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These events are a great place to find the interesting new people and ideas http://www.health2con.com/

This one is deceptively important. I spent several years self-learning actuarial science. I had a solid statistics and math background, but incorrectly marginalized the business aspects as being simple. I'm also introverted and stubbornly independent and didn't recognize what I didn't know. If I had more aggressively sought out peers earlier, I would have gotten further.

I'm going against my nature and meeting with a friend weekly to review queries for a SQL class we're both taking. Just talking with him and catching each other's mistakes has been worth as much as my O'Reilly book.

I appreciate all of the data they include (even if most of it is processed using their proprietary metrics), but their articles aren't so great. They seem to take the attitude that articles are just filler - they rerun articles pretty regularly. But their data is extensive and relevant.

Except under very strict circumstances, not charging everyone (including insurance companies) exactly the same amount for everything according to a practice fee schedule is illegal under the US healthcare system. Just because the insurance company doesn't actually pay the full amount (contract law gets mixed in here), it doesn't mean that a self pay patient gets to have free services. One reason medical costs are so high is because doctors are generally paid the lesser of the service charge amount on their fee schedule or the insurance company contractually allowed amount. Simple game theory dictates their prices be as high as possible.

Self pay patients can be charged less if a standard sliding fee schedule is created by the practice. This is to make sure that discounts are applied uniformly across all self pay patients against some criteria (e.g. 10% discount for families at 400% of the federal poverty level). I'm sure there are other ways too, but they must be applied consistently.

My guess is your third option. If AmEx can continue charging 2.5% while reducing their operating costs to a point that would make 0.5% profitable, that's lots of moolah for them.

I'm sorry that I'm just now hearing of the Revolution card. I use AmEx for no good reason at all, and a not insignificant number of merchants won't take it because its fees are so high. Of course, AmEx could also solve this problem by just reducing their percentage to 2% with the new technology.

I defined this distinction to an older relative about a year ago (right after I apologized for "geeking" all over her shiny new coffee maker, which I had taken apart and put back together). To illustrate, I used music. A music nerd knows which years qualify as classical or baroque and which composers wrote what. A music geek tunes their own piano.

It's more that I don't feel it's the government's place to tell people that they must wear a seat belt. It's their place to hold car manufacturers to safety standards that make sure their seat belts are effective and safe. It's their place to make it publicly known that wearing a seat belt greatly reduces your risk of injury or death in a collision. Beyond that, I feel very strongly that it is personal responsibility and choice.

When I realized that allowing this freedom could possibly encroach on my freedoms, it became a different issue. And I changed my mind.

Seat belt laws. For years, my inner Libertarian would cringe at the idea that the government could force someone to do something they didn't want to when it was their own life at risk. But then my inner Republican realized that if I were to be at fault in an accident, I would be financially and possibly criminally liable for a much steeper offense if the other party wasn't buckled up.

I guess these are more science/engineering than hacker, but I think the following cooking sites match the title pretty well:

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ When I want to make something new and complicated, I go here first. Great layout, photos with every step, and no assumed prior knowledge.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/ The magazine has more content than the website, but when I took the time to read a two page essay about how to make pork lo mein, down to what cuts of meat I could reasonably expect to find in an American grocery store, I was not disappointed. These are the same people who endorsed wadded up paper towels as the best turkey lifters after extensive testing.

Of course, for real recipe hacking, I go to the substitutions section of the Joy of Cooking to see what insanity I can dig up. My best to date is a non-dairy chocolate cake that used lots of mayonnaise, and I really want to experiment with flax seeds as an egg substitute.

Yeah, I stopped reading when I realized that his Minimalism criteria (nothing he didn't want) was so completely confounded by his Completeness criteria (everything he did want). Although it was nice to see a list of web based task managers all in one place.

I’ve never had good results using a french press with a blade grinder. You need such a coarse grind for the press, and fine grit is just inevitable with a cheap blade. I got a burr grinder several years ago, and my french press coffee has improved immensely. Of course, the clean up still sucks - I only break out the press for fresh, interesting coffee that I happen in to.

Thank you! Their site gives a better idea about what's actually going on in the world about proteomics, and is a great start about finding affiliate companies.

Could anyone please tell me the names of some companies/non-profits researching proteomic sequencing? Preferably ones trying to work out the kinks that the article references? I live in the Boston area and used to analyze genomic data for accuracy and consistency and would love to help with this problem.

I spent four relatively enjoyable years sequencing DNA in the lab and on the computer. I met James Watson one time. The Double Helix is one of the most boring books that I’ve ever read. I’ll add this one to the list of popular, mediocre books that address noble topics.

Although the Board's list does include Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman.

Midnight Cowboy received Best Picture in 1970 according to imdb. This movie can hardly be considered pornography by today's standards, but it was about a male prostitute and rated X.

Or the part where Dagney cooked and kept house for John Galt as repayment for her staying with him.

Gold worries me these days. It's gone up so much lately that I think it's overvalued. Of course, I discouraged my husband from buying up gold when it was much cheaper a year ago for this same reason and he still hasn't forgiven me. For a civilization collapsing catastrophe, I still think we're better off with the bags of rice and bottles of bourbon we hoarded instead.

I'm not a fan of index funds. At the risk of going against popular wisdom, I think it's better to put your money in a fund that is actually managed by a financial professional. Index funds follow the general market hell or high water, and even though their fees are generally lower since it doesn't take any brains to manage one, you'll never maximize your returns (or these days minimize your losses) with one. The key phrase to look for is 'no load mutual fund'. These funds will generally minimize fees at the time of your deposit and withdrawl. I've been happy with the Muhlenkamp Fund overall, of course they're in the gutter like everyone else at the moment.

The thing to remember is that the price of both gold and funds will fluctuate, and in either case you wouldn't be able to get at your money right away. I keep an HSBC high interest rate savings account for emergencies. There's enough money in there to pay my insurance deductibles if I crash my car into my house and both burn down. I contribute monthly to pay my semi-annual insurance premiums plus a little extra to give me that deductible buffer. It's probably around 2 months living expenses, which is within my risk tolerance, but you might want to sock away at least 3 months worth before investing the rest.