All posts by Chris

…but we’re #1 in doctors on T.V.

Medicine

Looks like the U.S. is second to none… when it comes to “wasteful health care”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1875-2004May4.html. I know, it’s not shocking that we pay twice as much as people anywhere else in the world, but it *is* shocking that we get the same or worse care overall. The trend carries through across America, too; cities get the same marginal care whether they’re insured or not, wealthy or not.

A site in motion (new)

Blog

This site has moved to a new host. If you’re reading this, you’re on the new site. Welcome!

You may notice some oddness over the next few days as the Internet catches up with our slight change. Please bear with us!

Oh, that it were true

Science

I was a big fan of the cold fusion idea when it first surfaced, because there’s nothing quite as cool as a little bubbling generator providing gobs of energy. Of course, everyone knows it didn’t work out, right? As it turns out, there may have been something to cold fusion after all. Now it looks like there’s an effect there, but the combination of finicky equipment and incomplete theory is making it difficult to figure out exactly what’s happening and how to make it happen reliably.

I’m glad that someone had the guts to continue with the research even after it became taboo; it really would be nice to know that *something* really happened there.

Technology can be beautiful…

Technology

…and adding function to art can make it more compelling. For example, Swarovski brought a group of designers to Milan to show off artistic uses of their crystal in high-tech chandeliers.

Some of the results are pretty impressive, even if a few of them look like K-Mart X-mas light train wrecks. One design uses an addressible array of lights within the chandelier to display text messages from party-goers’ phones.

Be sure to check out the high-res versions of the chandelier images on the Swarovski site; the real artistry is in the details.