Category: Interesting Links

Could Breastfeeding Become Mandatory By Law?, and Other Links

Could “food police” make breastfeeding mandatory? “A set of expectations that makes [mothers] feel inadequate no matter how passionately they attend to their children.”

Bush: “I Was A Dissenting Voice” On the Iraq War. “No one was more sickened or angry than I was when we didn’t find weapons of mass destruction.”

Personal drones — smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator — are the next hot technology. You can track celebrities, a cheating lover, or a missing pet.

Nov 10, 2010 | 8 comments | by John Goodman

Castrated Men Live Longer, and Other Links

Castrated men lived 14 years longer. But was it worth it?

Growing up with too many sisters makes males less masculine: at least in male rats.

Study: Authoritarian parents raise insecure children.

There are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world. Can they deliver health care?

Nov 10, 2010 | 7 comments | by Devon Herrick

Can Bacteria Treat Cancer, and Other Links

Can bacteria treat cancer? It is cheap, easy to produce and noninvasive.

71% of Republican voters want health care law repealed. Only 16 percent of Democratic voters do.

Secret rebates encourage doctors to prescribe a drug costing 100 times more than an identical drug. $2,000 versus $20.

UK’s NICE loses its rationing powers. About 20,000 patients die unnecessarily early each year because of NICE decisions.

Nov 09, 2010 | 6 comments | by Devon Herrick

How to Avoid Bed Bugs, and Other Links

Austin Frakt on how to avoid bed bugs. Useful information.

San Francisco outlaws Happy Meals. No more free toy with meals that contain high levels of calories, sugar and fat.

Are organically grown onions, carrots, and potatoes better for you? No.

Nov 05, 2010 | 7 comments | by John Goodman

Alcohol More Lethal than Heroin, and Other Links

Fred Upton: Over 4,100 pages of regulations have been issued since the ObamaCare was signed into law. A dozen new regulations were not even subject to any kind of public scrutiny before taking effect.

Why do insurers avoid low-income Medicare beneficiaries? Medicare payments are 8 percent higher for these beneficiaries, but the costs are 21 percent more. Got it.

Environmental regulations (e.g., trash disposal) are much harsher for big business than, say, for homes. Robin Hanson asks if it shouldn’t be the other way around. (via Econlog)

Nov 04, 2010 | 8 comments | by John Goodman

Four-Year-Old Sued for Bicycle Accident, and Other Links

Four-year-old sued for bicycle accident. Did he act as a reasonable four-year-old would have acted under…?

Best place to store vitamins. It’s not the medicine cabinet.

Is a barbershop a good place to check blood pressure? In some African American communities apparently, yes.

Dental therapists can practice “safe, competent, appropriate” dentistry. At least in Alaska.

Nov 04, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman

Taxpayers to Spend $200 Million a Day on President’s Trip to Mumbai, and Other Links

The US will spend $200 million a day on President Barack Obama’s visit to Mumbai. Who says there is a recession?

Dead person elected in California. Think about it: how much harm can she do?

David Friedman says divided government is good.

What we’re up against. Courtesy of Greg Mankiw.

Nov 03, 2010 | 8 comments | by John Goodman

AZ and OK Voters Opt Out of Individual Mandate, and Other Links

Voters in Arizona and Oklahoma opt out of the individual mandate in the federal health reform law. Colorado voters stay in.

Primary care doctors worked an average of 53.1 hours per week and earned an average annual income of $187,857 in 2004/05. Income was 48% higher for surgeons, 36% higher for internal medicine and pediatric subspecialties, and 45% higher for clinicians in other specialties.

Why do Medicare patients living in nursing homes go to the hospital so often? Because doctors (and just about everybody else) get paid more when that happens. (HT to Jason Shafrin)

Follow up: 24 percent of all hospitalizations for long‐term care facility residents in 2006 were potentially preventable. (HP to Jason Shafrin)

Nov 03, 2010 | 7 comments | by John Goodman

Scientists Discover Liberal Gene, and Other Links

There is a liberal gene. It’s a dopamine receptor called DRD4.

Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf recently predicted that the federal health reform law will cause a half-percentage point drop in labor supply. That’s equivalent to 698,575 full-time jobs.

The federal government has paid out more than $1 billion in checks to about 250,000 dead people over a decade. Sen. Coburn: “Washington paid for dead people’s prescriptions and wheelchairs, subsidized their farms, helped pay their rent, and even chipped in for their heating and air conditioning bills.”

Some doctors use genetic tests to help manage their patients’ care. There are 1,956 diseases for which genetic tests are on the market.

Nov 02, 2010 | 5 comments | by John Goodman

Woman Robot Looks Human, and Other Links

Woman robot. She looks so human it’s scary. (HT to Tyler Cowen)

Mobile phone facial-recognition technology will sense how you are feeling.

Mentally ill children are increasingly being turned away from some Massachusetts hospitals’ psychiatric wards. Medicaid and some private payers don’t pay enough.

Nov 02, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman