Random Thoughts

I've been tending to just collect clips of what I want to write about instead of just writing them due to a lack of time. So, I decided to just squish up a whole bunch of longer posts into shorter ones. Here's what I'm thinking about (be prepared for some politics).

Dengue fever stinks.

 There's no cure, it's potentially fatal, and its region grows larger day by day. But science is cool! Scientists have recently discovered a way to infect mosquitoes with a bacteria that renders them unable to carry the dengue virus, and have released hosts of these mosquitoes into the wild. The idea is that these mosquitoes will breed with wild mosquitoes (is that the right term?), resulting in offspring that can no longer carry the virus as well. Theoretically, this could eventually halt dengue virus altogether.

Eating processed red meats has been linked to heart failure and early death. Click here.

 In a recent study in Sweden, men who ate processed red meats (the meat that comes in that little plastic tub) had an 8% increased chance of death, and a 38% increased chance of heart failure compared to men that don't eat processed red meat. Scary. An earlier study showed that those who ate plastic tub meat had a 23% increased risk of stroke, and a 18% increased risk of cerebral infarction. Lesson learned. Avoid processed red meat.

Medical tourism from China is booming (bad for China, good for us)

China, a country known for its nationalized healthcare, is losing patients to overseas doctors. Why? Because nationalized health care is a stupid idea. Chinese civilians are realizing that their current healthcare situation stinks, that their doctors provide lackluster care, that corruption is present, and that they will suffer the consequences personally. As a result they're traveling abroad for important surgeries and procedures.

Many U.S. states are contemplating minimal wage increases

Resulting in employees who were previously above minimum-wage want a raise as well, resulting in everything you could ever want to buy increasing in price as well, resulting in people getting placed right back where they were at in the first place. Plus, there's inflation (the American dollar isn't worth as much). If you want to make above minimum wage, make something of yourself. The disgusting thing here isn't that people want to make more money, but that they want to be rewarded for their poor life decisions. If you want to make more money, work harder, earn a promotion, or go to school. Life isn't a Sam's Club on Sunday afternoon (ooo, free samples).

Ebola is spreading

Which is kind of spooky. Scientists are working like crazy on vaccines at the moment though.

Calling insurance companies is my new hobby

I got into a car wreck about two weeks ago (their fault, not mine), and ever since then I've spent about an hour on the phone every day trying to get the insurance stuff straightened out.

AND...We're looking for a new apartment

That's my other new hobby. Why can't my new hobbies be fun?