tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post4278766591033436593..comments2024-03-25T17:38:55.490-07:00Comments on Dar Kush: SF Writers and FitnessSteven Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-55521303214588882162010-02-22T10:12:55.951-08:002010-02-22T10:12:55.951-08:00Interesting information about "SF Writers and...Interesting information about "SF Writers and Fitness" This theme serves to educate people in their daily life, thanks to people like you we have more knowledge about this important issue.como invertir en la bolsahttp://www.negocioinversiones.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-89699152596090646712009-12-24T12:47:39.587-08:002009-12-24T12:47:39.587-08:00Best Casino tyuueooru
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Also, Poland notwithstanding, I think that the nimble market driven system is the best way to go with publishing books, making cars, building houses, producing movies and video games, mining coal, and a great many other things which our market economy does very well. But, I also think that some things should not be run on a for profit, market driven basis. Farming. Education. Health Care. Police. Fire fighters. Road repair. National defense. These things benefit from the sort of efficiency that you get when the economy is command driven. I think the problem that the current debate (not the one we're having here, the broader debate in the United States) is that there are some people who see any use of a command system as the first step on a slippery slope, and others (fewer) who want to abolish the market system entirely. As far as I'm concerned, and I think that a large majority of Americans tend to agree, a nation can safely mix elements of both economic models without incurring lasting economic harm.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-22998830974210983282009-12-17T05:41:17.916-08:002009-12-17T05:41:17.916-08:00Libraries a good example of why we need a private ...Libraries a good example of why we need a private system. I can go to the Hudson Valley library site search for a book I want and reserve it and it will be shipped to my local library for pickup. That's great. Except that I can only read books that the librarians choose. I can't read Steve Barnes Shadow Valley because there are no copies in the system. There is another science fiction author I like and only one copy of three of her books are in the system. they are there because I donated them. Whether its books, health care or anything else nimble equates to more freedom of choice and efficiency equates to less. In most areas even under a nimble system some people have more choices than others. This often equates to how much money you have. We need libraries to give more reading choices to those who don't have the financial resources to buy their own books and we need some form of public health care to help those who can't afford private health care. The trick is to balance private and public health care so that we get the best of both worlds. To me that means finding a path where only those who truly can't afford private health care are included in public health care.Marty Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465745755940914756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-47926922106619344902009-12-16T15:04:21.068-08:002009-12-16T15:04:21.068-08:00Marty, the comment about books is interesting. I l...Marty, the comment about books is interesting. I lived in Poland for a time in the 1970's. It was a very good place for established writers; they never had to market their books, as far as I can see. They were automatically published. It was probably harder then here for new writers. And controversial or anti-government books were of course easily suppressed by the government. But, I don't think Stanislaw Lem, for example, fared badly.Pagan Topologisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01611788563582362688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-11672250559682892412009-12-16T13:50:58.876-08:002009-12-16T13:50:58.876-08:00I think we need to get away from a one system v. a...I think we need to get away from a one system v. another system discussion. Some things are done far better by capitalism, which is nimble and can change with market demands easily. Some things are done far better by a command economy, which is efficient. Production of books works very well in a free market system (especially if you've got a library for folks who don't want to buy new books as they come out - a public option, if you will). Production of health, though, works far better in a command economy system, because you want efficiency, not nimbleness.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-10902823138950184562009-12-16T12:47:03.972-08:002009-12-16T12:47:03.972-08:00I think the current Senate bill is better than the...I think the current Senate bill is better than the status quo. An end to preexisting conditions and rescission, exchanges that allow reasonable risk sharing for people who can't get insurance through their employers, and subsidies to make such insurance more affordable for lower income people, all sufficiently funded with taxes that the CBO estimates the bill will reduce the deficit, strike me as improvements worth having, even without a public option. Some of those things wouldn't be doable through a budget reconciliation process bill, the only effective way to pass something without bagging Lieberman or Snowe (neither of whom will vote for a public option), if indeed the delay involved in going back to the drawing board with budget reconciliation didn't risk death by a thousand cuts. And losing out on health care reform altogether now only means another long wait before someone is willing to introduce a bill that does less than the previous proposal; that's what has happened with health care reform all my life. If, on the other hand, this bill passes, there's room to tweak it later if necessary; this seems to me politically more likely than getting a better bill later out of a failure to pass this one.<br /><br />So, though I think fighting for the public option as long as possible was the right choice, and though I'd much prefer the simplicity of Steve's Medicare plus 10%, at this point I'm in favor of the Senate passing the compromise bill we've got, on grounds that politics is the art of the possible.Lynn Gazis-Saxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16775215056055972392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-60243726010146862652009-12-16T08:34:38.188-08:002009-12-16T08:34:38.188-08:00Steve: Getting away from health care let's con...Steve: Getting away from health care let's consider writing, both fiction and non-fiction. Currently books are published by profit making companies that advertise, pay stockholders and huge executive salaries. Some people can afford books because of the high price. We can make books more affordable with a government takeover of the publishing industry. We will cut out the above expenses and we will keep the price to the taxpayers low by cutting payments to authors. The result of this will be more and better books and a better educated country. How does this sound to you. Do you think this will inspire you to spend more or less time writing.Marty Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465745755940914756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-7434083125358261752009-12-16T08:12:46.077-08:002009-12-16T08:12:46.077-08:00Marty--
I'm quite certain that stats can be pi...Marty--<br />I'm quite certain that stats can be picked over to support anything one wishes, if you isolate individual groups or sub-sets of them. I'm sure there are a few slow-moving, "cool" molecules on the surface of the sun. We're going to have to agree to disagree on this. It simply makes sense to me that money for advertising, stockholder profit and huge executive salaries has nothing to do with helping my family's health. If it makes sense to you, so be it.<br />##<br />I think that SF fans are a little more out of their bodies than fans of other genres.<br />##<br />Oh, I think some writers are better at one thing than another, but Bujold, for instance, would have time and energy to go more deeply into her characters if her backgrounds were more mundane. I think I'll stand on this one: every minute you spend researching X is a minute you didn't get to spend delving more deeply into Y. There are people who can run pretty fast with a refrigerator on their back, but they could lift more, or run faster, if they were only doing one or the other.Steven Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13630529492355131777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-26227995177277821432009-12-16T08:09:17.717-08:002009-12-16T08:09:17.717-08:00Can you point to something specific that would rei...Can you point to something specific that would reinforce your statement that lieberman's more liberal than any republican?Foxessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754083123669916994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-1503498671155266342009-12-16T06:18:33.434-08:002009-12-16T06:18:33.434-08:00I also think that the current Senate Health Care b...I also think that the current Senate Health Care bill is not worth having. It's worse than the status quo imo.Shady_Gradyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00996625985002373392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-14802216150871792512009-12-16T06:00:26.837-08:002009-12-16T06:00:26.837-08:00In re health care: I'm not expecting the curre...In re health care: I'm not expecting the current batch of changes to work very well. We've got the most corrupt medical industry in history, and it has a lot of influence.<br /><br />On the one hand, I'm biased-- I've been a libertarian for a long time, though I'm less sure I'm right than I used to be.<br /><br />On the other, there are a lot of people who desperately want to see an improvement (and I agree that the current American non-system is horrendous for a lot of people), and they may be over-optimistic about what's politically possible.<br /><br />****<br /><br />I'm not sure about your so many units of talent theory, partly because Lois McMaster Bujold is notable for the depth of her characters and the complexity of her plots.<br /><br />I can easily believe that no writer great (or even good) at everything. Frex, Bujold doesn't do much with sensory immersion or sense of wonder.<br /><br />Are character vs. story complexity apt to be inversely related for particular writers, as distinct from writers just being better at one or the other?Nancy Lebovitzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07068537632391466902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-55646849112473175212009-12-15T21:50:33.154-08:002009-12-15T21:50:33.154-08:00Biased sample here, but I _would_ say that the pho...Biased sample here, but I _would_ say that the photos of the mystery writers I read look, in general, in in better shape than the photos of the sci-fi/fantasy writers who I seen.<br /><br />Not sure how one would get any read data on that though. Probably the best would be to ask editors or agents who work with a lot of different authors in multiple genres.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15753480478689867572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-60183259822211556302009-12-15T21:46:25.584-08:002009-12-15T21:46:25.584-08:00It's often said that orchestra conductors are ...It's often said that orchestra conductors are the longest lived of professions, but it's a bit of a spurious claim;<br /><br />http://www.burns.com/wcbspurcorl.htm<br /><br />"Since the study appeared, others have seized upon it and even elaborated reasons for a causal connection (e.g., as health columnist Brody, 1991, wrote, "it is believed that arm exercise plays a role in the longevity of conductors."<br /><br /> However, as Carroll (1979) pointed out in a critique of the study, there is a subtle flaw in life-expectancy comparisons: The calculation of average life expectancy includes infant deaths along with those of adults who survive for many years. Because no infant has ever conducted an orchestra, the data from infant mortalities should be excluded from the comparison standard. Well, then, what about teenagers? They also are much too young to take over a major orchestra, so their deaths should also be excluded from the general average. Carroll argued that an appropriate cutoff age for the comparison group is at least 32 years old, an estimate of the average age of appointment to a first orchestral conducting post. The mean life expectancy among U.S. males who have already reached the age of 32 is 72.0 years, so the relative advantage, if any, of being in the famous conductor category is much smaller than suggested by the previous, flawed comparison."Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15753480478689867572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-28444513785191940142009-12-15T17:41:43.305-08:002009-12-15T17:41:43.305-08:00With the possible exception of fitness writers, it...With the possible exception of fitness writers, it's not a profession that is conducive to health over all. I don't notice that mystery, mainstream, or romance writers are in any better shape than the fantasy scribes.<br /><br />You want to live long, become a symphony conductor. I think as a class, they are at the top, with writers somewhere near the bottom.Steve Perryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-16156468251858679772009-12-15T14:59:25.543-08:002009-12-15T14:59:25.543-08:00Michelle,
The bill as it exists has been bastardi...Michelle,<br /><br />The bill as it exists has been bastardized beyond saving. Best to kill it and get a real public option via reconciliation. As it now exists, it's a giveaway to the insurance companies, who now get mandated coverage, and essentially nothing to control their rapacious conduct.<br /><br />Marty,<br /><br />"I got mine." Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, even, but as public policy it's a little lacking.Daniel Keys Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12992599044462413412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-91199058164731643982009-12-15T14:33:13.556-08:002009-12-15T14:33:13.556-08:00Thanks Marty...I've been a member there since ...Thanks Marty...I've been a member there since 2005. :)Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423046783112809392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-45275127394486278382009-12-15T12:09:39.659-08:002009-12-15T12:09:39.659-08:00Michelle: Here is a link to a site that seems to h...Michelle: Here is a link to a site that seems to have a lot of information on your situation. You might want to look at it and see if any of it is helpful to you or you might post a request for suggestions.<br /><br />http://www.soulcysters.net/health-insurance-health-systems/Marty Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465745755940914756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-51119071385773223982009-12-15T11:55:25.695-08:002009-12-15T11:55:25.695-08:00Steve: I know we have been through this before, bu...Steve: I know we have been through this before, but since you have stated again that other countries do health care better, I will try to indicate the argument for the other side again in brief.<br />Using your favorite measure life expectancy the number1 ranked country in the world is Japan. The life expectancy in Japan is 79 for males and 86.1 for females. Now let's look at the life expectancy of Asian Americans. The life expectancy for males is 80.8 and for females 86.5. So life expectancy under the U.S. health care system is better for Asian Americans than for those living in the top ranked country in the world. This demonstrates that when the U.S health care system works, it works very well indeed. So that leaves the question, for whom doesn't it work, why, and how can we fix it for those for whom it doesn't work without destroying it for those for whom it does work.Marty Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465745755940914756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9339191.post-21274526312514876112009-12-15T11:50:17.198-08:002009-12-15T11:50:17.198-08:00I don't know what I want anymore. I loose my ...I don't know what I want anymore. I loose my insurance in a month and I have been denied by all options in my state for further coverage. <br /><br />I don't see how this bill will change that.Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423046783112809392noreply@blogger.com