Some Real Health Care Reform

Whenever we get the Republicans out of power and can do some real health care reform, here's something we could look at.

America Should Adapt New Zealand's Method of Handling Medical Malpractice Cases www.slate.com We still need to lower health care costs. Here's one way.

Save your scent

This should be a basic household precaution. Line 'em up, swab them, and save the bottles. Just in case.

A woman with dementia went missing. Fortunately, she'd bottled her scent. www.tri-cityherald.com A Florida sheriff's office is trying to use the case of one woman to encourage others to buy scent preservation kits.

Trump Causes His Leaks

He can replace all the people he wants, but the leaks won't stop because that's how his staff can best get their messages to him.  Sad.

If Trump wants the leaks to stop, he needs to learn ... - Vox www.vox.com The leaks won't stop. The Trump administration might make a renewed effort to identify and punish leakers. It might find a convenient scapegoat (such as, as Foreign ...

T-Rex Couldn't Run

Should I ever come across a Tyrannosaurus rex in the wild, it's nice to know that I could outrun it.

Running not an option for Tyrannosaurus rex - newatlas.com newatlas.com The good news may be 65 million years too late, but a new study indicates that you could outrun a Tyrannosaurus rex. By combining two separate biomechanical ...

Food From Thin Air

Protein produced with electricity to alleviate world hunger www.sciencedaily.com A batch of single-cell protein has been produced by using electricity and carbon dioxide, report scientists. Protein produced in this way can be further developed for use as food and animal feed. The method releases food production from restrictions related to the environment. The protein can be produced anywhere renewable energy, such as solar energy, is available.

This is food from thin air. What does it do to the economic structure if you can cheaply manufacture food from air?

First of all the agro-business fodder industry is in for a big upset. Food for starving people around the world, even in low-resource places becomes possible. The key resource is energy. Imagine a small-scale processor in a shipping container.

Fake News from Natural Gas Industry

From our own James Conca:

Natural Gas Industry Blasts Nuclear Power With Fake News www.forbes.com Natural Gas, the darling energy source of the millennia, has decided it needs to take down its biggest competitor – nuclear power. The American Petroleum ...

Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

Drug discovery: Alzheimer's and Parkinson's spurred by same enzyme: AEP protease acts on amyloid, tau and now alpha-synuclein www.sciencedaily.com Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are different. But at the biochemical level, these two neurodegenerative diseases start to look similar. This is how Emory scientists landed on a potential drug target for Parkinson's.

Let's Make America Ignorant Again

Paul Krugman points out that the Republicans complain that folks in higher education are biased. Yet they don't seem concerned that the military officer corps is also biased. 

Of Tweets And Trade

All 45 can do about trade is mess it up.

Krugman on Trump and trade.

Fast Batteries

Here are two articles about a recent battery development that could lead to charge rates similar to super-capacitors.

In the fast lane: Conductive electrodes are key to fast-charging batteries: Researchers use mxene to push charging rate limits in energy storage www.sciencedaily.com Can you imagine fully charging your cell phone in just a few seconds? Researchers can, and they took a big step toward making it a reality with their recent work unveiling of a new battery electrode design.

And from New Atlas.

"Ion highway" electrodes drive development of batteries that charge in seconds

newatlas.com

A team at Drexel University has used the two-dimensional material MXene to develop a new type of electrode, combining the capacitance of a regular battery with the speed of a supercapacitor, which could lead to devices that recharge in a matter of seconds.

Alzheimer's and Sleep

Poor sleep make be a significant cause of Alzheimer's.

Sleep, Alzheimer's link explained www.sciencedaily.com Disrupting just one night of sleep in healthy, middle-aged adults causes an increase in a brain protein associated with Alzheimer's disease, research shows. Further, a week of poor sleep leads to an increase in another brain protein that has been linked to brain damage in Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

Paying for Single-payer

Health care is expensive regardless of who pays for it. But there are ways to bring it into line and provide a big boost to American employers along the way.

The real reason single-payer health care is hard to pay for www.vox.com It's a big problem — but there's a solution.

Will Congress Cover for Trump Complicity?

Will Congress Hold Russia Accountable for the Behavior Trump Excuses?

With the president letting Putin off the hook for meddling in elections, it's up to the congressional GOP to defend the integrity of American democracy.

Formic Acid as Alternative Fuel

Hydrogen is hard to store for use in transportation. With a good conversion process, forms of liquid fuel can be used.

Formic acid joins the list of alternative fuels being put to the test newatlas.com Students at the Technical University of Eindhoven in The Netherlands have avoided the storage problem of hydrogen-powered vehicles by developing a self-contained system that helps power an electric bus using hydrogen produced from formic acid.

From Games to Science

During my career I've seen workstations take over tasks that were once the domain of supercomputers. It's interesting to see how products from the gaming world are making an impact on the scientific world.

Kinect scan of T. rex skull addresses paleontological mystery www.sciencedaily.com A new system with $150 worth of hardware offers alternative to 3-D scanners that cost 200 times as much, report scientists who have used it on the skull of a T. rex dinosaur.

Slam Dunk

Even budding law students can see that the obstruction of justice case against the President is a classic example of what constitutes the crime. This was a easy step for Bob Mueller. What remains to be seen is the true depth of the President's corruption.

Rachel and MSNBC Spot the Trap

A forged top secret document is making the rounds among new agencies. But the sharp folks at MSNBC caught the forgery. Clearly, there is an effort to bait our news services with fake news that can be used to discredit them. But most of our journalists are wise to that ploy.

Obamacare not imploding.

It's being sabotaged by Republicans. The biggest problem with the ACA is sabotage. If you want better health care coverage, send them back to their jobs in the private sector. We need people in our government who care about 98% of folks.

It's pure class warfare

And they started it

So, is this bill good for you? Yes, if you meet the following criteria:

1.Your income is more than $200,000 a year
2.You have a job that comes with good health insurance
3.You can't imagine any circumstances under which you lose that job or income
4.You don't have any family members or friends who don't meet those criteria
5.You have zero empathy for anyone else

The set of people who can check all these boxes is not a winning political coalition. But Republican leaders believe that their voters are tribal enough, sufficiently walled off from information, that they'll ignore the attack on their lives and keep voting R – indeed, that as they lose health care, get hit with crushing out-of-pocket bills, see their friends and neighbors face ruin, they'll blame it on Democrats.

I wish I were sure that this belief was false.

Fairness and Freedom

Some words from one of my favorite Presidents, Harry S.:

In this society, we are conservative about the values and principles which we cherish; but we are forward-looking in protecting those values and principles and in extending their benefits. We have rejected the discredited theory that the fortunes of the Nation should be in the hands of a privileged few. We have abandoned the "trickledown" concept of national prosperity. Instead, we believe that our economic system should rest on a democratic foundation and that wealth should be created for the benefit of all.

...

The American people have decided that poverty is just as wasteful and just as unnecessary as preventable disease. We have pledged our common resources to help one another in the hazards and struggles of individual life. We believe that no unfair prejudice or artificial distinction should bar any citizen of the United States of America from an education, or from good health, or from a job that he is capable of performing.

The attainment of this kind of society demands the best efforts of every citizen in every walk of life, and it imposes increasing responsibilities on the Government.

The Government must work with industry, labor, and the farmers in keeping our economy running at full speed. The Government must see that every American has a chance to obtain his fair share of our increasing abundance. These responsibilities go hand in hand.

We cannot maintain prosperity unless we have a fair distribution of opportunity and a widespread consumption of the products of our factories and farms.

Our Government has undertaken to meet these responsibilities.

 ...

The strength of our Nation must continue to be used in the interest of all our people rather than a privileged few. It must continue to be used unselfishly in the struggle for world peace and the betterment of mankind the world over.

This is the task before us.

It is not an easy one. It has many complications, and there will be strong opposition from selfish interests.

I hope for cooperation from farmers, from labor, and from business. Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from our Government a fair deal.

 end-of-quote

In addition to fairness, we can add the principle of freedom. Someone who can't afford to see a doctor when they are sick is not free. Someone who works hard but can't get a living wage is not free. Someone who can't get a good standard education is not free. Someone who can''t purchase goods and services because of their religion or sexual orientation is not free. Someone who can't have a job for which they are qualified for those same reasons is not free. Someone who has to fear for their life in a routine traffic stop because of the color of their skin is not free.


Democrats can put out a better message than they have recently.