Category: Politics, Religion & Money

The Wonder Years — Not

Do we really need yet another British murder mystery? Yes, if it’s Adolescence.

The Netflix mini-series is both compelling and confounding. Is Adolescence a police procedural? A serious sociological and psychological study? A reality show? A soap opera? Yes to all.

Something quite remarkable is that each of the four episodes was recorded in one continuous take. If there are any cuts at all, they were very deftly hidden.

This isn’t a gimmick. Once you start watching, the seamless flow of motion makes the verisimilitude* all the more effective, and the acting all the more impressive.

The logistical planning, coordination and practice must have been daunting. The second episode is a tour de force of what I suppose can be called “synchronized cinematography.”

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/videos/adolescence-inside-episode-2

* Sorry about that. It won’t happen again, and I promise to never use any form of “juxtapose.” 😉

All is Lost

Trump turned the White House into the backdrop for a Tesla commercial. The Secretary of Commerce recommended buying Tesla stock.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/20/trump-commerce-lutnick-elon-musk-tesla-stock-doge-cybertruck.html

Musk was going to be briefed at the Pentagon on plans for a potential war scenario with China. He threatened whomever leaked the story.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-calls-prosecutions-pentagon-140430579.html

Trump wants the Fed to lower interest rates as a way of offsetting the inflation that’s likely to come from his sweeping tariffs. Doing that could create a new supply chain problem and raise inflation to the point where it results in stagflation.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/20/trump-says-the-fed-should-cut-rates-to-ease-the-economys-transition-to-his-tariffs.html

We’re only eight weeks into this maelstrom, and the signs are already clear that we can’t wait for the midterm elections. Congressional Republicans must act and do something to limit Trump and Musk.

A Hard Landing for Software

Massachusetts General Hospital is the anchor for the Mass General Brigham network, that was originally branded as Partners Healthcare. Layoffs were announced shortly before I was at MGH three weeks ago to have my afib corrected. The cuts are supposed to be in administration.

https://www.boston.com/community/readers-say/2025/03/14/how-readers-will-be-impacted-by-the-mass-general-brigham-layoffs/

I wonder how much Mass General pays Epic Systems every year? The purchase price in 2015 was $1.2 billion, and that was just for the software. The University of Massachusetts Memorial System is in this list of the most expensive Epic installations.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/most-expensive-epic-ehrs-ranked.html

UMass is having its own financial difficulties, made worse by what the Trump administration is doing.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/03/12/umass-medical-school-hiring-spending-freeze

Was the cost/benefit of Epic Systems worth the $700 million that UMass paid?

Speaking of healthcare IT, the government’s relevant website showed a lot of activity leading up to January 20. Since then? Only one item, and that was two weeks ago.

https://www.healthit.gov/