A Federal Health Care Mandate? It Already Exists, Says the CEO of Baptist Health South Florida

"[T]he concept of an individual mandate was proposed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, and even endorsed in earlier times by Republican presidential candidates...." -- Brian E. Keeley

Brian E. Keeley points out the obvious
in headlining his Christian Science Monitor article as
Hey SCOTUS, we already have a federal mandate for health care.

Keeley writes:

"[L]et me share my own perspective as the president and CEO of Baptist Health South Florida, a $3.6 billion not-for-profit health-care organization with seven hospitals, 30 outpatient centers, and 15,000 employees.

America already has a universal health-care mandate. We simply fund it and supply that care in a nonsensical, inefficient, exorbitantly expensive way. Let me explain...."

Read the whole article here.

A Lesson in Recession Economics: The Current Economic Recovery Will Not Replace the Jobs Lost During the Recession

One way to look at recessions is to view them as necessary economic adjustments that are an integral part of the process of technological advance.

Chrystia Freeland of the New York Times has the story at Jobless Recovery Leaves Middle Class Behind, writing inter alia:

"Dr. Siu urged me not to be too gloomy. “In the broad sweep of history, technology is good,” he reminded me. “We’ve been wrestling with this for 200 years. Remember the Luddites.” "

Read the whole thing here.

By the way, as written at the Wikipedia under Luddite:

"In modern usage, "Luddite" is a term describing those opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation or new technologies in general.^[9]"

Of course, the original Luddites were trying to save their jobs and were not entirely wrong in their view that technological advance in part replaces skilled jobs with less skilled (or differently skilled) jobs, but that has been a drawback of progress ever since mankind lived in caves.

Time marches on and you have to march with it not to be left behind.

German E-Book Market Hobbled by Cultural Resistance

Aaron Wiener has the story at Spiegel Online News International in

'We Read Best on Paper':
Cultural Resistance Hobbles German E-Book Market

Temple of the Samaritans in the Ancient Holy Land of Israel : Fact and Fiction : Archaeological Speculation vs. DNA Evidence

At Spiegel Online International News, Matthias Schulz reports on the archaeological find of a second great temple near Jerusalem, a temple that belonged to the Samaritans.

See
Israel's Other Temple: Research Reveals Ancient Struggle over Holy Land Supremacy

As noted in the article, this temple is referred to by the Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus, who wrote that the radical Samaritans split away from Israel in the 4th century B.C. and in 330 B.C. erected their own shrine, emulating the Temple in Jerusalem.

There are some wayward contra-Biblical speculations by archaeologists referred to in that quoted online article which are not helpful to historical research, and which can easily be defeated by viewing modern DNA evidence, which shows clearly that:
 
"Samaritans are descended from Israelite men and Assyrian women."

There is no doubt the Samaritans erected their temple where it has been found and there is no doubt that it post-dated the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

What is Engagement in the Context of Web Publications? PostRank Analytics Gives the Answer

We ran across the term "engagement" in the context of ranking web publications and wondered what it was.

PostRank™ Analytics provides us with the answer.

Hat tip to Social Media Explorer.

Nice PowerPoints and Presentations at Presenter Media : PowerPoint Templates, 3D Animations, and Clipart

We ran across this site today by chance at Presenter Media - PowerPoint Templates, 3D Animations, and Clipart and found that this artist-run website has some really nice professional solutions. This is NOT an ad, but only our opinion.

We have not used their products yet, but are considering it.

Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy and How Trademarks Predict Voting in Presidential Elections : The Amazing Result

The U.S. Department of Commerce
has just issued
its report on
"Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy".

Everyone will be commenting on that report but we found a unique Presidential-election-related characteristic in one of the maps in that report, Map 2: Trademark-Intensive Industries' Share of Covered Employment by State, 2010:

Now compare that map to the division of the United States into red and blue States in the Presidential Election 2008 (map via NPR.org):

Now that is a pretty good match.

So what do trademark-intensive industries share in common with voting behavior in Presidential elections?

The answer is pretty clear is it not?

Toronto Zoo Orangutans to get iPad?

LOL. For all you "zoo" fans out there....

The Toronto Star reports that Toronto Zoo orangutans may get iPad.

The great photograph by Bev Carter in that article is a must see.

Federal Bailouts to Turn Immense Profit According to Treasury Prognosis: Obama May Ride Into a 2nd Term on a Wave of Economic Success

Well, there you have it.
Don't (easily) doubt the financial savvy of the people at the Fed.
It was all a giant scam to fill the U.S. Treasury coffers.
Well done ;-)

Jim Puzzanghera at the Los Angeles Times writes in 
Treasury predicts all federal bailouts likely will turn profit - latimes.com that:

"The Obama administration expects to recoup all the bailout money spent on banking and insurance firms, auto companies, mortgage finance companies and struggling homeowners during and after the 2008 financial crisis -- and likely turn a profit... as much as $163 billion in a best-case scenario."

In view of such developments, Obama will be very tough to beat in the upcoming Presidential election.

For the Republicans to win, they would have to abandon their theoretical nostalgia-tinged fringe politics and economics and return to the real world, which is at this point an unlikely prospect.

On the other hand, if political parties develop the will to win, stranger things have happened. It will be interesting to see how the issues shape up down the road.

German Court Rules In Favor of Motorola and Upholds Ban on Push Mail by Apple

The monopolist Apple started the patent wars
and it serves the company right
as reported by Reuters on April 13, 2012
that a German court upholds ban on Apple 'push' email
for iCloud and MobileMe services in Germany.