Most Interesting Thing You've Read This Past Week

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Howdy! Welcome to the our weekly open thread on interesting reads! This is where to post links to those great things that made you say "Ah!" when you read them, so the rest of us can read them too!

So what is the most interesting thing you've read in the past week?

It can be anything - a book, a news article, a blog post, a recipe, a cartoon, anything goes...

And please - if there's a link, link it; if it's a recipe post it. :D

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finished a book......started a book

sartoris's picture

I read Sheridan Hay's, The Secret of Lost Things.  Not a great read, not a bad read.  Recommended by a friend so I sort had to oblige.  Not every book can be a mental challenge!

Started the French reporter, Anne Nivat's book on the wars in Chechnya, Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya.  Chienne de Guerre translates to: Dog of War.  I have read a few books on the two Chechnyan wars and it is a heartbreaking subject. 

 

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one brave reporter

sartoris's picture

French reporter, fluent in Russian, completely fearless.  The lives that some people lead remind me why I drink so much..........wait, what?  I mean, it's a very good read. 

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Dick Armey is just a liar.

sartoris's picture

No one has to 'accept' Medicare.  For most people, Medicare Part A is free, if they have accumulated 40 work credits.  A credit is earned for each quarter of 'creditable work'.  Over the life of Meicare this has changed dramatically, however, in 2013 a person earns a credit if they earned 1,160 of 'covered' earnings in a quarter (3 month period).  Earn 40 quarters and receive Medicare Part A free.  If a person does not qualify for free Part A then they will be charged a premium for Medicare Part A coverage. 

Everyone, and I mean everyone, pays for Medicare Part B.  There is no such thing as free Medicare Part B.  Another agency (State Medicaid for example) might pay your premium, but someone is going to have to pay your premium for you to receive Medicare Part B.  However, if you don't want Medicare Part B, you simply DECLINE the coverage.  No one has to accept Part B.

If an individual wants to have private insurance then they can purchase it on the 'free' market.  Grandpa goes to the doctor, throws down his private insurance card and the doctor's office bills the private insurance.  No one has to accept Part A.  A person can have private insurance even if they are entitled to free Part A.  A person can have Medicare and their own private insurance.  If a person chooses to have private insurance, while they qualify for free Medicare Part A (based on their work credits), then Medicare simply becomes their Secondary Insurance.  Armey is pretending that a person must have Medicare.  The court declined to hear this case because it would be a remarkable waste of their time. 

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Surprisingly fascinating book: The Cello Suites

geomoo's picture

For Christmas, someone gave me a great recording of the 6 Bach Cello Suites along with a book about them by Eric Siblin.  Terrific read so far.

Here's one little cool thing that explains why I don't look to science to be able to prove everything that is true.  My wife and I have this thing that some people just seem to know what they're born for, and that when a person begins to pursue their life purpose, things fall into place.  So, the six Bach Cello Suites were only heard by a few people during Bach's lifetime, if by anyone. We know very little.  Skip forward two hundred years. At the age of 8, Pablo Casals, sees a cello like home-made street instrument and goes ape.  Later he sees an actual cello and is immediately spellbound.  He becomes a music student, is strolling through Barcelona looking for music in old shops to play at his nightly gig.  He finds the cello suites by Bach, previously unknown.  Casals practiced them every day for 12 years before having the courage to play them in public.  There is more subtlelty--these are the broad strokes.  So, the first artist to perform on cello as a solo instrument happens to find what is considered to be some of the most sublime music ever written, and it happened to have been written for solo cello 200 years earlier at a time when no one wrote for solo cello.  Cool stuff.

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