JawsBlog

Among the many other reasons Bloomberg’s idea of a campaign for the ’08 Presidential  run is doomed to fail, is the religion card.  Yep, sad to say, that will definitely hurt him.

Imagine the ability to multi-task at work, having the eight appendages of an octopus with the gadgetry of Inspector Gadget.

(That was the thought of the day)

There have been government run data intercept programs that have gone by the code names of Echelon and Carnivore
Now the French government is paranoid about the possibility of the US intercepting communications via Blackberry 

Were such a program to exist–what would it’s code name be?

Nope, no plans on my part to see Michael Moore’s new “Documentary” on the US healthcare system.

Working in the medical field has actually opened my eyes up quite a bit to the way Insurance companies really work, and how the system as a whole works.

That’s not to say that Insurance companies are not without fault–trust me, there’s plenty of things to dislike about them. (Trust me on that one).  Providers can get just as frustrated with insurers as individual members/subscribers can, if not more so. After all, a provider wants their money, just like any other company would.  Oh, and the art/system of medical billing–that’s a story for another day.
However, one of the larger problems I’ve observed is that many Americans are simply ignorant of how their individual health insurance policies work.  Patients should know what a deductable is.  Or what “co-insurance’ means.  Is this day and age of the internet, many Insurers have websites where members can easily go to learn more about their policy–yet not enough seem to take advantage of this.

On related note, I’m in agreement with Mog about some of the government run healthcare ideas being floated in Congress. 

Looks like Israel’s hasbarah is starting to get some good ideas.

Take for instance a move that’s likely to score some major points amongst the male 18-35 demographic (not to mention the Fark crowd amongst others)  with their upcoming feature in Maxim Magazine of Women of the IDF
As if on cue, the Israeli Feminist lobby is expressing outrage. Seeming that the same kind of crowd over on this side of the globe who gets outraged at similar pictures,  are the academic-feminist types, who tend to lean hard-left (and mainly against Israel anyway)–the country’s PR machine isn’t losing out.

Especially when one compares what the Israeli’s are offering in their pictures compared to the surrounding Arab countries these days–advantage Israel

RINO usually stands for “Republican in name only”, bunt in the case of Mayor Bloomberg, formerly a “republican”< there should be a new term coined.  Something along the lines of “Republican by Convenience Only”–as that describes his partisan affiliations.

Jimmy Carter says that the US and EU should stop favoring Fatah over Hamas.
On the surface–he’s half way correct–the two terrorists gtoups should be treated the same way.

However, this being Jimmy Carter we’re talking about, he proceeds to be totally wrong in advocating negotations /diplomatic relations with Hamas.

The better idea would’ve been to treat both Hamas and Fatah like the terorrist groups that they are–and deny them both any aid, support or recognition.

I remember learning about different types of RNA in my biology courses, but things we’re never presented as being as complex as they now appear to be:

Economist: RNA–Really New Advances 

Sorry things have been so light recently.  Things at work have been rather choppy the past week or so, and hav ereally drained me.

Actually–what are some suggestions from the public for ways to leave “work” at the office, and not let it interphere with one’s personal life?

Oh no! Mice at Pinkberry on the UES (2nd ave btw. 881st and 82nd!

Everybody panic–because this means the inevitable swarm of annoying news crews coming to the area!

Though it’s right in my neighborhood, I’ve yet to patronize Pinkberry.  Mainly because of the price and the fact that there’s almost always a line out the door (literally) when I go by.

Personally if I’m in the mood for a cold refreshment, it’s all about the Slurpee (82nd and 3rd or 84th and York).  Mmm…..Sluprees….

To the Mom and the Dad (who gets a happy fathers day too)

To OF Jay

There’s a reason that certain disciplines (e.g. Math, Engineering, Physics, Biosciences, Chemistry) are known as the “Hard Sciences”

An abstract presented at last weeks Sleep 2008 in Miineapolis further hammered home this point.

Students with Medical-related majors more likely to have poor quality sleep 

Amongst the reasons given for this finding is the amount of studying that they have to do relative to their fellow humanities majors?  Or all the time they spend in the lab?

comes the following discovery:

Headline: “Paying Taxes, According to the Brain, Can bring satisfaction”
The headline and accompanying spin are misleading though.

In the paper, published in the journal Science participants were observed watching financial transactions take place in which their “money” was  given to a food bank (ostensibly through “taxation”).

Thous on the whole sounds more like charitable giving than it does taxation to say the least.  There’s likely to be an observed bias in people’s brains knowing that their giving money to a charitable cauise, whereas, taxes aren’t necessarily charity.

The title of this article seems rather obvious:

Study: Sleep Deprivation is Common Amongst Members of the US Marine Corps

“War is hell” after all–and it’s doubtful that on the battlefield, those fighting will get a full 8 hours of slepe.

After all–parts of their training and experience in boot camp is based on such.

A more interesting study would probably be to determine what duration of sleep would contribute to optimal perfomance of a Marine. (Though this would likely vary amongst individuals-a trend could be discerned or an evaluation mechanism created)
Perhaps DARPA is paying attention.

Survey: Users unhappy with PC Call centers
Yeah, tech support calls can be rather painful, but the worst in my mind have to be insurance companies.

That being said, some companies are better than others.  Some of them have really annoying IVR (interactive voice response) systems.  Others, the CSRs are really just  not helpful (to put it mildly).

But if the outsourcing of tech support is a problem–what about insurance companies that have outsourced
their call centers?  (No, names won’t be disclosed here)

Granted, my perspective comes from the standpoint of a provider rather than a member.

Input is welcome

Senators Could Revive Immigration Legislation This Month...

However, the public doesn’t seem to want this bill. The polls for the bill seem to be lower than Bush’s approval ratings

So why does Congress want to rush forward with this again?

“Secret UN Report Condems US for Mid East Failures”

How “secret” is the report if it’s being leaked to the Guardian in the first place?

Second, did the UN have any real credibility in the Middle East?  Aside from knee-jerk condemnation of Israel, what good has the UN done?

Very typical of the UN to blame the US (and by extension Israel) for its own shortcomings.

Bad–Office politics (in general)

Worse–Office politics involving girls fighting with each other/amongst themselves.

Yeah….been one of those weeks

”

“One is 95 percent certainty, and the other is…50 percent and a feather”

According to attorney Kevin Conway (quoted in the Washington Post), that is the difference between the scientific and legal burden of proof
(Via Action Potential)

With the differences in the terms of “burden of proof”, , it is worth pondering if/how science should be decided in a Court of Law.