Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
More Environmental Tradeoffs
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will rise from 27.5 mpg to 35 mpg from now until 2020. That should decrease any pollutant associated with burning fossils fuels. All good, right? Wrong.
There is a trade off in safety. You are much more likely to die in a small car. The WSJ Online reports on a recent Insurance Insititute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study that shows small cars like the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris fair very poorly in two-car frontal offset crash tests against the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. This is against mid-sized cars from the same manufacturer, so a reasonable comparison.
Supplementation Report: Quercetin
I’ve been taking quercetin for a few months now and thought I’d report on my experience. As you can see from the Wikipedia link, quercetin is believed to have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties. This is not why I’m taking it.
Rather, I had a record number of colds this season. 4 major ones from Thanksgiving to mid-Feb. I have been training unusually hard for the last year and an increased incidence of upper respiratory infections (URIs) is a known problem for endurance athletes. A little research turned up this article where quercetin reduced the incidence of URIs in marathoners.
If I Were In Charge, Health Care Edition
I have no desire to be in charge. I’d have to suffer too many fools and forego too much sleep. But I take comfort from knowing that, if I were in charge, I could confidently propose solutions to many of the common problems politicians hem and haw about. It’s not just that I’m smarter and better trained than most of them, I simply wouldn’t care about getting re-elected. So the obvious solutions that piss people off would be fine with me.
Unfortunately, health care is not one of these problems. The solution really isn’t obvious. So I’ve been thinking about it lately. I’ve got some preliminary ideas that I’d like to share. But be nice. I’m not saying these are the answers. They are just the best out-of-the-box thinking I’ve been able to come up with so far.
Possible Insight 