Coffee 'n Links for breakfast.
The Links:
Andrew Sullivan checks in on Medicare and find that it's fiscal outlook has improved. Cost saving measures and payment reform have made the program solvent through 2030. More proof that the Very Serious People who constantly claim social programs are bankrupting the nation are full of it.
James Temple at Re/Code rounds up the various medical consultation apps out there. It is tough to see a doctor on short notice and many of the ER folks we see really don't need to be in an ER. Maybe "telepresence" in medicine is a good thing.
Healthy eating at $35 a week. Lisa and I have been working hard to keep our grocery bill down. One area where we seem to overspend is cereal. Unless you're buying super sugar fruit puffs, you're spending $4-5 on a box that lasts about a week.
US GDP showed a healthy 4% growth rate int he second quarter of the year. Now we need an equally good jobs number.
Bloomberg notes that employee pay is a small portion of overall compensation than in the past. What's taking it's place? Dividends and Interest. The big myth of becoming wealthy is that you have to earn your money. No, you have to earn enough money that you can buy more money through owning capital.
Menzie Chinn digs into Kansas's neoclassical economics policy and finds it a complete wreck. I can already hear conservatives arguing that it's only bad policy at the state level, when a whole country does it, things will be better! Or, maybe, the liberal media hasn't given Kansas a chance to succeed yet, just wait, you'll see.
The Economist says, Choose Your Parents Wisely.
Republicans sue the president. Remember, this is a political stunt and not designed to produce any real change. The hope is that a judge appointed by Obama throws the case out. Then they get the maximum outrage for minimal effort. One problem, the Tea Party wants to impeach the president and don't see the lawsuit as going far enough. The democrats are happy to highlight impeachment because it mobilizes their own base ahead of the midterm elections.
Charter schools are a cesspool of corruption. Not that regular schools aren't but thinking that there's going to be a meaningful difference is silly. At least this way, school CEOs can simply take the money and not have accountability.
One school district in NJ killed it's student-laptop program. Basically, the district was spending tons of time repairing the computers and tons of time constantly monitoring the kids' web use and blocking pornography. That's a tough bind. The schools are legally bound to prohibit children from accessing certain kinds of material on the internet. Any device purchased by the school has to uphold a nearly impossible standard of web-cleanlieness.
Scratch Jr. Coding for Kindergarteners. Great! In 12 short years all students will be perfectly logical thinkers. They will be proficient coders and linear logicians! All of America's employment problems will be solved and everyone will go work in the Bay Area.
As evidence of how perfectly a coder thinks, I present Google's pro slavery Software Engineer, Justine Tunney. Slavery. It's only logical.
Well, if coding in kindergarten can't save the world, maybe beavers can. Apparently these little engineers can save the Western US.
But, Coal leasing in the American West is the hidden flaw in Obama's climate plan. That's right, Obama allows energy companies to lease public land cheaply and then mine it for coal.
Also at Vox, Matt Yglesias seriously loves Star Trek because conservatives hate Star Wars and Neil deGrasse Tyson and stuff. I don't know. You see if you can figure it out.
Was NAFTA a disasta? Not really. It contributed to growth in the Mexican economy and employment. While it did have a negative impact on US jobs, it paled in comparison to the recession.
Al Qaeda earned $66 million dollars last year from kidnapping ransoms. Also, there are some perverse incentives int he kidnapping business.
Jason Jones asks why it matters that Christians acknowledge evolution. I especially like his closing note that Christian theology has to pass the "greatest commandment" test.
NPR promotes alcoholism among writers. Seriously though, I bet reading in a pub would be awesome. I don't think I ever got around to that in College but there weren't many good quite bars in Athens, even during the daytime.
Then, when you're done reading, you can impress other bar patrons with your age guessing abilities. Ain't statistics grand?
Closing it out today, someone is turning Roadhouse, the roundhouse kicking philosophy, umm, kicking, Patrick Swayze movie into a graphic novel.
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