Conspiracy theorists have long been on guard against the “New World Order” - particularly ever since then-President George H.W. Bush uttered the phrase during his 1991 State of the Union address - but lately, talk of a “North American Union” merger between the United States, Mexico, and Canada has made the leap from late-night talk [...]

My last post generated an interesting comment from a reader questioning whether telemedicine can actually be used to do a physical exam. The reader brings up some great questions about how telemedicine can actually work. Such questions and resistance to new technology clearly highlight the struggle for technological progress in medicine.
While I agree that telemedicine [...]

In the previous article, I explained how in any game, it is reasonable to assume that a stable outcome will be a Nash Equilibrium. Today, I will show how it is impossible for rational people like us to save the planet by cooperating to stop using carbon fuels.
Currently, as things stand, carbon fuels definitely have [...]

The rising oil prices have forced the government to act. Many experts have blamed the recent increase in oil prices on speculation. The government is planning to introduce a legislation - the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act - in an attempt to rein in speculations in the oil market. Will the legislation in its present [...]

Not too long ago, I confess I was in a rather panicked state of mind about the economy. This was after Bear Stearns tanked but before IndyMac was seized by the FDIC. I thought that if the U.S. government could intervene in a big way and refinance homeowners who were facing foreclosure, then the free [...]

Medical tourism may be defined as seeking healthcare outside one’s own country. This is becoming more common as people search for affordable healthcare. In the U.S., patients travel to countries that perform the procedure they need for a fraction of the cost of the same procedure done domestically. In Canada, where healthcare is essentially free [...]

Conservatives talk about how great America’s “free market” is, while those on the political left are critical of the “free market’s excesses.”
What are they talking about?
We have nothing even closely resembling a “free market” in the United States, and the latest news surrounding Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Reserve underscores that point.
People are [...]

As anyone fond of “truthiness,” humor, or television knows, long time Daily Show member Stephen Colbert has, since October 2005, had his own show: The Colbert Report.
Where Daily Show anchor John Stewart plays it in some ways more conservatively, holding to a tradition of fake news and riffing on the real news that’s [...]

Despite the advances of “Going Live” that I wrote about previously, there are some areas of the health system where a computer cannot replace the presence of a human doctor. In medicine the sacred territory of the doctor is the “physical exam” - the physical examination of a patient. This is the Holy Grail of [...]

An interview with George Soros appeared in the June 2008 edition of Money magazine. Though brief, the interview was both fascinating and useful, as Soros explained why the current financial crisis is so bad and what it means for, well, everyone.

What’s striking, though, is a phrase Soros introduces midway through the interview. He [...]