Good News from Hungary
Dalibor Rohac
In a recent article for the Weekly Standard, I noted that freedom in Hungary was under attack. In the past several years, the Prime Minister Viktor Orban has tightened its control over media, harassed civil society organizations, politicized the judiciary, nationalized $14 billion worth of assets from private pension funds, and populated the board of Hungary’s central bank by appointees of the ruling party, Fidesz. Mr Orban – who was once seen as a pro-market, liberal reformer – has also become Vladimir Putin’s most reliable partner in the EU, having hosted him for a working visit just last week.
But...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 23, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Dalibor Rohac Source Type: blogs
The Failure of the Americanization Movement
Conclusion
The Americanization movement was brief, its efforts unevenly applied, and there is no actual evidence that it sped up civic and political assimilation. As John J. Miller wrote: “[t]here is no way to judge with any precision the effect that the Americanization movement has on immigrant assimilation, or what would have happened in its absence.” In the absence of empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of the Americanization movement, its supporters should be agnostic instead of calling for its revival. There are plenty of anecdotes that the Americanization Movement slowed assimilation...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 18, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
When Liberty Knocked Down the Berlin Wall
Doug Bandow
It’s easy to be pessimistic about the future of liberty. Yet sometimes freedom advances with extraordinary speed. Like 25 years ago in Europe.
As 1989 dawned communism had ruled what was the Russian Empire reborn for seven decades. The system failed to fulfill its promise of human liberation, but survived with the backing of secret police, gulags, and the Red Army.
Then in an instant it all was swept away. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was open. One of the most dramatic symbols of human tyranny was gone.
Tens of thousands of East Germans were imprisoned for “Repub...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 11, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
How Alzheimer’s Changed Everything - Dining Out With Ed
Being in love with a person who has Alzheimer’s can be like living on another planet.By Marie MarleyAlzheimer's Reading Room As many of you know I had a thirty-year relationship with Edward Theodoru, my beloved Romanian life partner, who later developed Alzheimer’s.Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading RoomEmail: Dining out – Before Alzheimer’sI can’t help but remember how gallant and chivalrous Ed had been when we dined out on our first date back in 1975. I remember how he kissed my hand when I opened the door of my apartment to greet him.When we reached Lenhardt’s, a wonderful Austrian-Hungarian restaurant in ...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - July 21, 2014 Category: Dementia Tags: Alzheimers Dementia alzheimers dining out Alzheimers Disease alzheimers story alzheimers symptoms brain games health life news memory loss Source Type: blogs
RIP Christian Führer, East German Peace Activist
David Boaz
In the early 1980s a church in Leipzig, East Germany’s second-largest city, began holding “peace prayers” on Monday night. Two young pastors, Christian Führer and Christoph Wonneberger, at the Nikolaikirche, or St. Nicholas Church, led the services. As Andrew Curry wrote in the Wilson Quarterly, it was a dangerous undertaking, but the church was the only place where any dissent could be cautiously expressed. “The church was the one space someone could express themselves,” Führer said. “We had a monopoly on freedom, physically and spiritually.”
Through the 1980s, as Curry reported, the Mon...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 3, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Century Old Terrorists Still Creating Wars From Iraq To Ukraine
Doug Bandow
The conflict in Iraq started a century ago. So did the civil war in Syria. And so did Russia’s dismemberment of Ukraine.
All of those conflicts, and much more, grew out of World War I.
At the turn of the 20th century, Europe was prospering. But on June 28, 1914, 19-year-old Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie.
The following weeks were filled with ultimatums, plans, and pleas. But governments soon found that “control has been lost and the stone has begun to roll,” as German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg pu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 2, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
Most Popular Medical Stories of 2013: Month by Month
Just like last year, I again collected the most important and interesting news about social media, medicine and the future of healthcare; therefore here are the most popular stories from 2013 month by month.
January
From Doctor to Futurist: Step #3 Attending FutureMed
15 Predictions in Healthcare, Technology and Innovation for 2013
February
FutureMed Day 1: NASA, team building and Peter Diamandis
FutureMed Day 2: Data and The Future of Oncology
FutureMed Day 3: Personalized Medicine and Design in Healthcare
FutureMed Day 4: Security in Medicine and Ray Kurzweil
FutureMed Day 5: Speaking at FutureMed
FutureMed 6: Comput...
Source: ScienceRoll - December 27, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Dr. Bertalan Meskó Tags: Health Health 2.0 List Medicine Medicine 2.0 Video Web 2.0 2013 Healthcare top Source Type: blogs
The 25 Most Creative Hungarians: In The Same List With The Prezi Founders
For long years, I’ve been working on closing the gap between digital technologies and everyday healthcare globally through innovative services, blogs, books, guides and courses. Now I do that as a medical futurist.
When I realized I was included in the list of the 25 most creative Hungarians, it was a huge pleasure and honor. First, because I’m in the same list as the Prezi.com founders. Second, because I’m the only one in the list from biomedical sciences. And third, Hungary has a reputation of producing creative innovators and it feels amazing at least being mentioned with them on the same page.
I hope ...
Source: ScienceRoll - December 9, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Dr. Bertalan Meskó Tags: Innovation List Medicine Medicine 2.0 creativity Source Type: blogs
Become the ‘Ultimate Expert’ in Social MEDia
I need to update my business card with a new title. I am now a certified ‘Ultimate Expert’ in the use of social media in Medicine. This is a title I have achieved after completing the final module of the free online Social MEDia Course offered by Webicina.coma or more specifically by Bertalan Mesko, MD, PhD, a self-declared Medical Futurist, and founder of Webicina.com
The course is a spin-off of a university course offered to medical and public health students at the University of Debrecen, Hungary since 2008. Bertalan Mesko’s created the course as a response to the lack of digital literacy among docto...
Source: Biomedicine on Display - August 14, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Nina Bjerglund Andersen Tags: public health science communication Bertalan Mesko Hungary medicine prezi Social media Social MEDia course training University of Debrecen WEBicina youtube @en Source Type: blogs
Hungary’s Gyula Horn: Sometimes Bad Guys Do Good
Doug Bandow
Most of Cato’s interns weren’t even born when the Berlin Wall existed. Those of us who are a bit older remember the Evil Empire, including an East German state which shot down citizens seeking to escape communism’s not-so-loving embrace.
Many people contributed to the end of communism. One was Hungarian Gyula Horn. He began his career in Janos Kadar’s Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, which took power atop the Soviet tanks which suppressed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Horn was promoted over the years, but the once obedient apparatchik changed as Hungary changed. In 1988...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 8, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
New News from Berci Mesko
Berci Mesko and I keep in touch regularly through many Social Media channels and even via old-fashioned email to discuss Doctors 2.0& You, Webicina, and how all of this can or cannot improve...life for patients...You'll see Berci in Paris next June :-).Perhaps you know through Facebook that Berci recently celebrated his birthday. Well, there is an even bigger bit of news tonight : Webicina has just won 2nd prize in Luxemburg's Social Media Tournament, run by the European Investment Bank. I thought that Berci Mesko's many Social Media fans would love to hear more from him. So, read on.1. Denise: So, Berci, w...
Source: Denise Silber's eHealth - November 29, 2012 Category: Information Technology Authors: Denise Silber Tags: Doctors 2.0 eHealth Health 2.0 Source Type: blogs
