During a 1945 lecture in Paris, Jean-Paul Sartre offered the following useful metaphor for God: When we think of God as the creator, we are thinking of him, most of the time, as a superior artisan… When God creates he knows precisely what he is creating. Thus, the conception of man in the mind of God is comparable to that of the paper-knife in the mind of the artisan: God makes man according to a procedure and a conception, exactly as the artisan manufactures a paper-knife, following a definition and a formula. Thus each individual man is the realisation of a certain conception which dwells in the divine understanding. [More]

Parents with twins are more likely to end up divorced, broke and out of work, according to the first national research on the chaos caused by multiple births. This is despite such parents starting out generally better off, older and more likely to be married than those who have their babies one at a time. [More]

SCIENTISTS have discovered the “Methuselah” genes whose lucky carriers have a much improved chance of living to 100 even if they indulge in an unhealthy lifestyle. [More]

It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.
Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski. [More]

A new segment of medical technology has been born and its infantile life is being coddled and shaped -- not by incumbents in the world of healthcare technology -- but largely by entrepreneurs. They're creating products to fill a void not possible with yesterday's technology, a space previously untapped, and the early results are in: consumers are ripping open their wallets to take advantage of the benefits these products provide. The big players in the medical technology world would be smart to take notice, both for their own benefit and the benefit of consumer health. [More]

Clearly health reform in Massachusetts has had a substantial downward effect on the non-elderly uninsurance rate. [More]

The study, by a Cornell University professor and his brother who is a Presbyterian minister and a religious studies professor, showed that the sizes of the portions and plates in the artworks, which were painted over the past millennium, have gradually grown by between 23 and 69 percent. [More]

Can hand sanitizers like Purell really stop people from getting the flu? [More]

Cases of H1N1 Have Dwindled, Seasonal Flu Has Been a No-Show and Doctors Wonder Why [More]

Study: Rumors of Written-Word Death Greatly Exaggerated [More]

Health Spending Rises in 2008, but at Slower Rate [More]

Grabbing Flu by the Neck [More]

The Insincere Center [More]

20 Health Care Answers [More]

The Twilight of Mechanized Lumpenleisure [More]

UCLA: Stem Cells Kill HIV [More]

Feeling lonely? Chances are you're not alone. [More]

World AIDS Day [More]

25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster [More]

The main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, when most dreaming occurs, is physiological. The brain is warming its circuits, anticipating the sights and sounds and emotions of waking. [More]

Reality is Imagined [More]

Facebook users spend a full three days a year on the site, with addicts spending racking up than a whole working week, a new report shows. [More]

With the publication of H.R. 3962, the House Democrats’ mammoth, 1,990-page proposal to restructure the health-care system (the outlines of which can be found in this detailed summary), decision time is fast approaching in the big reform debate. Paul Krugman, in his usual forthright style, says, “History is about to be made—and everyone has to decide which side they’re on.” Democrats and progressives can line up behind the reform legislation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put forward last week, or they can help to kill reform for another generation by aligning with hard-line conservatives.

As political analysis, there’s something to be said for Krugman’s Manichean view of the world. But Krugman is also an economist—a very good one—and the economics of what is proposed bear inspection. The President is on the verge of fulfilling his campaign pledge to extend health-care coverage to many of the uninsured. He is doing this, however, not by transforming the existing system of private insurance, which gave rise to many of the current problems, but by extending it. The White House has reached a deal with the big health insurers, such as Aetna and CIGNA. In return for the industry’s agreeing to cover people with preëxisting health conditions, and making various other more minor concessions, the government will force more than twenty million new customers into its arms. [More]

He calls himself Johnny Z and he says he’s happy to earn a few bucks while helping people who may find it too taxing to wait for their flu shots, Tom Spears writes. [More]

women, wellness, living, health, happiness, general, corporate conscience, business, awesomesauce, [More]