In a recent internal debate, he said, one of his senior colleagues had argued that the hollowing-out of the American middle class didn’t really matter. “His point was that if the transformation of the world economy lifts four people in China and India out of poverty and into the middle class, and meanwhile means one American drops out of the middle class, that’s not such a bad trade,” the CEO recalled. Read more
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Links: Cosmetic surgery/Sleep/Aging/Health care greed/…
Girlguiding UK urges teenage girls to think twice about cosmetic surgery (24dash)
UK national survey finds half of women age 16-21 would consider cosmetic surgery. More than one in 10 age 11-16 would think about cosmetic surgery to change their looks. Almost half think the pressure to look attractive is the most negative part of being female.
Culture of greed upsets attempts at health care reform (Boston Globe)
No kidding. Blue Cross CEO gets $8.6 million for leaving the company. “I am stunned by the arrogance of Blue Cross Blue Shield and the entire health insurance industry to allow this type of transfer of income from the working class to the wealthy. Read more
The duty to be happy
By the duty to be happy, I thus refer to the ideology peculiar to the second half of the twentieth century that urges us to evaluate everything in terms of pleasure and displeasure, a summons to a euphoria that makes those who do not respond to it ashamed or uneasy. A dual postulate: on the one hand, we have to make the most of our lives; on the other, we have to be sorry and punish ourselves if we don’t succeed in doing so. This is a perversion of a very beautiful idea: that everyone has a right to control his own destiny and to improve his life. How did a liberating principle of the enlightenment, the right to happiness, get transformed into a dogma, a collective catechism? Read more
Exploiting vanity for a good cause
[N]ew anti-drug campaign may succeed where others have failed, grabbing teens’ attentions by appealing to their vanity. “The thinking is that this will give kids a tangible image of what can happen if they get involved in using hard drugs,” [Deputy Bret] King says. “We did want to appeal to their sense of vanity. It’s less abstract than telling someone they’ll get lung cancer many years down the line. This is something you can actually see right now.” Read more
Links: Dogs help children read/Becoming an MD/Overdiagnosis/Misdiagnosis/Patient modesty/An MD’s compassion
The dogs who listen to children reading (Guardian)
“Listening dog” encourages children to read aloud. “It helps with their self-esteem in reading out loud because he is non-judgmental. He doesn’t judge them and he doesn’t laugh at them.” Greyhounds are the dog of choice. Adopt a greyhound website.
18 Stethoscopes, 1 Heart Murmur and Many Missed Connections (NYT)
A woman (journalist/author) with a clearly audible mitral valve click volunteers to let second year med students listen. Interesting observations on doctor/patient relationship, learning to be a doctor. Read more
The complex signaling function of hair
In popular culture, to have white skin and gray hair is to be old (unemployable and unattractive) or menopausal (unproductive and unsexual). An attempt to retain their hair color (natural or chosen) is, for certain women, an attempt to retain a currency of employability, utility and desirability. Read more
Science is not about the Truth
The public has a distorted view of science, because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, science is not a collection of truths. It is a continuing exploration of mysteries. Read more
Obama supports Wyden-Brown bill
On the PBS Newshour last night, Judy Woodruff interviewed first Kathleen Sibelius and then Orrin Hatch on the issue (Sibelius being the Secretary of Health And Human Services (HHS) and Hatch the conservative Republican senator from Utah). Woodruff repeatedly tried to confront Hatch’s opposition to the proposal. She would cite a state governor who wanted the flexibility of the 2014 waiver option — for example, someone who thought his state could do better than the federal plan if it offered a single-payer system – only to have Hatch repeat, over and over, that the states can’t afford to implement health care reform, so there’s no point in talking about it. It’s all “bull corn.” Read more