Category Archives: Technology and Society

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society, War Commentary

The Captain Of That Carrier

2 Comments

Why he had to be relieved of duty.

What struck us as particularly off in the captain’s letter was his statement: “We are not at war.” He added that “sailors do not need to die” and that “if we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.” The Navy, though, doesn’t need to be instructed on the value of its own sailors. Plus, too, under our system it’s not carrier captains who decide whether we’re at war.

The most important asset is not the crew, but the ship, and the crew must be ready to be sacrificed for the mission. I wrote a book about that.

Business, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

The FDA’s Death Toll

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It’s long past time to track it.

Bureaucracy kills.

[Update a while later]

I should add that, when this is over, we should have a national commission to review all federal regulatory actions and legislation, and see how much of it is still necessary (if it ever was) and how much of it is actively harmful (e.g., plastic-bag bans) with little benefit/cost ratio. At least we never got that nonsense at a federal level. So it would also be useful to examine state-level regs, for info purposes for those states. But unfortunately, contra bulls**t claims from the Democrats about being the “party of science,” this nonsense will likely continue.

General Science, Health, Media Criticism, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Latest Attempts At A Cure

14 Comments

They don’t target the virus; they target the hosts.

Let’s hope it works.

[Update a few minutes later]

And now we have a new vaccine that seems to build antibodies in mice.

As always, faster, please.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Cutting through the fog about the potential cures.

I think that 95% of the media resistance to the idea that hydroxychloraquine would be effective is because Trump said it could be.

[Update a few more minutes later]

More vaccines on the way. Fortunately, as the article points out, this bug is relatively easy to target, more so than the flu. It’s just too bad that we didn’t have a head start on it.