August 20, 2009
He says every patient is a golden trout. We need to go get those trout.
The Deadly Cost of Swooping In to Save a Life (single-page version): Deregulation and America's health care system combine to make medical helicopters increasingly dangerous.
SELECT specific_problem FROM problems WHERE specific_problem != 'A Bitch' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 99;
21st Century College Gender Gap(s)
Linda Sax's The Gender Gap in College argues there is a qualitative difference between how men and women experience college: on engagement, self-confidence and achievement. [more inside]
"...A Fourth of July picnic, a Sunday Best church revival, an urban rock concert and a rural civil rights rally"
There was a historic music festival in the summer of 1969. But it's not the one that took place in Bethel, NY. The Harlem Cultural Festival ran from June 29 to August 24 that summer, presenting a concert every Sunday afternoon in Mount Morris Park (known today as Marcus Garvey Park). Three hundred thousand people turned out for the six free concerts, hearing acts like Nina Simone , Sly & the Family Stone (the only act to play both Woodstock and the "black Woodstock"), Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, The 5th Dimension, Moms Mabley and. Speakers included Jesse Jackson and "blue-eyed soul brother" Mayor John Lindsay. Security was courtesy of the Black Panthers, since the NYC police refused to provide it. Filmmaker Hal Tulchin recorded over 50 hours of concert footage, which has remained unreleased. Historic Films seems to hold the footage; it was supposed to be made into a movie to premiere at Sundance 2007, but its release seems to be continually delayed for reasons unclear. [more inside]
Welcome! [Name] is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for [audience].
Programmers may already know about the blogs of Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror) and Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software), or their increasingly-popular collaborative Q&A site Stack Overflow. Additional sites have been introduced recently for other audiences: Server Fault for system administrators and IT professionals, Doctype for web designers, and the just-out-of-beta Super User for "computer enthusiasts" (previously and inspired by). [more inside]
Pay To Work But You Don't Get Paid?
"Out of college money spent see no future pay no rent." Looking for a solution? Have your parents pay for an unpaid internship for you. Some students are skeptical.
Orbital Skydiving
Orbital skydives to follow inflatable heatshield success? "NASA has announced a successful live test of a prototype inflatable heat shield for re-entry to a planet's atmosphere. The blow-up shield could have important implications for future missions to Mars - and also, perhaps, for the nascent field of orbital spacesuit skydiving."
'Cos it makes me feel like I'm a man...
The first ever North American study into prescribing diamorphine to addicts was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. And the outcomes are positive. This is the latest in a growing line of research studies into diamorphine prescribing. The Netherlands and Switzerland have both completed major studies that showed extremely positive outcomes in treatment resistant populations. Germany has recently begun a study along these lines, and a British study is about to report it's outcomes any minute now.
How often must a positive outcome be replicated before something becomes part of mainstream treatment provision?
How often must a positive outcome be replicated before something becomes part of mainstream treatment provision?
The Millions: The Best Book Blog, Bar None
The Millions, online since 2003, is a book blog of exceptional breadth and depth, and "an independent literature and culture publication that pays its writers." Until recently, that breadth and depth was hard to fathom, as the site had outgrown its infrastructure. Now, however, its excellent features are easy to find, as are series like The Future of the Book, Ask a Book Question, and The Millions Interview. Superb reviews can be found as they happen or in the Book Review Index, and, a vestige of when The Millions was a one man operation, you can find out what C. Max Magee, founder of The Millions, is reading on the Book Lists page. [more inside]
Kind of Bloop
It's all Greek to Me
In 1984 computer pioneer Ken Thompson wrote one of the seminal works of computer security, Reflections on Trusting Trust [PDF]. In it he postulated putting a trojan horse inside a compiler as a means of infecting software compiled by it. 25 years later somebody has finally done just that. Researchers at anti-virus house Sophos have discovered a virus that places a backdoor into applications compiled with the Delphi language. They've identified at least 3000 separate Delphi applications that have had this backdoor compiled into them so far, including banking programs and programs used for cellphone programming.
Brodsky on Boredom
Joseph Brodsky: In Praise of Boredom -- from his Dartmouth College commencement address in 1995. " Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to
the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium. It is your window on time's
infinity. Once this window opens, don't try to shut it; on the contrary, throw
it wide open. For boredom speaks the language of time, and it teaches you the
most valuable lesson of your life: the lesson of your utter insignificance. It
is valuable to you, as well as to those you are to rub shoulders with. "You are
finite," time tells you in the voice of boredom, "and whatever you do is, from
my point of view, futile."
Threat Level Elevated
US News reports that in a new tell-all book, Tom Ridge admits manipulating terror threat levels for political motives. In the forthcoming book, Ridge reportedly acknowledges for the first time that he was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he "saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over." But as The Atlantic points out, Ridge apparently gave in to the White House demands anyway, resigning only after the election. Huffington Post also provides additional discussion on this developing story.
Personas
Personas is a part of the MIT Metropath(ologies) exhibit that scours the web for information and attempts to characterize a person based on an entered first and last name, showing visualizations of the process as it chugs along. [more inside]
Yahoo's plan to fight spam with pennies -
Wild Wanda, Queen of Rockabilly
Fifty years ago, those decrying rock 'n' roll as devil music that would crumble the morals of America needed to look no further than Wanda Jackson for evidence. Her raspy, brassy voice, suggestive lyrics, and sexual energy were almost unbelievable for the Eisenhower years. Coaxed into singing rockabilly by her then-boyfriend, Elvis, she had a string of rock hits, before marrying and IBM programmer and switching to more traditional, conservative country music.
A Mystery Man Awakes in Seattle
A well-dressed man wakes up in a Seattle city park. He has $600 in his sock and no memory of who he is or how he got there. He is fluent in English, French and German and has an apparent deep knowledge of European cultural history. He seems to have traveled the world. And he says he is a widower. Doctors suspect he is not faking it but they don’t know how to help. Police are stumped as well. [more inside]
Veat: It's what's for lunch
Keeping us safe from racist literature
Lab coats and safety goggles at the gun show...
Playing Half-Life with a real gun? The magic of drywall, accelerometers, and geeks. (SLYT.) Courtesy of the good people at Waterloo Labs.
Guns and Poses?? Welcome to the Jungle....
The Second Amendment of the Constitution of United States of America gives us all the right to bear arms. It means that as Americans we can keep fire arms without governmental infringement. A few days ago many Americans chose to exercise this right at political Town Hall meetings on health care reform throughout the United States.
Some are defending these actions.
Others are not.
The NRA is remaining quiet.
Ben Stiller and walking dino skeleton not included.
Saturday, September 26th, the Smithsonian museum family and their affiliates will be hosting a free admission event, if you go to their MUSEUM DAY site and print out the admission coupon. One coupon = 1+ admission. [more inside]
Lead singers are overrated...
BORN TO DIE! NEW YORK'S NEW YORK! THE TURN OF THE CENTURY! ALL CRIME!
The Horrific End of Banner Ads
The horrific end of banner ads! In preparation for Rob Zombie's Halloween II, The digital design agency Heavenspot declares war on the insipid animated people who live inside our banner ads.
A New Approach to Aid
" Under the plan, every citizen, rich or poor, would be entitled to it starting at birth. There would be no poverty test, no conditions and, therefore, no social bureaucracy. And no one would be told what he or she is permitted to do with the money." Promising news from Spiegel Online about a Guaranteed minimum income project in Otjivero, Namibia. (via)
See, you want to go fast and not crash...
Can't Wait for Friday Flash Fun: Cyclomaniacs is a bicycle racing game. Pretty self explanatory (GO FAST AND SPIN A LOT!) and fun.
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