bigdreamer - Slashdot User

Comment Re:also: more doctors, less pay, more compassion. (Score 1) 584

by bigdreamer on Monday June 21, 2010 @10:14PM (#32648668) Attached to: What US Health Care Needs

This will take science. It will take art. It will take innovation. It will take ambition.

It will also take the realization that the leading causes of death in the USA are all preventable:

tobacco usage
poor diet and physical inactivity
alcohol consumption

Source: http://proxychi.baremetal.com/csdp.org/research/1238.pdf

There's only so much a doctor can do to stop the damage if the patient is already physically in poor health.

Comment This is actually a rather political issue. (Score 1) 311

by bigdreamer on Monday June 21, 2010 @10:01PM (#32648590) Attached to: Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart

The political issue at hand is this: Should the government allow people to make irrational decisions when the mistakes can be costly or deadly? There is a movement called "soft paternalism" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_paternalism) that basically argues that many people are making irrational decisions, so the government should gently nudge them into making rational ones. There are many books promoting this idea, including Nudge, The Paradox of Choice and Free Market Madness.

This sounds all nice and wonderful until you realize that it's ultimately politicians and bureaucrats that is deciding what is "rational" for a person to spend their money on -- like they're such great role models :p

Comment Re:Interesting... (Score 1) 584

by bigdreamer on Monday June 21, 2010 @09:49PM (#32648522) Attached to: What US Health Care Needs

I'll admit that my concept of our spending is probably skewed by intentionally misleading infographics and such, but this doesn't seem to jive with anything I've ever seen. Can someone explain how this is true, or point to something that does?

The cost of health care driving the US deficit and federal debt is actually old news:

http://www.iousa.com/ (30-minute version of the film film, highly engrossing)

http://www.pgpf.org/resources/PGPF_CitizensGuide_2009.pdf (Summary in PDF format)

Submission + - New Air Conditioner Process cuts energy use 50-90% (nrel.gov) 2

Submitted by necro81 on Sunday June 20, 2010 @02:24PM

necro81 writes: The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has announced that it has developed a new method for air conditioning that reduces energy use by 50-90%. The DEVap system cools air using evaporative cooling, which is not new, but combines the process with a liquid dessicant for pulling the water vapor out of the cooled air stream. The liquid dessicant, a very strong aqueous solution of lithium chloride or sodium chloride, is separated from the air stream by a permeable hydrophobic membrane. Heat is later used to evaporate water vapor back out — heat that can come from a variety of sources such as solar or natural gas. The dessicants are, compared to typical refrigerants like HCFCs, relatively safe for the environment.

Submission + - Why Being Wrong Makes Humans So Smart 1

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Sunday June 20, 2010 @01:15AM

Hugh Pickens writes: "Kathryn Schulz writes in the Boston Globe that the more scientists understand about cognitive functioning, the more it becomes clear that our capacity to make mistakes is utterly inextricable from what makes the human brain so swift, adaptable, and intelligent and that rather than treating errors like the bedbugs of the intellect — an appalling and embarrassing nuisance we try to pretend out of existence, we need to recognize that human fallibility is part and parcel of human brilliance. Neuroscientists increasingly think that inductive reasoning undergirds virtually all of human cognition. Humans use inductive reasoning to learn language, organize the world into meaningful categories, and grasp the relationship between cause and effect in the physical, biological, and psychological realms and thanks to inductive reasoning, we are able to form nearly instantaneous beliefs and take action accordingly. But our use of inductive reasoning comes with a price. "The distinctive thing about inductive reasoning is that it generates conclusions that aren’t necessarily true. They are, instead, probabilistically true — which means they are possibly false," writes Schulz. "Because we reason inductively, we will sometimes get things wrong." Schulz recommends that we respond to the mistakes (or putative mistakes) of those around us with empathy and generosity and demand that our business and political leaders acknowledge and redress their errors rather than ignoring or denying them. "Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition that we could be in error, without deeming ourselves idiotic or unworthy.""

Submission + - EMI says Copyrights more valuable than Music (economist.com)

Submitted by vampire_baozi on Friday June 18, 2010 @05:39PM

vampire_baozi writes: An article and the Economist notes that EMI is reshuffling its top management, and the new head honcho is coming with a new mission: "http://www.emimusic.com/news/2010/emi-to-reposition-itself-as-a-comprehensive-rights-management-company-serving-artists-and-songwriters-worldwide/reposition itself as a comprehensive rights-management company serving artists and songwriters worldwide. Rough translation: owning and exploiting the copyright to songs, rather than selling recordings of songs, is where the money’s going to be from now on." Guess this means the war is over, the lawyers won, and future battles will be very expensive.

Submission + - Geologists to be charged for not predicting quake? (earthmagazine.org)

Submitted by mmmscience on Wednesday June 16, 2010 @03:36PM

mmmscience writes: In 2009, a series of small earthquakes shook the region of L'Aquila, Italy. Seismologists investigated the tremors, but concluded that there was no direct indication of a big 'quake on the horizon. Less than a month later, a magnitude-6.3 earthquake killed more than 300 people. Now, the chief prosecutor of L'Aquila is looking to charge the scientists with gross negligent manslaughter for not predicting the 'quake.

Neuromancer Movie In Your Future? 239

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 26, 2010 @12:00PM from the believe-it-when-they-shoot-it dept.

An anonymous reader pointed out a link talking about how Vincenzo Natali, writer/director of Splice, has written a screenplay for Neuromancer. The article says he even ran it by Gibson. No studio is attached to the project, but at least Natali promised "No Keanu."

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