U.S. Health Care Spending Highest Among Developed Countries
January 8th, 2019Via: Johns Hopkins:
The United States, on a per capita basis, spends much more on health care than other developed countries; the chief reason is not greater health care utilization, but higher prices, according to a study from a team led by a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researcher.
The paper appears in the January issue of Health Affairs.
The researchers determined that the higher overall health care spending in the U.S. was due mainly to higher prices—including higher drug prices, higher salaries for doctors and nurses, higher hospital administration costs and higher prices for many medical services.
The paper finds that the U.S. remains an outlier in terms of per capita health care spending, which was $9,892 in 2016. That amount was about 25 percent higher than second-place Switzerland’s $7,919. It was also 108 percent higher than Canada’s $4,753, and 145 percent higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) median of $4,033. And it was more than double the $4,559 the U.S. spent per capita on health care in 2000—the year whose data the researchers analyzed for a 2003 study.
75% of Med Students Are on Antidepressants or Stimulants (or Both)
January 5th, 2019Via: Ideal Medical Care:
“Have you ever been depressed as a physician?” I asked 220 doctors. Ninety percent stated yes. Yet few seek professional help. Here’s what depressed doctors do (when nobody’s looking). Some drink alcohol, exercise obsessively, even steal psychiatric meds. Still more shocking—I discovered that 75% of med students (and new doctors) are now on psychiatric medications.
“I was told by the psychologist at my med school’s campus assistance program, that 75% of the class of 175 people were on antidepressants,” shares psychiatrist Dr. Jaya V. Nair. “He wasn’t joking. How broken is the system, that doctors have to be pushed into illness in order to be trained to do their job?”
“During my internship, I found out that at least 75% of my fellow residents were on SSRIs or other antidepressants, just ‘to get through it’ because it was so horrible.” states Dr. Joel Cooper, “Depression, or a constantly depressed state, is more or less the norm in medical school and throughout one’s residency.”
“When I left my residency, I was alarmed to find out that about 75% of my fellow residents had started antidepressants since their intern year,” says Dr. Jill Fadal.
Seems the epidemic of depressed doctors begins in medical school. I wondered how best to verify this oft-repeated 75% statistic. Just then a student called to tell me what her professor said during orientation: “Look around the room. By the end of your first year, two-thirds of your class will be on antidepressants.”
China Makes Historic 1st Landing on Mysterious Far Side of the Moon
January 3rd, 2019Via: Space:
Humanity just planted its flag on the far side of the moon.
China’s robotic Chang’e 4 mission touched down on the floor of the 115-mile-wide (186 kilometers) Von Kármán Crater Wednesday night (Jan. 2), pulling off the first-ever soft landing on the mysterious lunar far side.
Chang’e 4 will perform a variety of science work over the coming months, potentially helping scientists better understand the structure, formation and evolution of Earth’s natural satellite. But the symbolic pull of the mission will resonate more with the masses: The list of unexplored locales in our solar system just got a little shorter.
Apple: People Bought Fewer New iPhones Because They Repaired Their Old Ones
January 3rd, 2019In case you had any doubts about why Apple viciously attacks those who repair iPhones…
Via: Vice:
Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a letter to investors alerting them that the company would miss its revenue targets in part because Apple didn’t sell as many iPhones as it expected. The lengthy letter cites, specifically, that people are buying fewer iPhones because they are repairing their old ones.
Apple has long fought efforts that would make iPhones easier to repair: It has lobbied against right to repair efforts in several states, doesn’t sell iPhone replacement parts, sued an independent repair professional in Norway, worked with Amazon to get iPhone and MacBook refurbishers kicked off Amazon Marketplace, and has deals with electronics recyclers that require them to shred iPhones and MacBooks (as opposed to allowing them to be refurbished.) The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has seized iPhone replacement parts from prominent right to repair activists in the United States.
At the announcement event for the iPhone XS, Apple said that keeping your old iPhone “is the best thing for the planet,” but the fact remains that selling new iPhones is best for Apple’s bottom line. That’s why many people suspected that “throttle gate,” in which Apple was caught slowing down iPhones with old batteries, was a ploy to sell more iPhones (the phones were slowing down to prevent them from shutting off, but Apple never disclosed this to the user.) Though there’s no evidence that Apple has a business model based on planned obsolescence, the company attempted to downplay the fact that it was slowing down people’s old phones without telling them, which had the side effect of helping the company to sell more phones.
After widespread public outrage, Apple eventually offered to replace people’s old iPhone batteries for $29, which would end throttling and make older phones run faster. That program ended on December 31.
Multiple FX Pairs Suddenly Flash Crash, Yields Tumble, Gold Surges
January 3rd, 2019Equities bloodbath resumes after Apple’s revenue warning.
Via: ZeroHedge:
In what some have suggested is a chained liquidation stemming from the collapse of AAPL shares after-hours, multiple FX pairs are flash-crashing across the globe amid still low liquidity conditions in what appears to have been the unwind of a pair trade where an AAPL long was “hedged” with a basket of FX carry longs.
USDJPY just flash-crashed a stunning 4 handles (the biggest drop since 2009 according to Reuters) to its lowest in over two years, as the JPY was suddenly panic bid against the USD, as the pair tumbled from 109 to as low as 104.87.
Dark Overlord 911 Files Update
January 3rd, 2019Reddit, Twitter and Pastebin are actively suppressing Dark Overlord information.
On the open Internet, the group remains active at https://steemit.com/@thedarkoverlord.
Cryptome is mirroring the files released so far.
Britain: Average 10-Year-Old Has Eaten 18 years’ Worth of Sugar
January 2nd, 2019Via: Guardian:
The average 10-year-old has consumed as much sugar in their lifetime as the recommended limit for an 18-year-old, according to Public Health England (PHE), which is warning of serious implications for obesity and health.
Children are consuming the equivalent of eight excess sugar cubes a day, or 2,800 a year, says PHE, which has launched a new healthy eating campaign under its Change4Life scheme. National guidance recommends no more than five or six sugar cubes (20g-24g) a day for children aged four to 10.
One-third of children are overweight or obese at the age of 10 and 4.2% are severely obese in year six at school. Obese children often become obese adults, at risk of heart attacks, strokes and type 2 diabetes.
Blackwater Founder Erik Prince To Launch Fund For Electric Car Metals
January 1st, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
Erik Prince, the founder of private security firm Blackwater, plans to raise as much as $500m to capitalize on the rush into metals required for batteries used in electric cars, according to the Financial Times.
Hacker Group Threatens to Release 9/11-Related Documents Pilfered from Law Firm
January 1st, 2019Dark Overlord Statement on Pastebin
Dark Overlord AMA on 4chan /pol
At the above 4chan link, they also claim to have information on UFOs:
Q: I’d be willing to chip in with others to see it if I was sure it would be world shaking info. Not something the average person would change the TV when it came up on the news. On a scale of 1-10 how system breaking is the info?
A: You’re the smart one here, asking the right questions. We’d say it’s a 7.5, all things considered. Snowden may have been a 5.5, maybe a 6. More people care about 911 than USA spying. Now, our next release about UFOs, yeah, that’s a 10 mate, but it’s going to wait until we’re done here.
CORRECTION: Fake Alien Image Was NOT Released by Dark Overlord
Upon closer inspection, I saw that the ID number of the 4chan user who posted the hoax alien image (2VODi0RJ) was different than Dark Overlord’s ID number (YQ2Tku13).
Apologies.
Fast moving threads on the chans… *holding head in hands*
—
Update: Alleged Alien Photo from Dark Overlord Is from X-Files
When asked for information on aliens in the AMA above, Dark Overlord posted this image. Using TinEye, I was able to determine that the image is from X-files.
Via: Vice:
On Monday, New Year’s Eve, a hacker group announced it had breached a law firm handling cases related to the September 11 attacks, and threatened to publicly release a large cache of related internal files unless their ransom demands were met.
The news is the latest public extortion attempt from the group known as The Dark Overlord, which has previously targeted a production studio working for Netflix, as well as a host of medical centres and private businesses across the United States. The announcement also signals a slight evolution in The Dark Overlord’s strategy, which has expanded on leveraging the media to exert pressure on victims, to now distributing its threats and stolen data in a wider fashion.
In its announcement published on Pastebin, The Dark Overlord points to several different insurers and legal firms, claiming specifically that it hacked Hiscox Syndicates Ltd, Lloyds of London, and Silverstein Properties.
“Hiscox Syndicates Ltd and Lloyds of London are some of the biggest insurers on the planet insuring everything from the smallest policies to some of the largest policies on the planet, and who even insured structures such as the World Trade Centers,” the announcement reads.
It is unclear what exact files the group has stolen, but it is trying to capitalize on conspiracy theories around the 9/11 attacks.
“We’ll be providing many answers about 9.11 conspiracies through our 18.000 secret documents leak,” the group tweeted on Monday.
Real Headline: “Firm Led by Google Veterans Uses A.I. to ‘Nudge’ Workers Toward Happiness”
December 31st, 2018The New York Times, where cringe inducing meets comedy gold.
I think that Foxconn should run this software. Maybe there’s a suicide prevention net plugin for it.
Sensing that an employee has landed in one of those nets, the employee’s RFID badge could be read and the system could send them a coupon for lunch at McDonalds.
Nudge. Enjoy lunch on us. Nudge. Return to work refreshed. Nudge.
Via: New York Times:
Technology companies like to promote artificial intelligence’s potential for solving some of the world’s toughest problems, like reducing automobile deaths and helping doctors diagnose diseases. A company started by three former Google employees is pitching A.I. as the answer to a more common problem: being happier at work.
The start-up, Humu, is based in Google’s hometown, and it builds on some of the so-called people-analytics programs pioneered by the internet giant, which has studied things like the traits that define great managers and how to foster better teamwork.
Humu wants to bring similar data-driven insights to other companies. It digs through employee surveys using artificial intelligence to identify one or two behavioral changes that are likely to make the biggest impact on elevating a work force’s happiness. Then it uses emails and text messages to “nudge” individual employees into small actions that advance the larger goal.
