EACH year some 30 million American men undergo testing for prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme made by the prostate. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994, the P.S.A. test is the most commonly used tool for detecting prostate cancer……

Prostate cancer may get a lot of press, but consider the numbers: American men have a 16 percent lifetime chance of receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer, but only a 3 percent chance of dying from it. That’s because the majority of prostate cancers grow slowly. In other words, men lucky enough to reach old age are much more likely to die with prostate cancer than to die of it.

Even then, the test is hardly more effective than a coin toss. As I’ve been trying to make clear for many years now, P.S.A. testing can’t detect prostate cancer and, more important, it can’t distinguish between the two types of prostate cancer — the one that will kill you and the one that won’t…..

So why is it still used? Because drug companies continue peddling the tests and advocacy groups push “prostate cancer awareness” by encouraging men to get screened….

I never dreamed that my discovery four decades ago would lead to such a profit-driven public health disaster. The medical community must confront reality and stop the inappropriate use of P.S.A. screening. Doing so would save billions of dollars and rescue millions of men from unnecessary, debilitating treatments.

Source: The Great Prostate Mistake, op-ed by Richard Ablin who discovered PSA in the ’70s

A reminder of one of the many reasons why universal health care makes sense.

In the current US system, doctors prescribe tests and treatments they - quite often - know are not needed or are likely to not work. They do it because of pressures and benefits received from interest groups, and because they expect their patients to feel better if something - preferably elaborate and expensive - is done. And how do they get away with it? The insurance companies pick up the tab.

In Europe and other places with universal health care, there is a much stronger incentive to use procedures that are appropriate to the person and situation, and known to work.

I saw The Hurt Locker a while ago. It is very well crafted. Shot and told in an apparently neutral documentary style. Suspenseful. Heartbreaking. Entertaining.

But it isn’t neutral of course.

The story may seem free of ideology. It may seem that the author and director missed an opportunity for commentary or including a message. And it is exactly in that neutral emptiness the message lies. War is meaningless, especially as experienced from the point of view of the soldiers, and especially this war.

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European health care is universal, but contrary to popular perception, it is not all nationalized. Facing rapidly aging populations, many European countries have gone much further than the United States in using market forces to control costs. At the same time, regulations are stronger and often more sophisticated.

Most of Europe spends about 10 percent of its national income on health care and covers everyone. The United States will spend 18 percent this year and leave 47 million people uninsured.

Europe has more doctors, more hospital beds and more patient visits than the United States. Take Switzerland: 4.9 doctors per thousand residents compared with 2.4 in the United States. And cost? The average cost for a hospital stay is $9,398 in relatively high-cost Switzerland and $17,206 in the United States. [...]

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Excellent talk by Jonathan Haidt on five basic moral dimensions, and how they are perceived by liberals and conservatives.

Here is a place to explore your morals.

And an article on our moral instinct by Steven Pinker.

Following 911, I was among the ones reminding people that this in itself was not a big issue. More die in traffic in North America every week, and there are far more important issues in the world, impacting far more people. I had of course sympathy for the ones directly impacted by the event, but that was a quite small group of people.

As a consequence, I repeatedly encountered people who was shocked by this attitude, including several who personally agreed but publicly wanted to hush such a perspective. (I lived in the US at the time, and this was of course different other places.)

Through this attitude of wanting to hush more reasoned and level-headed takes on the situation, these people became silent allies to (a) the stupidity in making it into something bigger than it was, and (b) the awful policies that was justified by 911. Policies that have been immensely more harmful than that one - relatively insignificant - situation, killing and injuring thousands as many people.

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Uncle Jay helps small minds understand big news stories.

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Bans on smoking in public places have had a bigger impact on preventing heart attacks than ever expected, data shows.

Smoking bans cut the number of heart attacks in Europe and North America by up to a third, two studies report. [....]

His team found that heart attack rates across Europe and North America started to drop immediately following implementation of anti-smoking laws, reaching 17% after one year, then continuing to decline over time, with a 36% drop three years after enacting the restrictions.

- from BBC, Smoking Bans Cuts Heart Attacks

Simple changes can have big effects….

The leading countries in life expectancy, Sweden and Japan, are also among the most equal of the wealthy nations. Interestingly, they have accomplished this relative equality in completely different ways: In Sweden, the tax system redistributes income; in Japan the income is given out relatively equally before any tax adjustments. Combinations of the two methods are also possible. [....]

The core message is that the countries that distribute their incomes the most equally have the longest life expectancy and the highest quality of life.

From an AlterNet article based on The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. To learn more, go to their Web site, www.equalitytrust.org.uk.

As I like to say, the proof is in the pudding.

The Oscar-winning documentary film about the successful career and assassination of San Francisco’s first openly gay man to be elected to office.

Boing Boing interviews Shepard Fairey about the iconic Obama poster.

I never thought I would be excited about an US president. 

Links: This video on his website + how to get involved locally.

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
- Matthew 12:34

Following the recent presidential election, the New York Times online asked their readers to send in one word that describes your current state of mind, and then created three animated word clouds. One with words from Obama supporters, one from McCain supporters, and one combined. The result is strangely touching. 

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Since the movie about Max Manus is coming to the theaters in Norway these days, there is a resurgence of interest in the Norwegian resistance during WWII. A couple of things has puzzled me about it. One is why the communist resistance continues to largely be ignored, even after the fall of the Soviet Union and so many years after the war. The other has to do with how the Norwegian resistance is sometimes talked about, as if it had more - or different - impact than it really did. (Not that I am a historian.)

A recent essay in Aftenposten addressed the last issue and led to some controversy.

But it seems that this too doesn’t have to be so complicated.

The Norwegian resistance acted in genuinely heroic ways, giving everything - including often their lives - for a free Norway. Their existence lifted the morale and gave a sense of purpose and hope to many in Norway. And their actions did have an impact, although often local and limited.

It is also pretty clear that their activities were often no more than a nuisance to the occupying forces. Mosquito bites. Not contributing significantly to the outcome of the war. And quite often, the Nazi retaliation against civilians (executions) was predictable and maybe not justified by what the resistance achieved.

As they say in Norway, it is possible to keep two thoughts in the head at the same time. We can greatly appreciate and value their efforts and sacrifices. (If I had lived then, I hope I would have joined them.) And we can also acknowledge that their actions led to needless loss of civilians, and didn’t contribute significantly to the outcome of the war.

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The standard (geographically correct and winner-takes-it-all) election maps look like a lot of red and some blue at the fringes. We know it gives a false impression, so how can it be represented in a more accurate and informative way? Here is a collection of adjusted election maps.

The one above shows the results by county, adjusted for population, and the democrat/republican ratio is indicated by color. A larger population means a larger area. Blue means strongly democrat, purple means closer to 50/50, and red means more strongly republican.

The former Republican vice presidential nominee told reporters in Anchorage that a recent Fox News report — which cited unnamed campaign sources as saying she did not know Africa was a continent and could not name the countries involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement — was false, and that her comments were taken out of context.

“That’s cruel. It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair and not right,” Palin told CNN in an interview.

- Source: LA Times

Hm… Let’s see. Who was it that made a big point out of the connection between Obama and Ayers? Who took things out of context? Who tried to spread it on national news?

(And who was it that used a certain plumber to discredit Obama’s tax policy, when that same plumber would be among those benefiting?)

It is easy to see this double standard in someone else, but we all do it in our own ways. It is inevitable. The question is, when and how do I do it?

For instance, do I gleefully read and talk about unfavorable things about republicans, and overlook the same in democrats? Yes I do, sometimes.

Elections are a good opportunity to explore what it means to have a personality

This personality supports Obama wholeheartedly, and others see him as a threat and a danger to Americans.

Why is that? Of course, it is easy to say that we are at different developmental stages. Or that conservatives are more - or differently - caught up in fear than liberals are. Or that we have more of an either adventurous or cautious personality based on evolution and biology. All of that may be true in its own way.

But from a practice perspective, there are other ways of looking at it that may be more interesting.

For instance, what happens when I identify with the personality? It naturally has preferences, which it should. What happens when these are solidified into beliefs? What happens when they are recognized as preferences only, and practical tools for functioning in the world?

Also, what do I find when I explore where these preferences come from?

In my case, I find that my political preferences come from my culture. I grew up in a culture with universal health care, free education through PhD, a low difference between those with highest and lowest income compared to almost all other countries. I have seen - and lived with - all of this working very well, so I naturally think it is a good idea. I got the values of solidarity through my culture, and I got to see it working well through experience.

Seeing this, I can more easily appreciate how others, who may come from a radically different background and experiences, have quite different preferences.

My preferences come from my background and my experiences. And the preferences of others come from their background and experiences.

It is not personal. And recognizing that, I don’t have to take it personally. I will of course continue to live from my own preferences - and act and vote from them - but I don’t need to take it as an absolute truth, or as something personal.

And I can explore how to express these preferences in a healthy and mature way. That is my task.

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All images from the Obama Art Report blog.

No matter what we may think about Obama’s policies, it is hard to deny that Obama is as iconic as only a few others… JFK, Lincoln, MLK, Gandhi, Che Guevara. (Obama was my favorite from the beginning.) And no other candidate has generated nearly as much art work.

There is an inherent occupational risk in being so iconic - when the man becomes mixed up with such a powerful image - but that is another topic.

And the full Rolling Stone article. Obviously out to prove a point, and most of the information there is not really new, but worth a read anyway.

The disturbing discrepancies between the exit polls and the official results for the last presidential election have been widely publicized and discussed, although never received attention at the level it deserved. See this wikipedia article, as well as this book and article.

As Homer reminds us, it may be a good idea to watch out for the same this time - and push for giving it the attention it deserves.

Looking at this aggregate of polls, the overall trend is pretty clear. Anything can of course happen between now and the election, and - as we know - there is a difference between winning the popular vote and getting elected.

The Iowa Electronic Markets agrees, and is typically more reliable than polls.

Painful.

A documentary about the Galveston hurricane in 1900, which is not only relevant to events this weekend, but also to how many today relate to climate change (with astonishing hubris or indifference).

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A story on Open Medicine (as in Open Source) from BBC:

Britain’s Sir John Sulston says that profits are taking precedence over the needs of patients, particularly in the developing world. ….

Sir John shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for medicine for his work on the genetics controlling cell division.

He is well known for his commitment to public medicine and his opposition to the privatisation of scientific information.

Eight years ago he led the fight to keep the data being derived from the Human Genome Project open and free to any scientist who wanted to use it.

If there is any field where free access to and use of information is obviously of value, medicine is it.

And if there is one question that is important in health care, it is this: Do we want a medical system that is primarily aimed at profit, or service? Of course, it is not necessarily one or the other, but the way it functions globally today, it is far too often narrowly in the service of profit, at the expense of people.

It is also good to keep in mind that what has the most substantial positive effect on health for groups and individuals is the quite simple things: Clean water. Healthy food. Enough sleep to feel rested. Basic exercise. Psychological well-being. And basic medicines and surgery for the most common diseases and problems.

And that too shows how skewed the current medical field is today, with an enormous amount of resources spent on research and treatment of illness that benefit only a few percent among the richest of the world’s population, while large number of people globally suffer from illnesses can easily be prevented and treated with simple means - if only resources were directed to it. And in some cases, if there was a free access to and use of current proprietary information.

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I have gone to the Olympic track & field trails a couple of evenings and it was fun to experience the atmosphere there. 

It also brought up a couple of (mildly attached to) stories for inquiry. 

One is how the big money interests seems to trump anything else, such as free speech. Visitors are not allowed to bring in banners and signs, and no citizen groups are allowed to have a booth, so that leaves only corporate signs, banners and booths with the exception of the military promo and recruiting area. The organizers have set up a few small “free speech zones” away from the event, at locations very few will happen upon. This makes the event itself seem somewhat sterile and corporate, and less interesting. 

The other is the usual security game they are playing, with a long list of things that are illegal to bring into the event, searches of any bags visitors have, and body scans with wands and patting down. It may seem impressive at first. But noticing how low the fence around the area is, and how easy it would be for anyone to pass something over or under it to someone on the inside, it becomes a little comical.

So in both cases, there is a game of doing it - at least partly - for appearances. There are a few free speech zones few ever sees. And a thorough security check that has no impact if someone really wanted to bring in something illegal. 

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I wrote a post last year on a Salem News story on Charles Schwab. If there is some truth to this story, it deserves far more attention than it has received so far. If you know something about this case, contact Tim King with Salem News.

The reporter just sent this message to me:

This is Tim King from Salem-News.com. We have generated another story on Schwab and Wayne Pierce and some slightly strange things have transpired since then. Let’s just say there is a relationship between Wayne’s email hacking and what we have experienced. I do not want to elaborate as we are investigating, but this is the tip of an iceberg from the way it appears and any agencies or individuals that have anything to offer on this are encouraged to send me an email at newsroom. FYI, we are TV and newspaper professionals with many years under our belts as mainstream reporters. Salem-News.com is independently owned and operated and that is the only reason we were able to get these stories off the ground in the first place. Thanks, Tim King

Take a look at the new Salem News story and interview with Wayne Pierce, and also this video interview:

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Pretty funny, however close it may or may not be to the truth.