Phish @ Jones Beach

I lost count as to how many Phish shows I've seen, but I figure its gotta be 30+, possibly more. I've been doing this for about 11 years now, and... NO It doesn't get old!

There is something about this band and the experience of going to their shows that has locked me in. Its something that has grown with me. It certainly has changed for me as I've gotten older - you'll find me tailgating at the car these days instead of bouncing around shakedown.

Phish played Jones Beach August 17 &18 2010. Such a great venue, so close to home. JB shows really hit me hard because I grew up on Long Island - I guess the home town shows do it to all Phish fans.

Night one we had crap seats, however the sets were fantastic. I have to say though - the sound quality on the upper deck totally blows.
BUT... night 2 brought so much joy it was unbelievable! Our tickets were 5th row - although we hung at the fence for most of the first set (I once was closer at this tiny place in Vegas). My ears are still ringing, and I'm pretty sure I caught a smile from each of the boys last night!

An incredible show with some of the people I love the most! Team Pestilence + honorary member cousin Jill (props on the photos).

7 Ways Food Allergies Could Actually Be Good for You -- and the Earth : TreeHugger

7 Ways Food Allergies Could Actually Be Good for You -- and the Earth : TreeHugger:

I am allergic to peanuts to the degree of possible death - its a pain. I have to constantly be aware of what I eat and what everyone around me is eating. My allergy makes it difficult to fly and traveling outside the US can be challenge, especially when there is a language barrier.
And then there is all the taunting - to which I have become accustomed, although I despise it.

Anyway, here's a little light shed on this dark place in which I and many others live :)

1. You Know Where Your Food Comes From

2. You Read the Ingredients

3. You Consume Less Food Dye

4. You Consume Less Wheat

5. Cutting Out Dairy Lightens Your Footprint (a Lot)

6. You Don't Have to Think About Sustainable Seafood

7. It Rubs Off on Your Family

The Black Keys Rocked in Central Park

I've been listening to The Black Keys for a couple of years now. Their latest album sticks with that classic down and dirty rock and roll sound that is their trademark. The album itself was great, but I didn't expect such an incredible live performance.

The show in Central Park last night was fantastic. It started out slow and gained momentum, the guys and added band members got tighter throughout. Auerbach's voice was obviously less distorted, but still raw. It was a live show that met expectations of a band that has been putting out great albums. I'm still reeling from it...

NYC Assemblyman Proposes City-Wide Cigarette Recycling Program | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Proposal for a cigarette recycling program offers a better way to clean up our streets and decrease numbers of toxic smoke sticks in landfills.



NYC Assemblyman Proposes City-Wide Cigarette Recycling Program | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Infections cause two-thirds of child deaths - Health - Health & Fitness - Life - The Times of India

Unicef and the WHO recently released a report on the leading causes of death in children. Although infection is inevitable, the numbers of those infected could be easily slashed with education.

Infections cause two-thirds of child deaths - Health - Health & Fitness - Life - The Times of India:
"'The persistence of diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria, all of which are easily preventable and curable but which nonetheless remain the leading single causes of death worldwide, should spur us to do more to control these diseases.'"

No Big F'ing Deal

I received this article in an email, and I felt that I needed to share it...

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Obama's reform: no cure for what ails us

By David U. Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler
British Medical Journal, March 30, 2010
As the applause fades for President Obama's health reform, David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler fear that the new law will simply pump funds into a dysfunctional, market driven system

It was a stirring scene: President Obama signing the new health reform law before a cheering crowd, and a beaming vice president whispering in his ear, "This is a big fucking deal." As doctors who have labored for universal health care we'd like to join the celebration, but we can't. Morphine has been dispensed for the treatment of cancer - the reform may offer a bit of temporary relief, but it is certainly no cure.
The new law will pump additional funds into the currently dysfunctional, market driven system, pushing up health costs that are already twice those in most other wealthy nations. The Medicaid public insurance program for poor people will expand to cover an additional 16 million poor Americans, while a similar number of uninsured people with higher incomes will be forced to buy private policies. For the "near poor" the government will pay part of these private premiums, channeling $447 billion in taxpayer funds to private insurers over the next decade.

Unfortunately, private insurers win in the marketplace not through efficiency or quality but by maximizing revenues from premiums while minimizing outlays. They pursue this goal by avoiding the sick and forcing doctors and patients to navigate a byzantine payment bureaucracy that currently consumes 31 percent of total health spending. The health reform bill's requirement that uninsured people buy insurers' defective products will fortify these firms financially and politically.

Meanwhile insurers will exploit loopholes to dodge the law's restrictions on their misbehaviors. For instance, the limit on administrative overheads will predictably elicit accounting gimmickry, for example by relabeling some insurance personnel as "clinical care managers." While insurers are prohibited from "cherry picking" - selectively enrolling healthy, profitable patients - they've circumvented similar prohibitions in the Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The ban on revoking policies after an individual falls ill similarly replicates existing but ineffective state bans.

Sadly, even if the reform works as planned, 23 million people will remain uninsured in 2019. Meanwhile the public and other safety net hospitals that uninsured people rely on will have to endure a $36 billion cut in federal government funding.

Moreover, many Americans will be left with coverage so skimpy that a serious illness could lead to financial ruin. At present, illness and medical bills contribute to 62 percent of all bankruptcies, with three-quarters of the medically bankrupt being insured. The reform does little to upgrade this inadequate coverage; it mandates that private policies need cover only 70 percent of expected medical costs. The president has often promised that "if you like your current coverage you can keep it." Yet Americans who now get job based insurance will be required to keep it - whether they like it or not. And many who receive full coverage from an employer will face a steep tax on their health benefits from 2018.

Soaring costs and rising financial strains seem inevitable, despite claims that the reform will "bend the cost curve." Computer vendors have trumpeted imminent cost savings for half a century (see, for instance, a video made by IBM in the 1960s, available at http://bit.ly/cckdtB). Prevention, though laudable, does not generally reduce costs. Windfalls from prosecuting fraud and abuse have been promised before. The new Medicare advisory board merely tweaks an existing panel. Without an enforcement mechanism, stepping up comparative effectiveness research cannot overcome drug and equipment makers' promotion of profligate care. Existing insurance exchanges where patients can compare and shop among private plans haven't slowed growth in costs for public workers nationally or in California. And the mandated experiments with capitated payment systems are warmed-over versions of President Nixon's pro-HMO policies and subsequent failed initiatives to fix America's health cost crisis through managed care.

Experience with reforms in Massachusetts in 2006 - the template for the national bill - is instructive. Our state's costs, already the highest of any state, grew by 15 percent in the first two years after reform, twice the national rate. Moreover, capitated physician groups had costs at least as high as those who were paid on a fee for service basis. Meanwhile, after initial improvements in the state, access to care has begun to deteriorate, and the state has begun to cut back coverage.

Overall, President Obama's is a conservative bill, drafted in close consultation with the drug and insurance industries. Its modest salutary provisions - such as an extra $1 billion a year for community health centers and the expansion of Medicaid - mirror measures that have been passed even under Republican regimes. Its central tenet, that the government should force citizens to buy coverage from a for-profit firm, was first proposed by Richard Nixon when faced with the seeming inevitability of national health insurance in 1972. Similarly, Mitt Romney, a favorite of conservatives, embraced the Nixon approach as Massachusetts governor in 2006, a stance he has now abandoned. Democrats, having retreated from their traditional push for national health insurance, freed Republicans to move still further to the right.

Throughout the reform debate we, and the 17 000 others who've joined Physicians for a National Health Program, advocated for a far more thoroughgoing reform: a non-profit, single payer national health insurance program. We will continue to do so. Our health care system has not been cured or even stabilized. For now, we will continue to practice under a financing system that obstructs good patient care and squanders vast resources on profit and bureaucracy.

Passage of the health reform law was a major political event. But for most doctors and patients it's no "big fucking deal."

David U. Himmelstein, M.D., is associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., is professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. They are also co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Cite this as: BMJ 2010;340:c1778

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.c1778?ijkey=qLFfFBwLmfvN8vo&keytype=ref

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Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization of 17,000 doctors who support single-payer national health insurance. To speak with a physician/spokesperson in your area, visit www.pnhp.org/stateactions or call (312) 782-6006.

Physicians for a National Health Program
29 E Madison Suite 602, Chicago, IL 60602
Phone (312) 782-6006 | Fax: (312) 782-6007
www.pnhp.org | info@pnhp.org

A forgotten side of violence

News tends to focus on the politics of war and violence, but the real devastation occurs at an individual level. People's lives are torn apart. What happens to them? How do they cope?

As the number of Afghan migrant children increases, NPR took a look at some individual stories of peril.
BBC News - Risky Journey of Afghan child migrants
Its hard to imagine the hardships these children have faced. They choose to place their lives in the hands of illegal smugglers to escape the horrors of home.


I've seen this story before. My favorite book, What is a What by David Eggers explores a similar journey to freedom as experienced by a child from Sudan.