Month: September 2011

Note on Malware: Godaddy Shared Servers Compromised

by

Unfortunately, last September 14, 2011, the .htaccess on this site which is hosted on Godaddy shared servers was compromised. For more information on this compromise please see http://blog.sucuri.net/2011/09/godaddy-shared-servers-compromised-htaccess-redirection-to-sokoloperkovuskeci-com.html This was quickly identified and the .htaccess file was fixed. Because of this, this site was temporarily blacklisted by Google which has since been removed by Google. Further portions of this site were recently down due to migrating the old servers to different Godaddy servers which hopefully will be faster and help prevent against future attacks.

Dumb Americans Trust Their Doctors for No Valid Reason

by

Gawker has written an article titled “Stupid Americans Trust Doctors” written by Parenne and published on June 17, 2009, located over at http://gawker.com/5294409/stupid-americans-trust-doctors in which it says: ” Doctors are lazy and greedy and do not care about you. But Americans do not know this! Because of the TV, they think doctors would come up with a good national health care plan. They would not. If the doctors made a plan, it would involve paying them even more money to not bother keeping up with advances in their fields and not ever letting you sue them when they hurt or kill you.” Here is one female doctor’s view on why she went into medicine via http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/02/the-health-reform-we-need-are-not-getting/?page=3 “I am a doctor and… yes, I love the money! Its amazing, you gomers keep coming back to us and we just sprinkle a little Rx here or a little … Read more

Michael Arrington Forced Out of Techcrunch

by

The popular blog Techcrunch was founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington. He then sold Techcrunch in 2010 to AOL for somewhere around $30 million. Now he has been forced out of his own blog which is now owned by AOL with a statement posted earlier today on Techcrunch located at http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/deciding-to-move-on/ Here is another article that expands on the events http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566694092557886.html “I Sold My Company (to a Bunch of Idiots) and Expected to Still Maintain Control Over It.” -Michael Arrington Here are some videos of AOL back when it literally seemed like everyone was using it in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Source: http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2010/09/28/aol-acquires-techcrunch-a-good-day-for-arrington-a-bad-day-for-his-readers/

Haggling With Doctors: Lower the Cost of Your Medical Bills

by

Consumer Reports has recently put out an article by John Santa M.D., M.P.H. titled “How to haggle with your doctor” published in September 2011 and located at http://www.consumerreports.org/health/doctors-hospitals/how-to-haggle-with-your-doctor/overview/index.htm The article recommends that if you are healthy you talk to your doctor about costs. Dr. Santa touches on the fact that some doctors will pursue more aggressive treatment options due to perhaps financial motivations and because of fear of being sued. There is a focus on looking over your hospital bill to make sure everything you were billed for was done and priced properly and inspect for any possible errors. In addition, Dr. Santa recommends that if you are having an elective procedure that you take time to conduct a lot of research on different providers and options that may be available. Dr. Santa went on the NBC Today Show recently in … Read more

Big Media Monopoly

by

I recently read the book titled The New Media Monopoly: A Completely Revised and Updated Edition With Seven New Chapters published in 2004 by Beacon Press and written by Ben H. Bagdikian. I think it is well worth the read and provides some interesting perspectives even though it is now slightly dated due to the continued rise of the internet. Some interesting quotes provided in the book by past leaders in the United States of America: “Nothing can now be believed, which is seen in a newspaper” -Thomas Jefferson, 1807 “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.” -James Madison “The first essential in determining how … Read more