MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'capture'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:09:55 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5182320&cid=t_113799_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FscEadyD2R4s%2F As technology makes the world smaller, monitoring clinical trials no longer requires traveling to a destination to check up on the investigators. Much of this work can be done remotely and the FDA, in fact, wants to encourage sponsors to undertake more of what the agency calls risk-based monitoring in order to match international standards articulated by the International Conference on Harmonisation. And so the agency has just issued new guidance for drugmakers and contract research organizations, or CROs, to help sort out the variables that would determine when centralized monitoring would be preferable over on-site monitoring. The primary focus, the FDA notes, should be on steps that protect human subjects, while maintaining data integrity and compliance with regulations. Despite advance... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5182320 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:50:37 +0100 5182320 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118573&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fnow-mainstream-notion-profit-seeking.html We have been writing - some might say wailing Cassandra-like - about health care dysfunction since I published about it in the European Journal of Internal Medicine in 2003.(1) However, while our dismal warnings were inspired by fears of  health care professionals who saw bad things happening in their local health care environments, the notion that things were really bad in health care really did not get a lot of traction. After all, we were in the second decade of a prolonged economic "great moderation," the good times were rolling, so who was really worried by a few whiners and complainers in health care?However, after the fall of Lehman Brothers ushered in the global financial collapse, or great recession, this complacency was disturbed, and it began to appear that our pr... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118573 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:17:00 +0100 5118573 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5107457&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fretreat-back-to-regulatory-capture-us.html After some brave words about transparency, integrity and all that, US government officials seem to be running back to the arms of the health care corporate CEOs.Weakening FDA Conflict of Interest RulesAs reported by Reuters,U.S. lawmakers likely will change the criteria for advisers reviewing new medicines next year because of complaints that the rules meant to prevent conflicts of interest make it harder to find real experts.Congressional lawmakers may require the Food and Drug Administration to relax the rules that bar advisers from reviewing a drug if they have even indirect financial ties to related manufacturers, as part of an FDA funding bill.This was not purely an initiative of legislators, but was egged on by a top FDA administratorThe agency often must delay panel meetings while i... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5107457 Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:13:00 +0100 5107457 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5062304&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F07%2F25%2Fthe-situation-of-the-energy-efficiency-gap%2F Brandon Hofmeister just posted his fascinating paper, “Bridging the Gap: Using Social Psychology to Design Market Interventions to Overcome the Energy Efficiency Gap in Residential Energy Markets” (forthcoming  19 Southeastern Environmental Law Journal 1 (2010) on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * For decades, economists and energy policy analysts have noticed the existence of an “energy efficiency gap” – a significant underinvestment in energy efficiency measures whose benefits outweigh their costs – among residential consumers. Promoting energy efficiency is generally the most cost-effective manner to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to meet future energy demand, while simultaneously promoting economic growth and reducing poverty. Economists have attempted... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5062304 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:20:28 +0100 5062304 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4945130&cid=t_113799_147_f&fid=39273&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FB1BLvyfh6R0%2Ftwo-mobile-paths-for-pharma.html As pharmaceutical marketers look to integrate mobile into their marketing plans, they are evaluating two options: to build mobile apps themselves or to align with existing apps that already reach their target audience in a positive way. That decision lies in what the marketer is trying to achieve. For brands whose patient audience would benefit from information or data-capture on their cell phones, then building an app to meet those needs might be a wise investment. However, the value proposition being offered in exchange for that consumer data must be compelling enough to motivate data input. A great brand can and should be seen as presenting a positive solution for meeting a customer’s need; however, if that value-position is in the product itself and not in the mobile offering the p... ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4945130 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:15:00 +0100 4945130 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893579&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F06%2F01%2Fthe-regulatory-situation-of-smoking%2F From The Independent: More than half a century after scientists uncovered the link between smoking and cancer – triggering a war between health campaigners and the cigarette industry – big tobacco is thriving. Despite the known catastrophic effects on health of smoking, profits from tobacco continue to soar and sales of cigarettes have increased: they have risen from 5,000 billion sticks a year in the 1990s to 5,900 billion a year in 2009. They now kill more people annually than alcohol, Aids, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. * * * The West now consumes fewer and fewer of the world’s cigarettes: richer countries have changed – from smoking 38 per cent of the world total in 1990, they cut down to 24 per cent in 2009. Meanwhile, the developing world&#8... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893579 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:09:40 +0100 4893579 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684442&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F04%2F06%2Fmarjorie-kelly-speaks-at-harvard-law%2F Marjorie Kelly, Senior Associate at the Tellus Institute, speaks today at Harvard Law School.  The event is sponsored by SICKLE (Jon Hanson’s Corporate Law Class), Title: “What Comes Next? The demise of shareholder primacy and the seeds of new corporate design.” When: Wednesday, April 6, 12:15-1:15 PM Where: Langdell South Here’s a bio of Marjorie Kelly: Marjorie Kelly is a modern revolutionary who wants to democratize economics. She argues that our current economic system is an aristocracy run by corporations that pay shareholders as much as possible and employees as little as possible—while ignoring the public good. CEOs aren’t all bad guys, Kelly says, they’re just operating in a system that forces them to put profits above everything else. That’s what s... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684442 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:01:00 +0100 4684442 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4622300&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F03%2F23%2Fsending-the-wrong-message%2F Joe D’Amico probably had the best of intentions when he set out to eat an all-McDonald’s diet for thirty days leading up to the L.A. Marathon. And, in fact, as a result of internet buzz, his “food challenge” ended up raising $26,000 for Ronald McDonald charities. At the race a few days ago, D’Amico set a personal record and improved his cholesterol levels in the process! So a clear win-win-win! But isn’t there some Grinch out there to point out the dark side of all of this? Not at the Huffington Post, which has been nothing but complementary (see here and here), . . . leaving it to the Situationist to rain on everyone’s parade. Why am I skeptical about this stunt? Well, for starters it fits in quite neatly with previous strategies by big tobacco an... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4622300 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:01:28 +0100 4622300 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4552076&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F03%2F05%2Fcapture-animated%2F From storyofstuffproject: The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, an exploration of the inordinate power that corporations exercise in our democracy. For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Deep Capture – Part VI,” “Deep Capture – Part VII,” “Situationist Corruption,” “The Situation of Corruption,” “Larry Lessig’s Situationism,” “The Situation of Judges,” “The Situation of Earmarks,” “The Situation of Judging – Part I,” “The Situation of Judging – Part II,” “The Captured Situation of Justice,” “News about the Captured Situation of Food Policy,” “The Corporate Situation of Universities,” “The Deeply Captured Situation of Spilling Oil,” “Tushnet on Teles and The Situation of... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4552076 Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:06:26 +0100 4552076 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4525057&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2F27%2Flegal-socialization-and-the-news%2F Over at the new Law & Mind Blog, several Harvard Law students have been blogging about a chapter (forthcoming inIdeology, Psychology, and Law, edited by Situationist Contributor Jon Hanson) by Mitchell Callan and Situationist Contributor Aaron Kay. In the second post on the topic (copied below), LLM candidate David Simon discusses legal socialization. * * * Imagine you and your neighbor share a fence along a common border, part of which demarcates the boundary between both properties and “the wilderness.” The fence benefits both of you because it keeps out the livestock-killing coyotes. One day, a shared and critical part of the fence collapses onto your property, leaving your yard open to coyotes, who may eat your livestock. Without legal recourse, how might you resolve... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4525057 Sun, 27 Feb 2011 04:20:50 +0100 4525057 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4377622&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F01%2F20%2Fmarketing-cigarettes%2F In this study, researchers led by senior investigator Todd Heatherton, PhD, and graduate student Dylan Wagner of Dartmouth College set out to determine whether the parts of the brain that control that routine gesture could be triggered by simply seeing someone else smoke. The authors found that seeing this familiar action — even when embedded in a Hollywood movie — evoked the same brain responses as planning to actually make that movement. These results may provide additional insight for people trying to overcome nicotine addiction, a condition that leads to one in five U.S. deaths each year. “Our findings support prior studies that show smokers who exit a movie that had images of smoking are more likely to crave a cigarette, compared with ones who watched a movie without them,&#... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4377622 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:53:08 +0100 4377622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4372096&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F01%2F19%2Fa-horror-movie-for-palinites%2F Despite my love of cinema, I tend to always fall behind on catching the latest movies. Case in point: during the past weekend, I finally had the opportunity to see The King’s Speech, which my own grandmother watched and wrote me about . . . last year. As a sort of New Year’s resolution, I’m attempting to be a bit more up-to-date on this front, and, thus, I’m going to dedicate this blog post to a film that hasn’t even been released yet, but that should be of interest to Situationist readers. What caught my attention about the preview for the film was that it seemed as if it could easily be modified into a Sarah Palin 2012 political advertisement. In the opening frames, we watch Senate candidate David Norris (Matt Damon) as he first crosses paths with the ballet dancer Elise Sellas... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4372096 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:01:22 +0100 4372096 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294728&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F12%2F27%2Fmotivated-skepticism%2F Ezra Klein recently wrote a great post for the Washington Times about some of the political-psychological dynamics shaping current policy debates.  Included in it was as a helpful summary of the research commonly featured on the Situationist.  Here are some excerpts. * * * When we’re faced with information or ideas that accord with our preexisting beliefs about the world, we accept them easily. When the ideas and information cut against our beliefs, however, we interrogate them harshly, subjecting them to endless scrutiny and a long search for contrary evidence which, when found, we accept uncritically. Let’s start with an amusing experiment that [Situationist Contributor] Peter Ditto, a political psychologist at the University of California at Irvine, and David Lopez, a psyc... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294728 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 04:01:18 +0100 4294728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4258927&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F12%2F15%2Fthe-inherited-situation-of-racial-inequality%2F Discussion about (In)Equality,” “The Interior Situational Reaction to Inequality,” “The Situation of Mortgage Defaults,” “The Situation of the Mortgage Crisis,” and “The Interior Situation of Intergenerational Poverty.” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4258927 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:01:14 +0100 4258927 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175677&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAxFD0p6aivE%2F By David RittgersI’ve got a piece in today’s New York Post that points out some inconvenient truths about the body scanners now installed at airports across the country. Building on Jim Harper’s excellent post, body scanners are not being installed because of a well-reasoned risk analysis. As Timothy Carney pointed out in the Washington Examiner, this is a sop to the companies that make the body scanners. The machines don’t work as well as advertised – a March GAO Report determined that it is not certain the technology would have found Farouk Abdulmutallab’s suspicious package, and that a cost-benefit analysis needed to be conducted before spending $340 million each year to run the labor-intensive equipment. The same report found that cargo screening was a weak spot that ought ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175677 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:50:16 +0100 4175677 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175793&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F17%2Fmerchants-of-denial%2F GoogleTalks:  Author David Michaels visits Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Ca, to discuss his book “Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health.” * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “The Corporate Situation of Universities,” “The Greasy Situation of University Research,” “The Deeply Captured Situation of Spilling Oil,” “Tushnet on Teles and The Situation of Ideas – Abstract,” “The Situation of Policy Research and Policy Outcomes,” “Industry-Funded Research,” “The Situation of Medical Research,” “The company ‘had no control or influence over the research’ . . . .,” “The Situation of University Research,” “Captured Science.” (Source: T... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175793 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:33:52 +0100 4175793 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4172127&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F16%2Fnews-about-the-captured-situation-of-food-policy%2F From the New York Times: Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies. Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign. Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. “This partnership is clearly working,” Brandon Solano, the Domino’s vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times. But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4172127 Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:01:16 +0100 4172127 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4164558&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F14%2Fthe-situation-of-the-2008-economic-crisis%2F Charles Furgeson has produced a powerful documentary, “Inside Job,” about the deep capture of financial (de)regulation.  Here’s the trailer. * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “The Deeply Captured Situation of the Economic Crisis,” “Our Stake in Corporate Behavior,” “Larry Lessig’s Situationism,” “The Situation of Policy Research and Policy Outcomes,” “Industry-Funded Research,” “De-Capturing the FDA,” “The Situation of Talk Radio,” “Deep Capture – Part X,” and “The company ‘had no control or influence over the research’.” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4164558 Sun, 14 Nov 2010 04:01:20 +0100 4164558 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4155268&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F11%2Fthe-norfolk-four-and-the-situation-of-false-confessions%2F From Frontline: Why would four innocent men confess to a brutal crime they didn’t commit? FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel (Innocence Lost, An Ordinary Crime) investigates the conviction of four Navy sailors for the rape and murder of a Norfolk, Va., woman in 1997. In interviews with the sailors, Bikel learns of some of the high-pressure police interrogation techniques — including the threat of the death penalty, sleep deprivation, and intimidation — that led each of the “Norfolk Four” to confess, despite a lack of evidence linking them to the crime. All four sailors are now out of prison — one served his sentence and the other three were granted conditional pardons last summer — but the men were not exonerated as felons or sex offenders. The case raises disturb... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4155268 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:01:37 +0100 4155268 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4139294&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F06%2Fthe-political-situation-of-the-economic-inequality%2F In Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, Jacob S. Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of Berkeley argue that America’s money-addicted and change-resistant political system is at the heart of the enormous and rapidly growing income inequality that they say is undermining America’s economic and political stability. (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4139294 Sat, 06 Nov 2010 04:05:05 +0100 4139294 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4119102&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F28%2Fthe-corporate-situation-of-universities%2F The Utne Reader recently had a post summarizing and linking to a “spate of recent stories that reveal how a trio of heavies—Big Oil, Big Agriculture, and Big Pharma—are pulling strings at U.S. universities.”  Here’s a sample: * * * • The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on “The Secret Lives of Big Pharma’s ‘Thought Leaders,’” also known as key opinion leaders, or KOLs: the influential academic physician-researchers who are paid by drug companies to basically shill for their brands—but not overtly, of course. That would be unseemly. Instead, they deftly blend their conflicting roles and realize substantial payouts for their credibility-lending efforts. “The KOL is a combination of celebrity spokesperson, neighborhood gossip, and the popular kid in... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4119102 Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:39:28 +0100 4119102 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4098075&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F21%2Fthe-situation-of-precision-targeted-ads%2F Robert Wright posted an interesting commentary on the New York Times Opinionator last night in which he argued that the arrival of HTML 5, which “will allow sites you visit to know your physical location and will make it easier for them to keep track of your browsing and shopping history,” may be “the salvation of journalism.” As he explains, “The willingness of advertisers to spend the money that sustains journalists has always depended on having information about the reader.”  And modern technology, with its ability to track individual consumer behavior, has made it possible to tailor and target ads towards specific individuals.  In Wright’s words, What if God [or Google or Yahoo], knowing exactly who every Slate reader is, and what kinds of products and services he’s a... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4098075 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:01:07 +0100 4098075 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4086229&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F10%2Ftoxic-and-dangerous-watchdog-vs.html An odd story that appeared earlier this month linked several people we have discussed on Health Care Renewal.On one hand, we posted about how Dr David Polly, a spine surgeon at the University of Minnesota, testified before the US Congress in support of research on treatments of bone injuries afflicting US soldiers.  He did not then reveal that he had been paid more than one million dollars for consulting by Medtronic, the manufacturer of a bone growth product used to treat such injuries, also the source of payments of his expenses for the trip to Washington.  At the time, we suggested this case was a reminder to be skeptical about academics who are really stealth health policy advocates for industry.On the other hand, in a post about renewed payments... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4086229 Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:23:00 +0100 4086229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4074161&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F16%2Fthe-greasy-situation-of-university-research%2F This report identifies eight major areas where these contracts leave the door open to serious limitations on academic freedom and research independence. Here are just a few brief highlights: In nine of the 10 energy-research agreements we analyzed, the university partners failed to retain majority academic control over the central governing body charged with directing the university-industry alliance. Four of the 10 alliances actually give the industry sponsors full governance control. Eight of the 10 agreements permit the corporate sponsor or sponsors to fully control both the evaluation and selection of faculty research proposals in each new grant cycle. None of the 10 agreements requires faculty research proposals to be evaluated and awarded funding based on independent expert peer rev... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4074161 Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:01:32 +0100 4074161 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4053351&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F09%2Fyou-spoke-we-ignored-it%2F A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I questioned the practice of corporations (1) selling a narrative that the American public is made up of rational actors, exercising free choice, in an open market, while, at the same time, (2) working hard to “limit choice and confuse or reduce the knowledge of potential buyers.” This morning, while cleaning up my office, I came across the following excerpt that I’d clipped from an article by Barry Berman, the Walter H. “Bud” Miller distinguished professor of business and director of the Executive M.B.A. program at Hofstra University’s Zarb School of Business: If you ask customers whether they want more variety, I can tell you right now what they’re going to say: Yes.  After all, who doesn’t think they want a lot of choices? ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4053351 Sat, 09 Oct 2010 04:01:26 +0100 4053351 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4001715&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F09%2F26%2Fthe-captured-situation-of-justice%2F Michael S. Kang and Joanna Shepherd recently posted the important paper “The Partisan Price of Justice: An Empirical Analysis of Campaign Contributions and Judicial Decisions” on  SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * Do campaign contributions affect judicial decisions by elected judges in favor of their contributors’ interests? Although the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. relies on this intuition for its logic, it has been until now largely a proposition that has gone empirically untested. No longer. Using a dataset of every state supreme court case in all fifty states over a four-year period, we find that elected judges are more likely to decide in favor of business interests as the amount of campaign contributions that they have r... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4001715 Sun, 26 Sep 2010 04:01:32 +0100 4001715 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3965506&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F09%2F14%2Fsituationist-corruption%2F Molly J. Walker Wilson recently posted her article, “Behavioral Decision Theory and Implications for the Supreme Court’s Campaign Finance Jurisprudence” (Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 31, p. 679, 2010) on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * America stands at a moment in history when advances in the understanding of human decision-making are increasing the strategic efficacy of political strategy. As campaign spending for the presidential race reaches hundreds of millions of dollars, the potential for harnessing the power of psychological tactics becomes considerable. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has characterized campaign money as “speech” and has required evidence of corruption or the appearance of corruption in order to uphold restrictions on campaign expenditures. Ulti... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3965506 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:01:47 +0100 3965506 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3959972&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F09%2F12%2Fjim-sidanius-returns-to-harvard-law-school%2F On Monday, September 12th, the HLS Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS) is hosting a talk by Professor Jim Sidanius entitled “Under Color of Authority: Terror, Intergroup Violence, and the Law.” Professor Sidanius, a Harvard University professor in the departments of Psychology and African and African American Studies, focuses his research on the political psychology of gender, group conflict, and institutional discrimination, as well as the evolutionary psychology of intergroup prejudice.  He runs the Sidanius Lab in Intergroup Relations, which conducts research regarding intergroup relations, social inequality, hierarchy, stereotyping, ideology, and prejudice. Professor Sidanius will be speaking about ways in which the legal system has been, and continues to... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3959972 Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:01:06 +0100 3959972 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3899381&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEW3fEekjyhc%2F The hard-nosed, content-at-all-cost folks at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation have been warned, and warned, and warned some more: Get the national curriculum standards you think are so incredibly important, and they will almost certainly be captured by the pedagogical progressives who have dominated education for decades — and whose notions you disdain. Well, if what’s being reported by Common Core’s Lynne Munson – and reiterated in this lamentation for Massachusetts by the Pioneer Institute’s Jim Stergios – is accurate, that is already happening. (Actually, some prominent analysts have long said that the national standards — created by the Council of Chief State School Officers and National Governors Association — are already nothing the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3899381 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:26:02 +0100 3899381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3845160&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F09%2Frenata-saleci-on-the-paradox-of-choice%2F A common theme of The Situationist and of the scholarship of Situationist Contributors is the “choice myth” in western culture.   Here is a video of Professor Renata Saleci, who employs sociology, psychoanalysis, and philosophy, to offer a slightly different version of that familiar theme. For a sample of related Situationist posts, go to “Sheena Iyengar on the Situation of Choosing,” and the  links in that post.   To review the hundreds of Situationist posts discussing the “Choice Myth” click here., (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3845160 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:01:02 +0100 3845160 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831411&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F06%2Fwhy-do-lawyers-acquiesce-in-their-clients%25e2%2580%2599-misconduct-part-iv%2F This is Part IV of my series, exploring the reasons why lawyers acquiesce in their clients’ frauds and other misconduct.  For background, please access Part I, Part II and Part III of this series.  In this segment, I will focus on the relationship between lawyers’ “role ideology”—normative visions about their professional role—and the inclination to “go along to get along” when their high status clients (or, more accurately, high-paying client representatives) want to engage in financial shenanigans that impact our capital markets. Don’t think this is an issue?  It is now 2010 and we are still recovering from the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.  No doubt, some lawyers looked the other way when their client representatives wanted to engage in ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831411 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:34:13 +0100 3831411 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3813049&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F08%2F03%2Fsheena-iyengar-on-the-situation-of-choosing%2F From Ted Talks: “[Situationist friend] Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices — and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions.” * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Sheena Iyengar on the Situation of Choice,” “Sheena Iyengar’s Situation and the Situation of Choosing,” “Sheena Iyengar on ‘The Multiple Choice Problem,’” “Can’t Get No Satisfaction!: The Law Student’s Job Hunt – Part II,” “Dan Gilbert on the Situation of Our Decisions,”and “Just Choose It! “  To review all of the Situationist posts that discu... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3813049 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:01:26 +0100 3813049 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3802458&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F07%2F30%2Fattributional-divide-top-10%2F This article, the first of a multipart series, argues that a major rift runs across many of our major policy debates based on our attributional tendencies: the less accurate dispositionist approach, which explains outcomes and behavior with reference to people’s dispositions (i.e., personalities, preferences, and the like), and the more accurate situationist approach, which bases attributions of causation and responsibility on unseen influences within us and around us. Given that situationism offers a truer picture of our world than the alternative, and given that attributional tendencies are largely the result of elements in our situations, identifying the relevant elements should be a major priority of legal scholars. With such information, legal academics could predict which indiv... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3802458 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:01:43 +0100 3802458 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3784322&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F07%2F23%2Fthe-toxic-situation-of-cosmetics%2F From the storyofstuffproject: The Story of Cosmetics, released on July 21st, 2010, examines the pervasive use of toxic chemicals in our everyday personal care products, from lipstick to baby shampoo. Produced with Free Range Studios and hosted by Annie Leonard, the seven-minute film by The Story of Stuff Project reveals the implications for consumer and worker health and the environment, and outlines ways we can move the industry away from hazardous chemicals and towards safer alternatives. The film concludes with a call for viewers to support legislation aimed at ensuring the safety of cosmetics and personal care products. * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Our Carcinogenic Situation,” “The Situation of Bottled Water,” “‘Flow&#8... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3784322 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:01:57 +0100 3784322 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3776456&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F07%2F21%2Fthe-deeply-captured-situation-of-medicine%2F From PBS’s Need to Know: Prescription drug Avandia was once the top-selling diabetes drug in the world — and it still helps more than half a million Americans balance their blood sugar levels. But a Food and Drug Administration panel dealt the drug a blow this week that may have some diabetes sufferers questioning whether they want to use it. The debate focused on whether Avandia, which is acknowledged to be one of the most effective drugs for treating Type 2 diabetes, comes with dangerous side effects: An increase in a patient’s chance of suffering a stroke or heart attack, and dying from it. In the end, while a majority of the 33-member panel did agree that Avandia, compared to other diabetes drugs, does increase risk for cardiovascular problems, they didn’t agree that it inc... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3776456 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:24:41 +0100 3776456 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3764201&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F07%2F19%2Fthe-deeply-captured-situation-of-spilling-oil%2F From TED.com:  The Gulf oil spill dwarfs comprehension, but we know this much: it’s bad. Carl Safina scrapes out the facts in this blood-boiling cross-examination, arguing that the consequences will stretch far beyond the Gulf — and many so-called solutions are making the situation worse. * * * * * * “The Deeply Captured Situation of the Economic Crisis,” “Our Stake in Corporate Behavior,” “Tushnet on Teles and The Situation of Ideas – Abstract,” “Larry Lessig’s Situationism,” “The Situation of Policy Research and Policy Outcomes,” “Reclaiming Corporate Law in a New Gilded Age – Abstract,” “The Illusion of Wall Street Reform,” “Industry-Funded Research,” “The Situation of Medical Research,” “The Situation of Ta... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3764201 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:01:37 +0100 3764201 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3946234&cid=t_113799_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2Fh1f6DEG1Yr8%2F A more rapid method than Western blot analysis to detect a specific protein in a cell, tissue, organ, or body fluid is enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA. This method, which does not require fractionation of the sample by gel electrophoresisis, is based on the property of proteins to readily bind to a plastic surface. To detect viral proteins in serum or clinical samples, a capture antibody, directed against the protein, is linked to a solid support such as a plastic 96 well microtiter plate, or a bead. The clinical specimen is added, and if viral antigens are present, they will be captured by the bound antibody. The bound viral antigen is then detected by using a second antibody linked to an enzyme. A chromogenic molecule – one that is converted by the enzyme to an easily ... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3946234 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:28:49 +0100 3946234 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3750117&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F07%2F14%2Fsituationist-political-science-and-the-situation-of-voters%2F Joe Keohane wrote an outstanding article, “How Facts Backfire: Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains,” for the Boston Globe last week.  Here are some excerpts. * * * It’s one of the great assumptions underlying modern democracy that an informed citizenry is preferable to an uninformed one. “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789. . . . Mankind may be crooked timber, as Kant put it, uniquely susceptible to ignorance and misinformation, but it’s an article of faith that knowledge is the best remedy. If people are furnished with the facts, they will be clearer thinkers and better citizens. If they are ignorant, facts will enlighten them. If they are mistaken, facts w... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3750117 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:16:26 +0100 3750117 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3710622&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F06%2F30%2Fadvertisement-space-for-sale-call-now%2F I have written in the past about the dangers of corporate sponsorship and the blurring of the lines between advertising and “content.”  Three years ago, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, for example, I was highly critical of several corporate deals for shows at the National Gallery of Art—in particular, Target’s prominent sponsorship of an exhibit of Jasper John’s target paintings.  As I argued, The corporation as art critic may be inevitable. The wealthy members of society, in their role as patrons, have always had a profound influence on the course of art. But the current trend does not sit well with me. If financial realities force museums to cede control to corporate America, art may lose its magic. The artists and works to be celebrated will not be those that inspire, ex... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3710622 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:01:27 +0100 3710622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3633516&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F06%2F06%2Fthe-palliative-function-of-ideology%2F Jaime Napier is an Assistant Professors of Psychology at Yale University. Her primary research interest is the effects of societal injustice, including how members of advantaged and disadvantaged groups diverge in their perceptions and explanations of injustice; how political and religious ideologies may ameliorate the outrage associated with perceived injustice; and the consequences of accepting or rationalizing injustice on individual subjective well-being and self-esteem. At the third annual conference on Law and Mind Sciences, which took place in March of 2009, Napier’s fascinating presentation was titled “The Palliative Function of Ideology.” Here’s the abstract: In this research, we drew on system-justification theory and the notion that conservative ideology ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3633516 Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:01:59 +0100 3633516 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3625608&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F06%2F03%2Fthe-situation-of-poor-education%2F What is the cause of the educational disaster in central Africa? Nicholas D. Kristof had an interesting take in his N.Y. Times column, Moonshine or the Kids?, published last week. According to Kristof, “[I]f the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. Much suffering is caused not only by low incomes, but also by shortsighted private spending decisions by heads of households.” In the article, Kristof profiles a Congolese family, the Obamzas (yes, you read that right).  The family is behind on its $6-a-month rent and cannot afford to send the three Obamza children to school at a cost of $7.50 a month.  The Obamzas do, however, spend $10 a month on cellphone usage and... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3625608 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:01:48 +0100 3625608 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3621625&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fruc-off-new-england-journal-once-again.html Last week, the influential New England Journal of Medicine published an article by Bruce Vladek entitled "Fixing Medicare's Physician Payment System."(1)  Although only identified as working for Nexara, a health consulting business, Mr Vladek was a former administrator of what was then called the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the part of the department that then ran the US Medicare program.  Vladek thus can reasonably be viewed as an expert on Medicare.  Vladek identified two main problems with the current way physicians are paid by Medicare.  First, Medicare is captive to an arbitrary, if elegantly conceived, formula for total payments to physicians — the sustainable growth rate (SGR). In the alt... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3621625 Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:28:00 +0100 3621625 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3603577&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FI1Ibu4PyRp4%2F By Tad DeHavenAnalysts across the ideological spectrum generally agree that the government’s regulatory bodies fail far too frequently. However, analysts seem to learn different lessons from this experience. Washington Post business columnist Steve Pearlstein cites numerous examples of failure and concludes, “It’s time for the business community to give up its jihad against regulation.” He says: It hardly captures the breadth and depth of these regulatory failures to say that during the Bush administration the pendulum swung a bit too far in the direction of deregulation and lax enforcement. What it misses is just how dramatically the regulatory agencies have been shrunken in size, stripped of talent and resources, demoralized by lousy leadership, captured by the industries the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3603577 Wed, 26 May 2010 19:07:15 +0100 3603577 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3560173&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fcorporate-proxies-suggest-ceos-rewarded.html Discussion and Analysis. Its summary of Mr Kindler's performance was:The committee believes that Mr Kindler's leadership was a significant factor in the continued progress made by Pfizer in 2009 in strengthening the foundation for future growth and long-term success.It also specifically addressed Mr Kindler's "industry leadership":During 2009, Mr Kindler was actively involved, through both Pfizer and external organizations, in developing and advancing US and global public policies that serve the overall interest of our Company and our shareholders, as well as doctors and patients. These efforts included constructive participation in the US legislative process to advance Pfizer's goals of achieving a more rational operating environment....UnitedHealth GroupWe recently discussed the contrast... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3560173 Wed, 12 May 2010 16:15:00 +0100 3560173 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3560301&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F12%2Four-carcinogenic-situation-and-what-to-do-about-it%2F This report summarizes the Panel’s findings and conclusions based on the testimony received and additional information gathering. The Panel’s recommendations delineate concrete actions that governments; industry; the research, health care, and advocacy communities; and individuals can take to reduce cancer risk related to environmental contaminants, excess radiation, and other harmful exposures. Key Issues for Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk Issues impeding control of environmental cancer risks include those related to limited research on environmental influences on cancer; conflicting or inadequate exposure measurement, assessment, and classification; and ineffective regulation of environmental chemical and other hazardous exposures. Environmental Cancer Research Research on enviro... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3560301 Wed, 12 May 2010 13:27:39 +0100 3560301 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3556173&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F12%2Four-carcinogenic-situation-and-what-to-do-about-it%2F This report summarizes the Panel’s findings and conclusions based on the testimony received and additional information gathering. The Panel’s recommendations delineate concrete actions that governments; industry; the research, health care, and advocacy communities; and individuals can take to reduce cancer risk related to environmental contaminants, excess radiation, and other harmful exposures. Key Issues for Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk Issues impeding control of environmental cancer risks include those related to limited research on environmental influences on cancer; conflicting or inadequate exposure measurement, assessment, and classification; and ineffective regulation of environmental chemical and other hazardous exposures. Environmental Cancer Research Research on enviro... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3556173 Wed, 12 May 2010 13:27:39 +0100 3556173 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3494366&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F22%2Fthe-state-of-shareholder-power-in-the-situation-of-citizens-united%2F Who is speaking when a corporation talks? Can a corporation represent all of its shareholders and workers in political speech? How will corporations decide who to represent?  In “Corporate Governance Redux in the Light of Citizens United,” Robert A.G. Monks will detail  the history of corporate personhood and how this case relates to corporate governance. * * * Come hear Mr. Monks, shareholder activist, author, corporate governance advisor, and HLS alum, for a lunch-time discussion of the state of shareholder power after Citizens United (04/22/10).  The talk will be held in Austin West at Harvard Law School (12pm-1pm).  Lunch will be provided. (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3494366 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:01:22 +0100 3494366 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3487151&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F20%2Fthe-frontline-of-citizens-united%2F What are the implications of corporate personhood after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United? Get the story from behind this term’s most talked-about case from the lawyers who argued in district court and wrote the Supreme Court briefs. How did the FEC develop it’s position? What is at stake? What role do agency lawyers place in a high-profile case? What are the FEC’s next steps in light of the decision? * * * David B. Kolker and Kevin A. Deely, Associate General Counsels for the Federal Election Commission, will speak today (04/19/10) at Harvard Law School (12pm-1pm, Austin East).  Lunch will be provided. (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3487151 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:01:52 +0100 3487151 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3482949&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F19%2Fde-capturing-the-fda%2F Harvard Law Student, Jason Iuliano, recently posted his forthcoming article, “Killing Us Sweetly: How to Take Industry Out of the FDA” (forthcoming Journal of Food Law and Policy) on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * For more than a century, the Food and Drug Administration has purported to protect the public health. During that time, it has actually been placing corporate profits above consumer safety. Nowhere is this corruption more evident than in the approval of artificial sweeteners. FDA leaders’ close ties to the very industry they were supposed to be regulating present a startling picture. Ignoring warnings from both independent scientists and their own review panels, FDA decision makers let greed guide their actions. They approved carcinogenic sweeteners such ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3482949 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:01:50 +0100 3482949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3480830&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F04%2F18%2Fbill-moyers-journal-watch-listen-pbs-2%2F Here is an outstanding 30-minute video interview about the sources of the financial crisis.  The interview should resonate with regular readers of The Situationist and those otherwise familiar with the “deep capture” hypothesis. From Bill Moyers Journal: “How did Big Finance grow so powerful that its hijinks nearly brought down the global economy – and what hope is there for real reform with Washington politicians on Wall Street’s payroll? Bill Moyers talks with authors Simon Johnson and James Kwak, two of the nation’s most respected economic experts and authors of the new book 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltodown.” * * * Here’s a sample of the transcript: James Kwak: I think there are two things. There’s a... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3480830 Sun, 18 Apr 2010 04:01:26 +0100 3480830 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3408452&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F26%2Fthe-situation-of-bottled-water%2F From the Story of Stuff: The Story of Bottled Water, releasing March 22, 2010, employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all. * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see ““Flow” and the Situation of Water,” and the links that post... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3408452 Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:01:37 +0100 3408452 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3403944&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F25%2Fflow-and-the-situation-of-water%2F From Wikipedia: Flow: For Love of Water is a 2008 documentary film by Irena Salina. The film concentrates on the big business of privatization of water infrastructure which prioritizes profits over the availability of clean water for people and the environment. Major businesses depicted in the film are Nestle, The Coca-Cola Company, Suez, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The first video below is the trailer.  You can watch the movie in 9 (roughly 10-minute) sections after the jump. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To review a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Global Climate Change and The Situation of Denial,” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3403944 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 04:01:38 +0100 3403944 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3395195&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F23%2Fwhat-does-situationism-mean-for-law%2F Situationist Contributor Jon Hanson was recently interviewed by Big Think.  Here is his answer to the following question: “What are some of the changes that the legal system should be making?” * * * * * * To watch the first part of Hanson’s BigThink interview, see “Jon Hanson on Situationism and Dispositionism,” which also contains other related Situationist links. (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3395195 Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:16:47 +0100 3395195 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3359065&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F12%2Fthe-policy-situation-of-obesity%2F In 2004, Peter Jennings hosted an outstanding report, titled “How To Get Fat Without even Trying,” in which he explored some of the situational factors, including federal government agricultural policies and food industry practices, that  are contributing to Americas  obesity epidemic. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “The Situation of Snacking,” “The Benefit of Knowing Your Eating Sins,” “The Situation of Body Image,” “Big Calories Come in Small Packages,” “The Situation of Eating – Part II,” “The Situation of Eating,” “The Situation of the Dreaded ‘Freshman 15′,” “Our Situation Is What We Eat,” “Social Networks,” “Common Cause: Combating the Epidemics of Obesity a... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3359065 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:00:59 +0100 3359065 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3322430&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F03%2F02%2Fthe-century-of-dispositionism-part-iii%2F From BBC Website : Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty. * * * To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? * * * The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund’s devoted daughte... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3322430 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:58:24 +0100 3322430 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3290858&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F20%2Fclarence-darrow-on-the-situation-of-crime-and-criminals-2%2F “Crime and Criminals: Address to the Prisoners in the Chicago Jail” (1902) Preface This address is a stenographic report of a talk made to the prisoners in the Chicago jail. Some of my good friends have insisted that while my theories are true, I should not have given them to the inmates of a jail. Realizing the force of the suggestion that the truth should not be spoken to all people, I have caused these remarks to be printed on rather good paper and in a somewhat expensive form. In this way the truth does not become cheap and vulgar, and is only placed before those whose intelligence and affluence will prevent their being influenced by it. —Clarence Darrow Crime and Criminals If I looked at jails and crimes and prisoners in the way the ordinary person does, I should not spe... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3290858 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:43:14 +0100 3290858 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283646&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fthe-century-of-dipositionism-part-ii%2F From BBC Website : Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty. * * * To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? * * * The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund’s devoted daughte... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283646 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:10:10 +0100 3283646 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3269734&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F13%2Fthe-century-of-dipositionism-part-i%2F From Wikipedia: Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings. His influence on the twentieth century is generally considered profound. The series describes the ways public relations and politicians have utilized Freud’s theories during the last 100 years for the “engineering of consent.” * * * Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in public relations, are discussed. Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as is one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories, Wilhelm Reich, in the third part. * * * Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and metho... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3269734 Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:34:05 +0100 3269734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235912&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F02%2F03%2Fbarry-schwartz-on-the-situation-of-incentives%2F Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. Barry Schwartz studies the relationship between economics and psychology, delivering startling insights into modern life. In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice, Schwartz tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today’s western world is actually making us miserable. Infinite choice is paralyzing, Schwart... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235912 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:01:04 +0100 3235912 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3220099&cid=t_113799_77_f&fid=37259&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.horizonpress.com%2Fblogger%2F2010%2F01%2Firon-in-erwinia.html The critical role of iron in host-pathogen relationships has been elucidated in infectious diseases of mammals, where the importance of siderophores in microbial pathogenesis has been demonstrated. Our group has established the role of iron and its ligands in the virulence of the plant pathogenic bacteria Dickeya dadantii (Erwinia chrysanthemi) and Erwinia amylovora. The genomes of the two pectinolytic enterobacterial species Pectobacterium atrosepticum SCRI1043 and D. dadantii 3937 have been sequenced and annotated. This review focuses on the functions involved in iron acquisition in both species. Besides the production and utilization of siderophores, P. atrosepticum and D. datantii have the capacity to use other iron sources. Indeed, both species are able to use haem iron, whereas only ... Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3220099 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:45:00 +0100 3220099 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200501&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F23%2Four-stake-in-corporate-behavior%2F Situationist Contributor David Yosifon published a thoughtful and timely op-ed,  in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle. Here are some excerpts. * * * Corporations are crucial institutions in our society. Consumers rely on them for everything from the basic provisions of food and clothing to the more dispensable delights of computers and cell phones. Workers rely on them for jobs. Communities need them for a tax base. Shareholders rely on them for profits that fund retirement, or entrepreneurial activity. We all have a stake in effective corporate operations. Yet corporate directors are not required, indeed are not allowed, to put the interests of any party above shareholders in their decision making. Now the Supreme Court has declared that the First Amendment forbids us from restri... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200501 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:01:30 +0100 3200501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3156524&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F09%2Ftaking-the-situation-of-consumers-seriously%2F Situationist Contributor David Yosifon recently posted his superb article, “The Consumer Interest in Corporate Law,” (43 UC Davis Law Review 253-313 (2009)) on SSRN.  It’s an important, well written, and very situationist analysis of the influence of corporate law and corporations on consumers. Here’s the abstract. * * * This Article provides a comprehensive assessment of the consumer interest in dominant theories of the corporation and in the fundamental doctrines of corporate law. In so doing, the Article fills a void in contemporary corporate law scholarship, which has failed to give sustained attention to consumers in favor of exploring the interests of other corporate stakeholders, especially shareholders, creditors, and workers. Utilizing insights derived fr... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3156524 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:01:49 +0100 3156524 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3145958&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FZD-eVeJSTKk%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe late George Stigler, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, is famous in part because of his work on “regulatory capture,” which occurs when interest groups use the coercive power of government to thwart competition and undeservedly line their own pockets. A perfect (and distasteful) example of this can be found in today’s Washington Post, which reports that the IRS plans to impose new regulations dictating who can prepare tax returns. Not surprisingly, the new rules have the support of big tax preparation shops such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, which see this as an opportunity to squeeze smaller competitors out of the market. The IRS and the big firms claim more regulations are needed to protect consumers from shoddy work, but this is th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3145958 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:56:46 +0100 3145958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3133653&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F31%2Fnicole-stephens-on-%25e2%2580%259cchoice-social-class-and-agency%25e2%2580%259d%2F Nicole Stephens is a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the ways in which sociocultural contexts – such as those delineated by social class, race, and gender – shape the experience and the consequences of choice. In one line of research, she examines how people of different social classes define and respond to choice. In a second line of research, she examines how the common American belief that individual choice drives all actions blinds people to the sociocultural sources of inequality. At the third annual conference on Law and Mind Sciences, which took place im March of 2009, Stephens’s fascinating presentation was titled “Choice, Social Class, and Agency.” Here’s the abstract: Across disciplines we tend to assu... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3133653 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:01:24 +0100 3133653 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026636&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fno-free-speech-for-comparative.html We have repeatedly argued why comparative effectiveness research, under ideal circumstances, would be a good idea.  As I said before:Physicians spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best treatments for particular patients' problems. Doing so is often hard. In many situations, there are many plausible treatments, but the trick is picking the one most likely to do the most good and least harm for a particular patient. Ideally, this is where evidence based medicine comes in. But the biggest problem with using the EBM approach is that often the best available evidence does not help much. In particular, for many clinical problems, and for many sorts of patients, no one has ever done a good quality study that compares the plausible treatments for those problems and those patients. Wh... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026636 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:22:00 +0100 3026636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2999617&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F17%2Fthe-situation-of-the-invisible-hand%2F Yesterday, Paul Rosenberg published an intriguing situationist piece at Open Left about the context and meaning of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand.”   Here are some excerpts. * * * What if Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” argument doesn’t mean what we think it means?  What if it doesn’t mean that everything else but the “free market” can and should be ignored?  What if if Smith actually depended on social and historical context in order to make his argument in the first place? What if it was an argument deeply dependent on what . . . The Situationist blog calls “the situation”? In fact, that’s exactly what happened! Recently, Berkeley economist Brad DeLong posted “Yet Another Note on Adam Smith’s &#8216... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2999617 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:01:50 +0100 2999617 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2977360&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F10%2Fbarbara-ehrenreich-on-the-sources-of-and-problems-with-dispositionism%2F From GRITtv: “Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book looks at the downside of looking on the bright side, which she says has undermined America.” * * * * * * * * * To read a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Barbara Ehrenreich – a Situationist,” “The Motivated Situation of Inequality and Discrimination,” “Thanksgiving as “System Justification”?,” “Cheering for the Underdog,” “Ayn Rand’s Dispositionism: The Situation of Ideas,” “Deep Capture – Part X,” “Promoting Dispositionism through Entertainment – Part I, Part II, & Part III,” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2977360 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:01:47 +0100 2977360 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2970270&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F07%2Fthe-corporate-situation-of-the-prison-population%2F In the video below, Free Speech TV’s news magazine program SourceCode looks inside the private prison boom, and at the growing opposition to for-profit private prisons, jails, and detention centers. * * * * * * Stephen Colbert recently parodied the trend. * * * For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Conference on the Free Market Mindset,” “The Situation of Solitary Confinement,” “The Situation of Punishment (and Forgiveness),” “Clarence Darrow on the Situation of Crime and Criminals,” “The Situation of Punishment,” “Why We Punish,” “The Situation of Death Row,” and “Lessons Learned from the Abu Ghraib Horrors.” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2970270 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:01:34 +0100 2970270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2894577&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F15%2Fthe-categorical-situation-of-money%2F At the Third Annual Law and Mind Sciences Conference at Harvard Law School, titled “The Free Market Mindset: History, Psychology, and Consequences,” (March 7, 2009) Christine Desan’s presentation was titled “Legal Categories of Thought.”  Desan is a  Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where she has taught since 1992. Her areas of interest include American constitutional history, legal and political thought, civil procedure, and statutory interpretation. In her presentation, Professor Desan describess the rich variety of ways that the law categorizes different kinds of liquidity — including coin, banknotes, bonds, dollars, and securities, and explores some of the ways that legal doctrine has disciplined our thought, including our assumptions about ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2894577 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:01:28 +0100 2894577 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2890715&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F14%2Fbarbara-ehrenreich-a-situationist%2F Barbara Ehrenreich’s terrific, highly situationist, new book is now on the shelves, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America. From a related Time Magazine article here’s a brief sample of her writing on the topic of optimism. * * * If you’re craving a quick hit of optimism, reading a news magazine is probably not the best way to go about finding it. As the life coaches and motivational speakers have been trying to tell us for more than a decade now, a healthy, positive mental outlook requires strict abstinence from current events in all forms. Instead, you should patronize sites like Happynews.com, where the top international stories of the week include “Jobless Man Finds Buried Treasure” and “Adorable &#821... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2890715 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:01:59 +0100 2890715 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846432&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F09%2F30%2Fthe-situation-of-metaphors%2F Drake Bennett had a superb article, “The surprising ways that metaphors shape your world,” in Sunday’s Boston Globe. Here are some excerpts. * * * [W]hether they’re being deployed by poets, politicians, football coaches, or realtors, metaphors are primarily thought of as tools for talking and writing–out of inspiration or out of laziness, we distill emotions and thoughts into the language of the tangible world. We use metaphors to make sense to one another. Now, however, a new group of people has started to take an intense interest in metaphors: psychologists. Drawing on philosophy and linguistics, cognitive scientists have begun to see the basic metaphors that we use all the time not just as turns of phrase, but as keys to the structure of thought. By taking thes... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846432 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:01:34 +0100 2846432 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2839003&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F09%2F28%2Fthe-situation-of-credit-card-regulation%2F Situationist Contributor Adam Benforado recently published the following op-ed, titled “Time to Rein in Tricks of the Financial Trade,” in Cap Times. * * * I have a confession: I teach contract law, and I do not understand everything in my credit card agreement. If business law professors are getting lost in the fine print of consumer financial products, we have a fundamental problem. Back in the early 1980s, the average credit card contract filled up a single page. Today, a similar agreement runs to more than 30. These contracts are designed to maximize company profits by hiding costly traps for consumers in a dense forest of confusing provisions and mysterious words like “LIBOR” and “Cash Equivalent Transactions.” It is no wonder that a 2006 study by t... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2839003 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:01:16 +0100 2839003 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2814492&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F09%2F21%2Fhey-dove-talk-to-your-parent-2%2F [This post was first published in October of 2007.] Several weeks ago, as part of its much lauded “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty,” Unilever released “Onslaught,” a video (above) examining disturbing images of women in beauty-industry advertising. The video ends with this admonition to parents: “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.” It’s a powerful video with a disturbing collection of images. The situation of our daughters — and, by the way, our sons — seems both overwhelming and diabolical. Read the comments about the film on the Dove website discussion board, and you can feel the love and gratitude that viewers, particularly mothers, feel toward Dove for this film. Skimming the first ten comments, one finds these re... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2814492 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:01:38 +0100 2814492 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2598275&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F07%2F14%2Fsituational-branding-effects%2F Situationist contributor Grainne Fitzsimons conducted a fascinating study in collaboration with Gavan Fitzsimons and Tanya Chartrand on the effects of popular company logos on human behavior.  In the following video Gavan and Tanya describe the study. * * * * * * To read some related Situationist posts, see “The Unseen Behavioral Influence of Company Logos,” “The Situation of Repackaging,” and “The Big Game: What Corporations Are Learning About the Human Brain.” To read other Situationist posts on marketing, click here; for those on priming, click here. (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2598275 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:01:21 +0100 2598275 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2591527&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F07%2F11%2Fdr-david-kessler-waxes-situationist%2F Tara Parker-Pope recently had a terrific article, titled “How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains,” in The New York Times.  Thanks to the many readers who forwarded us the link to this article, recognizing it’s situationist message.  Here are some excerpts. * * * As head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David A. Kessler served two presidents and battled Congress and Big Tobacco. But the Harvard-educated pediatrician discovered he was helpless against the forces of a chocolate chip cookie. * * * “Why does that chocolate chip cookie have such power over me?” Dr. Kessler asked in an interview. “Is it the cookie, the representation of the cookie in my brain? I spent seven years trying to figure out the answer.” The result of Dr. Kessler’s quest is a fascin... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2591527 Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:01:55 +0100 2591527 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570575&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F07%2F03%2Fthe-situation-of-food-the-movie%2F From Michael Phillips’ Chicago Tribune review: Several things — too many, probably — are going on in “Food, Inc.,” all connected. Kenner begins by tracing the impact of 20th Century American fast food on industrialized food production, and notes that when McDonald’s brought factory assembly-line strategies into practice, everything changed. McDonald’s became a universe of beef-purchasing power unto itself. Their cows, like so many millions of other feedlot residents, consume corn instead of grass; the humans in our increasingly obese nation eat a ton of corn as well, courtesy of high-fructose, heavily subsidized corn syrup found in everything from ketchup to Twinkies to Coke. As a Brooklyn, N.Y., doctor in another food doc, “King Corn,”... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570575 Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:01:40 +0100 2570575 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570576&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F07%2F02%2Fbill-moyers-journal-watch-listen-pbs%2F From Bill Moyers’ Journal:  “Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich sits down with Bill Moyers to talk about the influence of lobbyists on policy, the economy, and the ongoing debate over health care.”  See the interview on the video below.  From the interview, here is a bit of what Reich had to say about trends in wealth distribution. * * * “The fact of the matter is that, as late as 1980, the top 1 percent by income in the United States had about nine percent of total national income. But since then, you’ve had increasing concentration of income and wealth to the point that by 2007 the top 1 percent was taking home 21 percent of total national income. Now, when they’re taking home that much, the middle class doesn’t have enough purchasing power to keep the econo... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570576 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:36:29 +0100 2570576 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348440&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F04%2F13%2Fthe-situation-of-confabulation%2F Helen Philips had a nice article  titled “Mind fiction: Why your brain tells tall tales,” in the October 2006 issue of New Scientist.  Here are some excerpts. * * * The kind of storytelling my grandmother did after a series of strokes . . . [n]eurologists call . . . confabulation. It isn’t fibbing, as there is no intent to deceive and people seem to believe what they are saying. Until fairly recently it was seen simply as a neurological deficiency - a sign of something gone wrong. Now, however, it has become apparent that healthy people confabulate too. Confabulation is clearly far more than a result of a deficit in our memory, says William Hirstein, a neurologist and philosopher at Elmhurst College in Chicago and author of a book on the subject entitled Brain Fiction .... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348440 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 04:01:09 +0100 2348440 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2258103&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F03%2F12%2Ftushnet-on-teles-and-the-situation-of-ideas-abstract%2F Mark Tushnet’s excellent review of Steven Teles’s book, “The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement” (forthcoming 87 Texas Law Review, 2008) is now available on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * Steven Teles’s book, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement, is a case study of ideological challenge. Teles, a political scientist, emphasizes the institutional dimensions of such challenges. Relying on interviews and internal documents produced by conservative organizations, he examines the development of conservative litigating groups (i.e., conservative public interest law firms), the growth of the Federalist Society, and the embedding of law and economics within the legal academy. There have been similar studies of liberal public interest law firms an... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2258103 Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:01:13 +0100 2258103 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2211547&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F02%2F25%2Flarry-lessigs-situationism%2F Samuel Jacobs, a senior at Harvard College and associate managing editor of The Harvard Crimson, recently interviewed Larry Lessig for the Ideas section of The Boston Globe.  The conversation illustrated Lessig’s situationist perspective of corruption.  Here are some excerpts. * * * ROD BLAGOJEVICH ACCUSED of trying to sell a Senate seat. Dianne Wilkerson stuffing cash into her shirt. A Harvard doctor taking huge consulting fees from drug companies. This past year ended with a collection of new examples of a very old problem: corruption. Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford intellectual-property scholar recently hired away by Harvard Law School, believes he may have some solutions. Lessig, who has built a reputation as a leading advocate for free culture and loosening copyright laws, surp... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2211547 Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:01:30 +0100 2211547 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2188401&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F02%2F15%2Fthe-free-market-mindset-conference%2F “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms. . . . I found a flaw . . . in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.” ~Alan Greenspan * * * The market collapse has brought not only financial crisis but a crisis of faith in what Ronald Reagan famously called “the magic of the market place.” If the current state of the U.S. economy makes clear that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s faith in free markets was misplaced, the question remains: what was it about free markets that proved — and still continues to prove — so alluring to econo... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2188401 Sun, 15 Feb 2009 04:01:09 +0100 2188401 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1999417&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2F29%2Fagainst-freedom-of-commercial-expression-abstract%2F Tamara Piety has an interesting new article, titled “Against Freedom of Commercial Expression,” in 29 Cardozo Law Review 2583 (2008), which you can download on SSRN.  Here’s the abstract. * * * Preservation of freedom of expression is properly understood as one of the bulwarks of our constitutional liberty. Yet the prohibition on government regulation of expression has never been considered absolute. One area of less than absolute protection is found in the commercial speech doctrine. Government may regulate commercial speech for its truth where such regulation advances a substantial governmental interest which is advanced by the regulation and there is a good fit between regulation’s aims and the regulation itself. Some argue that even this intermediate level of ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1999417 Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:54:10 +0100 1999417 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1991792&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2F26%2Fthe-situation-of-policy-research-and-policy-outcomes%2F Yesterday, Adam Liptak published a nice article , “From One Footnote, a Debate Over the Tangles of Law, Science and Money,” in the New York Times.  In it he explores the dubious role of Exxon on the legal scholarship regarding punitive damages. * * * Two years after Exxon was hit with a $5 billion punitive damages award for the Exxon Valdez disaster, Prof. William R. Freudenburg’s phone rang. The call propelled him, the professor said the other day, into “an ethical quagmire of the bottomless pit variety.” The caller was an Exxon engineer who wanted to pay the professor to conduct a study taking a dim view of punitive damages. The Exxon Valdez case would eventually reach the Supreme Court, the engineer said, and the study would be useful in convincing the court that puni... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1991792 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:01:39 +0100 1991792 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1918303&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F10%2F30%2Fthe-situation-of-the-supreme-court%2F Earlier this year, Jeffrey Rosen wrote an interesting piece in the New York Times Magazine on how the increase in business-related cases heard before the U.S. Supreme Court appears to correspond to ideological changes among members of the Court and in the country. We excerpt the piece below. * * * The Supreme Court term that ended last June was, by all measures, exceptionally good for American business. The chamber’s litigation center filed briefs in 15 cases and its side won in 13 of them — the highest percentage of victories in the center’s 30-year history. The current term, which ends this summer, has also been shaping up nicely for business interests. * * * Though the current Supreme Court has a well-earned reputation for divisiveness, it has been surprisingly united in cases aff... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1918303 Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:17:29 +0100 1918303 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1892204&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F10%2F21%2Fwithout-the-filter%2F Governor Sarah Palin wants “to talk to Americans without the filter” of the “media elite.”  As she explained in the vice-presidential debate, she aims to cut out the middleman in conveying information to the public: “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you [Senator Joe Biden] want to hear, but I’m going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.” Those statements reflect a radical challenge to our American system: the elimination of an institution—the press—that has traditionally been championed as a vital check on the abuse of power and distortion of the truth by politicians.  In the words of the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, historically, “[t]he free press meant organized, expert scrutiny ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1892204 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:40:29 +0100 1892204 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1865441&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F10%2Ffda-evaded-bidding-process-to-hire.html Last week, the Washington Post reported the unusual - shall we say - way that the US Food and Drug Administration went about setting up a public relations campaign to respond to some negative criticism it has been getting. Here is the background.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had an image problem. For months last year the agency had been pummeled by Congress for poor inspections of tainted vegetables, drugs and other products.FDA leaders decided to hire a contractor for a public relations campaign that would 'create and foster a lasting positive public image of the agency for the American public,' according to agency documents.How they went about doing this was out of the ordinary.Tasked with the public relations job was Mildred Cooper, a temporary FDA consultant hired on a two-year... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1865441 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:15:00 +0100 1865441 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1852763&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F10%2F05%2Fclarence-darrow-on-the-situation-of-crime-and-criminals%2F “Crime and Criminals: Address to the Prisoners in the Chicago Jail” (1902) Preface This address is a stenographic report of a talk made to the prisoners in the Chicago jail. Some of my good friends have insisted that while my theories are true, I should not have given them to the inmates of a jail. Realizing the force of the suggestion that the truth should not be spoken to all people, I have caused these remarks to be printed on rather good paper and in a somewhat expensive form. In this way the truth does not become cheap and vulgar, and is only placed before those whose intelligence and affluence will prevent their being influenced by it. —Clarence Darrow Crime and Criminals If I looked at jails and crimes and prisoners in the way the ordinary person does, I should not spe... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1852763 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 04:01:05 +0100 1852763 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1755337&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F09%2F03%2Fcategorically-biased-abstract%2F Ron Chen and Situationist contributor Jon Hanson recently posted their article, “Categorically Biased: The Influence of Knowledge Structures on Law and Legal Theory” (77 S. Calif. L. Rev. 1103) on SSRN. Here’s the abstract. * * * This Article focuses primarily on one slice of social psychology and social cognition research, namely the vast and vibrant field examining the integral role that knowledge structures play in the way we attend to, remember, and draw inferences about information we encounter and, more generally, the way we make sense of our world. The human system of processing information is, in many cases, an efficient means of understanding our worlds and ourselves. Classification of people, objects, and other stimuli is often both indispensable and ineluctable... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1755337 Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:01:29 +0100 1755337 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1709855&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F08%2F16%2Fthe-situation-of-judicial-methods-abstract%2F Joshua Furgeson, Linda Babcock, and Peter Shane have a fascinating paper, “Behind the Mask of Method” (Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 41 (June 2005) - Law Hum. Behav. 2007) on SSRN. Here’s the abstract. * * * This empirical paper demonstrates that political orientation affects the interpretive methods (e.g., originalism) that individuals prefer to use to interpret the Constitution. As a consequence, the sworn allegiance of a judge (or judicial candidate) to a particular interpretive methodology, even if faithfully followed, simply cannot guarantee constitutional adjudication that is apolitical in motivation. The paper begins by recognizing that certain interpretive methods often favor either liberal or conservative policies, and then propose that an individual&#8... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1709855 Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:38:36 +0100 1709855 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1705065&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F08%2F14%2Fthe-military-meets-the-mind-sciences%2F Yesterday, Brandon Keim published a disturbing article, “Uncle Sam Wants Your Brain” in Wired Science. We’ve excerpted his introduction below, and recommend the entire article which is here. * * * Drugs that make soldiers want to fight. Robots linked directly to their controllers’ brains. Lie-detecting scans administered to terrorist suspects as they cross U.S. borders. These are just a few of the military uses imagined for cognitive science — and if it’s not yet certain whether the technologies will work, the military is certainly taking them very seriously. “It’s way too early to know which — if any — of these technologies is going to be practical,” said Jonathan Moreno, a Center for American Progress bioethicist and auth... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1705065 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:22:09 +0100 1705065 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1686645&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F08%2F07%2Ffractured-bonds-abstract%2F This article presents a unified analysis of all race based annulment cases for the first time. Simultaneously public and private affairs, these dramas impacted far more than the individual couples or courtrooms, sending out shockwaves that reverberated beyond their points of origin. The results of the cases are startling and contrary to previous work on the subject. Using this unique set of cases, this article argues that while declaring these women white appears like a deviation from white supremacy, the courts’ decisions were used to preserve white racial dominance. Through the annulment case decisions, the court stepped in to protect women with a taint of blackness, declaring them pure and worthy of the mantle of whiteness. By legally erasing the women’s potential racial tai... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1686645 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:01:41 +0100 1686645 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1646500&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F07%2F22%2Fsome-reflections-on-reflections%2F Natalie Angier has a terrific piece in today’s New York Times titled “Mirrors Don’t Lie. Mislead? Oh, Yes.” The article is worth reading in its entirety. Here is a taste of what you’ll find. * * * [R]esearchers have determined that mirrors can subtly affect human behavior, often in surprisingly positive ways. Subjects tested in a room with a mirror have been found to work harder, to be more helpful and to be less inclined to cheat, compared with control groups performing the same exercises in nonmirrored settings. Reporting in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, C. Neil Macrae, Galen V. Bodenhausen and Alan B. Milne found that people in a room with a mirror were comparatively less likely to judge others based on social stereotypes about, for example,... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1646500 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:02:05 +0100 1646500 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1575697&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F07%2F04%2Fthe-marketing-of-freedom%2F (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1575697 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:24:00 +0100 1575697 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1522553&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F06%2F15%2Fthe-situation-of-medical-research%2F Gardiner Harris and Benedict Carey wrote an article in last week’s New York Times includes, titled “Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay.“ In it , they describe yet another instance of industry influence over what research and manipulation of the marketplace of ideas. We’ve included a few excerpts from the story below. * * * A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators. By failing to report income, the psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, and a colleague in the psych... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1522553 Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:01:35 +0100 1522553 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1475482&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F28%2Fal-gores-situationism-and-call-for-urgency%2F For a related post, see “Al Gore - The Situationist.” (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1475482 Wed, 28 May 2008 23:04:24 +0100 1475482 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1461334&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F22%2Fthe-situation-of-university-research%2F Today’s New York Times includes a terrific article, titled “At One University, Tobacco Money Is a Secret,“ by Alan Finder who describes how the tobacco industry continues to situationally manipulate the marketplace of ideas. We’ve excerpted a few excerpts from the story below. * * * On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va. That is largely because hardly any faculty members or students there know that there is something to debate — a contract with extremely restrictive terms that the university signed in 2006 to do research for Philip Morris USA, the nation’s l... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1461334 Thu, 22 May 2008 14:06:15 +0100 1461334 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1446562&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F15%2Fthe-situation-of-judges%2F Below we have mashed up three articles about the recent, highly contentious Wisconsin Supreme Court election — “Big money, nasty ads highlight Wisconsin judicial race” by Bill Mears for CNN, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of a fair judiciary” from The Economist, and “Gableman victorious” by Stacy Forster and Patrick Marley for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — and sprinkled in several illustrative Youtube videos of campaign ads. * * * Justice is meant to be impartial. To this end, Britain’s judges are appointed for life. In America federal judges are as well. But in 39 states some or all judges must face election and re-election, often with unbecoming hoopla. An election to the Supreme Court of the state of Wisconsin has just involved ab... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1446562 Thu, 15 May 2008 18:14:59 +0100 1446562 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1443300&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F14%2Fthe-situation-of-talk-radio%2F This study does not include Public Radio, which by statute is required to provide differing points of view. . . .) KSAC shared another characteristic with other liberal radio stations: It had a tiny, 1,000-watt transmitter. Tough for a little station that barely reached Sacramento’s suburbs to compete with 50,000 watt giant KFBK, whose signal stretches from Chico to Modesto, from Reno to that little town of San Francisco. Despite KFBK reaching millions more potential listeners, KSAC mustered an audience nearly 20 percent that of KFBK’s. (Its ratings were double local conservative station KTKZ, which has a 5,000-watt transmitter.) And Arbitron showed the progressive station’s audience was steadily growing. KSAC was the little station that could. Until it couldn’t. It... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1443300 Wed, 14 May 2008 17:28:37 +0100 1443300 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1433968&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F10%2Fian-rand-and-the-situation-of-ideas%2F Last week Clark Davis had a piece titled “Ayn Rand Studies on Campus,” on NPR’s Morning Edition, May 6, 2008. The story illustrates one of the many ways in which dispositionism is promoted (and, by implication, situationism is undermined). To listen to the story (roughly 4 minutes), click here. We have excerpted portions of the transcript below and added two videos (the first and second parts) of a remarkable Dan Rather interview of Ayn Rand. * * * John Allison, CEO of banking giant BB&T, calls Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged “the best defense of capitalism ever written.” He says that Rand changed his life, and he’s working to ensure that the deceased author isn’t left out of the nation’s college curricula. Since 2005, the BB&amp... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1433968 Sat, 10 May 2008 04:01:42 +0100 1433968 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1432938&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F08%2Feconomic-journal-watch-table-of-contents%2F The latest issue of Economic Journal Watch includes several pieces of interest to Situationist readers: Table of Contents with links to articles (pdf) Smoking “Externalities”: David Henderson rejoins the debate with Benjamin Alamar and Stanton Glantz on smoking bans in restaurants. Alamar and Glantz reply. Why Few Women in Economics?: Christina Jonung and Ann-Charlotte Ståhlberg show that women are under-represented in economics in five countries and discuss explanations. Commentaries are provided by Ann Mari May, Deirdre McCloskey, Catherine Hakim, John Johnson, and Garett Jones. Honestly, Who Else Would Fund Such Research?: Michael Marlow reflects on biases in smoking research. Download and Print Entire May 2008 Issue (134 pages, 1.8 MB) (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1432938 Fri, 09 May 2008 01:00:55 +0100 1432938 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1426919&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F07%2Fdaily-shows-john-oliver-at-the-pollies%2F “The best political ads have the ability to mislead us, demoralize us, and disenfranchise us from the political process . . . .” ~ John Oliver (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1426919 Wed, 07 May 2008 21:00:35 +0100 1426919 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1426920&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F06%2Fdeep-capture-part-x%2F This is the tenth part of a series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. Previous posts in this series (which are summarized at the bottom of this entry), reviewed a sample of the evidence indicating that pro-commercial dispositionism has been widely accepted as the presumptive starting place for policy analysis. The previous post in this series described the strategy of relying on credible third-party messengers. This post suggests how t... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1426920 Tue, 06 May 2008 22:00:34 +0100 1426920 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1423793&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F05%2F05%2Fnaive-cynicism-in-election-2008-dispositionism-v-situationism%2F This post was originally published on April 23rd. Because the “elitism” card continues to played, we thought it worthwhile to republish this post for those who might have missed it the last time. * * * In case you missed it, the last week and a half have been a bit rough for the golden boy from Chicago. To boil down hundreds of hours of cable news commentary, political punditry, and radio talk-showery: Obama called certain working-class Midwesterners bitter, and everyone else called Obama elitist. The conventional wisdom is that Hillary’s success in Pennsylvania last night was at least partially the result of Obama’s remarks. The storm began when, speaking to a private group in San Francisco, Obama offered this take on the effects of economic stagnation in certain p... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1423793 Tue, 06 May 2008 02:00:10 +0100 1423793 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1378086&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F17%2Fthe-separation-of-business-and-state-abstract%2F Timothy Kuhner recently posted his paprr, “The Separation of Business and State” (forthcoming in California Law Review). The abstract is as follows. * * * National scandals involving corporate fraud, political corruption, lobbyists, and campaign finance have called attention to worrisome dynamics: the decreasing power of natural persons relative to legal persons in the political process; and the erosion of civic or democratic values in favor of corporate values. Both dynamics relate to the vexing problem of money in politics. American political thought and constitutional structure offer much-needed guidance in the form of analogies and separationist logic. This Essay recasts the phenomenon of money in politics as a separation problem that is, a problem of the private sphe... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1378086 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:01:57 +0100 1378086 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1361319&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F09%2Freclaiming-corporate-law-in-a-new-gilded-age-abstract%2F Kent Greenfield reecently posted a thoughtful essay, “Reclaiming Corporate Law in a New Gilded Age” on SSRN (forthcoming Harvard Law & Policy Review, Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 2008). We’ve pasted the abstract below. * * * Corporate law matters. Traditionally seen as the narrow study of the relationship between managers and shareholders, corporate law has frequently been relegated to the margins of legal discussion and political debate. The marginalization of corporate law has been especially prevalent among those who count themselves as progressives. While this has not always been true, in the last generation or so progressives have focused on constitutional law and other areas of so-called public law, and have left corporate law to adherents of neoclassical law and econo... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1361319 Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:10:55 +0100 1361319 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1356520&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F08%2Fthe-situational-influence-of-oil-money%2F Follow the Oil Money is an interactive tool that tracks the flow of oil money in US politics. Click on one of several search tools . . . to find out which companies are pumping their dirty oil money into politics, who is receiving it, and how it correlates to key climate, energy and war votes. (Source: The Situationist) The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1356520 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:10:24 +0100 1356520 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1337100&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F03%2F30%2Fthe-company-%25e2%2580%259chad-no-control-or-influence-over-the-research%25e2%2580%259d%2F Anyone following the tobacco industry revelations of the early 1990s knows about the industry’s diabolical strategies for influencing science. More specifically, as Stanton Glantz has written, the industry “encouraged scientific research to refute the scientific evidence about tobacco, to perpetuate about the health effects of tobacco, and to provide results that could be used to respond to adverse publicity.” What fewer people realize is that at least some cigarette manufacturers may still be engaged in some of their old practices — influencing the situation of research.  That is the possibility raised in Gardner Harris’s article last week in the New York Times, “Cigarette Company Paid for Lung Cancer Study,” excerpted below. * * * In October 2006, Dr.... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1337100 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:03:23 +0100 1337100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1292379&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F03%2F11%2F1825%2F This is the eighth part of a series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. Previous posts in this series (which are summarized at the bottom of this entry), reviewed a sample of the evidence indicating that pro-commercial dispositionism has been widely accepted as the presumptive starting place for policy analysis. Many administrative regulators, judges, and legal scholars, like most consumers–from cigarette smokers, to investors, to... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1292379 Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:15:36 +0100 1292379 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1261890&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F02%2F27%2Fthe-situation-of-earmarks-3%2F The February 22 edition of Bill Moyers Journal (PBS) “profiles Seattle Times reporters on the trail of how members of Congress have awarded federal dollars for questionable purposes to companies in local Congressional districts—often to companies whose executives, employees or PACs have made campaign contributions to their legislators.”  It’s a fascinating 30-minute story that illustrates some of the situational sources of political manipulation and capture. from www.pbs.org posted with vodpod * * * To provide a flavor of the half-hour report, we’ve included a few transcript excerpts below. * * * Tonight our subject is the growing scandal surrounding earmarks. Once upon a time an earmark was just that — a mark farmers made on the ears of livestock for i... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1261890 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:36:01 +0100 1261890 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1184775&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F01%2F29%2Fdeep-capture-part-viii%2F This is the eighth part of a series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. I review the previous posts in this series at the bottom of this post, which contrasts different cultures for evidence of commercial interests in promoting dispositionism. (Situationist artist Marc Scheff is providing the primary illustrations in this series.) * * * “My research has led me to the conviction that two utterly different approaches to the world hav... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1184775 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:28:03 +0100 1184775 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1141038&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F01%2F10%2Fdeep-capture-part-vii%2F This is the seventh of a multi-part series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. I review the previous posts in this series at the bottom of this post, which provides some illustrative examples of how atypical “regulators,” from courts to hard-hitting news networks, reflect and contribute to deep capture. (Situationist artist Marc Scheff is providing the primary illustrations in this series.) * * * “The myth that holds ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1141038 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:31:31 +0100 1141038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1109957&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F12%2F21%2Fdeep-capture-part-vi%2F This is the sixth of a multi-part series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. I review the previous posts in this series at the bottom of this post, which lays out the “deep capture hypothesis” a bit more and begins loosely testing it by examining the role that it may have played in the “deregulatory” movement. (Situationist artist Marc Scheff is providing the primary illustrations in this series.) * * * The Deep... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1109957 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:08:41 +0100 1109957 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1088880&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F12%2F12%2Fthe-situation-of-ideology-part-ii%2F Numerous Situationist contributors have been studying and writing about the situational sources of ideology. With the 2008 presidential campaign underway and with the political-ideological divisions apparently growing in depth and distance, that research seems particularly pertinent. In part for that reason, the theme of the March 8 conference hosted by the Project on Law and Mind Sciences will be “Ideology, Psychology, and Law.” This, post, the second in a series, excerpts portions of Jay Dixit’s excellent overview of some of the recent research on the psychology of ideology. His article, “The Ideological Animal,” was published in Psychology Today. * * * Cinnamon Stillwell never thought she’d be the founder of a political organization. She certainly never expe... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1088880 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:20:12 +0100 1088880 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1086126&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F12%2F11%2Fthe-need-for-a-situationist-morality%2F In 1999, renowned social psychologist Albert Bandura published an article examining the role of “Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities.” That article’s abstract reads as follows: Moral agency is manifested in both the power to refrain from behaving inhumanely and the proactive power to behave humanely. Moral agency is embedded in a broader sociocognitive self theory encompassing self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective, and self-regulatory mechanisms rooted in personal standards linked to self-sanctions. The self-regulatory mechanisms governing moral conduct do not come into play unless they are activated, and there are many psychosocial maneuvers by which moral self-sanctions are selectively disengaged from inhumane conduct. The moral disengagement ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1086126 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:54:26 +0100 1086126 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1083009&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F12%2F10%2Fdeep-capture-part-v%2F This is the fifth of a multi-part series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. Part I of this series explained that our “deep capture” story is analogous to the (shallow) capture story told by economists (such as Nobel laureate George Stigler) and public choice theorists for decades regarding the competition over prototypical regulatory institutions. Part II looked to history (specifically, Galileo’s recantation) for another analo... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1083009 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:40:14 +0100 1083009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1068841&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F12%2F04%2Fdeep-capture-part-iv%2F This is the fourth of a multi-part series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” This post, like Part I, Part II, and Part III, is drawn from our 2003 article, “The Situation” (downloadable here). The most basic prediction of the “deep capture” hypothesis is that there will be a competition over the situation (including the way we think) to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions and that those individuals, groups, entities, or institutions that are most powerful will win that competition. Part I of this series explained that our “deep capture” story is analogous to the (shallow) capture story told by economists (such as Nobel laureate George Stigler) and public choice theorists for decades ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1068841 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:01:14 +0100 1068841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1058472&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F29%2Fthe-unconscious-situation-of-our-consciousness-part-iii%2F This is the third in a series of posts summarizing the research on the hidden situation of our consciousness. The first two posts drew from a 2003 article by Situationist contributors Jon Hanson and David Yosifon “The Situational Character.” Part I began with Hanson and Yosifon’s summary of some of the fascinating research revealing the ubiquity of “automaticity.” Part II asked the question: “If most of what we perceive, feel, and do is driven by automatic processes, then why is it that most of us perceive most of our behavior to be the consequence of our conscious will?” This post draws from a 2004 press release by Marguerite Rigoglioso (from Stanford Graduate School of Business) describing fascinating research by social psychologists Christian Wheeler, ... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1058472 Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:01:19 +0100 1058472 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1035757&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F19%2Fdeep-capture-part-iii%2F This is the third of a multi-part series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” This post, like Part I and Part II, is drawn from our 2003 article, “The Situation” (downloadable here). The most basic argument behind the prediction of deep capture is that if people are moved by internal and external situation (particularly while believing themselves to be moved primarily by disposition), then, in order to move them, there will be a hard-to-see or hard-to-take-seriously competition over the situation. Part I of this series explained that our “deep capture” story is very much analogous to the (shallow) capture story told by economists (such as Nobel laureate George Stigler) and public choice theorists for decades regardi... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1035757 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:01:11 +0100 1035757 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1007728&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F06%2Fdeep-capture-part-ii%2F This is the second of a multi-part series on what Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I call “deep capture.” This post, like Part I, is drawn from our 2003 article, “The Situation” (downloadable here). The most basic argument behind the prediction of deep capture is that if people are moved by internal and external situation (particularly while believing themselves to be moved primarily by disposition), then, to move them,  there will be a hard-to-see or hard-to-take-seriously competition over the situation.   Part I of this series explained that our “deep capture” story is very much analogous to the (shallow) capture story told by economists (such as Nobel laureate George Stigler) and public choice theorists for decades regarding the compe... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1007728 Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:01:15 +0100 1007728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=999593&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F02%2Fthe-financial-squeeze-bad-choices-or-bad-situations%2F Bob Sullivan wrote a terrific article last month on the sources of pressing debt loads for much of America’s middle class. It reviews and echoes some of the best research on how situational forces are attributed to the dispositions of the individuals and families feeling the squeeze of situation. We have excerpted Sullivan’s article below. * * * Shopping malls are packed every weekend. Restaurants can’t open fast enough. Everyone seems to be wearing designer shoes, jackets and jeans and sipping $4 lattes. Credit card commercials constantly advocate splurging and, it seems, U.S. consumers are all too ready to comply. So what’s the problem? Why do so many middle class Americans with so much stuff say they feel so squeezed? If they are dogged by debt, isn’t it thei... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=999593 Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:15:21 +0100 999593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=993443&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2F31%2Fdeep-capture-part-i%2F In 2003, Situationist Contributor David Yosifon and I published an article (“The Situation: An Introduction to the Situational Character, Critical Realism, Power Economics, and Deep Capture,” downloadable here) that introduced to the law-review literature many of the insights and arguments on which this blog is premised and upon which an emerging mountain of legal scholarship is based. Since The Situationist came online in January, I have been asked numerous times by readers who are unfamiliar with that body of work just what is meant by the term “deep capture.” This series of posts is my attempt to answer that question by relying on existing work. Although “deep capture” has been defined and illustrated in several more recent articles, I thought it w... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=993443 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:01:41 +0100 993443 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=971550&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2F23%2Fthe-situation-of-college-debt-part-iv%2F Business Week recently published an excellent collection of articles (by Jessica Silver-Greenberg) examining the increasing use of credit cards by college students. The series sheds light on some of the situational sources of the escalating debt loads of college graduates, one component of a wider debt and and bankruptcy epidemic. The Situationist is offering a series of posts excerpting portions of the Business Week collection. To view the first post in this series, containing numerous related links and the Youtube version of the documentary “Maxed Out,” click here. To read the second in this series, which looks at some of the ways that credit card companies recruit student debtors, click here. The third post, linkable here, in the theories examines the hidden tuition of unive... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=971550 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:15:36 +0100 971550 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=967227&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2F21%2Fhey-dove-talk-to-your-parent%2F Several weeks ago, as part of its much lauded “Dove Campaign for Real Beauty,” Unilever released “Onslaught,” a video (above) examining disturbing images of women in beauty-industry advertising. The video ends with this admonition to parents: “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.” It’s a powerful video with a disturbing collection of images. The situation of our daughters — and, by the way, our sons — seems both overwhelming and diabolical. Read the comments about the film on the Dove website discussion board, and you can feel the love and gratitude that viewers, particularly mothers, feel toward Dove for this film. Skimming the first ten comments, one finds these reviews and remarks: “This is a POWERFUL little f... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=967227 Sun, 21 Oct 2007 15:54:24 +0100 967227 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=927946&cid=t_113799_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2F165200889%2F (Source: white pebble) white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=927946 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:08:13 +0100 927946 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=916238&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2F01%2Fthe-situation-of-college-debt-part-ii-2%2F Business Week recently published an excellent collection of articles (by Jessica Silver-Greenberg) examining the increasing use of credit cards by college students. The series sheds light on some of the situational sources of the escalating debt loads of college graduates, one component of a wider debt and and bankruptcy epidemic. The Situationist is offering a series of posts excerpting portions of the Business Week collection. To view the first post in this series, containing numerous related links and the Youtube version of the documentary “Maxed Out,” click here. To read the second in this series, which looks at some of the ways that credit card companies recruit student debtors, click here. This post excerpts Silver-Greenberg’s article, “The Dirty Secret of Ca... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=916238 Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:01:24 +0100 916238 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=904646&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F09%2F26%2Fthe-situation-of-college-debt-part-ii%2F Business Week recently published an excellent collection of articles (by Jessica Silver-Greenberg) examining the increasing use of credit cards by college students. The series sheds light on some of the situational sources of the escalating debt loads of college graduates, one component of a wider debt and and bankruptcy epidemic. The Situationist is offering a series of posts excerpting portions of the Business Week collection. To view the first post in this series, containing numerous related links and the Youtube version of the documentary “Maxed Out,” click here. This post excerpts Silver-Greenberg’s article, “Confessions of a Credit-Card Pusher.” * * * It all started as a way to make some quick cash. In 2002, at the beginning of his freshman year at the... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=904646 Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:29:50 +0100 904646 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=889733&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F09%2F21%2Fthe-situation-of-college-debt-part-i%2F Business Week recently published an excellent collection of articles (by Jessica Silver-Greenberg) examining the increaseing use of credit cards by college students. The series sheds light on some of the situational sources of the escalating debt loads of college graduates, one component of a wider debt and and bankruptcy epidemic. Over the next several weeks, The Situationist will offer a series of posts excerpting portions of the Business Week collection. This post begins with “Majoring in Credit Card Debt.” * * * Some 75% of college students have credit cards now, up from 67% in 1998. Just a generation earlier, a credit card on campus was a great rarity. For many of the students now, the cards they get will simply be an easier way to pay for groceries or books, with no long... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=889733 Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:01:28 +0100 889733 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=851840&cid=t_113799_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F08%2F29%2Frent-this-space%2F In today’s world, anything that is out in the public eye is fair game to have a corporate logo or name pasted on it. The glasses of that well-dressed professor down the hall that elegantly declare “Versace” whenever he turns to the side. The jerseys of the Chelsea football team playing on ESPN2. The bags from the department store that only catch a glimpse of daylight before being thrown in the trunk. For a price, anything can be turned into advertizing space. As the New York Times reported Monday, thousands of Americans are paid up to $800 a month by companies to have their cars wrapped in ads. It sounds like a lot, until you consider what that buys: ARD Ventures, a venture capital firm, has studied the phenomenon of wrapped cars and estimates that motorists and pedestrians see a si... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=851840 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:01:46 +0100 851840 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=817599&cid=t_113799_87_f&fid=34865&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecancerblog.com%2F2007%2F08%2F23%2Fnew-radiation-treatment-for-head-and-neck-cancer-patients%2F Filed under: Brain Cancer, Radiation, Head and Neck cancerAccording to a new Finnish study, most head-and-neck cancers that recur locally after prior full-dose conventional radiation therapy respond to Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). This research was led by Heikki Joensuu at the Helsinki University Hospital. According to the researchers, this work opens up a new field of use for BNCT, which has been evaluated only for the treatment of brain tumors. BNCT is a form of targeted radiation treatment and is considered experimental. A boron-containing compound is infused into a peripheral vein and accumulates in the cancer. The cancer is then irradiated with neutrons from a nuclear reactor, causing the boron to split as a result of neutron capture. This releases radiation which can then de... The Cancer Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=817599 Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0100 817599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=588052&cid=t_113799_113_f&fid=34933&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpalmdoc.net%2F%3Fp%3D1265 Roy Graham wrote in : The modeMD application provides rounds management and has been judged the most intuitive and effecient charge capture application on the market. I believe it should be included in your software links. Regards … Roy Hi Roy. Thanks for writing in and letting us know about modeMD. I think someone should do a round-up of the charge capture solutions available for handhelds. There must be quite a few. I am afraid my hospital isn’t quite 21st century yet as we have yet to use an electronic solution for charge capture. Yes we still use paper vouchers! I must get our IT manager to have a look and seriously consider implementing a charge capture solution for my hospital… sigh…. (Source: The Palmdoc Chronicles) The Palmdoc Chronicles blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=588052 Fri, 04 May 2007 00:54:37 +0100 588052 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=556148&cid=t_113799_113_f&fid=34933&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpalmdoc.net%2F%3Fp%3D1245 Nancy Ehrlich has written in to inform us of Silver Bill-It. This is a charge capture solution running on Windows and Mac and supports the major PDA platforms: Palm, Pocket PC and Symbian. Blackberries however are not currently supported. You may want to check out the company’s FAQ (Source: The Palmdoc Chronicles) The Palmdoc Chronicles blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=556148 Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:06:41 +0100 556148