For decades, health care costs have been a political topic in America. Advocates argue it is the best in the world, wealthy people from countries where it is nationalized travel to the United States for elite care, while critics argue it is too expensive and that creates socioeconomic barriers.Political advocates on both sides always want to be reductionist - X causes Y - but a recent analysis...
read moreThe Monday after New Year's is colloquially called Divorce Day, but it's more than marriages ending. Lots of people in longer relationships, and certainly seasonal holidates, just want to get through the holidays before pulling the plug. That Monday this year is January 5th.Alone may be better, something better may be out there as well, but it may also be the case that one or both people...
read moreWhen I wrote Halloween Science 2.0, I wanted to get it down to a brisk 150 pages, which means taking a chainsaw to a lot of the material I had.(1)Like the woman who left her corporeal significant other to become a ghost groupie. Amethyst Realm, that is not her Dungeons&Dragons name, she calls herself that for real, cheated on her totally organic fiancé with a ghost but she suggested it...
read moreWe definitely need to DOGE nonsense like acupuncture out of the NIH and use that money for science but I don't want to live in a culture where children's theater doesn't want to have a play about "the ups-and-downs of a lovesick zombie who can’t find a date inthe land of the living."It may not sound all that kid-friendly but this was a children's theater in Oregon and a stroll down any street...
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Every day we read a new headline warning us that American leadership is about to erode because of budget cuts to 'science.'We have been told tuberculosis was about to be cured but a grant got cut and, gosh darn it, now Republicans ruined it. We have been told we'll be set back for generations. If you don't want to spend a lot of time reading more, I can tell you plainly that after two decades of...
read moreIn the 1980s, there was a conflict raging about recycling. Governments were starting to do it while states that had a 'bottle bill' - a deposit on bottles you got refunded upon return - wanted to keep their success.read more
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