Category: EBM and CQI

Complementarity caught my reading-eye in the attached article from David Hunter, for two distinct reasons. Epidemiology-driven advances in public health (clean water, vaccines, rural electrification, better housing,….) are principally responsible for the sizable 20th C increase in life expectancy,…..not medical care and high-technology interventions.  Maldistribution of evidence-based public health and basic medical care, not the…

Part 2 – If friend or family happen to ask “Who do you think is the 20th C’s greatest philosopher?” Let’s remain with the eccentric, empathetic, hyper-intelligent Simone Weil,…..just for learning if nothing else.  She wasn’t perfect, had flaws and mis-understandings just like you and me.  As Robert Zaretsky writes, her conception of learning, and…

If friend or family happens to ask me “Who do you think is the 20th C’s greatest philosopher?” my first response is “It depends upon what you mean by great.” If by ‘great’ they mean 100% commitment to philosophy-as-life, integrity, personal sacrifice, all combined with a breathtaking intellect,…….well, my opinion is Simone Weil.  Just Wiki her and spend…

It’s not consciousness that distinguishes humans from animals, it’s language.  By language we mean sophisticated vocals, symbolic marks (writing), and art (especially music).  Can we measure a society or sub-segment by its language content/usage/focus?  In other words, what are we listening to and reading and looking at?  Example #1 – the attached ‘children-with-masks-rebreathe-CO2’ has caused a stir,……I quickly…

Amidst the flurry of electronics that discomposes our lives, I find content reading forgotten heroines and heroes (well, forgotten to my many limitations).   There are almost no ‘new’ ideas, I mean radically, authentically novel.  Yes, there are modern interpretations of recent data and derivative techno-gizmos to breed consumption……but imaginative insight?  Sparse.  But that’s not…

You do look son, in a moved sort, As if you were dismay’d.  Be cheerful sir. Our revels now are ended.  These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air. And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn…

From Marvin Weisbord’s Productive Workplaces, he of Six Box Theory,…..reflecting upon his career and theory of creating meaningful organizational change: I would do this work again because I believe that: Dialogue and inquiry are good for us. Human workplaces enjoy greater economic success. Helping people gain control of their work engenders hope, and we need…

Heroes and Heroines – Part 1 Recall from school-days the “Great Man Theory of History”, credited to Thomas Carlyle from the 19th C.  History, he wrote, was nothing but a continuous stream of geniuses and hyper-achievers (both male and female) leading, imprinting, forcing, and inspiring their will upon others.  Although typical to critique the “Great Man Theory” as…

The world is my idea.  This proposition is a truth for every living and thinking being, though only Mankind can bring it to the state of abstract and reflective knowledge.  When he really does so, one can say that the philosophical spirit has been born in him.  He is then absolutely certain that he is…

Words – Part 4 Just where no ideas are, the proper word is never far. Men usually believe if only they hear words, that there must be some sort of meaning.          Mephistopheles (Goethe’s Faust) When the first terms seemed to come right [Bohr’s existing rules] I became excited, making one error after another.  By…