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Good night, sweet Blogger.
14 March 2012
20 May 2011
Color Effect
My old friend Johnny shared this link on his Facebook: really old color photos.
I was struck by how humanizing the color was; these people felt closer than they ever had before.
Here's some black and white photos. Click them to see the color version. Clearly, I have no rights to these.
I was struck by how humanizing the color was; these people felt closer than they ever had before.
Here's some black and white photos. Click them to see the color version. Clearly, I have no rights to these.
03 February 2010
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
I just caught the end of 2001's A.I. Artificial Intelligence on TV. I had completely forgotten about it.
With last night's LOST premiere on my mind, the AI memory that jumped back so strongly was the resentment I had of people who thought the slender ones were aliens.
With last night's LOST premiere on my mind, the AI memory that jumped back so strongly was the resentment I had of people who thought the slender ones were aliens.
01 February 2010
move over Hugh, Michael's the new hair in town
Masculine readers, this post isn't for you. Avert your browsers.
Also, too-cool-for-sci-fi readers, this post isn't for you, either. Avert your wasted browsers.
My favorite Stargate character is Daniel Jackson. When we started watching 'Gate, I was in the middle of growing out my hair, and Daniel and I had some unfortunate similarities.
I could probably mimic that hair pretty well, with some effort. Even less fortunately, however, the resemblance is actually more prominent with Daniel Jackson from the Stargate movie.
So, I'm leaning toward ✂the cut✂. I can still stick with DJ, however. I like some of his updated cuts.
(I promise not to ever make these last two faces. I've tried with some friends tonight, and can't even do it on purpose.)
And, I mean, if Daniel cuts his hair, then so can I! Right? I'll probably end up with the buzz again.
Also, too-cool-for-sci-fi readers, this post isn't for you, either. Avert your wasted browsers.
My favorite Stargate character is Daniel Jackson. When we started watching 'Gate, I was in the middle of growing out my hair, and Daniel and I had some unfortunate similarities.
I could probably mimic that hair pretty well, with some effort. Even less fortunately, however, the resemblance is actually more prominent with Daniel Jackson from the Stargate movie.
So, I'm leaning toward ✂the cut✂. I can still stick with DJ, however. I like some of his updated cuts.
(I promise not to ever make these last two faces. I've tried with some friends tonight, and can't even do it on purpose.)
And, I mean, if Daniel cuts his hair, then so can I! Right? I'll probably end up with the buzz again.
29 January 2010
25 January 2010
frozen bananas are handy, with one caveat
I've been making Alton's delicious smoothie with some regularity in the mornings. I've learned some things.
The scale I purchased is en route, but I think I've lost a few pounds since focusing on eating both better and less and also starting the EA Sports Six Week Challenge on the Wii. Booyah.
- Frozen fruit is awesome for this. However, peel your bananas before freezing them. Obvious in retrospect – sure, but now I know exactly how difficult it is to peel a frozen banana. Difficult.
- It's a bit much for a single serving. I'm gonna chop the ingredients in twain.
- Frozen fruit deserves the "Ice Crush" button; particularly strawberries. Blenders are whiners.
- It's annoying to clean the blender everyday. Any ideas? A rinse isn't so hard, but all the sugar in there scares me.
The scale I purchased is en route, but I think I've lost a few pounds since focusing on eating both better and less and also starting the EA Sports Six Week Challenge on the Wii. Booyah.
20 January 2010
and now I'm asking for it
Obviously, this is all up for debate. Matt asked for my opinion. This is what I shared. Straighten me out!
Honest opinion: we should not provide "death care" or "slob care". That would change everything. Bonus opinion: focus on and reward people for wellness.
I attended a health care forum hosted by Bob Dole at the Dole Institute. It brought people from various parts of the health care industry (except insurance – that guy didn't show up, and apparently they rarely do). All I remember is that somebody – some expert – quoted a stat that something like 80% of health care costs for a patient's last stay (or maybe all stays?) comes in the last 3 weeks. That's death care, and I don't want to put my buck behind it.
If you don't take reasonable measures to be well, then I don't want to pay for your care. I don't know what those measures need to be, but they should probably be few and straight-forward. "Vegetables" comes to mind. "Corn syrup" comes to mind. Most importantly, they need to be auditable; it should be inexpensive and objective to determine if the guidelines have been met. Too many people develop chronic illness from their lifestyle and then that raises my costs. That's slob care, and I'm ag'in' it.
The government should either compete with, strictly regulate, or obsolete insurance companies. My suggestions above apply in the first two options. I don't know how to obsolete it.
Insurance companies manage risk by randomly pooling its subscribers to disperse costs. That's the origin of employer-provided care; the employer is an easy and (usually) effective way to randomly pool people. I think that model is over-simplified. Insurance costs should be hierarchical based on how healthy I am, right now (yearly re-appraisal?), according to my doctor. This appraisal should not include my medical history – just my current health and the results of that audit I mentioned above.
Primary care physicians should be paid more than specialists. Sure, specialists paid more for their education and are favored by supply-and-demand and such, but this is mucking up the system. It's upside down: specialists have the least contribution to a society's health, and yet they are rewarded the most. GPs are the front-line and need to be treated as such. Their clients-per-day are like students in a classroom and need to be minimized so they can receive the attention and advice needed for wellness.
Basically: reward people for a healthy lifestyle, punish them for an unhealthy lifestyle – deal with it libertarians, if you want insurance. Change the payment/appreciation of GPs versus specialists to reflect that emphasis on wellness. Make a regular check-up more viable and less expensive. Most radically: don't spend tons of money treating dying people or people with extremely rare diseases – it's just not as useful for the society, nor fair to the other people in that risk pool.
Also, reform in the insurance and medical services industries will have non-trivial consequences for any intimately related industries, including pharmaceuticals. Someone needs to research drugs, but that business-model is currently as messed up as the RIAA – it's all about intellectual property, baby.
Honest opinion: we should not provide "death care" or "slob care". That would change everything. Bonus opinion: focus on and reward people for wellness.
I attended a health care forum hosted by Bob Dole at the Dole Institute. It brought people from various parts of the health care industry (except insurance – that guy didn't show up, and apparently they rarely do). All I remember is that somebody – some expert – quoted a stat that something like 80% of health care costs for a patient's last stay (or maybe all stays?) comes in the last 3 weeks. That's death care, and I don't want to put my buck behind it.
If you don't take reasonable measures to be well, then I don't want to pay for your care. I don't know what those measures need to be, but they should probably be few and straight-forward. "Vegetables" comes to mind. "Corn syrup" comes to mind. Most importantly, they need to be auditable; it should be inexpensive and objective to determine if the guidelines have been met. Too many people develop chronic illness from their lifestyle and then that raises my costs. That's slob care, and I'm ag'in' it.
The government should either compete with, strictly regulate, or obsolete insurance companies. My suggestions above apply in the first two options. I don't know how to obsolete it.
Insurance companies manage risk by randomly pooling its subscribers to disperse costs. That's the origin of employer-provided care; the employer is an easy and (usually) effective way to randomly pool people. I think that model is over-simplified. Insurance costs should be hierarchical based on how healthy I am, right now (yearly re-appraisal?), according to my doctor. This appraisal should not include my medical history – just my current health and the results of that audit I mentioned above.
Primary care physicians should be paid more than specialists. Sure, specialists paid more for their education and are favored by supply-and-demand and such, but this is mucking up the system. It's upside down: specialists have the least contribution to a society's health, and yet they are rewarded the most. GPs are the front-line and need to be treated as such. Their clients-per-day are like students in a classroom and need to be minimized so they can receive the attention and advice needed for wellness.
Basically: reward people for a healthy lifestyle, punish them for an unhealthy lifestyle – deal with it libertarians, if you want insurance. Change the payment/appreciation of GPs versus specialists to reflect that emphasis on wellness. Make a regular check-up more viable and less expensive. Most radically: don't spend tons of money treating dying people or people with extremely rare diseases – it's just not as useful for the society, nor fair to the other people in that risk pool.
Also, reform in the insurance and medical services industries will have non-trivial consequences for any intimately related industries, including pharmaceuticals. Someone needs to research drugs, but that business-model is currently as messed up as the RIAA – it's all about intellectual property, baby.
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