correction
There was a typo in my last post. It said 4000,000. It should have read 400,000 (4 hundred thousand). I added one too many zeros before the comma. My mistake.
Statistical Scam
It sounds dreadful. After drifting down consistently since last fall, the unemployment rate has suddenly shot up again, from 9.7 percent in March to 9.9 percent in April. But don’t despair: A rising unemployment rate is actually one of the best signs yet that the economy is bouncing back.
The unemployment rate rose for the right reason. Instead of shedding jobs, employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the strongest showing since 2007. The reason the unemployment rate went up is that a lot more people are suddenly looking for work.
This is absurd. US News spews propaganda to tell us why rising unemployment is actually good. What’s the matter with this picture? As many (most?) know by now the official governent unemployment figures do not count the “disheartened” job seekers: those who gave up looking. They still don’t have jobs and hence are producing nothing and making no income, but they are not officially counted as such.
The real take home from this is to ask why more people aren’t sick of being bamboozled by phony statistics. Unemployment = no job. Period. If the government counted like a normal, common sense person they may unleash truth on the populace which would wake people up to how bad things really are. We wouldn’t want that now would we?
The sad truth is that the economy needs to add >400,000 jobs each month just to stay even with retirements, death and population growth. Better to keep people entertained with bogus numbers though. Heaven knows what they might do with the simple truth….I don’t know maybe make decisions based on reality.
Ahh Philly. My old stomping grounds. I have a certain fondness for Philly, big city but small town all in one. And the history: great stuff to be able to bike to work past the Liberty Bell everyday.
But what the heck are they doing with this last incident?! Tasering a goofball teenager running around on the field at a Phillies game?! Come on people.
I am not a huge fan of tasers. I have heard some disastrous stories of healthy people getting tasered and ending up dead. Not good.
I know what the argument is going to be: “he could have been a terrorist with a gun!” Please. Maybe if the security guards weren’t so fat and slow they could have caught him and tackled him like they were supposed to. After all it was only 6 against 1. Quick kid.
Limits of Power
Most slaves performing most tasks were of course not paid, but were simply forced to work by the threat of punishment. That was sufficient for galley slaves or plantation slaves. But there were various kinds of work where that was not sufficient.
Tasks involving judgment or talents were different because no one can know how much judgment or talent someone else has. In short, knowledge is an inherent constraint on power. Payment can bring forth the knowledge or talent by giving those who have it an incentive to reveal it and to develop it….
The current leadership in Washington operates as if they can just set arbitrary goals, whether “affordable housing” or “universal health care” or anything else — and not concern themselves with the repercussions — since they have the power to simply force individuals, businesses, doctors or anyone else to knuckle under and follow their dictates.
Friedrich Hayek called this mindset “the road to serfdom.” But, even under serfdom and slavery, experience forced those with power to recognize the limits of their power.
Al Gore's new house
6 fireplaces. I hope they’re all just decorative. That’s a lot of carbon Al!
Time Bank
So how does TimeBank work?
First of all, there’s no money involved — only time. It all comes down to time credits and debits, which are recorded on the TimeBank Web site. The site is administered by Thompson.
The idea is that for every hour you spend helping someone, you’ll get an hour credit for something you need help with. The hope is that people will take it upon themselves to keep their time accounts roughly balanced, though Thompson stressed that in this bank, there’s nothing wrong with going into debt.
Services already being offered or looked for on the fledgling Roanoke TimeBank site include editing, yard work, car detailing, Spanish lessons, brochure and flyer design, knitting lessons, home-cooked meals, home repairs and Facebook page help.
“It’s an open-ended, creative process,” Thompson said of TimeBank. “The ideas are driven by the members themselves.”
The payoff is not only in things accomplished, but community building, backers say. The TimeBank motto is: “Weaving community one hour at a time.”
Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing | John Goodman | NCPA
Check out the comments. http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/knowing-the-price-of-everything-and-the-valu… —-
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Right on. Value is inherently a subjective thing and price fixing always distorts this concept. I like the part about how the author states that people will either pay with time or they will pay with money. This is an important concept and one people shoulder consider more. Time is the only true nonrenewable resource that each of us has so this shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Bruce, congratulations on the new practice. We rubbed shoulders a bit while I was a resident at Jefferson and you were at Rothman. Good Luck!
I wish I had an apartment like this when I lived in New York City. Awesome. Man’s ability to adapt is fantastic.
Vacuum Assisted Wound Closure on the cheap
No one really knows why, but for an open wound, simply applying suction dramatically speeds healing times. (The theory is that the negative pressure draws bacteria out, and encourages circulation.) But for almost everyone, that treatment is out of reach—simply because the systems are expensive—rentals cost at least $100 a day and need to be recharged every six hours.
No more. Danielle Zurovcik, a doctoral student at MIT, has created a hand-powered suction-healing system that costs about $3.
Vacuum assisted wound closure, in my opinion, is one of the most elegant and important advances in surgery in the last 25 years. Simply, it is a means of wound treatment in which a sponge is placed into a wound bed, sealed off with a thin plastic dressing and hooked up to a negative pressure (vacuum) system (A company called KCI currently corners the market). The continuous negative pressure creates an environment which is less hospitable to bacteria and more amenable to healing. Additionally, costly and traumatic surgical procedures traditionally used to cover wounds such as musculocutaneous flaps can often be avoided.
Great stuff. True innovation.
Stand on one leg while you brush your teeth
Simple things to make you healthier
Earth From Mars by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
“This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. (March 8, 2004)”
Perspective
What an awesome photo!
via whitneymcn:
Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano
Incredible.
Sad State of Affairs
This morning I came in to work to see one of my patients at the Dayton VA Medical Center. The main entrance was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. After talking with a few people I found out that an American, 28 year old Afghanistan war veteran had taken his life outside the VAMC this morning. I don’t know all of the specifics. I do know that this is extremely sad. This man was troubled and allegedly on a lot of pain medication. Is his being an Afghanistan vet and his suicide causal or correlative? Impossible to know. What I do know is that we are leaving this generation with a disturbing, unhealthy legacy of war and possibly mental illness. A recent USA Today article chronicled the alarmingly high rate of prescription pain medicine use by military personnel.
At what cost do we continue these wars? In 2006 the number of US service member deaths had already exceeded the total number of American deaths on 9-11-2001. I don’t know how many more Americans let alone Iraqi’s, Afghanis or others have died since then, not to mention the innocents killed. For a truly shocking look at some of the innocents killed see this link or this link. Are these innocent lives lost worth the “rooting out” of the “insurgents” “evil doers” ”war criminals” ”enemy combatants” or any other dehumanizing nickname du jour that the orchestrators of war conjure to rally support for a conflict with dubious grounds and ambiguous end goals?
Remember we are spending billions of dollars printed out of thin air (did they raise your taxes to fund these wars?), every year to fund these conflicts which the people did not consent to through the proper channels of representation (Congress never officially declared war). And it is impossible to say whether it has prevented conflict or incited further hatred against the US. Around the time of 9-11 there were a lot of people who felt we needed to understand the Middle East anger against the West. Where are those folks now? Don’t you think the terrorists are just as, if not more angry now? Where are the protesters? Were they only against the war when Bush was in office?
Our current president was praised for having a nuanced view of this complex issue when he received his Nobel “Peace” prize. I guess those are the words used to rationalize unjust murder. You’ve got to sleep at night somehow.
I challenge you to ask yourself whether these are just wars? Ask yourself what toll these conflicts are exacting on this current generation of 18-35 year olds. Ask yourself if the trillions spent, loss of life and limb and innocent “collateral damage” are worth it. Ask yourself if we are becoming more or less human by tacitly consenting to such conflict.
I know what my answer would be.
