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Week of October 01, 2006 to October 07, 2006

Another scheme by a politician to pocket more money and power

Posted On: October 4, 2006 - 10:57pm by kautilya

And, you guessed it right this politician also wants to "help the poor". It is none other then the Indian politician Ram Vilas Paswan who "will shortly introduce a Health Insurance Scheme under which 250 million poor people will get free medicines."
"

What do you think will happen? Let me make a few predictions:
- A lot of this money will be wasted on bureaucracy to run this project
- A big chuck of the money will go to the politicians running this program. after all the are the real "poor"
- Another chunk will go to the drug companies who will supply overpriced and substandard medicines for this program, i.e. if they supply the complete contracted amount.
- This program will never end... it will only expand

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Wearing a Bicycle Helmet Might Actually INCREASE Your Risk of Injury

Posted On: October 3, 2006 - 10:10pm by kautilya

This is very interesting and conterintutive

Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than when overtaking bare-headed cyclists, increasing the risk of a collision, the research has found.
Dr. Ian Walker, a traffic psychologist from the University of Bath, used a bicycle fitted with a computer and an ultrasonic distance sensor to record data from over 2,500 overtaking motorists in Salisbury and Bristol. (Image courtesy of University of Bath)...
The research has been accepted for publication in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.
“This study shows that when drivers overtake a cyclist, the margin for error they leave is affected by the cyclist’s appearance,” said Dr Walker, from the University’s Department of Psychology.
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Government interference makes our food unhealthy

Posted On: October 3, 2006 - 9:59pm by kautilya

It seems that excessive government subsidies have made some foods like corn so cheap that it is being used in all sorts of processed snacks resulting in high carbohydrate, high sugar (high fructose corn syrup).
From this article

Under the Farm Bill, the great bulk of USDA largesse flows to five crops: corn, soy, cotton, wheat, and rice...
Cheap corn, underwritten by the subsidy program, has changed the diet of every American...

And, who is harmed? The poor of of course... It is the poor who generally don't have time to cook and can't afford the expensive fresh food, and what do the do

According to Drewnowski and his student Pablo Monsivais, cheap and abundant additives such as HFCS allow manufacturers to sweeten food liberally without adding much to their production costs. For people on a tight budget, these additives can also make cheap food the most efficient way to get calories...
"Energy-dense foods ... are the cheapest option for the consumer," Drewnowski says. "As long as the healthier lean meats, fish, and fresh produce are more expensive, obesity will continue to be a problem for the working poor."

This is just another example of unintended consequence of a “supposedly good intention.”

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