July 2009
21 posts
How Medical Breakthroughs Happen: A Response to... →
“The truth, as anyone knowledgeable within the system will tell you, is that private companies just don’t do basic research. They do productization research, and only for well-known medical conditions that have a lot of commercial value to solve. The government funds nearly everything else, whether it’s done by government scientists or by academic scientists whose work is funded...
Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch - Richard... →
“I spent an enlightening if somewhat depressing hour on the phone with a veteran food-marketing researcher, Harry Balzer, who explained that “people call things ‘cooking’ today that would roll their grandmother in her grave — heating up a can of soup or microwaving a frozen pizza.””
“Two researchers at the University of Chicago estimated that switching to a vegan...”
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Ezra Klein - This Week’s Gut Check Column: The Meat of the Problem
British forces in Afghanistan: And the soldier... →
Best brief writeup on Afghanistan I’ve read.
The Big Fix - Can Barack Obama Really Transform... →
The Al Qaeda Paradox: Think Tank : The New Yorker →
“Al Qaeda has been up and running formally for twenty-one years now. By this point in the history of the Soviet Communist movement, Lenin had seized control of a great state. By this point in the history of Cuban Communism, Castro was in Havana. And Osama? He’s hunkered down along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, a fugitive “guest” with a price on his head, waiting for death, embedded in a...
Why are Americans fat? : The New Yorker →
“According to the standards of the United States military, forty per cent of young women and twenty-five per cent of young men weigh too much to enlist.”
Is long-term solitary confinement torture? : The... →
“EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement. In 1992, fifty-seven prisoners of war, released after an average of six months in detention camps in the former Yugoslavia, were examined using EEG-like tests. The recordings revealed brain abnormalities months afterward; the most severe were...
Matt Taibbi - The real price of Goldman’s... →
“One of the most hilarious lies that has been spread about Goldman of late is that, since it repaid its TARP money, it’s now free and clear of any obligation to the government - as if that was the only handout Goldman got in the last year. Goldman last year made your average AFDC mom on food stamps look like an entrepreneur. Here’s a brief list of all the state aid that is hiding behind that...
Mancession 2: Families on Stilts, Inequality « ... →
“Since the 1970s, family households have taken on an additional earner, but have less discretionary income. Why is this? Warren finds that fixed household expenditures have taken on a much larger percentage of the budget. This isn’t Warren trying to find a dark cloud to go with a silver lining. The business analyst in you should be jumping up in their chair – we see that the middle class...
Seth's Blog: How to make graphs that work →
“92% of all the business presentations made in the United States are done with templates created by big companies in Excel or Powerpoint. This is a horrible tragedy.”
Cost-Benefit, Non-GDP, Global Warming « Rortybomb →
“How much of GDP will we have to spend to get back an additional 10-20% of biodiversity? I’m worried that we are looking at Planet Earth as the sunk costs in these CBAs, and that makes me very worried, and being very worried makes me more willing to spend.”
Why Health Advice on 'Oprah' Could Make You Sick |... →
Rove on Torture | Kevin Drum →
“Karl Rove suggested that President Obama’s decision to treat captives decently will become an incentive for terrorists to join al-Qaeda”
The Health Care Blog: Healthcare as a Complex... →
Daring Fireball: Charging for Access to News Sites →
The calorie delusion: Why food labels are wrong -... →
Rands In Repose: The Words You Wear →
Code Red - Phillip Longman →
“given the scientific and ethical complexities of medicine, it is hard to think of any other realm where a commitment to transparency and collaboration in information technology is more appropriate”
Topless Robot - Bonus! Rob's Transformers 2... →
Hilarious.
cabel.name: Yay! Fireworks! 2009! →
Mercurial Bee is definitely my favourite.