What's Next?

Last evening I decided to watch the opening episode of a newly conceived show, "Person of Interest." I was enticed by ads featuring lead actor Jim Caviezel (or something like that), who is really good-looking, and he has a tremendous presence. No wonder he played Jesus Christ in a movie! But the show, as it rolls out, is making a mockery of the American brain. The premise of the story isn't bad. A rich man creates watchdog software for American intelligence services, then realizes he must create a "back door" to the program. He preserves for himself the ability to view potential problems that don't come to government attention and resolve them; he finds Caviezel, a former intelligence agent, and gets him involved in the dirty work. The problem is that most of the story is not told in words, but in strange screen views of the cameras that watch all of America. This show is a great example of how the "geeks" of TV creativity are moving away from ...

Most Americans are aware of the controversy surrounding the cost of end-of-life medical care. About 80 percent of Medicare expenses are incurred in the last year of life, when families and physicians will often take extraordinary measures to preserve a life that's about to end anyway. Some Americans are beginning to favor less end-of-life treatment, and so this issue is often addressed publicly. But how many Americans are aware of the extensive costs involved in the care of infants born before 32 weeks in the womb? Nearly 13 percent of all babies born in the United States are premature, a 20 percent increase over the past two decades. Technological breakthroughs are allowing physicians to save babies at younger and younger ages. Births at 28 weeks are now routine, and the outer edge of viability is 22 weeks. In the next three to five years, doctors could push the threshold to as low as 20 weeks, at which age the infants would weigh abo...