The long struggle: vaccines versus malaria | Ars Technica

The long struggle: vaccines versus malaria | Ars Technica:

A good lesson that not all scientific goals can be achieved with a “moon shot”

Recyclers disagree on impact of glued-in Retina MacBook Pro batteries | Ars Technica

Recyclers disagree on impact of glued-in Retina MacBook Pro batteries | Ars Technica:

This is really interesting article on the philosophy of eco-design versus consumerism.  On the one hand, Apple’s devices are harder to separate into their component parts, but on the other hand, they have higher-quality materials (like metal) and their users keep them longer. 

(via Thirty Troubling Years - NYTimes.com)

(via Thirty Troubling Years - NYTimes.com)

"The Glaxo case is the latest and biggest in a series of Justice Department prosecutions of Big..."

“The Glaxo case is the latest and biggest in a series of Justice Department prosecutions of Big Pharma for illegal marketing prescription drugs. … The Department says the prosecutions are well worth the effort. By one estimate it’s recovered more than $15 for every $1 it’s spent. But what’s the point if the fines are small relative to the profits, if the wrong people are feeling the financial pinch, and if no executive is held accountable? The only way to get big companies like these to change their behavior is to make the individuals responsible feel the heat. An even more basic issue is why the advertising and marketing of prescription drugs is allowed at all, when consumers can’t buy them and shouldn’t be influencing doctor’s decisions anyway. Before 1997, the Food and Drug Administration banned such advertising on TV and radio. That ban should be resurrected. Finally, there’s no good reason why doctors should be allowed to accept any perks at all from [drug] companies… It’s an inherent conflict of interest. Codes of ethics that are supposed to limit such gifts obviously don’t work. All perks should be banned, and doctors that accept them should be subject to potential loss of their license to practice.”

- Economist’s View: Bigger is Not Always Better

Economist's View: 'The Market Has Spoken, and It Is Rigged'

Economist's View: 'The Market Has Spoken, and It Is Rigged'

The Long Run History of Taxes on the Rich

The Long Run History of Taxes on the Rich

Measuring the Effects of Voter Identification Laws

Measuring the Effects of Voter Identification Laws

"the process of polarization is not symmetrical. The parties have not become equally ideologically..."

“the process of polarization is not symmetrical. The parties have not become equally ideologically homogenous or moved equally far toward their extremes. They do not behave in the same way or share the same attitude toward established social and political norms. Republicans have moved farther right than Democrats have left.”

- The left’s gone left but the right’s gone nuts: Asymmetrical polarization in action | Grist

Jennifer Daskal, Obama, and the institutionalizing of the war on terrorism | MinnPost

Jennifer Daskal, Obama, and the institutionalizing of the war on terrorism | MinnPost

Not-So-Crazy in Tehran

Not-So-Crazy in Tehran

"A study led by Dr. Jessica Savage of Johns Hopkins University found that children who had high..."

“A study led by Dr. Jessica Savage of Johns Hopkins University found that children who had high levels of triclosan and parabens in their urine, were at increased risk of both food and environmental allergies. According to US News HealthDay, the children with the highest levels of urinary triclosan had more than “twice the risk of food allergies and nearly twice the risk of environmental allergies as children with the lowest levels.””

- Antibacterial soaps can double the risk of allergies in kids | BabyCenter Blog

This is why unions are important

Fair wages and reasonable hours and vacations are all well and good, but the most important reason for unions is the same reason they are getting targeted by Gov. Walker in Wisconsin and the national Republican Party. 

They are the one and only source of middle class political power that can stand up to corporations. 

"If it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to more job..."

“If it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to more job creation, then today we would be drowning in jobs. And yet unemployment and under-employment is at record highs.”

- Was Nick Hanauer’s TED Talk on Income Inequality Too Rich for Rich People? | Business | TIME.com

Why sloppy drafting will kill the photo-ID amendment

Why sloppy drafting will kill the photo-ID amendment

How Lies Spread—David Frum - The Daily Beast

How Lies Spread—David Frum - The Daily Beast

Why I will not buy the new Macbook Pro

MacBook Pro with Retina Display 15” Mid 2012

Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

Proprietary pentalobe screws prevent you from gaining access to anything inside.

As in the MacBook Air, the RAM is soldered to the logic board. Max out at 16GB now, or forever hold your peace—you can’t upgrade.

The proprietary SSD isn’t upgradeable either (yet), as it is similar but not identical to the one in the Air. It is a separate daughtercard, and we’re hopeful we can offer an upgrade in the near future.

The lithium-polymer battery is glued rather than screwed into the case, which increases the chances that it’ll break during disassembly. The battery also covers the trackpad cable, which tremendously increases the chance that the user will shear the cable in the battery removal process.

The display assembly is completely fused, and there’s no glass protecting it. If anything ever fails inside the display, you will need to replace the entire extremely expensive assembly.

How the Post Office Is Being Destroyed By a Phony Budget Crisis

How the Post Office Is Being Destroyed By a Phony Budget Crisis

The More Fox News You Watch, the Less You Know -

The More Fox News You Watch, the Less You Know -

How the Post Office Is Being Destroyed By a Phony Budget Crisis

How the Post Office Is Being Destroyed By a Phony Budget Crisis

Are You Safe on That Sofa? - NYTimes.com

Are You Safe on That Sofa? - NYTimes.com

"Mystery of the Disappearing Bees: Solved!” announced a Reuters headline. Ah, if only that were true...."

““Mystery of the Disappearing Bees: Solved!” announced a Reuters headline. Ah, if only that were true. Even if neonicotinoids were banned tomorrow, honeybees would still be in big trouble.”

- The honeybees are still dying - Boing Boing

Approaching taxes from data, not politics

I came across these two analyses months ago and never had time to share.  Basically, it's an analysis of our federal income tax system doing two things:

• Finding out if there's anything to the Laffer Curve
• Determining what the optimal top marginal tax rate is for maximizing economic growth

The short answers are: no, it's upside-down; and, 65% should be the top marginal tax rate.

In more detail, then.  Economist Mike Kimel tackles the Laffer Curve first - an upside-down 'U' chart that purports to show an optimal top marginal tax rate to maximize growth.  In practice, partisan Republican "economists" use this to argue that tax rates should always be lower because it will actually mean more tax revenue.  

The data disagree.  Kimel illustrates that the proper Laffer Curve is a right-side-up 'U' – the Kimel Curve – with a minimum around 32% for the top marginal tax rate (the top rate is currently 35%, down from 90% or more during the 1950s and 60s, 50% during Reagan's first term and ~40% during the first Clinton term).  In other words, both raising or lowering taxes could theoretically raise revenue.

However, tax policy isn't really about maximizing revenue.  It's about providing services most efficiently and getting the best economic growth for the amount of taxes collected.  And the historical data suggest that the optimal top marginal tax rate is 64%.  It's a number that fits a lot better with the theory that government spending juices the economy (think education, infrastructure, and R&D) than the theory that government is stealing from the private sector's growth potential.  

Fascinating.

Michigan Republicans Deny Petition to Restore Democracy Because Font is Too Small | Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Michigan Republicans Deny Petition to Restore Democracy Because Font is Too Small | Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Minimizations Women Say

Minimizations Women Say

"In 2010, as I reported at the time, Amnesty International released a damning report about pregnancy..."

“In 2010, as I reported at the time, Amnesty International released a damning report about pregnancy and childbirth care in the United States. That report noted that American women are dying during pregnancy and childbirth at double the rate they were 20 years ago (from 6.6 per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006).”

- Yes, childbirth is more dangerous for women than the abortion pill | MinnPost

A very good, politics-free assessment of the constitutionality of Obamacare

Summary: the individual mandate is unprecedented and the law likely means nothing without it.

Conclusion: it’s too bad the insurance lobby torpedoed a government-funded option, because that would have been constitutional.

Here’s the link to part 3.  Links to Part 1 and 2 in the article.

Justice

the party of fiscal responsibility found out that its trusted and twice-elected party chairman, Tony Sutton, resigned after over-spending nearly $2 million the party did not have

That sounds an awful lot like their legislative strategy as well.  Borrow, shift, hide, but don’t dare pay for things!

Yes, childbirth is more dangerous for women than the abortion pill

Yes, childbirth is more dangerous for women than the abortion pill

Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers?

Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers?

USCCB Tackles Paul Ryan | National Catholic Reporter

USCCB Tackles Paul Ryan | National Catholic Reporter

This may be the funniest ad ever.

This may be the funniest ad ever.

A birthday with some self-illumination

My birthday this year was great.  K did the dishes for me on the day of (a weekday) so I got to read a new book for an hour straight (not easy with two small children).  I got good foods (e.g. French Silk Pie) and had a small, low-key "happy hour" at our house with a group of friends.  Today was a great end to the "birthday week," with a leisurely lake walk, playing the sand with the kids, and a tasty, simple meal ("veggie delight" sandwiches and scrambled eggs).

I'm not sure why, but thinking back on the week (and some of the things I got for my birthday) fired the spark of self-reflection.  For example, why am I so delighted with a ceramic paring knife?  Or the quick-read kitchen thermometer?  I'm not really a foodie by the standard definition.  While I like good kitchen tools, my "birthday meal" (a family tradition) was from Chipotle this year.  I also found a Groupon to the local bar that has great burgers.

Rather, it's what Robert McCloskey called "labor saving devices" in his Homer Price books (childhood favorites) that both intrigue and delight me.

Seriously, if you do any amount of cooking with vegetables and have not tried a ceramic knife, you haven't lived.  As K knows, I will talk for hours about how delightful that first slice was, how nice it is to chop carrots and how well the knife cuts tomatoes.

Do you know how much I like this?  Isn't this knife great?  

It's the third knife I've asked for as a gift (I started with this one - get it, it's terrific and inexpensive), and I just love that it makes something we do (cook) significantly easier.

I also rave occasionally about the pot rack in the kitchen corner that freed up two whole shelves in our cupboards (if you live in a city home, this kind of space-saving is not easy), the lights I installed in the clothes closets in the bedroom (yes, that shirt IS blue), and - of course - my iPhone.

An iPhone presents the ultimate intersection of "labor saving device" and technology.  I'm the guy who at age 14 got SimCity 2000 for Christmas and - after realizing the family computer couldn't run it - spent five months reading the game manual, the weekly Best Buy circular, and writing about it in my English class journal every week (I still have it - wow, I was obsessed) until we got a new computer.

By the time I got an iPhone (the year the 4th edition was released),  I had already researched apps I wanted.  I knew every reason why the 4 was better (or not) than the 3 or 3gs.  And I had also researched jailbreaking, just in case I couldn't handle Apple's hardware/software lockdown.

Why was this device great?   Schedule a meeting while at a meeting? Great, my phone says I'm free next Tuesday.   Carry my music and audiobooks without a second device - delightful!  Skip packing the Nintendo DS on airplane trips - okay!  Skip bringing a book and bring an ebook - splendid!  It was the consolidation of entertainment and productivity.  Labor saving!

Then there are apps.  I already use Mac programs like Quicksilver or Hazel or TypeIt4Me to shorten or automate everything I do on the computer.  The iPhone itself was just the beginning.  JotNot Pro was the end of paper filing in my house.  Dropbox was the end of flash drives (and my worry about regular backups).  GroceryIQ was the end of paper lists for shopping.  Remember the Milk was the end of forgetting that thing you asked me to do last week.  Lastpass means I can have a password like this 20Y$%UWERT#@$TERry34509j3049r2304jt4 and I don't need to type it in.  Ever.

I could go on (as K remarks, I often do).

I've realized over the years that this tendency does require some moderation.  One can (and has) spent more time looking for a shortcut that a new tool will ever produce.  But it's kind of like panning for gold, the finding is the fun part, even more so than actual results.

Got any good tools or technology that make your life easier?  Share with me in the comments?

"Despite a massive investigation by voter ID proponents, there were only 160 voter eligibility..."

““Despite a massive investigation by voter ID proponents, there were only 160 voter eligibility violation cases filed in 2011, and only 140 convictions. All of which were felons voting before they were eligible. 2,700,000 votes were cast in 2010 primary and general elections. That is a .006% rate of error. Contrast that with the 45% of eligible voters who did not vote in 2010, which is the bigger problem?””

- Why Voter Photo ID Is Wrongheaded In One Page | Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Checking for Mac Flashback infestation? There's an app for that

Checking for Mac Flashback infestation? There's an app for that

Security Theater: Laptops and the TSA (Schneier)

Security Theater: Laptops and the TSA (Schneier)

What's really making us fat?

What's really making us fat?

Supreme Court approves strip searches for minor offenses

Supreme Court approves strip searches for minor offenses

A Better Strategy for Hangman

A Better Strategy for Hangman

Arsenic, Tylenol

Arsenic, Tylenol

Researchers recreate bee collapse with pesticide-laced corn syrup

Researchers recreate bee collapse with pesticide-laced corn syrup:

A fascinating lesson in our obsession with pesticides, and the dangers of relying on insufficient testing of them:

depending on LD50 findings (i.e. a lethal dose that results in the death of half of the specimens tested) “is not relevant to the modern day chemical toxicity testing.” In other words, regulators need to start testing the long-term impacts of chemicals in the environment, and not simply focused on whether or not they instantly kill test subjects.

Michigan GOP circumvents democracy with shady vote corner-cutting

Michigan GOP circumvents democracy with shady vote corner-cutting:

Is democracy in America dead? 

Rise in allergies linked to war on bacteria

Rise in allergies linked to war on bacteria

Wicked fast Gmail in Firefox 11

If you use Firefox and Gmail, you can make the latter run much faster, using a new protocol aptly-named SPDY.  What to do:

• Update Firefox to the latest version: 11
• To enable SPDY in Firefox, type about:config in your location bar and press enter.
• Now enter network.http.spdy.enabled in the search box.
• Double click the entry corresponding to network.http.spdy.enabled to enable it.

(if you use Chrome, SPDY is enabled by default)

To see which websites use SPDY (other than Google ones), installed the FF add-on called SPDY Indicator.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/03/jk-rowling-blows-up-the-ebookstore-business.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+EconomistsView+%2528Economist%2527s+View%2529

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/03/jk-rowling-blows-up-the-ebookstore-business.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+EconomistsView+%2528Economist%2527s+View%2529

More evidence links a family of insecticides to bee colony collapse

More evidence links a family of insecticides to bee colony collapse

Moral Hazard and the Health Insurance Mandate

Moral Hazard and the Health Insurance Mandate

Study: Conservatives’ trust in science has fallen dramatically since mid-1970s | ScienceBlog.com

Study: Conservatives’ trust in science has fallen dramatically since mid-1970s | ScienceBlog.com:

The end of the article gets into an interesting discussion of the implications of governing when one party sees science as “liberal culture” rather than fact-based.  Disturbing.

The Best Birth Control In The World Is For Men | Techcitement

The Best Birth Control In The World Is For Men | Techcitement

'The Daily Show's' Advantage Over the Mainstream Media: An Eye for the Absurd

'The Daily Show's' Advantage Over the Mainstream Media: An Eye for the Absurd:

Sad to say that the skepticism that comes with satire should be more prevalent in actual reporters.

Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold? | Wired Science | Wired.com

Should Science Pull the Trigger on Antiviral Drugs—That Can Blast the Common Cold? | Wired Science | Wired.com:

A really excellent story on three potential paths to broad-spectrum anti-viral drugs and the potential drawbacks of having that kind of curative power at our disposal.