I grew up with Disneyland and remember going there as a child and having taken my 1-year-old son and, most recently, my 3-year-old grandson to the park and walking down Mainstreet, which has not changed in 60 some years, although I have. In addition to their being no more valuable E-tickets, what has changed is the cost of a Disney vacation.
“In June, LendingTree, a financial firm, published the results of a survey of over 2,000 people that found that 45 percent of parents with children under 18 who have gone to Disney went into debt for the trip.
For a family of four, the cost of a one-week trip to Disney can range from $6,463 to $15,559, not including flights or souvenirs, according to an analysis by NerdWallet, a personal finance site. Many families can’t afford the trip at all.”
From the NY Times, Families Are Going Into Debt for Disney Vacations
This is just creepy and a bit cringy. I am unsure what bothers me more: the emerging role of online healthcare or the continued amazing ability to infer one’s health from our Internet “droppings.”
The weirdest thing happened to me recently. I ordered some groceries on Amazon Fresh. When you check out, Amazon recommends more things you might like to buy, usually related to your purchase. But this time, Amazon offered up “Treatments for High Cholesterol” along with a link for an Amazon One Medical consultation as well as links to prescription medications.
That’s weird, because my doctor and my wife are the only people who know about my cholesterol numbers. They’re pretty good, too! But there are certainly data points, including my age, my food preferences, and my past purchases, maybe even news stories I’ve read elsewhere on the web, that might suggest I’d be a good candidate for a statin, the type of cholesterol-lowering medication Amazon recommended to me. And while I’m used to Amazon recommending books I might like or cleaning products I might want to buy again, it felt pretty creepy to push prescription drugs in my direction.
From Vox, Amazon is using my grocery purchases to sell me prescription drugs
Have you ever wondered about the first placebo-controlled trial? It seems it actually was a trial.
“Royal physician Michel Marescot decided that the way to divine the truth would be to bring both real and sham religious objects—unconsecrated water or wafers held in a bottle or box normally reserved for holy ones—and compare Brossier’s reactions to them. Over a period of 40 days, he and his cadre ran their tests and found no discernible difference in the way the girl responded to the different objects: When a sham relic was held against her skin, she would scream as though it were made of fire.”
From Nautil.us, Placebo Science Is Rooted in Witch Hunts
Bogarting that joint has gone from simply a lack of courtesy to possibly bad juju. It ain’t Boomer pot anymore.
“In 2022, the federal government reported that, in samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration, average levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC—the psychoactive compound in weed that makes you feel high—had more than tripled compared with 25 years earlier, from 5 to 16 percent. That may understate how strong weed has gotten. Walk into any dispensary in the country, legal or not, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single product advertising such a low THC level. Most strains claim to be at least 20 to 30 percent THC by weight; concentrated weed products designed for vaping can be labeled as up to 90 percent.”
From The Atlantic, Marijuana Is Too Strong Now
Chuck Dinerstein, MD, MBA
Director of Medicine
Dr. Charles Dinerstein, M.D., MBA, FACS is Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health. He has over 25 years of experience as a vascular surgeon.
