Minor Thoughts

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Most people in health policy do not understand complex systems. They really don’t understand social science models either. As a result, when they advocate or enact public policies, they are almost always oblivious to the inevitability of unintended consequences. The idea that a policy based on good intentions could actually make things worse is beyond their comprehension.

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The key take away is that it’s impossible to centrally plan a complex system and that trying to do so is generally counterproductive.

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The studies question long-held beliefs about food selection and weight loss. For example, could 1,000 calories of turkey cause more weight gain in some people than 1,000 calories of cashews? If so, could a person lose weight through food selection without cutting total calories?

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Virginia Traweek asks why nurses can’t do some of the work that doctors currently do. They’re qualified and they’re willing. It would alleviate some of the shortage of primary care doctors. So, aside from protecting doctors’ paychecks, why shouldn’t we allow nurses to do more?

Ms. Traweek focuses on Texas’s ridiculously restrictive regulations but it’s a …

This book is a cross between the hard boiled detective fiction of the early 1900’s and modern fantasy. It reminded me of reading Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, crossed with a bit of the absurdist humor of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams.

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What I came away with was a better sense of life bordered by death. By giving such a short timeline—one day—I required each author to tell a tale of birth, life, and death. Though the stories ranged from the far past to the far future and into worlds that never were but could have been, there was single thread of familiarity. There was a sense of wonder and emotion that was at the heart of it all.

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Two decades into the boom, however, the balance of evidence suggests that it is more a surge in diagnosis than in disease.

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Radley Balko points out how the Occupy encampments should have been taken down.

All of the cops who weren’t busy transporting and processing the voluntary arrestees lined up, blocking the stairs down into the plaza. They stood shoulder to shoulder. They kept calm and silent. They positioned the weapons on their belts out of …

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Peggy Noonan talks about Newt Gingrich and his talent for large successes as well as his capacity for self-destruction.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars Personal Enthusiasm: It Was Okay

Since I’ve started reviewing books, I’ve been trying to force myself to review a book based on what it’s meant to be rather than on what I wish it was. After all, that’s the only way to be fair to the author. So it was with …