Is ‘concierge care’ in your medical future?

A few years ago, my physician retired and I had to find a new one. One seemed good until I discovered that they had this tiered pricing scheme where the more you paid in the form of an annual subscription, the more services they offered. For example, with my previous physician, if I went for my annual check up, he would order the usual tests and then later his aide would call me and tell me what the results were (if they required no further action) or he himself would call me to tell discuss with me what I should do if the matter so warranted it. [Read more…]

The slow transformation of the conflict in Pakistan

In defense of its program of targeted killings in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world using drones and other bombing methods, the Obama administration has repeatedly claimed that its targets have been carefully vetted to make sure that they are high-value al Qaeda operatives and that their program is so precise that few civilians are affected. [Read more…]

Parallel news worlds

I had to eat alone at a restaurant on Monday and so took along something to read while waiting for my food. But as is the annoying custom these days, they had a TV on in a corner of the room, which can be a huge distraction. Fortunately the TV was far enough away that I could not hear it but I noticed that they seemed to be showing live coverage of a trial. I was puzzled because I follow the news fairly closely and could not recall reading about any major court case that would warrant gavel-to-gavel live coverage. [Read more…]

The Higgs Story-Part 11: The Higgs mechanism

We have finally reached the stage where we can explain the Higgs mechanism.

In part 3 of this series, I said that the complete set of elementary particles consisted of six quarks, six leptons, six ‘gauge bosons’ (particles that are the agents of the four fundamental forces), and the Higgs particle. In part 7, I said that there were patterns among the 18 non-Higgs particles, apart from some anomalies. (For previous posts in this series, click on the Higgs folder just below the blog post title.) [Read more…]

The ongoing shame of Guantanamo

What is becoming increasingly clear is that the government does not know what to do with the prisoners who are being held in Guantanamo. They are being held without charges, some for over a decade with no hope of a proper trial or being released. The prisoners themselves realize this, and we have some of them committing suicide (though there are darker suspicions of homicide) and others going on hunger strikes and having to be force-fed. [Read more…]

The Science-Religion panel discussion

Last Friday, I participated on the panel that discussed Science and Religion. The room was full (I estimate well over 100 people) showing how much interest there was in this topic amongst students, staff and faculty. It lasted about 75 minutes but many people stayed on afterwards to discuss in small groups. I spent about 90 minutes afterwards talking with some people and it was a lot of fun. What follows is a summary of the discussion and Q/A that focuses mostly on the topics that interested me. [Read more…]

When famous public figures die

Margaret Thatcher was a very polarizing figure during her time in public life. Some loved her policies, others hated them, with me falling in the latter category. Following her death, there has been the predictable reaction from some quarters that those who disliked her actions should not say anything bad about her out of respect for her family. Of course, when the dead person is an enemy (such as bin Laden or Saddam Hussein and his sons) their delicate sense of propriety seems to disappear and we had in the US gleeful gloating at the highest levels (see here and here). [Read more…]