Senior Citizen Health Care Solution...

Via my mom, and attributed to the Maxine cartoon strip:

So you're a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home available for you, what do you do?

Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot four Senators or Representatives.

Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating, air conditioning and all the health care you need! Need new teeth?
No problem. Need glasses? That’s great. Need a new hip, knees, kidney, lungs or heart? They’re all covered. And, as an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you as often as they do now.

And who will be paying for all of this? It’s the same government that just told you that you they cannot afford for you to go into a home.

Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don't have to pay any income taxes anymore.

Is this a great country or what?

It Really Works!

Try this little arithmetic puzzle – it will reveal your favorite movie of all time.  I tried it, and to my absolute amazement, it really works!  Via reader Simi L.:

MATH QUIZ : Reveals your favorite movie


DO NOT cheat and scroll down to the movies . Do YOUR math, THEN compare the results to the list of movies at the bottom.

1. Pick a number from 1-9.

2. Multiply that number by 3.

3. Add 3.

4. Multiply by 3 again.

5. Your total will be a two digit number. Add the first and second digits together to find your favorite movie ( of all time ) in the list of 17 movies below:


Movie List:

1. Gone With the Wind
2. E.T.
3. Blazing Saddles
4. Star Wars
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
7. Jaws
8. Grease
9. The Obama Farewell Speech of 2012
10. Casablanca
11. Jurassic Park
12. Shrek
13. Pirates of the Caribbean
14. Titanic
15. Raiders of the Lost Ark
16. Home Alone
17. Mrs. Doubtfire

Seen in Walmart...

Via my lovely bride:

Garfield Assassination...

A great short article on this bizarre chapter of American History...

Saturn, Titan, and the Rings...

APOD presents this beautiful photo taken by the Cassini probe, still orbiting Saturn and studying the Saturnian system. 

Dinosaur Feathers...

Over the past year or so, more and more scientists are speculating that all dinosaurs had feathers, not just the few that evolved into today's birds.  I'm old enough to have grown up with the “scientific consensus” that the cold-blooded dinosaurs had all gone extinct, with only fossils remaining.  Then came the revelations of the last ten years or so that (a) dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded, and (b) that some dinosaurs had evolved into today's birds.  That was shocking enough!  Now the new “scientific consensus” is edging toward the notion that all dinosaurs had features – a kind of fuzzy thermal coat, much like mammalian fur.  If this is correct, then really the reign of the dinosaurs isn't much different (in evolutionary historical terms) then the much later reign of large mammals (saber-tooth tigers, mammoths, giant beavers, etc.) – the ones we know as fossils were the branches of the family that didn't survive, and the ones we know as birds were the branches that did...

FLIP Ship Turns 50...

Way back in 1962, the FLIP ship first set sail.  I first learned about it from a science newsletter in my school's library in that same year, then later read about it in National Geographic magazine.  I've followed news about it with interest ever since.  This year marks its 50th year of operation.

In the early '70s, when I was in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Long Beach, California, I found out that the FLIP ship was based out of Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego – just a short drive down the coast.  I called and discovered that it was in port, and I was able to arrange a visit through a friendly research assistant (the fellow my call was routed to).  I spent an interesting afternoon going through the ship.  After being used to the USS Long Beach (the nuclear powered cruiser that I was stationed on), the FLIP ship looked positively tiny to my eyes!

These days, the FLIP ship has its own home page on the web.  I also found this short news story on it, with a video of the flipping action.

Guess Who Was President of the Slide Rule Club?

My junior high school (in central New Jersey) had a slide rule club, and I was a member.  As I recall, the other members tolerated me mainly because I knew how to use the log-log scales, which mystified just about everyone else.  I certainly wasn't elected to any exalted position in the club!  But this fellow was: Michael Bloomberg.  Yes, that Michael Bloomberg...

How Unoriginal Mediocrity Is Done...

Rachel Lucas, at your service...

Modern Manufacturing: Yachts...

The short documentary-style ad below gives a fascinating look into a modern manufacturing facility that makes extensive use of industrial robots.  The mix of human and robotic workers is typical, though the robots keep advancing into more and more “skilled” areas.  The benefits of this kind of manufacturing are compelling, and well presented here.  They include: precision, low waste, high speed, the synchronization that enables just-in-time manufacturing inventories, (much) lower labor costs, (much) higher “up-time”, and more.  Watch:

Well, That Didn't Take Long...

The GOP is already planning to make some hay from the Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare last Thursday.  Specifically, they plan to use the reconciliation process to fast-track a repeal of ObamaCare – because in the reconciliation process no filibustering is allowed, so they only need a simple majority (51 votes) to kill it.  This is possible because the Supreme Court redefined the mandate as a tax, and the reconcilation process is open to any bill including taxes...

History of Rock 'n Roll...

...in 100 riffs.  I recognized most of them until he got into the 60s or so.  In the last 30, I only recognized one of them!

Learn About Fracking...

A nicely done, fact-based documentary, just a half hour long:

Volcanic Temperatures in Charlottesville, Virginia...

According to this weatherman on a Richmond, Virginia weather station, literally volcanic temperatures:



But I checked my mom's computer (located in her home near Charlottesville), and it's still up.  So this must not be for real :-)

Victoria Arlen...

Frankie T. is one of my colleagues at work.  Victoria Arlen (swimming at right) is a friend of her family, and Frankie introduced me to Victoria's remarkable story.

Just three years ago, Victoria's legs were paralyzed and she was in a vegetative state.  But in 2009, she began an amazing recovery – and now, just three years later, legs still completely paralyzed, she is a member of the U.S. Paralympics swim team headed for competition in London.  Victoria's story is an uplifting tale of determination and grit, well worth a few minutes of your time to get acquainted with.  There's a two part (non-embeddable, dang it!) video story (part 1 and part 2), and more information here, here, here, and here...

Quote of the Day...

From Scott Adams, on today's Dilbert strip:

I am Mordac, the preventer of information services!

In one mordant sentence, a perfect summation of how corporate employees typically view IS (or IT) guys.  Fortunately for our collective sanity, there are exceptions to this (especially for enterprises using this), though even just a few years ago the exceptions were far fewer.  Every IS or IT guy I've ever met is painfully familiar with this stereotypical way of how their fellow employees view them – and how that view has more than a little truth to it.  The best work their butts off to avoid being viewed this way...

Twenty Groaners...

...via reader Simi L.  Some of these I've heard before, but many are new to me:

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walked into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm, and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home."
"That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome."
"Is it common?"
"Well, It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning."
"I don't believe you," says Dolly.
"It's true; no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. DejaMoo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any.

12. I went to a seafood disco last week...And pulled a mussel.

13. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

14. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, "Dam!"

15. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

16. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories.
After about an hour, the manager came out of the office, and asked them to disperse.
"But why," they asked, as they moved off.
"Because," he said. "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

17. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt , and is named 'Ahmal.' The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him 'Juan.' Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

18. MahatmaGandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him . . . A super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

19. A dwarf, who was a mystic, escaped from jail. The call went out that there was a small medium at large.

20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did?

That's quite enough for now, don't you think?

Is Universal Suffrage a Good Thing?

First a clarification: “suffrage” means the right to vote; “universal suffrage” means the right for all adult citizens to vote.

I've wondered for a long time about the wisdom of universal suffrage, and finally I read about someone else thinking the same thing.  The linked post doesn't talk about any proposed alternatives, but does leave you expecting that any proposal would be to somehow limit suffrage to those who understood how democracy actually works. 

I don't much like that idea (though I wonder if it might not be better than universal suffrage), but for years I've been thinking about a different approach: making some people's votes count more than others.  I didn't have a name for it, but I coined one just now: “asymmetric suffrage”.  There are many ways one could construct such a system, but here's an example (not a serious proposal, mind you, but just an example to give you the gist of what I'm talking about).

Every adult starts with 1 vote, but various kinds of life experience and accomplishments could be used to modify that.  For example:

Multiplier   When
----------------------
1.5            when you have owned a home for 10 years
2.0            if you honorably complete at least 4 years of military service
1.5            you obtain a college degree in engineering, medicine, science, or math
2.0            if you have been the owner of a business with 10 employees for 5 years
1.5            you reach the age of 40
2.0            you reach the age of 60
0.5            you are a public employee
0.5            you are on welfare
0.0            you are convicted of a felony (removed if pardoned or overturned)

For example, if you're a 45 year old engineer who has owned a business employing 50 people for 10 years, owned a home for 20 years, and served four years in the Army, your multiples would be:

1.0   that everyone starts with
2.0   for service in the Army
1.5   for your engineering degree
2.0   because of your business ownership
1.5   because you're over 40
-------
9.0   the multiple of all the above; your vote would count as 9

Whereas, if you're 25 years old, have a degree in French literature, are on welfare (because you can't find a job), then your multiples would be:

1.0   that everyone starts with
0.5   because you're on welfare
-------
0.5   the multiple of all the above; your vote would count as half a vote

Naturally there would be a huge debate about what the multiples should be.  Surely there must be some that we could all agree on, though, no matter what our political, religious, and intellectual leanings might be.  A multiple based on knowledge of how our democracy works (or doesn't!) might be an interesting addition.

Completely aside from the problem of getting anyone to agree with me that this is a good idea, there's another problem, a political one: this scheme couldn't possibly work without some reliable form of voter identification.

Thoughts, anyone?

How I'd Like to See Our Healthcare System Work...

I read a piece by Holman Jenkins this morning in the Wall Street Journal.  It introduces a new term I hadn't heard before that gave me a chuckle: “lip-commitment” – referring to politicians who have verbally committed to something, but haven't actually done it yet.  He also proposes a solution to this country's healthcare problems, via a relatively small tweak to ObamaCare:

Now just modify the Affordable Care Act so buying any health policy authorized by the new charter, no matter how minimalist, satisfies the employer and individual mandate.

What would follow is a boom in low-cost, high-deductible plans that leave individuals in charge of managing most of their ordinary health-care costs out of pocket. Because it would be cheap, millions who would opt not to buy coverage will buy coverage. Because it will be cheap, companies will direct their low-wage and entry-level employees to this coverage.

I don't believe the solution is anything like that simple, but this is definitely a component of the reform I would like to see: a return to real insurance, instead of the all-you-can-eat prepaid healthcare pseudo-insurance we have today.

In response to a reader's question, here are the pieces of a reformed healthcare system that I'd like to see here in the U.S.  A lot of these pieces interact with others, so they really need to be considered together.  And before people start yelling at me, I know that the chances of these elements being enacted together at that national level are vanishingly close to zero.  So shut up, already – it's my dream!  The elements:

1. Either eliminate healthcare costs as deductible by employers, or make them deductible by individuals (or both).  This would eliminate the tax bias toward employer-provided healthcare (this never was a good idea, and only came into being as an accidental side-effect of WWI-era wage controls).  Employers could still provide healthcare, but it would cost them more.  Most employers would drop healthcare benefits like a hot potato, and then most Americans would be shopping for insurance.  Why do I think this is good?  Because it would empower individuals to shop for healthcare and health insurance, choosing the right combination of benefits and cost for them.
   
2. Eliminate all mandated features of health insurance products, both at the federal and state levels.  In other words, allow health insurance providers the same freedom as car manufacturers – let them make high-end and low-end products, some full of glitzy features and others stripped down to the bare metal.  Insurance providers will immediately start promoting high-deductible major medical policies – because they are dirt cheap compared with the feature-laden policies most states mandate today.  Why do I think this is a good idea?  Because then the insurance companies will fall all over themselves trying to find products that the marketplace finds compelling – just like car makers do today.  This will include low-end products (like high-deductible major medical policies) and high-end products (like today's healthcare insurance, if enough people are willing to pay for them).  The most important piece of this is that consumers then get to choose – and the marketplace does the rest.
   
3. Eliminate all state regulations that have the effect of creating a separate market for healthcare insurance within a state.  I can buy a Toyota in any state of this country.  I should be able to buy a Brand XYZ insurance policy the same way.  Why do I think this is a good idea?  That's easy: increased competition always means lower prices and better products.  No government ever produced a product like the iPhone, good service like Zappos, or low prices like Walmart – these all happened through the magic of competition in the marketplace – and the bigger that marketplace is, the better.
   
4. Forbid denial (of high-deductible, major medical policies only) on the basis of pre-existing conditions – but allow insurance companies to recover as much of their costs related to the pre-existing condition as possible.  The idea here is to allow anyone to obtain coverage, no matter what their medical situation – but when an insurance company is forced to accept someone with a pre-existing condition, they can come after all that person's assets to recover their costs, much the way student loans are treated today.  I'm glossing over lots of troublesome details here, like determining what's actually related to pre-existing conditions, dealing with pre-existing conditions that predate adulthood, people uninsured for a short time (like between jobs), etc.  All that would most definitely have to be worked out, and I suspect it wouldn't be pretty.  But...what I like about this approach is that we'd end up in a situation in which two things are true: (1) anybody, with any pre-existing condition can get insurance, and (2) people who choose not to buy insurance until they needed it would be penalized, potentially severely.
   
5. Remove all barriers to forming a robust healthcare reinsurance market.  This has the effect of enlarging the risk pool, an unambiguously good thing for competition.
   
6. Completely separate the welfare component and the insurance component of healthcare-related policy and regulation.  Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid are part insurance, part pre-paid all-you-can-eat healthcare services, and part welfare.  What I'm proposing is requiring that when the government provides (directly or indirectly) health insurance to a program beneficiary, they buy a private health insurance policy to do so.  This has the effect of greatly increasing the size of the risk pools for both the indigent and the elderly, while still keeping it a competitive marketplace.

See what I mean?  Chances of all that passing are zero!

A Lovely Summer Brunch...

I just made this and had it for my brunch...

1 ripe tomato
1 ripe (but not mushy) avocado
1 chicken thigh and leg, roasted
2 tsp mayonaise
1 tbsp dried tarragon OR
2 tbsp minced fresh tarragon

If you're using dried tarragon, be aware that brands vary tremendously in quality.  Around here, the best we've found is Archer Farms, which Albertson's carries occasionally (stock up!) and Target carries usually.  Crush the dried leaves between your thumb and forefinger until they're almost powdered.  Remove any obvious stem fragments.

Cut the tomato, avocado, and chicken into pieces, roughly a quarter inch in size.  Put the tomato pieces and their juices into a bowl and mix the tarragon into them.  If you're using dried tarragon, let stand for 10 minutes or so to rehydrate the tarragon.  Then mix in the other ingredients and eat!