Thursday, May 14, 2026

The futility of Training Modules in Health Care—and of management consultants. JAMA

The futility of mandatory yearly video training modules. 
Mandatory Training Modules in Health Care—Time to Reassess. 2026
"physicians receive...annual notices listing required training modules to be completed [on topics] such as privacy, cybersecurity, workplace conduct, infection control, and safety...passive information transfer may have limited effect on real-world practice...Completion of a compliance activity does not necessarily demonstrate knowledge acquisition, competence, or behavior change...It is difficult to imagine subjecting resident physicians to the same unmodified slide deck for a decade without revision...When the primary institutional objective is documentation of completion rather than meaningful learning, clinicians may reasonably prioritize efficiency over engagement." JAMA

And this article, pointing out that absolutely no difference in outcome results from the billions of dollars ($16 million per hospital) spent on management consultants. 

Changes in Nonprofit Hospitals’ Finances, Operations, and Quality of Care After Using Management Consultants. 2026
"Nonprofit hospitals that hired management consultants paid an average of $15.7 million for their services...Despite this substantial investment, analyses of hospitals’ financial performance, operational decisions, and claims-based patient outcomes revealed little evidence of substantial, statistically significant, or systematic improvements attributable to consulting engagements...Nonprofit hospitals expend substantial resources on management consultants, but there was no evidence of meaningful changes in hospital finances, operations, or quality of care."JAMA


Changes in Nonprofit Hospitals’ Finances, Operations, and Quality of Care After Using Management Consultants | Health Care Quality | JAMA | JAMA Network

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2848641

Our conversation briefly today about the money that hospitals spend on administrators reminded me of this reference, and how future that expense is. 

"Nonprofit hospitals expend substantial resources on management consultants, but there was no evidence of meaningful changes in hospital finances, operations, or quality of care." 

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Margin interest rates

Based on early 2026 rates, a $100,000 margin loan costs approximately $13.89 to $14.03 per day at Robinhood (Gold) and roughly $28.68 per day at Schwab. Robinhood typically offers lower rates (approx 5%-5.05%) for Gold members, while Schwab’s rate for this amount is higher (approx 10.325%-10.575).

Color vision

https://youtu.be/-DyrBDsKA5s?si=AGsfFbectubHin11

He refers 2:15 to a paper on tetrachromacy (people who have a 4th set of retinal cones, and are neurologically wired to use them.)
Proving someone has tetrachromacy requires asking a subject to mix red and green light until it looks identical to a reference yellow. Trichromats (normal people) all agree on one specific ratio. A tetrachromat, having a fourth cone type in between, perceives a subtle difference in those "identical" mixtures that trichromats can't, requiring a different mixing ratio entirely.
Although about 12% of women have this 4th cone type, only a very small proportion of them are able to use the extra come to distinguish more color types. ref

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Jet fuel from algae


1:13 Algae is much more efficient at growing oil per hectare than other candidate plants like palm oil and rapeseed oil. 
1:31 growing algae is prohibitively expensive, unless —
2:37 you feed algae the leftovers from bacterial digestion of agricultural byproducts as the anaerobic bacteria produce biogas. It's a win-win. 
4:01 although burning the algae-derived fuel releases CO2, it balances the CO2 captured by the algae when growing, for a net-zero carbon footprint. 
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Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Radical Acceptance - Hidden Brain Media

https://www.hiddenbrain.org/podcast/radical-acceptance/

28:53 "Accepting the reality you're in instead of standing outside banging on the door of reality [asking it to change] doesn't change a things." You need a new perspective. 
Going to stop fighting but we cannot change, it opens up avenues for real change. 

That's what wonder does it really means us fully in to our humanness. 

Coherent life: Who I am, what I'm doing, and what I believe in are all connected. Compass exercise: write down 3 paragraphs: 1) my life view - what are the most important questions that define reality. 2) what do you believe is the purpose of your work - to make the world a better place/ to keep you busy/ to make a living / a place where community can be experienced as we collaborate ? 
3) what's going on with you - what's the long caption of your story right now. 

These give a picture of your life right now and you can dial your core values from these. 

47:00 "Flow State" defined as the experience of full and deep engagement where time stands still, where  the task you are currently involved in, and your skills to perform that task, are in approximate balance. 

But you can turn any situation into a simple flow state by being fully present in the moment. If chopping onions, enjoy the sharpeness of the knife, feel the crispness of the onion, to fully engage in the experience. 

On our "transactional" world, we are always think of the future benefit of what we're doing, instead of getting present in the moment. 

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Ocean cleanup benefits in Jakarta

https://youtu.be/XFXQtSnBnTs?si=R4HKp9wQwY_hVMMP

4:49 profiling several people whose lives and jobs have been directly impacted and improved  because of the ocean cleanup project. 5:06 A silkworm farmer has increased his yield 30%. 

An experiment where genetic change happens in a single generation

https://youtu.be/J9-Ov-_KcWk?si=daw6ps41f_mCsOy8
Mice exposed to almond scent when shocked will grow more almond-sensing neurons - in their offspring!   

World's largest organism

A few contenders: 

By area: The largest living organism by area is a Posidonia australis seagrass meadow in Western Australia's Shark Bay, covering 180 square kilometers (about 69 square miles). 

By weight/mass, it's a tie — 1) the "Humongous Fungus" (Armillaria ostoyae) in Oregon, which spans 3.4 square miles.
(The best defence against it is to 5:50 plant tree species that can survive the infection.)

or Pando, a 106-acre aspen grove in Utah. 
It weighs 13 million pounds. It's in Fishlake National Forest. The immature sprouts being 3:27 eaten, or browsed, by animals unopposed by traditional predators, and the older trees are near the end of their life span. So 5:12 they're fencing off the young plants. 


Saturday, May 2, 2026

Fixers vs hopeless catastrophizers

https://youtu.be/ZtOxCJqEHjY?si=xYz-MuzoSTkgOew_
2:14 it's a learned relationship with uncertainty 3:34 uncertainty doesn't sound like a verdict to them is a starting point.*

0:41 self-efficacy...you are capable of handling what's in front of you

1:01 this belief changes how long someone pressure at a problem before giving up

2:17 internal locus of control...do better at fixing things...don't get depression...cope better with stress... They sense that their effort matters (which is a protective psychological trait)

5:51 spending time around people like that is one of the most recalibrating things you can do. 


*This reminds me of the podcast "Sitting with uncertainty" on Hidden Brain. 

Flushing sediment out of a dam

https://youtu.be/_pad4MAV1H0?si=KN5YFOhlSKRkaQdY

[Preparing to flush segment buildup] 3:21 requires detailed planning and coordination. 
Before flushing begins: 
Reservoir levels are carefully monitored. 
Weather and inflow forecasts are analyzed. 
Downstream safety alerts are issued.
Power generation units may be reduced or temporarily shut down.
Instrumentation systems are checked for structural monitoring. 
Engineers ensure that the dam structure, galleries and monitoring instruments remain within safe operational limits.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Sargassum for good

https://youtu.be/dYbPuR1hmao?si=ZT6TlYizTdRpV65X

Harvesting ever-increasing massive beach-dumps of sargassum seaweed - mixed with rum byproducts (sugar) and sheep manure (anaerobic bacteria) to yield methane gas fuel. 

Picture at 6:10 - removing arsenic yielding fertilizer and methane. Arsenic is preferentially taken up by the seaweed. 
https://youtu.be/X4rxSz8Oze0?si=D6LjXRZZvtAiEVXi
Pelagic Sargassum blooms have massively increased, littering Caribbean beaches - perhaps fueled by nitrogen runoff from Amazon deforestation. 
At the right proportions, sargassum with its lignin, cellulose, and polysaccharides
3:16 acts like rebar reinforcing the concrete blocks, making them twice as strong as conventional ones. 
The bricks also have 4:07 half the thermal conductivity of regular bricks, reducing air conditioning costs. 

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Self driving fails

https://youtube.com/shorts/nOfU04nB9-Q?si=YStgmIV7--_g-2sc

I think they deployed this self-driving tech before it was fully tested! These are some pretty embarrassing fails. 

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