Hazard Lights: On

You may have never heard of “moral hazard” and there’s no surprise in that. It’s a term used largely by economists and policymakers. Let’s just say, it’s the idea that if something is too freely available, say universal healthcare, that people will take more than their fill — a bit like overeaters at a buffet — and thereby abuse the system.

But this presumes that healthcare comes as an unlimited resource, that people could “overeat” at the healthcare smorgasbord. Problem is, anybody who has waited to be seen by a physician or who knows the details of the current and ever-growing nursing shortage knows there aren’t unlimited resources.

Moreover, even if you have a wonderful healthcare plan, as I did up to 2 years ago, the idea that anyone would willingly go to the doctor for something unimportant is absurd. The doctor’s just not that fun!

For more on this topic (which is going to impact healthcare in this country in a major way), please read this article in The New Yorker.

Smarty Pants?

Eventually, I'll have authored a quiz on this site. (Check in a month or so for something about business ethics I'm currently calling Should You Go to Jail?) For now, check if you can do 8th grade math or know your Potter trivia.

Secret Secret! I've Got a Secret

Friend of mine sent me this link. The New York Times had an interesting article about it a few months back. So feel like a Peeping Tom and visit to learn the world's dirty little secrets.

p.s. If you can name the reference from the title of this blog you get to be the Cool Kid for the day. (Like in high school when you hoped people would some day magically discover you were oodles cooler than they thought ... or was that just me?)

The Rainmaker

If you have or ever thought about getting disability insurance, this is a very important article to read, kind of The Rainmaker all over again.

p.s. on vacation the rest of this week. I'll be back soon!

Yay! Babies! (... uh ... or not)

Statistics can lead to wrong conclusions. Very very wrong. Here's an interesting example proving that...

From Jakob Nielsen: Studies show that intelligence declines by birth order. In other words, a person who was a first-born child will on average have a higher IQ than someone who was born second. Third-, fourth-, fifth-born children and so on have progressively lower average IQs. This data seems to present a clear warning to prospective parents: Don't have too many kids, or they'll come out increasingly stupid. Not so.

There's a hidden third variable at play: smarter parents tend to have fewer children. When you want to measure the average IQ of first-born children, you sample the offspring of all parents, regardless of how many kids they have. But when you measure the average IQ of fifth-born children, you're obviously sampling only the offspring of parents who have five or more kids. There will thus be a bigger percentage of low-IQ children in the latter sample, giving us the true -- but misleading -- conclusion that fifth-born children have lower average IQs than first-born children.

Any given couple can have as many children as they want, and their younger children are unlikely to be significantly less intelligent than their older ones.

Sticks and Stones ...

• A woman’s Comcast cable bill starts making fun of her.
  
• At the bottom of this page, some techniques when you spot name calling.
• Mark you calendars: Jan. 23-26.

Now how do you spell “nanny nanny boo boo”?

All the News that Makes you Fit

• Orange juice can help prevent arthritis.
• Women who take oral contraceptives can counteract bone loss by making sure they have enough calcium in their daily diet, especially early in life.
• Long working hours culture drives up the risk of injury and illness, reveals a study. And the risk has nothing to do with how hazardous the job is.

And in other news, myths about sex debunked. Ooh, fun! I love the word debunked.

Money, Money, Money ... Money!

Financially richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, and graduate student Laura Tach, Harvard University.

They researched whether the income effect on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (absolute income effect) or from comparing one’s income to the income of others (relative income effect).

Firebaugh argues that a person's reported level of happiness depends on how his or her income compares to others in the same age group. This may result in a self-indulgent treadmill, because incomes in the United States rise over most of the adult lifespan.

While income is important in determining happiness, Firebaugh’s data found that physical health was the best single predictor of happiness, followed by income, education, and marital status.

Identity Theft Risk Quiz

I’m lifting this almost word for word from a Purdue University press release.

Scott L. Ksander, who investigates security issues for Information Technology at Purdue, uses the following quiz to help people assess the risk of their identities being stolen:

* I receive several offers of pre-approved credit every week (5 points). Add 5 more points if you do not shred them.

* I carry my Social Security card in my wallet (10).

* My driver's license has my Social Security number on it (10).

* I do not have a post office box or locked, secured mailbox (5).

* I use an unlocked, open box at work or at home to drop off my outgoing mail (10).

* I carry my military ID in my wallet at all times (10).

* I provide my Social Security number whenever asked, without asking questions about how that information will be safeguarded (10). Add 5 more points if you provide your number orally without checking to see who might be listening.

* I am required to use my Social Security number at work as an employee ID or at school as a student ID number (5).

* My Social Security number is printed on various documents frequently seen in the workplace, such as on time cards (10).

* I have my Social Security number and/or driver's license number printed on my personal checks (10).

* I am listed in a "Who's Who" guide (5).

* I carry my insurance card in my wallet, and either my Social Security number or that of my spouse is on that card (10).

* I have not ordered a copy of my credit report for at least two years (20).

* I do not protect my discarded personal, credit and financial information from thieves by shredding them prior to putting them in the trash (10).

If you scored 100 points or more you are at high risk for identity theft. A score of 50-100 makes your odds of being victimized about average but higher if you have good credit. A score of 0-50 points means you have a low risk of being an identity theft victim.

With permission from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

I’m Melting! I’m Melting!

Protect yourself from water. Yes, that’s the latest advice from one spa expert.

“Every time you take a shower, water is damaging your skin. When you include a shampoo your face dries and wrinkles even faster. Dorit Baxter introduces Facial Shower Shield.

“An original antidote to shower and shampoo damage. Massaged onto the face, neck and chest before a shower it protects skin from damaging agents in water and hair products.”

What is this world coming to? Really.

All-Terrain Vehicles Suck

Did you know that more than 40 children have been killed or seriously injured on all-terrain vehicles this year? Some trauma centers treat, on average, 6-8 children annually (and that’s leaving out the ones killed on the scene).

Children actually don’t have the motor skills and ability to safely handle the vehicles, and injuries caused by ATVs are not minor. Think comas, brain injuries, paralysis.

They look like toys but should be thought of as traumatic. Please tell others.

Double-Bagged Life

Can each of you, all 2 of my readers, please do something for me? Stop the double bagging! Today it was a double bagged 6-pack of orange soda. Yesterday, they double-bagged my 6 rolls of toilet paper. Both products can make it home in one bag, but the plastic generosity of my grocer means I receive 2 bags every time, whether or not the weight of the item necessitates it. (Better still, bring cloth bags, something I have yet to remember to do but is a great way to avoid the waste.)

In more upbeat environmental news, Dannon is getting rid of plastic lids on its yogurt. This is a brilliant marketing scheme (they’re contributing to Toys for Tots instead) and saving 3.6 million pounds of plastic. Yay!

Media Blitz... er...

Wolf Blitzer, talking on CNN’s Situation Room (a show that runs 3-6 p.m.), stated today: “I’m a newsman; it’s my job to try to make the news.” This comment, I believe, highlights the very problem with the media today.

His job isn’t to make news, it is to report it, prioritize it, and analyze it coherently in a way that contributes to the national discussion on the news. If more media did that, more people could turn to the Situation Room, rather than Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, for their updates.

On a side note, the Situation Room does make interesting use of blogs. In covering the smog problem in Kuala Lumpur, they directed attention to a couple blogs, including a photo blog that I would love to share but now cannot find referred to on CNN.

Phrase just learned in the last 45 seconds: blog smog (meaning: information haze). Use it wisely, dear readers.

Bad Girl! Bad Girl!

I have been properly chastised for my temporary abandonment of the blogging world. So it’s back on the bandwagon (a term, I’m sure you’re all dying to know, that comes from the wagons political candidates once rode through town on, which people would climb onto if they supported him).

First item of business: some mathematicians have concluded it’s good to give gifts to potential mates, particularly ones that are extravagant (hint, hint). I swear I’m not making this up!

The research suggests that expensive gifts that can be turned in for money aren’t worth as much as something extravagant that can’t be returned (i.e., Broadway tickets to the Odd Couple or brunch at Jane).

I, for one, would prefer $20 in Gouda cheese (droooool) to an extravagant carriage ride, but maybe that’s just me.

Cha-Ching!

Not too much cha-ching for new recruits to the army, although I hear the bonuses are pretty sweet. I thought y'all might be interested...

When Writers Try Too Hard

From Yahoo News:

“If your grandmother claims she’s squirreled away every issue of Reader’s Digest, there will soon be an easy way to check: just go up to the attic and count to 1,000.

The 1,000th issue of the 83-year-old minimagazine comes out this week, and the occasion is likely to prompt thoughts about the Digest’s colorful history and its status as an American symbol.”

Oh, that’s considered the “easy” way? What tha…

And please tell me it promted thoughts about the magazine’s status as an American symbol. Who? What? We couldn’t find a better symbol than pithy softball summaries of other magazine’s journalism? Argh!!

p.s. I quit my job this week. Got a new one. New title: junior IA. Begone you tedious freelance assignments. Out, out, damn spot!

All That Sneezing Had to be Good for Something!

Having asthma, hay fever or another allergic condition may reduce the risk of developing one fatal form of brain cancer, a new study suggests. New evidence for this relationship is found in the normal variation of two genes, the scientists say.

Death Knell for Cell Phone Driving (sniff, sniff)

People who use a cell phone when driving are four times more likely to have a serious crash and hands-free devices are no safer, concludes new research. I keep hoping we will get better at it...

Could Makeup Shorten Your Life?

On the heels of research linking the common chemical compound phthalate to reproductive abnormalities in humans, an Indiana State University study has found a connection between the same chemical and lupus in mice.

Recent research at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry found smaller genitals in the male babies of pregnant women who used beauty products containing phthalates.

Now researchers at Indiana State who injected mice with phthalates, a compound present in a variety of plastics and beauty products, found the injections triggered lupus and caused development of glomerulonephritis. The injection also considerably shortened the lifespan of mice that have a genetic disposition to the disease.

“Our findings clearly show that lupus can be caused by an environmental factor like phthalate, which is present in toys, in many other plastic products, including PVC pipes and medical devices, and in beauty products,” said Swapan K. Ghosh, professor and interim chair of life sciences.

In lupus, the immune system attacks its own body’s tissues as though they are foreign substances. The disease can lead to problems with kidneys, the heart, lungs or blood cells.

“Lupus type auto-immunity is five times more common in women than in men,” said So-Yon Lim, who worked with Ghosh on the study. “Is that because women use a lot more cosmetics and perfumes than men?”

While studies of the lupus-associated anti-DNA antibody have been limited to mice, there are indications humans could also be susceptible, Ghosh said.

Drug-Induced Gambling Addiction

I found this fascinating so I had to share...

Habitual, compulsive gambling with losses up to $200,000 within six months by those who previously never or only occasionally gambled recreationally has been tied to Parkinson’s disease drugs called dopamine agonists.

“This is a striking effect,” says J. Eric Ahlskog, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist who treated most of the patients in the series. “Pathological gambling induced by a drug is really quite unusual.”

The good news is that excessive gambling behavior only occurs in a small number of patients given the drugs, and it can be stopped as suddenly as it came on. “It’s a very rare side effect and reversible if you get off the drug, but you have to make the association,” says Dr. Ahlskog.