By Michael, on May 30th, 2009
It’s not your bank information or credit card numbers hackers that take over your PC are interested. Those items are bonuses. The real use of a hacked, or zombie, PC is in the computing power the hacker can use. Things like:
- Illicit Web Hosting – You too can serve up porn
- Zombie Grunt Work – Help spread the virus love
- E-Mail/Webmail Attacks – Share the load of sending spam
- Account Credentials – Your MySpace, Facebook, Gmail …
- Virtual Goods – If the gamer has gold in them there games, well, make that had gold
Brian Krebs explains all of these in his excellent security article.
By Michael, on May 29th, 2009
The New Yorker has an excellent article on health care costs. It focuses on the Hildago county Texas area and it’s main city McAllen. This area has the second highest health care costs, as measured by health care spending, in the USA. It is second only to Miami. This is in stark contrast to El Paso county, about 800 miles up the Rio Grande, a place with very similar demographics. The spending in Hildago county is roughly twice that of El Paso county. Are the citizens of Hildago county getting better care for all the extra spending?
Nor does the care given in McAllen stand out for its quality. Medicare ranks hospitals on twenty-five metrics of care. On all but two of these, McAllen’s five largest hospitals performed worse, on average, than El Paso’s. McAllen costs Medicare seven thousand dollars more per person each year than does the average city in America. But not, so far as one can tell, because it’s delivering better health care.
Where is the money going?
Read the article. The root cause is revealed in the first page or so.
But don’t stop there, near the beginning where, the high cost culprit is revealed. Author Atul Gawande goes on to speak to his own experience as a doctor, when he bullied an admitting physician to keep his son overnight for observation. This hospital stay, he realized after doing further research, was unnecessary. Dr. Gawande also examines the practices of the Mayo Clinic and practitioners in Grand Junction Colorado. Both of these have costs among the lowest in the nation while providing care that is close to the top available. Those cases, where high quality care is provided at low cost, are the truly instructive ones.
Nor are these two cases special instances that cannot be repeated elsewhere:
Grand Junction’s medical community was not following anyone else’s recipe. But, like Mayo, it created what Elliott Fisher, of Dartmouth, calls an accountable-care organization. The leading doctors and the hospital system adopted measures to blunt harmful financial incentives, and they took collective responsibility for improving the sum total of patient care.
This approach has been adopted in other places, too: the Geisinger Health System, in Danville, Pennsylvania; the Marshfield Clinic, in Marshfield, Wisconsin; Intermountain Healthcare, in Salt Lake City; Kaiser Permanente, in Northern California. All of them function on similar principles. All are not-for-profit institutions. And all have produced enviably higher quality and lower costs than the average American town enjoys.
The money quote: “[Lester Dyke, cardiac surgeon], is among the few vocal critics of what’s happened in McAllen. “We took a wrong turn when doctors stopped being doctors and became businessmen,” he said.
By Michael, on May 28th, 2009
Ya like Bizarro? The cartoonist, Dan Piraro, keeps a blog that provides background to the daily comics, links to other versions, and links, lots ‘o links. All the links go to images. They’re as fun as the cartoons. And this is, to me, the fun part. No links to pages, no links to ads, just links to lots of amazing photos.
It must be really great to be a cartoonist. And a great way to get rich, just like it says here.
By Michael, on May 22nd, 2009
(two updates below)
Are you aware of Daniel Hauser? At this time he’s 13, has Hodgkin Lymphoma, and is on the lam with his mom. They are running to prevent a court order that would force Daniel to resume chemotherapy for his Hodgkins.
There is a lot of controversy over this case. People argue over patient’s rights, parent’s rights, the pain/benefit balance for cancer treatment. Dr. Rahul K. Parikh wrote a sensitive article for Salon.com exploring the complications.
This is a gripping story for me. At 19 I was diagnosed with stage 3B Hodgkins. Good timing on my part – an initial cure for Hodgkins was just being recognized. As my oncologist put it at the time “we know it works because people we treated five years ago are still alive.”
Treatments have improved since 1976. Side effects are “less” severe. Yet the central truth of Hodgkins chemotherapy is selective poisoning. Subjecting your entire body to poisons that will, 19 times out of 20, kill the cancer before it kills you. Living through that is not a good time.
At 13 Daniel feels the pain way more than he can foresee the decades of life that lie beyond treatment. I wish his parents could see the life that lies beyond treatment.
What follows is the contents of my letter to the editor on this matter.
In November 1977 my doctor said “there hasn’t been a sign of cancer in your body since June.” I went weak in the knees and a lmost fainted. Why hadn’t they told me that great news in June?
Perhaps because they understood the risk of my refusing to continue the course of treatment that had been planned out in the fall of 1976 when I was diagnosed with stage 3B Hodgkins.
I was 19 at the time of diagnosis. Medical treatment, both chemotherapy and radiation, lasted a full year. I somewhat stoically endured that treatment and then spent years, mostly on my own, working on mental recovery.
Daniel at the very young 13 cannot be expected to have the foresight to see beyond the daily pain of treatment. He is behaving quite rationally.
However his parents are failing him. They need to make the life saving decision to keep him in chemo. They need to follow up by being there for him and getting him the now widely available help to live through treatment – on a psychic basis.
I hope they find Daniel and his mother and get him into treatment. I trust that if that happens on some day over 30 years from now Daniel, like me, will have memories of treatment and a love for the years of life it provided.
Update: Daniel and his mom have returned from their time away from Minnesota. Daniel will be getting the treatment with a 95% success rate. It is with great relief I withdraw the statement “his parents are failing him.” May their journey through treatment go as well as possible.
Update: Kent Petersen is participating in the annual Livestrong Challenge to raise funds for the foundation. Donate Now! Why? The Livestrong Foundation does more than raise money for research. Their mission: We can help you face the challenges and changes that come with cancer. 30 years ago that element was missing in treatment. The Livestrong Foundation is supporting a vital aspect of helping people get back to total health. It is strongly worth supporting.
By Michael, on May 22nd, 2009
I’m starting over.
In November 2002 I started bike commuting to address my health issues, most of them tied to obesity. In August 2007 I faltered. Through early 2008 I rode in bits and pieces, perhaps once a week. Then in September I quit. Maybe I rode once in December 2008. But, effectively, I quit.
What was the effect? Between August 2007 and this morning I’ve gained 35 pounds or about 1.6 pounds a month. I’m back so close to where I was in 2002 that, effectively, I’m there again.
Not quite there there, but close enough. There are many changes since then. I can ride faster and further carrying the same set of a dozen cans of Crisco in fat on my body. (What a mental image! 12 Cans of Crisco! That’s why the pants don’t fit.) So my muscles, heart and lungs are stronger. Certainly not as strong as they were in 2007. But much stronger than in 2002 – a time when I cursed speed bumps on moderate climbs. In 2002 I’d be in a 20 inch granny gear climbing a 3% (if even that “steep”) grade and come to a speed bump that would almost stop me from continuing. Now I ride those same grades in something much higher than the granny and the bump is a bump. I’m doing an 11.8 mile commute instead of a 4.7 mile one.
Some similarities are present. I’m now working on working up to riding a metric century. 62 miles have gone from “wow? can I do that?” to “nice start for a day” to “oh gosh, can I do it again?” The first one is going to be tough.
And then it will get easier and easier as I do more and more. The only trick is to keep doing the more.
By Michael, on May 22nd, 2009
Jeremy Clarkson has written a howling funny, scathing review of the new Honda Insight
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
So you’re sitting there with the engine screaming its head off, and your ears bleeding, and you’re doing only 23mph because that’s about the top speed, and you’re thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do because you run over a small piece of grit.
Do go read. You’ll have a good time. If you read all the way to page three you’ll find the one positive thing he has to say about the car.
By Michael, on May 18th, 2009
Because groove is cooler than habit… It’s best to look for external signs that you’re getting your groove back. I’ve had three recent triggers that hint it may be happening for cycling.
1)
For the first time this year, and for the first time in longer than I can remember, I took off on a ride just for personal fun. The ride wasn’t to go to work, it wasn’t to do an errand on Woodstock, it wasn’t to ride with someone because I said I would. I just rode to ride. It was a Carlos Villa Practice ride. Gah, I can’t remember the last time I did this. Yet, this type of ride is definitely a coal mine canary of riding health.
2)
My average speed has bounced up from the “don’t ride” levels. When I don’t ride for awhile, or when I getting out there to just get out there I don’t ride with enthusiasm. It shows in my average speed. Like a damp campfire that won’t catch, my ride sputters and smokes along never really getting anywhere but eventually getting over with. When the joy of ride catches flame I go. Paradoxically I go faster with less apparent effort. The work is transformed into play and zoom, zoom, zoom. (note: I’m still very slow)
3)
It’s V8 and potato chip time. Hamstring cramps are indicating I’ve out ridden my internal salt supply and I need to replenish the electrolytes. A nice problem to have.
We’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks.
By Michael, on May 18th, 2009
When I was in college, or what approximates college in an Art Institute, I had a drawing/painting teacher named Carlos Villa. (Or check his SFAI listing) He is a great artist and better teacher.
My introduction to him was in Drawing I, the Art equivalent of English Comp 101. On the first day we were gathered, rumors floated around about how he made you do so much work. “Be ready to fill up three or four sketch books,” one student warned.
Carlos quickly put the rumors to rest by addressing the class and setting out his expectations.
You should only draw when you want.
Of course, you should want to draw all the time.
We laughed, set at ease. His expectations were actually greater than what was rumored. But we all felt good about it.
|
|
People write …