Atul Gawande on the Boston Bombing

“Talking to people about that day, I was struck by how ready and almost rehearsed they were for this event. A decade earlier, nothing approaching their level of collaboration and efficiency would have occurred. We have, as one colleague put it to me, replaced our pre-9/11 naïveté with post-9/11 sobriety. Where before we’d have been struck dumb with shock about such events, now we are almost calculating about them. When ball bearings and nails were found in the wounds of the victims, everyone understood the bombs had been packed with them as projectiles. At every hospital, clinicians considered the possibility of chemical or radiation contamination, a second wave of attacks, or a direct attack on a hospital. Even nonmedical friends e-mailed and texted me to warn people about secondary and tertiary explosive devices aimed at responders. Everyone’s imaginations have come to encompass these once unimaginable events.”

:: Why Boston’s Hospitals Were Ready by Atul Gawande : via Zoe ::

This is a fast read that also gave me a sense for what “180 injured” really means and just how horrifying it was.  98hfns

Insanity Gaining a Foothold

A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with an Israeli woman who believed he was Jewish because he introduced himself as “Daniel”.

The court heard accusations that Mr Kashur misled the woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, by introducing himself with the traditionally Jewish name during a chance encounter on a street in central Jerusalem in 2008.

After striking up a conversation, the two went into a top-floor room of a nearby office-block and engaged in a sexual encounter, after which Mr Kashur left before the woman had a chance to get dressed. It was only later that she discovered Mr Kashur’s true racial background, lawyers said.

Wait, did he leave his business card? How did they catch him? This is my favorite line from the article

Although conceding that the sex was consensual, district court judge Tzvi Segal concluded that the law had a duty to protect women from “smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price”

:: Insanity via email (thanks The Meerkat) ::

The Reality Approach

You probably know that RadioHead just released a new album that people can pay whatever they want for. You can check that out on the RadioHead.com website. This is what I call a “reality based approach.”

In reality, we have to understand that it’s very difficult to control what people do. Since the album is going to be downloaded for free on the internet anyway a reality based approach is to make it easy for people to give you money.

This has been a pretty solid success. A recent new york times article reports that the average sale price is $8. The same article also talks about how economists are baffled that people would pay anything at all, if they don’t have to.

“Since we economists don’t understand tipping, we can’t really say whether this new scheme will work,” Greg Mankiw, a Harvard professor of economics, said in an entry on his blog.

ummm, just to be clear, people who don’t understand tipping are autistic douchebags.

Also, a lot of people are heralding this as the death of the music industry. I doubt it, but is anyone really surprised that both fans and artists are eager to get away from and industry that’s been a total dick?

Here’s another example:

A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.

…duh.

But the legal status of abortion did greatly affect the dangers involved, the researchers said. “Generally, where abortion is legal it will be provided in a safe manner,” Dr. Van Look said. “And the opposite is also true: where it is illegal, it is likely to be unsafe, performed under unsafe conditions by poorly trained providers.”

also, duh. Here’s an example of the Reality Approach from the same article

The data also suggested that the best way to reduce abortion rates was not to make abortion illegal but to make contraception more widely available, said Sharon Camp, chief executive of the Guttmacher Institute.

Also, people are going

Todays Fun Fackt: Tools of the Devil

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In the 12th and 13th centuries the church declared a holy war on cats, because….they were ambassadors of the devil. After two years of persecution the cat population in europe was decimated and there followed an explosion in the rat population…bringing the plague! Then the catholic church reversed its decision and anyone caught abusing a cat would be excommunicated.

–TitaniumDreads

ps I read this in a book called The Little Book of Bad Taste, I googled around a bit but wasn’t able to find a source. I did find info that a lot cats were killed because it was suspected that they actually carried the plague…

Finally, Now We Can All Rest Easily

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There are nearly 26 billion male masturbation sessions in the U.S., yet there are fewer than five million kitten deaths annually. Far from a one-to-one correlation, there are 5401.5 masturbation sessions for every single kitten death. This means that the average American man can masturbate regularly for 22.5 years before he is responsible for the death of a single kitten. Indeed, with a life expectancy of less than 75 years, the average man will be responsible for only two or three kitten deaths in a lifetime of vigorous masturbation.

glad that the good reverend could clear that up, I have to..umm…go now.

–TitaniumDreads

Beware of god….interesting story about taxes

This comes from my friend Melanie who lives in germany doing some manner of medical research.

melanie-taxes.jpg

Since I started at the University, I had been receiving my cheques from work
but not my paystubs. After 4 months of contacting approximately 1 million people and alternately begging, crying and yelling for someone to actually do their job I recieved my “Gehaltsabrechnung” only to find that I was paying 150 euro per month for CHURCH TAX!

Yes. If you are of a particular religious affiliation, the German government takes money directly from your cheque and gives it to the church.

Neato.
I am an athiest.
The German government now knows this.
I have been reimbursed.

::: original on flickr via Email {Thanks Melanie!} :::

One thing that I continually find fascinating is that nearly every other industrialized country takes an active role in encouraging arts and culture. My friend Shaun {the first person I’ve ever met from Tasmania} was just telling me that the Australian government subsidizes radio stations. He said that it makes australian bands more likely to make it big and be heard because they don’t have to get signed to a gigantic label if they want to be played on the radio.

I guess a church tax goes too far for me but I can’t quite figure what makes a church tax much different than an art tax….