Whoops, too late:
The first 5 links all have consequences for health care, regardless of which side of the aisle you're on. As I wrote in a discussion about Marvel Comics and politics recently, everybody likes to dress up bread-and-butter issues as the Defining Moment Of Our Time, and there can only be Winners and Losers, all of which makes good politics, none of which is relevant to effective policy.
The last links are indicative as well:
- if Black patients are more likely to suffer post-surgery complications, does this transcend class as well? Are upper-class blacks more likely than all whites to suffer post-surgery complications? What color are their doctors in these cases? Once again, the next questions are never answered because our medical infrastructure gets in the way of our medicine.
- Bird flu is always a "Meh" story until it happens to you. Having seen the extent of the fraud, waste and abuse of emergency preparedness training and funds during the previous 8 years, does anybody know if we're prepared for another epidemic? With crazies on the left and the right calling vaccination the new antichrist, do you think any of the poorly informed are getting flu shots? Are they listening to the television when it says "stay at home?" Will Wal-Mart actually close its doors if we have to quarantine people, or will it demand that its workers show up and its doors stay open until things get much, much worse?
And even though a lot of us can work from home, the majority of us cannot...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Today Health Care, Tomorrow the World...
Maybe the coffee hasn't taken effect, or maybe it's exhaustion, but I think the fact that now a majority of us WANT government health care has guaranteed that we'll go and mess it up.
Yeah - who are you and what have you done with the real Echo4Mike? No, hear me out...
The idea has long existed that government should tackle unprofitable enterprises that benefit life and liberty, and/or benefit commerce. The Interstate Highway system and NASA (and its precursor, NACA) are excellent examples of taxpayer outlay that ended up bringing about the American Century.
So the idea grew that the twin capital sinks of health insurance and health care might have a place in government. A healthy populace is a productive populace, while an unhealthy populace is essentially immoral - it's one of the true black-and-white issues of our time.
And let's give credit where credit is due. The alternative view - that health care should be privately paid for and that the poor should die - has had its time on the stage, both in the past and in the modern, industrialized world. I think at the very least, that while we might not agree on the conclusions of the experiment, we can certainly agree that it's gotten a significant trial period.
So after decades, the idea is getting some traction. And now, after decades of no progress, no plan, no strategy, no study of successful models and no idea how to transition from largely regional models of privately-managed and fenced-ff patient and provider pools, the public is starting to demand that we Do Something.
I've made two successful predictions in my life. 1. Buster Douglas will mop up the ring with Mike Tyson. 2. This World Wide Web Thing will change everything. I'd like to make Big Prediction #3: Unless some serious thought is given over the next 12-24 months about the caduceus - like twin snakes of health care and health insurance, we will do it wrong, and in a way that'll make some of our more misguided adventures look like child's play...
Yeah - who are you and what have you done with the real Echo4Mike? No, hear me out...
The idea has long existed that government should tackle unprofitable enterprises that benefit life and liberty, and/or benefit commerce. The Interstate Highway system and NASA (and its precursor, NACA) are excellent examples of taxpayer outlay that ended up bringing about the American Century.
So the idea grew that the twin capital sinks of health insurance and health care might have a place in government. A healthy populace is a productive populace, while an unhealthy populace is essentially immoral - it's one of the true black-and-white issues of our time.
And let's give credit where credit is due. The alternative view - that health care should be privately paid for and that the poor should die - has had its time on the stage, both in the past and in the modern, industrialized world. I think at the very least, that while we might not agree on the conclusions of the experiment, we can certainly agree that it's gotten a significant trial period.
So after decades, the idea is getting some traction. And now, after decades of no progress, no plan, no strategy, no study of successful models and no idea how to transition from largely regional models of privately-managed and fenced-ff patient and provider pools, the public is starting to demand that we Do Something.
I've made two successful predictions in my life. 1. Buster Douglas will mop up the ring with Mike Tyson. 2. This World Wide Web Thing will change everything. I'd like to make Big Prediction #3: Unless some serious thought is given over the next 12-24 months about the caduceus - like twin snakes of health care and health insurance, we will do it wrong, and in a way that'll make some of our more misguided adventures look like child's play...
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Marvel Comics - Anti-Liberal?
This anti-Quesada argument seems to place Quesada in a comic vacuum, entirely bereft of the influences of Marvel's history or even two highly influential comic works about the nature of evil and superheroes - Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns.
- Marvel used to refuse free comics to the troops in Vietnam because they didn't support the war. Just sayin'.
- The Dark Knight Returns ping-pongs between jingoistic fascism on one side and do-gooder anti-fascism on the other hand, while ignoring Batman's real concerns. He's not too concerned about the nature of evil or the greatness of America, or the uniqueness of every human being. He's more concerned about fighting crime in Gotham while adhering to his own code.
- Rorschach in Watchmen is portrayed as a fascist or right-winger, inspired by an inexcusable crime fostered by a society that, in his eyes, makes room for this sort of thing. He's vilified by liberals throughout the book, who are horrified by his treatment of criminals but almost never clearly state the real problem with Rorschach - everybody gets his or her day in court, and superheroes aren't there to supercede that.
By satirizing political points of view or portraying their efforts in a negative light, comics writers are able to strip away politics from their narrative and narrow the frame to the immediate conflict on the page. Calling Marvel conservative because they parodize liberals misses the point - liberals and conservatives both dress up real, bread-and-butter, life and death issues in grandiose clothing. And there's only room for one superhero on the page. As a liberal reader, I expect to be entertained first from comics, and whoever the target of the week may be, it interests me less than if it's a good story.
- Marvel used to refuse free comics to the troops in Vietnam because they didn't support the war. Just sayin'.
- The Dark Knight Returns ping-pongs between jingoistic fascism on one side and do-gooder anti-fascism on the other hand, while ignoring Batman's real concerns. He's not too concerned about the nature of evil or the greatness of America, or the uniqueness of every human being. He's more concerned about fighting crime in Gotham while adhering to his own code.
- Rorschach in Watchmen is portrayed as a fascist or right-winger, inspired by an inexcusable crime fostered by a society that, in his eyes, makes room for this sort of thing. He's vilified by liberals throughout the book, who are horrified by his treatment of criminals but almost never clearly state the real problem with Rorschach - everybody gets his or her day in court, and superheroes aren't there to supercede that.
By satirizing political points of view or portraying their efforts in a negative light, comics writers are able to strip away politics from their narrative and narrow the frame to the immediate conflict on the page. Calling Marvel conservative because they parodize liberals misses the point - liberals and conservatives both dress up real, bread-and-butter, life and death issues in grandiose clothing. And there's only room for one superhero on the page. As a liberal reader, I expect to be entertained first from comics, and whoever the target of the week may be, it interests me less than if it's a good story.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Big layoffs in the game industry are seasonal
MSNBC Reports of our death are greatly exaggerated
"This is not an industry issue, so far. This is a games-specific and company-specific issue," says Ben Schacter, an analyst with UBS Securities. "In every industry, there are winners and losers. And right now, the losers are getting smaller, and the big guys are getting bigger."
- he's half right, it's not an industry issue. But being Shachter, who can't stay right across the same breath, he goes on to say that the big guys are getting bigger and the small guys are getting smaller. If that's so, how does that explain the layoffs at Activision?
Actually, the rest is blather and avoids the whole point - bad games get cancelled. When games get cancelled, the nomads get laid off. But as games get bigger, the nomads move on to find more work on bigger teams. Revenues are up, players are up, total units are up, PC Gaming itself is waaaaaay up.
It's like Hollywood - Carolco closed after making Terminator 2, but the movies kept on gettin' made.
90 layoffs means 90 jobs filled in other parts of the industry, helping a lot more people hit Christmas this year.
"This is not an industry issue, so far. This is a games-specific and company-specific issue," says Ben Schacter, an analyst with UBS Securities. "In every industry, there are winners and losers. And right now, the losers are getting smaller, and the big guys are getting bigger."
- he's half right, it's not an industry issue. But being Shachter, who can't stay right across the same breath, he goes on to say that the big guys are getting bigger and the small guys are getting smaller. If that's so, how does that explain the layoffs at Activision?
Actually, the rest is blather and avoids the whole point - bad games get cancelled. When games get cancelled, the nomads get laid off. But as games get bigger, the nomads move on to find more work on bigger teams. Revenues are up, players are up, total units are up, PC Gaming itself is waaaaaay up.
It's like Hollywood - Carolco closed after making Terminator 2, but the movies kept on gettin' made.
90 layoffs means 90 jobs filled in other parts of the industry, helping a lot more people hit Christmas this year.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
You got Netflix on my 360
MS just announced seconds ago that the Netflix downloadable catalog will soon be available over Xbox Live. Got a Netflix membership? Watch those instant-play movies on your TV with no delay...
Sweeeet.
Sweeeet.
My Frozen Dinner Today...
The chicken felt like shrimp.
The shrimp tasted like Broccoli.
The Broccoli tasted like pasta.
The pasta tasted like packaging.
I'm upset that I threw away the packaging, because I want to see if it tasted like chicken.
The shrimp tasted like Broccoli.
The Broccoli tasted like pasta.
The pasta tasted like packaging.
I'm upset that I threw away the packaging, because I want to see if it tasted like chicken.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
This is historic
For the last - what, 15 years? - EA has been a shareholder-driven, fiscal-quarter-sensitive company. This meant that EA would ship a title before the end of the quarter no matter what, and in the holiday quarter especially, in order to make numbers for that quarter so that the shareholders don't revolt.
For the longest time, shareholders didn't care what the hell the game quality was like, as the numbers were the only thing that mattered.
Then EA got hammered by quality. It took some missteps (Catwoman, Superman), killed some franchises with poor-quality followups (SSX, we miss you) and relied too heavily on perennials - Sims, Madden, Battlefield - to make their quarterly numbers.
No more.
This means that creative studios like EA Montreal, Bioware and Pandemic will be given the time and resources to make good games, quarterly results be damned.
Now, I'm sure pragmatic business decisions like "this better not be a year late," and "this HAS to ship with the movie" will still drive some dates. But EA has put a stake in the ground with this and other statements and said "we're going to make good games in the time that it takes to make them."
For the longest time, shareholders didn't care what the hell the game quality was like, as the numbers were the only thing that mattered.
Then EA got hammered by quality. It took some missteps (Catwoman, Superman), killed some franchises with poor-quality followups (SSX, we miss you) and relied too heavily on perennials - Sims, Madden, Battlefield - to make their quarterly numbers.
No more.
This means that creative studios like EA Montreal, Bioware and Pandemic will be given the time and resources to make good games, quarterly results be damned.
Now, I'm sure pragmatic business decisions like "this better not be a year late," and "this HAS to ship with the movie" will still drive some dates. But EA has put a stake in the ground with this and other statements and said "we're going to make good games in the time that it takes to make them."
Monday, May 5, 2008
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