via fireblog (“Things that were or are now on fire in New York”)
Steeple 2
@Balut: “Nothing keeps the CCU nurses on their toes like my death rattle ringtone.”
And he’s not kidding: http://j.mp/dnT0mk
Testing iPhone 4 and Camera+.
“We are creating the Freelancers Insurance Company from the ground up. It is designed to meet the portability needs of independent workers…By building an insurance company that works, we can show policy makers how they can help build the next safety net…and by doing that, we are showing that we are a powerful political constituency…FIC is a new model that gives us control of our own future…we want to innovate and pioneer new ways to get the healthcare you need…this is the first step in building a new social safety net that will enable independent workers to maintain high quality and affordable health insurance without corporate sponsorship.”
Do you see why I’m extremely excited about working with the Freelancers Union?
This isn’t a union founded on a factory floor in 1889. This is a technology platform started in 1995 that currently connects 140,000 members to portable benefits. There are 43 million independent workers in America. We’ve got room to grow.
For the past month, I’ve been meeting with health professionals all over NYC to hear their stories, their ideas, and their desires to create a more meaningful professional life.
For the next month, I’m meeting with freelancers to hear their stories, their ideas, and their desires for health insurance that truly meets their needs. If you would like to meet up in NYC, please email me.
iPhone 4 review
Andy Ihnatko’s detailed writeup.
Ground Zero Panorama at Night
In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power. It’s a little like prayer. Elevator design is rooted in deception—to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command.
Once an alcoholic starts drinking heavily, the mesolimbic pathway responds by cutting down its production of dopamine. Alcohol also messes with the balance between two other neurotransmitters: GABA and glutamate. Alcohol spurs the release of more GABA, which inhibits neural activity, and clamps down on glutamate, which stimulates the brain. Combined with a shortage of dopamine, this makes the reward system increasingly lethargic, so it becomes harder and harder to rouse into action. That’s why long-term boozers must knock back seven or eight whiskeys just to feel “normal.” And why little else in life brings hardcore alcoholics pleasure of any kind.
That’s 15 hours of battery life even using FaceTime — which, BTW: OMG.
