I know I should probably stop posting links to stories in the NY Times, but this one caught my eye. I am a big sports fan, and it is hard to ignore all the performance enhancing banter going on. This story, by Gina Kolata, is great because the basis for it is two scientific studies. What I am more interested in, however, is what the future holds.
I believe that the cheaters will be gaining ground on the anti-doping agencies. Recombinant technologies are getting fancier and better, partly driven by health-care industry. The National Institutes of Health is pushing hard for patient-targeted therapeutics, using genomic analysis of the diseases affecting an individual. As such, it is likely that in the near future, therapies and performance enhancing regimens will be tailored to the individual, making them harder to be detected. And we are not even talking about the day when genetic engineering goes mainstream. Yes, some day it will be possible to edit your DNA, whether for medical purposes or enhancing your performance.
In short, the future will be a scary place for ethics surrounding the athletic world.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Legally Speaking, Duke Sucks
If there was any doubt about how much dook sucks, especially in the football field just read this article.
Let it be known that the courts agree that dook blows.
Let it be known that the courts agree that dook blows.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Vintage MJ
I was reading about this dunk, against the Maryland Terps, and even though most of you have seen it a zillion times here it is:
Going Bananas
I like bananas. They are very much portable, tasty, a good source of potassium and other vitamins, and fairly inexpensive. If you are like me, you would be bummed if bananas went missing at the grocery store. This may actually happen. Dan Koeppel wrote a book, and a very interesting piece in the NY Times about bananas.
When growing up I was a very picky eater, but I always found bananas to be good eats. In Mexico, my mother would frequently buy these little bananas called "Dominicos." They kind of look like the little bananas on the right of this picture. Nowadays, Nat and I frequently supplement our daily work lunches with an apple, a banana, and a yogurt. I wonder what we would eat otherwise if the bananas went missing?
When growing up I was a very picky eater, but I always found bananas to be good eats. In Mexico, my mother would frequently buy these little bananas called "Dominicos." They kind of look like the little bananas on the right of this picture. Nowadays, Nat and I frequently supplement our daily work lunches with an apple, a banana, and a yogurt. I wonder what we would eat otherwise if the bananas went missing?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Wisdom-less
Friday afternoon I had my four wisdom teeth removed. My top 2 wisdom teeth were fully out, and judging by the pain since, came out without much of a fight. My bottom left tooth, was poking out about a third of the way and my right one was coming at a 90 degree angle. As such, the place where my bottom two teeth used to be have been slower in healing, but at day 4 post surgery, I think I am moving in the right direction to full recovery. With my medical checkup coming up Friday morning, I think the top 4 things I will remember from my wisdom tooth surgery are:
1. Vomiting on the way home after the surgery. Since I had fasted since the night before, the vomit was all clear except for the gausses that had been wedged in my mouth and a bit of blood that came along for the ride. I am blaming the anesthesia in combination with a hot car ride.
2. Foreshadowing to Nat taking care of me when I am old and sick. My lovely wife took great care of me by making me lots of milkshakes and beverages, grabbing my meds, making soft foods, tending to me, and keeping me company.
3. Watching the Food Network on Saturday night was incredibly painful. Let's just say that when you cannot eat but soft foods, a TV show about BBQ sandwiches, fried chicken, etc. is incredibly painful to watch.
4. Playing lots of Xbox. As I was to limit my physical activity, I decided to spend a good chunk of my weekend playing Call of Duty 4 and Madden 08 on my Xbox 360. It was a great reminder that even though I am 28, I can still act like a 10 year old every now and again.
1. Vomiting on the way home after the surgery. Since I had fasted since the night before, the vomit was all clear except for the gausses that had been wedged in my mouth and a bit of blood that came along for the ride. I am blaming the anesthesia in combination with a hot car ride.
2. Foreshadowing to Nat taking care of me when I am old and sick. My lovely wife took great care of me by making me lots of milkshakes and beverages, grabbing my meds, making soft foods, tending to me, and keeping me company.
3. Watching the Food Network on Saturday night was incredibly painful. Let's just say that when you cannot eat but soft foods, a TV show about BBQ sandwiches, fried chicken, etc. is incredibly painful to watch.
4. Playing lots of Xbox. As I was to limit my physical activity, I decided to spend a good chunk of my weekend playing Call of Duty 4 and Madden 08 on my Xbox 360. It was a great reminder that even though I am 28, I can still act like a 10 year old every now and again.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Insurances
I was going to reply to Nate's comment about my meeting with a higher up about our postdoctoral insurance plan, but I figured I'd just post an entry to discuss some extra bits.
The meeting went ok, although I learned very little new information. As expected I was told that having the crappier health insurance, combined with a bigger paycheck, and lesser benefits was better or no worse than employee insurance.
What I learned was:
When one is getting paid through a training grant or fellowship, not taxes, social security, FICA, etc. is deducted. Also, the insurance is paid for by the overhead of the grant, so the individual has no monthly contributions to the health insurance deducted monthly. So the thinking is that, even though we don't get matched retirement (up to 5% by Vandy), disability benefits, dental, vision, or life insurance (which regular employees have deducted according to how much coverage they choose for themselves), we get extra monies every month that at the end of the year add up to about $3500 (off a $40K/year postdoc salary).
The thinking is that one can then take that extra money and invest it and that the returns would be equal or greater than a regular employee would get through their retirement. The catch on all of this is that this does not take into account if the person actually needs to use the insurance, to say get their wisdom teeth pulled, or some procedure that is not covered by the insurance. This specially stinks if itwould have been covered with the employee's insurance. This puts postdocs, especially those with kids, at a greater disadvantage by having to pay large sums of monies at once.
What really got me was the part when the higher ups were trying to argue that paying for a dental plan would not be smart because who really goes to the dentist? In other words, why pay for a monthly dental plan plus the premiums that you are not going to use, at least not all that often according to them. Another postdoc then mentioned that getting 2 dental cleanings and x-rays would offset the $120/year basic dental plan offered to employees. In my case, the $30/month plan (for Nat and myself) would have saved us about $1000, or half the cost of getting my teeth pulled:
Cost of surgery: $2000
Dental plan ($30/month): $360
Upper end premium for 4 wisdom teeth: ~$740
I do want to point out that this is not entirely Vandy's fault. The training grants and fellowships were created by Congress, and the way they were created, as training fellowships, prevents universities from deducting FICA from the pay. As such, universities cannot treat postdocs as employees. This especially hurts when the university, like Vandy, has very good benefits for its employees and makes the paltry postdoc insurance seem lame.
Lastly, one scary thing that was brought up is that our current insurance only covers up to $250K in medical expenses per person. While this number is quite large, I believe that certain medical treatments, although rare especially considering the age of most postdocs, could leave a postdoc in dire straights and with HUGE medical bills.
While I do not claim to be an insurance expert, I will say that these last few days have reinforced my belief in a nationwide insurance plan. I am even ok paying for other people to get treatment, even if they arose because of bad decision-making in their part, simply because I believe that if you spread the cost over a large number of people (a.k.a. the entire country), the cost to us individuals, financially, morally, and otherwise, would be a lot smaller.
Then again, I can always move to Canada.
The meeting went ok, although I learned very little new information. As expected I was told that having the crappier health insurance, combined with a bigger paycheck, and lesser benefits was better or no worse than employee insurance.
What I learned was:
When one is getting paid through a training grant or fellowship, not taxes, social security, FICA, etc. is deducted. Also, the insurance is paid for by the overhead of the grant, so the individual has no monthly contributions to the health insurance deducted monthly. So the thinking is that, even though we don't get matched retirement (up to 5% by Vandy), disability benefits, dental, vision, or life insurance (which regular employees have deducted according to how much coverage they choose for themselves), we get extra monies every month that at the end of the year add up to about $3500 (off a $40K/year postdoc salary).
The thinking is that one can then take that extra money and invest it and that the returns would be equal or greater than a regular employee would get through their retirement. The catch on all of this is that this does not take into account if the person actually needs to use the insurance, to say get their wisdom teeth pulled, or some procedure that is not covered by the insurance. This specially stinks if itwould have been covered with the employee's insurance. This puts postdocs, especially those with kids, at a greater disadvantage by having to pay large sums of monies at once.
What really got me was the part when the higher ups were trying to argue that paying for a dental plan would not be smart because who really goes to the dentist? In other words, why pay for a monthly dental plan plus the premiums that you are not going to use, at least not all that often according to them. Another postdoc then mentioned that getting 2 dental cleanings and x-rays would offset the $120/year basic dental plan offered to employees. In my case, the $30/month plan (for Nat and myself) would have saved us about $1000, or half the cost of getting my teeth pulled:
Cost of surgery: $2000
Dental plan ($30/month): $360
Upper end premium for 4 wisdom teeth: ~$740
I do want to point out that this is not entirely Vandy's fault. The training grants and fellowships were created by Congress, and the way they were created, as training fellowships, prevents universities from deducting FICA from the pay. As such, universities cannot treat postdocs as employees. This especially hurts when the university, like Vandy, has very good benefits for its employees and makes the paltry postdoc insurance seem lame.
Lastly, one scary thing that was brought up is that our current insurance only covers up to $250K in medical expenses per person. While this number is quite large, I believe that certain medical treatments, although rare especially considering the age of most postdocs, could leave a postdoc in dire straights and with HUGE medical bills.
While I do not claim to be an insurance expert, I will say that these last few days have reinforced my belief in a nationwide insurance plan. I am even ok paying for other people to get treatment, even if they arose because of bad decision-making in their part, simply because I believe that if you spread the cost over a large number of people (a.k.a. the entire country), the cost to us individuals, financially, morally, and otherwise, would be a lot smaller.
Then again, I can always move to Canada.
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