Tooth decay among children is at its lowest recorded level since 1983, figures show.
The biggest fall was among 15-year-olds, with only 13% suffering from decay compared with 42% in 1983 the Office for National Statistics found.
But the survey discovered variations across the UK, with Northern Ireland having the highest level of tooth decay among children.
The lowest levels were found in England, followed by Wales.
Tut tut. First Gordon Ramsey and his lot go and revolutionize British fare, and now the denizens of Albion are taking good care of their teeth: what will be left for the world to make fun of the Limeys for? It really isn't on, old boys, terribly unsporting of you.
Sebastian Holsclaw makes a point raised earlier in a discussion between myself and Peter Nolan: that there is a free-rider problem when it comes to fighting terrorism.
In particular, if America's European "allies" perceive that the United States is committed to forcefully combating Islamist terrorism, then it is in their own interest to adopt a stance of opposition in order to curry favor with the extremists. The thinking will be that at the very worst, if the US is completely ineffective in fighting the terrorists, this attitude of opposition ensures that any terrorist outrages that do occur will be directed only against the United States and those perceived to be genuinely fighting alongside it against the Islamists. The upside to this strategy: should the United States enjoy spectacular successes in its struggle, the bystanders will be able to share in the security gains without having committed anything in men or material.
The global toll taken by natural catostrophes is falling, as the following quotation from the AdamSmithee blog indicates:
From 1994 to 2003, disasters killed 673,070 people. That compares with 1,021,605 reported killed from 1984 to 1993.
That's still an awfully high number, but to put it in context, consider that malaria alone carries more than that many lives away prematurely each year. Floods and earthquakes make for dramatic television, but if we are serious about reducing the scale of death and suffering in the world, there are better targets out there to concentrate on.
I'm willing to stick my neck out and predict that John F. Kerry will be the next President of the United States. How do I know this? Just look at the TradeSports numbers over the last week; Bush has been heading straight downhill, and this al QaQaa story isn't about to go off the air anytime soon. Anyone tempted to take comfort in the (similarly declining) IEM figures should note that the IEM contract is for who takes the popular vote; but as we should all be aware by now, that isn't what really matters in the end ...
So suggests Der Spiegel, quoting an unnamed Palestinian official. Whatever it is he's down with, I won't be sad to see him go. I know one isn't supposed to say such things, but in Arafat's case (as with Castro), it's simply the truth. Nor am I alone in feeling as I do - his own people aren't exactly overcome with grief at the prospect, it would seem.
Yasser Arafat has squandered chance after chance to bring his followers a lasting peace, and to wrap it all up, his insistence on holding onto all the reins now leaves the prospect of a nasty power-struggle on his demise. I think it says everything one needs to know about Arafat's legacy that the Palestinians are worse off today than they were even at the height of the intifida during the 1980s.
From Marginal Revolution comes the following revealing information about male vs. female psychology:
Psychologists Elaine Hatfield and Russ Clark had actors (independently judged to be attractive) approach students of the opposite sex with a variety of lines and recorded their success rates. The lines were:
1) I've been noticing you around campus and I find you attractive. Would you go out with me tonight?
2) I've been noticing you around campus and I find you attractive. Would you come over to my apartment tonight?
3) I've been noticing you around campus and I find you attractive. Would you sleep with me tonight?
Another urban legend meets its demise. Remember that New Yorker story from a few months back proclaiming that Americans had stopped growing taller? Turns out it isn't true. Unfortunately, upwards isn't the only direction Americans are growing ...
Foreign Policy: The war against poverty is threatened by friendly fire. A swarm of media-savvy Western activists has descended upon aid agencies, staging protests to block projects that allegedly exploit the developing world. The protests serve professional agitators by keeping their pet causes in the headlines. But they do not always serve the millions of people who live without clean water or electricity. Click here to read the story (by Sebastian Mallaby).
I think the following cartoon (also via Mahalonobis) says it all in a succinct manner.
[image deleted]
To all would-be activists, I offer the following words of advice: First, Do No Harm. In other words, if you don't know what you're doing, perhaps you shouldn't do anything at all: in particular, taking the odd economics course before embarking on a career in activism might be a good idea, and if you aren't willing to put even that much effort into preparing yourself for your task, everyone would be better off in the long run if you just stayed home.
Why are American medical interns pushed to do 120 hour weeks, with the risks such measures entail in terms of mistakes made and lives lost or permanently damaged? Jonathan Wilde explains why: as you might expect, it comes down to a matter of incentives.
The number of practicing physicians in this country is not determined by the market like the number of practicing engineers, architects, or plumbers. Rather, it is strictly limited by law. Who has the incentive to limit the number of practicing physicians? Currently practicing physicians who do not want to face competition. Yet, the work still has to get done. Rather than work harder themselves to make up for the paucity of workers, they shift the burden to residents. Why do the residents have an incentive to put up with difficult working conditions? Because once they finish residency, they will be the ones enjoying monopoly privilege while future residents suffer in their stead. They have an incentive to choose delayed gratification.
It is common to point to out-of-control litigation as one reason why medical insurance costs are as high as they are in the United States, but an arguably far more important reason is because of the cartelized nature of the medical profession. The supply of doctors is artificially restricted by several means, including the imposition of ridiculous college requirements (there is no sane reason why one shouldn't proceed from high school straight to medical school), the imposition of onerous barriers to domestic practice by foreign-trained doctors, and the internship-as-hazing procedure that Jonathan Wilde describes.
American doctors aren't by far the best paid in the world either because they happen to be so much better than those elsewhere, or because the marginal cost of supplying yet more doctors is so steep. If Kerry's administration is serious about ensuring affordable healthcare for all, perhaps it might start by weakening the powers currently bestowed by the government on the AMA to enforce its monopoly on healthcare provision.
Recent Comments