Things learned, Feb 15th

Things I learned recently.

1.  From Tales From the Hood:

"Overhead is an utterly meaningless metric of organizational efficiency (or anything else). It is basically a relic from decades ago when low organizational cost was incorrectly associated with “efficiency.”

2. When responding to strikes (sparring), focus on the shoulder area, not the hands. I instantly felt the difference in speed when a sempai (in American Jiu Jitsu) told me this.

3. Polio eradication issues in Nigeria may not have been mostly "health belief" problem as was reported (specifically, Muslim clerics denouncing the vaccine). There were political issues (between the government and INGOs, international NGOs like UNICEF and WHO). There was also the issue that polio was often not a priority in communities.

(This speaker*, however, also thought that smallpox eradication had issues -- that because the community as a whole wasn't improved, the same child who is today saved from dying of smallpox dies of TB, measles, etc., today).

* Dr. Mukherjee, at the first lecture of "HST.184  Health Information Systems to Improve Quality of Care in Resource-Poor Settings." Lectures were filmed and will be posted online eventually.