France directly involved in Rwandan genocide:"33 senior French military and political figures that [] should be prosecuted."

Economic decline catches up with oil market:"prices could fall to "about $100 within the next month if you keep on getting weak demand data"  read more »

Since I'm going to be spending a significant amount of time in Asia over the next few years, I figured it would be a good idea to get vaccinated for Hepatitis A. After all, I'd hate to order a salad somewhere in Beijing and end up diseased. That would make me a sad panda.

So I headed over to the base clinic and asked to receive the shot.

While there, the nurse asked me if I'd also like to receive the HPV vaccine.

"No."  read more »

(Note: Each line spoken by a different individual.)

7:00p - "Hi, Kate.  I have bad news.  You'll need to start your shift at Hospital A.  I have worse news.  You have three people waiting to be seen."

8:00p - "No, I'm not an alcoholic.  I just... drink a lot.  Until I black out.  But only five or six times a year.  And I never tried to kill myself before, so I don't think it could have had anything to do with the drinking.  I don't need AA."  read more »

Needless to say, the American healthcare (?) system is in a state of flux.  In other words, it's anybody's guess as to what will happen with health care here.  Will health insurance premiums continue to rise while benefits continue to shrink?   read more »

I'm doing a research project in which I try to estimate the cost of health care for prisoners as a function of age. The best way (that I can think of) to do this is to find the prison health care spending of each state, and also the prison population characteristics.
The question is, does anyone know where I can find prison population statistics that include age? I need this for each state, and/or the federal prison system. If someone knows how to use census data files, that might help - their summary statistics don't have enough information to be useful.  read more »

Or this new use for poison and shove it...

Treatment for anorexia....bulk up with zyprexa. :D

Why torture yourself with the guilt of food and the hell that goes with that, when you can put weight on with a handy pill?

WTF?!  read more »

Since I currently reside in Niagara Falls Ontario, from time to time I feel compelled to blog about local issues.  It seems that the hospital system is running at an 18 million dollar deficit and it has been decided that the best solution is to close the maternity ward at Greater Niagara General. This  read more »

I once worked for a consulting company whose specialty was turning around financially troubled not-for-profit hospitals. The core of the company is still around even though it has been bought out twice. Many of the same people I used to work with are still there and still doing a great job of saving troubled hospitals that are vital to their respective communities.  read more »

Try as you will, the harder you fight the stronger it gets.

I'm always amused (in a sad way) at life's crusaders.  How much energy is spent fighting war, disease,  poverty or crime?  Yet, those problems keep getting worse.  Maybe it's time we change our paradigm.  IWhen I think on these things, I'm always reminded of einstein's definition of insanity as "Doing the same things over and over expecting a different result".  read more »

"Future of Aging" isn't the only new blog in town. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt recently started his own Secretary's blog.  There, you'll find Leavitt's take on a variety of health care topics. That includes issues affecting seniors, like  Medicare and  caregiving.    He also accepts (and responds to) readers comments.  read more »