Some of the new techniques that seem to be making the most measurable difference for amputees are so very low tech that it seems unfathomable it has taken us this long to figure them out. Apparently, both attempting to work with the amputated leg while a mirror is held up to the remaining leg so that the amputee sees two legs and undergoing "massage" in the amputated limb can help alleviate phantom pain.

In other health news: Dennis Quaid and his wife are taking on the way medical mistakes are ignored in this country after their twins nearly died because they were given adult doses of blood thinner and the hospital tried to deny responsibility for the error. Both statistics and the time I spent at the law office that defended insurance companies have convinced me that it is long past time for this sort of thing to be a more public crusade. The rate at which stupid, preventable errors occur in our hospitals is just ludicrous.

A region in India is offering to fast-track gun license applications for men who agree to get vasectomies. The idea arose from the hypothesis that part of the resistance to the vasectomy came from the perception that it some how damaged one's manliness so linking it to something seen as manly would help change this. It helped that this region doesn't give out many gun licenses, so getting to the head of the line is a fairly large boost. The whole thing is funny and brilliant at the same time, I wonder how we can use such insights.