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A less-deadly processed meat paste sausage

All I really want to share is the title of this post and the image below, but I suppose I should put it into some context.

The folks at Fast Company learned that hot dogs are the “perfect plug for a child’s airway,” and decided to design a new hot dog delivery system.

Fast Company’s Hot [...]

Are cell phones killing us? Even more important, is my beloved Wi-Fi giving me cancer?

Hmmm, independent research consistently shows that cell phones increase the risk of tumors and cancer. Fortunately, research by the cell phone industry shows there is no risk! Whew, that was close.

Christopher Ketcham has a great article in GQ about the controversy surrounding cell phones. Increasingly, the evidence is confirming that cell phones are a real [...]

Terry Pratchett on Assisted Death

Terry Pratchett, best-selling author of the Discworld series, has posterior cortical ­atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s ­disease, a degenerative disorder of the brain for which there is no cure. He knows that he is going to die, and he has come to terms with that. What he has not come to terms with is [...]

Promote Your Farmers’ Market

Eat local advocates might be interested in applying for a grant to help promote farmers’ markets.

“The Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) was created through a recent amendment of the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976. The grants, authorized by the FMPP, are targeted to help improve and expand domestic farmers markets, roadside stands, community-supported agriculture [...]

Bruce Sterling on Healthcare 2.0

The following is post 45 of 152 (so far) in Bruce Sterling’s State of the World 2010, an annual conversation over at the WELL between Sterling and the WELL netizens. The discussion ranges far and wide, and brief essays like the following on the networked future of healthcare pop up regularly. I put the passage [...]

Fast food burgers injected with ammonia

Yuck. Why does anyone eat burgers from fast food restaurants? (Other than to get their junky fix of fat and salt.)

“The company says its processed beef, a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips, is used in a majority of the hamburger sold nationwide.”

Not only is the beef used the worst part of the cow, [...]

Elmo and his elbow; or Sleeve sneezing

One of the things I find most fascinating about 2009 is the nation-wide effort to change American sneezing habits. I’m not exactly sure when this started, or who started it, but there has been a concerted effort to teach kids to sneeze into their arm if they don’t have a tissue. For example, here’s Elmo [...]

What part of health care is being reformed?

Since there was so much focus on the public option, the rest of the health care reform bill got a little overshadowed. One FB friend asked – “What exactly did we get with this compromisedtohell health care reform bill?” For those of you wondering the same, I thought I’d touch on a few things the [...]

Health Care Optimism

The news media is driven by criticism, concern-trolling, and prophecies of doom. Contemplation, reflection, and pragmatic analysis have no place in what passes for public discourse. Mostly. There are still a few nooks and crannies where you can find knowledgeable people thinking carefully about a topic. Maggie Mahar is one of those, and she’s been [...]

Some positive news about the health care reform bill

While a public option is an important part of health care reform it’s still only one small part of the health care reform legislation. As for the rest, Jonathan Gruber, a health economist at MIT, likes what he sees.

“My summary is it’s really hard to figure out how to bend the cost curve, but I [...]

Would you eat meat grown in a vat?

Hank Hyena at H+ estimates that tank-grown protein will be on our grocery shelves in 3-10 years.

“In-Vitro Meat — aka tank steak, sci fi sausage, petri pork, beaker bacon, Frankenburger, vat-grown veal, laboratory lamb, synthetic shmeat, trans-ham, factory filet, test tube tuna, cultured chicken, or any other moniker that can seduce the shopper’s stomach [...]

How a Virus Invades Your Body

Cool animation and explanation of how a virus invades your body.

David Bolinsky did the animation. Here he is talking at TED in 2007.

Here is his short piece “The Inner Life of a Cell.” It took more than a year to create these 8 minutes of animation.

You lie death panel jackass

Really?

Why is our public discourse so shallow, frivolous, and inconsequential?

This jackass bullshit will take up another few news cycles.

After being bandied about for the last 8 months I bet most people still don’t know what “public option” means.

Oh, I think I just answered my question. (Corporate power has no interest in [...]

Health Insurance Reform in Cartoon

Clear explanation of why we need health insurance reform (h/t tiny little dots)

Animated by Andy Lubershane.

The Public Option is Popular, Moral and Inexpensive, Therefore it Must Die

Mostly I’m just posting this because the headline (which I used as the headline for this post) is so great.

Here’s the article that goes along with the headline.

“The reality, however, is that a healthcare reform bill with a robust public option is both extraordinarily popular and fiscally responsible, while, on the other hand, the kind [...]

Interview with Congresswoman Kosmas (D-Fl)

Pushing Rope posted this hour-long interview between the Orlando Sentinel editorial board and Representative Kosmas.

 

I listened to about 5 minutes before I got too bored to continue, but Hussey listened to the whole thing and offers up some of the key points in the post.

The Double Down Sandwich from KFC

Consumerist, via Foodgeekery, reposts this cell phone recording of KFC’s latest sally in the War on American health.

And, Patton Oswalt thought the “sadness bowl” was the lowest KFC could sink.

Obesity actually shrinks your brain, which might explain why logic and reason don’t mean diddly-squat in our health care debates.

More Debunking of the Health Care Bill Critics

The following is an exchange cut and pasted from the comments section of Common Sense from a Common Man.

To his credit Peter “Fleckman” Fleckenstein A) read the bill B) tweeted his commentary, and C) allows contrary voices to speak out on his blog post. For a topic that has drawn such heat he manages to [...]

Debunking Health Care Reform Critics

There is an anti-Health Care Reform email circulating that claims to “read the bill” and points to specific problems. The email is taken from this post by Gary North.

North writes – “Here are some of the bad highlights. After you read them, you will begin to see what you will be facing if this bill [...]

The High Cost of Cheap Food

Time Magazine looks at America’s Food Crisis and How to Fix It.

“But cheap food is not free food, and corn comes with hidden costs. The crop is heavily fertilized — both with chemicals like nitrogen and with subsidies from Washington. Over the past decade, the Federal Government has poured more than $50 billion into the [...]

On what planet do you spend most of your time?

yay! Frank!

Seriously, in what world does making sure that insurance companies don’t drop your policy on a whim, equal the brutal slaughter of millions and millions of people and the aggressive military attempt to rule the world?

Frank deals with a town loon.

“Having a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with the dining [...]

Health Co-ops are a Bad Idea

Wisconsin has had both health co-ops and a public option. Co-ops don’t work. The public option saves money.

“Wisconsin Democrats David Obey and Tammy Baldwin told the caucus about the performance of the state’s own public health insurance option and co-op. The co-op hasn’t saved the state any money whatsoever and shouldn’t be a model for [...]

A Wonkish Overview of the State of the Health Care Bill

Nate Silver provides a thoughtful overview of where the Health Services bill stands now, and what losing a public option might mean.

Obviously, there’s still another month of negotiation to go, but Silver’s analysis strikes me as a pretty sober reading of where the bill stands today.

“Keep in mind that, even if a bill with a [...]

Why We Need Health Care Reform

(Saturday’s NYT op-ed by US President Barack Obama.)

OUR nation is now engaged in a great debate about the future of health care in America. And over the past few weeks, much of the media attention has been focused on the loudest voices. What we haven’t heard are the voices of the millions upon millions of [...]

Wage increases match insurance premium increases over last decade in Florida

If your salary tracked the state average from 2000 to 2009 your annual earnings would have gone from $22,753 in 2000, to $28,836 in 2009.

Over that same period of time your insurance premiums went from $6,812 in 2000 to $13,497 in 2009.

Your earnings increased by $6,083.

Your premiums increased by $6,685.

You are making less money now [...]

Palin’s Flip Flop

Not that you need more evidence that Palin is all about scoring cheap political points rather than adhering to some conservative principle, but it turns out that Palin supported “death panels” (consultation about end-of-life issues like living wills) before she opposed them.

The so-called “death panel” is a consultation with your doctor and/or primary health care [...]

Real Health Care Issues

If we lived in a world full of serious people seriously debating health care reform, we’d be addressing many of the questions brought up in Avery Voice.

Real reform needs to address eight key areas:

1. Duplication of services.

2. Lack of price transparency.

3. Bureaucracy of care.

4. Constant shadow of malpractice.

Read the whole thing here.

Health Care Reform Bill

One of the many ironies of our current ludicrous national debate is the number of people who chant “Read the bill,” at the pro-insurance company, anti-health care reform rallies/protests.

Here is the bill – H.R.3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

Here’s what the bill is about -

“(1) exempting grandfathered health insurance coverage from [...]

High-fat diets make humans lazy and stupid

An explanation for the rise of the American moron.

Liberty Under Obama

Not only does Obama allow dissenters into the same room with him, he instructs his secret service to allow legally-armed protesters to exercise their first and second amendment rights unmolested.

“‘If I only hear from people who agree with me I’m going to ask for people’ who disagree because they need to be heard too, he [...]