March 2009
53 posts
StillTasty: Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide - Save... →
Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries -... →
“Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices.”
Food, Glorious Food Myths - Room for Debate Blog -... →
Our answer to secret torture prisons ought to be... →
“What we need now, therefore, is not an endless, politicized circus of a congressional investigation into every aspect of George W. Bush’s White House but a very specific, carefully targeted legal investigation of the CIA’s invisible prisons: Who gave the orders to use torture, who carried the orders out, what exactly was done, who objected?”
Some Truths About Guantanamo Bay | Lawrence... →
Watch as a respected public servant is consumed with (well-justified) rage.
Pathogens in Our Pork | Nicholas
Kristof |... →
Eww.
globeandmail.com: PM rips into Liberals behind... →
What a charming man he is.
Is our eyewitness identification system sending... →
Wal-Mart Plans to Market System for Digital Health... →
I have almost never read anything that surprised me more than this. “Wal-Mart, however, has the potential to bring not only lower costs but also an efficient distribution channel to cater to small physician groups. Traditional health technology suppliers, experts say, have tended to shun the small physician offices because it has been costly to sell to them. Taken together, they make up a...
Obama's $80 Billion Exaggeration - WSJ.com →
“Our culture adores technology, so it is not surprising that the electronic medical record has been touted as the first important step in curing the ills of our health-care system. But it is an overly simplistic and unsubstantiated part of the solution.” ++
Is the threat of climate change exaggerated? - The... →
Nope. Sh—.
Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay... →
“This shunting aside of the realists in favor of the fabulists has different effects on different industries at different times. One of the effects on the newspapers is that many of their most passionate defenders are unable, even now, to plan for a world in which the industry they knew is visibly going away.”
“Economists have only partly captured what is meant by trust and belief. Their...”
– A White House Seized By The Animal Spirits :: Swampland - TIME.com
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: The Best... →
Did Medscape use CME to illegally promote... →
“of the world’s 2004 soybean production, some 93 per cent of the protein was...”
– The joy of soy | Paul Levy | TLS
Julie Flint and Alex de Waal: To put justice... →
Alternatively: “There will be no justice in Sudan without peace. When peace and justice clash, as they do in Sudan today, peace must prevail.” But the bargain they propose with Bashir hasn’t worked. And if their point is that justice will follow peace, then Bashir surely (and we’ve seen this) has no incentive to pursue peace either.
Women, keep drinking | spiked →
“What is the real take-home message of this study? Perhaps it should be to avoid drinking policy advice produced by Oxford epidemiologists.”
Eastern Europe and the economic crisis | Insult... →
“If any west European country faced the kind of jarring adjustment now being experienced in, say, Latvia, it would expect political upheavals.”
Simon Jenkins: Get used to a corrupt and chaotic... →
‘Those dealing with South Africa must probably get used to Zuma’s style of government, morally contaminated, administratively chaotic and corrupt. It is a country whose continued support for Zimbabwe, Iran, Sudan, Burma and China has betrayed Mandela’s pledge for a “human rights-led foreign policy”.’
Should Amtrak Turn a Profit? | Ezra Klein →
“How about the money-losing Interstate Highway System?”
Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008 | Mother... →
“truly sustainable food must be not just ecologically benign, but also nutritious, produced without injustice, and affordable”
“I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The...”
– President Obama (via Obama the Socialist? - The Stash)
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart : March 4, 2009 :... →
Hilarious CNBC takedown.
How Appropriate Is Your Medical Care? - Economix... →
It seems clear that we desperately need more innovation in health IT before any of these things become possible.
Quilting Magazine Exposes Craft's Risque Underside... →
OMG.
What if real life were like Healthcare? | Musings... →
“The next teacher only teaches a small specialized subject. This teacher is paid four times more than the first teacher. Instead of teaching and answering questions, however, he is constantly making you take tests. Apparently, the school system pays a huge amount for making you take tests, but very little for teaching lessons that would make you do well on those tests in the first...
Twitter / TheMime →
“TheMime is using Twitter!”
Truce in Pakistan May Mean Leeway for Taliban -... →
via Wells. ‘“There was no skin on his back,” he said. “We had advised him, ‘You shouldn’t go, you shouldn’t trust.’ ”’
globeandmail.com: Bloggers, there's no Big Pharma... →
I agree to a point, but I also think Andre Picard drinks too much of the kool-aid.
globeandmail.com: ‘Safe havens' in Pakistan fuel... →
MacKay has been goofy in many ways, but in this he is absolutely right. The war in Afghanistan is only sustained by the presence of Pakistan, both as a haven and as a source of support to the insurgents. Steve Coll’s book “Ghost Wars” drove home for me that insurgencies are very difficult to sustain without external support.
Wall Street on the Tundra | Michael Lewis →
“Laxness won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature, the greatest global honor for an Icelander until the 1980s, when two Icelandic women captured Miss World titles in rapid succession.” Uh, and some economy stuff.
Where Those Cardiology Guidelines Come From, Part... →
Even better analysis of the cardiology guidelines phenomenon, with a detailed case study from the SYNTAX trial. The political conclusion, though, is bunk.
“DB and his colleague simply and objectively point out the potential drawbacks of...”
– Where Those Cardiology Guidelines Come From, Part I : The Covert Rationing Blog
GM is toast - Megan McArdle →
Oh, sh—.
JAMA: Reassessment of Clinical Practice... →
“48% of the time, these recommendations are based on the lowest level of evidence”. Also, too many medical journals are behind subscription/pay walls.
globeandmail.com: Constable's notes suggest an... →
“RCMP Constable Kwesi Millington yesterday faced the provocative suggestion that has been hanging over him: That he deliberately misrepresented the facts - that he lied - to cover up mistakes in judgment”
The Health Care Blog: Why and How Secretary... →
++++
Are the Europeans Dragging Us Into a Depression? -... →
“Europe is rapidly heading into deflationary territory—deflationary spirals being bad because they bring about depressions. Worse, the man who runs the European Central Bank, Jean Claude Trichet, seems blithely indifferent to the situation”. Interesting.
Alison Des Forges, a witness to genocide | The... →
“Mrs Des Forges called her every half-hour, late into the night. She heard her describe steadily more alarming scenes—militiamen going from house to house, pulling people out and killing them. Eventually, they came to Ms Mujawamariya’s door.”
Sudan's president is charged with crimes against... →
We should have stopped Darfur a long time ago. But having failed there, a precedent like this — the indictment of a sitting head of state for atrocious crimes — is a good precedent to set, and may prove something of a deterrent if it stands.
Well - A Hurdle for Health Reform - Patients and... →
Shitty article, good idea.
Healthcare Technology News: Reductions in... →
In Baltimore, No One Left to Press the Police -... →
“The commissioner was allowed to stand on half-truths. Why? Because the Baltimore Sun’s cadre of police reporters — the crime beat used to carry four and five different bylines — has been thinned to the point where no one was checking Bealefeld’s statements or those of his surrogates.”
France refuses to toast new government brochure... →
WTF? Can this be true?
Failing the test - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com →
“In Europe, leaders rejected pleas for a comprehensive rescue plan for troubled East European economies, promising instead to provide “case-by-case” support. That means a slow dribble of funds, with no chance of reversing the downward spiral”
The Health Care Blog: Health care reform : What we... →
The Health Care Blog: How to Win Docs and... →
Not as exciting as it sounds.
The Health Care Blog: Are We Mature Enough to Make... →
“let’s not be naïve about it – one person’s “cost-ineffective” procedure may be a provider’s mortgage payment, a manufacturer’s stock-levitator, and a patient’s last hope for survival”
Talking Business - Desperately Protecting A.I.G.’s... →
“It’s not as if this was some Enron-esque secret, either. Everybody knew the capital requirements were being gamed, including the regulators.”