The News & Then Some

AI, the elephant in the room, is now crunching news and the result is most interesting to say the least.

So far, humans have relied on the written word to record what we know as history. When artificial intelligence researchers ran billions of those words from decades of news coverage through an automated analysis, however, even more patterns and insights were revealed.

A team from the University of Bristol ran 35 million articles from 100 local British newspapers spanning 150 years through both a simple content analysis and more sophisticated machine learning processes. By having machines "read" the nearly 30 billion words, the simple analysis allowed researchers to easily and accurately identify big events like wars and epidemics.

Similar systems have allowed computers to learn visually about art and even argue a topic.

Perhaps most interesting, the techniques also allowed the researchers to see the rise and fall of different trends during the study range from the years 1800 - 1950. For example, they could track the decline of steam and corresponding rise of electricity – the opposing trajectories crossed each other in 1898. Similarly, they saw when trains overtook horses in popularity in 1902.

Regarding Fake News ... Let's not go there for now but think about this. When one does a search on Google, 99% of us rubes, including yours truly, selects one of the two top results so ... think of the power a Google has regarding information and how it relates to us, information increasingly driven by AI developed by, you guessed it, Google. 

The Wolf Moon

The Wolf Moon, the denizen residing in January, is cold, bright and clear, especially when snow is on the ground to illuminate the minimalist beauty of winter in the dead of night. Enjoy.

Luna never stops moving ... ever. :)

The Barmaid rules :)

Like an old shoe. :)

Whirlygig writ large :)

A movie yours truly loves is Ratatouille, a film about art, creativity and chance, something indirectly seen in real life when a really creative guy takes the 20 cent whirlygig and turns it into something that can change healthcare in ways that boggle the mind.

Inspired by the design of a millennia-old toy, the Paperfuge is a hand-powered centrifuge made of paper, string, and plastic that can whip biological samples in circles at up to 125,000 rpm. That’s enough oomph to separate plasma from a blood sample (a standard diagnostic procedure) in 90 seconds. For reference, a StatSpin MP centrifuge—the kind of commercial centrifuge that you’ll find in diagnostic and research labs around the world—tops out at 15,800 rpm and can take up to two minutes to perform a plasma separation.

The best part about this is the fact it's hand driven, no juice required. How cool is that? :)

Plagerisim 101

Plagiarism 101 or how to get it wrong just struck Monica Crowley in her best seller What The (Bleep) Just Happened? in her beaucoup grabs from other people's writings as seen in a CNN post that went out today 1/10/2016. It's an interesting read for sure, along with the copious takes from numerous others depicted in the "writing" of her book. Of course, the Trump spin doctors state that this unfortunate turn of affairs is total nonsense but the CNN story rings true without question.

Lazy writing and questionable ethics is the rule of the land here where creativity is corrupted by the cut and paste tech of digital wielded by people who just don't get it when doing stuff like this. As Picasso said, "Good artists create, great artists steal." but unsaid was the fact the theft is not a direct heist but rather a start point for creating something of value as nothing ever comes to fruition without prior work done beforehand like Miles using the Greek Modes to produce Kind of Blue, the greatest jazz album of all time.

Dorian Mode

"Monica’s exceptional insight and thoughtful work on how to turn this country around is exactly why she will be serving in the Administration," a statement from a transition spokesperson said. "HarperCollins—one of the largest and most respected publishers in the world—published her book which has become a national best-seller. Any attempt to discredit Monica is nothing more than a politically motivated attack that seeks to distract from the real issues facing this country."

In the book, Crowley lifted an entire section on Keynesian economics from the IAC-owned website Investopedia.

Seen below is a VERY short grab of CNN's VERY long list of grabs done by the esteemed Monica,

For BRT, colored type acts as the key to avoid plagiarism as links to same are the lifeline to avoid the kind of nonsense seen here.

"And so it goes" - K. Vonnegut

15.0

Sovereign Man is a pretty cool blog authored by Simon Black, an expat with a very good take on money & government and how government, combined with crony capitalism, can screw the pooch in more ways then one can count. From the esteemed Mr. Black comes a unique way to properly ascertain inflation in a way that is both commonsensical and astute. To whit:

$100 simply isn’t the awe-inspiring symbol of wealth that it used to be. And that’s because of inflation.

One measure of this trend is the average lifespan of the $100 bill.

As money changes hands during routine transactions, the constant wear and tear eventually starts to break down the paper.

You probably have a few bills in your wallet that look like they’re about to disintegrate.

The more frequently a bill is used, the faster that breakdown occurs.

According to the Federal Reserve, for example, a typical $1 bill lasts for about 5.8 years before becoming so fragile that it gets withdrawn from circulation and destroyed.

A $100 bill, on the other hand, lasts for 15.0 years.

This makes sense given that a $1 bill is used so much more frequently.

But what’s interesting is that, even as late as 2011, the average $100 bill lasted 21.6 years before becoming worn out.

So according to Federal Reserve data, the average lifespan of a $100 bill has fallen by more than 30% over the last several years.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

Disorientation

Disorientation, beauty and uneasiness are the qualities of this very cool GP video of a dive into an old quarry in Quebec. Enjoy. :)

@ 1/4 Speed

Seeing gulls fly and move @ 14/ speed is a revelation, especially when they walk in similar fashion to us rubes even though their legs bend the wrong way. Enjoy

The HC Fubar

HC in this country is a disaster. 

• Question: How much does it cost to stay one day in a hospital for a gallbladder operation?
• Question: Do you, the patient, get ALL of your records in context and sequence including imaging/lab, the doctor's note and the chart, along with billing, prescriptions and all related documents keyed to each and every patient visit and ... are they free?
• Question: Can a hospital or practice calculate the REAL P&L keyed to patient and/or practice as needs warrant?
• Question: Do medical bills make sense, are the written in english keyed to the product or service rendered at the time of the patient visit?
• Last Question: Can HC be considered a viable business when an accurate P&L keyed to patient and/or practice cannot be generated in real time or any other time frame as far as one can tell, something nearly every other industry can do without issue if the organization & software environment in question is properly designed to do this.

There is no other industry that operates this way. None. Billing is separate from services rendered. This is why the bill comes in, ad hoc, with no organic connect to said service, something totally different from buying a car where the invoice states exactly what's being purchased without question. This is why records get lost, this is why records are almost never in context and sequence and, last but not least, this is why records are almost never complete unless one happens to strike gold by being in a system that actually does a fairly decent job of doing all of this. In effect, you and I ALMOST NEVER GET what we pay for, our complete records keyed to each and every visit in context and in sequence.

Scenario: You get into a bad car accident far away from home and you need your records NOW when the ER is treating you as they must know about the rare blood condition you have prior to treating you because if they don't, you're dead. This lack of timely access to patient records kills approximately 250.000 Americans a year. - The Journal of Public Safety

In many institutions, you pay for your records and they are, in most cases, incomplete, hard copy documents made available two weeks after requesting for YOUR information. 

Question: Why do us rubes put up with this crap?

Answer: Insurance companies, hospitals, IT, big pharma & medical hardware vendors because of the enormous amount of money being made at our expense while maintaining a failed system that's falling apart as we speak.

What do people want? All of the above and more. 

To whit:

They spoke anxiously about rising premiums, deductibles, copays and drug costs. They were especially upset by surprise bills for services they believed were covered. They said their coverage was hopelessly complex. Those with marketplace insurance — for which they were eligible for subsidies — saw Medicaid as a much better deal than their insurance and were resentful that people with incomes lower than theirs could get it. They expressed animosity for drug and insurance companies, and sounded as much like Bernie Sanders supporters as Trump voters. One man in Pennsylvania with Type 1 diabetes reported making frequent trips to Eastern Europe to purchase insulin at one-tenth the cost he paid here.

Surveys show that most enrollees in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces are happy with their plans. The Trump voters in our focus groups were representative of people who had not fared as well. Several described their frustration with being forced to change plans annually to keep premiums down, losing their doctors in the process. But asked about policies found in several Republican plans to replace the Affordable Care Act — including a tax credit to help defray the cost of premiums, a tax-preferred savings account and a large deductible typical of catastrophic coverage — several of these Trump voters recoiled, calling such proposals “not insurance at all.” One of those plans has been proposed by Representative Tom Price, Mr. Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services. These voters said they did not understand health savings accounts and displayed skepticism about the concept.

What we're going to get.

This week, President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans began to dismantle Obamacare, and here are the details of their replacement plan:

—— —- —- —- - —— —- —— —- - —- —- — —— —- —— —- —- —- — — - - - - —— —- —- —— —- —- —- - —— —- —— —- - —- —- — —— —- - —- —- — - —- —- — —— —- - —- —- — - —- —-

That captures the nonexistent Republican plan to replace Obamacare. They’re telling Americans who feel trapped by health care problems: “Jump! Maybe we’ll catch you.”

This G.O.P. fraud is called “repeal and delay.” That means repealing the Affordable Care Act, effective in a few years without specifying what will replace it.

If the Republicans ran a home renovation business, they would start tearing down your roof this month and promise to return in 2019 with some options for a new one — if you survived.

Obama care is a weak but important first step. The repugs approach is, If your young, healthy and wealthy, it's all good. If you're middle class, old and sick, die.

It makes sense don't you think, especially when these incompetent and mendacious fools making the decisions on our health are covered to the max with OUR MONEY.

End of rant, for now.

A New Year Resolution :)

HNY yet again. :)