j7uy5 | April 9, 2007Ordinarily,
I dislike fisking as a literary style, but it does have its
place. This is one of them. As noted in the two
previous posts,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/04/health_care_debate.php">(Part
One,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/04/health_care_debate_part_two.php">Part
Two) some authors from the Cato Institute managed to get an
opinion piece published in the LA Times:
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-tanner5apr05,1,6553974.story?ctrack=2&cset=true">Universal
healthcare's dirty little secrets. In…
j7uy5 | April 8, 2007In
order to make sense of this post, you probably need to read
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/04/health_care_debate.php">Part
One
first.
This is about an opinion piece that was published in the LA Times,
written by some advocates from the
rel="tag">Cato Institute:
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-tanner5apr05,1,6553974.story?ctrack=2&cset=true">Universal
healthcare's dirty little secrets.
Let me get one thing out of the way first. The title is
bullshit. (Yes, that is how I really feel.) There
is nothing dirty, there is…
j7uy5 | April 8, 2007This
was at Barnes and Noble, in
href="http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/">Linux User &
Developer. I learned that
href="http://www.peugeot.com/">Peugot (the
second-largest auto maker in Europe) plans to install Linux for their
2,500 servers. That is not particularly surprising.
What is more, they plan to install Linux on their 20,000
desktop machines!
The
href="http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/studies/publications.htm"
rel="tag">European Commission has published a
study:
href="http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf">Study
on the…
j7uy5 | April 7, 2007It is
charitable to call it a "debate" about health care. It is
really a flame war with a veneer of civility.
It started with an opinion piece published in what is ordinarily a
respectable publication: the Los Angles Times (free registration
required). Two bloggers jumped on it. Then the
comments came in.
The bloggers who weighed in on this,
href="http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/ezra_klein_heal.html">Brad
DeLong
and
href="http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/health_insuranc.html"
rel="tag">Ezra Klein, both
correctly identified the argument as deeply flawed. But…
j7uy5 | April 7, 2007
Obviously a follow-up to my last post,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/04/why_blog.php">Why
Blog?
Like the Why Blog? post, this is partly a repetition of something I
posted before, at least once. But some of these points bear
repeating, if only to remind myself.
One thing is that I always use an
href="http://www.nvu.com/index.php">free-standing editor
to write posts. The reason is simple: it lets me save
frequently, and to save to my own disk. I'm less likely to
lose something I'd rather not lose. Of course I also use
Firefox, too. No need to elaborate on…
j7uy5 | April 5, 2007This
is the meme of the moment here, as started by
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/04/why_do_you_blog_meme.php">Blog
Around the Clock
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">;
href="http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/04/why_do_you_blog_meme.php">Deep
Sea News,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2007/04/why_blog.php">Aardvarchaeology,
and
href="http://scienceblogs.com/signout/2007/04/why_do_i_blog.php">Signout
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/04/why_do_you_blog_meme.php">have
joined in.
Of…
j7uy5 | April 4, 2007 I
was just reading about
href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2109401,00.asp">Firefox
3.0,
which is supposed to have features that would simplify building and
using web-based applications. I'll be curious to see how this
plays
out. Will it make things leaner and more efficient, or just
lead to
more bloated stuff? Could go either way.
With planning, it could be flexible. If you want bells and
whistles,
you can get them. If not, leave them out. That is
how software ought
to be. Half to wait until the second half of the year just to
see the beta, though, and longer to see…
j7uy5 | April 3, 2007Wikipedia's
Image of the Day is a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Desinsertion_du_muscle_CO.jpg">photograph
of eye surgery. It is pretty cool, but only if you
like that kind of thing. I won't impose it on those who might
not want to see it.
j7uy5 | April 3, 2007
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">This is
one of the first publications that I subscribed to, after
Popular Electronics, and maybe Mad Magazine. I must confess
that I have not renewed the subscription, but from time to time I check
their website.
There is a bunch of good skeptical writing in the Blogosphere, but so
far nothing matches the quality and expertise you will find in
Skeptical Inquirer. Plus, they have a long and distinguished
history, which no blog has.
This issue, they feature a tribute to
href="http://www.csicop.org/si/2007-01/sagan.html" rel="tag">Carl
Sagan…
j7uy5 | April 2, 2007
A few days ago, a couple of ScienceBloggers, (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/03/british_government_was_advised.php">Tim
Lambert and
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/03/ministers_were_told.php">I)
wrote about the startling revelation the the British government's
science advisors informed Tony Blair that what he was about to do was
going to be a mistake.
The leading UK medical journal, The Lancet, had
published a study that showed a estimated 50% increase in mortality
risk in the immediate post-invasion period (2003-2004). That
translated into an…
j7uy5 | March 31, 2007A
while back, I posted about a nutty thing Eric Keroack said:
id="a026724"
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/11/premarital_sex_is_really_moder.php">PRE-MARITAL
SEX is really MODERN GERM WARFARE...
I was not the only one criticizing him; a total of
href="http://scienceblogs.com/sample/fastsearch?order=date&IncludeBlogs=49%2C83%2C3%2C11%2C8%2C55%2C64%2C10%2C87%2C60%2C22%2C80%2C15%2C78%2C52%2C4%2C48%2C45%2C63%2C14%2C25%2C53%2C69%2C50%2C42%2C89%2C5%2C47%2C90%2C71%2C9%2C62%2C16%2C38%2C67%2C43%2C73%2C81%2C44%2C79%2C23%2C7%2C41%2C46%2C17%2C61%2C82%2C54%2C74%2C85%2C70%…
j7uy5 | March 31, 2007Perhaps
a minor issue in terms of national priorities: the Senate is
considering a bill that would make nearly ll federal employees eligible
for telecommuting.
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032902043.html">Senators
Push for More Telecommuting
By Stephen Barr
Washington Post
Friday, March 30, 2007; Page D04
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Two senators think it's
time for more federal employees to be telecommuting.
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) have introduced a bill…
j7uy5 | March 30, 2007
A while back I started a series about the science and logic (and other
factors) involved in the selection of antidepressant medication.
I suppose I could put in the pinks to the first four parts,
but anyone can use the search box in the left-hand sidebar to search
for "selection of antidepressants" to find them. I suppose
when I am done I will go back to the first one and put in a list of
links to all the posts in the series.
style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">
The first four posts presented a top-down view, looking at the concepts
and principles used when choosing an…
j7uy5 | March 28, 2007
A few years ago, the more progressive elements in the Blogosphere were
pressing for impeachment of the President. They were upset
that the traditional media were not going along.
Prior to the 2004 election, when you could not turn your head without
seeing another poll result, major news and polling organizations
refused to even ask about the impeament question, saying it was not
part of the national political debate. In other words, nobody
even took seriously the possibility that the President could be
impeached.
Eventually, a group called
href="http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/…
j7uy5 | March 27, 2007According
to the Corporate Crime Reporter, at least 257
companies have "backdating problems." That refers to the
shady practice of backdating stock options, resulting in larger payouts
to those who receive compensation in the form of stock options.
But it isn't merely "shady:"
CORPORATE
CRIME REPORTER
At
Least 257 Companies Have Options Backdating Problems
21 Corporate Crime Reporter
14, March 26, 2007
At least 257 public companies have option backdating problems.
That’s according to a report released today by Glass Lewis,
the Denver, Colorado-based shareholder services and…
j7uy5 | March 26, 2007This
is depressing. Now the UK is misusing and distorting
scientific findings. I suppose it is contagious.
This pertains to the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_survey_of_mortality_before_and_after_the_2003_invasion_of_Iraq">Lancet
study that found an estimated 50% increase in the risk of
death in the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war (2003-2004).
style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">
I
could understand Tony Blair or George Bush, or any other politician who
does not know anything about research methodology, making an
off-the-cuff statement questioning the…
j7uy5 | March 24, 2007Finally,
we have a nice succinct statement from a politician on the
subject of health care coverage.
I know this is controversial, in the sense that, so far, the mainstream
operatives in both major parties reject this. Still, I truly
believe that if most people understood the issue, they would agree with
Kucinich.
Most
of the stated objections are based upon ideological concerns, totally
divorced from any sort of objectivity. That is the case
within the Republican party.
Within the Democratic party, it is probably more accurate to say that
it is concern about corporate influence…