Revenge of the Nerds & The Terror of Lapsus$

Reading up on who was behind Uber’s and other major corporate IT breaches I’ve come to appreciate the prescience of the 1984 film classic ‘Revenge of the Nerds.’

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Kitty Genovese & NYTimes’ BYU Racism Hoax

In 1964, the New York Times published what still ranks among the most damaging false stories in U.S. media history: 37 witnesses heard the screams of a bartender named Kitty Genovese being stabbed and not one of them intervened or call the police. The story sparked what became known as the “bystander effect,” a theory that held that when multiple people witness a crime or acts of wrongdoing, they are less likely to intervene than when a single witness observes a crime.

Here’s a modern-day twist on the bystander effect: When someone is accused of racism and dozens of persons know that the allegations are false, they are less likely to intervene than if only one person knows for certain.

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Centene’s Sarah London: A Do-Gooder Gone Bad?

When Centene’s brainiac CEO Sarah London went into healthcare after graduating with an MBA from the prestigious University of Chicago it appears unlikely that she imagined herself eventually leading one of the industry’s most ethically challenged companies.

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Why Hospital CEOs Are Running Scared

The American Hospital Association last week began priming the PR pump for another taxpayer bailout. This time the AHA faces some formidable opponents to the business practices of the association’s leaders and members.

Said one industry critic: Hospital prices are “indefensible” and “unsustainable.”

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Why Uber’s IT Breach is a Very, Very, Big Deal

If the U.S. public was familiar with a tech term known as “social engineering,” CEOs would finally be held accountable for the lapse security oversight of their IT systems and the harm consumers experience because of their negligence.

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WARNING: BEWARE OF HOSPITAL SCAB NURSES!

A nearly three-day strike staged at 15 hospitals in Minneapolis/St. Paul and Duluth this week could become increasingly commonplace if the formidable Minnesota Nurses Association prevails in its staffing and wage demands. Underscoring their arrogance and HR mismanagement, the impacted hospitals assured the public that the scab nurses they recruited were just as good as the ones they replaced.

Here’s why the public should be wary of the specious claims and stand in solidarity with nurse unions.

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Karen Bass: L.A.’s Gun Owner Mayor Wannabe

A professional politician who can’t properly secure her guns in a crime-ridden city and accepted a lucrative scholarship that figured prominently in a corruption investigation is unfit to lead the City of Angels.

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Healthcare on My Mind – September 12, 2022

Some thoughts on why hospital CEOs across the country should be trembling about the strike efforts of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the American Hospital Association’s propaganda about its member’s rising costs, holding CEOs legally accountable for deaths resulting from staffing shortages, and some rare positive healthcare news coming out of southeastern Michigan.

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Tina Freese Decker’s Shameful Invoking of MLK

Tina Freese Decker, CEO of Michigan’s biggest hospital network, has a well-worn record making disingenuous statements fraught with saccharine and PR spin. But she went too far invoking the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. in a memo to employees on Friday announcing plans to fire 400 people.

As former Detroit News editor Bob Giles learned the hard way, invoking King’s name to promote employee firings can have serious consequences.

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My Disappointment With Cali Rep. Katie Porter

How disappointing. I thought Rep. Katie Porter was the rare California politician I could believe in. Turns out, Porter isn’t as ethically pure and upstanding as she would have the public believe.

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