December, 2006 archive

From Vulture Central:

Listen here.

From El Reg:

Two ambulance drivers’ unswerving obedience to their satnav system ended up turning a 30 minute hospital transfer into an eight hour, 430 mile wild goose chase.

The crew were supposed to be moving a male mental patient from King George hospital in Ilford to Mascalls Park hospital near Brentwood, a 12 mile journey, but a faulty satnav system directed the London Ambulance crew 200 miles off course – and they ended up in Warley, Manchester.

Sometimes, you just can’t beat a book.

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I grew up along the Atlantic coast. Hurricanes were a regular visitor in my youth. I have a four-year old’s memories of Hazel. Donna knocked out power for a week (my father dug a new well with a pitcher pump so we could have water).

I remember the eery sudden quiet when the eye crosses overhead and the view through the eye of the pillars of clouds.

But, since the late 60’s, no major hurricane has come up the East Coast of the United States. Yeah, people talk of Agnes and Camille, but they came ashore on the Gulf of Mexico; by the time they arrived in the East, they were just big, well, really, really big rainstorms. No wind to speak of, no storm surge. What flooding they caused in the East was because the rain just could not run off fast enough; it did not come from the ocean trying to occupy the land.

No one who grew up where I did would have built–or bought–the kind of condos and hotels that have appeared along the Atlantic Coast in the 40 of years since a major storm has come up the coast in full force.

Now the insurance companies are figuring it out–You can’t fight Mother Nature.

If you want to build there, you can’t get insurance. If you have already built there, you’re screwed:

A place near the water has been an American dream for a very long time. Fifty-four percent of Americans live within 50 miles of a coast.

This is the year, however, in which the big boys in global finance got religion about climate change. As a result, this American dream — as far north as the Washington area, and even New York and New England — is under attack.

The Gulf Coast was hit hard by two massive hurricanes in the fall of 2005.

Follow the money. Insurance doesn’t sound like a world-changer. It seems so banal and prosaic, like reliable electricity or clean water.

Yet without it — you want a place to live? You cannot get a mortgage without insurance.

You want a job? A commercial enterprise cannot run without insurance.

And you are not getting the insurance.

It’s not tree-huggers. It’s actuaries. They don’t care about trees, but they do care about losing money.

With apologies to Abbot and Costello:

According to Salon, this was written by James Sherman. According to YouTube, it was animated by moksanim.

According the quiz, this is me:

(with a tip to Phillybits)

. . . unless your boss is George Bush and your subject is ethics:

Bioethics expert George Annas has spoken at hospitals and universities nationwide about medical bias, AIDS, and the right to die. But it was a lecture touching on human rights and Guantanamo Bay that landed him in the center of a debate that some say threatens free speech at Philadelphia’s VA Hospital.

After Annas’ speech, given Sept. 28 to more than 100 people at the Veterans Administration hospital, the Department of Veterans Affairs received a single, unsigned letter of complaint questioning whether federal agencies should sponsor speakers who oppose current administration policies.

Administrators at the Philadelphia hospital appear to share the writer’s concern.

Chief of staff Martin Heyworth wrote in an Oct. 16 e-mail to the program director that if future talks in the series looked as though they might generate a similar reaction, “there might be some merit in canceling the rest of the series.”

Yesterday, the Local Rag considered several winter health myths, such as this one, and whether are based on truth:

Americans gain several pounds over the holidays. Not true – or at least it wasn’t six years ago. The average weight gain between Thanksgiving and New Year’s was less than a pound, based on a study of 195 adults who were repeatedly weighed from September to mid-January by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

It has been confirmed, however, that Americans think they gain more. In a 2004 survey of 1,000 adults by the Kaiser Permanente health plan, 43 percent of men and 49 percent of women said they tended to gain “a few pounds” during the holiday season.

The analysis is mythical.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
1 med. onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
1-2 cloves garlic, minced, or equivalent garlic powder or dried minced garlic
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. rosemary
2 tbs. butter.

Saute garlic, onion, and celery in butter.
Add black beans, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
Add spices and simmer until reduced to thick (1 to 1 1/2 hrs.)
Serve with chopped raw onions, sour cream, and garlic bread.

What it is. Why it’s important. Who is attacking it.

(Hint: It ain’t furriners.)