“When next summer’s Olympics roll around, the Beijing Weather Modification Office will be poised to intercept incoming clouds, draining them before they get to the festivities. No fewer than 32,000 people nationwide are employed by the Weather Modification Office — “some of them farmers, who are paid $100 a month to handle anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers” loaded with cloud-seeding compounds.”
Sourced from Marginal Revolution.
One of my favorite comedies, Scrubs, is starting it’s seventh and final season tonight on NBC. According to doctor friends and families, this show represents life in a hospital better than any of its competitors.
What has been interesting is the risks the show has in many areas:
Enjoy the last 18 episodes, because this will be the last time you will get to watch this fantastic show. That is, if you don’t count the other 10 times a day the show is on via syndication…
A fascinating study took place that followed the earnings of 18 strippers over almost 300 shifts. It shows two things:
Read more details about the study here. Read the actual study here.
(Sorry, no picture for this post…)
I recently spent a miserable 2 hours and 15 minutes at the Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Licensing, and wanted to share my experience in case anyone in the Mayor Daley’s bureaucracy is listening.
My experience
Our company was recently given a fine for not having and posting a City of Chicago Business License. Well, we didn’t know we were supposed to have one. So, fine, I was going to figure this out.
I go to the city’s website and request to schedule an appointment online. The website says “Your appointment will be confirmed via email within one (1) business day from receipt of the original request.” Two business days come and go, and I hear nothing, so I decide to call them.
Two days later, I go for my appointment. In preparation, I had spent 30-40 minutes gathering information for and completing the 2 page application. I arrive, check in, and am told to wait in the waiting area with about 30 chairs, 15 other people, and CNBC blaring at a ridiculous volume. A giant painting of Mayor Daley watches over us paternally, and signs below him indicate in big letters that
10 minutes after arriving, the “Business Consultant” with whom I have an appointment (let’s call her Joan) calls me in. I sit in Joan’s cubicle and give her my 2 pages of forms. I then proceed to watch quietly as she very slowly copies the information on my forms into her computer. During the process, she asks me to clarify a few things (e.g. “What are the home addresses of the members? What does this word say?”) This takes 30 minutes. To enter… 2… pages… of… forms…
Joan then tells me to wait in the waiting area for a response, which will be approximately 20 minutes.
40 minutes later, as I’m trying to figure out why its taking so long, Joan finally calls me back in. We sit at her cubicle again, and she explains to me that the city’s zoning division could not approve our city license without asking a single follow-up question: do we do repairs on-site? No, no repairs. “Okay, I will convey that information to them. You will need to wait outside for another 20 minutes for the zoning department to review your answer and approve your license.“
What?
So, I head back out into the waiting area, where members of a CNBC panel are yelling at each other about whether mortgage rates will rise or fall. This time I notice that, while waiting for a response, she had called in two other people to help them out. I’m all for parallel processing, but if what could have taken less than 5 minutes to get a response now requires me to wait 30 minutes because Joan decides to see two other people, I tend to get frustrated.
Joan finally appears. She tells me that the license has been approved, and I can either wait for it to be printed, or have it mailed to our business. I figured, since I’m here, I will wait. What’s a few more minutes?
I pay for our license ($250), taking another 5 minutes, and sit back down to wait.
I should have had it mailed. Another 20 minutes pass before I am called back up and given a license.
Why is this frustrating?
I spent over 2 hours at the Chicago Business Affairs & Licensing Department. ~75% of my time there was spent waiting, the other 25% spent watching Joan type in my information. My company had to pay me to wait, and my tax dollars had to pay for Joan to be an overpaid order entry monkey.
Why could I not have just typed this form into a website directly? Sure, some people will not be able to follow simple instructions online, and will require someone from the city to walk them through it. But my guess is that this comprises no more than 30% of business owners who come into the department.
Come on Chicago, get with it! The cost of this license wasn’t $250. It was $250 + my >2 hours + the “Business Consultant”‘s time + overhead maintaining a giant Business Affairs & licensing Department.
The kicker
Two days after this ordeal, I get a call from the Business Affairs & Licensing department. They are calling to respond to the original website submission, to help me schedule an appointment. Remember that one? The one that was supposed to be “confirmed via email within one (1) business day from receipt of the original request.”? Right. It took four business days to give me a call.
You may have been comfortable not knowing this existed, but I’m about to clue you in on a new drug. It’s called Requip, and it can treat Restless Leg Syndrome. That’s right, you read correctly.
Straight from TreatRLS.com:
Do you have trouble falling asleep because of strange sensations in your legs? Do you dread long business meetings, going to the movies, or traveling on an airplane because you know your restless legs won’t let you sit still?
How did I learn of this new medical condition? The way I learn about all new medical conditions these days: a TV commercial telling me that I may have it, then telling me how I might cure it.
The best part of the website is the warning:
Also tell your doctor if you experience new or increased gambling…
You may have been comfortable not knowing this existed, but I’m about to clue you in on a new drug. It’s called Requip, and it can treat Restless Leg Syndrome. That’s right, you read correctly.
Straight from TreatRLS.com:
Do you have trouble falling asleep because of strange sensations in your legs? Do you dread long business meetings, going to the movies, or traveling on an airplane because you know your restless legs won’t let you sit still?
How did I learn of this new medical condition? The way I learn about all new medical conditions these days: a TV commercial scaring me into believing I may have it, then telling me how I might cure it.
The best part of the commercial is the warning:
Also tell your doctor if you experience new or increased gambling…
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While I’m no expert in fashion, even I could tell that John McCain needs a tailored suit. Pictures below from his appearance on The Daily Show dated approximately August 16. Images captured with my Neuros OSD.
New research concludes that plain soap is as effective as antibacterial soap in the consumer setting.
[W]ashing hands with an antibacterial soap was no more effective in preventing infectious illness than plain soap. Moreover, antibacterial soaps at formulations sold to the public do not remove any more bacteria from the hands during washing than plain soaps.
Anojja, this one’s for you.
This article from the Economistophile’s Marginal Revolution (emphasis my own). To important to summarize, so I will copy the whole thing.
Cable and satellite television have grown rapidly throughout the developing world. The availability of cable and satellite television exposes viewers to new information about the outside world, which may affect individual attitudes and behaviors. This paper explores the effect of the introduction of cable television on gender attitudes in rural India. Using a three-year individual-level panel dataset, we find that the introduction of cable television is associated with improvements in women’s status. We find significant increases in reported autonomy, decreases in the reported acceptability of beating and decreases in reported son preference. We also find increases in female school enrollment and decreases in fertility (primarily via increased birth spacing). The effects are large, equivalent… to about five years of education in the cross section, and move gender attitudes of individuals in rural areas much closer to those in urban areas. We argue that the results are not driven by pre-existing differential trends. These results have important policy implications, as India and other countries attempt to decrease bias against women.
I love this idea.
In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat) is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they’ll be charged $5 for each standard they don’t meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they’ll be charged another $5 in each check.
In short, the healthy will not subsidize the unhealthy as much.
Question 1: Is this move legal? The article hints that this is within the guidelines of HIPAA. However, is this/could this be a form of discrimination? There is more discussion of this at the end of the article.
Question 2: Will these penalties even matter? The average consumer carries over $8000 of credit card debt, probably at a very high interest rate. There are many many options to consolidate that debt to lower interest options and save thousands in interest per year. Would a consumer that does not take charge of their credit card debt, notice and take charge of deductions off of their paychecks?
Despite the outstanding questions, I applaud Clarian Health for taking the lead in fighting rising costs.