The Cost Plus Drug Company aims very simply to provide as many common medications as possible in generic form at as low a price as possible. All cash, no IP deals, no insurance companies — just buy pills for what they cost to make, plus 15 percent to cover overhead. Asked about ROI, Cuban admitted there isn’t much to speak of, by design. “I want to be above break even while maximizing the number of people who can afford their medications,” he said. “Shoot. I would be happy if we can make a little, but push pricing of generics sold elsewhere down significantly. Our challenge is to keep pushing prices lower,” not compete with anyone, he continued. “Our KPI is how much we can reduce the stress of our patients who buy generic meds. When people save a lot of money on their medications, they often will tell others they know that have the same challenges. That word of mouth impacts our growth the most.”
Wolves saved Yellowstone National Park – The Northern Range – YouTube
Covid and the Worker Shortage
In prior posts, I’ve presented information about how Covid is impacting the size of the workforce in the US and contributing to supply chain disruptions and inflation.
This week, the Brookings Institute offers additional insights which are worth attention;
- 15% of the worker shortage in the US is due to Long Covid, that is people suffering from long term symptoms who are partially or fully disabled by those symptoms.
- A rough estimate is that 1.1 million workers have not worked at all in the past year due to suffering from Long Covid.
- A substantial portion of those trying to work through the illness have needed to reduce their work hours. The reduced hours are the equivalent of 500,000 full time workers.
- This makes the total impact of Long Covid equivalent to the loss of 1.6 million workers. That is 15% of the total unfilled jobs.
- Government agencies have failed to…
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Day 49/67: Five Month GED, History, Interest, and financial language learning
Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better
How can you determine what the cost of a student loan, or a mortgage, might be, in 20 years, and what might interest rates have to do with that? What might the difference be between simple interest, compound interest, the prime rate, and other types of interest rates? 
And why should we all care? All of these questions are part of learning the language of finance, which every Adult needs to understand, even if one does not wish to participate in all parts of the system.
You might get a start, or a refresher, on the mathematics for that in the lesson below…
Middle of week 13/18
| Day 49 Lesson Plan |
| Grammar: parallel structure in sentences |
| Math: Simple Interest |
| Today’s history reading… |
| Day 49 Exit Ticket |
| (Day 48 … Day 50) |
Bernanke drew some more parallels between then and now:
” I thought that I would speak…
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White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement | Moira Donegan | The Guardian
Like last year, this year’s March for Life featured an appearance by Patriot Front, a white nationalist group that wears a uniform of balaclavas and khakis. The group, which also marched at a Chicago March for Life demonstration earlier this month, silently handed out cards to members of the press who tried to ask them questions. “America belongs to its fathers, and it is owed to its sons,” the cards read. “The restoration of American sovereignty must follow the restoration of the American Family.”
Explicit white nationalism, and an emphasis on conscripting white women into reproduction, is not a fringe element of the anti-choice movement. Associations between white supremacist groups and anti-abortion forces are robust and longstanding. In addition to Patriot Front, groups like the white nationalist Aryan Nations and the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker party have also lent support to the anti-abortion movement. These groups see stopping abortion as part of a broader project to ensure white hegemony in addition to women’s subordination. Tim Bishop, of the Aryan Nations, noted that “Lots of our people join [anti-choice organizations] … It’s part of our Holy War for the pure Aryan race.” That the growing white nationalist movement would be focused on attacking women’s rights is maybe to be expected: research has long established that recruitment to the alt-right happens largely among men with grievances against feminism, and that misogyny is usually the first form of rightwing radicalization.
Source: White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement | Moira Donegan | The Guardian
Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, stores in West Bank – report – The Jerusalem Post
Myanmar tumbles into the abyss
Since the February 2021 coup, Myanmar’s democrats have needed to begin reckoning with this history and with the shape of a future federal union. But, for now, their attention is on the struggle to stay alive and to keep up their united opposition to the military’s claim to rule.
There is no easy way to end the post-coup conflict and yet the Myanmar army’s capacity to consolidate its rule appears more fragile than ever, especially with so many new armed groups now taking up to the fight to the military regime and its representatives. Outrageous attacks by the junta against civilians are likely to only fortify the already strong resolve of resistance forces in the mountains, but also in the country’s big cities. There is simply no good future for Myanmar while the military leadership strangles its own people.
Source: Myanmar tumbles into the abyss
Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement Carries On in Face of Increasing Junta Repression
Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
- Scientists are calling on political institutions to place limits on solar geoengineering research so that it cannot be deployed unilaterally by countries, companies or individuals.
- Long-term planetary-level geoengineering interventions of this kind are unprecedented and extremely dangerous, say the academics behind the letter, and should not therefore be experimented with outdoors, receive patents, public funds or international support.
- Solar geoengineering’s leading proposal — injecting billions of aerosol particles into the Earth’s stratosphere — could have severe, unintended and unforeseen consequences. Modelling suggests that it may cause drying in the Amazon rainforest
- In addition, if solar geoengineering were deployed, it would need to be maintained for decades. Sudden discontinuance would result in Earth facing what scientists call termination shock, with a sudden temperature rise due to existing atmospheric carbon emissions which would have been masked by cooling stratospheric aerosols.
Source: Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
Mules in the CBI and their Veterinarians
We often comment on the animals who help us, especially in war, BUT the Veterinarians who care for them are very rarely given a voice…
I received a message from Lavinia Ross @ Salmon Brook Farms about her veterinarian, D.E. Larsen, DVM and his mentor, Robert W. Davis, DVM, Please visit to read!
“GP, you might like this post by our old veterinarian who retired some years back. One of his mentors in vet school was the same veterinarian who cared for the mules used by Merrill’s Marauders in Burma during WWII.”
Dr. David E. Larsen, So. Korea
The most famous American unit of the CBI was the 5307th Composite Unit, also known as “Merrill’s Marauders.” Undertaking operations similar to those of the Chindits, it used large numbers of mules. Six Quartermaster pack troops were part of the unit, and mules were liberally…
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