Selective attention
I ' m certainly not going to let this blog get bogged down in discussion of the Syrian civil war. If you want to read reasonably detailed but succinct accounts there is this from the BBC, which uses data from various sources including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights;The Council on Foreign Relations; and for a more international view, theInternational Institute for Security Studies. They are all in agreement on the main points. The war began with peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in March, 2011, which the Assad government violently repressed, sparking widespread uprisings nationwide that quickly evolved int...
Source: Stayin' Alive - March 10, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Russia Shows the Limits of Propaganda
Will DuffieldDespite widespread concerns about the influence of English ‐language Russian state media such as Russia Today and Sputnik, Russian claims about its invasion of Ukraine have not taken hold abroad. This failure seems puzzling.Journalists andpoliticians have alleged that potent Russian information operations tipped the 2016 American election to Trump, and the Brexit vote to “leave”. We need not assess those claims here. Instead, a closer look at the differences between 2016 and now point toward a better understanding of misinformation online, an understanding favoring “more speech” rather t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 8, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Will Duffield Source Type: blogs
Coffee Marinated Braised Short Ribs – update
Sometimes a recipe is just so damned good it becomes a family standard. This is one of those recipes. We made it for the first time over 10 years ago for Christmas Eve dinner, and about once a year since then. My mother-in-law Irene adopted the recipe to replace turkey at Thanksgiving, though I’m sure she’s tweaked it someway, as she always does.
Last night I tweaked it by adding two large carrots, diced, at the same time as the onion and garlic. Should have done that years ago, it’s the perfect addition. Next time I’m changing from chicken to beef broth. I never understood why the recipe uses c...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - February 20, 2022 Category: Primary Care Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD Tags: Meat & Poultry braised coffee marinade short ribs Source Type: blogs
Coffee Marinated Braised Short Ribs – update
Sometimes a recipe is just so damned good it becomes a family standard. This is one of those recipes. We made it (and I posted it) for the first time over 10 years ago for Christmas Eve dinner, and about once a year since then. My mother-in-law Irene adopted the recipe to replace turkey at Thanksgiving, though I’m sure she’s tweaked it someway, as she always does.
Last night I tweaked it by adding two large carrots, diced, at the same time as the onion and garlic. Should have done that years ago, it’s the perfect addition. Next time I’m changing from chicken to beef broth. I never understood why...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - February 20, 2022 Category: Primary Care Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD Tags: Meat & Poultry braised coffee marinade short ribs Source Type: blogs
Values in Arms Exports?
Jordan CohenSenator Patty Murray (D – WA)recently re ‐introduced legislation called theValues in Arms Export Act. This legislation would amend theArms Export Control Act– originally passed in 1976 – to include the evaluation of “responsible behavior and compliance with human rights and law of war the U.S. demands of states purchasing U.S. weapons.”How This Legislation Would Work:This bill comes in the wake of increasing violence around the world involving U.S. weapons – whether it be in Yemen, the Philippines, Mexico, or Central America. To address this problem Sen. Murray’s legislation would create an O...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 11, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Jordan Cohen Source Type: blogs
People who move a lot attach more importance to their romantic relationships
By Emily Reynolds
Moving house can have significant psychological effects — and not just because it’s stressful. Moving can create long-lasting memories, good and bad, while moving frequently is associated with lower academic achievement and poorer physical and mental health among children.
It’s this second experience — moving frequently — that a new study, published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, explores. Looking at “residential mobility” in the context of romantic relationships, the team finds that those who have moved away from their place of birth or who have fr...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - January 27, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Relationships Social Source Type: blogs
People on the extreme left and right are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories
By Matthew Warren
Belief in conspiracy theories has been linked to various factors, including low levels of critical thinking, a need to feel special, and even a yearning for excitement and thrills. But how does political ideology come into it? Some studies suggest that there is a straightforward association, in which people with more extreme right-wing views are more prone to conspiracy theories. But other work has found a “U-shaped” relationship, where conspiratorial thinking is more common among people on the extremes of both the right and left compared to those with more moderate views.
The latter finding ha...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - January 21, 2022 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Political Source Type: blogs
Turkey Hopes to Restore Currency Confidence
Alan ReynoldsTurkey is at least trying to stabilize exchange rate expectations, though it is not clear if they have a sustainable strategy to do that.When people at home and abroad lose confidence in a country’s currency, the time‐tested ways to stop the inflationary rush to get rid of the shrinking currency are to firmly link the unit of account (Turkish lira) to a more credible currency such as the euro or dollar – preferably through full convertibility (a currency board).In 1993, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce invited me to spend a week consulting with Turkish businessmen there and government offic...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 21, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
In Remembrance of Linda Whetstone
Ian V ásquezLinda Whetstone, a great champion of global liberty, passed away last week. She dedicated her life to expanding freedom through tireless activism, the promotion of classical liberal ideas, and through her example, which epitomized the spirit of liberalism. Linda was the president of the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), c hair of the Atlas Network, and was on the board of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. She served twice on the selection committee of Cato’sMilton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty (with awards going to the Ladies in White Cuban dissident group in 2018 and to Chinese market ‐li...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 20, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Ian V ásquez Source Type: blogs
How Turkey Lost Its Freedom — and Even Its Bread
Mustafa AkyolTheHuman Freedom Index 2021 just came out. It shows a concerning decline in freedom in countries where 83 percent of the global population lives. Among these, there are five countries whose trajectories in the past ten years are the worst of all. These are Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bahrain, and my home country, Turkey.The graph above, adapted from theHuman Freedom Index, puts Turkey ’s tragic decline visually: in 2009, Turkey ranked 83rd on the index. In ten years, it declined to 139th place. It is a remarkably downhill slide.How did this happen? How did Turkey lose its freedom so dramatically?The ans...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 17, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Mustafa Akyol Source Type: blogs
How Erdogan ’s Pseudoscience Is Ruining the Turkish Economy
Mustafa AkyolOne of the most startling stories in the world these days is what the Wall Street Journal recently called “The Erdogan Lira Crisis. ” The crisis is that Turkey’s national currency has been plummeting at an astonishing rate: in 2012, 1 U.S. dollar equaled 1.8 Turkish liras. Today,after an accelerating downward spiral of the Turkish currency, 1 dollar equals 13.7 liras.This economic catastrophe is really an “Erdogan crisis,” because its key factor is what experts have called “Erdoganomics”: Turkey’s all‐powerful president believes in a bizarre economic theory that if the central bank low...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 3, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Mustafa Akyol Source Type: blogs
THCB Gang Episode 73, Dec 2 1pm PT – 4pm ET
#THCBGang is back from its Turkey day snooze! Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in health care and beyond will be patient activist, author & entrepreneur Robin Farmanfarmaian (@Robinff3); Queen of all employer benefits related issues Jennifer Benz (@Jenbenz); medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee); and patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@MLMillenson)
You can see the video below live at 1pm/4pm or it’s kept here for posterity. If you’d rather listen than watch, the audio...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 1, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Abdul Ghafar Tags: Featured THCB Gang jennifer benz Matthew Holt Michael Millenson Mike Magee Robin Farmanfarmaian Source Type: blogs
Political Economy of Healthcare and Forced Migration in Developing Countries: Assessment of Syrian Refugees ’ Access to Healthcare in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Gizem Nazlican Guner (Middle East Technical University), Political Economy of Healthcare and Forced Migration in Developing Countries: Assessment of Syrian Refugees ’ Access to Healthcare in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, SSRN (2021): Huge influx of refugees, following 2011 Syrian civil war... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - November 13, 2021 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
More Laughing, More Thinking
By KIM BELLARD
There was a lot going on this week, as there always is, including the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the beginning of the NFL season, so you may have missed a big event: the announcement of the 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Awards (no, those are not typos).
What’s that you say — you don’t know the Ig Nobel Awards? These annual awards, organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, seek to:
…honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in scie...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 15, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Research health research Ignobel Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
Paleovalley: Our preferred source for fermented beef sticks and other products
I’d like to welcome my new Defiant Health podcast’s latest sponsor, Paleovalley, makers of absolutely delicious grass-fed beef sticks, healthy snack bars, and other products.
You know that we are extremely picky around here and insist that any product we consider has no junk ingredients like maltodextrin, carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose, sucralose or other additives that have potential adverse health effects. You will not find any such unhealthy ingredients in Paleovalley products. And all Paleovalley products deserve the Defiant Health stamp of approval because they contain no gluten, grains, soy...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - September 6, 2021 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Open probiotic undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
