Tight Deadlines and Lagging Funds Bedevil Obama Health Care - NYTimes.com

Read this NYTimes story and you will see that ObamaCare is a slow motion trainwreck and the wheels are about to come off the tracks. There's no way this can be successfully implemented on the present schedule. I'll bet a dollar to a donut (maple flavored, of course) that the schedule will be extended. When more people are opposed than favor ObamaCare, you must believe we have a serious problem.

This is shaping up as a bureaucratic nightmare destined to fall/fail of its own weight and lack of sufficient support from the American people.

The supporters make a case that ObamaCare would control health care costs. Perhaps in the very long term, but not without rationing of care and global budgeting that would force systemic changes.

There are four payers of healthcare costs, the government, private insurers, self insured companies,and individual people. Unless costs are controlled for all of these payers, rather than shifted among them, reform will be a failure.

Tight Deadlines and Lagging Funds Bedevil Obama Health Care - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Corned beef and cabbage

Today's Amici luncheon of the VT Italian Club was held at the Rotisserie restaurant in South Burlington. They were quite busy but the corned beef and cabbage was not as good as last year's. It was a bit on the salty side.
Nevertheless, a dozen of us enjoyed the camaraderie reminding ourselves that St. Patrick had Italian parents.

4 key takeaways from Samsung's Galaxy S4

4 key takeaways from Samsung's Galaxy S4

So many new features on new high-end phones. What will we see with Apple's new iPhone later this year? And it's about time for a new Google Nexus and/or a Motorola blockbuster.
Meanwhile, I'm happy with my Motorola Droid Razr HD. (why such a long name, guys?)

Is Skype a Telephone Operator? France Will Investigate - NYTimes.com

Is Skype a Telephone Operator? France Will Investigate - NYTimes.com:

A fine example of the long and arduous road to governments' desire to regulate everything they can in telecom. Reminds me of the arcane debates in the '80s and '90s about defining and regulating,or not, information services and enhanced services in the U.S. The lawyers loved it!

As technology continues upending traditional business and regulatory models, governments will run to catch up and tax/manage/control/subsidize various aspects of it. Infrastructure and services no longer comply with neat definitions of the past so government's job becomes more difficult.

The time will come, though, when the Internet will eventually and unfortunately be 'regulated.' But who will do it? NTU or some other international entity? Shudders abound at the thought. The good news is it will take a very long time.

'via Blog this'

The Professors’ Big Stage - NYTimes.com

How we educate ourselves is changing rapidly at the same time that so many colleges University of Vermont included, have spent substantially on bricks and mortar. Will those schools without massive endowments survive this new paradigm?
What will it mean for K-12 learning which has also become unsustainably costly and weighs heavily on taxpayers in Vermont and elsewhere?

The Professors’ Big Stage - NYTimes.com: "The world only cares, and will only pay for, what you can do with what you know. And therefore it will not pay for a C+ in chemistry, just because your state college considers that a passing grade and was willing to give you a diploma that says so. We’re moving to a more competency-based world where there will be less interest in how you acquired the competency — in an online course, at a four-year-college or in a company-administered class — and more demand to prove that you mastered the competency."

'via Blog this'