P.S. HuffSunday, August 24, 2008
This piece in the Wall Street Journal vividly illustrates all that's wrong with drug paternalism. By blocking access to potentially life-saving medications, the Food and Drug Administration can do enormous harm:
Why do terminally ill patients have to wait so long to get access to the only treatments that hold any promise of saving their lives? And why is it not their right to decide?
These are good questions, and ones that most people never consider.
One obvious solution would be to allow drugs to go to the market without FDA approval. Patients could then weigh for themselves the costs and benefits of using unapproved medications in particular cases. Alas, that's probably a non-starter politically.
P.S. HuffSunday, August 17, 2008
One of the defining moments of American democracy is surely the ratification of the Constitution. But surprisingly little attention has been paid to the election of delegates to the various state conventions.
Happily, some data does survive. Relying on the excellent Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, I've assembled the known vote totals for one state—New York—and created a convenient map to go along with them. All of this can be found here (note that a number of Anti-Federalist delegates ultimately voted yes on ratification).
If I can get my hands on the data, I may add coverage of other states in the future. But for now, New York is alone.
P.S. HuffWednesday, August 06, 2008
Modern English, as we know, does not have distinct second-person pronouns for singular and plural usage. A speaker's audience is always "you," regardless of whether that audience is a massive crowd or a single person.
It was not always so. English grammar, in an earlier time, distinguished between "thou" and "thee" (singular) and "ye" and "you" (plural). That this is a useful distinction to have, is attested to by the prevalence of such phrases as "you all" and "you guys" in modern, everyday speech. When the plurality or singularity of the audience is not obvious from context alone, some clarifying mechanism must be found.
"Thou" and its variants were, alas, buried long ago. How it happened is an interesting story. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed. 2004) (entry for y'all, as retrieved from Dictionary.com),
The distinction between singular thou/thee and plural ye/you began to blur as early as the 13th century, when the plural form was often used for the singular in formal contexts or to indicate politeness, much as the French use tu for singular and familiar "you," and vous for both plural and polite singular "you." In English, the object form you gradually came to be used in subject position as well, so that the four forms thou, thee, ye, and you collapsed into one form, you. Thou and thee were quite rare in educated speech in the 16th century, and they disappeared completely from standard English in the 18th.
And so a useful feature of English grammar was lost.
P.S. HuffSaturday, August 02, 2008
From the Associated Press (link):
Zimbabweans dug out coins squirreled away years ago in jars and cupboards and headed for the shops, where lines built up as overburdened tellers more accustomed to counting mounds of hyper-inflated dollar notes instead were juggling silver.
The central bank, overwhelmed by stratospheric inflation, this week cut 10 zeros from the currency and reintroduced coins made obsolete in 2002 when they became worthless.
. . . .
Inflation, the highest in the world, is officially running at 2.2 million percent in Zimbabwe but independent economists say it is closer to 12.5 million percent.
Of course, redenomination will do nothing to address the critical problem of hyperinflation. But, "Central bank governor Gideon Gono said he acted this week because inflation was hampering the country's computer systems. Computers, electronic calculators and automated teller machines could not handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars."
Should we laugh or cry?
