparently took offence.

The 34-year-old, from the island, regularly features Carl Douglas’s 1974 number one hit in his set when he performs at the Driftwood Beach Bar in Sandown.

But after striking up the melody in front of customers at the weekend he noticed a man of Chinese origin walking past with his mother, making gestures at him and taking a picture on his mobile phone.

He said that he later received a telephone call from police – while he was dining in a Chinese restaurant – asking him to meet officers about the incident.

He was then arrested and questioned before being bailed.

Another reminder:

  1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
  2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here – probably in California.

Posted in You can't make this stuff up. | 1 Comment »

Fortress: The Transforming House That Turns Into Fortress at Push of Button

27th April 2011

Read it.

I want one.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Fortress: The Transforming House That Turns Into Fortress at Push of Button

Airborne killer robot destroys Libyan anti-aircraft missile

27th April 2011

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In news which will send a cold chill down the necks of fast-jet pilots and air forces around the world, it has been announced that an unmanned “Predator” drone has destroyed a heavy Libyan surface-to-air missile in Tripoli on Sunday.

And they said Flight Simulator was a waste of time….

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

Afghanistan jail break ‘an inside job’

26th April 2011

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The Afghanistan jail break where hundreds of Taliban insurgents escaped may have been an inside job, according to President Hamid Karzai’s office.

Oh, ya think?

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Afghanistan jail break ‘an inside job’

Man jabs crocodile in eye to escape

26th April 2011

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Gotta love Australians.

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African migrants set up camp by Paris Eurostar terminal

26th April 2011

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Hundreds of Tunisian and Libyan migrants have set up camp near Paris’s Eurostar terminal with the intention to pay their way into Britain following a French crackdown.

The problem with ‘open borders’ is that it lets the locusts through. Pass the popcorn.

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Hamas Paper Touts Benefits of Kidnapping Israelis

26th April 2011

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After all, they’re just Jews.

The last Hamas abduction took place during Operation Cast Lead, when Hamas members kidnapped an IDF soldier and held him inside an apartment until Israeli forces bombarded the building, killing the abductors and the soldier.

Yeah, well, these Jews don’t fart around.

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Hamas Paper Touts Benefits of Kidnapping Israelis

No New Neighborhoods

26th April 2011

Megan McArdle has some fun with a New York City politician.

Apparently, that’s what a New York City Councilmember wants . . . at least without permission.  He’s sick of real estate brokers creating imaginary new neighborhoods, and he wants it to stop….

I don’t know which is more characteristic: A politician trying to keep the tide from going out, or a real estate broker trying to recharacterize what’s going on.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on No New Neighborhoods

Where’s St. Al?

26th April 2011

Steven Hayward has some fun with Time magazine.

f you want still more indicators that environmentalism is totally passé, look no further than Time magazine’s current issue featuring their latest draft picks of the World’s Most 100 Influential People. If climate change is, as Al Gore (and legions of others) claims, the greatest threat facing mankind evah, why isn’t he on the list somewhere? Or Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the UN’s climate circus? No Amory Lovins? No Bill McKibben, or any other carbon crusader?

The only environmental figure who turns up on the list is EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, and that’s practically a gimme. Ten years from now no one is going to remember Lisa Jackson, come what may from the EPA.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Where’s St. Al?

The incredible floating fire ant

26th April 2011

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When in danger of drowning, a colony of the critters — thousands of them — will save themselves by joining forces and forming a raft. They pile together and lock legs and jaws.

So bound, an ant raft can survive for months.

Engineers studying animal oddities now report that together, the ants aren’t just stronger. They’re floatier. Airtight, even.

“Water does not penetrate the raft,” said Nathan Mlot, a mechanical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology and lead author of the ant-raft report published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies. Even the bottom layer of ants stays dry, he said.

The parallels between fire ants and public employee unions grows increasingly uncanny.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

Obama Blows Off Easter

26th April 2011

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I don’t think Obama is a Muslim, but I can understand why many Americans are uncertain about his core beliefs. This year, Obama let Easter pass without issuing any sort of proclamation. That can hardly have been an oversight, as he devoted considerable attention to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, a purely secular event.

Personally, I don’t care whether the president takes note of religious holidays or not. It would be fine for President Obama to say that out of respect for the separation of church and state, he will commemorate only secular holidays and remain silent on all matters of religion. But he doesn’t do that. On the contrary, he has made a point of issuing Presidential proclamations on the occasion of every significant Muslim holiday–Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.

Nothing suspicious about that, surely? After all, he’s done similar proclamations for Jewish holidays … wait a minute, I’m sure I can find one …

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Better Hand-Washing Through Technology

26th April 2011

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Because, you know, there’s nothing more important that we could devote space in the New York Times to discussing.

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Grocery School

25th April 2011

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If we bought food they way we buy education….

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Laser solution to damp spark plugs

25th April 2011

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It is a problem most drivers have encountered on a wet morning, when they turn the ignition key only to be met with the fruitless whine of the starter motor as damp spark plugs fail to ignite the fuel.

But the end of the spark plug could be in sight, after scientists designed a laser which can start combustion engines.

We have the technology … or will, soon.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 2 Comments »

France to require unhashed password storage

25th April 2011

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France’s new data retention law requires online service providers to retain databases of their users’ addresses, real names and passwords, and to supply these to police on demand.

There’s a reason why fascism originated in Europe.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

Gold Tops $1,500 Per Ounce: Now Don’t You Wish You’d Listened to Glenn Beck?

25th April 2011

The Other McCain indulges in a few Nyah Nyahs.

A little less than a year ago — on May 20, 2010, to be exact — I first took notice of Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner’s attack on Glenn Beck for encouraging people to buy gold.

But anyone with the most basic understanding of economics could see that the Obama administration’s policies were inflationary and so, despite Weiner’s attacks, if Beck was telling people to buy gold, he was actually giving them sound advice. On that day, May 20, 2010, the latest closing price for gold was $1,192.60 per ounce. As of this past Friday, gold was at $1,503.40 per ounce.

Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »

New Graphene Super Paper is 10x Stronger Than Steel

25th April 2011

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I’m thinking body armor.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 2 Comments »

The age of Obama is the age of envy and jealousy couched as fairness.

25th April 2011

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Obama’s politics of envy and jealousy worked in 2008, but were not the central theme of the campaign.  “Hope and change” was the theme, which amounted to nothing more than the delusional belief that a trained agitator from Chicago would be something other than an agitator as president.

As we approach the 2012 campaign, Obama has gone into full throttle envy and jealousy agitation mode.  The Obama campaign has made the decision that turning those who receive against those who pay is good politics.

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If Music Be Thy Dream Of Filthy Lucre, Press Stop

25th April 2011

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It is pretty cool, in a geeky sort of way: music generated by fractally complex cellular automata, in the style of your choice—classical, dance, rock/pop, hip-hop, etcetera. Every composition is unique, and can be downloaded as a ringtone. They lay claim to the copyright on all the generated music, mind you, raising the interesting question of what counts as “fair use”, but I’ll leave that rant to Cory Doctorow. What sort of saddens me about WolframTones is that it’s yet another nail in the coffin of ten million teenage dreams of musical superstardom.

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How to cut health costs

25th April 2011

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If Paul Krugman were a real economist, this is what he would tell you.

No, his Nobel Prize in Economics does not make him an economist.

Nor do his degrees from Yale and MIT.

He has the credentials but he does not think as an economist.

My proof.

From Paul Krugman: “Here’s my question: How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as ‘consumers’? The relationship between patient and doctor used to be considered something special, almost sacred. Now politicians and supposed reformers talk about the act of receiving care as if it were no different from a commercial transaction, like buying a car — and their only complaint is that it isn’t commercial enough.”

An economist would not write that paragraph because an economist would know that a patient is indeed a consumer, a person who makes decisions on this product line called medicine. As a consumer, the patient usually decides whether to buy medical services or products, when, where and how much.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on How to cut health costs

Pissing Match: Is the World Ready for the Waterless Urinal?

24th April 2011

Read it. And pay attention–this is important.

 

Posted in Think about it. | 2 Comments »

Christ Is Risen

24th April 2011

Whether you like it or not.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | 1 Comment »

Pandas and Lobsters: Why Google Cannot Build Social Applications…

23rd April 2011

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After researching what pandas do all day, I was struck by how panda-like we are when we use the Internet.

Roaming a massive world wide web of forests, most of our time is spent searching for delicious bamboo and consuming it. 40 times a day we’ll poop something out — an email, a text message, a status update, maybe even a blog post — and then go back to searching-and-consuming.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Pandas and Lobsters: Why Google Cannot Build Social Applications…

Adventures in Very Recent Evolution

23rd April 2011

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Ten thousand years ago, people in southern China began to cultivate rice and quickly made an all-too-tempting discovery — the cereal could be fermented into alcoholic liquors. Carousing and drunkenness must have started to pose a serious threat to survival because a variant gene that protects against alcohol became almost universal among southern Chinese and spread throughout the rest of China in the wake of rice cultivation.

The variant gene rapidly degrades alcohol to a chemical that is not intoxicating but makes people flush, leaving many people of Asian descent a legacy of turning red in the face when they drink alcohol.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Adventures in Very Recent Evolution

The Craftsman in the Cubicle

23rd April 2011

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Here’s my concern: We’ve lost much of this craft culture.

Hephaestus, we can agree, would be pissed about this current state of affairs.

Posted in Think about it. | 3 Comments »

Dead Suit Walking

23rd April 2011

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Capitalism has always been cruel to its castoffs, but those blessed with a college degree and blue-chip résumé have traditionally escaped the worst of it. In recessions past, they’ve kept their jobs or found new ones as easily as they might hail a cab or board the 5:15 to White Plains. But not this time.

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