I keep getting this emailed to me with different people's names on it. It was written by Dave Barry, and is in his book Dave Barry Turns 50.

25 things I have learned in 50 years
Dave Barry

1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it.

2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time.

3. People who feel the need to tell you that they have an excellent sense of humor are telling you that they have no sense of humor.

4. The most valuable function performed by the federal government is entertainment.

5. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

6. A penny saved is worthless.

7. They can hold all the peace talks they want, but there will never be peace in the Middle East. Billions of years from now, when Earth is hurtling toward the Sun and there is nothing left alive on the planet except a few microorganisms, the microorganisms living in the Middle East will be bitter enemies.

8. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.

9. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers.

10. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age 11.

11. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

12. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

13. There apparently exists, somewhere in Los Angeles, a computer that generates concepts for television sitcoms.  When TV executives need a new concept, they turn on this computer; after sorting through millions of possible plot premises, it spits out, "THREE QUIRKY BUT ATTRACTIVE YOUNG PEOPLE LIVING IN AN APARTMENT," and the executives turn this concept into a show.  The next time they need an idea, the computer spits out, "SIX QUIRKY BUT ATTRACTIVE YOUNG PEOPLE LIVING IN AN APARTMENT." Then the next time, it spits out, "FOUR QUIRKY BUT ATTRACTIVE YOUNG PEOPLE LIVING IN AN APARTMENT."  And so on.  We need to locate this computer and destroy it with hammers.

14. Nobody is normal.

15. At least once per year, some group of scientists will become very excited and announce that:

* The universe is even bigger than they thought!
* There are even more subatomic particles than they thought!
* Whatever they announced last year about global warming is wrong.

16. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

17. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.

18. The value of advertising is that it tells you the exact opposite of what the advertiser actually thinks. For example:

* If the advertisement says "This is not your father's Oldsmobile," the advertiser is desperately concerned that this Oldsmobile, like all other Oldsmobiles, appeals primarily to old farts like your father.
* If Coke and Pepsi spend billions of dollars to convince you that there are significant differences between these two products, both companies realize that Pepsi and Coke are virtually identical.
* If the advertisement strongly suggests that Nike shoes enable athletes to perform amazing feats, Nike wants you to disregard the fact that shoe brand is unrelated to athletic ability.
* If Budweiser runs an elaborate advertising campaign stressing the critical importance of a beer's "born-on" date, Budweiser knows this factor has virtually nothing to do with how good a beer tastes.

19. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and He decides to deliver a message to humanity, He will not use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.

20. You should not confuse your career with your life.

21. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

22. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

23. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.

24. Your friends love you anyway.

25. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

-- Dave Barry

Posted at 06:07 AM in Books, Humor | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Thre Grand Canyon Skywalk is officially open for business today:

Sources:
The skywalk over the Grand Canyon 
CNET
http://news.com.com/2300-1008_3-6169001-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Posted at 06:04 AM in Art & Design, Current Affairs, Photo Caption Contest!, Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Too true:

Posted at 09:38 AM in Current Affairs, Humor, Media, Politics, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I was searching out some of my favorite Jazz artists on YouTube, when I randomly stumbled across this video of Chet Baker. For those of you unfamiliar with Baker, he was a terrific Trumpet player who was later "discovered" as a wistful blues singer, specializing in ballads and love songs.

Chet Baker's vocal style is unmistakably unique -- my favorite description of his his voice is "at times, it seems like he's hanging onto the melody by his fingernails." He seems at times half a tone off where you might expect him to be.

There is a lovely melancholy, a gentle beauty, to the way he wraps his voice around a song. The soft, simple sentiment embodied in his lyrical approach to ballads can turn any song into a brooding lament.

The video below was rather unusual -- I was under the impression that YouTube uploads werew limited to 10 minutes. The following beastie clocks in at 40:30 -- Its a compilation featuring Chet playing and singing:

There's quite a few other videos at  ChetBaker.net . . .

~~~

Either of these two CDs are good places to start exploring Baker's works:

My Funny Valentine

"His vocals were absolutely distinctive, sung in a high-pitched, even fragile voice seemingly drained of emotion and yet possessing an inherent charm, a detachment that might be both the antithesis of style and its definition, whether it's heard as sensitivity or indifference. The singing is a double of his trumpet playing here, spare and barely present but achieving much through nuance and suggestion. Pianist Russ Freeman is an almost constant partner, supplying deft chords and harmonic daring, amplifying Baker's ideas. Their empathy is especially evident in the beautiful instrumental "Moon Love," but it's just as significant on signature Baker songs such as "My Funny Valentine," "Let's Get Lost," and "Like Someone in Love."  --Stuart Broomer

The Best of Chet Baker Sings

Posted at 06:01 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Frightening:

NYTimes:

"E.F.P.’s are one of the most devastating weapons on the battlefield. The weapons fire a semi-molten copper slug that cuts through the armor on a Humvee, then shatters inside the vehicle, creating a deadly hail of hot metal that causes especially gruesome wounds even when it does not kill.

Many of the E.F.P.’s encountered by American forces in Iraq are both difficult to detect and extremely destructive. Because they fire from the side of the road, there is no need to dig a hole to plant them, so they are well suited for urban settings. Because they are set off by a passive infrared sensor, the kind of motion detector that turns on security lights, they cannot be countered by electronic jamming.

Adversaries have used the weapon in new ways. On Feb. 12, a British Air Force C-130 was damaged by two E.F.P arrays as it landed on an airstrip in Maysan Province, the first time the device was used to attack an aircraft, according to allied officials. Allied forces later destroyed the aircraft with a 1,000-pound bomb to keep militants from pilfering equipment.

Over the course of the war, the devices have accounted for only a small fraction of the roadside bomb attacks in Iraq; most bombing attacks and most American deaths have been caused by less sophisticated devices favored by Sunni insurgents, not Shiite militias linked to Iran. But E.F.P.’s produce significantly more casualties per attack than other types of roadside bombs.

“They were a new type of threat with a great potential for damage,” said Lt. Col. Kevin W. Farrell, who commanded the First Battalion, 64th Armor of the Third Infantry Division, in 2005, when a penetrator punched through the skirt armor of one of the battalion’s M-1 tanks and cracked its hull. “They accounted for a sizable percentage of our casualties. Based on searches of the Baghdad environment we occupied and multiple local Iraqi sources, we believed that they came from Iran.”

Source:
U.S. Long Worried That Iran Supplied Arms in Iraq
MICHAEL R. GORDON and SCOTT SHANE
NYTimes, March 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/world/middleeast/27weapons.html

Posted at 09:38 AM in Current Affairs, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A friend emails this (I don't have the original)

1. A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES ARE BEING TRIED
We are still pi**ing in the wind.

2. EXTENSIVE REPORT IS BEING PREPARED ON A FRESH APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
We just hired three kids fresh out of college.

3. CLOSE PROJECT COORDINATION
We know who to blame.

4. MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH
It works OK, but looks very hi-tech.

5. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS DELIVERED ASSURED
We are so far behind schedule the customer is happy to get it delivered.

6. PRELIMINARY OPERATIONAL TESTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE
The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.

7. TEST RESULTS WERE EXTREMELY GRATIFYING
We are so surprised that the stupid thing works.

8. THE ENTIRE CONCEPT WILL HAVE TO BE ABANDONED
The only person who understood the thing quit.

9. IT IS IN THE PROCESS
It is so wrapped up in red tape that the situation is about hopeless.

10. WE WILL LOOK INTO IT
Forget it! We have enough problems for now.

11. PLEASE NOTE AND INITIAL
Let's spread the responsibility for the screw up.

12. GIVE US THE BENEFIT OF YOUR THINKING
We'll listen to what you have to say as long as it doesn't interfere with what we've already done.

13. GIVE US YOUR INTERPRETATION
I can't wait to hear this bull!

14. SEE ME or LET'S DISCUSS
Come into my office, I'm lonely.

15. ALL NEW
Parts not interchangeable with the previous design.

16. RUGGED
Too damn heavy to lift!

17. LIGHTWEIGHT
Lighter than RUGGED.

18. YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT
One finally worked.

19. ENERGY SAVING
Achieved when the power switch is off.

20. LOW MAINTENANCE
Impossible to fix if broken.

21. FEATURE:
We can't fix the bug so we've documented it and are calling it a "feature".

22. NEW RELEASE:
We're too cheap to beta test our code so we'll sell it to you as a new product and let y'all beta test it for us.

23.  SYNERGY:
Management doesn't have a clue as to what this product is or what they are doing, so they're slinging buzzwords like there's no tomorrow. See also PARADIGM, REVOLUTIONARY and OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Posted at 06:02 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Beatles (live in Sweden?)

Posted at 06:31 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bizarre:

Posted at 06:29 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Here's a map as to when the various states granted woman the right to vote
(Lets hear it for Missippi! -- yeah, March 22, 1984 -- 23 years ago!)

January 1, 1919

The 19th Amendment, proposed on June 4, 1919.

Sources:
Constitution Center.org
http://www.constitutioncenter.org/timeline/html/cw08_12159.html

U.S. Constitution.net
http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html#Am19

Posted at 06:09 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Monthly figures for civilian casualties are from Iraq Body Count which uses at least two media reports as the source for each death. We have used a mean number of IBC's minimum and maximum figures for each month.

click for interactive map

Source:
Baghdad: Mapping the violence
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/baghdad_navigator/

Posted at 12:03 PM in Current Affairs, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A friend took this amusing shot of an aisle promo in Walmart.

Kleenex is really keen on affirming its markets!

Posted at 10:23 AM in Design, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Rageh Omaar embarks on a unique journey inside what he describes as one of the most misunderstood countries in the world, looking at the country through the eyes of people rarely heard - ordinary Iranians.

It took a year of wrangling to get permission to film inside Iran but the result is an amazing portrayal of an energetic and vibrant country that is completely different to the usual images seen in the media. A country of contrasts

Rageh soon discovers that Tehran is a complex place and uncovers a city of extremes of wealth and poverty, where some people survive on less than a dollar a day and others shop till they drop in glitzy shopping malls.

Iran is a country that bans women from riding motorcycles but where 60 per cent of the student population is female. It is also a youthful place, with two thirds of Iran's 70 million population under the age of 30. Local stories

Rageh meets with local people to hear their personal stories and feelings about the current state of affairs in Iran. There are stories of taxi drivers, wrestlers, business women, people working with drug addicts and the country's leading pop star and his manager - the 'Simon Cowell' of Iran.

Rageh Inside Iran transcends images of angry demonstrations and burning flags to reveal a country that isn't without its problems but which is also fascinating, dynamic and hospitable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/​programmes/misc/ragehinsideiran.shtml

Posted at 06:20 AM in Current Affairs, Politics, Religion, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Cool infographic of NY regional commuter lines:

click for jumbo graphic

graphic courtesy of NYT

However, given 9/11 and what happened in Spain, I am wondering how smart tghe bullseye was . . .

>

Source:
The Commuting Conundrum
KEN BELSON
NYT, March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/18RTRAIN.html

Posted at 06:05 AM in Design, NYC, Travel, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posted at 06:41 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amazing! 

I'm not sure what's more astonishing -- the first commercial, or the utterly corny doofus hipster copy!

Posted at 06:27 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Facing West on 42nd Street, near 5th Avenue
Snapped on December 20, 2005, 10:00 am

Posted at 06:35 AM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

C. Michael Bailey writes:  Live Music is Better:

excerpt:

I have always found live releases exciting events. Every live recording offers such opportunity for sublime musical enjoyment that the anticipation and potential for greatness make me forget every bad live recording I ever bought. (And there have been many of those.) When everything clicks on a live recording, elevating the performance to special event status (like The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East), the album validates and justifies consideration as a superior document to studio recordings.

What makes great live Rock recordings are the same things that make all great Jazz performances: risk, unpredictability, and improvisation. A great live album contains surprises, like the playful Dixieland break halfway through “Dixie Chicken” on Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus ; or Stephen Stills' thrillingly angry solo piano performance on “49 Bye-Byes/For What It's Worth” from Four Way Street. Exceptional live recordings also feature performances so impassioned and so urgently propelled that the listener fears they may spin out of control at any moment. Examples can be found on any Neil Young live recording, but specifically on Live Rust's “Like a Hurricane”; and also during J. R. Cobb's bass solo on “Another Man's Woman” from the Atlanta Rhythm Section's  Are You Ready?

What follows is not an altogether unbiased list of the ten best live Rock recordings, plus a list of five runners-up. The live recordings chosen for this list feature the inspiring characteristics described above and, with a few exceptions, document a single event (or a single tour). I have restricted this list to mainstream Rock recordings. Thus I will not consider exceptional live recordings such as Bob Marley's  Live and Babylon by Bus, James Brown's Live at the Apollo, B.B. King's Live at Cook County Jail,  or Johnny Cash's At Fulsom Prison / San Quentin. I have listed these ten albums in approximately the order I value them as historic documents.

Here are a couple more recordings deserving some modicum of recognition:

• The Grateful Dead: Europe '72 — When asked the best intoduction to the Dead for the uninitiated, I recommend Europe '72. I suspect that I will receive more mail about this single statement than any other recent proclamation. This is not the best Pigpen. Ron McKernan was dying by the time these recordings were made, but the band as a whole was on, night after night. From the same period have been released Hundred Year Hall (Grateful Dead 14020, 1995) and Ladies and Gentlemen�The Grateful Dead: The Fillmore East New York 1971 (Arista 14075, 2000). Convincing music from the greatest jam band ever.

• Rory Gallagher: Irish Tour '74 — Irish blues? Sure, I can't imagine who better. Guitar virtuoso Gallagher turns in an unadorned lo-fi performance of some of his chestnuts, including “Cradle Rock”, “Who's That Coming”, ”Tattoo Lady”, and “A Million Miles Away”. This disc sports perhaps the best “I Wonder Who” since Muddy Waters first growled those words.

• Commander Cody: We've Got A Live One Here — What can I say. More irreverent that Asleep at the Wheel and almost as authentic as Bob Wills and the Playboys. This is the seminal truck-driving album. The good commander steers his way through such tomes of the road as “Semi Truck”, “Mama Hated Diesels”, and “Eighteen Wheels”. But that is not all. “Rose of San Antonio” proves the band can hold its own in the court of Western Swing. “Milk Cow Blues” is a superb blues. And ”Too Much Fun” and Hot Rod Lincoln” close a energy filled exciting set.

• Slade: Alive —None of that ”Cum on Feel the Noize” shit here. Noddy Holder is in full bloom back in his salad days, screaming his way through John Sebastian's “Darling Be Home Soon” and Steppenwolf's ”Born to Be Wild”, not to mention Alvin Lee's “Hear Me Callin'” and Holder's own “In Like A Shot From My Gun”. Not another voice like that, unless one considers Bon Scott.

• Jimi Hendrix/Otis Redding: Live at Monterey — This is my sentimental favorite. I was about 10 years old when I first heard this and what I was most knocked out about was Jimi Hendrix playing Dylan's “Like A Rolling Stone” and Otis Redding's soul searching vocals on “Try a Little Tenderness”. Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival during the Summer of Love 1967, it was this recording that made stars of Hendrix and Redding. The definitive live recordings of these two artists before Hendrix's Band of Gypsies (MCA 11931, 1999) and Redding's In Person At the Whiskey A Go-Go —Live (Rhino 70380, 1996). Both candles extinguished before 1970 closed.

• Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band: Live Bullet / Nine Tonight —Taken together, these two live recordings, originally released as two 2-LP sets, provide a snapshot of '70s turning into '80s popular music by a journeyman coming into his own. Bob Seger had already been a mover in the music industry. Live Bullet released just prior to Night Moves along with that record was credited with nailing the final nail in the coffin of Punk Rock. Starting with “Nutbush City Limits” and ending with “Let It Rock”, while passing through “Beautiful Loser” and “Katmandu”, Live Bullet is an arena rockfest. While not as good as its predecessor, Nine Tonight nevertheless delivers that same Seger punch.

• Edgar Winter's White Trash: Roadwork — Roadwork is the tipple point where Rock and Roll, Blues, Gospel, and R&B meet on the dark end of “Tobacco Road”. Armed with brother Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer and a full horn section, Edgar Winter shows that he once had balls before losing them with the tepid “Frankenstein” and beyond. With songs culled from the Trash's first album and the American R&B songbook, Roadwork seethes with rhythm. “Tobacco Road”, “Save the Planet”, and “Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo” make this collection worth the modest price of admission.

• Johnny Winter And: Live —If Jimi Hendrix is the definitive interpreter of Bob Dylan (”All Along the Watch Tower,” “Like A Rolling Stone”), then Johnny Winter is the definitive interpreter of the Rolling Stones. “Jumpin' Jack Flash” is as final a statement in Rock Music as can be hoped for. Add a corrosive “Johnny B. Goode” to the mix and the listener is transported to some Hard Rock Nirvana where Britney Spears and N'Cync are no where to be found. Oh, did I mention Winter could sing the blues?

• Humble Pie: Rockin' the Fillmore —A happy piece of British Invasion fluff, Humble Pie was never as essential as the Rolling Stones or Faces, but did nevertheless provide rock music with an unforgettable rock voice in Steve Marriott and credible rock guitarist turned pop culture Twinkie Peter Frampton. Like Edgar Winter, Frampton used to have balls and they are quite in evidence here. “I Don't Need No Doctor” was an AOR must and still can excite.

• U2: Under A Blood Red Sky —None better than four Irishmen to stir up a revolution. After releasing three well received studio efforts, U2 step out on the stage and provide a minialbum culled mostly from the earlier albums but presented with confident muscle and rage. This is the definitive “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Gloria” and the definitive live recording of the 1980s.

• The Who: Live at Leeds —Post- Tommy , pre-Who's Next, Leeds illustrated that Roger Daltrey was the finest rock vocalist of his generation and Peter Townsend the finest composer of his. Loud and proud, “Summertime Blues” sums up the frustrations of the 1960s, repackages them and offers them as a gift to the 1970s.

• Lou Reed: Rock n' Roll Animal — for “Heroin”, of course.

Posted at 06:13 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pretty cool looking:

Description:

Porsche Design Studios is bringing some Stuttgart style to the boating business with its first-ever seacraft (the waterlogged 928 in Risky Business doesn't count). Set to debut at the Miami Boat Show, the 28-foot-long high-speed cruiser is a collaboration with Florida-based upstart Fearless Yachts. "We reached out and said, 'You have a blank canvas,'" says Fearless CEO Jeffrey Binder, and the German creatives set about designing a luxury racer that could dominate what they dubbed the "aquabahn."

The boat boasts a fiberglass hull with the sleek curves and lean silhouette of a European coupe, and its "unitized," or seamless, construction does away with unsightly rivets that might slow it down. There's also a 525-horsepower Viper engine that helps the craft reach a top speed of 80 mph, which may not break any world records but will make you grateful for the Latham precision steering controls. Should 28 feet (and room for five) prove insufficient for your entourage, Porsche and Fearless are expanding the line to include vessels of up to 150 feet in length, and while the prices may be steep—the 28 starts at $300,000—they have this advantage: They manage to make a 911 look like a bargain.

Yanko Design via Trader

Posted at 06:24 AM in Art & Design, Automobiles, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Frickin hysterical:

Posted at 06:03 AM in Film, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click for video

Posted at 11:13 AM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amusing

Posted at 06:38 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another fascinatingly funny set of interviews.

Ricky Gervais meets Christopher Guest:

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Posted at 06:27 AM in Humor, Television, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nice seeing behind the scenes:

Posted at 06:10 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

ON a weekend day a few years ago, the parents of a 4-year-old boy from rural Georgia brought him to a children's hospital here in north Atlanta. The family had already been through a lot. Their son had been sick for months, with fevers that just would not go away.

The doctors on weekend duty ordered blood tests, which showed that the boy had leukemia. There were a few things about his condition that didn't add up, like the light brown spots on the skin, but the doctors still scheduled a strong course of chemotherapy to start on Monday afternoon. Time, after all, was their enemy.

John Bergsagel, a soft-spoken senior oncologist, remembers arriving at the hospital on Monday morning and having a pile of other cases to get through. He was also bothered by the skin spots, but he agreed that the blood test was clear enough. The boy had leukemia.

"Once you start down one of these clinical pathways," Dr. Bergsagel said, "it's very hard to step off."

What the doctors didn't know was that the boy had a rare form of the disease that chemotherapy does not cure. It makes the symptoms go away for a month or so, but then they return. Worst of all, each round of chemotherapy would bring a serious risk of death, since he was already so weak.

With all the tools available to modern medicine — the blood tests and M.R.I.'s and endoscopes — you might think that misdiagnosis has become a rare thing. But you would be wrong. Studies of autopsies have shown that doctors seriously misdiagnose fatal illnesses about 20 percent of the time. So millions of patients are being treated for the wrong disease.

As shocking as that is, the more astonishing fact may be that the rate has not really changed since the 1930's. "No improvement!" was how an article in the normally exclamation-free Journal of the American Medical Association summarized the situation.

This is the richest country in the world — one where one-seventh of the economy is devoted to health care — and yet misdiagnosis is killing thousands of Americans every year.

How can this be happening? And how is it not a source of national outrage?

A BIG part of the answer is that all of the other medical progress we have made has distracted us from the misdiagnosis crisis.

Any number of diseases that were death sentences just 50 years ago — like childhood leukemia — are often manageable today, thanks to good work done by people like Dr. Bergsagel. The brightly painted pediatric clinic where he practices is a pretty inspiring place on most days, because it's just a detour on the way toward a long, healthy life for four out of five leukemia patients who come here.

But we still could be doing a lot better. Under the current medical system, doctors, nurses, lab technicians and hospital executives are not actually paid to come up with the right diagnosis. They are paid to perform tests and to do surgery and to dispense drugs.

There is no bonus for curing someone and no penalty for failing, except when the mistakes rise to the level of malpractice. So even though doctors can have the best intentions, they have little economic incentive to spend time double-checking their instincts, and hospitals have little incentive to give them the tools to do so.

"You get what you pay for," Mark B. McClellan, who runs Medicare and Medicaid, told me. "And we ought to be paying for better quality."

There are some bits of good news here. Dr. McClellan has set up small pay-for-performance programs in Medicare, and a few insurers are also experimenting. But it isn't nearly a big enough push. We just are not using the power of incentives to save lives. For a politician looking to make the often-bloodless debate over health care come alive, this is a huge opportunity.

Joseph Britto, a former intensive-care doctor, likes to compare medicine's attitude toward mistakes with the airline industry's. At the insistence of pilots, who have the ultimate incentive not to mess up, airlines have studied their errors and nearly eliminated crashes.

"Unlike pilots," Dr. Britto said, "doctors don't go down with their planes."

Dr. Britto was working at a London hospital in 1999 when doctors diagnosed chicken pox in a little girl named Isabel Maude. Only when her organs began shutting down did her doctors realize that she had a potentially fatal flesh-eating infection. Isabel's father, Jason, was so shaken by the experience that he quit his finance job and founded a company — named after his daughter, who is a healthy 10-year-old today — to fight misdiagnosis.

The company sells software that allows doctors to type in a patient's symptoms and, in response, spits out a list of possible causes. It does not replace doctors, but makes sure they can consider some unobvious possibilities that they may not have seen since medical school. Dr. Britto is a top executive.

Not long after the founding of Isabel Healthcare, Dr. Bergsagel in Atlanta stumbled across an article about it and asked to be one of the beta testers. So on that Monday morning, when he couldn't get the inconsistencies in the boy's case out of his mind, he sat down at a computer in a little white room, behind a nurse's station, and entered the symptoms.

Near the top of Isabel's list was a rare form of leukemia that Dr. Bergsagel had never seen before — and that often causes brown skin spots. "It was very much a Eureka moment," he said.

There is no happy ending to the story, because this leukemia has much longer odds than more common kinds. But the boy was spared the misery of pointless chemotherapy and was instead given the only chance he had, a bone marrow transplant. He lived another year and a half.

Today, Dr. Bergsagel uses Isabel a few times a month. The company continues to give him free access. But his colleagues at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta can't use it. The hospital has not bought the service, which costs $80,000 a year for a typical hospital (and $750 for an individual doctor).

Clearly, misdiagnosis costs far more than that. But in the current health care system, hospitals have no way to recoup money they spend on programs like Isabel.

We patients, on the other hand, foot the bill for all those wasted procedures and pointless drugs. So we keep getting them. Does that make any sense?

Source:
Why Doctors So Often Get It Wrong
DAVID LEONHARDT
NYT, February 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/business/22leonhardt.html

Posted at 06:42 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

amusing!

via email

Posted at 09:50 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

click for larger map

NYT:

"In the absence of federal action, governors and state legislators around the country are transforming the nation’s health care system, putting affordable health insurance within reach of millions of Americans in hopes of reversing the steady rise in the number of uninsured, now close to 47 million.

But the states appear to be on a collision course with the Bush administration, whose latest budget proposals create a huge potential obstacle to their efforts to expand coverage. While offering to work with states by waiving requirements of federal law, the Bush administration has balked at state initiatives that increase costs to the federal government."

>

Source:
States and U.S. at Odds on Aid for Uninsured
ROBERT PEAR and RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
NYT, February 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/us/13insure.html

Posted at 06:21 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Awesome concept and execution from "lifestyle blogzine haha:"

Check out the rest of their painted body art here.

via haha

Posted at 06:17 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Very cool concept car -- the forerunner of the Batmobile:

Via Serious Wheels

Posted at 05:48 AM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Flickr via Kottke

Posted at 06:42 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca Recording company. The executives were not impressed. While turning down this group of musicians, one executive said, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out." The group was called The Beatles.

In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker, "You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married." She went on and became Marilyn Monroe.

In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry fired a singer after one performance. He told him, "You ain't goin' nowhere son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." He went on to become the most popular singer in America, named Elvis Presley.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. After making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said, "That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process."

In the 1940's, another young inventor named Chester Carlson took his idea to 20 corporations, including some of the biggest in the country. They all turned him down. In 1947 - after seven long years of rejections! - he finally got a tiny company in Rochester, New York, the Haloid Company, to purchase the rights to his invention, an electrostatic paper-copying process. Haloid became Xerox Corporation we know today.

Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. She was born prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4 years old, she contacted double pneumonia and scarlet fever, which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began
to walk without it. By 13 she had developed rhythmic walk, which doctors said was a miracle. That same year she decided to become a runner. She entered a race and came in last. For the next few years every race she entered, she came in last. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running. One day she actually won a race. And then another. From then on she won every race she entered. Eventually this little girl, who was told she would never walk again, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.

Posted at 05:45 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I don't recall ever seeing this live version before:

Nice Mouth Harp!

Posted at 06:44 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posted at 06:13 AM in Humor, Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack

0 is the additive identity.
1 is the multiplicative identity.
2 is the only even prime.
3 is the number of spatial dimensions we live in.
4 is the smallest number of colors sufficient to color all planar maps.
5 is the number of Platonic solids.
6 is the smallest perfect number.
7 is the smallest number of faces of a regular polygon that is not constructible by straightedge and compass.
8 is the largest cube in the Fibonacci sequence.
9 is the maximum number of cubes that are needed to sum to any positive
integer.
10 is the base of our number system.
11 is the largest known multiplicative persistence.
12 is the smallest abundant number.
13 is the number of Achimedian solids.
14 is the smallest number n with the property that there are no numbers relative prime to n smaller numbers.
15 is the smallest composite number n with the propert that there is only one group of order n.
16 is the only number of the form xy = yx with x and y different integers.
17 is the number of wallpaper groups.
18 is the only number that is twice the sum of its digits.
19 is the maximum number of 4th powers needed to sum to any number.
20 is the number f rooted trees with 6 vertices.
21 is the smallestnumber of distinct squares needed to tile a square.
22 is the number of partitions of 8.
23 is the smallest number of integer-sided boxes that tile a box so that no two boxes share a common length.
24 is the largest number divisible by all numbers less tan its square root.
25 is the smallest square that can be written as a sum of 2 squares.
26 is theonly positive number to be directly between a square and a cube.
27 is the largest number that is the sum of the digits of its cube.
28 is the 2nd perfect number.
29 is the 7th Lucas number.
30 is the largest number with the property that all smaller numbers relatively prime to it are prime.
31 is a Mersenne prime.
32 is the smallest 5th power (besides 1).
33 is the largest number that is not a sum of distinct triangular numbers.
3 is the smallest number with the property that it and its neighbors have the same number of ivisors.
35 is the number of hexominoes.
36 is the smallest number (besides 1) which is both square and triangular.
37 is the maximum number o 5th powers needed to sum to any number.
38 is the last Roman numeral when written exicographically.
39 is the smallest number which has 3 different partitions into 3 parts with the same product.
40 is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order.
41 is the smallest odd number that is not of the form | 2x - 3y |.
42 is the 5th Catalan number.
43 is the number of sided 7 diamonds.
4 is the number of derangements of 5 items.
45 is a Kaprekar number.
46 is the number of different arrangements (up to rotation and reflection) of 9 non-attacking queens on a 9×9 chessboard.
47 is the largest number f cubes that cannot tile a cube.
48 is the smallest number with 10 divisors.
49 is the smallest number with the property that it and its neighbors are squareful.
50 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of of 2 squares in 2 ways.
51 is the 6th Motzkin number.
52 is the 5th Bell number.
53 is the only two digit number that is reversed in hexadecimal.
54 is the smallest numbr that can be written as the sum of 3 squares in 3 ways.
55 is the largest triangular number in the Fibonacci sequence.
56 is the number of reduced 5×5 Latin squares.
57 = 111 in base .
58 is the number of commutative semigroups of order 4.
59 is the number of stellations of an icosahedron.
60 is the smallest number divisible by 1 through 6.
61 is the 6th Euler number.
62 is the smallest number that ca be written as the sum of of 3 distinct squares i 2 ways.
63 is the number of partially ordered sets of 5 elements.
64 is the smallest number with 7 divisors.
65 is the smallest number that becomes square if its reverse is either added to or subtrated from it.
66 is the number of 8-iamonds.
67 is the smallest number which is palindromic in bases 5 and 6.
68 is the 2-digit string that appars latest in the decimal expansion of π.
69 has the property that n2 and n3 together contain each digit once.
70 is the smallest abundant number that is not the sum ofsome subset of its divisors.
71 divides the sum of the primes less than it.
72 is the maximum number of spheres that can touch another sphere in a lattice packing in 6 dimnsions.
73 is the smallest number (besides 1) which is one less than twice its reverse.
74 is the number of different non-Hamiltonian polyhedra with minimum number of vertices.
75 is the nuber of orderings of 4 objects with ties allowed.
76 is an automorphic number.
77 is the largest number that cannot be written as a sum ofdistinct numbers whose reciprocals sum to 1.
78 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of of 4 distinct squares in 3 ways.
79 is a permutableprime.
80 is the smallest number n where n and n+1 are both prodcts of 4 or moreprimes.
81 is the square of the sum of its digits.
82 is the number of 6-hexes.
83 is the number of zero-less pandigital squares.
84 is the largest order of a permutation of 14 elements.
85 is the largest n for which 12+22+32+...+n2 = 1+3+...+m has a solution.
86 = 222 in base 6.
87 is the sum of the squares of the first 4 primes.
88 is the only number known whose square has no isolated digits.
89 = 81 + 92
90 is the number of degrees in a right angle.
91 is the smallest pseudoprime in base 3.
92 is the number of different arrangements of 8 non-attacking queens on an
8×8 chessboard.
93 = 333 n base 5.
94 is a Smith number.
95 is the number of planar partitions of 10.
96 is the smallest number that can be written as the difference of 2 squares in 4 ways
97 s the smallest number with the property that its first 3 multiples contain the digit 9.
98 is the smallet number with the property that its first 5 multiples contain the digit 9.
99 is a Kaprekar number.
100 is the smallest square which is also the sum of 4 consective cubes.

101 is the number of partitions of 13.
102 is the smallest number with three different digits.
103 has the property that placing the last digit first gives 1 more than triple it.
104 is the smallest known number of unit line segments that can exist in the plane, 4 touching at every vertex.
05 is the largest number n known with the property that n - 2k is prime for k>1.
106 is the number of trees with 10 vertices.107 is the exponent of a Mersenne prime.
108 is 3 hyperfactorial.
109 is the smallest number which is palindromic n bases 5and 9.
110 is the smallest number that is the product of two different substrings.
111 is he smallest possible magic constant of a 3×3 magic square of distinct primes.112 is the side of the smallest square hat can be tiled with distinct integer-sided squares.
113 is a permutable prime.
11 = 222 in base 7.
115 is the number of rooted trees with 8 vertices.
116 is  value of n for which n! + 1 is prime.
117 is the smallest possible value of the longest edge in a Heronian Tetrahedron.
118 is the smallest number that has 4 different partitions into 3 parts with the same product.
119 is the smallest number n were either n or n+1 is divisible by the numbers rom 1 to 8.
120 is the smallest number to appear 6 times in Pascal's triangle.
121 is the only square known of the form 1 +  + p2 + p3 + p4, where p is prime.
122 is the smallest number n>1 so that n concatenated with n-1 0's concatenated with the reverse of n is prime.
123 is the 1th Lucas number.
124 is the smalles number with the property that its first 3 multiples contain the digit 2.
125 is the only number known that contains all its proper divisors as proper substrings.
126 = 9C4.
127 is a Mersenneprime.
128 is the largest number which is not the sum of distinct squares.
129 is the smallest number that can be ritten as he sum of 3 squares in 4 ways.
130 is the number of functions from 6 unlabeed points to themselves.
131 is a permutable prime.
132 is the smallest number which is the sum of al of the 2-digit numbers that can be formed with its digits.
133 is the smallest number n for which the sum of the proper divisors of n divides φ(n).
134 = 8C1 + 8C3 + 8C4.
135 = 11 + 32 + 53.
136 is the sum of the cubes of the digits of the sum of the cubes of its digits.
137 is the smallest prime with 3 distinct digits that remains prime if one of its digits is removed.
138 is the smallest possible product of 3 primes, one f which is the concatenation of the other tw.
139 is the number of unlabeled topologies with 5 elements.
140 is the smallest harmnic divisor number.
141 is a value of n such that the nth Cullen number is prime
142 is the number of planar graphs with 6 vertices.
143 is the smallest quasi-Carmichael number in base 8.
144 is the largest square in the Fibonacci seuence.
145 is a factorion.
146 = 222 in base 8.
147 is the number o sided 6-hexes.
148 is the number of perfect graphs with 6 vertices.
149 is the concatenationof the first 3 positive squares.
150 is the smallest n for which n + n times the nth prime is square.
151 is a palindromic prime.
152 has a square composed of the digits 0-4.
153 = 13 + 53 + 33.
154 is the smallest number which is palindromic in bases 6, 8, and 9.
155 is the sum of the primes betweenits smallest and largest prime factor.
156 is the numbr of graphs with 6 vertices.
157 is the largest number known whose square contais the same digits as its successor.
158 is the number of planar partitions of 11.
159 is the number of isoers of C11H24.
160 is the number of 9-iamonds.
161 is a Cullen number.
162 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of of 4 positive squares n 9 ways.
163 is the largest Heegner Number.
164 is the smallest nmber which is the concatenation of squares in two different ways.
165 = 11C3.
166 is the number of mooton Boolean functions of 4 variables.
167 is the smallest number whose 4th power begins wit 4 identical digits
168 is the size of the smallest non-cyclic simple roup which is not an alternating group.
169 is the 7th Pell number.
170 is the smallest number n for which φ(n) and σ(n) are both square.
171 has the same nmber of digits in Roman numerals as its cube.
172 = 444 in base 6.
173 has a square containing only 2 digits.
174 is the smallest number tat can be written as the sum of of 4 positive
distinct squares in 6 ways.
175 = 11 + 7 + 53.
176 is an octagonal pentagonal number.
177 is the number of graphs with 7 edges.
178 has a cube with the same digits as anoher cube.
179 has a square comprised of the digits 0-4.
180 is the toal number of degrees in a triangle.
181 is a strobogrammatic prime.
182 is the number of connected bipartite grahs with 8 vertices.
183 is the smallest number n so tht n concatenated with n+1 is square.
184 is a Kaprekar constant in base 3.
185 s te number of conjugacy classes in the automorphism group of the 8 dimensional hypercube.
186 is th number of degree 11 irreducible polynomials over GF(2).
187 is th smallest quasi-Carmichael number in base 7.
188 is the number of semigroups of order 4.
189 is a Kaprekar constant in base 2.
190 is the largest number with theproperty that it and its distinct prime factors are palindromic in Roman numerals.
191 is a number n for which n, n+2, n+6, and n+8 are all prime.
192 is the smallest number with 14 divisors.
193 is the only known odd prime n for which 2 is not a primitive root of 4n2+1.
194 is the smallest number that can be written asthe sum of 3 squares in 5 ways.
195 is the smallest value of n such that 2nCn is divisible by n2.
196 is the smallest number that is not known to reach a palindrome when repeatedly added toits reverse.
197 is a Keith number.
198 = 11 + 99 + 88.
199 is the 11th Lucas number.
200 is the smallest numberwhich can not be mde prime by changing one of its digits.
201 is a Kaprekar constant in base 4.
202 has a cube that contains ony even digits.
203 is the 6th Bell number.
204 is the square root of a triangular number.
205 is the largest number which can not be writen as the sum of distinct primes of the form 6n+1.
206 is the smallest number that can be written as te sum of of 3 positive distinct squares in 5 ways.
207 has a 4th power where the first half of the digits are a permutation of the last half of the digits.
208 is the 10th tetranacci number.
209 is the smallest quasi-Carmichael number in base 9.
210 is the product of the first 4 primes.
211 has a cube containing only 3 different digits
212 has a square with 4/5 of the digts are the same.
213 is the number of perfct squared rectangles of order 13.
214 is a value of n for which n!! - 1 is prime.
215 = 555 in base 6.
216 is the smallest cube that can be written as the sum of 3 cubes.
217 is a Kaprekar constant in base 2.
218 is he number of digraphs with 4 vertices.
219 is thenumber of space groups, not including handedness.
220 is the smallest amicable number.
221 is the number of Hamiltonian planar graphs with 7 vertices.
222 is th number of lattices on 8 unlabeled nodes.
223 is the smallest prime which will nor remain prime if on of its digits is changed.
224 is not the sum of 4 non-zero squares.
225 is an octagonal square number.
226 ???
227 is the number of connected planar graphs with 8 edges.
228 = 444 in base 7.
229 is the smallest prime that remains prie when added to its reverse.
230 is the number of space groups, including handedness.
231 is the number of partitions of 16.
232 is the number of 7×7 symmetric permutation matrices.
233 is the smallest number with the property that it and its neighbors can be written as a sum of 2 squares.
234 ???
235 is the number of trees with 11 vertices.
236 is the numberof Hamiltonian circuits of a 4×8 rectangle.
237 is the smallest number with the roperty that its first 3 multiples contain the digit 7.
238 is the number of connected partial orders on 6 unlabeled elements.
239 is the largest number that cannot be written as a sum of 8 or fewer cubes.
240 is the smallest number with 20 divisors.
241 is the only number n for which the nth prime is π(n π(n)).
242 is the smallest n for which n, n+1, n+2, and n+3 have the same number of divisos.
243 = 35.
244 is the smallest number (besides 2) that can be written as the sum of 2 squares or the sum of 2 5th powers.
245 is a stella octangula number.
246 = 9C2 + 9C4 + 9C6.
247 is the smallest possible difference between two integers that together contain each digi exactly once.
248 is the smallest number n>1 for which the arithmetic, gometric, and harmonic means of φ(n) and σ(n) are all integers.
249 is the index of a prime Woodall number.
250 is the smallest ulti-digit number so that the sum of the suares of its prime factors equals te sum of the squares of its digits.
251 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of 3 cubes in 2 ways.
252 is the 5th central binomial coefficient.
253 is the smallest non-trivial triangular star number.
254 is the smallest composite number all of whose ivisors (except 1) contain the digit 2.
255 = 11111111 in base 2.
256 is the smallest 8th power (besides 1).
257 is a Fermat prime.
258 is a value of n so tat n(n+9) is a palindrome.
259 = 1111 n base 6.
260 is the number of ways that 6 non-attacking bishops can be placed on a 4×4 chessboard.
261 is the umber of essentially different ways to dissect a 16-gon into 7 quadrilateral.
262 is the 5t meandric number and the 9th open meandric number.
263 is the largest nown prime whose square is strobogrammatic.
264 is the largest known number whose square is undulating.
265 is the number of derangements of 6 items.
266 is the Stirling number of the second kind S(8,6).
267 is the number of lanar partitions of 12.
268 is the smallest number whose product of digits is 6 imes the sum of its digits.
269 is the number of 6-octs.
270 is a harmonic divisor number.
271 is the smallest prime p so that p-1 and p+1 are divisible by cubes.
272 is the 7th Euler number.
273 = 333 in base 9.
274 is the Stirling number of the first kind s(6,2).
275 is the number of partitions of 28in which no part occurs only once.
276 is the sum of the first 3 5th powers.
277 is a Perrin number.
278 is the number of 3× sliding puzzle positions that reuire exactly 10 moves to solve starting with the hole on a side.
279 is the maximum number of 8th powers needed to sum to any number.
280 is the nmber of ways 18 people around a round table canshake hands in a non-crossing way, up to rotation.
281 is the sum of the first 14 primes.
282 is the number of planar partitions of 9.
283 = 25 + 8 + 35.
284 is an amicable number.
285 is the number of binary rooted trees with 13 vertices.
286 is the number of rooted trees with 9 vertices.
287 is the sum of cosecutive primes in 3 different ways.
288 is the smallest non-palindrome non-squae that when multiplied by its reverse is a square.
289 is a Friedman number.
290 has a base 3 representation that ends with its base 6 represntation.291 is the largest number that is not the sum of distinct integer powers
(larger than 1) of positive integers (larger than 1).
292 is th number of ways to make change for a dollar.
293 is the number of ways to hav one dollar in coins.
294 is the number of planar 2-connected graphs with7 vertices.
295 ???
296 is the number of partitions of 30 into distinct parts.
297 is a Kaprekar number.
298 is a value of n so that n(n+3) is a palindrome.
299 is the maximum number of regions a cube can be cu into with 12 cuts.
300 is the largest possible score in bowling.
301 is a 6-hyperperfect number.
302 is the number of acyclic digrahs with 5 vertices.
303 has a cube that is a concatenation of other cubes.
304 is a primitive semiperfect number.
305 is an hexagonal prism number.
306 is the number of 5-digit triangular numbers.
307 is a non-palindrome with a palindromic square.
308 is a heptagonal pyramidal number.
309 is smallest value of n for which σ (n-1) + σn+1) = σ(2n)
310 = 1234 in base 6.
311 is a permutable prime.
312 = 2222 in base 5.
313 is a palindromic prime.
314 is the smallest number that can be written as the sum of of 3 positive distinct squares in 6 ways.315 = (4+3)(4+1)(4+5).
316 has a digit product which is the digit sum of 316.
317 is a value of n for which one less than the product of the first n primes is prime.
318 is the number of unlabeled partially ordered ses of 6 lements.
319 is the smallest number with the property that the partition with the largest product does not have a maximum number of parts.
320 is the maximum determinant of a 10×10 matrix of 0's and 1's
321 is a Delannoy number.
322 is the 12th Lucas number.
323 is the product of twin prime.
324 is the largest possible product of positive integers with sum 16.
325 is a 3-hyperperfect number.
326 is the number of permutations of some subset of 5 elemnts.
327 and its double and triple together contain evry digit from 1-9 exactly once.
328 concatenated with its successor is square.
329 is a highly cototient number.
330 = 11C4.
331 is both a centered pentagonal number and a centered hexagonal number.
332 ???
333 is the number of 7-hexes.
334 is the number of trees on 13 vertices with diameter 7.
335 is the number of degree 12 irreducible polynmials over GF(2).
336 = 8P3.
337 is a permutable prime.
338 ???
339 ???
340 is a value f n for which n + 1 is prime.
341 is the smallest pseudoprime in base 2.
342 = 666 in base 7.
343 is a strong Friedman number.344 is thenumber of different arrangements of 4 non-attacking queens on a 4× chessboard.
345 is half again as large as the sum of its proper divisors.
346 is a Franel number.
347 is a Friedman number.