The Proportion of Medical Procedures Unsupported by Evidence May be Nearly Half
December 31st, 2017Via: Vox:
The recent news that stents inserted in patients with heart disease to keep arteries open work no better than a placebo ought to be shocking. Each year, hundreds of thousands of American patients receive stents for the relief of chest pain, and the cost of the procedure ranges from $11,000 to $41,000 in US hospitals.
But in fact, American doctors routinely prescribe medical treatments that are not based on sound science.
The stent controversy serves as a reminder that the United States struggles when it comes to winnowing evidence-based treatments from the ineffective chaff. As surgeon and health care researcher Atul Gawande observes, “Millions of people are receiving drugs that aren’t helping them, operations that aren’t going to make them better, and scans and tests that do nothing beneficial for them, and often cause harm.”
Australian Banks Reportedly Freeze Accounts of Bitcoin Users
December 31st, 2017Disclosure: I hold cryptocurrencies.
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At some point, the fiat outflows will cause liquidity problems. That’s my guess as to why they fear cryptos so much.
At the link below, see the comments by user CPL that start out with:
Means they are just about to rob the Australians of their savings and are cutting off all the abilities to move capital out of the system. We are about to watch a ‘bail-in’.
Via: ZeroHedge:
Adding to the pressures on bitcoin early this morning, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that bitcoin users across Australia are reporting that their accounts have been abruptly frozen by the country’s “Big Four” banks. And while the banks have remained largely tight-lipped about the closures, many angry account-holders are jumping to conclusions and blaming the banks for punishing them because of their involvement with bitcoin.
Bitcoin investors are claiming Australia’s banks are freezing their accounts and transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges, with a viral tweet slamming the big four and an exchange platform putting a restriction on Australian deposits.
According to the Herald, cryptocurrency trader and Youtuber Alex Saunders called out National Australia Bank, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation on Twitter for freezing customer accounts and transfers to four different bitcoin exchanges – CoinJar, CoinSpot, CoinBase and BTC Markets.
Research Credit: Pookie
America’s Worst Graveyard Shift Is Grinding Up Workers
December 30th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
Cleanup at the slaughterhouse is as dangerous as it is repulsive, and the immigrants who do the work are under pressure to complete it faster than ever.
Bitcoin is Eating Itself
December 26th, 2017Disclosure: I hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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Bitcoin has become utterly terrible to use. The slow confirmations and high fees are insane. The article below is old. The average Bitcoin transaction fee is now $41.66, which is down from a record high $55.16 from a few days ago.
I did a couple of small transactions with Bitcoin Cash and couldn’t believe the speedy confirmations and pennies for fees.
I like the look of Dash. Lite Coin has a vocal fan base, but can it scale?
What coins do you think have potential to become a popular transaction medium?
Via: Medium:
Fees keep going up. And every time they go up, more of the money stored on the blockchain becomes worthless.
Over 3000 BTC, worth over $4M, is stored in “coins” (or “utxos”) whose value is too low to be spent in a normal transaction without incurring fees greater than the value of the “coin”.
If fees were back at January 2017 levels, only half as much stored BTC would be worthless. Bitcoin is eating itself.
Hinkley Point: The ‘Dreadful Deal’ Behind the World’s Most Expensive Power Plant
December 25th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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Via: Guardian:
Hinkley Point, on the Somerset coast, is the biggest building site in Europe. Here, on 430 acres of muddy fields scattered with towering cranes and bright yellow diggers, the first new nuclear power station in the UK since 1995 is slowly taking shape. When it is finally completed, Hinkley Point C will be the most expensive power station in the world. But to reach that stage, it will need to overcome an extraordinary tangle of financial, political and technical difficulties. The project was first proposed almost four decades ago, and its progress has been glacial, having faced relentless opposition from politicians, academics and economists every step of the way.
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To pay for it, the British government has entered into a complex financial agreement with Électricité de France (EDF), the energy giant that is 83% owned by the French government, and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), a state-run Chinese energy company. Under this contract, British electricity consumers will pay billions over a 35-year period. According to Gérard Magnin, a former EDF director, the French company sees Hinkley as “a way to make the British fund the renaissance of nuclear in France”. He added: “We cannot be sure that in 2060 or 2065, British pensioners, who are currently at school, will not still be paying for the advancement of the nuclear industry in France.”
Many British observers agree that the deal is ludicrously favourable to EDF – “a dreadful deal, laughable” says Prof Steve Thomas, who works on energy policy at the University of Greenwich. But even insiders at EDF aren’t entirely happy with it. In the months before the EDF board finally signed off the deal in autumn 2016, the finance director resigned, along with Magnin. “The Hinkley Point project remains very risky,” Magnin told me. He is particularly concerned about EDF’s ability to complete the project before the current deadline of 2025. “Why have we reached this point?” asked Magnin. “It is the construction of a house of cards.”
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But the irony of Hinkley Point C is that by the time it eventually starts working, it may have become obsolete. Nuclear power is facing existential problems around the world, as the cost of renewable energies fall and their popularity grows. “The maths doesn’t work,” says Tom Burke, former environmental policy adviser to BP and visiting professor at both Imperial and University Colleges. “Nuclear simply doesn’t make sense any more.”
Julian Assange’s Twitter Account Reappears After Mysterious Absence
December 25th, 2017Via: CBS:
The official Twitter account of controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — @JulianAssange — is back online after disappearing from the social media platform overnight. It’s unclear whether the account was suspended by Twitter or deactivated by Assange.
Representatives at Twitter did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
Apple Faces Lawsuits Over Its Intentional Slowing of Older iPhones
December 22nd, 2017Via: Guardian:
Apple is facing lawsuits over the revelations that it intentionally slows down older iPhones without user consent.
Apple has admitted to slowing down the iPhone 6, 6S, 7 and SE when their batteries are either old, cold or have a low charge to prevent abrupt shutdowns.
Two separate class-action lawsuits were filed Thursday, brought by plaintiffs in California and Illinois, arguing that Apple did not have consent to slow down their iPhones.
Two people from Chicago, along with residents of Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina, claim that Apple’s iOS updates were “fraudulently forcing iPhone owners to purchase the latest model offered by Apple.”
A Fight to the Death for the Elephants
December 22nd, 2017Via: Los Angeles Times:
Kambale Mate huddled beneath a tangle of grass, looking up at bright stars in a moonless sky, a tumble of chaotic events cascading through his mind.
Where were the other wildlife rangers, Jean de Dieu Matongo and Joel Meriko Ari? Were they alive?
He had been a ranger for only five months at Garamba National Park, the last remaining preserve for disappearing populations of elephants and giraffes in this part of Africa. Yet here he was with two comrades, hiding like small, petrified mammals in the grass. If any of them moved, a large band of poachers nearby could find and kill them.
A hassock of grass cradled his back as he looked up. He couldn’t remember quite how he had escaped the shrieking storm of bullets. What he remembered was the crunch of the crisp, dry leaves as boot steps crept through the dusk.
The world is experiencing an epidemic of environmental killings. Last year 200 environmental defenders — citizens protesting mining, agribusiness, oil and gas development and logging, as well as land rights activists and wildlife rangers — were killed, according to the London-based nonprofit Global Witness. In the first 11 months of this year, the number was 170.
Goldman Is Setting Up a Cryptocurrency Trading Desk
December 22nd, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
At least one of Wall Street’s biggest firms is growing more comfortable with cryptocurrencies.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is setting up a trading desk to make markets in digital currencies such as bitcoin, according to people with knowledge of the strategy. The bank aims to get the business running by the end of June, if not earlier, two of the people said. Another said it’s still trying to work out security issues as well as how it would hold, or custody, the assets.
The move positions Goldman Sachs to become the first large Wall Street firm to make markets in cryptocurrencies, whose wild price swings and surging values have captured the public’s imagination but given pause to established institutions. Already, the bank is among just a few mainstream firms clearing a new breed of bitcoin futures offered by Cboe Global Markets Inc. and CME Group Inc. Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., for example, have been taking a wait-and-see approach.
Plastic Found in Mussels from Arctic to China
December 20th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Tiny bits of plastic are contaminating mussels from the European Arctic to China in a sign of the global spread of ocean pollution that can end up on people’s dinner plates.
Mussels in apparently pristine Arctic waters had most plastic of any tested along the Norwegian coast, according to a study this month by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA).
Plastics may be getting swept north by ocean currents and winds from Europe and America, ending up swirling around the Arctic Ocean, NIVA researcher Amy Lusher told Reuters.
“Microplastics have been found in mussels everywhere scientists have looked,” she said.
