Supermoon

Last night I spent some time trying to determine what were the best camera settings to take a picture of  the moon, a full moon that appeared larger than usual. So here it is, one of about 100 shots I took while checking the best f-stop, ISO speed setting and exposure length. The details: f/8, 1/800 sec, ISO 200.

We could save billions yearly by changing the "rules" for the Medicare prescription drug benefit

A new "report jointly sponsored by Carleton University and Public Citizen has concluded that Medicare Part D pays needlessly high brand-name drug prices compared with other developed countries and U.S. government programs. 

The report states:

  • After including rebates, brand-name drugs cost Medicare Part D 198% of the median costs for the same brand-name drugs in the 31 countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
  • Medicare Part D pays on average 73% more than Medicaid and 80% more than the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for brand-name drugs. Medicare Part D would save from $15.2 billion to $16 billion a year if it could secure the same prices that Medicaid or VHA receives on the same brand-name drugs. 
  • While Medicaid and VHA often are used as benchmarks because of the rebates or discounts they secure, even these organizations pay higher prices than many OECD countries. 
  • Under current Medicare Part D pricing, non-innovative "me-too" drugs are priced as much or more than older, equally effective versions. This artificially increases the incentives for developing non-innovative "me-too" drugs rather than innovative medicines for unmet needs. 
  • Reducing brand-name drug prices would reduce the high level of cost-related non-adherence (people not filling their prescription for financial reasons) and reduce taxpayers' contribution to Medicare Part D would decrease by at least $11 billion every year. "

We won't see changes to Medicare because Big Pharma spends part of these oversized profits on buying members of Congress so they will vote against any meaningful reform of Medicare Part D. 

Time to get money out of politics. 

Say Hello To Pluto

Say hello to Pluto, the first spacecraft to reach Pluto on the outer edge of the Solar System will swing by tomorrow at about 45,000 km/hr. 

The New Horizons spacecraft will be carrying cameras, 5 experiments, and the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluti, and the only American to have discovered a planet. 

In the 80s, while I was the science consultant at the Los Angeles County of Education, I organized a symposium for teachers on space science. Our keynote speaker was Clyde Tombaugh. 

It was a grand night in the presence of such a science notable. Sail on Mr Tombaugh … sail on. 

Jeb Bush "influenced" by notorious racist

Jeb Bush, when asked by right-wing "journalist" and National Review editor Rich Lowry, what he liked to read the Jebster responded books by Charles Murray. Murray is the author of The Bell Curve, a book that discussed racial differences in intelligence as being genetic. The book was soundly thrashed by most members of the scientific community, notably Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and science historian.

Swell, a presumed-presidential candidate relying on a discredited book from more than 20 years ago for its views on race. I predict that Jeb will "walk this back" when responsible journalists get wind of Jeb's odious remarks.

You can read about it here: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/jeb-bush-praises-book-notorious-race-theorist-charles-murray-says-his-views-were


I love this technology stuff

I signed into my Pac-12 Network account on my television in Borrego Springs. I fired up my iPad to stream the USC spring game here in Whittier. I streamed my iPad to my Apple TV and watched it on my HDTV in Whittier.

I love this technology stuff. When it works.

I Cleaned Up

Today I tried one of those "express" car wash joints that are popping up around the greater area the entire car wash was run by two women. "How is that possible?" you ask. Automation, automation. You are guided into the wash bay, the computer has set your wash cycle to what you paid for, and rollers against your tire move you along.

After getting washed and blown dry, you exit to the vacuum bays (see photo above). You do the work from here on out. You vacuum, you do a touch up dry job (most was dry for me and I had a Turkish shop towel–only used in Turkey), and I used the air hose to get the water out of cracks and mirrors.

Nicely done Gunga Din. My car was untouched by human hands until I did some touch up work. I'll try it again. These places have to provide tough competition for traditional car washes. Today was faster and cheaper than the place I've been going to.