When I first travelled in India years ago, conspicuous were the number of eye diseases, most easily preventable.
This is one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen. It makes me optimistic about the future of humanity.
India’s revolutionary Aravind Eye Care System has given sight to millions. Thulasiraj Ravilla looks at the ingenious approach that drives its treatment costs down and quality up, and why its methods should trigger a re-think of all human services.
You know driving is dangerous, but you still drive a car.
Getting killed by a terrorist is not in the top 10. Not in the top 1000 causes of death.
Why are we spending so much money and effort to stop the odd goofball trying to light his genitals on fire?
In 2002 the TSA had 13 employees. Today, 60,000 employees. Do you feel safer?
TSA and Homeland Security spending is obcenely wasteful.
From an excellent opinion piece by DAVID BROOKS:
… In a mature nation, President Obama could go on TV and say, “Listen, we’re doing the best we can, but some terrorists are bound to get through.” But this is apparently a country that must be spoken to in childish ways. The original line out of the White House was that the system worked. Don’t worry, little Johnny.
When that didn’t work the official line went to the other extreme. “I consider that totally unacceptable,” Obama said. I’m really mad, Johnny. But don’t worry, I’ll make it all better.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration has to be seen doing something, so it added another layer to its stage play, “Security Theater” — more baggage regulations, more in-flight restrictions.
At some point, it’s worth pointing out that it wasn’t the centralized system that stopped terrorism in this instance. As with the shoe bomber, as with the plane that went down in Shanksville, Pa., it was decentralized citizen action. The plot was foiled by nonexpert civilians who had the advantage of the concrete information right in front of them — and the spirit to take the initiative. …
Body scanners wouldn’t have caught Northwest bomber. Airport pat-downs are an exercise in futility.
How long before we in North America finally adopt Israeli security?
… Immediately after the first bomb goes off in the entrance of the airport. Before you take your shoes off.
I’ve just become a fan of mixing PomWonderful with water. Or, even better, sparkling water.
POM Wonderful, LLC is a privately owned company and brand of pomegranate juice, advertised as one of the most powerful naturally-occurring antioxidants sources. It is sold in distinctive double bulb-shaped clear plastic bottles. Its taste has been described as similar to cranberry juice.
The company was founded by Stewart and Lynda Rae Resnick …, who first became interested in pomegranates after purchasing a farmland property that included 100 acres (0.4 km2) of pomegranate trees in 1987. For the first few years, the Resnicks simply sold their pomegranates, but eventually decided to begin producing and selling pomegranate juice as well. The company first released its pomegranate juice products beginning in 2002. …
In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a “war on drugs,” the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.
A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government’s war on drugs summed up recently what he’s learned from his long career: “This war is not winnable.” …
… Growing numbers of Mexican and U.S. officials say—at least privately—that the biggest step in hurting the business operations of Mexican cartels would be simply to legalize their main product: marijuana. Long the world’s most popular illegal drug, marijuana accounts for more than half the revenues of Mexican cartels.
“Economically, there is no argument or solution other than legalization, at least of marijuana,” said the top Mexican official matter-of-factly. The official said such a move would likely shift marijuana production entirely to places like California, where the drug can be grown more efficiently and closer to consumers. …
Wall Street Journal – Saving Mexico
California is one of 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana, anyway. It’s easy to be prescribed legal dope there.
Assembly Bill 390: The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act … is the first bill ever introduced to regulate the sale and use of marijuana in the U.S. state of California. If passed and signed into law, marijuana would be sold and taxed openly to adults age 21 and older in California. …
Proponents are trying to take that to a statewide vote sometime in 2010.
I’m sure Arnold is thinking about it. An estimated $1.3 billion in revenue to the empty California tax coffers.
But the U.S.A. is one of the most conservative (backward) nations in the world. The romantic comedy “It’s Complicated” got an R rating, … “which experts say could limit the box-office potential of the Universal Pictures film — … largely from a sequence in which Steve Martin and Meryl Streep smoke marijuana.”
Producers have appealed.
This is a polarizing issue in a nation already split between Democrats and Republicans. It would be a gutsy move for Arnold to allow legislation to go ahead … if Californians vote to legalize. I think he should.
A telling graphic from the U.S.A.
Click through to see some of the factors – Gymnastics Coaching – what makes you fat?
Does poverty make people obese, or is it the other way around? …
… sickness, poverty, and obesity are spun together in a dense web of reciprocal causality. Anyone who’s fat is more likely to be poor and sick. Anyone who’s poor is more likely to be fat and sick. And anyone who’s sick is more likely to be poor and fat. …
… Did Bill Gates make us fat?
The facts suggest otherwise: Obesity tends to be highest in states where computer ownership is lowest, and that’s true even after you control for income. …
Slate – Why Are We Getting So Fat?
So says Brian.
He’s a Global Warming skeptic. Like these guys:
… Some global warming skeptics in the science or political community dispute all or some of the global warming scientific consensus objecting to whether global warming is actually occurring, if human activity is truly to blame, and if the threat is as great a threat as has been alleged. Prominent global warming skeptics include Richard Lindzen, Fred Singer, Patrick Michaels, John Christy, and Robert Balling. …
Of course there are pro-industry, right wing idiots that deny global warming as a knee jerk reaction.
But there are also serious scientists that feel there is not enough evidence. That the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has jumped the gun. Especially the “hockey stick” graph.
Read about critics here.
Or read a mainstream media article – BBC – What happened to global warming? That’s written by the Climate correspondent, BBC News.
You’ve heard skeptics before.
… But Brian now declares that global skepticism will be WIDELY covered by the mainstream media by Christmas.
Let’s see if he’s right.
We could go back to worrying about the next ice age.
Me, I’ve done no research at all. There are many bigger problems in the world occupying my attention.
Love it.
In launching a $50-billion lawsuit against tobacco companies, Ontario is joining what many expect will eventually become a national battle to recover health costs linked to smoking.
The governments of British Columbia and New Brunswick have already filed claims against cigarette manufacturers and most of the other provinces have passed legislation enabling them to make similar cases.
“Let’s be clear: This is important for the people of Ontario who have paid a lot of money for health-care costs directly related to tobacco use over the decades,” Ontario Attorney-General Chris Bentley told reporters yesterday. “We believe the taxpayers should be compensated for the costs that they have paid. That’s what this lawsuit is all about.”
After years of legal wrangling in the United States, tobacco manufacturers agreed in 1998 to pay state governments $246-billion (U.S.) over 25 years to help pay for the costs of treating people with smoking-related illnesses. …
That $246-billion settlement is not correct. It turned out to be well over $300 billion.
… And why is it that smokers do not consider this littering? Most don’t toss anything else on the ground.
I put the milk in the cupboard the other day, my first definitive act of senile dementia.
Perhaps I should be put down. I don’t want to be a burden.
I first posted about this movie May 22, 2007.
How could I have missed seeing it until now?
It’s a very important film. Especially with the Health Care debate happening in the USA.
… Sicko is a 2007 documentary … by American film maker Michael Moore. The film investigates the American health care system, focusing on its health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. The film compares the for-profit, non-universal U.S. system with the non-profit universal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba. …
You can watch it free and legal on Google Video.
It’s not a documentary. It’s Michael Moore’s one sided diatribe against the American Medical system.
But he got the bottom line right. The USA has a crappy medical system, overall. Sure if you have good coverage in the States (working for Cirque du Soleil, for example) … you are better off personally than someone working for, say, Cirque in Canada.
But something like 50 million Americans have no insurance. That is really sick!
People are healthier and live longer in pretty much every other developed country, too.
The case studies in Sicko are selective, but still well worth watching. (I want to move to France from Canada after seeing those interviews!)
Under the Obama presidency, something is going to happen in the USA. But what?
It’s complicated.
The best vision I’ve heard is that of George C. Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States. A non-profit.
… KP places a strong emphasis on preventative care, reducing costs later on. Second, its doctors are salaried rather than paid per service, which removes any incentive for doctors to perform unnecessary procedures. Thirdly, KP attempts to minimize the time patients spend in high-cost hospitals by carefully planning their stay and by providing cares in clinics. …
His most recent book: Health Care Will Not Reform Itself: A User’s Guide to Refocusing and Reforming American Health Care
Halvorson is a realist. Not a utopian like Michael Moore.
Listen to an interview with Halvorson on NPR.
In his movie Michael Moore neglected to mention that current systems in countries like Canada will soon collapse. They are not sustainable financially.
In 10 or 20 years how will the U.S. ranking compare?
That’s being decided right now.
Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
