Category: Interesting Links
Apr 22, 2010 | 11 comments | by John Goodman
67-Year-Old Woman Jailed for Pruning, Stem Cell Donor Siblings, and E-Prescriptions Now on the Rise
67-year-old woman arrested, handcuffed and jailed for pruning vines in city park. She didn’t have a work permit.
A religious leader’s misstep during a prayer incites a mob to storm his house, kill him and parade his head around the streets. Islamists today? No, Christians in the fifth century.
Parents try to have a second child to be a stem cell donor for the first. Is this okay?
Apr 22, 2010 | 12 comments | by John Goodman
Gendercide, Exclusive Art Auctions, and the Anatomy of Desire
In China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls. Worldwide, 100 million baby girls are missing.
Would you buy a painting, hoping to sell it after its price rises? If so, you’re unlikely to be invited to the most exclusive art auctions.
Men blind from birth have the same preferences as other men: They prefer women with curves.
Apr 21, 2010 | 8 comments | by John Goodman
Congress May Get Fined by Its Own Health Care Law, New Obama Risk Pool, and Changes in Flexible Spending Accounts
Congress finally reads the health bill and is nonplussed. Members don’t know where they are going to get their own health insurance.
New Obama risk pool will exclude everybody who is already in a risk pool. Premiums in the new federal pool are expected to be 10 percent to 50 percent lower than current state rates.
Bad news for the chronically ill: Starting in 2013 the annual limit that any employee may contribute to Flexible Spending Accounts will be restricted to $2,500.
Comparative effectiveness research may backfire. Because drugs affect different patients differently, eliminating the least cost-effective treatments could increase costs and harm health.
Apr 20, 2010 | 8 comments | by John Goodman
Preventive Care, Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes, and the Costs of Keeping One Man Alive
Nice essay on why preventive care (to be greatly encouraged by ObamaCare) will increase national health care spending. (HT to Jason Shafrin.)
Keith Hennessey: Why do so many Americans pay no income taxes? Because of Republican policies.
BusinessWeek parses a $618,616 hospital bill. The patient died.
Apr 19, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman
$700 Billion in Tax Hikes, Insurers Juggle Expense Classifications, and 9,500 Earmarks in This Year’s “Pig Book”
Apr 16, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman
Solution for “Frequent Fliers,” the Science of Laughter, and One Doctor Who Refused to Accept Her Own Death
Dallas has a solution for “frequent (E.R.) fliers”: Buy them a home.
“All language groups laugh ‘ha-ha-ha’ basically the same way.” Each “ha” is about one-15th of a second, repeated every fifth of a second.
Doctor who helped patients face death, refused to accept her own. She wanted to try treatments even if they were painful and offered only a 2 percent chance of survival.
Apr 08, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman
