Saturday, November 22, 2014

The dirty motivation behind Gilead’s hepatitis C agreement | Al Jazeera America

The only difference between drug cartels and these international pharmaceutical criminal syndicates is the number, skill, political connections and ability of the scumbag lawyers they have.



The dirty motivation behind Gilead’s hepatitis C agreement | Al Jazeera America:



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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

End-of-Life Care Needs Sweeping Overhaul, Panel Says - NYTimes.com

End-of-Life Care Needs Sweeping Overhaul, Panel Says - NYTimes.com:



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When I was an emergency room doctor I saw the catastrophe that ensues when someone is dying and the family has to make complex end of life decisions. Most of the time the patient who was dying had been housed in a nursing home and essentially left to die. They would be emaciated, severely dehydrated and comatose with their internal organs failing. There was essentially, no "person" left.

Enter the family. Those who had cared for and loved the parent almost always asked us to do nothing and let them pass peacefully. But, invariably, the problem child of the family would strenuously object to that outcome. "Doc, I want you to do EVERYTHING possible to keep my mother alive, everything! You hear me Doc?" Of course this would be the same one who had broken his mother's heart time and again, stolen money from her, gone to jail and lived off of her pitiful pension. Euthanasia should be legal in this country, especially for the guilt ridden family members who would put their parent through the excruciating procedures required to "Do everything possible". In medicine we say there is a huge difference between prolonging life and prolonging death. As a society we routinely spend a huge percentage of our medical resources prolonging death, in the most macabre ways.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Obsolete Zero Tolerance on Pot - NYTimes.com

A well reasoned and sharp criticism by a former professional player of the NFL's pot policy, which is just plain stupid. But what would you expect?

Obsolete Zero Tolerance on Pot - NYTimes.com:



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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Snowden's latest leak causes a major uproar | Al Jazeera America

Edard Smowden's latest revelation is extremely frightening to me. Basically, the NSA has developed true artificial "intelligence" in their massive computers. They now have an autonomous program that scans all electronic communications on the globe and filters it looking for cyberattacks on the US and then launches a counterattack instantly, without human intervention. So put that knowledge together with our vast drone program and quick as you can say "Holy Shit!" you have the computer that can take over the world on it's own from the plot of Terminator 3.

Snowden's latest leak causes a major uproar | Al Jazeera America:



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Monday, August 4, 2014

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Dismantling Will Cost $4.4 Billion, Take 20 Years - Slashdot

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Dismantling Will Cost $4.4 Billion, Take 20 Years - Slashdot:



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So much for the "cheapest way to produce energy". And after Fukushima melt down and massive contamination we know that all the marketing by the industry about safety is just empty words.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System - Slashdot

A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System - Slashdot:



Every time you see great pronouncements about the effectiveness of Israel's so called "Iron Dome" missile defense technology, they are lying. Listen to this interview with Ted Postol, an MIT-based missile defense expert on NPR last Wednesday. He stated at one point  "We can tell, for sure, from video images and even photographs that the Iron Dome system is not working very well at all," Postol said. "It—my guess is maybe [it hits a targeted missile] 5 percent of the time—could be even lower. ... And when you look—what you can do in the daytime—you can see the smoky contrail of each Iron Dome interceptor, and you can see the Iron Domes trying to intercept the artillery rockets side on and from behind. In those geometries, the Iron Dome has no chance, for all practical purposes, of destroying the artillery rocket."


A Skeptical View of Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System - Slashdot:

For a more in depth evaluation of Israel's claims see: This article from the bulletin of Atomic Scientists:
Iron Dome: The public relations weapon.




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