The Best Doctor?

I just commented on a post made by Paul Levy @ http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/

Could not agree more with this post and it is equally true for Doctors as it is for hospitals. Who is "the best" cardiologist? Urologist? Dermatologist?

Patients ask friends and doctors they know for referrals. Do these people really know who is the best... Indeed not, a mythology exists here as well. Referrals are based on such things as visibility, reputation, amiability, affability, availability, sociability and longevity. Very rarely indeed are they based on ABILTY.

I recommend patients go to a specialty group practice and ask very specifically the nurses and assistants who work directly with all the doctors (in surgery if it concerns surgeons) which one they would send their sick relative to. Often it may not be the esteemed head of the practice they were originally recommended.

Ruined iPhone

Today, as Rogers Wireless launches the coveted Apple iPhone, Canadian consumers and politicians will be blitzing the Internet to protest unfair wireless phone contracts.

A Toronto-based Internet marketing company that's spearheaded an online campaign urging customers not to buy the 3G phone is holding a live Webcast at 10 a.m. on July 11.

The Webcast will conclude with the delivery of a hard copy of Oilchange.com's RuinediPhone petition to Rogers. The petition, so far, has garnered more than 60,000 signatures online.

Today, as Rogers Wireless launches the coveted Apple iPhone, Canadian consumers and politicians will be blitzing the Internet to protest unfair wireless phone contracts.

A Toronto-based Internet marketing company that's spearheaded an online campaign urging customers not to buy the 3G phone is holding a live Webcast at 10 a.m. on July 11.

The Webcast will conclude with the delivery of a hard copy of Oilchange.com's RuinediPhone petition to Rogers. The petition, so far, has garnered more than 60,000 signatures online.

Liberal MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South) talks about his "Get Connected Fairly" act.

"We're going to invite Rogers to participate and make a comment to people who are very angry about the pricing," says Jamie Lynch, vice-president and co-founder of Oilchange.com. "People here are fed up at being overcharged."

Rogers did respond partially to consumer clamour for a better data plan, by offering those who activate an iPhone before the end of August the opton to add 6 GB plan to any voice package for $30 a month.

"We heard a lot from our customers, they were very enthusiastic about the iPhone," says Rogers' spokesperson Elizabeth Hamilton. "They were very knowledgeable about how much data they need."

It's unlikely Rogers will accept the invitation to participate in today's Webcast organized by Oilchange.com.

"We generally don't respond to petitions or polls," Hamilton says.

But at least one high-profile politician, Liberal MP David McGuinty -- brother of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty -- will be participating in the Webcast.

The Liberal environment critic says Rogers is using the iPhone as bait to lure Canadians into unfair contracts.

He said Rogers' promotional price cut on its controversial iPhone plan "is very temporary and dubbed it a PR measure.

"I want a long-term solution to this problem."

Many Canadian consumers are outraged that Rogers is charging more for its iPhone data plans compared with providers in the U.S. and the U.K.

Oilchange.com experienced first-hand, the difference between Canadian and American wireless plans.

Petition Against Ridiculous Wireless Data Prices in Canada

As many of you may know consumers in Canada are being gouged by the wireless phone companies here - largely because of the lack of competition.  Many people myself included believe that the companies involved are being particularly shortsighted and the company which made the first move towards what I am going to suggest would likely reap huge rewards.

My suggestion is to go to the Sprint "The Simply Everything Plan".   The plan includes Unlimited talk (including long distance and roaming all over the USA), Web surfing, emailing, texting, video-messaging, picture-sharing, GPS navigation, push-to-talk, and Sprint TV and Music programming.  All for $99!

Many telcom analysts believe that plans like this which allow consumers to no longer fear extra costs, of any kind, is going to drive real change in the marketplace.

The only thing missing in this plan is that it should also include both the USA and Canada with no roaming for either data or talk.  If you are listening Sprint - if you implement this people from Canada will cross the border to sign up with you especially with the current strength of the Canadian dollar vis-a-vis the US dollar.

At minimum the wireless phone companies here should introduce reasonably priced all you can eat data plans like those from AT&T for the iPhone in the US.  I encourage everyone to sign this online petition - it already has 5375 votes as of this writing.

Links:

http://www.petitiononline.com/iPhone99/
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/unlimited-talk-data-plans-wireless/story.aspx?guid=A3CF0343-5242-40A7-B350-51F02F276BBB
http://newsreleases.sprint.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=127149&p=irol-newsArticle_newsroom&ID=1113525

Technorati Tags: canada wireless,data plans,simply everything plan,iphone

Friends help define views of beauty - Fourth Facial Attractiveness Article in 2 Months!

Richard Russell (Harvard) and Matthew Bronstad (Brandelis) recently published a study in Perception. They asked adults to rate the attractiveness of various faces, they found that that siblings, friends and spouses were more likely to agree with each other than with strangers."The agreement between pairs of affiliated friends, siblings and spouses was significantly greater than between pairs of strangers drawn from the same race and culture, providing evidence that facial-attractiveness preferences are socially organized," Richard Russell, of Harvard University in Massachusetts, said in the study.

They recruited 20 married couples, 20 pairs of siblings and 41 pairs of close friends and asked each person to rate 74 faces of undergraduates on a scale of one to seven, from very attractive to very unattractive. The responses were also compared with answers from another person they did not know. Close relations were more likely to agree with each other than with strangers and the strength of their agreement also tended to increase along with the number of years that they had been in daily contact.

Links:
Friends help define views of beauty

Ugly Men With Pretty Women

Just a note to myself to clarify and address some of the information and misinformation being reported regarding the findings from the team of Professor Jim McNulty at the University of Tennessee in the Journal of Family Psychology
Basically what is being repoted is that:

• Men who see themselves as better looking than their wives were more likely to be disgruntled and have negative feelings about their marriage,

• “Men who were more attractive than their partner demonstrated a tendency to offer less emotional and practical support to their wives.”

• "Attractive men have available to them more short-term mating opportunities. This may make them less satisfied and less committed to the marital relationship."

• “Men are rated as more likeable and friendly when they have a wife who is very attractive," said Strathclyde University psychologist Alastair Ross

• "Ugly men try harder. They care more about you and treat you like a princess. Good-looking guys are self-obsessed. That’s not attractive."

• It appears that handsome men carry a “health warning” that makes most women believe they will eventually prove unfaithful partners.

• Should a beautiful woman date someone who is not so fortunate in the looks department - he will treasure and appreciate her more and much better.

To explain all this in a simple manner one only has to bring up the axiom: "Women marry MPI, Men marry facial and physical attractiveness"
In other words it does not matter too much how the male looks to the female as long as he has MPI (more detail later but basically males that exudes charm and power and combined with wealth and status) she will be happy. To the man what makes him happiest is how attractive his mate is.

Links:
http://www.theseductionbible.com/2008/04/13/why-beautiful-women-marry-less-attractive-men/
http://www.xfxmb.com/content/health/happier-marriages-result-from-attractive-women-who-wed-uglier-men/
http://emilyteng.livejournal.com/21237.html
http://udothedishes.com/2008/04/03/ugly-men-with-pretty-women-just-works-better.aspx
http://teamsugar.com/1547365
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=43539
http://laurafreberg.com/blog/?p=221
http://www.gossiprocks.com/forum/love-relationships/68892-why-women-marry-less-attractive-men.html
http://swampbubbles.com/why-beautiful-women-marry-less-attractive-men

Can mobile phones eradicate poverty?

After publishing my last blog entry I noticed that I am not alone in my views:
Shop Talk - Innovation, Marketing and Alliances: Can mobile phones eradicate poverty?
Links:
http://shoptalkmarketing.blogspot.com/2008/04/can-mobile-phones-eradicate-poverty.html
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/04/reality_trails_by_mo.html

A COMMUNICATIONS UTOPIA

I just ran across this on an old unpublished website I had written a few years ago interestingly I still believe strongly in this idea. Hopefully one day it will come to be.

This is just a short note of my view of what the world should be like from a utopian communications viewpoint.

Essentially my belief is that:

1. All communications should be free.

2. When you are born you should be assigned a telephone number which will follow you for the rest of your life.

Imagine this world.

You are born Mark Johnson, your telephone number is 514-416-978-3906. You are given a microphone implant and cochlear implants with this phone number. You essentially have technological telepathy. If it any point you want to be not disturbed, no problem, disconnect and divert to voice messaging or accept only text messaging to your single e-mail account which is linked to this phone number. You can also block unwanted numbers accept calls from people you want to talk to even when you are busy, caller id, whatever, you have the freedom to choose. You can disallow GPS location, or allow it.

Imagine you go off to Malaysia for a business trip, you can talk to your wife all you want for free, even on the airplane if you so wish, she can call you if she needs you. You can talk to your kids when they are at school, anything. Just say the word, "call little johnny", and there he is, talking to you in your head.

It does not make sense that wireless licenses are being sold by governments for exorbitant sums to big business whom in order to make back the money has to fleece the consumer. Government exists to serve the people not big business, the people I believe want free communication, let us use the money for that, or at least not demand it in the first place.