America is increasingly sleepless. It’s no surprise. Insane politics and politicians cause many sleepless nights. But insomnia can be caused by sleep apnea and shift work; hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism; depression and anxiety; alcohol and marijuana; chronic lung disease and congestive heart failure. Just as there hundreds of causes of insomnia, most people who suffer sleeplessness do […]
You May Never Get Out of Bed Again
If 85% of Americans die in bed, you might think people would regularly want to get out of them. Beds are wonderfully designed for sleep and sex. But do you want to use them (much) for anything else? The commercial answer is yes! World industry is moving heaven and earth to create devices that will make it possible […]
The Medical Care Machine
Do you want to be a machine? What happens when your employer wants to treat you like one? What does this do to health care? The digital economy allows you to measure much. What gets measured gets managed. The ideas of “scientific management” achieved their first apotheosis over a century ago with Frederick Taylor. Henry Ford […]
Chancing It (3/31/14)
Chances Are… Does time control life? Or does chance? Items: – A famous calligrapher, you settle into your airplane’s aisle seat and pull out your pen. It’s a poor substitute for the brush, but you have many notes of thanks to write. Chinese calligraphy is one of the world’s great art forms. Actively collected and […]
Reconstructing Memory (11/26/12)
Safeguarding the Self It’s true – you’re not you. At least not what you think. We slide through life consumed and propelled by memory. We know what we know, saw what we saw. Except recent research demonstrates that memory is always changed every time it is retrieved – whether you consciously remember it or not. […]