Thomas Friedman has an article in the NYT today about how the absence of a cohesive policy towards solar power in the US has impacted the pace of adoption and investment.
Author: subir
Iranian goverment goes after opposition’s kids.
Reports today that the Iranian authorities are arresting the children of opposition politicians in a naked attempt at intimidation.
Health Care across the pond.
Joe Wilson and the yell.
I normally find Maureen Dowd too shrill to read all the way through, but her article in the NYT today on Joe Wilson is revealing.
Big Food vs. Big Insurance
Michael Pollan wrote an article on a potential confrontation between the processed food industry and the health insurance industry in the NYT today. Pollan has carved a niche for himself shining a light on our relationship with food and what that porens for our bodies, environment and culture.
The Rubber Room
Steven Brill writes in the New Yorker about the Rubber Room, a group of facilities where NYC teachers who are undergoing disciplinary proceedings and not authorized to teach spend their days while collecting full salaries, for months and years on end. The whole thing makes no sense, but is an illustration of special interests holding taxpayer resources hostage.
Ira Glass and the team at This American Life aired an episode about the rubber room earlier this year.
NY Times: How we got to America
Home is where the brain is.
Benjamin Schrier writes in San Francisco magazine about the impact Asian-Indian immigrants have had on Silicon Valley, how the downturn and US immigration rules are affecting younger immigrant technology workers, and what this may mean for Silicon Valley’s long-term prospects. One of the men profiled in the article is the brother of a high-school friend, and I can relate to much of the article. I stayed with my first US employer for far longer than I would have if a work-visa were not a concern.
New Yorker: Health care and the public’s resistance to change.
James Surowiecki of the New Yorker provides an explanation out of the behavioral economist’s handbook for conflicting polling data on health-care. It’s reminiscent of the polls suggesting most Americans are unhappy with Congress in the abstract, but do claim to like and wish to retain their own congressman/congresswoman. The explanation is along the lines of, the devil you know, or a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
Health Care Reform which puts the consumer and results first.
David Goldhill has a poignant and compelling article in the Atlantic Monthly titled How American Health Care Killed My Father about health-care reform. It deserves reading in it’s entirety.
The potential outcome Goldhill proposes is very similar to that advanced in John Mackey’s Op-Ed in the WSJ, except it’s more convincing, not nearly as strident, and doesn’t have an antagonistic title. Job better done.