Black Friday-Cyber Monday, Are You Spending?

black-friday-walmartToday is “Cyber Monday” the Internet enabled, 21st Century equivalent to the post-Thanksgiving, dirt-world doorbusting shopping spree known as “Black Friday”.  The term black Friday, coined by retailers to describe the day after Thanksgiving, was so named because the deep discounts and sales they offered were supposed to draw enough consumers to the stores to enable retailers to recoup their investments into holiday inventory.  This tsunami of Holiday season shopping was supposed to put the retailers’ balance sheets into “the black” or positive territory.  With the rise of e-commerce, there is now a second wave of shopping that begins (unfortunately for employers) on the Monday after Thanksgiving when many return to the office to “work” (read: shop online on the company’s time).  Online retailers put out their most attractive online sale prices of the year for Cyber Monday.  But in this poor economic environment, are people buying?  Are you?  Follow me below the fold… Continue reading…

Are you carrying cocaine in your pocket?

coke_dollars_0817A group of scientists from the University of Massachusetts tested banknotes from more than 30 cities in five countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, and Japan, and found what they termed “alarming” evidence of cocaine use in many areas.   For the scary details, follow me over the fold. Continue reading…

Senate HCR Bill Moves Forward Over Weekend

senate-shieldLate Saturday night, the US Senate voted to allow debate over their draft of healthcare reform legislation to begin on the floor.  This is another big hurdle that proponents of reform have overcome.  The Senate version of the bill still contains some version of a public option.  It will be interesting to see what amendments are added during the committee process.  For supporters of reform who may be feeling that the reform has been too compromised and watered down, follow me over the fold for a great breakdown of what the current draft of the Senate bill includes for all Americans. Continue reading…

Students Open Thread

whisperThis is your opportunity to steer the conversation here.  It is a free discussion page or “open thread” for  the regular readers of the Allen School Online Blog.  Sound off in the comments about anything you may have on your mind whether its about learning, career, pop culture, movies, recipes or anything you’d like to bring to the community.  Ask your fellow bloggers for their advice about things.  You can learn from and help this community of folks, each of whom is involved in the same educational and career pursuits as you are.  Or, share with me, your humble blogmaster, some ideas of what you’d like to see here on front page posts.

Follow the Money Redux

goldman_sachs_logo_0411A while back I posted several pieces here and here about how an observer could gauge the relative chances of significant healthcare being passed by Congress, simply by looking at the share prices of publicly traded health insurance companies like Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, United Healthcare and others. Well, if anyone doubted that Wall Street was actually in a position to influence these things, follow me over the fold for iron clad proof that Wall Street wants reform to fail. Continue reading…

House Passes HCR Bill – Women’s Reproductive Rights Take Hit

us-houseThis past Saturday night, the  US House of Representatives worked all day and into the evening (it felt good to watch these people work on a weekend for once) and narrowly passed a bill aimed at reforming the broken healthcare system.  In the process though, they were forced to insert an amendment (the Stupak amendment) which disallows women who would be enrolled in the public option plan from getting abortions.  I am fed up with people inserting their religious preferences into legislation that effects all Americans, religious or otherwise. Continue reading…

McCarthy & Maher – If it Quacks Like a Duck

snake-oil-salesmenThere’s an old expression used to convey the idea that what appears obvious is frequently the truth.  The expression goes, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck”.  Well, this bit of folk wisdom is not to be trusted.  Especially when it comes to the claims of, well, quacks!  That is, purveyors of bogus medical items.  From phony H1N1 “swine flu” cures online, to aisles upon aisles of homeopathic “remedies”, unregulated by the FDA on shelves in pharmacies across the country, people are frequently taken in by sales pitches that seem completely plausible. Continue reading…

One “Flu” Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

syringeI don’t know about you, but I have never been a proponent of the annual flu vaccine. I have always felt that it was really only necessary for the very young and the very old/infirm. But I also know that influenza became pandemic on a faily predictable schedule about once every 30 years or so. And since it has been nearly 40 years since the last pandemic of “Hong Kong” Flu killed 1 million people in 1968-69, I am thinking this year, I ought to at least get my 4 year old innoculated. So I called my pediatrician and they said, “No we don’t have any H1N1 vaccine and no we don’t have any info on when any will be available”. Shocking! Continue reading…