BY HARRY RING
Adding insult to injury - In London, an industrial commission awarded 12,000 to Mary Fogarty who was fired from her job at the U.S. embassy after she made a complaint of sexual harassment by her boss. The embassy then went to court, claiming diplomatic immunity.

Add it to the list - Under pressure, Boeing agreed to modify the rudders on all 737s. (Evidence points to rudder defects in two major 737 crashes.) Now British Airways has ordered an "urgent" safety check of its 15 new Boeing 777s. One plane began "wobbling" at 37,000 feet. The Times of London said the plane's black box reportedly showed the wobbling "was caused by uncommanded rudder movement."

Would they lie to you? - Following the example of last year's trucker drivers' strike in France, a Spanish drivers' strike for a lower retirement age and other benefits has shut down major highways including those into France and Portugal. A Spanish official asserted "This strike is blackmail by a tiny minority which is forcing the majority of honest and reasonable truckers to suspend their usual service."

Soon we'll live forever - Christopher Ruhm, a University of North Carolina economics professor, has done a study showing that if you lose your job you live longer. There's more time to exercise and prepare more healthful meals. You can catch up on medical appointments. And, if you're poor enough, you may qualify for Medicaid. He calculates that with every 1% rise in unemployment there's a .05% drop in the mortality rate.

A great habit - It turned up in a lawsuit in Florida against the tobacco industry. A memo by a researcher for BAT Industries, British parent of Brown & Williamson Tobacco: "[An] effective and cheap `drug,' tobacco ...also confers flavor and manual and oral satisfaction to the user."

He must inhale - That BAT memo cites Oscar Wilde's view that smoking is an "exquisite" pleasure that "leaves one unsatisfied," The researcher adds: "Let us provide the exquisiteness and hope that our consumers continue to remain unsatisfied. All we would want is a larger bag to carry the money to the bank."

Plow 'em under - A group of New York training hospitals will help reduce a reported oversupply of doctors by accepting a federal subsidy for each one they don't train. For six years, they'll pocket the same amount that they get for those they do train. What with shorter hospital stays and cutbacks in procedures, hospitals say they don't have enough patients to train the residents.

Rational as capitalism - "It's an amazing treatment of health care as a commodity - like grain or milk or meat.... But I really can't find any fault with it. Maybe this is one of the first rational collaborations between hospitals and the government." - Alan Hillman, professor of health care policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

P.S. - Currently, teaching hospitals receive about $100,000 a year for each doctor they train. They pay the trainees $40,000 for a 90-hour week.  
 
 
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