(For previous posts on the topic of health care, see here.) In my previous posts following on the film Sicko (Haven’t seen the film yet? It is well worth it.) I have been focusing on the tangible costs and benefits of the US health care system compared to those of other developed countries, and showing …
Monthly Archive: July 2007
Jul 16 2007
Evolution-10: The debate over natural selection in Darwin’s own time
(Please see here for previous posts in this series.) In Darwin’s own time, there was a three-way dispute concerning the theory of evolution. Strange as it may sound these days in the US where so many question whether evolution even occurs at all, the idea that evolution had occurred and new species were being created …
Jul 13 2007
Evolution-9: Early challenges to Darwin’s theory
(Please see here for previous posts in this series.) In an earlier post in this series, I listed the three stages involved in natural selection, each of which seemed to have seemingly small probabilities. In the previous post, I showed how because of the large numbers of organisms and long time scales involved, the first …
Jul 12 2007
How universal single-payer systems protect us against catastrophes
(For previous posts on the topic of health care, see here.) I think almost everyone across the political spectrum would concede the fact that the fifty million Americans currently without health insurance would definitely benefit from the adoption of a universal, government-run, single-payer health care system. The reason that it has not been adopted is …
Jul 11 2007
Evolution-8: The sufficiency of the mutation rate
(Please see here for previous posts in this series.) One of the challenges faced by Darwin was whether the rate at which mutations creating new favorable varieties would occur was sufficiently rapid for his purposes. Since during his time the laws of inheritance were not known and neither was the mathematics involved, advocates of natural …
Jul 10 2007
Time for ‘socialized’ medicine in the US?
(For previous posts on Sicko and the merits of a government-run, universal, single payer health care system, see here and here.) Michael Moore’s excellent film Sicko has cinematically exposed the deep flaws of the US health system. His film scarcely touches on the awful plight of the 50 million people who have no insurance at …
Jul 09 2007
Evolution-7: Genes, chromosomes, and DNA
(Please see here for previous posts in this series.) In order to understand how inheritance works and the mathematics involved, it may be helpful to have a quick summary of some basic facts about genetics (a little simplified), using the human genome for concreteness. All the genetic information in our bodies is found in the …
Jul 06 2007
Discussing health care seriously
In my discussions with people on serious and controversial topics, I have some simple rules of thumb to tell me tell whether the discussion is worth pursuing or whether the other person is not serious and talking further is a waste of time. For example, when discussing evolution, as soon as someone says something along …
Jul 05 2007
Evolution-6: The probabilities of natural selection
(Please go to ‘Categories’ and choose ‘Science’ to see the previous posts in this series.) There are three mathematical ideas that one needs to come to terms with in order to get the full flavor of how natural selection works. One is the rate at which favorable mutations occur in organisms. These do occur by …
Jul 04 2007
Defending the right of free speech and Dennis Kucinich
Since today is a holiday, there will be no original post today. Instead, here are some video clips. One is of the late Frank Zappa of the group Mothers of Invention on Crossfire talking about the right of free speech. It is always fun when someone appears on these idiotic talk/yell shows and simply says …
About the Author
Recent Comments