It is true: we will be able to do more stuff if we focus on managing our time, but in today’s business environment, we don’t need more repetitive, synchronized activity like we did in the Industrial Revolution. We need more thinking, more creativity, and more problem solving. A focus on time will undermine all of these. It will make you feel more overwhelmed and miserable too! Time management was a brilliant invention, and helped to transform society 250 years ago. It is just not helpful anymore; in fact it’s harmful in a world of too much. It’s time to develop a different strategy—one that starts from the recognition that, in our overloaded world, the greatest shortage is not time, but attention. Put another way; time is no longer money.
Blame the Police →
Either way, the police bear moral responsibility for Bland’s death. Trooper Encinia chose to pull her over for a minor infraction. He chose to escalate the situation, and he chose to go from writing a ticket to making an arrest.
Yes, Bland could have been less irritated, and she could have obeyed the command to put out her cigarette. But it’s not illegal to be frustrated with the police, and it’s not a crime to smoke. Moreover, it’s an officer’s job to remain calm and resolve situations without additional conflict. It’s not an imposition to expect as much from men and women entrusted with the right to detain and to use lethal force.
Think of it this way: If you are inclined to blame Bland for her arrest (and by extension her death), then you’re sanctioning an America where police command total deference, where you have to obey regardless of what you’ve done or what’s the law. You might want to live in that America. I don’t.
Oh Good, We’re Out of Money to Fix Our Roads—Again →
IT SEEMS THAT every couple of months, we have to talk about the Highway Trust Fund. Specifically, the lack of money in the Highway Trust Fund. And here we are again, with the fund expected to be insolvent by September—and a fix needed by July 31, since that’s when Congress takes vacation.
The Highway Trust Fund is the source of most federal spending on road infrastructure. Its primary source is the 18.4 cent per gallon excise tax on gasoline and a 24.4 cent per gallon tax on diesel. Problem is, the gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1993 (so it isn’t keeping up with inflation), cars are more fuel efficient than ever, and an increasing number of electric cars aren’t paying into the fund at all.
Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It →
We're computerizing and connecting everything to the Internet, and there's very little incentive for companies to take threats nearly as seriously as they should. Society and law have a lot of catching up to do.
The U.N. Security Council's Resolution on the Iran Deal →
Earlier today, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the recently concluded nuclear deal with Iran. The resolution creates the mechanism though which Iran will ultimately receive international sanctions relief once the IAEA verifies Iranian compliance with the agreement.
This $153,000 rattlesnake bite is everything wrong with American health care →
Maybe not everything, but a few big problems.
BTG has fought aggressively to keep competitors off the market. A competing product, Anavip, just received FDA approval this year and likely won't be on the market until late 2018. This lack of competition is one reason that snakebite treatments rack up such huge hospital bills -- $55,000. $89,000. $143,000. In May of this year, a snakebit Missouri man died after refusing to seek medical care, saying he couldn't afford the bill.
But the other reason hospitals charge so much is the byzantine negotiating process that happens between hospitals and insurance companies to determine the final payout amount...
In many cases, a hospital bill isn't actually a bill, but essentially an instrument in a complex negotiation between insurers and caregivers, with bewildered patients stuck in the middle. It's difficult to know which charges are real and which ones aren't, and which bills to pay and which ones to ignore. It's one reason medical debt is a huge factor in so many bankruptcies.
Hospital bills that amount to legal fictions certainly don't help consumers keep themselves out of debt trouble. Todd Fassler's bill is a perfect example -- he left the hospital on July 9, 2015. His bill said his $153,000 payment was due by July 27.
Drones forced firefighters to ground aircraft while fighting California wildfire →
Small, remotely-piloted flying machines are making a lot of neat things possible (low-budget movie effects, soon-to-be delivery services), but we have a lot of work to do to figure out how they fit in to society:
Drones can wreak havoc since firefighting aircraft fly so low when they perform water drops. As a US Forest Service spokesperson tells ABC, "As soon as we see drones, we shut down all of our aircraft for the safety reasons ... If a drone got sucked into a wing or a propeller, that could have some serious impacts."
Officials say that ground crews had to find the drone operators and tell them to stop flying around the fire before aircraft were able to continue attempts to control the blaze. In all, the incident delayed efforts by roughly 26 minutes — valuable time as wildfires can quickly grow out of control.
Canadian teenager sentenced to 16 months in jail for online harassment, bomb threats →
A Canadian teenager who pleaded guilty to 23 charges related to online harassment and "swatting" earlier this year has been sentenced to 16 months in a juvenile detention center by a provincial court. Following those 16 months, he'll spend eight months under community supervision, The Vancouver Sun reports.
The 17-year-old, whose name will not be released, harassed mostly young, female gamers and their families across the US and Canada in 2013 and 2014. Over the course of roughly one year, he hacked into several victims' social media accounts and shared their personal information online. He also called police stations claiming to have bombs at the homes of his victims — a process known as "swatting," because it often results in the unnecessary deployment of SWAT teams.