You’ve perhaps read one of the stories about new apps for tracking your cycle for the purpose of avoiding conception. The most popular of these seems to be Kindara, which is an app that allows users to track their fertility signs, and is paired with an optional companion thermometer, the “Wink,” that syncs with the app to simplify the process. Is Kindara FDA approved? No, presumably because you don’t need FDA approval for an app, any more than a book teaching natural... Read more
Hillary’s e-mails are a big nothingburger, says the Left. She was careless, but has admitted as such, and no spies have died as a result, and the so-called “classified” information was really nothing serious. Hillary’s e-mails are yet another instance of corruption, says the Right. She thought she was above the law, and she set up a private server in order to hide her Clinton Foundation dealings, and it’s all part and parcel of a massive scheme to enrich the... Read more
You’ve read the news, right? The FBI probe into Clinton’s e-mails has been re-opened. Here’s a link that I most recently happened to have open on my browser. Now, my initial reaction, like most of you, probably, was surprise that any new development would be material enough for Comey to re-open the investigation, when there were already pretty clearly classified information in the e-mails, some of it well beyond anything the Democrats could rationalize with “it was trivial and shouldn’t... Read more
You’ve read, by now, in your twitter and facebook feed, and on your favorite bloggers or punditry websites, about the challenges in coming up with Halloween costumes that are not culturally appropriative. See, for instance, Kat Timpf, who chronicles this in the National Review. A while back, I gave you some options: I suggested that you could choose a Square Dance costume, as about the most uniquely and authentically American quasi-national dress there is. Maybe a prairie dress like the... Read more
That is, I watched the Cubs play their first World Series game since 1945. And I have to admit, I was bored. Yes, I know, when people profess lack of interest in baseball, others say, “that’s a sign of our national decline, and of Americans’ declining attention span.” Of course, in my defense, I’m not a native Chicagoan, and my childhood memories of baseball involve the Detroit Tigers. Or, more specifically, involve Dad and my brother watching the games on... Read more
It’s been stressing me out for the past couple of days, and especially today: no, not the election. Annual enrollment. (Note, I’m writing this up and scheduling the post, just to make it a smidge less clear who my employer is, that is, in case a colleague happens by coincidence to read this blog and say, “hey, our open enrollment ended today — is Jane actually . . . ?”) It’s a mess. It used to be so much easier.... Read more
Twice in the past, I’ve written about ways in which the CDC’s definitions go against international norms, making the U.S. appear worse than comparator countries. First, the CDC defines maternal mortality much more expansively than the WHO, making our maternal mortality rates look far worse. And, second, the CDC has a much more expansive definition of “pre-diabetes” than the WHO, catching more people up in the web of medical interventions. But in the news today is an action that the... Read more
Longtime readers will know that, while I’m not overweight in the conventional sense, I still struggle with shedding the weight I gained once the trifecta of starting telecommuting, having my youngest start school (and no longer being as active with him), and reaching 40. (Whether the post-40 weight gain is real or mythical is an exercise left to the reader.) And as a consequence, I haven’t bought a pair of jeans or slacks new in quite a while, but hunt for... Read more
Just something for open discussion. Will she be a pragmatist, and hold to her promise of working with Republicans in Congress in a bipartisan fashion? Arguments in favor: it’s got to be hugely important to her that she “go down in history” as better than her husband, and she knows that, due to a favorable alignment of circumstances (among other things, the good fortune of being able to draw down the military with the “peace dividend” and produce a surplus),... Read more
This, from today’s Chicago Tribune: “Emergency dispatchers using federal leave to get time off,” and the headline is far more bland than the reality: Nearly half of Chicago’s 911 dispatchers are off work on federal medical leave at any given time, the city’s Emergency Management commissioner said Wednesday, driving up overtime costs for an agency that must ensure that enough people are working to handle calls for emergency assistance. . . . “In intermittent FMLA, we have approximately 44 people... Read more
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