Isn't This The Lunch Most Hunters Pack?

I am reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals  (2006), and it is most thought provoking and often quite entertaining.  At one point, this suburban Jewish boy decides to become a hunter so that he truly understand the sensation of killing his own meat (after a quite interesting refutation of animal rights theory by an otherwise pretty left sort).  He has been led into hunting by a couple of people he knows from the San Francisco Bay Area, both of them immigrants to America from traditional European cultures.  He explains that his first attempt at wild pig hunting, in north Sonoma County, was not successful, because of too good a lunch: 

Being Europeans, as well as accomplished cooks, Angelo and Jean-Pierre take lunch very seriously, even when out in the woods some distance from civilization. "So I brought with me a few little things to nibble on," Jean-Pierre mumbled. "Me, too," chimed Angelo. And out of their packs came course after course of the most astonishing picnic, which they proceeded to layout on the hood of Angelo's SUV: a terrine of lobster and halibut en gelee, artisanal salami and prosciutto and mortadella, Angelo's homemade pate of boar and home-cured olives, cornichons, chicken salad, a generous selection of cheeses and breads, fresh strawberries and pastries, silverware and napkins, and, naturally, a bottle each of red and white wine.

Imagine If A Multinational Corporation Wanted This Immunity

From the March 22, 2012 Fox News:

The Green Climate Fund, which is supposed to help mobilize as much as $100 billion a year to lower global greenhouse gases, is seeking a broad blanket of U.N.-style immunity that would shield its operations from any kind of legal process, including civil and criminal prosecution, in the countries where it operates. There’s just one problem: it is not part of the United Nations.

Whether the fund, which was formally created at a U.N. climate conference in Durban, South Africa last December, will get all the money it wants to spend is open to question in an era of economic slowdown and fiscal austerity. Its spending goal comes atop some $30 billion in “fast start-up” money that has been pledged by U.N. member states to such climate change activities.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03/22/mammoth-new-green-climate-fund-wants-un-style-diplomatic-immunity-even-though/#ixzz1q0K6jCJ8

It turns out that the Green Climate Fund is not actually a part of the U.N., and so does not enjoy the immunity that the U.N. and its agencies currently enjoy, and this will require action by the U.S. government.  I suppose if I had some confidence that the GCF was going to do good things, like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), this wouldn't make me so nervous.  But tell me, does the prospect of an organization spending $100 billion a year sound like it might be something that could lead to corruption or abuse?  Or is that just sounding paranoid?

Amusing Coincidences In Judicial History

The Delaware Supreme Court upheld a sentence of 20 lashes for a larceny probation violator in 1963, deciding that it was not cruel and unusual punishment, prohibited by the Bill of Rights.  When I went to find information about that case, I found a newspaper article from the April 4, 1963 Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune.  The Delaware Supreme Court upheld the sentence, and returned the case to the trial court: Judge Stewart Lynch presiding.

I'm Sure Widespread Availability of Porn Has Nothing To Do With This

From March 23, 2012 CBS Houston:

TALLULAH, La. (CBS Houston) – A teacher at Tallulah Elementary School lost her job after not noticing two third graders participating in oral sex under their desks.

The News-Star is reporting that the teacher was fired for not keeping a proper eye on her students, as the incident occurred under her watch.

How unobservant do you have to be?

What A Surprise...

The March 23, 2012 Idaho Statesman carries this thinly disguised press release:

Women in Idaho pay hundreds of dollars more a year for health insurance, and the pattern applies across age groups, according to a national report. But many insurance plans in the Gem State do often include maternity coverage, which isn't the norm in the U.S.

Idaho's best-selling insurance plans add more, on average, to a 40-year-old woman's insurance premiums than anywhere else in the country, the National Women's Law Center found. The gap costs women enrolled in two of the top health plans $684 and $722 more each year.

The group looked at advertised premiums for top-selling plans through eHealthInsurance.com. It also looked at the number of women buying health insurance in Idaho. The NWLC concluded that price disparities were so prevalent and unpredictable that "it is difficult to see how actuarial justifications could explain the difference."

If the disparities are "prevalent" then how can they qualify as "unpredictable"?  That seems contradictory.  But the bigger problem is that women pay more for health insurance than men because women use health care more than men.  From the abstract of "Gender Differences in the Utilization of Health Care Services," Journal of Family Practice, February 2000:

RESULTS: Women had significantly lower self-reported health status and lower mean education and income than men. Women had a significantly higher mean number of visits to their primary care clinic and diagnostic services than men. Mean charges for primary care, specialty care, emergency treatment, diagnostic services, and annual total charges were all significantly higher for women than men; however, there were no differences for mean hospitalizations or hospital charges. After controlling for health status, sociodemographics, and clinic assignment, women still had higher medical charges for all categories of charges except hospitalizations. 

I hope that this is not a surprise to anyone.  I don't know how much of this is related to childbirth and related equipment, or because women have higher health expectations than men, or if there are actual biological reasons for this.  I will even concede the possibility that women have worse health because of social pressures. But the fact is that women use health care services a lot more than men; is it really a surprise that their health insurance costs more?

UPDATE: From "The Lifetime Distribution of Health Care Costs," Health Services Research, June 2004:

Per capita lifetime expenditure is $316,600, a third higher for females ($361,200) than males ($268,700). Two-fifths of this difference owes to women's longer life expectancy.  

If 2/5th of this difference is longer life expectancy, than 3/5th of the 1/3 higher (or 20%) of the difference is not because of high life expectancy.

Whitney Houston Cause of Death

I said at the time that it would turn out to be drug related.  From March 22, 2012 USA Today:

The Los Angeles County coroner's office has determined that Whitney Houston's official cause of death is: "drowning and effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use." 

A number of other drugs, both prescription and marijuana, were present, but were not contributory to her death.  Another tragedy.

Centering Problem

No, machining, not politics.  If you want to center a hole in the end of a cylinder with a lathe, it is pretty easy: put it in the chuck, and make sure that you have it centered in the chuck using a dial indicator. Then use a center drill in the chuck in the tailstock, and voila!  The hole will be centered within .010" or better without any effort at all.

In this case, I have a foot long piece of acetal, and it is both too heavy and too slippery for the Sherline chuck to hold it in position, even before you start the motor.  I tried to locate the center hole using a micrometer by measuring the radius from several different points on the edge of the rod, and using where the micrometer scratches crossed, then used the drill press.  This was close, but not quite close enough.  Any other suggestions for how to do this?

UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions.  I had forgotten the most obvious--measure multiple radii across the circle, and where they cross, is the center point.  Using a right angle and then measuring the radii at a right angle from the two planes of the right angle should get it pretty accurate.  Rotating the rod and repeating will minimize errors.