I assumed it was obvious. I mean, who goes to the butcher any more! Unfortunately, the reappearance of brew pubs has brought the brewer back into daily life.
The main problem is that demand does not change as price goes up; people are willing to pay an infinite amount in order to receive certain kinds of health care, because the only alternative is death or intolerable suffering.
Actually, the research shows that there is a demand curve for health care, although it is less elastic than other industries. You aren't either "sick" or "well", we are all "sick" in some way as that we are all aging and have potential health problems, but we all have different opportunity costs for being sick, plus we all have different needs for treatments, including time-to-treatment ("it is annoying to be sick, but I can make it for another day or two if it will save me money"), ability to handle side effects, lifestyle, life views, etc.
See
The biggest problem in medicine is not that there is a demand curve, but that typical health insurance plans eradicate the individual's view of the demand curve through subsidization. Health costs go up with unregulated subsidization. Thus we have seen the need for regulation of individual health care use (HMO's, requirements for generic use, etc.) to try to arrive back at the demand curve. Unfortunately, these regulations are typically costly and gamed by voters through public choice theory for government-provided health care.
Good info one health care demand curve elasticity can be found here. Also this Powerpoint goes into a lot of details of health economics and demand curves.
It really looks like most of the claims are about the sequence, not any particular utility for it! Of course, it does say what the proteins that the sequence codes for is and does.
Because it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. Similarly, the doctor.
There are a lot of people who "just missed" the last episode of a show, and have to catch up before they get behind on the "water cooler talk"...for them, the video quality of the show is much less than the need to know what the heck happened.
For example, you'd expect to see animals with 1 arm, 2 arms, 3 arms, 10 arms, no arms, half an arm, round arms, and so on for every part of the body while evolution is fine tuning this stuff.
In high school, a friend of mine was born with only one small, withered arm. Three arms in a person would be difficult from a genetic standpoint, because we develop two arms due to the initial symmetrical division of the body during development. You could have three of lots of organs, but it sure would be difficult to get all the plumbing right and have a surviving person come out of that development.
On the other hand (no pun intended) polydactylism, having one or more extra fingers or toes, is probably the most common abnormality found at birth. The tendency to have offspring with polydactylism is possibly genetic in some instances.
Syndactylism, having no fingers or toes, can also be due to a genetic mutation.
The brewing of pro-resilin sounds very similar to a wide range of pharma products created from genetically engineered E. Coli, and the final assembly using the metal catalyst is pretty standard chemistry. No worse than beer and ammonia production.
Evidently LiveJournal and other sites take care to scrub out JavaScript in user-provided web pages, but the rumors are that sometimes people do figure out how to obfuscate their HTML enough to deliver the payload, despite the scrubbers.
I make enough from Google Adsense on my blogs/sites DNAhack.com and Econotarian.Org to pay for the DNS registration, and I could probably pay for nicer hosting if I wanted to as well and still come just a bit ahead in the end.
The only hope is that these devices can help people learn the fact that Economic Freedom is highly correlated with economic growth, and then use the PCs to form political groups to oppose anti-market forces and autocrats.
They claim at http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ "First, by dramatically lowering the cost of the display. The first-generation machine may use a novel, dual-mode LCD display commonly found in inexpensive DVD players, but that can also be used in black and white, in bright sunlight, and at four times the normal resolution--all at a cost of approximately $35."
Generally these inexpensive displays are often 480 x 234 pixels...there is a reason why they are so cheap. Text will look pretty sad on these!
1) Store on PC, found by viruses 2) Store encrypted on PC or Web service 3) Pencil and paper, locked room...I don't have that much personal data, period.
Most of the science done on ISS is applicable only to human spaceflight. As the US doesn't even have US human spaceflight capability right now, and even when it comes back on line its safety is a bit of a crap shoot, perhaps we should concentrate space R&D effort on getting into space cheaply and safely.
All the more reason to have an orbit that can be reached from Baikonur.
Moreover, half of the coolness of MIR is that you could see it (and amateur radio operators could communicate with it) from most of the Continental US, as opposed to the ISS...
I'm ready to lose the desktop. Basically, security patching is driving me nuts. Yes, even on my Linux systems! Backup sucks too. I'm ready to have a diskless thin client network connected into an efficient virtual blade world with big RAIDed SANs/NASes backed up on tape/DVD/etc with a UPS, one that SOMEONE ELSE RUNS. Why should I have to install blogging and other web content management software on my server? Seriously, root is just no fun any more.
I think you have "Communism" confused with "Autocracy." Most of China's economic growth does not come from state-owned industries, but from private companies operating in a capitalist fashion outside of the state. Even some Chinese state-owned industries have had stock offerings, making them half-capitalist as well.
It is true that South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore were all autocracies during their period of maximum (capitalist) growth, then they became democracies, whereas India became a democracy, and mired itself in socialism for nearly 40 years before having large growth due to pro-market economic reforms.
As someone who has watched over-the-air HDTV on a 20" computer monitor, and a 50" Sony WEGA LCD rear-projection unit with 5.1 surround sound speakers, I prefer the latter. It is a totally different experience.
The truth is that most of the "Asian Tiger" economies were under autocratic control during the initiation of their massive economic growth (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore). However, all of those countries reached a point of economic development where autocratic control was no longer compatible with continued economic growth.
I suspect in about 10-20 years, China will reach that same level of economic development when the pressure to democratise will be unstoppable.
Already we see protests in China (more here) about environmental and labor issues. It is a matter of time...
China's move away from Communism trough free market reforms, and its expansion of exports to the US, has lead there to be about 200 million fewer people in China living on under $1 per day now than in 1990.
I'm no apologist for China's continued lack of human and political rights, but at the same time at least the government appears to be leading economic growth, which is much more than I can say for Cuba or North Korea (or places like Zimbabwe).
Slashdot Mirror
I assumed it was obvious. I mean, who goes to the butcher any more! Unfortunately, the reappearance of brew pubs has brought the brewer back into daily life.
The main problem is that demand does not change as price goes up; people are willing to pay an infinite amount in order to receive certain kinds of health care, because the only alternative is death or intolerable suffering.
Actually, the research shows that there is a demand curve for health care, although it is less elastic than other industries. You aren't either "sick" or "well", we are all "sick" in some way as that we are all aging and have potential health problems, but we all have different opportunity costs for being sick, plus we all have different needs for treatments, including time-to-treatment ("it is annoying to be sick, but I can make it for another day or two if it will save me money"), ability to handle side effects, lifestyle, life views, etc.
See
The biggest problem in medicine is not that there is a demand curve, but that typical health insurance plans eradicate the individual's view of the demand curve through subsidization. Health costs go up with unregulated subsidization. Thus we have seen the need for regulation of individual health care use (HMO's, requirements for generic use, etc.) to try to arrive back at the demand curve. Unfortunately, these regulations are typically costly and gamed by voters through public choice theory for government-provided health care.
Good info one health care demand curve elasticity can be found here. Also this Powerpoint goes into a lot of details of health economics and demand curves.
Here is an example of a "Gene Patent" Nucleotide sequences which code for the menE gene, United States Patent 6946271.
It really looks like most of the claims are about the sequence, not any particular utility for it! Of course, it does say what the proteins that the sequence codes for is and does.
Why is profit important in health?
Because it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. Similarly, the doctor.
We call that Rent Seeking in the world of public choice economics.
There are a lot of people who "just missed" the last episode of a show, and have to catch up before they get behind on the "water cooler talk"...for them, the video quality of the show is much less than the need to know what the heck happened.
For example, you'd expect to see animals with 1 arm, 2 arms, 3 arms, 10 arms, no arms, half an arm, round arms, and so on for every part of the body while evolution is fine tuning this stuff.
In high school, a friend of mine was born with only one small, withered arm. Three arms in a person would be difficult from a genetic standpoint, because we develop two arms due to the initial symmetrical division of the body during development. You could have three of lots of organs, but it sure would be difficult to get all the plumbing right and have a surviving person come out of that development.
On the other hand (no pun intended) polydactylism, having one or more extra fingers or toes, is probably the most common abnormality found at birth. The tendency to have offspring with polydactylism is possibly genetic in some instances.
Syndactylism, having no fingers or toes, can also be due to a genetic mutation.
The brewing of pro-resilin sounds very similar to a wide range of pharma products created from genetically engineered E. Coli, and the final assembly using the metal catalyst is pretty standard chemistry. No worse than beer and ammonia production.
Here is a recent paper on XSS viruses. Also there is an analysis of the specific MySpace worm.
Evidently LiveJournal and other sites take care to scrub out JavaScript in user-provided web pages, but the rumors are that sometimes people do figure out how to obfuscate their HTML enough to deliver the payload, despite the scrubbers.
What video codec is being used (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, Windows Media/VC-1, DivX)???
I make enough from Google Adsense on my blogs/sites DNAhack.com and Econotarian.Org to pay for the DNS registration, and I could probably pay for nicer hosting if I wanted to as well and still come just a bit ahead in the end.
Perhaps it would be easier to build a "sky car" if it has a significant rigid airship component...why not have 50% of the lift come from helium?
Hah, yeah I had a Commodore PET and briefly used a VIC-20 as well...
I still think you'd have a hard time web browsing with it.
The only hope is that these devices can help people learn the fact that Economic Freedom is highly correlated with economic growth, and then use the PCs to form political groups to oppose anti-market forces and autocrats.
They claim at http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ "First, by dramatically lowering the cost of the display. The first-generation machine may use a novel, dual-mode LCD display commonly found in inexpensive DVD players, but that can also be used in black and white, in bright sunlight, and at four times the normal resolution--all at a cost of approximately $35."
Generally these inexpensive displays are often 480 x 234 pixels...there is a reason why they are so cheap. Text will look pretty sad on these!
What about access to _personal_ data?
1) Store on PC, found by viruses
2) Store encrypted on PC or Web service
3) Pencil and paper, locked room...I don't have that much personal data, period.
Most of the science done on ISS is applicable only to human spaceflight. As the US doesn't even have US human spaceflight capability right now, and even when it comes back on line its safety is a bit of a crap shoot, perhaps we should concentrate space R&D effort on getting into space cheaply and safely.
All the more reason to have an orbit that can be reached from Baikonur.
Moreover, half of the coolness of MIR is that you could see it (and amateur radio operators could communicate with it) from most of the Continental US, as opposed to the ISS...
Kept shooting Apollo capsules up forever more?
Yeah, imagine if Russia kept putting Soyuz capsules up forever. Oh wait, isn't that the only way to put humans into the ISS now?
I'm ready to lose the desktop. Basically, security patching is driving me nuts. Yes, even on my Linux systems! Backup sucks too. I'm ready to have a diskless thin client network connected into an efficient virtual blade world with big RAIDed SANs/NASes backed up on tape/DVD/etc with a UPS, one that SOMEONE ELSE RUNS. Why should I have to install blogging and other web content management software on my server? Seriously, root is just no fun any more.
I think you have "Communism" confused with "Autocracy." Most of China's economic growth does not come from state-owned industries, but from private companies operating in a capitalist fashion outside of the state. Even some Chinese state-owned industries have had stock offerings, making them half-capitalist as well.
It is true that South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore were all autocracies during their period of maximum (capitalist) growth, then they became democracies, whereas India became a democracy, and mired itself in socialism for nearly 40 years before having large growth due to pro-market economic reforms.
cuba has been under attack, both active and passive, for decades now
No argument from me. It is insane that the U.S. does not trade with Cuba, and encourage exchange of people and ideas as we do with China.
However, the real news is that US/Cuba trade is rising, now at $400 million per year.
As someone who has watched over-the-air HDTV on a 20" computer monitor, and a 50" Sony WEGA LCD rear-projection unit with 5.1 surround sound speakers, I prefer the latter. It is a totally different experience.
The truth is that most of the "Asian Tiger" economies were under autocratic control during the initiation of their massive economic growth (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore). However, all of those countries reached a point of economic development where autocratic control was no longer compatible with continued economic growth.
I suspect in about 10-20 years, China will reach that same level of economic development when the pressure to democratise will be unstoppable.
Already we see protests in China (more here) about environmental and labor issues. It is a matter of time...
When Communism was strong (and these bodies were named) China certainly had a very strong social welfare program
You mean like the social welfare programs that starved 30 million people to death?
China's move away from Communism trough free market reforms, and its expansion of exports to the US, has lead there to be about 200 million fewer people in China living on under $1 per day now than in 1990.
I'm no apologist for China's continued lack of human and political rights, but at the same time at least the government appears to be leading economic growth, which is much more than I can say for Cuba or North Korea (or places like Zimbabwe).