SeniorJunior

Lookee , lookee ... the "press" might be waking up to stuff a modest blogger has been saying for a while. The Obesity Epidemic Isn ' t Just About Willpower " Overeaters now find themselves in the same category as smokers or drug addicts, tainted with the aura of moral weakness and lack of willpower." so sayeth U.S. News & World Repor t. Check out: The Fat American Mystery - New Clues [Updated] Hopeless Fat [Updated] Plastics for Obeisity , Cancer and Diabetes - UPDATE So maybe America (and a lot of the rest of the world) didn't just suddenly lose its willpower after all? Maybe the processed food industry and the chemical industry had something to do with it?

Er....I mean... The bizarre PriceWaterhouse Coopers "research" released by American's Health Insurance Plans (the health insurance industry) is the perfect argument for the PUBLIC OPTION. Check out their conclusions as you can by any media report or direct reference to their "research." I keep putting that in quotes because research it ain't. It is skewed, selective "fact" choice and strongly biased conclusions meant to frighten Americans into seeing healthcare reform as the bigbadboogieman. I hope we are a society too savvy to fall for that emotional BS. But non-fear-laden conclusions from what they say about private insurance premiums in light of the Baucus Committee bill (sort of) say volumes about where the private health insurance companies are AT. 1. If they can't get a "safe" risk pool (98% of the population), they can't make their God-granted profit margin. (As it is, they create safe pools by weeding out the sick peop

New estimate of how many Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance - 45,000 a year. That's up from the already staggering 18,000 we have been hearing. Since the study seems sound (Harvard researchers), I was moved to crank out a PowerPoint slide. Now that's taking action! Take a look: Sources: Afghanistan ; Iraq ; Vehicle crashes ; N o health insurance SEEMS like we should do something about that yellow bar. p.s. Want to hear a really scary death statistic? 440,000/year from smoking.

HOW MANY TIMES... Have we all seen great news about... ... a science "breakthrough" story with the promise of some cure or another [my favs : obesity, brain cancer, aging, etc.] but it will be years before we can get an actual prescription in our aging hands? Now there's "translational medicine!" This is the go-from-basic-discovery-to-human-applications-at-warp-speed idea. I love the way the people in this new- ish field think. Here's an excerpt from an article in Science Magazine. (You have to be a subscriber to read it.) It's kind of a how-to on making translational medicine work: Recommendations for the Future Our analysis documents objectively show the long length of time that passes between discovery and translation. As scientists, we should convey to our funders and the public the immense difficulty of the scientific discovery process. Successful translation is demanding and takes a lot of effort and time even under the best circumsta

COME ON, MALWARE FIGHTERS... Neither Zombie... Nor Robot Get your act together. Develop a foolproof program that will tell me if my computer has been taken over by bad guys for bad business. And then DESTROYEEE the worm/virus/slimeware! Surely this isn't too much to ask. Pix: www.zombie.org; www.allthingsmike.com; Robbie the... (several locations)

As you who patiently wait long periods between posts know, the old Duffer is a strong supporter of single payer health insurance, my one unabashed opinion that's pro "socialism." Here's a paragraph from a May 30, '09 article in the NY Times: "Public opinion polls suggest that many consumers would like to have the choice of a public plan. But insurance companies and Republican lawmakers say a public plan could drive private insurers out of business and lead eventually to a single-payer system run by the government." The "many consumers" mentioned are in the 55-65% range, depending on how the polling questions are asked. Read the NYT article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/health/policy/30health.html?hpw And you are invited to see the whole "Duffer Plan" on single payer and how to make it happen at http://seniorjunior.blogspot.com/search?q=single+payer

Here's another brazen suggestion for what Prez Obama might say to the Joint Session of Congress next Tuesday. (I've played this game before. See this .) The Fearless Usually Win When things are scary, it’s time to be rational. Be cool. Keep your head while all about you are losing theirs. Be a leader and show the frightened how not to lose their heads. It’s time for all of us to be leaders. The rational, cool thing for Americans to do in this economic situation is to make spending decisions without fear. For instance, if you need a new machine at your small business for productivity or safety reasons, and you have thought it through carefully, don’t let fear keep you from making the right decision. Or if you think some work on landscaping your house will improve its value in the long run and your personal satisfaction in the short run, don’t let fear lock up your thinking. The “fear” influence on decision-making might cause you to just reject a produ