Can this really work out?

When I heard the evening news today, I was rather suprised to hear this story on the news stating that the City of Ferndale is going to implement a Universal health care program for all of the residents in the city.
Here is an excerpt I found on the web whilst I was looking for more info regarding it.

...Our plans to bring UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE to Ferndale by way of a ballot proposal this November to create, among other things, a free health care clinic for ALL Ferndale residents. It's part of our much larger statewide campaign, but this is where the real action is.

To implement such a system they would need to get funds for it, and this is usually acheieved by raising taxes. Apparently there are a large number of Ferndale residents that are open to having their property tax increased by as much as 200% to make this a possibility.

As a wanna be future healthcare economist, Im not sure how well such a system would actually work. One must also consider the ramifications of such a system being implemented, there would be more uninsured/ underinsured people that will be seeking to move to the city, growing at such a rate that the system will be over-burdened. For such a system to come into play, there needs to be a larger state wide initiative to make it a more viable option, also I'm not sure that the average joe tax-payer would be too happy to hear of having to pay more taxes. (mind you little does he know that he is already paying for care of the uninsured to a degree, in the form of higher premiums on their health insurance)

The source of frustrations

OK, like I said, today JUST wasn't my day. At some point during the day, my laptop decides that it wants to die on me. Course I wasn't sure excatly what the problem was, but then discovered that it was only the screen that just went blank and not my entire system going kaput. So I got it to work for a lil while longer, all the while trying to research the problem. I found some useful info out there, but sadly didnt offer many solutions. Apparently most laptop screens just refuse to work after a certain amount of time =(. Now, Im redued to hooking up the laptop to my TV and squinting at it to try and make out the words on the screen untill I can gather up enough to be able to buy a moniter for it. *sigh*

UGH!!

yeesh... today has be JUST one of those days when everything seems to go wrong!!! *sigh*

possibility for new research?

You know I never understood why the conservatives so bitterly opposed any form of stem cell research, apart from their argument that it would destroy a human embryo. Doesn't this in turn stem from religious beliefs more so than personal beliefs, when there is vast amounts of good that can come out of such research? Shows you yet again, that even though people talk about seperation of chruch and state that balance is has just NOT been acheived as yet.

Senate majority leader Bill Frist today will declare his support for expanding funding of embryonic stem cell research, in a break with the President and other conservative Republicans that could change the political dynamics around the controversial and promising form of research.
...''The limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," Frist will say, according to the text. ''Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified."... more .

This would be one interesting story to follow to see the outcome of the situation. I do hope that with in the next 4 years there will be some progress made on the issue, so that they can improve their efforts on research, considering that many other countries, such as Korea, with out such restrictions are able to make leaps in such research already

Haunting Memories?

NASA has announced the grounding of its space-shuttle fleet after large pieces of insulating foam broke off the external fuel tank of the shuttle "Discovery" during its launch this week. The incident was hauntingly similar to the problem that doomed the "Columbia" 2 1/2 years ago. The U.S. space agency says the seven "Discovery" astronauts are not in danger, as the debris does not seem to have damaged the ship. More

Yikes!! after two years of not sending manned missions one would hope that they've come up with safer equipment, but apparently this a similiar problem thats plagues them for a while. I wonder if they would get to the point of scrapping the current shuttles all together to try come up with a new design of spacecraft, one that could potentially be safer/sturdier.

Nano news

Many of you remember how I used to spout of on Nano-techonology and its many combined uses in the field of medicine, i.e. Nanomedicine. Here is a snippet of info regarding a nanocell that is being used to target cancerous melonoma and thereby killing it with out doing damage to the surrounding healthy cells/tissue. Much of what I used to go on about was based on the books written by Robert Fritas Jr. Ahh the possibilities...

STS-114

Nasa has finally been able to put up a space shuttle back in space since the 2003 fallout of Columbia. Named the Return to Flight Space Shuttle mission, the shuttle Discovery was finally launched today after two very unsuccessful attempts earlier on.

The shuttle Atlantis is planned for launch in Septemeber, 2005 pending the completion of Discovery's voyage

What next?

I was reading some articles on WebMD and happended to come across this: A testostrone patch for women to help increase their sexual appetite. This the kind of research by pharmaceutical companies that we over pay for on most other drugs?? I suppose its a blessing for those millions of women who have to fake it but really this over something that could actually prove to be more useful?? =S

Don't get me wrong, Im still a libertarian and am all for capatalism, but protection and extension of pharmaceutical patents by modifying one small aspect of it and calling in an entirely new entity would more closely align the act as a form of collusion by pharmaceutical companies.

Speaking of libertarianism I came across this article, a synopsis of a book named Bionomics that plays out on the intrinsicness of capitalism by pointing out the parallels between economics and biology.

News "flash"

=) remember the guy with the sveet flash animation resume. His Creativity landed him with a job at microsoft. Here is another one of his creations. =D well its certainly not the newest piece of info by I happened to come across his page again today. Check out his website too!

Ann Arbor art fair

The Ann Arbor art fair is back in town again! Lotsa Beautiful Photo and clay art. Some of the open air scuptures/exhibits were incredible. Too bad I can't afford any of it. Its a good thing I observed them from outside the stall, know me I'd have prolly bumped into one of the pieces bringing the whole stall down! Its getting cloudy out I wonder what they do with the stalls in case of rain?!

Google Images/Job Oppurtunities =D

Google going large! They are shooting for the moon now or is it at the moon? =) .

Any one out there willing to contribute to the $20,000,000 i need to make a spacial visit?



On another note, for all my geeky friends out there...any of you interested in applying for a job at G.C.H.E.E.S.E? For more info on the job descriotion click on the link =)

You'll be getting in on the forefront of exciting new technologies such as the Luna/X so give it some thought! =D

And... here is a link to all the different Google images that have been used thus far!

must-see movie

My new favorite movie. Crash . If you haven't already seen it... DO IT NOW!

Newer Ipod?

Well I was pretty bummed 5 days ago, when my 3 month old ipod quit working on me. I call up the support line only to get even more frustrated coz they run me thru the same touble shooting stuff that i had already gone thru TWICE!! After finally getting it thru to the support person that Id been thru it all, he said it needed to be sent in *sigh*.
I signed up thru the web to get it serviced and all and here i am 5 days later with a new ipod in hand... i must say their service center does make up for having to deal with customer support. i love my ipod! =)