News for November 13, 1996

• Prevention Efforts May Only Postpone the Onset of Heart Disease
  
• “Keyhole Surgery” Is Less Painful and Costly than Traditional Heart Surgery
  
• Parents Need to Be Aware of Children’s Learning Styles
  
• "Biz Opps" Scams Cost Americans $100 Million in 1995
  
• The Rich Are Just Like You and Me, Only Wealthier
  
• Communities Form Co-ops to Fight Rising Funeral Costs
  
• Network Computers Raise Privacy Concerns
  
• One Way of Addressing "Road Rage"
  

Prevention Efforts May Only Postpone the Onset of Heart Disease

Well-intentioned public-health officials may have misled Americans into thinking that major gains have been made in preventing heart disease. In an attempt to maintain funding for heart disease prevention campaigns and research, officials adjusted heart disease mortality rate figures to show that heart disease deaths were declining. In fact, without the adjustments, the figures show that the heart disease deaths have not decreased, and my even be increasing. It appears that by trying to reduce their risk of heart disease Americans are only delaying the onset of heart disease to later years. That is, if you eat a low-fat diet, quit smoking, control your blood pressure, and lose weight, then you may decrease your odds of having a heart attack in your 40s and 50s but still face significant risk of heart disease in your late 60s and later.

[Jerry E. Bishop, Wall St. Journal, Nov. 13, 1996]

“Keyhole Surgery” Is Less Painful and Costly than Traditional Heart Surgery

A new technique in coronary bypass surgery promises to relieve the pain of heart surgery, reduce recovery time, and save patients money. In keyhole surgery, a small slit is cut in the chest to access the heart. This is much less painful and invasive than the traditional practice of making a foot-long incision in the chest, sawing through the breastbone, and prying apart the rib cage to expose the heart. Studies show that this technique results in quicker recovery (2-3 weeks instead of 2-3 months), less need for transfusions, shorter hospital stays (3 1/2 days instead of 7), and lower costs ($10,000 instead of $17,000). Critics of the new procedure point out that, while this technique is less invasive than traditional open-heart surgery, it is more invasive than angioplasty, which leaves only a very small incision. [San Jose Mercury News (AP), Nov. 12, 1996]

Parents Need to Be Aware of Children’s Learning Styles

“By discovering how your child learns best, you can help him or her succeed in school and -- perhaps more importantly -- develop a true love of learning.”

Your children’s learning styles and their teachers’ teaching styles may be at odds with each another. Researchers have identified three learning styles and seven types of intelligence. Accommodating these styles in the classroom is not always possible. Teacher training in dealing with different learning styles is spotty, and even well-trained teachers have trouble addressing individual needs in large classes. Furthermore, it’s neither possible nor desirable to completely replace traditional teaching methods; for a variety of reasons, students still benefit from traditional drill and lectures that impart basic skills like reading and writing. You can help your children by determining their learning styles and addressing their needs at home. In addition to helping your child become a better student, this involvement can help you better understand how your child approaches the world. [need link to additional resources -- check Mercury Center 11/14]

[Lori Eikmann, San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 12, 1996]

"Biz Opps" Scams Cost Americans $100 Million in 1995

Phony business opportunities, chief among them work-at-home schemes, cost Americans $100 million in 1995. The Council of Better Business Bureaus says that work-at-home promotions topped their complaints list in three of the past five years and placed second in the other two years. A BBB executive warns that such schemes will proliferate during the holiday season as scam artists lure victims with the opportunity to "earn money for the holidays." Many of these scams seek relatively small amounts of money, since victims are less likely to complain about small losses. The Associated Press offers these tips for sorting out genuine opportunities from scams:

Check out the company: Ask how long it has been in business and where its offices are. Find out who owns the company and get a look at its financial statements.
Check out the product: Find out exactly what you'd be selling and to whom. Determine all of the costs you'd incur, where and how you'd get inventory, and the other terms of the deal. And get it all in writing.
Verify your findings: Ask knowledgeable people and organizations in the field about the company offering the opportunity. Find out who has invested in the company and ask them about their experiences.

[San Jose Mercury News (AP), Nov. 8, 1996]

The Rich Are Just Like You and Me, Only Wealthier

It turns out that only a handful of millionaires are rock stars, software barons, or heirs to family fortunes. In fact, millionaires are “more apt to work on Main Street than Wall Street these days.” They typically make their fortunes in mundane industries like pest control or small-scale manufacturing and live relatively low-key lifestyles. Most of them gained their millionaire status on their own (only 20% inherited their wealth). Their average net worth is $3.7 million, and their median household income is $131,000.

The strongest indicator of a future millionaire is self-discipline. No one has to tell these people what to do; they get up at the crack of dawn and do it. They work hard, often into the wee hours, and they are very frugal (“81% still clip coupons on a weekly basis”). Often, they feel like they have something to prove -- a poor school record to overcome or early an business failure to rectify.

[Wall St. Journal, Nov. 12, 1996]

Communities Form Co-ops to Fight Rising Funeral Costs

Rising funeral prices and declining service from the industry have prompted communities around the world to form co-op funeral homes. Driven largely by clergy who are tired of seeing their often-poor parishoners paying too much for funeral services, the co-op movement is to this point most active outside of the U.S.

The death-services industry -- “a business whose strong growth has made it a Wall St. darling” -- is consolidating rapidly, with only a few chains now owning the bulk of funeral homes in North America. This concentrated ownership has resulted in higher funeral prices (the average U.S. funeral cost rose 24% from 1991 to 1995) and less-personal service.

Co-ops control funeral prices by challenging traditional practices. They return much of the care of the dead to families and the church, and they avoid professional undertakers. Profits that formerly went to the chains now stays in the community. And, says a priest in Massachusetts, “The beautiful thing is that we are doing for one another what we should be doing.”

[Wall St. Journal, Nov. 12, 1996]

Network Computers Raise Privacy Concerns

While the network computer (NC) has the potential to let many more of us “enjoy the info-cornucopia,” its reliance on centralized servers raises serious privacy concerns. To keep the price of NCs affordable, the devices won’t come with local hard drives; all of your data will be stored on hard drives somewhere on a network computer. Industry executives scoff at users’ privacy concerns, but until secure encryption schemes and other privacy safeguards are in place, it seems wise to store private information at home.

[Dan Gillmor column, San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 11, 1996]

One Way of Addressing "Road Rage"

A recent AAA study on “road rage” (aggressive drivers reacting violently to minor traffic incidents) encourages courteous driving as an antidote to this growing highway safety problem. In her column in the San Jose Mercury News, Sue Hutchison reacts to the study this way:

“My solution is to Xerox hundreds of copies of the AAA study and pass them out to drivers who give me road rage. The next time some moron switches lanes and almost sideswipes me, I’m going to wave a tire iron at him and dare him to pull over. Then when he comes out. . . I’ll hand him the AAA study and tell him to have a nice day.”

[Sue Hutchison column, San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 12, 1996]

[BTW, barely an hour after I wrote this item, I heard a commotion outside and looked out the window to see two trucks pulled up alongside one another. One of the drivers was hollering at the other and calling him out, apparently over some minor traffic incident. They actually got face to face out on the street, fists raised, and I was poised to dial 911. They thought the better of their situation, though, and left without things escalating.]

Contents | News | Discussion | Resources | Tools
Home | Search | Help

© Copyright 1997, Big Tent Media Labs