WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: De-Orbit Space Junk With High-Powered Lasers.
Archive for October, 2011
October 31, 2011
EARLY CANCER DETECTION: Suddenly, it’s not good for you after all. “Now expert groups are proposing less screening for prostate, breast and cervical cancer and have emphasized that screening comes with harms as well as benefits. . . . What changed? . . . Is all this happening now because of worries over costs?”
UPDATE: Reader David Lange writes:
I am probably one of the people the recent articles on prostate cancer screening is attempting to influence. I’ve been tracking my PSA since I was fifty and I am now fifty-nine. Having survived a type of leukemia in the 90s, I am convinced that early detection dramatically increases the chances of long term survival. My PSA jumped from 1.6 to 2.0 in one year and from 2.0 to 2.9 the next. My oncologist recommended a two month follow-up and it remained stable. Six months later, it rose to 3.2 and although my German urologist advised me to retest in six months, my NJ based oncologist was concerned about the velocity of the increase and recommended a biopsy, which came back positive with a small amount of low-risk cancer. I am now traveling to Johns Hopkins for seed implants, but suspect I would fall into the group that would never have been biopsied with the low PSA I have. On my last PSA test, it dropped back to 2.7. Ultimately, it is my decision whether to pursue treatment, but so far, I have not met one patient or doctor who would recommend doing nothing. Until they develop a test that can determine which cancers become agressive and which will not, on an individual rather than a statistical basis, it makes sense to do something.
Many people are concerned that the new “science” that has led to a sudden about-face on testing, coincident with the passage of ObamaCare, is driven by costs rather than patient welfare. This may be unfair, but one of the hazards of politicizing the health care system is that suspicions of, well, politicization of the health care system become unavoidable.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Suspicious reader Fran Akridge notes: “Not detecting cancer early has financial benefits for both the Medicare (too late for anything except hospice) and Social Security (earlier death) pools.”
SELLING JUDGMENTS: A law student creates his own job. “This is one possible piece of law’s information revolution, in which the traditional cottage industry of lawyers advising individual clients turns into a robust information market. It’s also an example of the new opportunities that may replace the disappearing traditional law jobs.”
THE GERMIEST THINGS WE TOUCH: Gas pumps?
CORZINE BANKRUPTCY UPDATE: Full MF Global Bankruptcy Petition… In Which We Find That Corzine’s Bankrupt Firm Owes CNBC $845,397? Making the network his 7th biggest unsecured creditor. Some suggest this may have influenced its coverage. Surely not.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): CNN: Home Prices Heading For Triple-Dip.
STACY MCCAIN IS COVERING HERMAN CAIN AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB.
Meanwhile, a question: Would Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman, Anna Palmer and Kenneth Vogel have put their names on a similar piece, with no named sources, aimed at Barack Obama? Would Politico have run it?
MAX BOOT: Obama’s Tragic Iraq Withdrawal: The president says we’re leaving because of Iraqi intransigence—but he never took negotiations seriously. “Mr. Bush spoke weekly with Mr. Maliki by video teleconference. Mr. Obama had not spoken with Mr. Maliki for months before calling him in late October to announce the end of negotiations. Mr. Obama and his senior aides did not even bother to meet with Iraqi officials at the United Nations General Assembly in September.” So much for that “smart diplomacy” we were promised.
IN THE MAIL: From Michael Walsh, Shock Warning.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Two Political Parties Are Breaking Down. “The decay of American political parties continues as the real money and power in politics shifts inexorably away from party organizations to informal and ad hoc groups. The combination of citizen grassroots movements, decentralized party structures and the vast sums of money short-circuiting the official party structures is changing the way politics works. . . . American political parties are increasingly being reduced to flags of convenience; party organizations and party institutions have little influence over events. That didn’t use to be true.”
HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: When A Professor Shouts “Death To Israel!” “The professor’s remarks are being condemned by some — including Kent State’s president — as inappropriate. But others say that he engaged in a legitimate expression of his political views.”
Well, it’s not like he put up a Firefly poster or anything. That would be dangerous hate speech.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Economist:
Signs of strain are everywhere. In September the Department of Education reported that in 2009 the default rate, which is defined as non-payment for 270 days, had reached 8.8%. By some estimates delinquency rates, an earlier indicator of stress, for student loans exceed 10%, ten times that for credit cards and car loans. Ms Loonin’s average client has a low-paying job, $30,000 of debt and is in arrears.
This is despite punitive laws to enforce repayment.
Indeed. Plus this: “The administration says these changes will have no cost to taxpayers. If there is one lesson of the past 46 years, it is to be dubious of that claim.”
AT AMAZON, Bestsellers in Video Games.
ROGER SIMON: Politico And Cain: The Return Of The High-Tech Lynching. “It took the mainstream media nearly a year to catch up with the John Edwards Affair, but only weeks into Herman Cain’s narrow frontrunner status for the GOP nomination, the goodfellas at Politico are letting the uppity black conservative have it.” Ouch. But let’s correct the record: They weren’t slow to cover the John Edwards story. They covered up the John Edwards story. Keep rockin’!
UPDATE: Four reporters, zero specifics.
OBAMA KNEW? U.S. had advance warning of abuse at Afghan prisons, officials say. “In February 2010, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a cable, later uncovered by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, saying that ‘human rights organizations point to a dubious distinction — we are the only detaining nation in Afghanistan that does not have a monitoring program.'”
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND, if you were out, you know, having a life or something:
My Sunday New York Post column: Government inflated the college loan bubble, but Obama isn’t fixing it.
Now online: Video of my keynote speech at the Harvard Law School constitutional-convention conference. All the conference video is collected here.
New York police union protests prosecution of police who break the law.
An epic population bomb fail.
Dartmouth’s diversity problem.
Howard Stern does the #Occupy reporting others won’t.
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
Is the New Class killing the Middle Class?
Hennepin County prosecutor gets it right.
More on the $10,000 college degree. Why aren’t Rick Perry’s proposals getting more attention?
Unexpectedly! The debt fallout: How Social Security went ‘cash negative’ earlier than expected.
In California, a rural rebellion is brewing.
The Livestrong App wins a fan.
I asked Michael Walsh if there was anything I could do for him after his heart surgery, and he said to plug his new novel, Shock Warning. Authors.
NOT MUCH LIKE THE TEA PARTY (CONT’D): Occupy Protesters Arrested in Texas, Oregon.
THE ONLY LIVING MASTER of a dying martial art. “A former factory worker from the British Midlands may be the last living master of the centuries-old Sikh battlefield art of shastar vidya. The father of four is now engaged in a full-time search for a successor.”
WAYNE CREWS: Regulations Are The Boot On Hiring’s Neck.
SHORT-TIMER: Congressional Calls For Eric Holder’s Resignation More Than Double to 17. “Nine more members of Congress have told The Daily Caller that they’re calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over his handling of Operation Fast and Furious, more than doubling the number on record before the weekend calling for his ouster. A total of 17 members of Congress have now called for Holder to step down.”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Dollar Hits Record Low Against Yen.
SOLARGATE UPDATE: Beacon Power bankrupt; had U.S. backing like Solyndra. “Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial U.S. Department of Energy program. The move comes about two months after solar panel maker Solyndra also filed for bankruptcy, setting off criticism of the government loan program.”
Related: Professor Obama’s Investing 101. “It is not surprising, given his lack of real-world experience, that Obama does not understand the meaning of the word ‘investment.’ Like most in his party, Obama thinks every kind of government spending is an investment.”
UPDATE: Famed Member of the 1% and Obama Bundler Runs Brokerage Firm Into Bankruptcy. “Looks like Jon Corzine has done for his firm what he did for the State of New Jersey.” These people certainly do have the touch.