June 16, 2000

Am I incorrect, or is this the same as last year?

Am I incorrect, or is this the same as last year? All of these articles seem familiar to me, but I could not find them in the archives.
posted by ab'd al'Hazred at 10:50 PM PST - 4 comments

Today I saw an ad on TV complaining that American health care is being “Canadianized.” All I can say is that I wish these Americans would stop lying about the Canadian health care system. While most Canadians seem to agree that our health system is a bit of a mess, we also seem to agree that we don’t want the American system, thank you very much.

The US market-driven medical system spends about 14% of its economy on health care, while Canada's cost is about 9% of GDP. Both countries' health care costs stood at about 7% in 1971, when the Canadian system converted to the public system and the US decided to stick with a market-driven private system. Yet the Canadian system covers everyone; the American system doesn’t. Private delivery of health care means money is lost to the profits investors demand (as much as 15%), higher executive salaries, higher marketing/advertising costs, and lost economies of scale.

Why attack the Canadian system? Part of the answer lies in the fact that to the American health care industry, Canada is just one huge, untapped market that they would love to have access to.
posted by tranquileye at 9:42 PM PST - 24 comments

Having just made contact with another dimension, I thought this was worth a read.

Having just made contact with another dimension, I thought this was worth a read. It's small yet, and a bit New Agey-Crunchy for my tastes, but I'm convinced that if we could just enfold the shamanic experience with what's coming down the pike for information exhange, we could twist the world into a pretzel. Or whatever.
posted by Ezrael at 9:28 PM PST - 3 comments

House Adds $50,000,000 to Abstinence-Only programs Under Labor, HHS, Education Bill.

House Adds $50,000,000 to Abstinence-Only programs Under Labor, HHS, Education Bill.

What's next, funding for the Easter Bunny?
posted by alana at 8:01 PM PST - 5 comments

A third party candidate?

A third party candidate? Funny commercial site and great place for links to campaign spoof sites.
posted by TNLNYC at 3:55 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Hotmail users shut out of accounts, find data missing.

Hotmail users shut out of accounts, find data missing. Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but it's a nice kick in the ass to remind people: web-based apps aren't all that reliable.
posted by solistrato at 12:57 PM PST - 7 comments

If this little man

If this little man with the funny haircut has the courage to abandon the policies of his father, there is a chance within three years to witness one of the greatest triumphs of human spirit in recent memory.
posted by netbros at 12:01 PM PST - 3 comments

Everything about the way we use computers is about to change

Everything about the way we use computers is about to change or, then again, perhaps not.
posted by grumblebee at 11:59 AM PST - 2 comments

fellow 3D geeks ahoy!

fellow 3D geeks ahoy! strata 3D is free for download! get it. it's got a rockin' modeler.
posted by patricking at 11:35 AM PST - 8 comments

I like this Web site but its design is just a tad too similar to this one.
posted by tranquileye at 11:27 AM PST - 33 comments

Clearing landmines with a click

Clearing landmines with a click It costs $3 to put a landmine in the ground and $1000 to pull it out. Along the same lines as The Hunger Site, head over to this site and help make war-torn areas safe again for the people living there.
posted by Calebos at 10:56 AM PST - 4 comments

Is the Boss really in charge?

Is the Boss really in charge? Tucows is -- supposedly legally -- posting tracks from his early album, "Before the Fame" (though that sounds like a title applied after the fact to *me*).
posted by baylink at 8:44 AM PST - 2 comments

Lance Morrow hates hate-crime legislation

Lance Morrow hates hate-crime legislation
Does it really matter what the criminal's intent was? Is killing someone because of hate really worse than just killing someone? Should the government be telling us how to think?
posted by daveadams at 8:26 AM PST - 16 comments

We can try who we like, but don't anyone try to try one of ours.

We can try who we like, but don't anyone try to try one of ours.

From the article: "The Clinton administration is offering a "Get Out of Jail Free" card to future Saddam Husseins and Slobodan Milosevics, simply in order to pander to the Pentagon and the Republican right on Capitol Hill. American diplomats are fighting a rearguard action in New York, in tandem with Congress in Washington, to emasculate the International Criminal Court that was established by the United Nations last year in Rome.

"Why does the United States oppose a way to punish the world's greatest villains? In short -- and in no uncertain terms -- congressmen such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms demand that no such court have jurisdiction over potential American criminals."

Silly me, I thought the law was supposed to apply to everyone or to no-one at all. Am I just being old-fashioned, or is anyone else bothered by the hypocrisy at work here?
posted by lia at 8:15 AM PST - 13 comments

If you don't live round here, you might not have heard of these chaps. They have a nice line in (Flash-animated) semiotics, and their advice for urban gentlemen is pretty useful as well.
posted by Mocata at 7:06 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Is linking illegal?

Is linking illegal? New York Times article about DeCSS linkage fiasco involving 2600. If linking is illegal, the Web is SOL. This is insane.
posted by elgoose at 6:55 AM PST - 7 comments

how in the world did this article, which basically repremands readers from making assumptions about and being intrusive into the private lives of memoirists, end by propositioning dave eggers? i mean really, wtf? the author of the piece, lorri gottlieb, ought to be ashamed of herself.
posted by palegirl at 6:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Speaking of vandalism...

Speaking of vandalism... What on Earth was Ron Howard thinking? More inside...
posted by plinth at 3:56 AM PST - 4 comments

never acknowledged:

never acknowledged: evidently, reparations were never made to gay holocaust survivors in germany. never mind that's where the pink triangle came from...
posted by patricking at 12:15 AM PST - 2 comments

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