21 Responses to “From the Desk of JayBandit: 3-9-08”

1. #  kofi the it’s play or get played 3/10/2008 1:45 AM

   Thank you, JB, for another week (or so) in review. I appreciated the clever twists on news I was already aware of, and was pleasently surprised to see I was actually able to miss a few stories.  

2. #  JayBandit 3/10/2008 6:51 AM

   I started using Google Reader to read all of my favorite news sources. It is extremely easy to tag articles you want to share with others, or "star" if you want to really remember it later.
   
   Only one of the blogs I read doesn't work with it (basically any RSS workable site will work), so it just makes life easier.
   
   I suggest you check it out.
   
   JB  

3. #  J. Prescott 3/10/2008 10:34 AM

   The cook county review was written by cousin-in-law.
   
   Just saying.  

4. #  Augie 3/10/2008 11:19 AM

   The organ donation thing is still a little wacky. I still think Chris Rock nailed it when he said that no one really wants to be an organ donor.
   
   But this seems like a pretty extreme excuse. Doctors have a duty to first do no harm. I would love to have an aggressive debate with some selfish chump about not being an organ donor b/c of this remote possibility  

5. #  JayBandit 3/10/2008 12:20 PM

   Augie,
   
   Clearly you wouldn't be very objective in your argument since you've already considered people like my own mother selfish chumps.
   
   When I turned 16 my mom didn't want me being an organ donor for this very reason. She was afraid that if I got in some accident a doctor might not go to the extreme to save my life in order to harvest my organs. I don't think it is that outrageous of an argument to tell you the truth.
   
   If I was a doctor and I saw a person that had a 99% chance of dying, and saw they were an organ donor, I'd subconsciously, if not actively, do my best to preserve the organs over the person at that point. I don't think everyone that would do so is as bad as this guy in the article, but I think it would be a natural tendency to preserve the greater good...the logical solution if you will.
   
   JB  

6. #  thetodd 3/10/2008 4:17 PM

   Neat stuff. A few comments:
   
   I struggle with the organ donation issue, too. When I last renewed my license, I said yes when they asked if I wanted to be a donor, but I still haven't signed my license.
   
   An obvious solution would be to prevent doctors from learning your donation status until it's too late for them to incorporate that information into their behavior. However, this solution is so obvious that I surely must be missing some reason why doctors must learn your donation status before you die. Anyone know what I'm missing?
   
   Also, does anyone know approximately what percentage of the population would become organ donors if they weren't scared of getting substandard care? I'm just trying to get a feel for how big this problem is.
   
   Illini hockey - Awesome! Does anyone know how big a gap there is between AHSA and NCAA teams? I wonder how they'd fare against the other strong Big Ten teams like Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
   
   Hurley's maid - This article confused me. If the maid was an illegal immigrant (or if, for whatever reason, it was illegal for her to work or for Hurley to hire her), I am surprised this was not mentioned in the article. If not, then I do not understand why she accepted a job for less than 1/3rd of minimum wage. Is it possible the maid took this job so that she could later show that she "suffered" in hope of later getting a big court-ordered payday?  

7. #  illinikc33 3/10/2008 4:24 PM

   Todd, the gap is enormous. As good as these kids are, games w/ teams like Minn, WI, MI, etc. would end in huge blowouts. I don't know offhand of any UIUC players even in the NHL, but I could name 2 former WI players on the Blackhawks this season; there are probably many others from D-1 programs in the NHL as well.
   
   That being said, I would like to actually see UIUC play WI for fun; it would be a high-scoring affair at least.  

8. #  JayBandit 3/10/2008 8:41 PM

   Todd,
   
   First, the Illini would be crushed by scholarship players as KC stated.
   
   The goofy thing about the organ donor thing is that even if you have a signed license it doesn't give them the right to take your organs. They have to get approval from your relatives to actually go in. This is to protect people in the rare instance when someone changes their mind at the last instant. That being said, there is nothing preventing the doctor from taking the organs of someone who does not have "organ donor" on their card if it is approved by their family members.
   
   I don't think the maid was an illegal immigrant...I just think that she was ignorant to America's laws because she was probably brought over here by Hurley's husband. Either way, their both pieces of crap...with their combined wealth, they could have paid her significantly more.
   
   JB  

9. #  thetodd 3/10/2008 9:10 PM

   This post has been removed by the author.  

10. #  thetodd 3/10/2008 9:12 PM

    Thanks for the hockey info.
    
    I tried to find more information about D'Souza (the maid), and indeed, she was brought over from India by Hurley's husband and used to work for his family's company there.
    
    In that case, not only was she probably ignorant of British minimum wage and other employment regulations, but she might've also been afraid to complain or quit, lest she damage her relationship with some powerful people.  

11. #  Allan Niemerg 3/10/2008 11:32 PM

    So much good stuff here.
    
    - On the global warming story: Please. One cool year does not make a trend. But, I think that global warming, while true in the sense that average global temperatures are rising, has been mislabeled. While global average temperatures have been rising, one likely consequence of that could be lower temperatures in specific areas (for example, if the thermohaline circulation were to stop, perhaps as a consequence of massive Greenland freshwater melt, then Europe could become considerable colder). Global warming doesn’t mean uniform warming, nor does it mean the end of climate variability. So, again, one year doesn’t change anything.
    
    - On organ donations: I’m not an organ donor, and I don’t plan to be. It’s not just the possibility that doctors might not have my interests in mind when I’m near death; it is also that I don’t like the fact that my family would have no control over the organs after my death, except for the decision to donate them. What if I, or they, don’t approve of the method who determines who gets the organs? Shouldn’t I have some say in how such a decision would be made? And, yes, why shouldn’t my family be allowed to sell my organs? It’s obnoxious that organs, something of extraordinary value, cannot be made to benefit a family that has tragically lost a loved one. So, until I feel that I have some level of control over what happens to my body after my death, I will not sign myself away.
    
    - On the Hurley maid: Was the women forced to work for her? I’m not asking a rhetorical question, the article, as far as I can see, doesn’t say. At first blush, if the maid is making $3 and minimum wage in the country is $10, then thought sounds like exploitation because it doesn’t explain why she didn’t just walk-out the door and get a $10 job. But was she receiving more than just cash? Was she receiving living quarters and food, and the reasonable expectation that Hurley would pay if she became ill? That might all add up to much more than the $3 she was given in actual cash—which the article suggested she was remitting to India. So this maid might have been better off working for Hurley then what she would have received had she worked in India. So I think it’s possible this article might say more about the illogic of “minimum wages” than any “evil” by Hurley. But still, what a cheapskate.
    
    Allan  

12. #  Segen 3/11/2008 12:13 AM

    Speaking of organ "donations"...check out this video from TheOnion:
    
    Organ Donor Funny Video  

13. #  kofi the reminding all you walking zombies about the bets we committed to regarding global warming 3/11/2008 1:38 AM

    Alan,
    
    It is true that a one year decline does not a trend make. But does a one year decline which literally wipes away all previous average temperature increases break a trend?  

14. #  thetodd 3/11/2008 2:50 AM

    Allan,
    
    She was indeed a live-in maid. She apparently also got some trips (I am not sure how many) to India paid for.
    
    I don't think I understand your position on organ donation. While I, too, would appreciate having more control over the process, for the time being, I don't. But I don't have to boycott - I can still weigh the other two alternatives and decide which one is the lesser evil.
    
    I am not sure how a boycott will help to bring the change you desire unless you can persuade many others to join you. The reason I feel that way is that I think your reason for not donating is an uncommon one. Legislators are probably unaware or unconcerned about people with your position and probably aren't thinking of you when they think about changing organ donation laws, but they would if there was a visible movement of boycotters.  

15. #  thetodd 3/11/2008 3:06 AM

    A general global warming comment:
    
    While a drop in temperature is nice and seems to at least delay the hypothetical disaster scenarios, I think it's still wise to devote significant resources to understanding how the environment responds to (potential and actual) human meddling.
    
    I think our ability to manipulate the environment will grow with time, and even if we aren't doing anything serious to it at the moment, we might sometime down the road.
    
    Also, the temperature changes by themselves seem to me to be only very weak evidence in support of (or against, when temperatures drop) man-made warming. We don't know what the temperatures would have been without human intervention.  

16. #  Allan Niemerg 3/11/2008 11:22 AM

    thetodd,
    
    I never said I was boycotting, I just said I wasn't going to participate. I don't have any problem with others choosing to be organ donors, and I think an honorable thing to do.
    
    But what I think is telling, is that despite the fact that it generally felt that organ donation is a good thing, is that participation rates are pretty low. What does that say about how people really feel?  

17. #  JayBandit 3/11/2008 11:38 AM

    Allan,
    
    The point of including the Global "Cooling" article was to point out how erratic the temperature change in this world really is. In the 1970's scientists "knew" that we were on our way to the next ice age. Amazingly, a few decades later we "know" that the world is heading for outrageous warming.
    
    Perhaps the politically-motivated portions of the science community should be a bit less zealous in making their conclusions.
    
    2nd, your last comment to Todd was exactly my point. People SAY they love organ donation...but not that many people ACT on it.  

18. #  Allan Niemerg 3/11/2008 1:18 PM

    Jaybandit,
    
    The point of including the Global "Cooling" article was to point out how erratic the temperature change in this world really is.
    
    Well it is my understanding that most theories of global warming predict incresed climate variation, so really cold years are completely consistent with the current understanding of global warming. That said, I don't think one really cold year or one really hot year should be accorded much weight. It's the trend that matters.
    
    In the 1970's scientists "knew" that we were on our way to the next ice age. Amazingly, a few decades later we "know" that the world is heading for outrageous warming.
    
    I don't find this criticism terribly compelling. It's pretty easy to find scientists who were wrong in the past. The tools of climatology have become considerably more sophisticated in 30 years.
    
    
    Perhaps the politically-motivated portions of the science community should be a bit less zealous in making their conclusions.
    
    I think this is a fair criticism. Understanding the climate is difficult enough, but it seems like many of the participants in the debate including scientists, skeptics, and policy makers, all have incentives to distort, exagerate, and use hyperbole when discussing this issue. Everybody seems to think that the stakes are too high to calmly and rationally study the issue. So whatever the truth of the issue, I don't have high hopes that society will adopt very good policies in response.
    
    2nd, your last comment to Todd was exactly my point. People SAY they love organ donation...but not that many people ACT on it.
    
    So it was. Good point.
    
    
    Allan  

19. #  thetodd 3/11/2008 1:39 PM

    Ah, sorry Allan, I just misread your sentence "So, until I feel that I have some level of control over what happens to my body after my death, I will not sign myself away." as something like "Well, since I can't have it the exactly the way I want it, I won't have it at all".
    
    About people not acting on organ donation: I wonder how many people would actively opt out if everyone was a donor by default. I don't actually want to make donating the default. I just wonder how much of the inaction can be attributed to apathy. I guess I should go find out if any other countries have an opt-out system instead of an opt-in one.  

20. #  thetodd 3/11/2008 1:59 PM

    If anyone else was curious, opt-out is already the default in many European countries. The argument is usually framed as "informed consent" vs. "presumed consent".
    
    On this pro-presumed-consent article, my apathy question is answered:
    
    'Abadie and Gay did a detailed regression analysis comparing 22 countries over 10 years taking account of determinants that might affect donation rates: gross domestic product per capita, health expenditure, religious beliefs, legislative system, and number of deaths from traffic crashes and cerebrovascular diseases.7 They concluded that "When other determinants of donation rates are accounted for, presumed consent countries have roughly 25-30% higher donation rates than informed consent countries."'  

21. #  JayBandit 3/11/2008 7:05 PM

    Allan,
    
    I suggest you check out the articles that Brian and I wrote debating this topic...
    
    I'm going to add the links into the post in a few minutes.