Boston at Sunrise

The core of every good photographer is the ability to peel away the layers of a subject to capture its essence. Escaping the neon clusterfuck of the city, I darted into the stark setting of Boston during sunrise to gain a different perspective. Accompanied by my new friend Katie, we set out for an eight hour photography excursion. I would love to possess that uncanny talent for shedding light on the honesty and beauty of a place like Boston. Here's my first attempt.

Dr. Atul Gawande

Floored. Twice in one week. Dr. Atul Gawande and Noam Chomsky.

Not only does Boston offer an abundance of excellent schools, but also talks by famous lecturers, scientist, linguist, and activist. With brilliant guest speakers hailing from all over the world, sharing of ideas, innovation and creativity is unstoppable here.

Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at the Harvard School of Medicine and writer for the New Yorker, gave a talk at the Trinity Church. The talk runs a choose-your-own-adventure path; ways we can better the health care system or let it remain in its sickly state.

Dr. Gawande puts it simply, humans fail because of ineptitude. The knowledge exists on how to solve major flaws with the health care system, but we fail to put thought into action. "There are 6000 medications, I can prescribe and write to you," said Dr. Gawande. But the simplest way to solve the majority of illnesses is by following a checklist.

Dr. Gawande gave the parents of asthmatic children a checklist to take home of what they could do to help. "The checklist offers suggestions like vacuum your house and dust once a week," said Gawande. By prescribing checklist instead of medication they found that children's hospital admittance from asthmatic illnesses was lowered by 80%.

The problem is asthma is the number one diagnosis for admission. "As any doctor could tell you money is the driving force of the problem," said Dr. Gawande. He said that by changing the way doctors are paid we will greatly contribute to bettering health care.

Dr. Gawande believes to every patient worth its diagnosis, changing payment is crucial to giving Americans optimal and lasting health care. That sounds like a hard task, but Gawande says, "Health insurance is killing us slowly."

His solution is simple, no matter how much of an expert you may be, whether a parent or doctor, checklists improve outcomes.

My journalism organization, ED2010 Boston, just won for the best chapter in the nation.

Stream the new Gorillaz album 'Plastic Beach' on NPR.

Full album streaming a week before its release.

My Most Impressive Bruise

826 National

The Tutors of 826 LA from Judd Apatow

My favorite twitter denizen gets recognized

I follow Roger Ebert and he follows Kelly Oxford and now I follow Kelly Oxford. The cycle does doesn't continue because they do don't follow me.

My favorite twitterer, Kelly Oxford is finally getting recognized.



Here are a few of my favorite Oxford tweets:

1. Whenever I see a dog's balls I think, "What an asshole" Some dogs need underpants.

2. When women lie about their age, they should go up 10 years instead of down. Then when people say "You look so young", they'll mean it.

3. The best thing to come out of a 2 hr wait in a Dr's office with your crying baby, is a 6 month renewal of birth control pills.

4. Yelling "WE CAN ALL SEE YOU ASSHOLE!" to someone wearing camouflage winter clothing in the snow is extremely satisfying.

5. Say what you will, but turtlenecks make great vaginas when you re-enact a birth.

6. Harry Potter theme park commercial that airs during the Superbowl will feature a bunch of nerds lining up to ride Hermione.

7. I think my daughter just insulted her girlfriend. "Your bracelet looks like it cost two arcade tickets"

8. I liked the part where Steve Jobs came out without a belt and tried to sell us a giant iphone that doesn't make calls.

9.'I forgive but I never forget' sounds a lot like never forgiving.

10. Just sat the baby down in the gin aisle and taught the older two kids about cause and effect.