- US Healthcare vs. the Rest of the World – To the people who think that healthcare in the US isn’t broken… or #ilovethenhs.
Tag: Health
- Sinclair ZX81: 30 years old tomorrow – “Tomorrow, 5 March 2011, marks the 30th anniversary of the arrival of the machine that did more to awaken ordinary Britons to the possibilities offered by home computing: the Sinclair ZX81.” Given my domain name, I had to link to this.
- Bill Gates Says Anti-Vaccine Autism Groups “Kill Children” — And He’s Right – “And it is dangerously idiotic when the bad choice in question kills children.”
- Google Android Personal Thoughts – “Uniformity is not a word you’ll find in Android’s dictionary. How about the fact that the application icons aren’t the same size. Uh, why? Since there’s no transparent padding around the icons … there’s no uniformity in the touch areas when you go to tap on an icon.” These things probably don’t seem important to Google but the attention to detail is what makes the iPhone (usually) a pleasure to use. I’ve not used an Android handset but these things would bug me pretty quickly.
- Japanese Photographer Bends Electricity to His Will – Beautiful.
- The Cost of Care – Nice graphic showing the relationship between the cost of healthcare and life-expectancy.
- US switch to new lethal injection scrutinised – However you do it, killing people is a cruel and unusual punishment.
- Rudiments of Language Discovered in Monkeys – “Lemasson … suspects that a dense jungle environment drove the evolution of syntax. Since the monkeys had trouble seeing each other, they compensated by talking.”
- Google DNS – Why would Google make their own DNS service if there’s no direct way to sell advertising from it?
- “The Government” – “Try something. Every time somebody complains about the evils or failings of ’the government,’ strike out ’the government’ and see what results.” (via @marcoarment)
- People get red-dy – “The idea of a ginger festival may sound like little more than a bit of fun, but when 3,000 redheads came together for a recent gathering it became a bonding experience.”
- Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. – “It’s not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It’s as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.”
- Mind the staff – A photo of a member of staff at every London Underground station. Neat idea.
- The Pain of Being a Redhead – Green is not the only colour that it’s not easy being…
- Government rubbishes ID card hack report – “This story is rubbish.” A not very reassuring response to yesterdays story that it was possible to both clone and change the details on the new ID cards.
- UK ID Card Technology Cloned… – “… in 12 minutes.” Wonder when the government will get the message that ID cards are a bad idea. Oh, and there’s no such thing as unforgeable.
- The hidden truth behind drug company profits – “The idea of ring-fencing life-saving medical knowledge so a few people can profit from it is one of the great grotesqueries of our age. We have to tear down this sick system – so the sick can live.” Big companies and the patent system effectively kill the poorest and most vulnerable people.
- Bodega – Interesting idea: an app store for the Mac. Not run by Apple and hence no crazy review process!
- Ryanair’s New Emergency Instructions Could Be Real One Day – Funny. Though we probably shouldn’t give them ideas.
- Liberal Democrats – Freedom Bill 2009 – I didn’t hear about this first time around, but it sounds like a good idea. As one of the commenters noted, even if it doesn’t go anywhere it might make the Government justify why these laws are needed when there are perfectly good, less draconian one already in place.
- Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss – “People who do things badly … are usually supremely confident of their abilities — more confident, in fact, than people who do things well.” I can’t actually remember how I stumbled across this link any more, but it makes fascinating reading. Does kind of make you a little paranoid, though.
- 10 Geeky Tricks for Getting Out of Bed in the Morning – I should probably read this more closely when I’m properly awake. I’m getting worse and worse at getting up in the morning…
- Scientists Agree: It’s in His Kiss – “Over 90 percent of human society engages in what, if you get right down to it, seems like a very strange thing to do: putting faces together and trading spit.” Seems like a very appropriate thing to discuss on Valentine’s Day…
- Anti-Bootlegging Measures and the iPhone App Store – There’s a lot of talk about cracked iPhone apps at the moment and the measures that developers are taking. The interesting and surprising thing here is how effective a polite message is, at least in the case of a Mac app.
- 1234567890 Day – Finally, an event worth celebrating…
- China’s three-horse mobile bet: Repeating America’s mistakes – “We’ve seen from the last big experiment in multiple standards that competition doesn’t always lead to more choice and lower prices. That experiment was the US – the place that leads in technology, internet and computer design, yet trails in mobile phone technology.”
- ‘Visions link’ to coffee intake – My alma mater finds a connection between coffee and hallucinations. I was saying the same thing to a pink elephant only the other day…
- Pound shop forced to close – after 99p store opens across the road – In a recession every penny counts I suppose! Not in The Onion or Newsbiscuit as you might imagine… (Via @antairgames)