A report in the May 27 issue of The Los Angeles Times describes something surprising: People with health insurance can sometimes pay substantially more out of pocket than people without. In one example they cite, a hospital charged an insured … Continue reading
This is a book full of surprisingly interesting water trivia but also with a serious purpose, describing how in many places easy access to fresh water is becoming increasingly difficult. Of course, you’d expect someone named Fishman to know something … Continue reading
Like The Polar Express (2004) and Beowulf (2007), this film uses computer-generated animation based in large part on motion capture of live actors (which explains why the credits this animated film include stunt performers). This is of course an adaptation … Continue reading
(Updated: See below.) The Wall Street Journal's editorial board (which for decades has been completely separate from the news side, and noted for its extremely conservative point of view -- not that there's anything wrong with that) predictably has its … Continue reading
There have been a number of differing takes on Ray Nutting's column on The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch website mentioned previously here. The Washington Post's Fact Checker column took issue with it, while Politifact found it largely correct in analyses … Continue reading
David Barton is a pseudo-historian popular with some members of the Christian right because he claims that the United States was intended to be a Christian nation and the Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, were orthodox Christians who wanted Christianity … Continue reading
Austin Ligon, cofounder and retired CEO of CarMax, had an interesting comment about Obama published as a letter to the editor in latest issue of The Washington Monthly. I trust he won't mind my quoting him here: As the founder … Continue reading
In an earlier post I noted that the United States has prosecuted waterboarding -- the practice of strapping prisoners to boards and pouring water into their faces, historically also called "water torture" and more euphemistically "water treatment" or "water cure" … Continue reading
There are so many species on Earth that each year biologists discover, describe, and name scads of new ones. The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University has taken to producing a top ten list of particularly interesting … Continue reading
Here’s yet another film based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this one set mainly in present-day India and done Bollywood style, complete with elaborate production numbers. It was directed by Gurinder Chadha (of Indian ancestry but born in Kenya … Continue reading