There is a great injustice at the heart of the whole process of exploiting cheap labor to make the must-have googaws for the world’s affluent. Every suicide at a Chinese factory is an exclamation point at the end of that last sentence. Both the Chinese and international media know this, and so do Apple and HP and Dell and Foxconn’s top CEO, Terry Gou. It just doesn’t look good when your employees start jumping out of windows in steadily increasing numbers. It is a sign that something is very, very wrong in how humans are organizing themselves on this planet. We don’t want to think about it when we’re playing with our smart phones, or reading the new Wired app on our iPads, but it’s the truth, and it bears constant investigation.
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The South Dakota state legislature recently passed a resolution urging public schools to teach global warming as merely one of many scientific theories, definitely not a proven fact. The resolution cited a number of significant, interrelated dynamics affecting “world weather,” including “climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological” factors. It’s a good thing they pointed…
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When someone is having a heart attack, bystanders (outside of a hospital) are encouraged to administer life-saving cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The traditional form of CPR involves a ratio of 30 chest compressions per minute alternating with two mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths. When I learned CPR, students were provided with a sealed, sterile cloth for covering the…
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Each issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association includes an excerpt from an issue of exactly 100 years ago. (JAMA has been published continuously since 1883.) The May 7, 1910 issue of JAMA included remarks on how much physicians were paid and, by implication, how they were regarded in 2250 B.C. Ability to…
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The days of exponential growth for the pharmaceutical industry are past. Sales growth has been leveling off since the 1990s. Companies simulate growth by buying smaller companies and firing employees. What will Big Pharma look like as it moves into the future? FierceBiotech provides a summary of a forecast offered by industry expert, Steven Burrill….
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The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but for Anne Mitchell, the Texas nurse who was prosecuted for complaining about the unethical conduct of a doctor, justice is proceeding. The doctor in question, Rolando Arafiles, is about to be formally disciplined. (For background on this story, see Whistle blowing: Nurse Anne Mitchell vs. Dr. Arafiles.)…
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The “newspaper” The Economist originates in London, but it has a wide circulation, with almost half of its subscribers in the US. A recent issue contained a lengthy opinion of the health care provider Kaiser Permanente (KP). Europeans tend to regard American health care with distain. French President Nicolas Sarkozy commented, after the passage of…
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The Novartis gender discrimination trial has concluded, and damages have been awarded to the plaintiffs. Novartis must pay $3.4 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages. Highlights of the trial’s testimony included the behavior of one manager, Brian Aiello, who asked female sales reps to sit on his lap while he showed…
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Here’s an interesting observation on the associations between musical instruments and social class. It’s from Paul Fussell’s Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (emphasis and paragraph breaks added). There seems no place where hierarchical status-orderings aren’t discoverable. Take musical instruments. In a symphony orchestra the customary ranking of sections recognizes the difficulty and…
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From Tony Judt’s Ill Fares the Land: As recently as the 1970s, the idea that the point of life was to get rich and that governments existed to facilitate this would have been ridiculed: not only by capitalism’s traditional critics but also by many of its staunchest defenders. Relative indifference to wealth for its own…
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Data Underload #18 – Sleep Schedule (Flowing Data) A picture worth a thousand words. Diagram of the hours of the day showing when we’re asleep and awake throughout the lifespan. Sleeping (or Not) by the Wrong Clock (The New York Times) When your sleep schedule is out of sync with the rest of the world,…
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On Monday, news broke that Walgreens was about to announce a genetic test kit, available in stores starting on Friday. The kits would allow consumers to test for such things as how you respond to statins or blood-thinners; whether you carry genes for Tay-Sachs disease or cystic fibrosis; whether you have an increased risk for…
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Organic Foods Slideshow: To Buy or Not to Buy Organic (WebMD) A slide show with advice on when to buy organic and when it’s OK to use conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. Peaches, apples, peppers, strawberries, pears, grapes, broccoli, and more.. Organic: What it means on different products (Los Angeles Times) Is the extra dollar…
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In his recent book on the financial crisis, John Lanchester mentions China’s unprecedented economic growth, which has created a “hugely expanding, highly consuming new middle class.” China’s [middle class] went from 174 million to 806 million, arguably the greatest economic achievement anywhere on Earth, ever. Chinese personal income grew by 6.6 percent a year from…
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