The New Science of Giving

Most billionaires write checks to good causes they’re part of. But a Houston couple is planning to give away $4 billion—only to projects that will make ‘transformational’ changes to society. Can they redefine the world of philanthropy?

“Today, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation is bankrolling a $26 million nutrition study by Attia’s nonprofit, an effort that involves the use of metabolic chambers and that Attia likes to call “the Manhattan Project of obesity.”

 

NuSI in the news

thedsgnblog:

Melanice Chernock   |   http://melaniechernock.com

“Love Hurts was created based on an assignment to make an activity book. I thought it would be more interesting to make a sort of activity kit instead. From there, I came up with the concept of Love Hurts: A first aid kit for a broken heart. Initially, I knew that I did not want to make a kit of sadness and wanted to approach the product with a sense of humor. Love Hurts contains all of the essentials for going through a rough breakup such as dark chocolate, vodka, an excellent mix CD, and, if all else fails, tissues. All of the products come neatly packaged in a compact kit. A promo video was also made to show the products in use. “

Melanie Chernock is a graphic designer/animator/recent graduate based in New York. her goal is to create work that is communicative, humorous, and surprising. in the past, she has worked for vice magazine and chermayeff & geismar.

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David Foster Wallace | This Is Water - video by The Glossary

This is an excerpt from the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College given by author David Foster Wallace. It should absolutely be watched by every medical student, resident, and doctor. The practice of medicine can become repetitive, mundane, and often annoying.

The banality of the day-to-day practice of medicine coupled with a medical culture that puts doctors at the center of the health care team makes physicians prone to what Wallace describes as us “operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that [we] are the center of the world and that [our] immediate needs are what should determine the world’s priorities.” This plays out in hospitals and clinics as us viewing patient’s as annoyances (especially uncomplicated cases) rather than people under our care, deserving of every ounce of our attention. We must constantly remind ourselves that we typically know very little about our patients and that they very often have “much more difficult and tedious lives” than our own.

“The real value of a real education has almost nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with simple awareness.” Good medical educators know this and teach true patient care (which is very much about awareness) rather than focusing on ever-changing book knowledge.

So great