Who Wins? Historians often view wars as ending with winners and losers. We “won” World War II – and the Germans and Japanese lost. In most human conflicts results are less clear-cut. People don’t tend to think of the “War on Cancer” – started by President Nixon – and the “War on Terror” – begun […]
It’s time to ban drivers’ cell phone use (12/21/11)
Going Somewhere? The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that cell phone use be banned for all drivers. The lone exception – emergency use. As NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman put it – “”No email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life.” Don’t expect the car industry, the media, or even most […]
Is the flexible workplace a way to save your sleep? (12/19/11)
Flextime – Flexwork Americans are severely rest deprived. Combine 24-7 electronic availability with fast changing (or disappearing) jobs plus kids and elderly parents, and Americans are regularly slipping to around 6 and a half hours of sleep a night. Those are levels at which weight gain, increased cardiovascular disease, more flues, colds, and other infections […]
“Don’t talk to the patient” (12/16/11)
A Nurse’s Story You know things are screwy if nurses can lose their jobs for talking to patients. A nurse I know at the main regional hospital has an excellent record, plus decades of experience on medical wards. She was admonished that she was “wasting” too much time talking to patients. “They told me to […]
Who can I sleep with safely? (12/14/11)
Love, Strangulation and Suffocation When you see public health advertisements placing a meat cleaver next to a sleeping infant, it’s clear co-sleeping is no longer a simple matter. Milwaukee’s Health Department has received has enormous flack, but officials are convinced their ads keeping infants from parental beds will save many from strangulation and suffocation. But […]