Ending Life Humanely

I read this article on Letting Go.  It's a very long article, but worth the read.  I believe this is starting to address one of the areas of our society that we have just not been able to address.    The author is a doctor who is struggling with the conflict between trying everything you can for a terminally ill patient no matter the cost, and letting that patient go so they can enjoy the last days of their life rather than be tied up to machines or be worsened by treatments.  It's a hard topic and I think the author does a good job of presenting both sides of the issue.  I think the take away from the story is: "What are your end of life scenarios?"

The more we think about our end-of-life scenarios now, the better chance we have of making a good decision once we're in that situation.  Are you willing to suffer for a week for a 5% chance at living 2 years longer?  Are you willing to suffer for a month for a 1% chance at living 10 years longer?  What is your break even point?  What are the things that you want to live for?  Would you rather spend 1 more week comfortably with your family, or fight to the bitter end hoping for a miracle?  These are hard questions.

I believe that in an advanced society, we would not find it so hard to let go of the dying.  It's a certain shortfall of who we are.  Whether this is because of religion or an evolutionary need to preserve our own, our tendencies are misguided and we should work on this.  Figure it out for yourself.  Talk to your family.  Make a small step toward improving your end-of-life scenarios.

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The problem with the UN

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I know, just one?  Well, this is the most important one.

What purpose does the UN serve?  Well, it SHOULD be able to enforce treaties, peace, prevent attacks on smaller nations.  It has not been successful with this.  Why?  Problem is that the UN has no power.  Even if it decides a country is our of compliance, or flat out defying UN rules, the UN will not do anything, especially if that country declares that any sanctions will be considered an act of war.  Not that sanctions ever help anyway.  They hurt the people and usually give the rebellious leaders added resolve.  It's not a good system.

We need a UN with teeth.  First, I'll take this to the extreme.  What if the UN had a host of Nuclear bombs and every time a country did not follow UN resolutions, that country's capital was bombed with a nuclear bomb with the intent on destroying that country's leadership.  I can think of a few problems that probably wouldn't have happened.  Once the UN drops one bomb, I can't imagine there would be a lot of countries causing problems.  We would still have gorilla type problems, but that's not what I'm addressing here.  So, once the UN establishes itself as having some teeth, then countries should feel more confident in reducing their armies, weapons, and other wasted resources so they can focus on growth, human rights, and anything else they might spend $800 billion dollars on annually.  Ok, so that's the figure for the whole world, but still, it's a lot of money.

So, it seems like the end goal could be beneficial, but we can't bring ourselves to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people for the sake of world peace.  Would it be worth it, or possible if it was just one bomb and it gave us world peace forever?  Still a questionable thought and almost impossible to do.  I get that.  So lets consider an alternative.

Alternative:  Are nuclear weapons so completely unacceptable that it's just not a reasonable policy?  Maybe.  So instead, put into place a policy of complete destruction of central political establishment, central political symbols, and some high end residencies.  The ideal situation would be to kill the leadership, but this comes close to the goals of using a Nuclear bomb.  I think especially, the idea of going after high end residencies is especially interesting as money buys influence no matter where you live and if you give enough of the rich a reason to put pressure on the government to change, then you may just get peace.

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Why isn't the post office a business?

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I just don't understand government organizations that can't be run by businesses.  There are many departments or organizations within government that actually take in money to provide a service.  The DMV for example as well as the post office.  News is out now that the US Post Office is requesting a 23% increase in the price of stamps.  http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/07/07/standard-mail-prices-for-parcels-to-increase-23/

The problem here is that the post office is not improving it's services, should be making money off of us, and still continues to lose money and charge unreasonable rates to deliver mail.

I think it's about time there be a rival created for the USPS.  One of the large freight companies should start delivering mail door to door like a business would and see if it can't improve on how the USPS operates.  Here is a short list of some of the improvements I think could be made:
- Create an opt-in system for junk mail.
       -  Does the post office make extra money by delivering junk?  How much time would be saved if there was no junk mail?  What if companies had to pay the recipients in order to send mail to them?
       -  Provide ways for consumers to provide information so that junk mail could be targeted better.  This would increase the value to the advertisers as well as provide junk mail that may actually be interesting to the recipient.
- Establish accounts associated with sender's addresses.  Instead of stamping mail, just charge each account for the mail that is delivered from that address.
- Create different classes of mail delivery.  Have standard mail delivery every other day and have urgent or 1st class delivery every day for a higher charge.
- Instead of charging people for P.O.Boxes, make it cheaper for people to receive mail at a main postal office.  Saves on delivery time and expenses and may be more convenient for some people.
- Offer a fax to mail service.  Fax the post office, or bring it in, and we'll deliver a physical printout of your fax to the address specified.

I bet a serious competitor to the USPS could not only make money, but they could probably improve on service, reduce junk mail, and reduce prices for end consumers.

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Other people's creativity

I wish I would have been this creative.  Why are other people always doing things that are so much cooler than what I could come up with?  Even if I would have gotten this idea, I never would have been able to execute on it.  So sad.

Real Reviews

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The online social economy these days is very dependent on the reviews of others.  What do you think?  Would you stay there again?  Does the shoe make you feel well dressed?  These are all important opinions that can help a prospective buyer make a decision.  Are you getting real reviews from previous consumers?

On Amazon, I've tried to leave negative reviews a couple of times.  Once, I objected to paying almost $16 in shipping charges when the two items I purchased were combined and weighed less than 1lb.  I also mentioned in the review that one item was not as great as I'd expected.  Overall, the review wasn't terrible, but I tried to be honest.  After trying to reach the seller with no response, I posted my review.  At that point, the seller contacted me and was offering "anything" to get me to retract my review.  He was going to send me new items and refund all of my money.  It was unreasonable.  I removed the review and told the seller not to worry about it.

I also recently had a review opportunity for a b&b I stayed at in Paris.  The experience was really nice and the host was personable and provided a great experience.  However, there were some things about the stay that could have been better and because of how the overall review process is, some of my comments would have made the experience seem worse than I would like to specify.  I decided to not leave a review instead.

Am I the only one that does this?  Are there scores of untrue, or omitted reviews that could be helpful to us in our search for better products?  If someone walked into my house and asked me about this specific b&b in Paris, I would unashamedly tell them everything I think.  The prospect of putting those thoughts in writing and having those thoughts affect people I don't know is overwhelming.  Knowing the audience (my friend in my house) I tailor my comments for that person with the understanding of how they might use those comments.

How do you get around the fact that online reviews are too broad a stroke?  How do you also get around the fact that anything less than 5 stars is a harmful review?  How can consumers get the truth about experiences according to their own views and use of them?

Cheeting the clock

Seth Godin wrote an interesting article on cheating the clock:  


I have found this same thing to often be true.  If I know that I'm taking Thursday and Friday off, I can easily get my work done for the week in the first 3 days.  However, if I try to work that hard and get "Extra" things done in an entire week, I might end up burned out.  My solution is to show up to work 30-60 minutes early.  In that time, I get my intense work in, accomplishing the important tasks and setting up the rest of the day to accomplish what I want to accomplish.  What I end up with is a very successful morning, and in the afternoon I get to choose between going home early because I've done what I want, or sticking around to finish stuff up that isn't as important.  Either way, I end up feeling great about my job!

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Government Propaganda

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As I was driving from Las Vegas to Colorado a few days ago, I passed a large road sign that talked about a project being completed along I-70 that was paid for by the Recovery act.  I have no idea how much the sign cost, but even if it was only a few dollars, the purpose of the sign seemed to be to make me appreciate how the current government was spending my money.  It seems to me like a complete waste of my money.  It's bad enough that we're throwing money into wasteful projects, but then spending more money to convince me that it was a good idea just makes me bitter.  Shouldn't this fall under campaign financing somehow?