Monthly Archives: March 2004

Politicians Are Not the Only Ones Who Flip-Flop

This entry was posted in Health Care on by

Who flip-flops on the issues? bush say kerry, kerry says bush.
Other folks who change their tune (R) frequently are the good folks who give us medical advice:

When the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently concluded that one’s sense of thirst — not a set number of glasses of water — should determine the amount of liquid to drink each day, this respected scientific group overturned yet another widely held piece of health advice.

The article provides plenty of examples as well as a synopsis of current evidence on a number of issues of daily concern.
Others might argue that if you stick with your program medical science will find its way back to you. I’d suggest, though, that we err on the side of reason and apply DB’s approach to our daily lives:

I have ranted concerning this general issue in the past. Science demands that we test and revise hypotheses. As a physician we must search for the best data and make decisions based on those data, understanding that we may change as new data appear.

Stay informed, evaluate the evidence and change as necesssary.

Contradictions

This entry was posted in Culture Economics Health Care Marketing on by

Krispy Kreme’s announcement may reflect a rational attempt to broaden their market as well as a response to the obesity police:

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, long known for its high-calorie treats, says it plans to offer a low-sugar doughnut to attract dieters and diabetics.
Exactly how low the sugar content would be was unclear Thursday.

However, if I’m going to buy a donut, which is not often, it is going to be the real thing. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Via The Storm.

Maximizing Government Revenue

This entry was posted in Domestic Terrorism Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Yet another novel approach to funding government:

On Tuesday, Blunkett will fight in the Royal Courts of Justice in London for the right to charge victims of miscarriages of justice more than �3000 for every year they spent in jail while wrongly convicted. The logic is that the innocent man shouldn�t have been in prison eating free porridge and sleeping for nothing under regulation grey blankets.

I’m kind of surprised he doesn’t want to charge these unlucky folks the full cost plus a little instead of a paltry �3000 but then the British may be able to house someone for much less then it costs in the US.
This kind of crap fits right in with things like forfeiture laws.
Via Samizdata and White Rose.

Some Possible Good News on the Spam Front

This entry was posted in Internet Spam Technology on by

This looks like a good thing:

Comcast, the US cable giant, is threatening to disconnect customers whose infected PC are being used to relay spam messages.
Up to 30 per cent of spam is now spewing from hijacked “zombie” PCs. Spammers use Trojan horses and worms to take over PCs and use them as spam engines, a practice that can severely disrupt the operation of ISPs.

I’d like to see them extend this to include PCs infected with Blaster and other worms that continually spew out probes looking for machines to infect. There policy should provide a mechanism for these users to regain access once they have cleansed their PC.
There is some risk that Comcast will block some innocents as well. Remember, Comcast is the outfit with the Kafkaesque usage policy.