Jason's Notes About Stuff

( image credit ) I was recently going through old blog drafts and came across this one from nearly 8 years ago . It was basically just brainstorming about how to improve society in general. I'm proud to say that in the meantime, I've done my best to move the needle ever so slightly, becoming more involved in politics, including running for office at the provincial level and organizing my thoughts further in a wiki . I also now work for a charity that helps bring free education to those who need it most. My most recent efforts include promoting proportional representation and helping organize a Green regional association . Who's ready to join in and help? :) Here's my original brainstorming notes from June 2010: Communist? Capitalist? Democratic? Socialist? Does anyone really know what these terms actually mean anymore? Hybrid system. Use best aspects of existing societal structures. Freely available to all citizens of the world: - Basic educa...

A recently published article, " The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America " details some of the problems with the  Healthcare.gov launch fiasco that "so bad it nearly broke the Affordable Care Act." It also outlines how a small team rewrote much of the software "working as a startup within the government and replacing contractor-made apps with ones costing one-fiftieth of the price ." A key point is something I've written about before, namely that one good programmer equals an infinite number of mediocre ones . A handful of bright , motivated programmers can easily beat a massive army of corporate drones , middle managers and bureaucrats. This is related to Brooks' law , which states that " adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. " Or in other words, " nine women can't make a baby in one month. " "The government’s method of running software turned on a sequential des...

In the news: Another high profile case of a Canadian getting a huge bill in the States and not being covered. They were on vacation and were caught off guard with a baby that came 9 weeks early. They had proper travel insurance, but it Blue Cross, an American insurance company, decided that they're not covered due to preexisting conditions . Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens all the time. I had my own expensive lesson in 2001 when I moved down for a new job, and had a medical emergency in the short time gap before my employer health insurance took effect. Citizens of (every country except the United States) may be shocked to realize that a huge number of Americans must pay for emergency care out of pocket , bankrupting about 2 million people per year. Not realizing the scale of the costs involved, and thinking that my Canadian government coverage applied (it did, but only for a tiny fraction) I went to the hospital and was treated. I received random bill...

Here is the update to my post last month entitled " Losing weight is hard ". Through a program of restricted eating and intense exercise, I was able to lose most of my December "Christmas baking" weight: I'm back down to around 160lbs and about 13.5% body fat. Surprisingly, this is still on the high end of normal! Mid-range for my height should be about 155lbs and 12.5% body fat. That will be my goal after we return from the wedding. Even 130lbs would still be in the "healthy" range. I can actually remember quite well when I was 130lbs. It would have been in high school, where admittedly, I was a bit of a beanpole :-) Another interesting chart is my one-year plot (missing the period when the scale was being shipped ): When I look back and see how I was up over 170, that seems so high, but meanwhile it had become the "new normal." It's important to keep things in perspective, and I've found that our Internet scale ...

As part of my goal to be in the best shape of my life  prior to our wedding, I've vowed to lose all my "Christmas baking" weight before we leave on April 10th. Our Withings scale shows the damage and poor results so far: I was very near my goal weight of 160 at the beginning of December, but a month of eating cookies and sweets pushed me to almost 170. This approached the outside limit of a "healthy" BMI. So for the next 30 days, I'll be following a diet modeled on the Tim Ferriss 4-Hour Body diet (aka "Slow Carb"). It is similar to Atkins and South Beach and encourages high protein intake . The diet focuses on elimination of sugars and simple carbs that metabolize quickly. I made a chart to post on our fridge to show what we can and cannot eat: This is a tough diet to follow, but if you stick with it, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose weight, and more importantly, lose fat. We're combining the diet with the Insanity...

If you want to eat healthy, you need to make your inherent laziness an advantage. Today I was busy programming and started craving a sweet, sugary snack. I mean really, really craving. So much so that I decided to walk to the store and buy something. Walking to the store is necessary since we have been good about not keeping any junk food in the house . I started to get ready to go out, but caught myself asking, "Wait, do I actually need this? Is it really worth the effort?" If there had been any type of sweet snacks in the cupboard or fridge, I would have wolfed them down long before any such consideration. So instead, I went to the fridge and got a few grapes -- even though they're not really my favorite food. That satisfied the craving and I was able to get back to work. So if you want to eat healthy, it's simple: Keep only healthy food in your house Use your laziness to your advantage :-)

So it turns out my personal experience with zinc has some scientific backing now! Several years ago I realized that I had a zinc deficiency -- a very common mineral deficiency these days due to our ever worsening diets. In addition to eating foods high in zinc, like pumpkin seeds, legumes and meat, I also started taking supplements when I felt a cold coming on. I personally found that if I took too much at once (15mg+), especially without food, I would get severe nausea for a few minutes. Instead, I eat a few of the 5mg zinc lozenges, spaced throughout the day. They're chewable, taste good, and may actually help with absorption by spreading it out over time. A recent study has shown that of all "common" supplements (vitamin C, echinacea, ginseng, etc.) only zinc had a substantial effect: At least two trials indicated that children who took 10 or 15mg of zinc sulphate daily had lower rates of colds and fewer absences from school due to colds. Read more:  ...

The traditional "for profit" economic model works great for most things . For instance, take the mythical "widget". You research all the different types of widgets, find out the best deal, and purchase it. Manufactures and suppliers compete to offer the best widget for the lowest price . You set a budget, and buy the "most bang for the buck" widget. Now think about healthcare. What if your child has cancer? What is your budget to save them? Are you going to be enticed by a discount coupon or "one day only sale" from one of the local competing hospitals? Are you going to make a rational cost-benefit decision? Or would you be willing to mortgage your house, cash out your RRSP, and sell everything you own , if it meant saving them? That's the problem. The standard "supply and demand" economic model does not apply. Now, I definitely think private healthcare has a role -- for elective and optional procedures. But for...

From the December 2010 issue of Nutrition Action magazine : "...if it's an epidemic, that means it's been triggered by the environment. And what do you do if you have too much malaria? You drain the swamps. What do you do if you have too many deaths on the highway? You impose seat belts. These are public health measures. What do you do when you have an epidemic of obesity? We're going to have to impose taxes on soft drinks and subsidize healthier food. And we need safe neighbourhoods where kids can play. ... My grandmother knew that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more We're still there, but the real trigger of the obesity epidemic is the environment I couldn't agree more.

Before flying an airplane, multiple checks are done to ensure the fuel is pure , is the correct type, and has no  containments, like sediment or water. How often do we check our own fuel ? Do those "multi-grain" muffins actually contain any significant amount of whole wheat or bran? How much salt does that "low sodium" soup really have? Remember: You are what you eat! Read those labels, learn what they mean, and make your own good decisions about your personal fuel. In the meantime, check out the Nutrition Action Healthletter for some great information to help you out. More on this topic: http://www.cspinet.org/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lrjk4 http://www.tv3.co.nz/Shows/WhatsReallyInOur.aspx

You hear it all the time. "I'm soooo hungry!"  "I'm starving !" But stop and think for a moment. Are you truly and actually hungry ? Here's one way to tell: Pick a food you really don't like , but something healthy. Like spinach. Or broccoli. Or turnips. It'll be different for everyone. Now pretend that's the only food available. Still want some? If it sounds appetizing and you could see yourself eating it, you're probably hungry. If not, you're not hungry . You're likely upset, bored, or otherwise distracted. In this case, try getting up and doing some sort of physical exercise. You'll probably forget about food altogether and start doing something productive instead!

Climate Change is big news. It's a dividing issue. Us versus Them. Depending on who you believe, it's either a) the most catastrophic event of our time , or... b) completely made up. So -- Is it real? Probably. The underlying principles are well understood. When will it happen? It's likely to have already been happening since we started burning large amounts of fossil fuels. Recent studies indicate that the measurable climate effects could be delayed 30+ years, so we might only be seeing the effects of carbon emissions from the 70s and 80s . That's right, all the emissions from those 1980s big V8 cars haven't even registered yet, never mind the more recent SUVs . What will future effects be? Hard to say. Warmer average temperatures. More storms. "Freak" weather. Rising sea levels, no doubt. Will there be a "tipping point" where the changes start spiraling out of control and threaten human survival? Maybe. But we don't know en...

Here's a super-quick, super-simple meal idea: Random Ratatouille Ingredients: Hard vegetable ideas: Onion Garlic Carrot Parsnip Potato Soft vegetable ideas: Eggplant Zucchini Tomato Oil (Canola works nice) Spices (Infinite combinations) Instructions: Cut up your hard vegetables and put them into a deep dish baking pan. Add half your oil and spices Bake for 30 minutes at 350F (180C) Cut up soft vegetables, mix them in, and add a bit more oil and spices Bake for another hour or so at 350F, stirring occasionally That's it! Stores and freezes nicely. Make up a big batch and you have easy lunches ready-made. And don't limit yourself to the vegetables on this list. There are infinite combinations, and lots of recipes out there if you run out of creativity.

As a small business owner, I have no dental or extended health coverage. So a while ago, I decided to sign up for a Manulife CoverMe policy. Their policies appear to be priced well. The website is nicely done, and the sign up process is entirely online. It gives you the feeling that they really have their stuff together. The problem is that as soon as they get your money, the experience goes sharply downhill. It looks like they invest all of their funds and effort into marketing and getting people to sign up, but as soon as you need service, you're SOL. Their claims process is straight out of the 1980's, requiring you to snail mail or fax a sheet you need to fill out by hand.  You would think they could have managed some sort of electronic method. I was able to easily set up automatic payments from my credit card online, but when I needed to cancel these payments, I had to phone twice, send two different faxes, and they still deducted two extra payments after canc...

It's Thanksgiving time in Canada, so what better time to write about how eating affects your health. Depending on what and how much you eat, big holiday dinners can add up to 3000 , 5000 , or even 7000 calories -- several days of your caloric needs in one sitting. In fact, in North America, dinners are usually the largest meal, and it's quite easy to consume your an entire day's worth of calories just at dinner -- nevermind the other meals and snacks you had during the day. So if you're looking to cut back, lose a bit of weight, and cut down your belly size a bit, the logical place to start might be the last meal of the day. But is it healthy? This topic is a highly controversial one, and like most topics, there are good scientific studies backing up both sides of the argument. The traditional school of thought is that it's best to eat many small meals constantly during the day. This is thought to prevent cravings and avoid binging. The problem is tha...

No matter what mood they're in, or what has happened in the previous 5 minutes, if you dangle string in front of a cat for long enough, it will chase it . Even the laziest, most stubborn cat in the world will eventually give in. They can't help it. It's hard-wired . We humans still have a bunch of behaviours that are hard-wired in a similar way. The difference is that we can consciously think about and modify them -- if we choose to. That's what separates people from animals -- the ability to override obsolete , deep-rooted instincts based on logic and learning. So next time you say to yourself, "I just can't help it," remember that you're not a cat -- you can make whatever choice you want.

They say some of the most stressful things in life are: Starting a new job Moving Major relationship changes Maybe I'm weird, but these aren't even on my top ten list. Sure, there's some stress involved, but they're all well within my control , and that makes them seem manageable . The things that tend to cause me the most stress are the ones that are beyond my control , like: Traffic/construction/accidents Long checkout lines at stores Things not being ready/complete when promised Am I really strange, or do others feel the same? What stresses you out?

I'm tired of hearing Canadians complain about our healthcare system.  You know what?  We do have to wait longer for some types of treatment -- but not usually anything life-threatening.  And you know what else?  That's life.  Resources are expensive, limited, and in Canada, they're allocated based on urgency of need. I had to go to a clinic here in the States for a minor issue that I've visited several Canadian clinics for in the past.  The experience was nearly identical!  They had the same advice, and the same treatment.  The setup was similar.  I swear even the posters on the wall were the same. However, there are a few major differences.  See if you can spot them. The Canadian Experience: Realize you have a problem Go to walk-in clinic Present your health card Wait (1-2 hours) Get treated Go home  The American Experience: Realize you have a problem Call insurance company Explain problem Get pre-approved and record claim number Go to walk-in cli...

What are the facts? Total health care spending per person / year: USA: $ 6,717 USD (46% government = $3,089 ) Canada: $3,678 USD (70% government = $2,574 ) Fact: Americans pay almost twice as much per capita for health care even though 1/6 of their population lacks coverage . Fact: The US government already subsidizes health care, and already spends more per person than Canada. Fact: Of the 27 richest nations on the planet, the US is the only country without universal health coverage. Fact: 16% of the US population (45 million people and growing) have no health insurance at all and are basically screwed if they incur a critical injury or sickness they can't sue for. What's up for debate? The overall quality of health care in the two countries has been widely debated, but the overall consensus -- of all scientific studies based on measurable data and facts -- is that the quality is roughly comparable. I've written an article over at Google Knol exploring some of t...

I’ve recently gone from a 5-year period without any cable television to a condo that has a tv in every room. When I’m eating, I’ll often turn it on for a half hour or so, possibly getting sucked in for an hour show.  I usually watch TBS, Discovery, Comedy Central, or Sci-Fi. I had forgotten what constant bombardment from commercials feels like.  The television is relentlessly telling me: Eat more cheap, yummy fast food!  $1 for burgers! $2.99 for a full, greasy meal complete with a 1 gallon soda! But you’re fat, so take diet pills, and join Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig to buy “magical” food that will effortlessly make you lose weight. You have to buy an American car or truck to make jobs and support the economy! 3 different companies have the absolute lowest car insurance rates.  And people saved an average of $400 by switching from any of them to another. Did you not pay your taxes?  Were you deemed ineligible for government benefits?  That’s not your fault!  Sue them! Y...