Acupuncture
Civilized Medicine, Part III. My Proposal
Originally, I was going to make my proposals for healthcare reform as the last item. But now there is so much debating, amending, backtracking, and all around lying, I can’t figure out what’s being proposed. Well, I do know there are no death panels, even if Sarah Palin makes stuff up. Since I’ve installed myself as health care czar (in my own mind), let me make my proposals. Read More...
Wikipedia–bad medicine
The internet has become a great tool for researching information from new gadgets to statistical analysis of politics. One of the most popular websites for research is Wikipedia, an online, democratic encyclopedia. As I have discussed previously, I link to it frequently, to give an overview about a particular topic. I admit I go to the website many times a day to get more information on a topic of interest to me, sometimes just for entertainment, and occasionally to laugh at the quality of articles. Wikipedia functions as a democracy, meaning anyone can edit it. Sometimes it appears that the project is more of an anarchy, but there are “police”, called administrators or admins, and several levels of bureaucracy above the police, to control the situation. The admins are elected by the community of editors. They can block editors (kind of a punishment), and as best as I can tell, every single action by anyone is subject to a lot of yelling, screaming, whining, and complaining. Actually, a social scientist might find the whole system quite fascinating, as I do.
A Wikipedia article is almost always the #1 hit when a google search is done on a subject. This might be useful if you are interested in episodes of 24 or need to know all about the Boston Red Sox. In most cases, the quality of the articles are not a life and death issue. If a Yankees fan chooses to vandalize (yes, that’s the term used by Wikipedia cognoscenti to describe actions that aren’t approved by the general Wikipedia community) the article, I am relatively certain that the world will not collapse into barbarism and a new Dark Age. Read More...
A Wikipedia article is almost always the #1 hit when a google search is done on a subject. This might be useful if you are interested in episodes of 24 or need to know all about the Boston Red Sox. In most cases, the quality of the articles are not a life and death issue. If a Yankees fan chooses to vandalize (yes, that’s the term used by Wikipedia cognoscenti to describe actions that aren’t approved by the general Wikipedia community) the article, I am relatively certain that the world will not collapse into barbarism and a new Dark Age. Read More...