Saturday, December 19th, 2015
Atul Gawande, - The New Yorker
Stephan: Our Illness Profit System, is the most costly in the world by a wide margin. Yet it produces indifferent results, the United States ranks 37th in the world, according to the World Health Organization. On the basis of data, as this report describes, the source of most of this problem is that the system is profit based. Wellness is a secondary priority at best and, indeed, the data shows that illness is more profitable.
Credit: report.president.msu.edu
The more expensive it is, the better it must be. That’s how people used to think about health-care costs. As has become apparent in recent years, however, this is flat wrong. The costs of care vary wildly depending on where you live—by three hundred per cent or more, as I reported in “The Cost Conundrum,” in 2009. And research has found no consistent relationship between cost and quality across the country. Some of the most expensive places are among the most mediocre.
But nearly all this research was based on the analysis of government insurance programs, especially Medicare, the program for the elderly. Private insurers do not have to make information on whom they pay, how much, or what they pay for publicly available. Only government insurance programs do. A fascinating study out this week, however, manages to crack open the black box of private insurance. It analyzes payment data compiled, for the first time, from three of the […]
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Friday, December 18th, 2015
Laura Bassett, Senior Politics Reporter - The Huffington Post
Stephan: Did you think the United States led the way in gender fairness and equality? Be honest, you probably did. Read this report; it may change your views.
The delegates, about whose experiences this story is based "were shocked by many things they saw in the U.S., perhaps the biggest surprise of their trip, they said, was learning that women in the country don't seem to know what they're missing."
Human rights experts Eleonora Zielinska (left), Alda Facio (center) and Frances Raday (right) visited the United States in December to assess gender equality.
Credit: Lt. Gov Kay Ivey/Guillermo Padres Elias/Flickr
A delegation of human rights experts from Poland, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica spent 10 days this month touring the United States so they can prepare a report on the nation’s overall treatment of women. The three women, who lead a United Nations working group on discrimination against women, visited Alabama, Texas and Oregon to evaluate a wide range of U.S. policies and attitudes, as well as school, health and prison systems.
The delegates were appalled by the lack of gender equality in America. They found the U.S. to be lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas, including its 23 percent gender pay gap, maternity leave, affordable child care and the […]
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Friday, December 18th, 2015
Ian Millhiser, - Think Progress
Stephan: I have been rethinking the Republican debate the other night, and the extraordinary emphasis on fear that was its main takeaway. What has amazed me is that corporate media has completely abandoned any objectivity. It's not just that CNN and MSNBC and FOX basically have become arms of the Trump propaganda machine, but that there is no sense of proportion or context in their coverage. In all this terrorism hysteria, why is it do you think that we aren't hearing about the 92 people a day being shot and murdered by other Americans? Why is it none of the television talking heads are pointing out you are more likely to be killed by lightning stroke than by terrorists. Here are some other comparisons.
You should be very afraid.
That was the overarching theme of Tuesday night’s Republican presidential candidates’ debate. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie warned that “everywhere is a target for terrorists.” Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson proclaimed that “our nation is in grave danger.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz claimed, contrary to evidence, that America is “admitting jihadists as refugees.” Even moderator Wolf Blitzer got into the fear game, saying that “Americans are clearly more afraid today than at any time since 9/11.”
By the end of the night, it was tempting to collapse into the fetal position to await your inevitable demise at the hands of a terrorist.
The reality, however, is that domestic terror attacks are rare, and few Americans die from such attacks. According to CNN, “between 2001 and 2013, there were 3,030 people killed in domestic acts of terrorism.” That works out to about 253 deaths per year. By contrast, here are a list of ten common objects — many of which you could probably find in your own home! — that are more likely to kill you than a terrorist attack.
Swimming Pools
CREDIT: Shutterstock
Between 2005-2009, there were “there were
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Friday, December 18th, 2015
Jake Richardson , - Clean Technica
Stephan: Germany has been leading the way into alternatives, here is an update on what they are doing with wind.
Wind power production in Germany is at record levels — so high that electricity from it tied with electricity from lignite-burning power plants in the month of November. Both were reported to have generated 11.4 TWh, though the final official stats won’t be published until 2016.
The other electricity sources were:
- Hard coal – 8.6 TWh
- Nuclear – 7.4 TWh
- Gas – 3.6 TWh
(Of course, if one were to combine lignite and hard coal, that would be the #1 source of electricity in the country.)
Overall, for that month, wind generated about 23% of Germany’s electricity.
One German state already generates more than 100% of its electricity from renewables, so it isn’t unreasonable to wonder how many others might achieve this figure as well. (Wind power plays a prominent role there – reportedly, over 1,600 wind turbines are in operation in the state.)
Another title for this article might have been, “Wind Power in Germany Blows Nuclear Power Out Of The Water,” but perhaps that is no longer surprising. What seems to be surprising is the speed at which energy storage is emerging in Germany, but this too may actually be logical considering that it could solve the wind and solar power intermittency problem, which […]
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Friday, December 18th, 2015
Stephan: Dogs are just as nice as you thought they were. Here's the research.
Human beings are one of only a handful of “prosocial” animals — meaning we volunteer to help or share with others, even when there might not directly be any benefit to ourselves. Primates are also prosocial, and experimental studies have shown that rats and jackdaws might be, too. Now, thanks to a study out of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, researchers believe we should be including dogs on that list.
In the study, researchers conducted a test “in which the dogs had to pull trays and decide whether a second dog would retrieve a treat or not”:
In the test, the donor dogs used their mouths to pull a string to bring a tray toward a second dog. They could choose either an empty tray or a tray containing a treat on the partner’s side […] At the end of each test run, the researchers conducted another test to show that the donor dogs knew what pulling the tray meant. They allowed the donor dogs to pull on a tray to give themselves a treat, and all dogs did just that. [Science Daily]
Once researchers had controlled […]
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