Saturday, June 30, 2007

Who’s Sicko?

I missed this Wall Street Journal article from the other day. It raises more great points about Sicko, but also the lack of qualty health care in the places more praises in his film.

Consider, for instance, Mr. Moore’s claim that ERs don’t overcrowd in Canada. A Canadian government study recently found that only about half of patients are treated in a timely manner, as defined by local medical and hospital associations. “The research merely confirms anecdotal reports of interminable waits,” reported a national newspaper. While people in rural areas seem to fare better, Toronto patients receive care in four hours on average; one in 10 patients waits more than a dozen hours.

This problem hit close to home last year: A relative, living in Winnipeg, nearly died of a strangulated bowel while lying on a stretcher for five hours, writhing in pain. To get the needed ultrasound, he was sent by ambulance to another hospital.

In Britain, the Department of Health recently acknowledged that one in eight patients wait more than a year for surgery. Around the time Mr. Moore was putting the finishing touches on his documentary, a hospital in Sutton Coldfield announced its new money-saving linen policy: Housekeeping will no longer change the bed sheets between patients, just turn them over. France’s system failed so spectacularly in the summer heat of 2003 that 13,000 people died, largely of dehydration. Hospitals stopped answering the phones and ambulance attendants told people to fend for themselves.

With such problems, it’s not surprising that people are looking for alternatives. Private clinics--some operating in a “gray zone” of the law--are now opening in Canada at a rate of about one per week.

I keep hearing all kinds of horror stories from friends in Canada about the system there. And England’s National Health Service has only gotten worse since I lived there in the early 80s. It was already bad then. Yet Moore praises it in his film.

I think Moore raises some good points about the problems with insurance companies and so on, in America. But is solutions and alternative examples are mostly a lot worse than the things he criticizes here.

Solutions are needed. Just not his. 

Switching Species

Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) today announced the results of work on genome transplantation methods allowing them to transform one type of bacteria into another type dictated by the transplanted chromosome. The work, published online in the journal Science, by JCVI’s Carole Lartigue, Ph.D. and colleagues, outlines the methods and techniques used to change one bacterial species, Mycoplasma capricolum into another, Mycoplasma mycoides Large Colony (LC), by replacing one organism’s genome with the other one’s genome.

“The successful completion of this research is important because it is one of the key proof of principles in synthetic genomics that will allow us to realize the ultimate goal of creating a synthetic organism,” said J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., president and chairman, JCVI. “We are committed to this research as we believe that synthetic genomics holds great promise in helping to solve issues like climate change and in developing new sources of energy.”

if this is true, this could have all kinds of implications.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Powdered Booze

For camping, maybe? How about survivalist gear.

Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gram packets that cost €1-1.5 ($1.35-$2).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

“We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks,” 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.

Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour’s drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.

“Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16,” said project member Martyn van Nierop.

The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.

The World Clock

Who knows how accurate these numbers are, but this is a fascinating counter.

Review: Live Free or Die Hard

This may be the best Die Hard movie, including the first one. It’s over the top to the point of absurdity at times, but it is as fun as it gets. I was laughing and grinning like a fool most of the time. It hit all the right notes.

It’s also great to see an older John McClane still in the ass kicking business. Willis is in top form. Timothy Olyphant makes a great villain and the Mac guy was a good side kick. Kevin Smith also has a small role that’s pretty amusing as “the Warlock”. And uber-geek who lives in his mom’s basement.

This has been teh best genre film of the year so far. We’ll see if harry Potter can beat it. 

Conchords Rock

HBO’s new Series Flight of the Conchords is pretty funny. It’s sort of a modern Spinal Tap about two losers from New Zealand trying to make it as a rock group in New York. They have fantasies that become the rock videos in the episode. Here’s one from the pilot.

More videos here. Inner City Pressure is another favorite of mine. It’s a parody of the Pet Shop Boys “West End Girls”.

Great Strip

Side Scroll to read it. Beautiful art. 

Aye, Matey

Thursday, June 28, 2007

A 15 Year Old Girel Beats up Al Gore

You gotta love it. She made a great site debunking man-made global warming and Gore’s movie. I mean, it really is kidsplay to debunk GW “science”. 

Why Today’s Music Sucks

Aside from the fact that so many singers today can’t sing. They are “fixed” in the studio (hence Britney Spears doesn’t sing live). Many so called bands today are just using samples and computers to repeat notes. Leaving out the organic, natural feel of real playing. But there’s more. 

This video explains how the producers today ruin the sound of music.

This article goes into more details.

I noticed that a lot of today’s music, beside being atonal junk, it has this extreme noise level becaus eso many clubs play everything at the maximum loudness. I really hate that. Every time I get invited to a party at a club, I want to leave as soon as they start playing “music.” And I’m a music lover.

Rolling Stone documents the decline of the music business. They only have themselves to blame. Downloading isn’t the problem.