Battles with Integrity

Many people forget that some of the coldest days of the Cold War weren't all that long ago. Late September of 1983 was fifteen weeks after the opening of WarGames, a movie that seems quaint now, but was scary at the time, and less than 60 days before we were all scared out of our wits by The Day After. They were making Red Dawn at the time.

Just three weeks after the Soviets shot down a South Korean 747 with hundreds of US Citizens aboard, while the US and the USSR were still mortal enemies, deep in a of the Soviet Air Defense bunker, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov saved the world.

Na zdorovia, Colonel Petrov. Spasibo.

One of these days I want to tell his story in class. I wonder if a 'This Day in History' or 'Five Minutes in History' would be a neat way to introduce stories from the past to my students. Also, would five minutes every few days take away from the other curriculum I need to impart?

Hmmm.

Chicken pot pie, peppery and nice, with a crust so close to perfect you can smell it from there.

Thank you, Alameda Pie Truck!

[using the House MD icon, because though I don't have an economics icon, I do have one with a medical bent]

Economics is about the distribution of goods and services, with the intent that this distribution be as efficient as possible. The major mechanisms for this involve the manipulation of supply and demand, or rather the idea that supply and demand will adjust themselves to come to an equilibrium where the system is efficient (generally, economists' goal is maximum efficiency).

bradhicks offers a reasonable suggestion that artificial restrictions on the number of graduating MDs serve to increase the cost of health care in the US. Leaving aside his class-based points of argument regarding the motivations behind this restriction (valid tho' they may be), the fact remains that our population has grown by 50% without a concurrent rise in the number of doctors. It stands to reason that, given rising demand, a constant (not rising) supply of MDs will command a higher price on the market, thereby causing an increase (perhaps one of several causes) in healthcare cost. Brad's post is worth checking out. I'm not sure his answers are all the answers, but it makes for an illuminating thought experiment.

...an entirely charming song about emotional blackmail.




We miss you, Uncle Shelby.

Jeb Bush interview in Esquire on Health Care: "Under Obama, we're going to create a system that's not focused on quality; it's focused on access to care."

As opposed to now, where we have a system that's not focused on quality; it's focused on maximizing shareholder value. Both quality and access suffer.

When did we ever have a system focused on quality?

59 seconds long, and a hoot.

Each of these clips are pretty short.



There are some things that are perfectly ok to say if you're not vice-president.



Oh well, he's no Dan Quayle or Bingo Bob Russell.

Also, Robert Gibbs is no C.J. Cregg...

(no longer)[Not Erica filter]

(Taking a short break from the final miles of the old thesis marathon.)

I want to do something nice for Erica (actually, several things, but this is one of them). She really wants a haircut, but she is wary of what some SuperCuts yahoo (for example) might do to her hair, and she doesn't know who she can trust among the many stylists out there.

Can anyone offer recommendations for AWESOME stylists? Money is no object (more or less, this is a big gift), but I am looking specifically for someone in the Bay Area who does curly hair exceptionally well. Would be great if they were also NO-POO positive, and generally Curly Girl Approved. There's got to be somebody, right? Six million people in the BA, and somebody has to be doing curly!?

Can I get some recommendations? I'd like to surprise Erica with a Card and a Reservation, especially if I can get it before Erica's folks come out west.

Also: Incidentally, someone out there on the nets has my copy of Lorraine Massey's Curly Girl, but I don't remember who. Does anyone know?

Ok. Walk around a bit, and then back to the thesis. I'm on the final stretch. I can see the finish line from here.

Chip Johnson, the SFGate Oakand correspondent runs a reasonable list of grievances against Mayor Dellums (masked as a comparison with Berkeley's Bates: Dellums should take some cues from Mayor Bates.

So really, upon reading this I'm wondering if we should be deciding between two unpalatable choices. Do we wait for another 19 months of this while Mayor Dellums fails to prevent the city falling around our ears, or do we recall a public servant who had a distinguished career with an ignominious end?

The folks at Geekologie offered these as a visual wake-up this morning.



via the tasty folks at plime.