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 'internet'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:47:15 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5182316&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Ff5uWuvV6ctE%2F Once again, a web page is deemed problematic by the FDA. In a letter sent by the agency earlier this week, Pfizer was chastised because its Lipitor web page made misleading representations and suggestions about several other drugs. The issue came to light, by the way, thanks to the FDA ‘Bad Ad’ program, which encourages people to file complaints about troublesome promotions (see this). What exactly did the FDA find objectionable. In its letter, the Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications noted that the Lipitor webpage contained a link that led to a webpage about Lipitor which contained a “Click to Continue” link. This took the visitors to individual product websites for Caduet and Chantix, and to the prescribing information for Norvasc. However, Pfizer ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5182316 Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:21:40 +0100 5182316 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159225&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F08%2F26%2Fnetiquette-and-married-couples%2F This study has a strong online presence since PsyBlog also wrote about it. So take care out there. Buffer   No related posts. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159225 Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:24:14 +0100 5159225 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5158968&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=38113&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.consumerreports.org%2Fhealth%2F2011%2F08%2Fgoogle-to-pay-500-million-for-running-pharmacy-ads.html As part of a settlement with the federal government, Google will pay $500 million for running ads by online Canadian pharmacies in the U.S. that the government says were illegal. The Canadian pharmacies do not require a prescription, and also sell counterfeit drugs. The $500 million settlement covers the estimated amount that Google collected in advertising fees, as well as revenue that the Canadian pharmacies received from people in the U.S. who purchased their products. According to New York Times Bitz Blog, when Google became aware of the governments investigation in 2010, it started requiring that online Canadian pharmacy advertisers be certified by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association. Google also stipulated that the Canadian pharmacies were only to advertise to Canadian... Consumer Reports Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5158968 Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:00:00 +0100 5158968 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159023&cid=t_91930_90_f&fid=34474&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCasesBlog%2F%7E3%2FgO1f_BrSrD0%2Fnetiquette-and-married-couples.html From the study: Men are more associated with activities that have been associated with internet addiction. Men usually take more risks in their online activity. Women are more likely to have lower computer self-efficacy and less positive internet attitudes. Women are more aware of privacy and economic risks in online transactions. 6% of married internet users have met their partner online. In 30% of the couples at least one person checked their partner’s emails or read their partner’s SMS messages without them knowing. In 20% of the couples at least one the partners had checked their spouse’s browser history. References: Netiquette within married couples Online Snooping: Is Your Partner Secretly Watching You?Helsper, E., & Whitty, M. (2010). Netiquette within married couples... Clinical Cases and Images - Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159023 Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:53:00 +0100 5159023 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5158972&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=38113&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.consumerreports.org%2Felectronics%2F2011%2F08%2Fstudy-surfing-the-web-at-work-can-pay-off-in-productivity.html Workers, rejoice! Scientists have evidence that browsing the Internet while sitting at your office desk may actually be beneficial to your job performance. The Wall Street Journal reports that Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore have conducted research that suggests workers who surf the Web during work breaks may actually be more refreshed than those who spend their time making personal calls or answering e-mail. The study, "Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement," was composed of two similar groups. In each, participants were divided into three smaller groups but given the same simple 20-minute task: Highlight as many instances of the letter E as possible in a sample piece of text. Each group was then assigned a different task for the nex... Consumer Reports Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5158972 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:30:00 +0100 5158972 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159204&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F08%2F22%2Fweb-surfing-at-work-helps-you-be-more-productive%2F Thank goodness the Wall Street Journal isn’t known for its outstanding health reporting. In a story written by Rachel Emma Silverman, she reports on some preliminary research recently presented at a management conference. Like a lot of research that gives us “surprising” results, it was done on a single group of 96 undergraduate students at a single college campus. And the task designed for the college laboratory setting by the researchers would be difficult to characterize as analogous to most people’s work environment or jobs — it was highlighting every single letter “e” or, in the second part, “a,” while reading. The question the researchers asked — Can surfing the Internet help you to become a more productive employee? The an... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159204 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:23:31 +0100 5159204 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139934&cid=t_91930_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FMRIneOML2vQ%2F As I heard at AHIMA’s Legal EHR Summit earlier this week, clinical decision support isn’t a perfect science. (Check InformationWeek Healthcare for coverage on Thursday or Friday.) This is especially true when doctors rely too much on Google and don’t actually verify what they find on the Internet. This may sound hard to believe, but not everything posted online is true. Now, the notion that doctors guess with Google has made its way onto the funny pages, specifically in the cartoon Sherman’s Lagoon. To wit:     Hopefully, your own doctor is more qualified than Hawthorne. Related posts:Tasteless joke, but kind of on the mark How doctors use Twitter RIP, Google Health, doomed to fail from the start (Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog) Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139934 Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:41:54 +0100 5139934 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130827&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F08%2F16%2Fstay-online-during-vacation%2F Buffer#bbpBox_102272172462059520 a { text-decoration:none; color:#990000; }#bbpBox_102272172462059520 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }NYTimes: Our Plugged-in Summer http://t.co/H0P79bB Why you should stay plugged in during summer vacationAugust 13, 2011 8:56 am via NYTimes for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite@DrShockWalter van den Broek Buffer   No related posts. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130827 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:18:54 +0100 5130827 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130746&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fphysician-enjoys-the-ease-of-a-new-emr%2F2011.08.15 Seven months into 2011, things look very different than they did this time last year at my office. Not only have I been using an electronic medical record for nine months now, but I’ve also been submitting claims electronically (through a free clearinghouse) using an online practice management system. I’ve also begun scanning patients’ insurance cards into the computer, as well as converting all the paper insurance Explanation of Benefits (EOBs) into digital form. I’ve even scanned all my office bills and business paperwork and tossed all the actual paper into one big box. As of the first of the year I even stopped generating “daysheets” at the end of work each day. After all, with my new system I can always call up the information I want whenever I need it. How did such a comm... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130746 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:00:48 +0100 5130746 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130747&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fshould-doctors-want-their-patients-to-use-the-web-to-stay-informed%2F2011.08.15 Recently, I’ve had an interview with a national newspaper and the woman who performed the interview told me she was surprised that I seemed to be the first doctor in her life who was happy about patients using the internet. Well, she surprised me with this statement as I’ve never thought about that before. But she must be right. There are many doctors who get upset when they find out the patient tried to find information online. They are frustrated as they don’t even know how to use these online tools and have no idea how to help the patients in this perspective. Myself, I’m pretty much happy about it. I love to hear patients (more…) *This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130747 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:00:41 +0100 5130747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130734&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FC8uOd_7qKvg%2F By Jim HarperOfficials in London are looking everywhere but the mirror for places to affix blame for the recent riots. Beyond the immediate-term answer, individual rioters themselves, the target of choice seems to be “social media.” Prime Minister David Cameron is considering banning Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry Messenger to disable people from organizing themselves or reporting the locations and activity of the police. Nevermind substantive grievance. Nevermind speech rights. We’ve got scapegoats to find! [Events like this are nothing but a vessel into which analysts pour their ideological preconceptions, so here's a sip of mine: Just like a spoiled child doesn't grow up to be a gracious and kind adult, a population sugar-fed on entitlements doesn't become a meek an... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130734 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:45:47 +0100 5130734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130828&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F08%2F15%2Finternet-addiction-treatment-a-systematic-review%2F Buffer In previous posts I already expressed my doubt about this phenomenon: Internet Addiction. The biggest problem with studies defining a new syndrome is usually that they don’t use validated diagnostic tools but mostly some severity scale. Internet Addiction is not clearly defined in the recent scientific publications and research. Some researchers have adapted substance use disorder, while others reference pathological gambling, resulting in an inconsistent definition of Internet addiction. Being as it is, therapeutic research was done with such a creaky concept as Internet Addiction is. A recent systematic review according to the CONSORT statement has recently been published. In this review of 8 treatment studies several key limitations were found. inconsistencies in the definit... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130828 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:36:49 +0100 5130828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5125906&cid=t_91930_133_f&fid=35452&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graphictruth.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fnymwars-content-is-king-and-king-is.html My patience has ended. I'm just about to pull the pin on Google+ so that I can take some time and think about my reliance on other Google services. The entire debate tells me that for whatever reason, google as a corporation has jumped the shark and I do not feel comfortable investing my social capital in it.And if that social capital were not valuable, they would not be locked in a death match with Facebook over data-mining futures, and governments would not be petitioning them for their databases.Oddly, my decision is not based on whether I have anything to hide. I have always made the point of never putting anything on the Internet that could put me at risk, and I make a point of distancing myself from those who do."Content is King, and King is Content." The reality of the Internet... Graphictruth blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5125906 Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:19:00 +0100 5125906 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118813&cid=t_91930_125_f&fid=34819&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FFullosseousflapsDentalBlog%2F%7E3%2FLdEJS_z21Go%2F Well. I told you it would happen. In the meantime, Amazon.com is fighting the tax with a costly referendum political campaign and then likely legal action. Not so good for this family who is leaving California for Oregon or California’s tax coffers. (Source: FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog) FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118813 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:45:37 +0100 5118813 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118607&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsIhHwzm_3Z0%2F By Jim HarperWith the Department of Homeland Security constantly spinning out new projects and programs (plus re-branded old ones) to investigate you, me, and the kitchen sink, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. But I was intrigued with a report that behvaior detection officers are getting another look from the Transportation Security Administration. Behavior detection is the unproven, and so far highly unsuccessful (Rittgers, Harper), program premised on the idea that telltale cues can reliably and cost-effectively indicate intent to do harm at airports. But there’s a new behavior detection program already underway. Or is it interrogation? Due to a bottleneck at the magnetometers in one concourse of the San Francisco airport (no strip-search machines!), I recently had the chance... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118607 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:43:58 +0100 5118607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5103328&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9Vuhjuw4Qh8%2F By Jim HarperThat was my inner conversation when I heard that the “Super Congress”* (or “Super Committee”) created by the debt ceiling deal might operate behind closed doors. Congress is free to create any committee it wants, of course. Congress determines the rules of its proceedings. But ordinary committees and subcommittees are too opaque. A “Super Committee” should lead—not lag—in transparent operations. In a forthcoming report on government transparency, we’ll be looking at the kinds of things committees should be publishing in computer-useable formats, and in real time or near-real-time: meeting notices, transcripts, written testimonies, live video, original bills, amendments to bills, motions, and votes. There are ways that many ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5103328 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:39:23 +0100 5103328 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096164&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLrRlWVwpsXk%2F By Jim HarperData-transparent government is still a ways off, but some small steps forward are underway. To wit, my project WashingtonWatch.com, which is adding new data going to the costs of bills in Congress. As detailed in an announcement that went up this morning, many more bills on the site will have cost estimates associated with them, the product of research being done at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Some bills spend pennies or less per U.S. family. Some spend $5,000 per family and more. Wouldn’t you like to know which are which? The site has also begun displaying national debt information on a per-family, per-person, and per-couple basis. Your individual (official) debt—just for being an American—is about $45,000 dollars, your real debt far higher. I&#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096164 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:38:12 +0100 5096164 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5086143&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7oNeZQh_R50%2F By Julian SanchezHere’s a point that ought to seem obvious: “Security”—whether physical or electronic—is always a function of the thing you’re trying to secure. If I were to tell you that my Washington apartment has barred windows, an outer front gate, a deadbolt on the inner door, and an alarm system to boot, you’d probably say my home sounds highly secure. If I told you that the precise same measures were the complete security system for a bank, you’d laugh. The reason is obvious: Unless I finally push the NSA over the line, my apartment only needs to withstand attacks from local thugs. A bank’s security must be able to withstand assaults from seasoned teams of professional criminals who — with millions as a potential jackpot — may be wil... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5086143 Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:55:20 +0100 5086143 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077876&cid=t_91930_125_f&fid=34819&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FFullosseousflapsDentalBlog%2F%7E3%2FBQ-8SkciI0k%2F It is just starting. But for the thousands of affiliates in the state now set adrift by Amazon and Overstock, another major out-of-state player, the law is an unfair and misguided attempt to raise revenues on the backs of struggling mom-and-pop businesses. Rather than bring in tax dollars, they say, it will instead drive away scores of entrepreneurs California needs to innovate its way out of its economic malaise. “None of us are against a level playing field,” said Robert Smahl with privately held Ebates, an online shopping site in San Francisco with 50 employees. “But this is not the way to do it. You’ve just penalized a small segment of people who don’t have the money to fight the legislation. I don’t think the lawmakers understand that this won&#8217... FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077876 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:19:12 +0100 5077876 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069480&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fthe-stories-in-medicine-that-need-to-be-told%2F2011.07.26 I can’t help but think that as time passes we’ll forget about how much medicine has changed with the introduction of the Internet.  We’re witnessing a transition that hasn’t been seen in generations.  We live with the end result but the memory of how we got here is fading quickly.  Like any kind of cultural shift, once we’ve arrived it’s hard to remember what it was like along the way. How did patients think before the information revolution?  And how did it go down when patients began to search?  How specifically did information clash with the old model of doctor and patient and how did we deal with it?  There are stories here that need to be told.  I think the real stories are in the small details of what went down between doctors and patients. But as early adopters, ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069480 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:00:15 +0100 5069480 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5062370&cid=t_91930_125_f&fid=34819&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FFullosseousflapsDentalBlog%2F%7E3%2FtVxRYCoVl_w%2F For the second year in a row, USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is partnering with the Los Angeles Times for a public opinion poll about the state of California. Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, and Evan Halper, Sacramento Bureau Chief from the Los Angeles Times, discuss the amazon.com tax. According to the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll. California voters are split about new legislation that would require Internet retailers to begin collecting sales tax on online purchases, according to the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll. This week, opponents of the so-called “Amazon tax” were given approval by Secretary of State Debra Bowen to begin collecting signatures for a ballo... FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5062370 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:29:48 +0100 5062370 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5062525&cid=t_91930_180_f&fid=38607&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fsuccessbeginstoday%2FBHWQ%2F%7E3%2FCEhqG7Kd9sI%2F This was our second theme based week on Success Begins Today. The theme was communication and featured a free book giveaway. Theme: Communication Monday: Making A True Connection We all communicate, but do we truly connect? Tuesday: Communicating Your Title The words you use in your title say a lot about you. Choose wisely. Thursday: Google Plus: What Will You Write? A post about creating your about page for Google Plus and the Throne of Agony. Friday: Good Morning, Mike Guest post by Sarah McGaugh on using a greeting to change someone’s life. Links mentioned during the week: Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. Sally Hogshead Fascinate Test Throne of Creative Agony Career Builder Article Google Plus Bird in your Hand Additional References: John Maxwell: Everyone Communicates Book Page K... Success Begins Today blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5062525 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:16:23 +0100 5062525 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5057898&cid=t_91930_136_f&fid=39026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcarolinemfr.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F07%2Fmodern-advances-for-sick-people.html We know that medical advances have saved many lives. That is all well and good but the more important part is modern conveniences for us sick people so life is easier. If they can't cure us, we still should be able to live our lives comfortably.Modern advances I couldn't live without:- A VCR with a timer and now a DVR - I do not have to stay up late to watch my shows or worry about napping through them. (Or missing them because of a stupid doctor appointment.) They are always there waiting for me. Or I can even watch them online.- Restaurant delivery services - why go out and sit in a chair that is not good for your bad back when they can bring you the food and you can eat it sitting on your couch with your feet up?- Ice packs for pain relief. Especially in heat waves. These are wonderful.... Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5057898 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:02:00 +0100 5057898 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050525&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdnUNNsrIN_0%2F It’s tempting to believe that the Transportation Security Administration’s move to change the software in strip-search machines is a response to the court ruling finding that it violated the law in rolling out the machines, but it’s almost surely coincidence. The new software will show items that the software deems suspicious on a generic outline of a body rather than showing a detailed body image. The change will indeed reduce the invasiveness of the machine strip-search process. And because the image is less revealing, it can be viewed in the screening area instead of at a remote location. That means there doesn’t need to be a person dedicated to looking at denuded images of travelers. A major cost of running these machines—payroll—drops by a substanti... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050525 Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:58:41 +0100 5050525 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050533&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5u6T3HrgOP0%2F Homeland Security Newswire reports: Last week, DHS officials chastised Representative Jason Chaffetz (R – Utah) for disclosing sensitive security information to the press. In a letter, Joseph Maher, DHS’s deputy counsel, scolded Chaffetz, the chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations, for openly discussing “sensitive security information” provided by the Transportation Security Administration(TSA). Maher wrote, “This document was marked as [Sensitive Security Information] and provided clear notice that unauthorized disclosures of the document violated federal law.” The letter comes in response to Chaffetz’s comments last week that revealed that there have been more than 25,000 security breaches at U.S. airports since Novemb... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050533 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:58:41 +0100 5050533 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050750&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F07%2F19%2Fpersonal-web-usage-in-the-workplace%2F This study appealed to me because it’s viewing PWU not a priori as bad but as a constructive behavior. PWU can provide a necessary break from drudgery or intense endeavors. It can help putting the family/work balance to more appropriate proportions. This e.g. in contrast with the term cyberloafing. Cyberloafing is defined as ‘‘the voluntary act of employees using their companies’ Internet access during office hours to surf nonjob-related Web sites for personal This study found after cluster analysis four types of PWU The work/family PWU cluster. It includes activities where employees tend to personal affairs at work and there is a threat of production deviance as employees attend to personal business on company time instead of work. This type of PWU may serve to reduce stress ... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050750 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:42:56 +0100 5050750 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028699&cid=t_91930_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2Fq5cq4L949_0%2F The Internet Can Save Lives Dan Savage in an interview about the highly successful It Gets Better suicide prevention campaign, explaining why the campaign is so effective and innovative in the media ecology. Traditionally LGBT youth have been misinformed by stigma campaigns that focus solely on school bullying, but Dan points out that often bullying comes from parents and churches as well. Because of homophobic fears about gay adults recruiting youth, advocates had been unable to mentor directly by speaking in schools, etc. But with the advent of YouTube and the spark of a viral video by Dan and his husband about their life, It Gets Better reaches youth in their homes and libraries with over 20,000 videos by LGBT adults (and a book) about how they survived bigotry and bullying and grew up ... Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028699 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:26:28 +0100 5028699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028146&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBoH_b2OMl0Y%2F By Jim HarperIn February 2004, privacy advocates were put off by a Supreme Court case called Doe v. Chao, in which the Court found that the Privacy Act requires a victim of a government privacy violation to show “actual damages” before receiving any compensation. The Act appeared to provide for $1,000 per violation in statutory damages, but the Court interpreted the legislation to require that actual damages be proven, after which the victim would be entitled to a minimum award of $1,000. (Statutory damages are appropriate in privacy cases against the government because government bureaucrats pay little price themselves when their agency gets fined. A penalty is required to draw oversight and political attention to violations of the law.) Doe v. Chao was a close call given the ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028146 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:40:02 +0100 5028146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028150&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7Wve3kASWao%2F By Jim HarperGreg Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology reports on yesterday’s hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 1981, the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011. (I lamented the bill earlier this week, as did Julian Sanchez last week.) Rep. Sensenbrenner [(R-Wis.)], Chair of the Crime Subcommittee, opened the hearing with an extraordinarily strong attack on the bill. Saying the Committee should relegate mandatory data retention to the dustbin of history, he attacked the data retention provision on economic and privacy grounds. “I believe this bill is bad policy and I will do my best to kill it.” He also said, “This bill runs roughshod over the privacy rights of people who use the Internet for thousands of lawful purpo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028150 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:49:13 +0100 5028150 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028154&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNXNY2L9JqXs%2F By Jim HarperGiven enough time, a monkey sitting at a typewriter will type out the complete works of William Shakespeare. Believe it or not, it’s called the infinite monkey theorem. A thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters would cut the time in half … or something. But would the monkey hold the copyright? We may soon find out. Or at least we’ll be entertained by the tiff between TechDirt‘s Mike Masnick and a person claiming to represent the owner of a photograph taken by, yes, a monkey. The short answers are: 1) A photograph taken by a monkey probably isn’t copyrighted, and 2) if it were, displaying the photo in a discussion of its copyright status is probably fair use. The lesson is: many, many people don’t understand what the copyright laws are, or... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028154 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:08:04 +0100 5028154 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028700&cid=t_91930_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2Foc0WLJr5AZU%2F Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave Participatory medicine and patients’ access to their own health data are subjects in a powerful talk by a pioneering e-patient (empowered and engaged patient). Features an interactive transcript. Subtitles available in English, Spanish, French, Romanian, Italian and Dutch. e-Patient Dave describes his experience with cancer and how learning about his condition online and networking with peers saved his life. Although his focus is cancer, mental health also has e-patients including here at PsychCentral, a member organization in the Society for Participatory Medicine. Personally, I’ve been an e-patient and peer advocate for over a decade, online and off. It’s encouraging to watch the movement grow, both informally and in organizations, b... Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028700 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:30:59 +0100 5028700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008135&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FE2fY8CBciNM%2F By Daniel J. MitchellIt’s hard to imagine how we would get through life without necessities like bacon and duct tape. But have you ever thought about how the free market gives you so much for so little? Here’s a video that should be mandatory viewing in Washington. Too bad politicians didn’t watch it before imposing government-run health care. And since we’re contemplating the big-picture issue of whether markets are better than statism, here’s some very sobering polling data from EurActiv: A recent survey has found deep pessimism among European Commission staff on a wide range of issues, including the course of European integration over the past decade and the likelihood of success of the EU’s strategy for economic growth. Some 63% partially or totally agreed that “the Euro... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008135 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:05:32 +0100 5008135 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008148&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1n5uY9AtrMg%2F By Julian SanchezIf you thought it was the height of cynicism when legislators dubbed a massive expansion of government surveillance power the “USA Patriot Act” (recently extended—really!—under the heading of small business legislation), feast your eyes upon the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, on which the House Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing next Tuesday. What kind of monster would dare be on the record opposing that bill? As you may have already guessed, the handful of provisions in the bill that really deal specifically with child porn are a fig leaf for its true purpose: A sweeping data retention requirement meant to turn Internet Service Providers and online companies into surrogate snoops for the government’s conveni... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008148 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:55:06 +0100 5008148 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008149&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F-PAiuE7VqFc%2F By Julian SanchezLast week—on the Thursday before a major holiday weekend—the annual Wiretap Report was finally released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, fully two months behind schedule (the first time in over a decade it’s been so late). While we often focus on the growth of the surveillance state in the context of national security and the War on Terror—such as foreign intelligence wiretaps, which aren’t counted in this report—it’s clear that surveillance is on the rise for ordinary law enforcement purposes as well. State and federal investigators obtained 3,194 wiretap orders in 2010, an increase of 34 percent over the previous year, and a whopping 168 percent increase over 2000. Only one wiretap application was denied—which you can choose to... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008149 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:00:27 +0100 5008149 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4984421&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2xbpOrm84Pw%2F By Jim HarperThe Los Angeles Times has a good article on California’s move to require Amazon and other out-of-state retailers to collect taxes for it. Good because it accurately portrays what’s happening. Many such stories will say that California is seeking to tax Amazon. In fact, says the headline, “California Tells Online Retailers to Start Collecting Sales Taxes From Customers.” You see, Californians generally don’t pay their “use taxes“—the alternative to sales taxes, for things brought into the state from outside. If the tax authorities tried to collect use taxes, going door to door to tally up the goods that haven’t yet been taxed, there would be bedlam. So they want out-of-state companies that sell into California to collect the... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4984421 Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:42:27 +0100 4984421 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4984674&cid=t_91930_147_f&fid=39273&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2F7o_rmx0_U28%2Ffailure-of-google-health-and-what-it.html According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 80% of the American adults who use the Internet report that they regularly go online for access to health information. But so far, the Internet has not helped drive the adoption of health records created and maintained by consumers. 

That's why Google announced last week that it is shutting down Google Health, a personal health record service that allows individuals to centrally store and manage their health information online.Why hasn’t the Internet empowered consumers to manage their personal health information the same way it has better informed them about medical conditions? 

There are three reasons. But the underlying cause is that there is no such thing as a consumer in the American health care system today. A consu... ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4984674 Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:31:00 +0100 4984674 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975824&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLxsNmT_itv0%2F By Jim HarperPresident Obama went to Puerto Rico two weeks ago. If you missed it, that might be because the trip was so brief—a mere four hours. Observing how the president “SEAL-Team-Sixed” it, Jon Stewart speculated that the president was not motivated by love of the island or a campaign promise to revisit it, but by courting Puerto Rican voters in important electoral states. It could be all of the above, of course. It all reminded me of the president’s “Sunlight Before Signing” promise to post bills Congress sends him online for five days before signing them. After the president’s dismal start with the promise at the beginning of his term, I speculated once or twice that he would focus on fulfilling campaign promises like Sunlight Before Signing af... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975824 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:39:44 +0100 4975824 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4976205&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FtVU0kTPjSIk%2F With concerns about social media front and center, drugmakers can clearly use some guidance when it comes to creating a product web site. Then again, a degree of common sense should already be in place, yes? Cephalon, however, committed a few avoidable blunders with a web site for Trisenox, which was approved to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia. An FDA warning letter dated June 21 notes that in the healthcare professional website for Trisenox, Cephalon overstated the case for its drug in big, bold letters in a prominent location at the top of the web pages. The agency found the claims misleading, “because they suggest that Trisenox is approved to treat patients with any kind of relapsed or refractory APL when this is not the case.” There are, in fact, some important limitati... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4976205 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:02:47 +0100 4976205 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975843&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyvtMdMJYGYM%2F By Jim HarperNews that Transportation Security Administration officers required a 95-year-old cancer patient to remove her adult diaper for search lit up the social media this weekend. It’s reminiscent of the recent story where a 6-year-old girl got the pat-down because she didn’t hold still in the strip-search machine. TSA administrator John Pistole testified to a Senate hearing that the agency would change its policy about children shortly thereafter. So, should the TSA change policy once again? Almost certainly. Will it ever arrive at balanced policies that aren’t punctuated by outrages like this? Almost certainly not. You see, the TSA does not seek policies that anyone would call sensible or balanced. Rather, it follows political cues, subject to the bureaucratic prim... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975843 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:20:32 +0100 4975843 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968463&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCJwDhLGSp-8%2F By Jim HarperThis podcast, put together by the high-performance folks at the Performance Marketing Association, is a pretty good exploration of privacy and proposals to create a “do-not-track” system for the World Wide Web. Though I do use the word “hedonic” at one point, which is a bit much… Podcast on Internet Privacy and Do-Not-Track is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968463 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:37:37 +0100 4968463 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968464&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkY82WaVaaUo%2F By Jim HarperThe Supreme Court’s decision in Sorrell vs. IMS Health is being touted in many quarters as a privacy case, and a concerning one at that. Example: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released a statement saying “the Supreme Court has overturned a sensible Vermont law that sought to protect the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship.” That’s a stretch. The Vermont law at issue restricted the sale, disclosure, and use of pharmacy records that revealed the prescribing practices of doctors if that information was to be used in marketing by pharmaceutical manufacturers. Under the law, prescription drug salespeople—”detailers” in industry parlance—could not access information about doctors’ prescribing to use in focusing their effort... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968464 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:37:08 +0100 4968464 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4953361&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F4H9lLNm8RT4%2F Earlier this month, a new entity emerged to explore – and maybe solve – some of the social media quandaries that vex the pharmaceutical industry. Launched by Mark Bard, who previously headed Manhattan Research, a market research firm, the new Digital Health Coalition plans to look at the different ways various technologies can be used to enhance health care and how pharma, among others, can adapt. The advisory board includes people from Google, various drugmakers and advertising agencies. We spoke with Bard about his reasons for creating the coalition - which is organized as a non-profit, by the way – and what he hopes to accomplish… Pharmalot: Why form this coalition? Bard: I spent the better part of the past decade at Manhattan Research looking at technology and innovations and h... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4953361 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:27:57 +0100 4953361 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952799&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FczRzl1vXuRE%2F By Ilya ShapiroIn 1920, the Supreme Court decided an obscure case concerning the implementation of a treaty between the United States and Canada regarding migratory birds. Tucked into Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s five-page decision in Missouri v. Holland was a sentence that expressed a truly startling idea: that Congress can transcend its enumerated powers via its power to implement treaties. That is, although Congress has no enumerated power to pass, say, general criminal laws, if a ratified treaty with France demands that we pass such laws, then Congress’s power expands to allow for such legislation. Thus, foreign nations and the executive branch are given the power to change, almost at will, one of the most hotly debated and carefully crafted sections of the Constitution,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952799 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:35:51 +0100 4952799 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934113&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBwNYJ3ZXGhg%2F By Andrew J. Coulson In the video clip above, President Obama blames America’s current unemployment problem on… automation. ATMs and airport kiosks are singled out. These words could only be uttered by someone who knows very little about economics or the history of human progress. In fact, they could only be uttered by someone who has never reflected on this question before in his  life. Because if you reflect for one moment, you come up with this glaringly obvious counterfactual: we use a lot more  labor-saving technology today than in previous generations, and yet we also employ far more people. Therefore, increased automation does not lead to decreased national employment. If you do more than just think for a second — if you read an economic history book, for instanc... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934113 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:45:21 +0100 4934113 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934114&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsskDnGcrBaw%2F By Jim HarperIf you like innovation, and if you’re interested in intellectual property, you probably already know about the Committee on the Impact of Copyright Policy on Innovation in the Digital Era. That’s a group assembled by the National Academies to, well, analyze the impact of copyright policy on innovation in the digital era. Long-standing consensus holds that copyright, by creating artificial scarcity in information goods, allows creators to enjoy rewards from their creations sufficient to justify creating them. In other words, copyright’s incentive structure encourages creation and innovation, the end result being more and better information goods for the society to enjoy. Information technologies such as digitization and the Internet are rejiggering the balance... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934114 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:44:22 +0100 4934114 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934120&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcJTiMD0imrw%2F By Julian SanchezIn his famous “Petition of the Candlemakers,” the great classical liberal thinker Frederic Bastiat lampooned the protectionist arguments of his day by imagining a campaign—launched by the producers of artificial illumination—against “ruinous competition” from that “merciless” scab… the sun. Via In These Times and the Lawyers, Guns & Money blog, I see that someone forgot to explain to the Newspaper Guild and National Writers Union that Bastiat’s petition was, you know, satire. Borrowing a page from writer Jon Tasini, whose meritless lawsuit against the Huffington Post was roundly and justly ridiculed back in April, those two groups are advocating a boycott of the opinion and news site. They complain that, though HuffPo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934120 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:53:24 +0100 4934120 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902616&cid=t_91930_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FUPd_4dJzp1g%2F Tweet I would suggest that all my friends in the world of bioinformatics read this fabulous article by Pat Helland. Pat’s on of the leading experts in distributed transactions and knows more about databases than most of us put together. His ACM article goes into some the tradeoffs and changes in mindset that need to me made when working with data that changes and comes from different sources, and all so o ften has ambiguity associated with it. It also tells you a little but about the differences in SQL and NoSQL systems when it comes to transaction semantics and in a way that meets complete sense. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article was the section on “Mulligan stew” where we also provides the example of building a heterogeneous catalog. A product catalog... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902616 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:16:36 +0100 4902616 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902405&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FI8niYC-xAnE%2F By Jim HarperIt might be tempting to laugh at France’s ban on words like “Facebook” and Twitter” in the media. France’s Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel recently ruled that specific references to these sites (in stories not about them) would violate a 1992 law banning “secret” advertising. The council was created in 1989 to ensure fairness in French audiovisual communications, such as in allocation of television time to political candidates, and to protect children from some types of programming. Sure, laugh at the French. But not for too long. The United States has similarly busy-bodied regulators, who, for example, have primly regulated such advertising themselves. American regulators carefully oversee non-secret advertising, too. Our govern... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902405 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:35:53 +0100 4902405 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893411&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEowm-HZKXmA%2F By Chris EdwardsPresident Obama wants to raise revenues by reducing tax deductions and other tax breaks, which the administration calls “spending in the tax code.” Donald Marron of the Tax Policy Center argues that “hundreds of billions of dollars of spending are disguised as tax cuts.” Don is a very good economist, and he is concerned that special interest tax breaks can misallocate resources the same way that spending subsidies do. I agree. But I’m also concerned that tax breaks and spending subsidies have different implications for the size of government, which is where I part ways with Don and the president. The following Tax Policy Matrix helps sort out which sorts of tax cuts make economic sense when government size is also a consideration. The government distorts the econ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893411 Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:17:20 +0100 4893411 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883557&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FWkpgfn881yw%2F By Jim HarperThis weekend, New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat wrote a piece full of common sense thinking about immigration control and the E-Verify federal background check system. “Common sense”—or “what most people think”—is an interesting thing: When generations of direct experience accumulate, common sense becomes one of the soundest guides to action. Think of common law, its source deep in history, molded in tiny increments over hundreds of years. Common law rules against fraud, theft, and violence strike a brilliant balance between harm avoidance and freedom. When most people lack first-hand knowledge of a topic, though, common sense can go quite wrong. Such is the case with ”common sense” in the immigration area, which is not a pro... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883557 Tue, 31 May 2011 17:28:25 +0100 4883557 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4876473&cid=t_91930_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FNumKmYkZXMY%2F Tweet Steve O’Grady has written a blog post about a recent talk he gave at OSBC. In the post he welcomes the Age of Data. The talk covers two topics of great interest, software and data. In the context of the life sciences I have worked on both the “data as a product” side and on the packaged software side. He notes that none of the top “software” companies in the world are of recent vintage. These are companies making money from selling software (a really difficult business in the sciences). He argues that data driven products is where the market is. The success of Google and others is a testament to this, but in the sciences the entire model of data as product has never worked. I would argue that this is partly cause we’ve always sold the data itself ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4876473 Sun, 29 May 2011 00:38:14 +0100 4876473 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872059&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FWnb5aAt27lM%2F By Jim HarperThe Patriot Act extension passed by Congress this week did not become the law of the land. It is void and without effect. So may argue some future defendant whose conviction rests on evidence gotten under Patriot Act powers during the extended period Congress sought to establish in the bill it passed this week. President Obama is at a meeting in Europe, so he had the bill signed by auto-pen. Representative Tom Graves (R-GA) has written a letter inquiring of the president whether he was presented the bill and truly intended to sign it. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution says: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872059 Fri, 27 May 2011 19:50:12 +0100 4872059 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872060&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FT5PxUyB1Bis%2F By Julian SanchezBarack Obama’s AutoPen has signed another four-year extension of three Patriot Act powers, but one silver lining of this week’s lopsided battle over the law is that mainstream papers like The New York Times have finally started to take note of the growing number of senators who have raised an alarm over a “secret interpretation” of Patriot’s “business records” authority (aka Section 215). It would appear to be linked to a “sensitive collection program” referenced by a Justice Department official at hearings during the previous reauthorization debate—one that would be disrupted if 215 orders were restricted to the records of suspected terrorists, their associates, or their “activities” (e.g., large purchase... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872060 Fri, 27 May 2011 17:25:23 +0100 4872060 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872063&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FG8QBGtVTCmU%2F By Jim HarperFederal officials blitzed Texas this week to fight a bill pending in Austin that would control TSA groping of air travelers in that state, reports Forbes’ “Not-So-Private Parts” blogger Kashmir Hill. Federal government officials descended on the Capitol to hand out a letter … from the Texas U.S. Attorney letting senators know that if they passed the bill, the TSA would probably have to cancel all flights out of Texas. As much as they love their state, the idea of shutting down airports and trapping people in Texas was scary enough to get legislators to reconsider their support for the groping bill… The federal government’s threat to shut down air travel is serious, but empty. As we’ve seen time and again with the REAL ID Act, the federal g... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872063 Thu, 26 May 2011 20:42:03 +0100 4872063 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862506&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkOrWUGoBEMU%2F By Julian SanchezBack in February, Democratic leader Harry Reid promised fellow senator Rand Paul that—after years of kicking the can down the road—there would be at least a week reserved for full and open debate over three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act slated to expire this weekend, with an opportunity to propose reforms and offer amendments to any reauthorization bill.  And since, as we know, politicians always keep their promises, we can look forward to a robust and enlightening discussion of how to modify the Patriot Act to better safeguard civil liberties without sacrificing our counterterror capabilities. Ha! No, I’m joking, of course. Having already cut the legs out from under his own party’s reformers by making a deal with GOP leaders for a four-year ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862506 Wed, 25 May 2011 18:41:19 +0100 4862506 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862510&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYucnq5cUyoY%2F By Jim HarperIf you haven’t seen it already, be sure to give a read to Friedman Prize winner Hernando de Soto‘s recent piece in Business Week, “The Destruction of Economic Facts.” It’s a fascinating perspective on the economic and financial turmoil that is wracking the United States and the world. As de Soto perceives more easily from working in developing economies, an important input into functioning markets is good information—about property, ownership, debts, and so on. The “destruction of economic facts” is one of the roots of instability and uncertainty in Europe and the United States: “In a few short decades the West undercut 150 years of legal reforms that made the global economy possible.” The law and markets are informat... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862510 Wed, 25 May 2011 15:42:19 +0100 4862510 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4853221&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fpok9CMr79cQ%2F Hello, everyone, and welcome to the working week. Another overcast day is unfolding here on the Pharmalot corporate campus, where we will be hosting a webinar on the injectable delivery drug market, so please join us. Meanwhile, the time has come to grab a cup of stimulation and peruse the news of the world. Hope your day goes well and stay in touch… FDA Approves Vertex Pharma Hepatitis C Drug (Reuters) Lilly Helps Create Biotech To Develop And Sell Xigris (Associated Press) How PR Tactics Skew Medical Research Presentation (The Guardian) J&J Woes Mitigated By New Drug Bets? (Bloomberg News) Lilly Chops 70 Jobs In Ireland (InPharm) Two Men Convicted Of Selling HIV Meds (NewJerseyNewsroom) Google Warned About Rogue Drug Ads (Wall Street Journal) Provenge, Medicare And Costs (CNBC... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4853221 Mon, 23 May 2011 11:59:53 +0100 4853221 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4828847&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMRNpqSh8qcs%2F By Julian SanchezIf you’re a telecommunications firm that helped the National Security Agency illegally spy on your customers without a court order, Sen. Barack Obama will happily vote for legislation he once promised to filibuster in order to secure retroactive immunity. If you’re implicated in the use of torture as an interrogation tactic, you can breathe easy knowing President Barack Obama thinks it’s in the country’s best interests to “look forward, not back.”  But if you were a government official spurred by conscience to blow the whistle on government malfeasance or ineptitude in the war on terror?  As Jane Mayer details in a must-read New Yorker article, you’d better watch out! This administration is shattering records for highly selective... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4828847 Mon, 16 May 2011 22:17:42 +0100 4828847 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4829230&cid=t_91930_136_f&fid=39026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcarolinemfr.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F05%2Fim-cranky.html this week. I have a lot going on and am feeling stressed. This is what is making me cranky:Blogger was down for most of two days. I find this one of the most epic cases of mismanagement. Yes it is a free service we use to host our blogs but it is part of Google's money making tools (where they are trying to take over the world) but they just severely shot themselves in the foot. Apparently there were some upgrades and maintenance issues and things went wrong and the Blogger service was done for parts of Thursday and most of Friday with no real updates or explanation. I am ready to move my blog to a provider which actually runs parallel servers to ensure these issues don't happen. Its not the problems with service but the lack of communication through the issues. Just imagine if the Google... Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4829230 Sat, 14 May 2011 11:19:00 +0100 4829230 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820809&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FwNPlaBvH9Rs%2F By Jim HarperThe fiscal 2012 Department of Homeland Security spending bill is starting to make its way through the process, and the House Appropriations Committee said in a release today that “the bill does not provide $76 million requested by the President for 275 additional advanced inspection technology (AIT) scanners nor the 535 staff requested to operate them.” If the House committee’s approach carries the day, there won’t be 275 more strip-search machines in our nation’s airports. No word on whether the committee will defund the operations of existing strip-search machines. Saving money and reducing privacy invasion? Sounds like a win-win. House Approps Strips TSA of Strip-Search Funds is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820809 Fri, 13 May 2011 19:04:39 +0100 4820809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820814&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkYFsphM7KXE%2F By Jim HarperAn insert that ran in the Washington Times this week didn’t say directly that the Federal Trade Commission’s budget should be cut. But a few short steps get you there. The FTC-produced insert—a 16-page, color brochure appearing in a number of papers—is titled: “Living Life Online.” It’s aimed at teaching children how to use the Internet, with articles titled: “Sharing Well With Others” and “Minding Your Manners.” An ad on the back points kids to an FTC Web site about advertising called Admongo.gov, and little smart-phone insets contain factoids like: DID YOU KNOW? Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical adult (who sends or receives 10 text messages a day). Well, I have some fact... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820814 Fri, 13 May 2011 18:05:41 +0100 4820814 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813258&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBZvbCdFqdd0%2F By Jim HarperSenator Chuck Schumer rounds out a trifecta of bloggable moments from the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law’s hearing this morning. Ignoring the subject of the “mobile privacy” hearing, Schumer queried the witnesses from both Google and Apple on whether they will accede to his demand that they reject certain “apps” on Android phones and iPhones. The applications Senator Schumer dislikes alert people on their mobile phones to the locations of DUI checkpoints. Senator Schumer says these apps “allow drunk drivers to evade police checkpoints,” but that statement fails to include other parties who might rightly wish to avoid police checkpoints—such as law-abiding citizens who wish to live free in this count... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813258 Tue, 10 May 2011 19:23:55 +0100 4813258 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813259&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfnX39ECsn84%2F By Jim HarperAs I noted earlier, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law held a hearing this morning entitled: “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.” In it, Sentor Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) engaged in a fascinating colloquy with Google’s Alan Davidson. Blumenthal pursued Davidson about the year-old incident in which Google’s Street View cars collected data on the location of WiFi nodes and mistakenly gathered snippets of “payload data”—that is, the data traveling over open WiFi networks in the moments when their Street View cars were passing by. Some payload data may have contained personal information including passwords. Google has meekly been working with data protect... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813259 Tue, 10 May 2011 18:36:13 +0100 4813259 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813262&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5w7FGpVVr_Y%2F By Jim HarperThis morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law had a hearing entitled: “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.” Among the witnesses was Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein from the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Weinstein made a gallingly Orwellian pitch: If you want privacy protection, increase government surveillance. From his written statement: ISPs may choose not to store IP records, may adopt a network architecture that frustrates their ability to track IP assignments and network transactions back to a specific account or device, or may store records for only a very short period of time. In many cases, these records are the only e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813262 Tue, 10 May 2011 17:22:27 +0100 4813262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4803035&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9n41YWWgRc4%2F By Jim HarperLate last week, the Project on Government Oversight‘s Danielle Brian took a little umbrage at a Huffington Post piece by former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Beth Noveck, who had been implementing the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative until she recently returned to New York Law School. Brian’s piece suggests a slight schism in the transparency community, between what I believe are the “insider” and “outsider” camps. Brian leaves to the end a crucial point: “[C]an’t the two camps in the open government world peacefully co-exist? There’s just too much work to be done for us to get bogged down in denigrating each others’ agendas.” They most certainly can. Noveck was a bit dismissive of ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4803035 Mon, 09 May 2011 18:58:32 +0100 4803035 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789542&cid=t_91930_136_f&fid=39212&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbahtocancer.com%2F2011%2F05%2Fwwwhat-do-wwwe-think%2F Today I came across an interesting post from the (brilliantly named) Feisty Blue Gecko, someone else who is blogging their way through breast cancer. It’s about the relationships that we form through the internet and social media, the very real emotional bonds we build in these virtual communities, and how well (or not) we are equipped to deal with the death of someone that we don’t, in the conventional sense, ‘know’. The blog post is here. It has made me think. (I am having something of a thinky/wondery week, it seems.) This blog has allowed me to meet new people, in real life as well as virtually. I’ve found help and support here, and been able to offer it too. I hope that who I am here, on the browser, is also who I am here, on my sofa. And because of these... Bah! to cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789542 Thu, 05 May 2011 14:09:45 +0100 4789542 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4789219&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F104kfJkYcBE%2F By Jim HarperLast week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) wrote a letter to the House clerk calling for new data standards that will make Congress more open and accountable. Spot on. The THOMAS legislative database was a huge improvement when it came online in 1995 at the behest of the new Republican Congress, but the Internet has moved on. Today, publishing text or PDF documents is inadequate transparency. It’s more important to make available the data that represent various documents and activities in the legislative process. “Web 2.0″ will use that data various ways to deliver public oversight. I’ll have much more to say in the near future, but here are the kinds of things get to full transparency, which the House leaders&#8... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4789219 Wed, 04 May 2011 18:51:33 +0100 4789219 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4775372&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSMVDE0lMtw4%2F By Jim HarperEven while it was a rumor that President Obama would announce that Osama bin Laden had been killed, Americans began to digest the ramifications, asking, for example, “can I have my airport back please?” Pleasing though it is to have in contemplation, the question is premature. Students of terrorism, such as those who attended our 2009 and 2010 counterterrorism conferences, know that the killing of bin Laden will have little direct effect on the network he spawned. Its indirect, discouraging effect on terrorism is something I mused about in an earlier post. What about the effects on the rest of us, the people and actors in our great counterterrorism policymaking apparatus? Osama bin Laden’s survival helped shore up the mystique of the terrorist supervillain, w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4775372 Mon, 02 May 2011 14:59:06 +0100 4775372 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4771210&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2F30%2F8-ways-to-make-technology-less-stressful%2F Photo credit: Summer Beretsky Whatever you do, DO NOT think of an elephant right now! Seriously. Don’t think about elephants, or big floppy elephant ears, or elephants at circuses, or elephants in the wild. Now, be honest: you totally just thought of an elephant. Didn’t you? That’s exactly how I felt all week when I tried to stay away from the internet. When I opted to spend a week away from the internet and other technological devices, I expected my brief affair with the IRL (“in real life”) world to whisk me away into romantic oblivion. Sadly, that was not the case. Instead, I spent a lot of offline time thinking about the technology that I was sorely missing…and about the stress it invites into my life. The constantly-updating Twitter feeds, the myri... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4771210 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:48:26 +0100 4771210 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4768270&cid=t_91930_158_f&fid=38949&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FAgingWithGraceCareconnection%2F%7E3%2FovKalgJ1Rs0%2Ffree-internet-referral-services-come.html Washington will be the first state to clamp down on the explosive growth of elder care referral businesses according to a report from the Seattle Times. The providers help guide families through a range of options for their loved ones that can include assisting living or other senior housing that best fits their needs for free. In return, these companies can be paid as much as $3,500 per person by the facilities for providing them with a client. Legislation sent to Governor Chris Gregoire will require referral companies to follow strict standards that include written disclosures of their commission rates. Washington is the first state to pass a comprehensive law to rein in elder-care referral companies, according to research by AARP, a senior organization that supported the bill. Across... Aging with Grace CareConnection blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4768270 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:51:00 +0100 4768270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4759038&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FuO-4Fn87I3M%2F File this under ‘better late than never…sort of.’ Several years after the Internet took off and branded product web sites began appearing, the FDA is now getting ready to study the extent to which risk and benefit information is presented and digested. The details are expected to appear tomorrow in the Federal Register. “This research is relevant to current policy questions and debate and will complement qualitative research we plan to conduct on issues surrounding social media. The original regulations that presently determine FDA’s position on DTC promotion were written at a time when the available media for DTC promotion were print and broadcast, and the primary audience was health care professionals. This dynamic is shifting, and evidence is needed to support ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4759038 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:34:57 +0100 4759038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758846&cid=t_91930_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F04%2F27%2Fdo-you-need-a-social-media-policy-for-your-medical-practice%2F I don’t think you really need one. And here is why. Social media is merely a communication tools just like a telephone. We don’t have a phone policy in place for employees yet I would assume they already know what is appropriate and what is not when talking with patients or parents on the phone. Thus we don’t need a document to tell employees how to act online. A well written employee manual ought to be enough to set the proper guidelines. Michael Hyatt, wrote a fantastic post about this issue: he highlights 5 reasons why you don’t need one. He says that 1) your people can be trusted; 2) social media are just one more way to communicate; 3) more rules only make your company more bureaucratic; 4) formal policies only discourage people from participating and finally; 5) Y... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758846 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:00:38 +0100 4758846 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758796&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F04%2F27%2Fyour-smartphone-use-predicts-your-social-life-travel-risk-of-disease-even-political-views%2F Thanks to Clinical cases and Images an astonishing video about how smart phone use delivers an enormous amount of data for scientists. Researchers are harvesting a wealth of intimate detail from cellphone data, uncovering the hidden patterns of social lives, travels, risk of disease – even political views.   No related posts. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758796 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:29:31 +0100 4758796 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753770&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F04%2F26%2Fprofiling-social-networking-site-users%2F Social Networking Sites (SNS) grow in the number of users and have become a mass phenomenon. Time for some classification of these SNS users for both academic and practical purposes. previous research has been focused on the study of user behavior in specific SNSs using mainly psychological (entertainment, socializing, etc.) or sociodemographic variables. In the present study, we propose a classification of users for all SNSs in which they actively participate, using a wide spectrum of behavioral and sociodemographical variables. Introvert users: they are the smallest group of SNS users, mainly using SNSs for direct messaging. Mostly men older than 45 years of age, using one SNS service, having less than 50 contacts, using SNS once a week no longer than 1 hour. Novel users: 25,5% of the sa... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753770 Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:10:25 +0100 4753770 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4747600&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FqM94OS-_CtY%2F By Jim HarperMelissa Yu is the winner of first prize in the middle school category of C-SPAN’s StudentCam 2011 competition. Her video, “Net Neutrality: The Federal Government’s Role in Our Online Community,” is an eight-minute look at the push for regulation of Internet service with an emphasis appropriate for students on how the three branches of government have each been involved in the story up to now. If you haven’t been following along, or if you want a refresher on net neutrality regulation, here’s a better video than I could have produced in eighth grade. Or now. Congratulations, Melissa Yu! And the Winner Is . . . ! is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4747600 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:52:39 +0100 4747600 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734206&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2F20%2Fdigital-detox-week-on-sort-of-staying-away-from-technology%2F Photo Credit: .:AR:. (Flickr) Happy Digital Detox Week! This week, I’m joining Adbusters in celebrating seven days away from technology — television, video games, and internet included. Wait. What was that last one? Did I just say “internet”? Yeah, internet. That internet thing…that thing that I’m on right now. Did I just out myself as a failure at my own little project? It’s only the third day of my week-long experiment and already I’m a hypocrite — but with good reason. Computers and the internet have invaded my life to such a great extent that I can’t completely disconnect. Not even if I wanted to. Here’s why: I work in an office. Every aspect of my day job, unfortunately, is performed in front of the big bright computer ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734206 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:51:34 +0100 4734206 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734502&cid=t_91930_136_f&fid=39026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcarolinemfr.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F04%2Fsocial-networks-and-medical-privacy.html So you have a Facebook account, a Twitter account, a blog, and text and email everyone you know. You share things about your life, maybe not all, but probably more than you think. You complain about your life, tell everyone when you have a cold, a customer made you mad, your boss ticked you off, or your husband brought you flowers. You say happy birthday to your friends and commiserate over a job loss or death in the family.But what if your doctor was on line as much as you and complained about patients or a work situation - which included you - as their patient. This issue is now coming to the forefront for many people who use the internet both personally and professionally. The technical advice is to 'create separate personal and professional accounts' for everything. Well I have tried t... Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734502 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:10:00 +0100 4734502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4723788&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtJabhEcIE9E%2F By Sallie JamesSome items from my inbox: The Department of Justice late Friday announced it had indicted 11 online poker executives, charging them with money-laundering and bank fraud. (HT: Jonathan Blanks). This crackdown is far stronger than any seen from the Bush administration, and is disappointing people like me, who had hoped for a better stance on civil liberties from the Obama administration.  To quote my former colleague Radley Balko (language warning): “Good to know where the DOJ’s priorities lie. In this case, it’s preventing millions of people from consensually wagering money in online card games, an exchange that causes no harm to anyone else.” Ironically Insanely, the indictments came just days after the District of Columbia announced it would allow i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4723788 Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:45:47 +0100 4723788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4724139&cid=t_91930_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FhmgKtaIscWE%2F Tweet In the life science software world, we are always trying to make software “easier to use by biologists”. Over the years, I’ve decided that means that the user interface and level of functionality should enable a biologist to ask the right questions and the workflow should fit their way of thinking and interrogation. Unfortunately, too often that ends up being interpreted as “let us make some form of GUI which is easy to use” without really thinking through that. At the same time, to do any sort of in depth analysis and drill downs you need a certain level of skill which no amount of “let’s make it easier to use” can solve. Which is why Mike Loukides’ post on Data Hand Tools made me smile. The post highlights some of the simple too... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4724139 Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:42:34 +0100 4724139 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714746&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdo-it-yourself-health-care-a-new-form-of-outsourcing%2F2011.04.14 The outsourcing of work by businesses to the cheapest available workers has received a lot of attention in recent years.  It has largely escaped notice, however, that the new labor force isn’t necessarily located in Southeast Asia, but is often found here at home and is virtually free.  It is us, using our laptops and smart phones to perform more and more functions once carried out by knowledgeable salespeople and service reps. This was particularly salient to me this week: I spent an hour online browsing, comparing prices, reading customer reviews and filling out the required billing and shipping information to get a great deal on a new lamp.  An airline would charge me 99 cents to talk to a person but provides information for free online.  Calls to Amtrak to make train reservations... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714746 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:00:54 +0100 4714746 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4709194&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FuJSybkJzWsw%2F By Jim HarperEvery lover of liberty and the Constitution should be offended by the moniker “Privacy Bill of Rights” appended to regulatory legislation Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced yesterday. As C|Net’s Declan McCullagh points out, the legislation exempts the federal government and law enforcement: [T]he measure applies only to companies and some nonprofit groups, not to the federal, state, and local police agencies that have adopted high-tech surveillance technologies including cell phone tracking, GPS bugs, and requests to Internet companies for users’ personal information–in many cases without obtaining a search warrant from a judge. The real “Privacy Bill of Rights” is in the Bill of Rights. It’s the Fourth ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4709194 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:09:53 +0100 4709194 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704631&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHEPjxbDAV_c%2F By Julian SanchezThe Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings last week on the need to reform the increasingly badly outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the 1986 legislation that governs how the cops conduct telephone and Internet surveillance in criminal investigations. Two officials from two different government agencies offered up rather strikingly different testimony. Cameron Kerry of the Commerce Department acknowledged what legal scholars and technologists have been saying for years: The law’s byzantine and inconsistent standards—which provide wildly varying levels of protection for the same e-mail as it’s being composed, sent, received, read, and archived—are wholly out of touch with the ways we actually use technology today. The distinctions the law draw... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704631 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:18:01 +0100 4704631 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4696686&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2F10%2Fvirginia-heffernan-on-internet-addiction%2F I’ve been saying it for as long as it’s been around — “Internet addiction” is an unhealthy focus and fascination on the technology, as though it caused people to enjoy spending time interacting with it. If people are using the Internet to socialize — on Facebook, Twitter, etc. — how can we turn around and characterize that as a bad thing? Would we engage in the same negative characterization if we were referring to someone who simply did this over the telephone? Or face-to-face? Of course not. And that’s the disconnect that happens when psychologists throw out these not-well-thought-out terms to describe something they are concerned about. They turn it into a dysfunction through inadequate and poorly theorized labels, that then get picked up ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4696686 Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:29:57 +0100 4696686 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684756&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F2nHjudeHasA%2F The so-called power users of online health info favor less regulation of healthcare companies - including drugmakers - on the Internet than in the past, according to a new survey. The results suggest that people who run influential healthcare blogs and chat rooms, for instance, are gradually growing more comfortable with the online role played drugmakers and other healthcare entities. For instance, 66 percent favor regulation when bloggers are paid to create content, but that’s down from 73 percent in 2009 (perhaps more power users are being paid?) Similarly, 55 percent prefer more regs when social networking sites are sponsored for a particular health condition, down from 67 percent. And 59 percent endorse more regs when a social networking site is created for a particular health pr... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684756 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:04:34 +0100 4684756 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684265&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FlMc1JdHkAwQ%2F By Jim HarperSan Francisco's Entertainment Commission will soon be considering a jaw-dropping attack on privacy and free assembly. Here are some of the rules the Commission may adopt for any gathering of people expected to reach 100 or more: 3. All occupants of the premises shall be ID Scanned (including patrons, promoters, and performers, etc.). ID scanning data shall be maintained on a data storage system for no less than 15 days and shall be made available to local law enforcement upon request. 4. High visibility cameras shall be located at each entrance and exit point of the premises. Said cameras shall maintain a recorded data base for no less than fifteen (15 days) and made available to local law enforcement upon request. Would you recognize a police state if you lived in one? How ab... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684265 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:42:28 +0100 4684265 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684267&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fsk7oM6IAdb0%2F By Julian SanchezI've written before about the "Mosaic Theory" some courts have recently employed to conclude that certain forms of government surveillance may trigger Fourth Amendment protection in the aggregate, even if the surveillance can be broken down into components that don't fall under the traditional definition of a Fourth Amendment "search." This has been applied specifically to high-tech forms of location tracking, where several judges have concluded that a person may have a privacy interest in the totality of their public movements over a long period of time, even though observing a person at any particular public place in a specific instance is not an intrusion on privacy. I've explained in that previous post why I find this reasoning compelling. Legal scholar Orin Kerr, howe... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684267 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:56:27 +0100 4684267 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684298&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=38113&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.consumerreports.org%2Fbaby%2F2011%2F04%2Fgetting-your-baby-to-sleep-can-an-internet-tool-help.html Sleep deprivation seems to go with the territory for new parents. But what happens when your baby doesn’t outgrow disrupted sleep patterns after two or three months? What if you’re still pacing the halls at 3 A.M., trying to figure out how to soothe your sobbing 11-month old, get her back to bed and be ready to face the world again at 7 A.M.? You might want to try the Customized Sleep Profile, an online tool that asks about the baby or toddler’s age, frequency of nighttime waking, what the parent usually does to help the child, and even whether a child snores. Based on the answers, the profile provides specific recommendations and routines parents can use to help achieve better sleep habits in their child, based on research-based methods rather than anecdotal remedies. ... Consumer Reports Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684298 Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:30:00 +0100 4684298 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4683659&cid=t_91930_146_f&fid=38266&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsleepeducation.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F04%2Fonline-toolset-helps-young-children-and.html (Source: Sleep Education) Sleep Education blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4683659 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:07:00 +0100 4683659 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676758&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAw33lCK0gZo%2F By Julian SanchezThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has unearthed an interesting case of an improper use of surveillance in an investigation where the FBI had obtained "roving wiretap" authority. In a bizarre turn, the Bureau ended up eavesdropping on young children rather than their adult suspects for five days. The case is generating some attention because that same "roving wiretap" authority is one of the three surveillance powers set to expire in late May. The thing is, on the basis of what I can glean from the heavily redacted document EFF obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, it's not a case involving misuse of the roving authority. But it is a good concrete example of why the roving authority needs to be modified. First, a bit of background: Roving wiretaps in criminal ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676758 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:54:39 +0100 4676758 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4677124&cid=t_91930_154_f&fid=35773&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.openmedicine.ca%2Fnode%2F303 This report explores this changing geography of science and innovation. In Part 1, it maps and investigates where and how science is being carried out around the world and the ways in which this picture is changing. Part 2 reveals the shifting patterns of international collaboration. International science is largely conducted through bottom-up, informal connections, as scientists become more mobile and as large and often complex data are shared at the click of a button. But top-down, solutions-oriented initiatives are also helping to shape the research landscape, as scientists organise themselves, or are being organised, to tackle shared concerns...'  5. Google Books from a University Press perspective Jenna Newman writes about Google Books and its economic and cultural impact: 'Thi... Open Medicine Blog - blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4677124 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:11:58 +0100 4677124 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4670227&cid=t_91930_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F04%2F02%2Fnew-pediatric-blog-so-we-can-be-heard%2F Here is an example of how a simple video (in this case an ad) can make a point about an issue in a pretty clever way using YouTube. What does this have to do with Pediatrics? Glad you asked. If we want to be heard, own our message, get the word out, we have to leverage social media. Why use social media? Because it has democratized media. 93 thousand hits rivals many small town publications (see the view counter on the vasectomy video. It has gone up since I wrote this post). Imagine if only 20 physicians (out of the 60,000 AAP members) decided to take matters into their owns and hands and started blogging, uploading videos and leveraging Facebook to discuss how insurance companies treat physicians, how the anti-vax crowd is jeopardizing children’s health or how pediatrics shoul... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4670227 Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:22:36 +0100 4670227 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664145&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fb-YL9P0FF54%2F By Julian SanchezChris Soghoian looks at a recent ruling related to the ongoing investigation of Wikileaks, in which a judge rejected a challenge from several users whose Twitter account information had been obtained by the government. Thanks to a shortsighted Supreme Court ruling from the 1970s, people are presumed to waive their "reasonable expectation of privacy" in data voluntarily conveyed to third parties, which means many types of sensitive records can routinely be obtained by the government without the need for a full-blown Fourth Amendment search warrant based on probable cause. In some cases, a mere subpoena, or even a government agency's certification that the records are "relevant" to an investigation, will suffice. Recently, however, some courts have sought to rein in the sco... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664145 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:06:00 +0100 4664145 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664151&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtgfV0Vh5HZI%2F By Jim HarperIf two points are sufficient to draw a trend line, then state resistance to federal authority is growing. I reported earlier on my recent testimony to the Florida legislature on REAL ID. The state's legislators have taken notice of what the motor vehicle bureaucrats have been doing in collaboration with federal officials, and they're not too happy. Yesterday, I was pleased to testify in the Pennsylvania legislature, where legislation to push back against the Transportation Security Administration's strip/grope policy at airports has been introduced. The Constitution's Supremacy Clause seems to make federal law paramount, but states have many angles for challenging federal power, especially when it's as flawed and reactive as the TSA's airport checkpoint policies. States Resist... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664151 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:46:03 +0100 4664151 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664153&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fcwm2X5EnaI8%2F By Jim HarperYesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had a hearing entitled: "Ten Years After 9/11: A Report From the 9/11 Commission Chairmen," part of what evidently will be a series commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks this September. At the end of his oral statement, former 9/11 Commission co-chairman Tom Keane made a half-hearted pitch for implementation of the REAL ID Act, the national ID law Congress passed attached to a military spending bill in early 2005. His written statement with fellow former co-chair Lee Hamilton dedicates three paragraphs (out of 23 pages) to the appeal for the national ID law. The paltriness of Keane's argument for a national ID parallels the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission report. It dedicated th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664153 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:35:17 +0100 4664153 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653387&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F03%2F30%2Fa-life-on-facebook-time-lapse-video%2F Nice video from New Scientist about the pro’s and cons of using facebook After a failed relationship that left him heartbroken, visual effects artist Maxime Luère was inspired to create this time-lapse movie. The film charts a life on Facebook: from setting up the account, to falling in love, being unfaithful, breaking up and finally settling down.   No related posts. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653387 Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:03:40 +0100 4653387 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653306&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSM08H5Zny0A%2F By Jim HarperRandy May of the Free State Foundation has a characteristically good post about the AT&T/T-Mobile merger entitled: "The AT&T and T-Mobile Merger: Thinking Things Through." Among other smart ideas, Randy highlights the competitive game-playing that goes on in the merger review arena: When considering competitive and market impacts for purposes of merger reviews, observe the extent to which various competitors, often many competitors, mount vigorous campaigns designed to convince the antitrust authorities and the regulators that if the merger is approved there will be an absence of competition. Note the incongruity. There's level-headed thinking aplenty in this post from a long-time Federal Communications Commission and telecom-industry watcher. Check it out. Thinking Th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653306 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:38:57 +0100 4653306 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653491&cid=t_91930_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FX92wTUvET3w%2F Tweet The scale of modern life science research, where scale is not just about data volume, but also about rate of change, number of users, geographic scale, etc means that resources have to look at how they provide services differently and, more importantly, funding agencies and philanthropists have to decide where to draw the line. Is this an opportunity for commercial efforts? Is the market ready to do this, or are they willing to live with overall inefficiencies and limitations? Is there a tiered model that would be acceptable. Recent discussions and observations of what various companies and orgs are doing leads me to believe that we need to really think hard about overall efficiencies and consider the value of time. More later (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653491 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:03:03 +0100 4653491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4642675&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2F28%2Fdelusions-keep-up-with-the-times%2F Would you imagine the content of people’s delusions would change with the changing times? Well, according to Vaughan Bell writing over at Mind Hacks, they do. Research that analyzed the content of people’s delusions over the past few decades found that people’s delusions do indeed change. They recorded the content of the delusions for every patient with psychosis and while they didn’t find that the level of delusions changed, they did find that they tended to relate to the social concerns of the time. …more patients after 1950 believe they are being spied upon is consistent with the development of related technology and the advent of the Cold War. Delusional content tended to reflect the culture at the time, with focus on syphilis in the early 1900s, on Germans during... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4642675 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:55:28 +0100 4642675 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4642978&cid=t_91930_147_f&fid=39266&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCreationInteractive%2F%7E3%2FNdK_QgHHT_0%2F In essence, we are mobile and arguably much more today than ever before. And in the connected world in which we live, we want to have access to the same services during our “mobile day” that we do at work or at home. Devices such as the iPhone and the iPad opened new ways to stay connected to all the knowledge that the Internet gives us access to. Moreover they allow people to always stay in touch with their online communities, by having multiple screen access to their favourite social media platforms or communities. In the healthcare industry, new ways of using mobile devices, and changes in user behaviour, will continue to give us lots of new opportunities to engage with different stakeholders. At the same time, they will give us the chance to improve the way we are communicating, ma... Creation Interactive blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4642978 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:27:52 +0100 4642978 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4636596&cid=t_91930_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2Fsap7Qlb_Fmc%2F Recently I was woken up during the wee hours of the morning by a sharp pain in my chest. I’m not typically prone to overreaction, but that night I sat in the dark of my room and fretted. I made a mental checklist of all the heart attack symptoms I knew. Chest pain? Holy heck, yes. Arm or back pain? No. Nausea? No. Cold sweats? No. Light-headedness? No. Shortness of breath? No. Whew. I breathed a sigh of relief. But then I started to feel a little nauseous and short of breath, too. Worry officially crept in and freaked me out. Luckily, before I started chomping on aspirin and making a trip to the ER, sanity kicked worry to the curb. I took a few deep breaths, reminded myself that mere seconds before I hadn’t had those extra symptoms and it wasn’t long before they melted away. I know I... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4636596 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:00:45 +0100 4636596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4631465&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fue904-gifrM%2F By Jim HarperMatt Yglesias takes my recent post gathering three links a little too seriously. Beyond their subject matter---the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile---the theme running through the links was that they were all to the TechLiberationFront blog, not that "the federal government should not try to manage the development of the communications marketplace." My humor is a little odd. Not everyone gets to come along.... But it's true that the federal government should not try to manage the development of the communications marketplace. So I'll defend that, and first principles, which Yglesias claims to have reached their limits when it comes to communications. First, I'll refine my thesis: the government should not manage the communications marketplace. What is a "marketplace"?... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4631465 Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:46:43 +0100 4631465 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4631523&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F03%2F24%2Fsexting-as-a-form-of-attachment-anxiety%2F In this study they looked at adult romantic attachment styles and the use of sexting. 128 Participants completed the online questionnaire about attachment and sexting. They included 22 male students and 106 female students. Keeping in mind this over representation of women and the fact that the researchers didn’t use a validated instrument for measuring sexting, attachment anxiety predicted positive attitudes towards the use of sexting. Those with attachment anxiety found sexting normal and enhancing the romantic relationship. Attachment anxiety also predicted sending texts that solicit sexual activity for those individuals in relationships. In short Sexting as the new expression of attachment anxiety. Weisskirch, R., & Delevi, R. (2011). “Sexting” and adult romantic attach... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4631523 Thu, 24 Mar 2011 06:50:40 +0100 4631523 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4626788&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FKmqqbWkICMo%2F By George ScovillePlease join us this coming Monday, March 28 at 1pm Eastern on our Facebook page for a live video presentation, powered by Livestream, from Cato research fellow Julian Sanchez on the current state of online privacy policy. Here is a brief list of topics he'll cover: An update on current challenges to overturn FISA, and what it means for you and me if those challenges succeed or fail How this relates to current and recent efforts to reauthorize the Patriot Act, including a recap of testimony Sanchez recently delivered to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security What's on the FBI's surveillance wish list Reflections on the idea of an "online privacy bill of rights" We hope you can join us next Monday at 1pm Eastern for this event. Be sure to ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4626788 Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:47:49 +0100 4626788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4622229&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSfmPjGV3c8s%2F By Jim HarperNews that AT&T plans a purchase of T-Mobile has brought out a lot of commentary. On the TechLiberationFront blog, Larry Downes critiqued the emotional reaction of some advocates for government-managed communications. On the TechLiberationFront blog, Jerry Brito noted how the deal highlights the artificial spectrum scarcity created by the Federal Communications Commission. And on the TechLiberationFront blog, Adam Thierer catalogued a series of thoughts on various aspects of the merger. Picking up a theme? That's right: the federal government should not try to manage the development of the communications marketplace. Voices on the AT&T – T-Mobile Merger is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4622229 Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:19:07 +0100 4622229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4605813&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fwd0_aYzR0dg%2F By Jim HarperBack in January, I wrote in Politico about the potential for House Republicans to "eclipse" President Obama on transparency. Perhaps the most important element of that piece was the subtle pun on the "government in the sunshine" motif. (Sunshine? Eclipse? Get it?) House Republicans appear to be more ready than ever to move forward on transparency with the announcement by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) of a working group to update the House's use of technology. That could end up as so much window dressing---Twitter accounts for everybody!---or it could result in substantive changes, such as publishing bills and amendments in real time (from committee markups, too) and tagging them with semantic data to make their meaning readily and instantly available to... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4605813 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:18:39 +0100 4605813 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4600516&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnBZjUjXk7YU%2F By Mark A. CalabriaThanks to Denver lawyer Kevin Evans, who filed the Freedom of Information Act Request, we now know that several employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might have missed the financial crisis because their eyes were glued to their computer screens watching porn. The chart below shows the number of incidents, as reported by the SEC's Inspector General.  What caught my eye was that the number of porn-viewing incidents shows a massive spike in 2008, when the financial crisis was at its worst. It should, of course, be noted that the overall level of incidents was small in number, so we shouldn't draw too many conclusions about the SEC overall.  We should, however, be concerned at at least one of these employees was being paid $222,418 a year.  I might be... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4600516 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:51:11 +0100 4600516 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4600522&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FP80T-EmXiK8%2F By Jim HarperAt least one report has it that a Commerce Department official will announce the Obama administration's support for "baseline privacy legislation" at a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing. You mean, like, the Fourth Amendment? If only it were so. The action is in the House Government Reform Committee, which is holding a hearing on the Transportation Security Administration's strip-search machines. What's the administration's "baseline privacy policy" on that? I've already written two posts in the last year (1, 2) titled "Physician, Heal Thyself"... Obama Administration to Take a Stand on Privacy, But it Ain’t Fixing the Strip-Search Machine Morass is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4600522 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:30:27 +0100 4600522 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592320&cid=t_91930_86_f&fid=34445&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwomenshealthnews.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F03%2F15%2Fon-doctors-patients-and-the-internet-an-analogy%2F This a topic that bears further discussion later, but I wanted to share this analogy I came up with after talking to a friend who experienced hostility when asking her doctor about information found online. I posted it to Facebook a while ago, but wanted to put it here where I will be able to find it again, too. Warning patients away from “the internet” because some sources are bad is like telling patients to avoid all medications because some/most would be inappropriate or dangerous for that patient. Both miss opportunities to educate, collaborate, and improve care. People – including patients! – use the internet. Period. It’s my opinion that doctors and nurses who immediately scoff at any mention of the internet – rather than appreciating the wide web... Women's Health News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592320 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:59:34 +0100 4592320 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4575044&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fu7mV4Y-CcYI%2F By Neal McCluskeySecret recordings apparently revealing rampant dirty dealing. Big headlines. Taxpayer dollars wrapped up in it all. Surely all this ugliness — even if it turns out that the reality isn't nearly as bad as inital reports make it sound — is coming from the favorite target of Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), evil for-profit colleges! Nope. It's National Public Radio. And I assume Harkin and his pals will give NPR the exact same over-the-coals treatment they've been giving for-profit schools. OK, I'm probably not able to assume that at all — but I should be. NPR — A New Target for Harkin? is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4575044 Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:30:26 +0100 4575044 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4575059&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhow-e-patients-find-answers-and-each-other-online%2F2011.03.11 [Recently] NPR’s popular program “Talk of the Nation” covered something we discuss often: How e-patients find information and find each other online. Featured guests were Pat Furlong, mother of two boys with a rare disease who started an online community, and Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a frequent contributor here. The audio is here. It’s a good combination: Pat speaks from the heart about her own experience and her passion for community, and Susannah, as usual, speaks as an “internet geologist” — as she once put it, “A geologist doesn’t have opinions about the rocks, she just observes and describes them.” Susannah spoke about her newly-released report “Peer-To-Peer Healthcare,” about which she recently wrote here. L... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4575059 Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:00:52 +0100 4575059 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570525&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1RFFzv-zctM%2F By Jim HarperRep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) is the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. That's the subcommittee that makes spending decisions for the Department of Homeland Security and the programs within it, including the REAL ID Act. Earlier this month, a constituent of his from Fyffe, Alabama posted a question on Mr. Aderholt's Facebook page: Rep. Aderholt, I've seen reports that the "REAL ID ACT" will be implemented in May of this year, giving the govt the ability to track every person who has a drivers license via encoded GPS. Is this actually the case and if so, what is the House going to do to stop this Orwellian infringement of our Liberty. Also, HOW could this have happened in the first place! Mr. Aderholt has not replied. But Right Side News recen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570525 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:03:28 +0100 4570525 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570532&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn6LNbfhzUOA%2F By Jim HarperYou have to wade through a lot to reach the good news at the end of Time reporter Joel Stein's article about "data mining"---or at least data collection and use---in the online world. There's some fog right there: what he calls "data mining" is actually ordinary one-to-one correlation of bits of information, not mining historical data to generate patterns that are predictive of present-day behavior. (See my data mining paper with Jeff Jonas to learn more.) There is some data mining in and among the online advertising industry's use of the data consumers emit online, of course. Next, get over Stein's introductory language about the "vast amount of data that's being collected both online and off by companies in stealth." That's some kind of stealth if a reporter can write a t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570532 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:19:15 +0100 4570532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570587&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2F10%2Ffind-psych-central-psychologists-at-sxsw-this-weekend%2F The annual trek to Austin Texas by geeks from around the country begins tomorrow. I started attending SXSW Interactive (read: South by Southwest) in 1999 and did my first presentation there a year later (yes, 11 years ago!). Despite the Interactive portion being mainly about web development and technology, SXSW has always recognized the importance that technology plays in our health and mental health. And it’s this recognition and interesting discussions that keep people like me coming back year after year. Sure, SXSW is about the many parties, the great keynotes, and wandering the vast air-conditioned desert expanses that are the Austin Convention Center. But it’s mostly about the great, creative people you meet at SXSW, and connecting with them to think of new ways you can de... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570587 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:46:24 +0100 4570587 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4565884&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCSy4bDZCbG4%2F This report from the Today Show is a reminder as to why our legal system has trials and a presumption of innocence.  The FBI Arrested Your Neighbor for Child Pornography! is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4565884 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:39:01 +0100 4565884 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4566225&cid=t_91930_125_f&fid=34820&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dentalblogs.com%2Farchives%2Fadministrator-2%2Fits-a-social-media-revolution-are-you-making-the-connection%2F In order to market your practice effectively, you have to put your head in The Cloud and take the social leap. If you don’t know what that means, then you need this: Academy of Comprehensive Esthetics Tampa 2011 Conference on Social Media & Marketing for Dentistry Slated for April 1st and 2nd, 2011, there are just a few weeks left to sign up. Can you afford to miss it? If You Build It, They Will Come Today’s marketing environment has changed dramatically. It’s gone viral, to say the least. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs are the hubs of social media and you can use them to leverage your practice, solidify your brand, and grow your patient base. If you’re not in the social media game, you’re simply not reaching your full potential. A Social Platform The benefits of socia... dental blog for dentists about dentistry blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4566225 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:34:41 +0100 4566225 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4549751&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdefining-online-physician-conduct%2F2011.03.04 This week a reporter cornered me on the issue of professional behavior in the social space. How is it defined? I didn’t have an answer. But it’s something that I think about. Perhaps there isn’t much to think about. As a “representative” of my hospital and a physician to the children in my community, how I behave in public isn’t any different than a decade ago. Social media is just another public space. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we’re in public. When I’m wrapped up in a Twitter thread it’s easy to forget that the world is watching. But the solution is simple: Always remember that the world is watching. On Twitter I think and behave as I do in public: Very much myself but considerate of those around me. I always think about how I might be perceived.... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4549751 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:00:27 +0100 4549751 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4549940&cid=t_91930_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fb1ZPBPi-rZM%2F And so another work week will soon draw to a close. This means, of course, that the time has come to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda includes watching our shortest person in a martial arts tournament, dancing with Mrs. Pharmalot to cajun music, promenading with the official Pharmalot mascots and, as usual, catching up on sundry chores. What about you? Perhaps there will be time to see a picture show? Update your Facebook page? Get a jump on spring cleaning? Whatever you do, have fun. Meanwhile, here is the news of the world. See you soon… FDA Strengthens Birth Defect Warning For Topamax (Associated Press) Organon Workers Protest Merck Plan To Shut Plant (DutchNews) High-Profile Lawyer Sentenced For Running Internet Pharmacy (Miami Herald) Pfizer To Help Aurobindo With FDA Pr... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4549940 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:07:31 +0100 4549940 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4544944&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgWQnovK_N-E%2F By Jim HarperUntil now, Florida has not been one of the states to buck the federal government's national ID mandate, established in the REAL ID Act of 2005. A pair of grand jury reports in 2002 had moved the state to tighten its driver licensing processes prior to any federal action, so it was already doing many of the things that the Department of Homeland Security is now seeking to require of states in the name of REAL ID. Full compliance with REAL ID remains a distant hope, so DHS has set out a list of 18 "milestones," progress toward which it is treating as REAL ID compliance. Full compliance with REAL ID includes putting driver information into a network for nationwide information sharing---including scanned copies of basic identity documents. It includes giving all licensees and ID h... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4544944 Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:53:26 +0100 4544944 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4540553&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNuK80nyPIyY%2F By John SamplesJust over a week ago, Politico ran a story noting that Justin Amash, a newly-elected House member from Michigan, had already voted "present" more often than his predecessor had in eight years. The story suggested that Amash was trying to avoid electoral responsibility for tough votes by voting present. In general, the story suggested that his "present" votes were a failure in some way to meet his responsibilities as a representative. You can read Amash's take on all this at his Facebook page. Although I have never met Amash, I have followed his political career over the past year or so. In Michigan, he emphasized  transparency and accountability. He reported and explained his votes on his Facebook page. He is continuing to do that here in Washington. Does that sound like a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4540553 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:01:45 +0100 4540553 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536046&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn-jG7Yi8Qpk%2F By Jim HarperThe zeitgeist on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. may be for limited, constitutional government, but that doesn't mean that big-government conservatives aren't going to use the reprieve voters gave Republicans in the fall to once again advance big-government goals. On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano encouraging her to fully implement our national ID law, the REAL ID Act of 2005. The deadline for state implementation of the national ID law lapsed nearly three years ago. Half the states in the country have affirmatively ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536046 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:01:58 +0100 4536046 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536202&cid=t_91930_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F03%2F02%2Fcan-costco-and-your-medical-practice-have-something-in-common%2F I always feel guilty when I’m at Costco and I sample a product without any intention of actually buying it. Like those delicious bite size quesadillas or that scrumptious guacamole dip.  More than buying it, I wish those sample size were bigger to tell you the truth. But that is why I have three kids… so each of them can get a bite for dad. I don’t think I should feel guilty though. Sampling product has been a common practice probably since “retail” was invented. And retailers still do it; so someone is buying the product. Right? We see sampling all over the place; not just at food retailers. For example, the company Evernote actually uses “sampling” as a business strategy. Evernote offers their product for free. The free version includes about 80% of the complete functional... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536202 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:00:03 +0100 4536202 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536143&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F03%2F02%2Fwhy-do-narcissist-use-social-networking-sites%2F This study doesn’t proof a causal relationship between use of social networking sites and narcissism in Millennials. The use of social networking sites might be just a product of the times. Previous generations might have used other means of communication for staying connected. Using social networking sites might be another outlet for narcissistic types. The online environment allows narcissists to effectively manage their image by controlling the information and activities that are displayed. This control allows narcissists to hide their inadequacies and, thus, bolster their selfesteem. Bergman, S., Fearrington, M., Davenport, S., & Bergman, J. (2011). Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why Personality and Individ... Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536143 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:31:21 +0100 4536143 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4525054&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F02%2F26%2F3-top-sources-of-psychology-myths%2F In a recent interview I asked Scott Lilienfeld, the author of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, about the sources of psychology myths.  Here’s what he has to say about where psychology myths come from: The primary source is the huge, burgeoning pop psychology industry: self-help books, the internet, films, TV shows, magazines, and the like. But many of these myths also spring from the allure of our everyday experience; many of these myths seem persuasive because they accord with our common sense intuitions. But these intuitions are often erroneous. The public can defend themselves against shams by becoming armed with accurate knowledge. Many other fields — not just psychology — are subject to myths disseminated by the media. So what are some of the top sources of psy... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4525054 Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:19:26 +0100 4525054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4522094&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFsqvqdCUeow%2F By Jim HarperThat will be the subject of a Cato on Campus session this afternoon entitled: "The Internet and Social Media: Tools of Freedom or Tools of Oppression?" Watch live online at the link starting at 3:30 p.m., or attend in person. A reception follows. The delight that so many felt to see protesters in Iran using social media has given way to delight about the use of Facebook to organize for freedom in Egypt. But this serial enthusiasm omits that the "Twitter revolution" in Iran did not succeed. The fiercest skeptics even suggest that the tweeting during Iran's suppressed uprising was mostly Iranian ex-pats goosing excitable westerners and not any organizing force within Iran itself. Coming to terms with the Internet, dictatorships are learning to use it for surveillance and control... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4522094 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:23:22 +0100 4522094 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4517169&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fbook-review-tabloid-medicine-how-the-internet-is-being-used-to-hijack-medical-science-for-fear-and-profit%2F2011.02.24 This was the Guest Blog at Scientific American on February 23rd, 2011.  In his new book, “Tabloid Medicine: How The Internet Is Being Used to Hijack Medical Science for Fear and Profit,” Robert Goldberg, PhD, explains why the Internet is a double-edged sword when it comes to health information. On the one hand, the Web can empower people with quality medical information that can help them make informed decisions. On the other hand, the Web is an unfiltered breeding ground for urban legends, fear-mongering and snake oil salesmen. Goldberg uses case studies to expose the sinister side of health misinformation. Perhaps the most compelling example of a medical “manufactroversy” (defined as a manufactured controversy that is motivated by profit or extreme ideology to in... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4517169 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:00:01 +0100 4517169 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4512378&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhMJkfU3uRBc%2F By Jim HarperA fascinating enforcement action under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) shows what really matters in the world of privacy regulation. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has imposed a $4.3 million civil penalty against Maryland-based Cignet Health for violations of its regulations. HHS's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that Cignet violated 41 patients’ HIPAA rights by denying them access to their medical records, which they requested between September 2008 and October 2009. The penalty for these violations is $1.3 million. But Cigna's real crime was willful disobedience of the government. Who knows why, but according to the government: During the investigations, Cignet refused to respond to OCR’s demands to produce the record... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4512378 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:22:02 +0100 4512378 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4507275&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F3pDlY-_h3go%2F Susannah Fox of Pew Internet talks about Healthcare Out Loud, the concept of people using the internet to gather and share information in a very public way.  Watch video Susannah presents trends over time as related to internet access in general, for example: Not that long ago in 1995, 10% of American adults had access to the internet, as compared to 75% today. In the year 2000, 5% of American homes had broadband. Today that number is about 66%.  She also discusses how mobile and broadband are multipliers to what people do online, and asks the question: “What’s the ROI on love?” Related posts:Transforming Health Through Broadband Help for Rural Patients from the FCC Improving Medication Adherence with a Cell Phone (Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care) Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4507275 Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:00:12 +0100 4507275 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4501575&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhIp-7lsPluY%2F By Jim HarperExperienced debaters know that the framing of an issue often determines the outcome of the contest. Always watch the slant of the ground that debaters stand on. The Internet kill-switch debate is instructive. Last week, Senators Lieberman (I-CT), Collins (R-ME) and Carper (D-DE) introduced a newly modified bill that seeks to give the government authority to seize power over the Internet or parts of it. The old version was widely panned. In a statement about the new bill, they denied that it should be called a “kill switch,” of course--that language isn't good for their cause after Egypt's ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak illustrated what such power means. They also inserted a section called the "Internet Freedom Act." It's George Orwell with a clown nose, a comically ham-hand... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4501575 Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:11:24 +0100 4501575 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4495187&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FECtYWYWIBTE%2F By Julian SanchezNational Review's Andrew McCarthy thinks proponents of Partiot Act reform, yours truly included, are too concerned with hypothetical problems: Concerns about “John Doe” warrants — i.e., roving wiretap authorizations that do not name a specific person or place to be surveilled — have been discussed since 2001. Two things stand out. First, although we’ve now had this provision for close to a decade, civil liberties advocates like Mr. Friedersdorf and Cato’s Julian Sanchez still have to couch their objections in the subjunctive mood: the warrants “raise the possibility” of overbreadth abuses “disturbingly similar to the ‘general warrants’” prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. That is, although the Patriot Act has been examined, debated, and reauthorized... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4495187 Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:01:12 +0100 4495187 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489893&cid=t_91930_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fi6AUw5G2950%2F Tweet Neil’s been on a roll lately. His latest post touches upon something that I have written about and believe in deeply. Two bits in particular stood out know the data sources, know the right tools and you can always sculpt a solution for your own situation. (It didn’t surprise me one bit that Matt Wood picked up on this as well) and Good web search skills are an essential part of the bioinformatics toolkit, but they don’t define the job. Real bioinformaticians write code. That we need to even say this is what you get from the Curse of Blast. We have too much of the data danger zone in life sciences, and bioinformatics ends up being diluted enough that people like me end up searching for alternative terms that highlight the informatician as data explorer, as data hack... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489893 Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:21:25 +0100 4489893 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489637&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNLLJlgI4aWw%2F By Julian SanchezThere was an interesting exchange during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing yesterday concerning the use of the Patriot Act's §215 orders for business records and other tangible things. FBI Director Robert Mueller hinted that the orders may have been used to track purchases of hydrogen peroxide purchases in the investigation of aspiring bomber Najibullah Zazi, while Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.) asserted that there is "a huge gap today between how you all are interpreting the PATRIOT Act and what the American people think the PATRIOT Act is all about and it’s going to need to be resolved." Let's leave our curiosity about that by the wayside for the moment, though. I'm curious about one simple empirical claim Mueller made in his testimony: That the provision has been use... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489637 Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:27:38 +0100 4489637 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489647&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUV6GqrlwtkU%2F By Julian SanchezLast night, By an overwhelming 86-to-12 margin, the Senate approved a temporary 90-day extension of three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act scheduled to sunset at the end of the month. The House just voted to move forward on a parallel extension bill, which will presumably pass easily. Because I'm seeing some civil libertarian folks online reacting with dismay to this development, I think it's worth clarifying that this is relatively good news when you reflect on the outlook from just a couple of weeks ago. The House has already approved a one-year extension that would plant the next reauthorization vote on the right eve of primary season in a Presidential election cycle, all but guaranteeing a round of empty demagoguery followed by another punt. As of last week,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489647 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:27:46 +0100 4489647 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482740&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtfgalpOarHY%2F By Jim HarperIt's a good thing for Congress to have an open debate on the bill that would fund the government from March 4th through the September 30 end of the 2011 fiscal year. The alternative is for the bill to be written and the political log-rolling to be done entirely behind the scenes. Open debate of the bill and amendments requires at least some level of discussion about various projects and programs rather than spending decisions being based solely on raw political power. And it gives the public some chance to have a say. The debate may include an amendment to strip funding from the REAL ID Act, our deplorable national ID law. As I wrote here before, money spent on REAL ID is waste. That money should be put to better uses, including deficit reduction. No future money should go to ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482740 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:19:31 +0100 4482740 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482742&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5y_sblTzvFk%2F By Jim HarperAnnouncing a new Senate subcommittee devoted to privacy, Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Franken (D-MN) said nothing about privacy threats from government. A "boom of new technologies over the last several years has . . . put an unprecedented amount of personal information into the hands of large companies that are unknown and unaccountable to the American public," Franken said, according to an AFP report. A boom of new technologies has put an unprecedented amount of personal information into the hands of the federal government---in some cases, illegally. It takes a lot of gall to point at commercial data collection from the atop the dunghill of federal privacy invasion. But there's a lot of gall to go around in Washington, D.C. Physician, Heal Thyself is a post from Cato @ Liberty ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482742 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:47:14 +0100 4482742 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477981&cid=t_91930_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F61xj8hYcsnw%2F Tweet Lots of interesting discussion around the web on the rise of data-driven startups and product teams. Russell Jurney’s blog post on Analytic Product Teams has picked up a lot of press, and in general that is a topic that the LinkedIn SNA team talks about quite a bit. Bradford Cross has eloquently covered Research-driven startups and more recently, this comes up in a Dataspora article on mining big data What strikes me about this, especially light of Neil’s recent post on data scientists and my own past is that in some ways the social science space is going through a fascinating discovery about the value of data-driven products, something that some of the web giants have been doing for a long time. The difference now is that (a) there is an abundance of data, data sources ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477981 Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:32:43 +0100 4477981 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4472987&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F02%2F13%2Fhow-to-write-a-love-song%2F The Axis of Awesome: How to Write a Love Song – watch more funny videos Just before Valentine’s day, how to write a cliche love song….   No related posts. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4472987 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:28:42 +0100 4472987 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4472947&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FbqeqM8c5fSo%2F By Jim HarperA Texas tax official estimates in this story that Texas loses an estimated $600 million in Internet sales taxes every year. Its part of a long-running debate about whether state governments should be able to collect taxes from out-of-state retailers who send goods into their jurisdictions. What happens with the $600 million depends on what you mean by "Texas." If you mean the government of the state of Texas in Austin, why, yes, the government appears not to collect that amount, which it wants to. If by "Texas" you mean the people who live, work, and raise their families throughout the state--Texans--they actually save $600 million a year. They get to do what they want with it. After all, it's their money. The Texas tax collector is complaining because the last thing state tax... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4472947 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:45:29 +0100 4472947 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4464475&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtwqUOtomRdY%2F By Jim HarperIf you haven't been following the intrigue around Wikileaks and the security companies hoping to help the government fight it, this stuff is not to be missed. Recommended: "How One Man Tracked Down Anonymous—And Paid a Heavy Price," on Ars Technica. "A Disturbing Threat Against One of Our Own," on Salon. The latter story links to a document purporting to show that a government contractor called Palantir Technologies suggested unnamed ways that Glenn Greenwald (author of this excellent Cato study) might be made to choose "professional preservation" over his sympathetic reporting about Wikileaks. A later page talks of "proactive strategies" including: "Use social media to profile and identify risky behavior of employees." Wikileaks has no employees. I take this to mean that ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4464475 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:59:37 +0100 4464475 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4464482&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FM4wg3M3p8Us%2F By Jim HarperThere is one thing you can take to the bank from TSA administrator John Pistole's statement that he wants to shift to "risk-based" screening at airports: it hasn't been risk-based up to now. That's a welcome concession because, as I've said before, the DHS and its officials routinely mouth risk terminology, but rarely subject themselves to the rigor of actual risk analysis. What Administrator Pistole envisions is nothing new. It's the idea of checking the backgrounds of air travelers more deeply, attempting to determine which of them present less of a threat and which prevent more. That opens security holes that the risk-averse TSA is unlikely to actually tolerate, and it has significant privacy and Due Process consequences, including migration toward a national ID syst... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4464482 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:58:14 +0100 4464482 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4460013&cid=t_91930_109_f&fid=38950&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockmd.com%2F2011%2F02%2F10%2Fsocial-media-and-the-end-of-gender%2F Social media the mass audience of the future. People no longer aggregate online on age, gender and income instead they aggregate on what they like and love, they aggregate on their interests. What does that mean for our future and our culture, just watch this interesting talk. Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they’re becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, and women users outnumber men, Blakley explains what changes are in store for the future of media.   No related posts. (Source: Dr Shock MD PhD) Dr Shock MD PhD blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4460013 Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:51:50 +0100 4460013 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455251&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FR6X94r2j9hw%2F By Julian SanchezFirst, the good news: Last night, civil libertarians had a rare excuse to pop champagne when an effort to fast-track a one-year reauthorization of three controversial Patriot Act provisions--set to expire at the end of the month--failed in the House of Representatives. As Slate's Dave Weigel notes, the vote had been seen as such a sure thing that Politico headlined its story on the pending vote "Congress set to pass Patriot Act extension." Around this time last year, a similar extension won House approval by a lopsided 315-97 vote. Now the reality check: The large majority of representatives also voted for reauthorization last night: 277 for, 148 against. The vote failed only because GOP leadership had sought to ram the bill through under a "suspension of the rules"--a str... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455251 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:07:00 +0100 4455251 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455252&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8cho0RTmMwM%2F By David Boaz"Google is under siege in Washington like never before," Politico reports. In an interview with POLITICO, a Google spokesman argued that a cabal of antitrust lawyers, lobbyists and public relations firms is conspiring against the Internet search giant. The mastermind? Google says it’s Microsoft. Maybe it’s irony, or maybe it’s payback. In the 1990s, Microsoft was the tech industry wunderkind that got too big for its britches — and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, then an executive at Sun Microsystems and later Novell, helped knock the software titan down a peg by providing evidence in the government’s antitrust case against it. . . . But there are also increasing calls from some Silicon Valley competitors and Washington-based public interest groups for the Justice Departm... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455252 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:57:00 +0100 4455252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4450275&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FloP-ZoG6YVc%2F By Jim HarperI reported here a couple of weeks ago that at the mid-point of his term President Obama had narrowly exceeded 50% compliance with his Sunlight Before Signing pledge. Now it's time to do some more analysis of how he has implemented his promise to post bills Congress sends him online for five days before signing them. In a post late last year, I graphed the president's improvement over time. His first year in office was dismal, but things got quite a bit better in the second year. We can now graph the entire first half of the term, which confirms that improvement. (Click graphs for full-size images.) Compliance could easily have been better in December, but the graph shows 100% success in the first twenty days of January, which brings us to the exact mid-point of the term. Now, ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4450275 Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:14:16 +0100 4450275 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4450278&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4LMFaCq0MuI%2F By Jim HarperReports the Los Angeles Times: A House GOP push to permanently extend expiring provisions of the Patriot Act is running into opposition from conservative and "tea party"-inspired lawmakers wary of the law's reach into private affairs. Congress has made a practice of kicking the Patriot Act can down the road, but it could be that the new crop of legislators isn't inclined to go along. Julian Sanchez has blogged here about the complexities of this government surveillance law. His podcast on the topic, released yesterday, is titled "The Patriot Act Sneaks to Renewal." Maybe it can't sneak through after all... Patriot Act Extension Runs Into Conservative Opposition is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4450278 Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:26:59 +0100 4450278 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4445803&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fa-doctors-brain-the-most-important-piece-of-healthcare-technology%2F2011.02.07 Some people may tell you that healthcare IT will solve many of the quality and cost problems in healthcare. I don’t believe them. I know a 70-year old man named Carlos (not his real name) who was hospitalized following a bout of hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a build-up of fluid in the skull, which affects the brain. Among other things, people with hydrocephalus can be confused, irritable, and nauseous. Carlos had all of these symptoms. Carlos’ problem was fixable by inserting a special kind of drain in his head called a “shunt.” This kind of shunt is, essentially, a series of catheters that runs from the brain into the abdomen, and which drain the excess fluid. You can’t see it from the outside, so it’s meant to stay inside of you for a very long time. For a week after Ca... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4445803 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:00:08 +0100 4445803 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4446038&cid=t_91930_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Frecoveryissexy.com%2Finternet-porn-or-cybersex-addiction%2F This article may help identify a form of ‘stinking thinking’ that may result.The Internet is a wonderful tool for communication. However, it can become an escape from reality that has the appearance of safety, intimacy and anonymity. Use of the Internet for games, gambling, messages, porn or cybersex can become as addictive as any other drug.What is Internet or Computer Addiction?A student has difficulty getting his/her homework done because computer games occupy all after-school time.Someone connects to the Internet at 9:00pm and suddenly discovers it is dawn and he/she has not left the computer.A wife is distraught because her husband has replaced their sexual relationship with Internet porn and online sex.Searching for information, skimming news headlines, downloading your f... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4446038 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:15:12 +0100 4446038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4445789&cid=t_91930_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fm_hmrwp8Zdo%2F By Jim HarperBoeing subsidiary Narus reports on its Web site that it "protects and manages" a number of worldwide networks, including that of Egypt Telecom. A recent IT World article entitled "Narus Develops a Scary Sleuth for Social Media" reported on a Narus product called Hone last year: Hone will sift through millions of profiles searching for people with similar attributes --- blogger profiles that share the same e-mail address, for example. It can look for statistically likely matches, by studying things like the gender, nationality, age, location, home and work addresses of people. Another component can trace the location of someone using a mobile device such as a laptop or phone. Media advocate Tim Karr reports that "Narus provides Egypt Telecom with Deep Packet Inspection equipmen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4445789 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:22:18 +0100 4445789 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4445988&cid=t_91930_136_f&fid=39212&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbahtocancer.com%2F2011%2F02%2Faround-the-www%2F If you feel the need for a Monday browse around the interwebs, here are a few places I’ve enjoyed recently: Betty Herbert gives some excellent advice about Valentine’s day here. (Gentlemen, please pay particular attention to the words of wisdom about flowers and soda streams.) Betty’s blog is great fun too: she is re-seducing her husband after 10 years of marriage, and writing about the results. Catherine Hughes, a writer for whom I have a great deal of respect, wrote a thoughtful piece on disability and the will to work here. It reminded me of my months of working when I wasn’t quite up to it but unable to face life without work….. and reminded me that, for many, that soul-destroying situation can last for years, not months. If your day isn’t going so w... Bah! to cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4445988 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 08:51:08 +0100 4445988