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POPSWall Street Shaken Over Health Insurers Profit Margins The nation's largest publicly traded health plans say they don't plan to temper premium increases for the sake of keeping members on their rolls -- particularly not while they are under pressure from Wall Street over what it sees as their disappointing earnings. Wall Street analysts were shaken over the long-term prospects of the health plan business after bellwethers WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group, the nation's two largest private-pay plans, reported less-than-expected profits from the first three months of this year. ...most say their risk-based commercial numbers -- representing traditional employer health benefits -- are declining or are not growing as quickly as anticipated. But health insurers say cutting premiums or reducing the rate of increase to keep customers would affect their bottom lines more than losing some members over premium hikes.
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POPSDesign and the Elastic Mind In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change. Designers have coped with these displacements by contributing thoughtful concepts that can provide guidance and ease as science and technology evolve. http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/118/
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POPSA Computer that Never Forgets Leon Chua, a distinguished faculty member in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department of the University of California at Berkeley, initially theorized about and named the element in an academic paper published 37 years ago. Chua argued that the memristor was the fourth fundamental circuit element, along with the resistor, capacitor and inductor, and that it had properties that could not be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements.
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POPSHealthcare Reform You Shouldn't Believe In
The most progressive way to fund such a system would be through an earmarked income tax, which would be more than offset by eliminating premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. This is not the same as Medicare for all. Medicare is embedded in our market-based entrepreneurial private system, and therefore experiences many of the same inflationary forces, including having to deal with profit-maximizing hospitals and physicians' groups. Doctors' fees are skewed to reward highly paid specialists for doing as many expensive tests and procedures as possible. As a result, Medicare inflation is almost as high as inflation in the private sector and similarly unsustainable. ...the private insurance industry has managed to convince many political leaders, including progressives, that a single-payer system is unrealistic. But what is truly unrealistic is anything else. My greatest concern about the Massachusetts plan is that when it unravels, people will draw the wrong lesson.
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POPSAdvancng the practicality of hydrogen cars Eden Energy, through its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary Hythane Company, has announced it has received a U.S. patent for its cryogenic storage vessels for liquid hydrogen. Among the applications, the new technology will advance the practicality of hydrogen cars by optimizing energy storage, reducing or eliminating the need for bulky lithium ion batteries. The main use for this technology, called Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES), will be in the automotive industry. Whether used for traditional hybrids, electric cars, or hydrogen combustion engines, SMES will capture and use energy from the vehicle braking system to reduce or eliminate the use of large, expensive batteries. By combining fuel storage and the battery into a single unit, the range and efficiency of alternative fuel vehicles will be increased, and fuel can be stored in a much smaller space.
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POPSFred On Everything Fred Reed is one of those irascible gentlemen who writes with style.. That much is agreed upon whether we agree with him or not. :)
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POPSSubmissive Women At Work Note that under the article FINDING GOOD MEN there's a picture of an Adonis. Something I find quite apropos as the Humble Female's sexual aesthetics are derived largely from antiquity. Not only is feminism repudiated, there's no perverse hint of chivalry or Christian ethos either. Bravo!
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POPSFrom the HighTower Lowdown Got a political bone to pick with the president of America? Need some more ammo? U've got it right here, partner.. Yee haa.. !!!
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POPSReplacing Petroleum with Switchgrass Ethanol The joint USDA-ARS and Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources study also found greenhouse gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass were 94 percent lower than estimated greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline production.
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POPSSweatshirtsUSA.com These sweatshirts are the finest made. There also made here in the USA rather than in some 3rd world sweatshop...
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POPSStill made in USA.com Good products made by companies that employ Americans rather than create sweatshops in 3rd world countries.
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