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| 12/24 |
| 2010/3/1-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53733 Activity:nil |
3/1 http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/25/which-supplements-re.html Supplements that look promising vs. strong evidence that they work. |
| 2010/2/1-18 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:53683 Activity:nil |
2/1 "Doc Who Tied Vaccine to Autism Ruled Unethical"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599195765600
\_ Well of course it's unethical, it's not a treatment, no
income stream. |
| 2010/1/7-19 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53616 Activity:nil |
1/7 H1N1 flu shots available at Kaiser for all adults (both in and not in
high-risk groups) starting 1/5. Don't trust the web pages for
individual Kaiser locations. (I got mine at Fremont yesterday, and
today the Fremont page is still dated 12/21/09 and still says it's not
yet available.) Call 1-800-KP-FLU-11 to confirm. Hurry before it
runs out!
\_ I got mine at Walgreens yesterday. I don't think there is a
shortage anymore.
\_ I see. But it's free at Kaiser. :-) -- OP
\_ Seriously, nothing is free. Where do you think the money
is coming from?
\_ Okay, I'll rephrase. "But it's 100% covered by your
insurance if you have Kaiser insruance and you get the shot
at any Kaiser location." -- OP |
| 2010/1/7-19 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men] UID:53614 Activity:nil |
12/6 http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?eetype=Article&eeid=7020757&render=y&Table=&ch=ne& YEAH BABY: "26. Hormones in oral contraceptives might suppress a woman's interest in masculine men and make boyish males more attractive to her." |
| 2009/10/29-11/3 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53484 Activity:nil |
10/29 "Fury Erupts Over H1N1 Shots for Prisoners"
http://www.csua.org/u/pex (http://www.sphere.com
'"If you want to get people angry," he said, "tell them someone in
prison for a very violent felony is going to get it (the vaccine)
before their grandmother in a nursing home."' |
| 2009/10/13-11/3 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53454 Activity:nil |
10/12 Too much or too little vaccine?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703790404574469182618819504.html |
| 2009/9/28-10/8 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Eyes] UID:53407 Activity:nil |
9/28 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbch Carl Sagan autotune \_ "The URL contained a malformed video ID." |
| 2009/9/15-24 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53368 Activity:nil |
9/15 Taking shower is REALLY bad for you:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8254206.stm
\_ "Further work will need to look at whether finding these organisms
is associated with any increased risk of infection."
\_ Not as bad as taking golden shower.
\_ Solution: let the shower go for a minute before getting in. I think
a lot of people do that already.
\- You may also be interested in "Why swimming (in an indoor pool)
is bad for you. |
| 2009/8/20-9/1 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53296 Activity:low |
8/20 I can get a screaming deal ($500) to go to Tokyo in February and I
have never been so I am interested. However, is it really still
too cold and windy? Will I be better off paying a few hundred
dollars more and going in April?
\_ yes. April is better. Fly first class JAL too.
\_ Uh, why?
\_ You buy rots of top tieah packagahs, make profit, ha ha haha!
\_ Personally, I don't think Tokyo (Toukyou) ever gets that cold,
but I'm used to real 4 seasons. Now, Hokkaidou is a whole
different story. If that $500 includes lodging, that sounds
pretty darn good.
\_ February is still cold and windy. But April is warming up and
drizzling, which makes your body sticky. To me, a warm rainy
season is much worse than a cold rainy season (like in the Bay
Area). But if you really want to hit Hanami and take cherry blossom
pictures, you need to go in April. (I was once in that area from
September to June.)
\_ do you like bukake?
\_ "bukkake"
\_ Dude I totally want to go with you. I've been to Tokyo before, you
can get a JR pass and travel all over Japan and stay on the cheap at
hostels. I've mainly been to Akihabara, I want to visit more though.
Also, if you're going to travel you might as well spend the shitloads
on the aforementioned JR pass - riding the shinkansen to kyoto is
almost a hundred bucks anyways - and you do not want to miss that part
of japan. Also, February > April - better it be cold than warm and
humid - it gets REALLY fucking uncomfortable. --toulouse |
| 2009/8/11-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:53263 Activity:nil |
8/10 http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=8250776&page=1 Black Death, back in .cn \_ http://csua.org/u/osf another perspective \- hardly a surprise. \_ that photo is pretty funny |
| 2009/5/12-20 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52989 Activity:nil |
5/12 "Parasitic flies turn fire ants into zombies"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090512/sc_mcclatchy/3231765
Mad-ant disease!
\_ Now that is cool. And by cool I mean totally rad. Wicked. Almost
as sweet as a ninja.
\_ It's not like the zombie ants attack other fire ants.
That isn't nearly as cool. This is no zombie apocalypse for
fire ants unfortunately.
\_ You mean the zombie ants don't go crazy and kill everything?
Because that would be awesome.
\_ Nope. No zombie ant apocalypse. Bummer. |
| 12/24 |
| 2009/5/8-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52974 Activity:nil |
5/7 "More cell phone users dropping landlines"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_go_ot/us_cell_phones_only
"People who live in homes that have only wireless service tend to be
disproportionately low-income, ..."
1. Don't cancel your land line. That low-tech thing is a status
symbol!
\_ too late. I just don't see any reason, considering that I don't
have a stable job that I can keep for more than 3 years at a time.
2. Why on earth does the Ccenter of DISEASE Control care enough about
2. Why on earth does the Center of DISEASE Control care enough about
this to spend money to conduct a survey?
\_ The CDC does a lot of phone surveys, like the National Immunization
Survey (which is where we get our estimates of immunization rates).
Phone surveys try to avoid calling cell phones, because it's
expensive -- you're not allowed to use automated dialers, and you
often have to pay the respondents to get them to spend their minutes
on your survey. To get meaningful results from a landline-only or
landline-mostly survey, you need to know the size (and ideally the
demographics) of the cell-only population.
\_ I thought the FCC would have such data.
\_ 2: Don't you remember than everyone on humanity's home planet was
wiped out by a disease spread by dirty phones? (Hitchiker's Guide)
\_ That was Golgafrincham
\_ ...which was humanity's home planet. |
| 2009/5/6-7 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52957 Activity:nil |
5/6 Wow! none of the seven news headlines on http://www.yahoo.com today mentions the H1N1 flu. I gues it's finally dying down. \_ No, not really, the press is just getting bored with it. |
| 2009/5/5-6 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52949 Activity:nil |
5/5 Influenza Antiviral Drug Search on grid computing:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/projects_showcase/flu1/viewFlu1Main.do |
| 2009/3/26-4/2 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52759 Activity:kinda low |
3/26 world's luckiest man:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/how-i-survived-hiroshima-ndash-and-then-nagasaki-1654294.html
\_ If you can see the white light, wouldn't you get exposed to
enough deadly radiation to die?
\_ Dying from cancer at age ninety-three, and more than six decades
after the blasts, isn't exactly early death.
\_ Of course not. Feynman even watched the first atomic blast
without eye protection. The radiation that kills you is from
energetic neutrons and alpha particles that are near the blast,
and gets mixed with soil in a ground or low-altitude detonation.
\_ Feynman had all kinds of great stories about his radiation
experiences while a young man working on the Manhattan Project.
He also came down with cancer quite young, like all those guys.
\_ Someone told me great minds die young. Mozart, Mendelssohn,
etc. We should scatter plot IQ vs. lifespan... I suspect
lifespan is highest for IQ 130-150, and beyond 180 there's
a fall-off due to odd reasons
\_ Mozart and Beethoven get cited as geniuses who died
young, but Bach is also wide regarded as a genius, and
lived to the ripe old age of 65 before succumbing to
either bad post-op or stroke, depending on which source
you believe.
\_ Dying from cancer at age ninety-three, and more than sixty years
after the bombings, isn't exactly early death. How can it say it's
"probably caused by the atomic bombs that almost killed him,"? Many
people get cancer much earlier than age 93 even without exposing to
nuclear blasts.
\_ Not very lucky to be in two nuclear blasts. I'd call that very
unlucky. |
| 2009/3/16-21 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52718 Activity:nil 66%like:52717 |
3/16 Solidarity, comrade!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/03/14/2009-03-14_us_activist_tristan_anderson_hanging_by_.html
\_ 1. Your comment has nothing to do with this article.
2. It's really sad to see people snarking over the probably death
and certain permanent disabling of another human being.
3. The comment thread on that article kills kittens and puppies. |
| 2009/2/19-21 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:52606 Activity:nil |
2/19 "The most dramatic (and scary) surgery we've seen"
http://www.csua.org/u/nkn (shine.yahoo.com) |
| 2009/2/18-21 [Recreation/Pets, Health/Disease/General] UID:52596 Activity:nil |
2/17 Whoa dude, I didn't know you could keep exotic pets:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/17/chimpanzee.attack/index.html
\- jeeze [long url preserved]:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/02/18/2009-02-18_charla_nash_lost_eyes_nose_and_jaw_in_ch.html |
| 2009/2/5-10 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52520 Activity:nil |
2/5 Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg has pancreatic cancer.
\_ http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/story?id=6813420&page=1 |
| 2009/1/15-22 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52389 Activity:nil |
1/15 Now that Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze are sick with
pancreatic cancer, is pancreatic cancer going to become
a cause celebre and get lots of research funding,
far beyond what is actually justified by the magnitude
of the actual problem?
\_ they have Elton John doing benefits, not Jimmy Buffet.
\_ maybe the Cure for Aids will also cure cancer?
\_ Unlikely. BTW, the most common form of cancer in men is prostate
cancer.
\_ Yes, but medical research funding level has little
to do with commonness or severity or likely effect of
research dollar. Instead, medical research funding
is capricious at best.
\_ I'm aware of that (I work with oncology). -pp
\_ agree with pp. wherz mah two-week hard-on pill??
\_ Idiot! Don't you know that your dick will die
if you have a hard on for more than 4 hours?
\_ First, Jobs isn't dying of pancreatic cancer. after his
surgery he was cured; these are complications of his surgery.
Next, the pancreatic cancer swayze has and the one jobs had,
they are very different beasts. swayze has the one that's
a killer. jobs is the one that had the very rare one. randy
pausch had the one swayze has. anyway, the answer to your
question is no. |
| 2008/12/16-28 [Health/Disease/General] UID:52261 Activity:low |
12/16 Has it always been this cold in December?
\_ feels warm to me
\_ oh noes, poor cali boy, fwaid of a widdle weather?
\_ http://edis.oes.ca.gov
FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT
Yes. Yes, I am. And I grew up on the East Coast. --erikred, !op
\_ Is there a formal term for this? Like "de-acclimation"?
\_ It's called "getting soft".
\_ I prefer "wising up." --erikred
\_ global cooling
\_ It's the Gore effect
\_ The plANet has a fevah!
\_ Have some more cowbell.
\_ My understanding is that this is a cold snap associated with this
storm that has blown down from the north.
\_ My understanding is that this is all because someone is trying
to throw some jewelry into a pit, and if it gets too cold the
people have to walk closer to some tower.
\_ His arm has grown long.
\_ The weather is as cold as Sarah Palin's heart.
\_ It was even colder in the few days after Christmas in either 1989
or 1990 (I forgot which one). |
| 2008/12/8-12 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:52208 Activity:nil |
12/8 Great news--an actual effective malaria vaccine.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-malaria9-2008dec09,0,4472582.story
50% reduction in cases in the immunized population.
This is Nobel prize stuff.
\_ Wow, that's incredible! |
| 2008/11/18-23 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men, Health/Skin] UID:52032 Activity:nil |
11/18 what the heck has Pierce Brosnan been feeding his wife?
http://tinyurl.com/58cqtr
\_ lulz |
| 2008/11/12-26 [Health/Disease/General] UID:51923 Activity:nil |
11/12 this is kinda interesting:
http://tinyurl.com/5wq8cw
google and flu trends. --psb
\_ Anybody know why the flu spikes way up in December? How does it
look in the southern hemisphere? It's interesting that it spikes
up then even in hot and dry places. I wonder if holiday travel
and shopping spreads it more. |
| 2008/9/16-19 [Health/Disease/General] UID:51185 Activity:nil |
9/16 You probably should try and limit your exposure to this stuff.
I threw out my polycarbonate water bottle:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080916/sc_nm/chemical_heart_dc_1
\_ HOLY SHIT I've been drinking from the bottle since I was
a baby. Plastic today is like lead in the old days. I am FUCKED.
\_ The important thing is don't put hot things in plastic
and don't leave things in plastic bottles for a long time,
especially if stored someplace that gets really warm.
\_ And don't heat oily stuff in plastic containers, e.g. whole
milk.
\_ And don't heat oily stuff in plastic containers.
\_ I never microwave food in plastic ever. I took too much
O-Chem to think that this is a good idea.
\_ Hello, all that they say is that BPA is correlated to heart
disease, etc. It's a bit too soon to panic. I can easily see
that obese people eat lots of shit out of bottles and plastic
and that's why they have high BPA, but the eating habit
independently causes both high BPA and heart disease, not high
BPA causing heart disease. This may be a tempest in a teapot.
\_ Any reasonable study will take that into account.
\_ I am not going to panic, but I am going to stop exposing myself
to it. Why woudn't I?
\_ Pyrex storage: 15 bucks. Advantages: last forever, easy to
clean (even after you let stuff sit in them for months),
don't pick up smells, you can cook with them, and you
don't need to worry about plastic killing you. Disadvantages:
about 2x as expensive as decent tupperware, break if you
throw them at people, heavier. Seems like a pretty simple
call to me. 15 bucks is worth it. |
| 2008/9/14-23 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:51163 Activity:moderate |
9/14 bumped so this guy can see:
\_ I hope you are not still sitting out the month the
market goes up 20%, which it inevitably will, sooner
or later. How are you going to decide to jump back in?
\_ when the 50DMA increases past the 200DMA by 1% for
a major index
\_ Define "major index."
\_ DJIA. Come on. Hello? I'm not trying to
"trick" you here.
\_ Okay, then post on the motd when you decide
to get back in. I am kind of curious as to
how your attempt at market timing works out.
\_ all right. keep in mind that I will
likely put in 50-80% of my savings in,
with 20-50% in CDs/bonds and "my favorite
stocks"
for the last 9-12 months, I have been 80%
in CDs/bonds, and 20% in "my favorite
shorts" (with appropriate stops)
\_ There is a *huge* difference between
being 20% cash and being 50% cash.
\_ You're an idiot. I bet you predicted 10 of the last 3 recessions.
I'm still in equities and I will be in equities 30 years from
now. Have fun trading in and out. There's even a chance you
will beat my return, but don't attribute it to skill.
\_ bring up any major index in http://finance.yahoo.com. use the
Interactive Chart. Draw the 50-day SMA and 200-day SMA lines.
go in at when the 50 crosses the 200 at +1%. go out when the
go in when the 50 crosses the 200 at +1%. go out when the
50 crosses the 200 at -1%. now tell me who's the idiot.
well, just emotional, but that's a normal reaction.
well, just emotional, but that's a normal reaction. people tell
their relatives this shit and they tell them to go jump in a
lake. like i posted originally, it's your money, so do with it
lake. like i posted earlier, it's your money, so do with it
what you will.
\_ technical factors like those are not predictive.
\_ have you done the exercise yet? please do so, and don't
respond right away. wait a week. run this on more
indices. don't think about this in terms of who wins the
argument. if you still don't wanna do it--that's fine,
but now you know what people like me are doing.
\_ Run what exercise? Look at the past and expect it to
predict the future? Here's a hint: The more people
try to chase the past behavior of the market, the
less it will behave like it used to. This is exactly
the lesson of the hedge funds. -tom
\_ "bring up any major index ...". Do it.
think about it. wait a week. ask your respected
peers. ask them to do it too.
the lesson on the hedge funds is that if you lever
up 30:1 it can bite you in the ass, especially if
you chase yield.
btw, I don't disagree with you on your point about
"the more people try to chase past behavior the less
it behaves like it used to". in fact, this thought
is foremost of my concerns.
it behaves like it used to".
\_ The hedge funds wound up leveraging up because the
return on their strategy fell from .5% to less
than .2% in just a few years. Individuals trying
to identify technical criteria for investing
are basically like the guy who has a system to
win in Vegas. -tom
\_ 80% of technical analysis is crap. have you
performed the exercise yet? anyways, it's
your money. ^Vegas^poker.
performed the exercise yet? please do
consider this for a week. you can check out
performance every 6 months. it seems like
we're not going to settle this now, anyway.
\_ This would have nicely dodged the last two
downturns, but look at 1987-1992 for a
period where this strategy leaves you
trailing a buy and hold investor by quite
a bit.
\_ for more detail on what tom is talking about, look up David Swensen
or John Bogle.
\_ works very well in a bull market, and much, much better than
"letting J6P have at it with the market" -op
\_ When will be the peak tomorrow?
\_ Today was +3.86% in DJIA. Expect up to +4%, then look for
resistance on upward movement. Largest volume occurs in the last
[see thread]
\_ DJIA is now +3.34% and shows upward resistance.
for example, today I would move ~16% of my final desired
for example, now I would move ~16% of my final desired
safety portion of my portfolio out of stocks.
Certainly there is a chance it can go higher, but if it rises
to +4.0% I would drop off another ~16%; or if I were rally
to +4.0% I would move another ~16%; or if I were really
sophisticated I would set some EOD limit orders on this +4.0%
and sell earlier on some new 1-day top with upward
and sell earlier on some new 1-day local maximum with upward
resistance. as always, please consult a professional
financial advisor. -op
\_ summary: you should already have been out 33% as of the
drop past +4.0%. -op |
| 2008/8/27-29 [Health/Disease/General] UID:50982 Activity:nil |
8/27 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080826/hl_nm/cancer_skin_dc (SFW) His boobs are hot! \_ That picture is pretty random. |
| 2008/7/24-28 [Health/Disease/General] UID:50678 Activity:moderate |
7/24 Apparently, the founder of Conservapedia failed basic statistics
http://conservapedia.com/Talk:Mystery:Young_Hollywood_Breast_Cancer_Victims
He's also an epic douchebag
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Lenski_affair
\_ Damn you, I wasted 30 minutes this morning reading this
and laughing like a hyena. Good stuff.
\_ One population had a random mutation at some point. He is able
to duplicate the evolutionary process by growing the population from
the frozen population he has. No other population mutates in
this way. So the claim is that a random mutation occured at
generation 20,000? I don't really see this as evolution. It's
just a mutation. Why is this more significant?
this way. What I don't understand is why the mutation happens
again if it's random. Or is the claim that the mutation happens
much earlier? If that's the case then why not go farther back
in time to find the moment in actually occurs? Is that what he
did at 20,000 generation?
\_ Congrats, you misunderstood the study in the same way that
Andy "Douchebag" Schlafly did!
\_ So please educate me as to the significance. |
| 2008/5/19-23 [Health/Disease/General] UID:50010 Activity:nil 97%like:50006 |
5/19 Tort reform lowers medical costs in Texas?
http://csua.org/u/lmd (WSJ.com)
\_ ...for corporations and insurers! |
| 2008/5/19 [Health/Disease/General] UID:50006 Activity:nil 97%like:50010 |
5/19 Tort reform lowers medical costs in Texas?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121097874071799863.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries |
| 2008/5/5-8 [Politics/Domestic/California, Health/Disease/General, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:49886 Activity:low |
5/5 "Who should MDs let die in a pandemic? Report offers answers"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_he_me/pandemic_rationing_care
\_ I vote for football players, then politicians, then lawyers
\_ Very old people, people with chronic conditions, people who
have other problems making them likely to die. Thing is,
amongst the rest, who gets allowed to die? Males?
\_ The obvious answer is the ALPHA MALE. One Alpha breeds
with all the females.
\_ You Mormon!
\_ Welcome to triage.
\_ In a real pandemic everyone is going to die. The doctors won't have
a cure right away, if ever, and no one is going to run around asking
victims to see their driver's license, prior medical, financial and
educational history before treatment. This is just silly stuff. |
| 2008/5/5-8 [Health/Disease/General] UID:49883 Activity:nil |
5/5 It's interesting that when I visit http://finance.yahoo.com, the top story headline reads "Yahoo Shares Tumble ...". \_ "... Perfect Time to Buy!" \_ I personally think it's a diabolical plan by Microsoft to step in and buy Yahoo in a hostile takeover, after their stock loses billions and billions. |
| 2008/5/1-8 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:49866 Activity:high |
5/1 This quote brought up from below, context was systems programming:
"but I am horrified by what recent CS grads do not know."
I've heard this a lot, and to me it just sounds standard old man
ranting. How much can you expect a fresh CS grad to know? I did more
systems stuff than average in college, but I was still ridicoulusly
green compared to me 4 years later. What do you think the average
CS grad should know?
\_ When I graduated in the 90s the old timers looked me down because
I didn't know the MIPS instruction level and optimizations.
When I got older I looked down on the new Cal graduates I
hired, who were crazy about OO and thought OO will solve
all the tough problems out there. However, they turned out
alright and I embraced a subset of C++/OO. A decade later we could
only hire Javaheads during the dot coms and they're probably the
worst of the bunch. However, 1-2 of the kids who stuck around
actually turned out alright. Nowadays, I can't hire anyone who
isn't crazy about fucking Design Patterns that they think is the
greatest thing in the world. I hope 1-2 of them will turn out
alright. I guess I'm just getting old and picky.
\_ I said this and I wasn't implying "recent grad" as in "fresh
out" but in terms of "people with less than 15 years of
experience". I do not feel that people with 25-30 years of
experience". I do not feel that people with 15 years of
experience will be adequately replaced by today's grads with
5 years of experience in 10 years.
5 years of experience in 10 years. This is true of some other
disciplines as well like aerospace engineering where there is
a tremendous brain drain waiting in the wings.
\_ Wow, that is completely different than my experience at my
workplace. Around here the young guys are great, very
knowledgeable and proficient. The old guys tend to be
useless. Possibly because all the good old guys left for
places that pay more.
\_ I think you are just witnessing that as people get older
they give less of a shit and have less energy. That's
true where I work. They are extremely wise and knowledgeable,
but they don't work hard anymore because they don't care.
That's not to say they are useless, even though people
like to call them dead wood. It's just that the young
guys think they know everything already and don't appreciate
the experience the old guys have.
\_ Do not confuse working hard with working effectively.
Working smart is much more important. If you can work
hard -and- smart then more power to you but usually smart
is more than most jobs require to shine.
\_ Where I work most people work hard and smart both,
but as they age they don't tend to work hard
anymore. Not just physical and health limitations but
also the pressures of daily life increase and
people tend to rest on their laurels. I think it's
only natural when people start to approach (or in
some cases pass) retirement age. I think that people who
made significant contributions in the past should have
that reward, but I also think they are underutilized by
the young go-getter types.
\_ Retirement age... by definition they should be
retired, not working hard, yes? How old are these
old people at your work? I think what you're seeing
is not laziness or laurel resting but a deeper
understanding of their work environment where they
have learned that hard work is not necessary and not
rewarded or probably even noticed. That makes them
smart, no? Frankly, who wants to work 60+ hour weeks
for their entire life? What's the point?
\_ Smart, yes. The best workers, maybe not.
\_ I'd rather have a smart guy who works 40 hours
than dans.
\_ I'd rather have a smart guy that works
60 hours, which is what I was getting
at by saying that many people work hard
and smart both. Learning that hard work
is not rewarded is definitely smart,
but not the best for producing work.
However, I do think experience counts
for something because every once in a
while there is that "new" problem that the
old guys (let's say 65-70 years old)
have seen before. The problem is then
getting those older guys to work on
your schedule instead of their own
because they just don't have the
urgency anymore.
\_ Depends on your definition of best. I'd
rather have the lazy smart guy who writes
perfect code during his 9-5 than 10x guys who
crank out tons of broken shit in their 80
hours/week. Which sounds "more best" to you?
Time invested != value. Imagine if your car
safety belt, your dad's heart monitor, or even
your favorite video game was produced by piles
of 80hour/week clowns cranking out crap....
\_ I did not say this, but I would want a recent CS grad to know
approximately how fast it takes to access L1/L2 cache and cache
latency times, memory (RAM) access times and bus width and enough
about how hard disks work to understand why seek time effects disk
latency. Some kind of clue about what kind of performance to expect
from hard disks and network access, as well. Is this too much to
ask? Does this even get taught at Cal?
\_ L1/L2 cache effects, bus, etc is taught in CS152 and not
CS150, hence it's optional. Today, 90% of the job is to
write frontend using one of the BS scripting or worse,
J2EE/EJB shit. All the interesting problems are solved
(container, persistence, storage, horizontal scale).
L1/L2 becomes irrelevant.
\_ I'd say L1/L2 stuff is a bit unreasonable. Also what is a
recent grad doing where that stuff matters? Seriously, if
are giving a green engineer that kind of responsibility without
the few days training it would take to explain you are just
asking to fail. Now if a recent grad is not able to
understand that disk and network access is going to be slow
then yes you have a problem. But really? You expect some
wet behind the ears 22 year old to write code that pays
attention to on chip cache latencies?
\_ Most of that I picked up here and there. 61c and 162 covered
basics of cache latency and disk stuff respectively. -op
\_ When I was coding, I was happy if the new grads knew some
sql, c, perl, could write make files and shell scripts and
knew their way around the common revision control systems.
Mostly what I saw was that they were scared to death of c,
make and anything that didn't come with a gui.
\_ Even grads that go into systems need to know what NP completeness
is. Many don't. -- ilyas
\_ I think if you ask them to do travelling salesman they will
know it is NP complete. The problem is a lot of engineers have
a hard time seeing that what they want to do is pretty trivally
reduced to TS/Knapsack/largest Clique finding/etc. and therefore
NP complete. (And from my experiance this is not the sort of
knowledge people gain after working in the real world, if
anything it's the sort of thing people forget.)
\_ There has been a huge demographic change in EECS programs in the
past 20 years. When I first arrived at Cal, the people in the CSUA
were, on average, seriously nerdly. They were people who really
dug technology and stayed up all night hacking for fun and had
poor social skills and hygeine. That's not what you see these
days; these days kids are being pushed into EECS by their
parents in the same way they are pushed into pre-med and pre-law
programs. This has resulted in a more mainstream population
with less real technological aptitude and interest. This
also happens with people who graduate with pre-med and pre-law
degrees; however, med schools and law schools have very aggressive
sceening and selection programs, while the IT industry does not.
-tom
\_ There has been a huge demographic change in EECS programs
in the past 20 years. When I first arrived at Cal, the
people in the CSUA were, on average, seriously nerdly.
They were people who really dug technology and stayed up
all night hacking for fun and had poor social skills and
hygeine. That's not what you see these days; these days
kids are being pushed into EECS by their parents in the
same way they are pushed into pre-med and pre-law programs.
This has resulted in a more mainstream population with less
real technological aptitude and interest. This also
happens in pre-med and pre-law programs; however, med
schools and law schools have very aggressive sceening and
selection programs, while the IT industry does not. -tom
\_ CSUA != EECS program. How many classes have you taken since
you graduated college and came to work at Cal?
\_ While I agree, I don't really think more aggressive screening
would solve any problems. There just aren't enough really
nerdy guys around to fill demand.
\_ Lack of supply does not stop the screening in medicine.
-- ilyas
\_ I'm not sure there's a lack of supply of people wanting to
be doctors. There is a lack of supply of dedicated geeks,
though, even though salaries are high. Lots of people
just aren't interested or proficient in what I consider to
be skills much more specialized than medicine which is
lots of rote memorization. Aggressive screening will
raise salaries because all of the fakers will be out
of work, but I'm not sure it will help demand.
\_ It was unclear from your paragraph what job you think
requires rote memorization, but the majority of skilled
work in both medicine and high tech requires much more
than that. -- ilyas
\_ Medicine is rote memorization much of the time.
Maybe not radiology or surgery, but a lot of it is.
Doctors seem to be terrible problem-solvers in
general even though making diagnoses is a big
part of their job.
\_ yeah, because solving problems in a human body
is just as easy as solving them in software
engineering. "Anything I don't understand
must be easy."
\_ I didn't say it was easy. I said it was
based on memorization. I'm sorry, but
figuring out why someone is coughing is
not really difficult in spite of what
shows like House make you think. I've
talked to some good doctors who *do* have
great problem-solving skills and they
would be the first to tell you that the
majority of their colleagues don't have
that ability. It's not really what medical
school is about for the most part. I do
think many more CS students could be
doctors than vice-versa.
\_ you're an idiot.
\_ You are an idiot. Moreover you don't
understand diagnostic medicine. -- ilyas
\_ And you do, of course. I have been
the victim of 'diagnostic medicine'
and I did a better job of problem-solving
than my doctors did. It got to the
point where I just demanded the tests
I wanted from various specialists
because GPs were totally worthless.
The specialists were knowledgeable
in their own fields, of course, but
most of them weren't too useful
either when results came back
negative. Finally, I found a great
doctor based on some recommendations
and *he* helped me by: 1) listening
to me (most doctors don't do this
and it's a big part of problem-solving),
2) ordering expensive tests (doctors
don't like to do this unless they
have strong suspicions because then
they have to battle insurance) and
3) being smart enough to look at the
reports written by other doctors. My
doctor and I worked as a team to
solve my health problem, but it took
me trips to about a dozen (or more)
doctors before I found one worth shit.
So many doctors are just good at
"take two aspirin and call me in the
morning" but when presented with a
real challenge they are worthless.
My neighbor is a neurologist who is
a very good doctor and he told me
about a case where he suspected a man
had a brain tumor but the teams of
doctors treating him couldn't figure it
out. They actually had him
institutionalized. Only years later
did someone discover he had a brain
tumor. It was removed and the man is
totally normal now. This is what
these people you have such high
regard for do. I am not saying all
doctors are bad. Some are excellent.
However, problem-solving is not high
on the list of things the average
doctor is good at. Lots of doctors
like to write prescriptions until
they find one that works. That's not
good medicine. It can even be dangerous.
\_ I am not sure what these anecdotes
have to do with your original
assertion, which is that medicine is
rote memorization much of the time.
If anything, these support my point,
namely that diagnosis is a complex,
difficult activity that requires
skills an average doctor may
not have. If you want to rant about
'the average skill level' in both
medicine and high tech, I think you
will find many people, including me,
more sympathetic. -- ilyas
\_ I think you misunderstand:
1. Medicine should be much
more than rote memorization
2. Yet, medical school and the
medical professional rely
medical profession rely
heavily on rote memorization.
In my opinion many doctors
do so because their own
problem-solving skills are
lacking.
\_ Yeah, I am going to go with
my original assessment of
'you are an idiot.' -- ilyas
\_ I am guessing someone in
your family must be in
the medical profession.
Who is it?
\_ There seems to be plenty of supply (from India+China if
nothing else). As for being a real nerd or not, that
is less of an issue if there is screening. The non-nerds
just need a more directed education to teach them what
they need to know, instead of relying on ubernerds to
basically teach themselves. |
| 2008/4/25-30 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men] UID:49834 Activity:nil |
4/25 what is downside of vasectomy?
\_ Why would you want a vasectomy? - motd not getting laid guy
\_ why are you still not getting laid? lots of promiscuous
women in the San Diego area:
http://www.courttv.com/trials/sommer/113007_ctv.html
\_ already have 6 kids. -mormon
\_ If you're done having kids, it's a much less invasive procedure
than a woman getting her tubes tied.
\_ A few weeks of discomfort. Not generally reversible.
New studies suggest it may increase chances of senility in old age.
\_ what if you take synthetic testosterones?
\_ A vasectomy doesn't terminate testosterone production. It just
keeps the sperm cells from mixing into the seminal fluid (the
vas deferens, the tube that delivers the sperm cells is
severed, a section removed and the ends sealed), and the cells
are reabsorbed into the body. The going hypothesis about
senility is that sperm cells that can't exit the body are
attacked by the immune system and that the body starts
attacking cells in the brain as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy#Vasectomy-Dementia_Link
\_ how do you explain that everytime I jackoff I feel
so brain dead and do worse on exams?
\_ oh shit! I better start ejaculating more |
| 2008/4/11-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:49723 Activity:nil 54%like:49740 |
4/11 Dear lord, I want to sodomize lolita, unless she has anal cancer -aspolito
\_ Don't we all?
\_ uh, no. -gay man |
| 2008/3/11-13 [Health/Disease/General] UID:49423 Activity:nil |
3/11 Jail baits are not just jail baits. They are bombs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080311/ap_on_he_me/teen_stds
\_ But men don't get cervical cancer.
\_ HPV isn't that big of a deal. Seriously. Get over it.
\_ But....but...SEX!! !!! SPTIZER!!!!!!1!1!1
\_ The Sptizer thing is kind of funny since Sptizer broke
up an expensive call girl ring while AG.
\_ Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps
down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. |
| 2008/2/15-18 [Health/Disease/General] UID:49157 Activity:nil |
2/15 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23187315 Looks like you should save $18 on your flu shots next year. Gov sponsored vaccination isn't working well, maybe we should just let the private enterprise do a better job. \_ flu != polio |
| 2008/2/11-14 [Health/Disease/General, Recreation/Food] UID:49117 Activity:high |
2/11 If you're on the way to becoming super rich and want to buy your
very first first primary vacation mansion, where would you buy
it at? Let's say ANYWHERE (price not an issue)... Dubai? Monacco?
Switzerland?
\_ price not an issue? ok, THE MOON.
\_ Paris
\_ Paris over the Cote d'Azur? Why?
\- you may wish to read "Paris to the Moon".
\_ Monte Carlo of Monaco. I'm sure psb likes it too as it appeals
to people with refined taste.
\_ "people w/refined taste" - you mean gay people in general.
\_ psb >> pp
\- i dunno why i came up, but i put down Cap Ferrat.
although if you wanted a serious answer in the $10m
range, probably london: speak english, good connectivity,
good food, transportation, "diverse" people, good news
papers etc. that's more my thing than drinking campari
on my balcony over the med and hanging out with the
"worthless" people who own +$20m yachts and their friends.
\_ Shit weather and shit food.
\- london has expensive food, not shit food.
considering london's latitude, the weather isnt
that bad. do you diss SF because "the pacific ocean
is too cold there".
\_ yeah, I'm moving to the South Pole because the
weather there is pretty good for the latitude.
\- i dont think you know what you are talking
about. london doesnt really go below freezing.
duluth, which is about 5deg *south* of london,
is below freezing for half the year.
although it does rain frequently, that is true.
although it does rain a lot there, that is true.
\_ Not the ocean in SF (although true) but the
air temperature. I hate it. SF, NYC, London,
whatever. It's okay in the summer, of course.
\- i really dont understand why people from places
like boston whine about SF weather. i mean
50deg isnt that bad. i mean i can see the
bitching if you are from hawaii or san diego.
dont people here own thermals? i guess dressing
for the cold is a pain in the ass if you have
to be nicely dressed for work, but relatively
few people here have that as a major issue.
http://home.lbl.gov:8080/~psb/PSB_MISC/PSB_Baltoro-mac.jpg
--psb
\_ If money is no object, you can have whatever food you
want, and weather is irrelevant with indoor pools etc.
In any case, some people like a bit of rain.
\_ I thought they live there mostly because it's a tax shelter.
Though maybe they like living next to all the other rich people
also.
\_ It's more fun playing golf and flying private planes
with other people who are able to afford golf/planes,
than to hang out with a bunch of drunken football fans.
\_ Gotta be southern hemisphere, chase the summer. Sydney perhaps.
\_ My thoughts, too. Eternal summer. Australia would be great
and much safer than Africa or South America.
\_ A place like Hawaii never really gets unpleasant ever (if
anything summer might get too hot).
\_ Winter in Hawaii is still winter and it rains all the
time and it's humid. I really like Mediterranean climates.
\- Saint Jean Cap Ferrat
\_ Bermuda, Hawaii or maybe Tahiti. I think I would pick New Zealand
over Australia b/c there are fewer people in NZ. But I think both
might be too cold for me.
\_ Lake Como seems popular. (Unfortunately it is also apparently
polluted with sewage.) |
| 2008/1/25-2/2 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:49010 Activity:nil |
1/15 Does the AMA prevent doctors from representing companies or
drugs? If so, why does the Dr. of artificial heart (Robert Jarvis)
appear on TV ads?
\_ http://urltea.com/2kxk [freakonomics blog]
"I was surprised to discover that many of the manuscripts on Vioxx were
prepared and written by Merck or medical writing companies that Merck
had commissioned. The company then often paid academics to become authors.."
Good comments, too. Search for "Posted by SB", among others.
"I was surprised to discover that many of the manuscripts on Vioxx
were prepared and written by Merck or medical writing companies that
Merck had commissioned. The company then often paid academics to
become authors.." Good comments, too. Search for "Posted by SB",
among others. ...This site leads to other good stuff, such as
http://urltea.com/1k68 [cato-unbound.org] "Note that someone willing
to pay $1,000 to gain 2.5 days of life should be willing to spend
about $1,000,000 to gain six years by living rurally, and $2,000,000
to gain fifteen years via high exercise. These figures seem to me to
overestimate the observed eagerness to live rurally or to exercise."
\_ 80 columns imposed
\_ Do rural dwellers really live an average of six years longer?
Source please? |
| 2007/12/18-20 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:48828 Activity:moderate |
12/17 $45 trillion gap seen in US benefits
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78426
\_ And their quotes come from... administration officials, R congs,
and a blue dog dem from TN... This is the "drown it in a bathtub"
crowd. How 'bout some mention of how we got here...
\_ 75% of this is Medicare. Socializing medicine would fix this
problem.
\_ How do you figure?
\_ Spending growth is out of control in the health care
sector primarily because the users of the system don't
see the true costs of their actions, and there are a bunch
of entrenched interests (primarily insurance companies and
drug companies, but also physicians) who are vested in
keeping it that way. The rising cost of delivery kills
everyone, including medicare. Those places that have a
single government payer have been able to ration health
care more effectively and keep a lid on cost growth. You
might be able to do it with a straight free market system
but I don't see that working here. One way or another, we
are going to have to reduce health care delivery costs in
order to handle the wave of boomers reaching retirement age.
\_ You think that having the taxpayers foot the entire
bill is going to help the users realize their true
healthcare costs? I argue the opposite. Socializing
medicine will make costs higher. Look at your own
example: Medicare. Eliminate Medicare and I guarantee
healthcare costs will go down.
\_ Except there is the counterexample of every other
country in the world that has nationalized healthcare.
They all pay less in overall costs, both in dollars
and as a percentage of their GDP.
People will gripe about the long wait times but I
trust the government to do a better job of rationing
than the "free" market, which would just let millions
die due to lack of basic care. Eliminating medicare
might make costs come down, but how many would die
do to lack of treatment? Is that really how you want
to ration healthcare: if you can't afford it, die on
street?
\_ For people who need expensive treatment to
stay alive, maybe they should just die if they
can't afford it. Everyone dies. Especially for
people who are older than say, 60: why should
we pay more than X to artificially keep them alive?
A lot of problems are caused by lifestyle choices.
\_ We are probably not as far apart as you think.
I think the cheap and easy preventative medicine
should be free and widely available and I think
the government should generally only pay for
well understood and relatively inexpensive care
outside of that. If you are 97 and you get
liver cancer, oh well you are going to die,
unless you can afford to pay for your own
treatment. But a total "free market" system
where poor people would have no access to
health care at all would be a disaster. Want to
to see whooping cough come back? Stop providing
free immunizations to poor children and it will.
That and a host of other formerly endemic diseases
and they will not conveniently only infect the
"unworthy of health care" poor.
\_ Not all charity should come from government
either.
\_ Current HSA plans allow patients to choose their healthcare
more carefully, keeping the money in a retirement plan if
it's not spent, thus injecting some direct competition.
Those seem to be working. I'd definitely prefer that type
of plan over socializing it. Romney's comment about Mass.
is that they had 7% uninsured. Out here in CA I suspect
it's higher than that.
\_ Yes there is a chance that something like an HSA could
inject enough consumer desire to reign in healthcare
spending. Is there evidence that is seems to be working,
as you say? The only way it could make a big enough
difference to significantly change things is if it was
extremeley widespread though. Would you support making
them mandatory?
\- you get to keep what you dont use from your HSA?
i thought they were all use or lose.
\_ http://www.hsainsider.com/Individual/Benefits.aspx
The HSA is a relatively new concept, you are thinking
of a different plan, called an FSA. |
| 2007/11/30-12/6 [Politics/Domestic/Abortion, Health/Disease/General] UID:48721 Activity:high |
11/30 http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/11/30/hostin.abortion.pill.cnn Totally awesome man. Spike your mistress' drink with abortion pills and get jailed for killing unborn child. \_ What charges do you think were appropriate? \_ Willful endangerment of mother? Drugging without consent? Perhaps there's a stringent reading of date-rape drug laws that would suffice. -!op \_ So you think forcing an abortion on someone is only worth a minor drug charge? If someone did that to your wife would you be ok with the 6 months probation your list would get someone? \_ Assault and battery? Malicious poisoning? I see what you mean, and I'm trying to get at a suitable charge that matches the egregious nature of the crime against the mother without having to assign citizens' rights to the unborn. \_ Do you think a&b on a woman should yield the same charges/punishment as a&b on a woman that leads to her unborn miscarrying? Does the pregnancy have no value? \_ I believe the pregnancy has value _to the mother_ and should therefore be taken into consideration. I don't think the pregnancy has an innate value apart from to the mother, and the fetus itself has no rights apart from those granted it by the mother (and, in a cold, legal sense, the value it has to the mother). \_ Ok the pregnancy has value to the mother. I don't see where you're going with that. Again: when you are responsible for killing a woman's unborn child what should the right punishment be? And seriously, I'd check with a woman before trying to claim "the pregnancy has no innate value apart from the mother". \_ You misread: I said "the pregnancy has no innate value apart from _to_ the mother." The right punishment depends on whether killing the woman's unborn child is a crime. If she asks you to do so, then no. In this case, yes. As such, the punishment should reflect the loss to the mother. \_ I didn't misread at all. I quoted exactly what you said and kept the context. Now then, of course killing her unborn child is a crime, don't be daft. It wasn't a legal abortion, it was killed. The only question is what is the correct punishment. So far the motd has offered a $50 fine, 6 months probation and banned from practicing medicine in that state. whoop-de-doo. Go ask your wife/gf what the punishment should be and get back to me. \_ 1) You didn't quote me exactly: you missed the "to." 2) I've already agreed with you that it's a crime in this case. \_ All this stuff is a side show. What penalty is appropriate? So far the motd says $50 and 6 months probation. \_ Before I do so, I want you to explicitly state that you won't turn any punishment proposed into into a "Well, if for this, why not the same for abortion?" nonsense spiel. \_ One thing I find suspicious is that most arguments for abortion vanish with sufficient technology. This means that either you should believe morality changes with technology or you should believe abortions are wrong. -- ilyas \_ or it means ilyas is an idiot \_ How about "practising medicine without a license"? I heard even a good samaritan without a CPR license applying CPR to save someone's life can be charged with this. -- !OP \_ Oh yeah right, so that'll get him what? 3 months probation and a $50 fine and he won't be allowed to practive medicine in that state again? Again, if this was your wife who got her child force aborted, what charges would you think were sufficient and would your wife agree? \_ Practicing medicine without a license is a serious felony, with a one year prison sentence as possible punishment. ObGetAClue \_ Yes and the odds of 1 year for a first offense is about zero. So now you think 1 year is enough for killing her unborn child? Is that a good punishment to you? \_ Your claim was that the punishment was a $50 fine. Your claim is BS, as I have demonstrated. I think that is about the right punishment for the crime of "practicing medicine without a license." I don't really know what the penalty is for poisoning someone such that they had an involuntary abortion, but it should probably be a bit higher than that. \_ Not sure about that one, but the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division 3 did reverse a Good Samaritan case where a GS moved an accident victim and may have caused paralysis: http://csua.org/u/k4x (About.com) \_ Gee. Was it the crash victim or the family who sued the GS rescuer? |
| 2007/11/12-16 [Health/Disease/General] UID:48611 Activity:nil |
11/12 http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/11/09/not.at.work/index.html Don't do this at work \_ I don't want to work there. |
| 2007/11/9-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:48589 Activity:nil |
11/9 does abortion cause breast cancer? I read a letter to the editor
about it in a major paper.
\_ Sort of. Having children early is a good protection against
getting breast cancer.
\_ See it's God's punishment.
\_ So... do lesbians have a higher incident rate?
\_ Hard to infer that. Lesbians' hormonal balance might be
different. |
| 2007/10/30-11/2 [Health/Disease/General] UID:48493 Activity:nil |
10/30 http://www.csua.org/u/jv2 (Yahoo! News) "High blood pressure, bad backs, bum knees and other mundane health problems put three and a half times more troops on planes to hospitals in Germany or the United States than do snipers and roadside bombs, say front-line experts in Iraq." \_ It used to be disease would kill most troops on the march.... \_ Should they take a boat? \_ Non-battle casualties have always been larger than battle injuries. |
| 2007/10/15-16 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Health/Disease/General, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:48314 Activity:high 64%like:48322 |
10/15 It occured to me this morning that treating women as equal to men has,
so far, proven to be a poor choice for our society evolutionarily.
This suggests the practice will probably die out evenutally.
\_ Too soon to tell. I suspect that the socities with faster growth
rates may be subject to a massive die-off sooner or later.
\_ What do you mean? Fewer offspring? Fewer offspring may be the
only long-term viable evolutionary strategy due to environmental
limits.
\_ That's a salient point, but it requires that all societies agree
to limit reproduction. You may get two sets of societies, 'the
moral slow reproducers' and the 'immoral fast reproducers.' There
will still be an environmental catastrophe, but the fast
reproducers will have many more people than the slow reproducers.
The result is the fast reproducers wipe out the slow reproducers
in resource wars. There is historical precedence.
\_ Oh you mean like in California, the whites are getting
wiped out by the exploding Latino population? You RACIST!
\_ Historical precedent is invalidated by technological
advantage. When the slow reproducers have a massive military
technological advantage due to not living at or below bare
subsistence, numbers won't matter.
\_ This assumes that the slow reproducers live in segregated
political states. In reality there are slow vs. fast within
each political entity, especially now with multicultural
immigrant states. Therefore in the long run we have the
same result.
Multicultural states are therefore bad for the species,
because they lead to global homogenizing of cultures.
Diversity decreases in favor of the fastest-growing
domininant subcultures, leaving the population as a
whole at greater risk.
\_ There is about five assumptions you are making here,
none of which you have justified, but I will start
with the largest. Do you honestly believe that having
a multicultural state in say The Netherlands has any
effect on culture in Chad?
\_ Not so much, but it affects the culture in the
Netherlands. Multiculturalism is happening mostly
in countries which have slower birth rates
than the countries where the immigrants come from.
Large amounts of immigrants from [3rd world highly
populated country] have the potential to, in the
long run, make the culture in the host country
more like the 3rd world country.
\_ Not the pp, but jumping in here: actually, yes.
If NL hires guest workers from Chad, and those
workers come to appreciate the liberal freedoms of
the west, they'll export those ideas along with the
cash remittals. Consumerism has been shown over and
over again to be much more prolific than any
religion or ideology, given sufficient access to
resources and products.
\_ Or you can get mass die off of the fast reproducers, which
we will probably see in a generation or two.
\_ A mass die off caused by what? Is there some magic
disease that only infects people who have more than 2.2
children?
\_ Famine, disease, warfare, the usual things that
cause mass die offs, what else? It is already starting
to happen in some of the overpopulated parts of Africa.
\_ You're begging the question; the societies which treat women
equally are significantly out-competing the societies which
don't. -tom
\_ Not in population, which is probably the most important metric
from an evolutionary perspective.
\_ Not if you're talking about survival of the society
(as opposed to the genotype). -tom
\_ In what way? If there was a world wide plague which wiped out
a few billion people, the less technically dependent people
would have an advantage in numbers and societal structure in
the aftermath.
\_ So why aren't well all cockroaches. Oh yeah, because pure
\_ The U.S. is much better equipped to deal with a world wide
plague than India or China, partly because we haven't
overpopulated in the way those countries have. If plague
with high mortality hits and the U.S. drops down to 100
million population and China drops down to 200 million,
does that mean China is doing beter? -tom
\_ So why aren't we all cockroaches. Oh yeah, because pure
biomass is not what makes something a dominant species. This
is especially true when talking about memes instead of genes.
\_ Cockroaches don't (can't?) compete in our ecological
sphere. We can eat cockroaches for example. Other humans
do compete with us: they use the same resources and inhabit
the same gene pool. Domination only matters if the dominant
ones are willing to crush the subordinate ones like
Nazis, an ideology which has been rejected. Hitler was a
Nazi. And thus the discussion is complete.
\_ You aren't cockroaches because the cockroaches are the
cockroaches. Who says cockroaches haven't already won
from a survival and evolutionary perspective? Long after
your pathetic species has imploded, the taken for granted
little cockroaches will still be here skittering about,
doing our cockroach things. We pity you, human. We've
already won, you just don't know it. |
| 2007/9/25-27 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:48186 Activity:high |
9/24 Love flying? Better take a blood thinning medication. Your risk
of a blood clot on a flight is a whopping 1 in 4656.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20974035
\_ We're going back in time!
\_ Here's the original paper: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2lpeo8
They specifically do not recommend taking blood-thinners
prophylactically. Also, your risk of getting a blood clot
is about 1 in 1000 per year even if you never fly. They
estimate that flying a lot increases your yearly risk by 3x.
\_ They say that anticoagulant use is not justified in the
general case, but may benefit some.
\_ This ties in well with the question about drinking. Drink a lot
of booze before the flight and you will not be nervous and you
will reduce your chances of dying, too.
\_ Apparently, alcohol actually increases risks of blood clots.
-- ilyas
\_ How can that be? Doesn't, for example, red wine thin the
blood?
\_ Love being crammed into a tiny, loud space at 30,000 ft? Better
get your head examined!
\_ Some people have no choice.
\_ How could you possibly have "no choice"? Did you get
handcuffed and forced on a plane? |
| 2007/9/25-27 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:48182 Activity:very high |
9/25 So, anyone know offhand *why* healthcare costs are going up
at 3x inflation? What is driving this insane inflation in
health costs? Are health costs snowballing because more and
more are uninsured, forcing the fewer and fewer insured to
pay more and more to cover the uninsured? If so, is this
a government-created crisis, because hospitals by law cannot
turn away those without health insurance, and so they *must*
screw their fewer and fewer remaining paying customers?
*Where is all that money going?* --PeterM
\_ You are a scientist, Peter. Pretend American healthcare is a
natural system. What experiments would you set up to figure this
out? -- ilyas
\_ [serious callers only]
out? [Have something to contribute other than a retarded troll and
you won't be deleted.] -- ilyas
\_ Self follow-on--some claim doctors are receiving the
lion's share of the increase in cost as salary. Is that
true? Are we being driven bankrupt by a lot of greedy
fucking doctors? Or are they merely responding to
increased malpractice costs? --PeterM
\_ It's not going to doctors who, on an hourly basis, make less
now than doctors did 30 years ago. Most doctors have had to
see a lot more patients to keep their salaries flat. Doctors
say that the money is going to the HMOs. It should be easy
to verify that by looking at their profits. My guess is that
\_ Not necessarily, it could be the 'dead hand' effect. -- ilyas
the money is going to more expensive and complicated procedures
like MRIs and heary bypass surgery that were almost unheard
like MRIs and heart bypass surgery that were almost unheard
of in the 1970s and which are now extremely common. Valve
transplants, chemotherapy, and the like are very expensive.
Some procedures have been made cheaper with, for example,
laproscopy, but there are so many new ones and the technology
and drugs are expensive. Before health costs were cheaper
because you *died*. Now medicine can keep you alive for a
large fee.
\_ i just heard it was to fund the bureaucracy that is American
health care
\_ Hint: what causes inflation?
\_ Answer: increase in the money supply. There is more money
chasing after the services. Now, why is there more money doing
this?
\_ People don't want to die. For most it's worth it to pay
$1000/month in insurance to avoid dying when you need
that $150K surgery. Some treatments (like for HIV) cost
in excess of $1M.
\_ I'm not sure I agree with your explanation. Yes, people
don't want to die, and there is more money chasing
services, but isn't that because people are living much
longer, and, generally speaking, older individuals need
more medical care and have more money to pay for it?
-dans
\_ "need more medical care" = "not wanting to die"
No one *needs* medical care. It may not seem like a
conscious choice, but it is. Examine how people
respond when faced with a terminal illness. Some
people choose to go home and die quietly. Others
choose to spend thousands and thousands of dollars
on treatment that probably won't help. More people
are choosing to use expensive medical services and
that is why they are living longer. Of course,
there is a cost to doing so - a cost that a whole
society seems willing to bear so far, although I
think we are getting close to the breaking point.
\_ Um, by your rationale, no one needs food. I find
your viewpoint to be either exceptionally stupid or
exceptionally crass. Also, terminal illnesses are,
by definition, uncurable. The current attitude
toward treating terminal illnesses isn't one of
trying to cure them, but of trying to provide a
patient with an acceptable level of quality of life.
This need not be expensive, e.g., morphine is cheap.
-dans
\_ You think that we are not trying to treat/cure
terminal illnesses like AIDS and cancer? Get over
your gut-level reaction to my response and read
what I am saying, which is that people are choosing
expensive medical care versus dying. Do you
dispute that? The reason people did not
choose that medical care before is because it
did not exist. That doesn't mean it needs to
exist. Just because some people have Ferraris
doesn't mean we all are entitled to one. BTW,
we don't need medical care like we need food.
It's perfectly possible to live to 60-70-80
years old without ever seeing a doctor. People a
century ago lived that long and longer - maybe
not as many of them, but that's life. Medicine is
extending lives and that is very much a choice
people make.
people make. My gf's grandma had a valve
transplant at 87 years old. She's now 93. 100
years ago she'd be dead, but society said
it's worth $150K (or whatever) to give her
another 5-10 years of life.
\_ Thank you for proving my point. -dans
\_ Medical care is a human right. -dans
\_ No.
\_ From the UN Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 25.
\_ This document is a joke, and is
even self-conflicting.
See Article 17
\_ Kindly cite a document you deem
to be worthy of your eminence.
-dans
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard
of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family,
including food, clothing, housing and
medical care and necessary social
services, and the right to security in
the event of unemployment, sickness,
disability, widowhood, old age or other
lack of livelihood in circumstances
beyond his control.
Your welcome to disagree, but, as I said
earlier this makes you either a) stupid
or b) an asshole. -dans
\_ Figuring out what is a human right is
a problem for philosophers, not
something you leave up for the UN to
define. Fuck the UN. -- ilyas
\_ The American notion of human rights
tends to be more along the lines of
what's outlined in our Declaration of
Independence. Specifically, I'm
thinking of "Life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness." What you're
talking about is guaranteeing the
success of an individual's pursuit
of happiness. This is a popular
notion with the political left, and
I appreciate that they have the best
of intentions, but their intent is
not sufficient to transform success
into a natural human right.
\_ I'm an American. What gives you
the right to generalize about the
"American" notion of human rights?
Furthermore, the idea that human
rights differ from one nationality
to the next is spectacularly
stupid. And, no, I'm not talking
about guaranteeing the successful
pursuit of happiness, I'm talking
about the pursuit of *life*.
Also, line originally read "Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of
property", but that doesn't read
as well. -dans
\_ I'm the pp and I am not the
person who wrote "No". However, I
agree to the extent that a
minimal level of healthcare is a
right. That doesn't mean all
healthcare is a right.
\_ I disagree because I think a right
cannot be something that must be
supplied by someone else. Since someone
must provide health care, it cannot
be a right.
\_ Well, everything is provided by
someone else. Food, clothing, clean
water, etc. Police/fire/security
is also provided by someone else.
\_no. liberty can be taken by
someone, but it is not "provided"
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_and_positive_rights
\_ I wouldn't call any of those things
you list rights. Free speech, and
bearing arms are rights, food is
not.
see
http://urltea.com/1l4s (wikipedia)
\_ I wouldn't call any of those
things you list rights. Free
speech, and bearing arms are
rights, food is not.
\_ Apparently you don't really
understand the concept of
Human Rights. -dans
\_ What is "adequate" medical care? As
has been mentioned, there is virtually
no limit to what could be spent in
medical efforts. Perhaps it should be
the right to *access* medical care.
(I also don't think the "right to
housing" is implemented in this
country. Maybe I didn't get the memo.)
\_ That we as a society and a species
fail to implement the ideal of
human rights does not mean we
should not strive to do so. -dans
\_right. But the fact that striving
to provide "positive" rights often
results in a net loss of rights,
should give us pause in our do-gooder
zeal. See _The Road to Smurfdom_
by F.A. Hayek. -phuqm
\_ right. But the fact that
striving to provide "positive"
rights often results in a net
loss of rights, should give us
pause in our do-gooder zeal.
See _The Road to Smurfdom_ by
F.A. Hayek. -phuqm
\_ Um, no. -dans
\_ I disagree because I think a right
cannot be something that must be
supplied by someone else. Since someone
must provide health care, it cannot
be a right.
\_ Well, everything is provided by
someone else. Food, clothing, clean
water, etc. Police/fire/security
is also provided by someone else.
\_no. liberty can be taken by
someone, but it is not "provided"
see
http://urltea.com/1l4s (wikipedia)
\_ I wouldn't call any of those
things you list rights. Free
speech, and bearing arms are
rights, food is not.
\_ Apparently you don't really
understand the concept of
Human Rights. -dans
\_ No, I just think mixing up
things that must be provided (medical care) with things that just
shouldn't be taken away (freedoms) is a very basic cognative mismatch.
Certainly everyone having food and medical care is a good thing, but
they are not rights. You can disagree, but it's evidence that you can't
reason clearly. A problem I see a lot these days.
\_ It seems there's lots of mixing from all sides. You're equating
"rights" and "freedoms". Rights are what the social contract allows
one to justly claim. As such, I personally believe access to health
care and education should be defined as "rights" in this wealthy
country of ours. Freedom is an interesting word. The realm of free
men. Hmm.. Check FDR's four freedoms speech. There's a lot more
muddiness than you seem willing to admit. You're treading into
"what are we as a nation" territory with blinders on. --scotsman
\_ Who said anything about restricting this to our nation?
\_ Well, as you're claiming medical care isn't a right, you're
not talking about most of Europe, or even most of the
developed world, other than US. Do you know what you're
saying? --scotsman
\_ Insurance and gov't funded medicare/aid is funneling
tons of money into health care. The 3rd party payer is
making sure no one knows how much anything costs. Only
now with HSAs are we encouraging people to pay attention
to costs. Some of the money is going to administrative
costs of dealing with insurance/medicare reimbursement.
\_ You think medicare is less transparent than HMOs
and medical insurance companies? How much of
Medicare spending would you say goes to
administrative costs?
\_ Medicare is significantly more transparent than
private health insurance plans/companies.
Medicare's administrative costs are exceptionally
low, i.e. under 5%. This is all well documented,
and can be easily verified with a simple google
search. -dans (not pp)
\_ Have you ever actually known anyone on MC? I
do. I'd rather have the opaque HMO/POS/PPO
system.
\_ Transparancy isn't the issue. It's the issue of
knowing what insurance/medicare will or won't
cover, submitting requests for reimbursement, etc.
\_ How or why is this an issue? Yeah, insurance
could be less complex/more user friendly but,
it's not that complicated. Filing an
insurance claim is certainly no more complex
than filing taxes, and most people seem
capable of doing that. -dans
\_ LOL! Re: Taxes
My neighbor is a doctor and when his
stay-at-home wife finally decided to
help out in the office she found
thousands of dollars in claims that had
not been paid to him. There's a lot of
following up that has to be done and
the process is VERY complicated. He has
a staff of maybe 4 people to handle
this for his practice, which has 3
other partners, and his wife (who has a
vested interest in it and thus did a
better job than the staff did) found all
of this mess. Have you ever had a major
illness? If you have you'd know that even
the people billing you have no idea what you
do or do not owe. It takes months or even
years for it all to be sorted out and
even then there's probably still money
on the table that no one bothers tracking.
It's a big game where the insurance
company refuses to pay until you retain a
lawyer (more $$$) and they can have
their doctors examine you and so on.
\_ I'm sorry, but you're just wrong. The
situation where you need to hire a
lawyer to get your insurance to pay out
is an abberation. It is not the norm.
Either that or your insurance carrier
just sucks. -dans
\_ I am not saying it is the norm,
but it is common if you have big
medical bills. Have you ever had
big medical bills, especially
from an emergency (where approvals
and such were not done beforehand
and you go to the hospital the
ambulance takes you to)? If not,
you are the one who is wrong. If
so, do tell. I have personal
experience with this and when my
old employer changed medical
plans (to one that sucked) we had
an open forum where I heard
stories you've probably never
dreamed of. One guy was paying $800
per month out of pocket for his own
diabetes treatment *with insurance*
because it was "pre-existing" and
that coverage took a year to kick in.
I think you only know from
healthy 20something s/w engineer
who uses Kaiser HMO to have
bloodwork done.
\_ Oh dear oh dear are you ever
wrong. I have two navels. I was
born with one. I have a pre-ex.
I know how to read an insurance
contract. What you're describing
is neither normal, nor common.
Please go read some actual
statistics. Incidentally, you do
realize that pre-ex causes reduce
realize that pre-ex clauses reduce
what you pay as a private
individual for health care? -dans
\_ It's definitely not being eaten by doctors. Doctors' costs of
business, particularly malpractice insurance, is growing much
faster than their salaries. I have a friend who just graduated
from med school and she tells me that her net income from
practicing medicine will likely never exceed what I make writing
code for a startup. To put it mildly, this is fucked. -dans
\_ She probably will make more, even accounting for the costs
of medical school, but she won't pull ahead until very late
in her career. The nice thing about being a doctor is that
at 70 you can still see a few patients and make $80K/year
while I doubt you will be coding at that age. However, your
comment about insurance is correct. Lawyers pay about
$13K/year for malpractice insurance, but OB/GYN pay about
$100K/year. Critics would point out that doctors in the US still
make more than doctors anywhere else in the world, though,
even accounting for these expenses. BTW, why do you think
it's "fucked" that you make more than a doctor? You are both
professionals providing services society wants. I think it's
fucked that doctors make 3-4x what nurses make. It's not
like your friend is going to have a bad life or anything.
\_ Free market efficiency!
If we had socialized medicine, we'd be paying 10x for lower quality!
\_ So what it seems like to me, is that insurance policies need
to severely limit the upper end of heroic medical measures
they'll cover, and who they'll cover them for. No heart
transplants for 55-year-old males with liver disease. But yes
to emergency care for a 20-year-old in a car wreck, provided
that care won't produce a $100k/yr vegetable to care for?
No, to lifelong $1M/year drug regimens, but yes, to insulin?
\_ And who are *you* to decide who lives and dies?
\_ Is this a serious question? To answer anyway:
I'm one of the decreasing number of people who pays
insurance and so covers the cost of heroic medicine.
Seems like I should have some say into how that
money is applied?
\_ No. Really, the idea that you are some how propping up
the system with your payments is an illusion. -dans
\_ Whose payments are propping it up if not yours,
mine, and his?
\_ Magic government money.
\_ It should be decided by capacity to pay. If that's not
"fair" then what is fair? Is it worth $100B to keep the
Pope/President/your uncle alive? $300B? $3T? At what point do
you say "Just let the guy die?". It's unpleasant to think
about, but it really comes down to dollars and cents and a
life does have a value placed on it.
\_ Agreed that it sould be decided by capacity to pay. That's
not the same as insurance companies "severely" limiting it.
\_ I would say the the standard of care has skyrocketed. All those devices,
drugs, trained people, complex procedures, throw-away sterile materials,
operating rooms, MRIs, fiber-optic cameras. And most of it is just
accepted as "the norm". It goes way beyond just keeping people alive
and comparing total money spent vs. life expectancy. We pamper ourselves,
and it's in the health care industry's interest to do so.
Washing your hands and taking an aspirin would probably get the job done,
but you "have a right to the best healthcare available."
It's a vicious cycle of madness, and we're all part of it.
\_ Would any of you all believe that I didn't post my question
as a troll? I really wanted to know. Unfortunately, I don't
think the motd provided real clarity. Perhaps I was a fool
to ask. The study I Googled (and commented on above) made
the claim that most of the increase has gone into doctor's
salaries. To dans: I don't believe the economic wherewhithal
exists on the planet to provide everyone with heroic Western
style medical care. I doubt that the economic wherewithal
\_ Western style medical care really isn't that heroic. 'First do
no harm' is an ideological core value of Western medical
education, and this means doctors are trained to be skeptical
of heroic procedures with low odds of successful outcome /
medical heroics in general. -dans
exists to provide even basic medical care to everyone. It
seems insane to define "what cannot be provided" as a right.
And what about the right to keep the fruits of your labor?
That's in **direct** competition with any universal
entitlement to any product or service. We should keep
"rights" restricted to equal
opportunities (freedom) rather than entitlements. As an
extreme, if someone has a "right" to medical care, then
someone else--whether he wants to or not, must provide
that care. Doctors as slaves? --PeterM
\_ To simply put, cost rise is associated with the rise of
new medicines and new treatments, and American's attitude
of "I deserve the best treatment." Many years ago we didn't
have advanced MRI and other expensive drugs which we all
are now paying for.
\_ Please provide evidence to support your questionable
claims. When you say 'we are paying for', do you mean
'we are paying for through insurance coverage' or 'we
are paying for out of pocket'? -dans
\_ You were very free to call people "stupid" or "assholes"
above for not agreeing that people have a right to
medical care. Now, this guy said that we are paying
for medical care. He's right. There's no free lunch.
Insurance premiums come out of our pocket. What
distinction are you trying to make to invalidate his
claim that "we are paying for"?
\_ Any study that concludes that the money went to the doctors
is pushing an agenda, because there's no way that's true.
My neighbor is a partner at a busy neurology practice and he
would argue all day long about how to make money now you
have to see a lot of patients (not provide a good standard
of care), get a good survey rating (translates into
dropping patients with chronic health problems because they
complain all the time), avoid research (who has time to
participate in studies), and probably still make less than
his dad (who was a doctor) did. His dad lived in a mansion
in Larchmont and he lives next to me in a 1300 square foot
house. His dad drove a Jaguar. He drives a Passat. His dad
built a greenhouse for his mom's orchids. He waters the lawn
by hand because it's not in the budget to redo the aging
sprinklers. I don't want to say that I am basing my
statement on purely anecdotal evidence, but the reality is
that malpractice insurance and HMOs have eroded the medical
profession. To claim that doctors now make 3x more than
before (costs have risen 3X according to your premise) is
ridiculous. They make less than before just like many of us.
Let's see this study you found. Are you sure it didn't look
at gross pay for doctors and ignored that they pay 25% of
revenues for malpractice insurance and that they have to hire
2 people fulltime just to figure out the insurance paperwork?
\_ Doctors made out pretty well in this country *until* the
HMOs and high malpractice insurance came along. I think
that says it all.
\_ Yes. Now we pay 3x as much for care and it doesn't
even go to the doctor or nurses but instead to lawyers
and insurance companies. This is much better! |
| 2007/9/24-25 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:48170 Activity:moderate |
9/24 So you deleted my honest, 100 percent truth request for advice
for how the fuck do i get all this blood out of my pants
after I leaked blood all over the fucking place, but you left in
the stupid 'oh no everyone in world has herpes!' obvious
troll? thanks.
\_ use COLD water, because hot will solidify the irons (red) stain.
Don't use bleach, it will not disolve hemoglobin. Use cold water
with LOTS of ENZYME cleaners. You need to watch Court TV if you
ever want to kill and get away with murder. Hope this helps.
\_ Just out of curiousity, have you consulted a doctor about this
blood coming out of your ass?
\_ It's called hemroids. Look it up.
\_ Or not enough lube
\_ Yeah, I've had hemroids, but I've never had blood pour out
of my butt.
\_ I crap bigger than you.
\_ I have had much reduced issues with hemroids (sp?)
since I improved my diet to include more fruits&
veggies and fiber in general. Also, drink more
water, and don't "hold it"--shit when you have to
shit, don't postpone it. |
| 2007/9/22-26 [Recreation/Dating, Health/Disease/General] UID:48151 Activity:kinda low |
9/22 I just heard there's no cure for genital herpes! SHIt!!! Doesn't
this mean it's just a matter of time (in the history of mankind)
before EVERYONE in this world get herpes? -pissed
\_ No. It doesn't mean that *at all*.
\_ Only 25% of the people have it. If all 25% of the promiscuous
carriers have sex with each other, that percentage should
remain at 25%.
http://www.rti.org/newsroom/news.cfm?nav=437&objectid=D5231081-EE6A-440D-A7F053B143AC595E
http://urltea.com/1ki0 (rti.org)
\_ http://www.h-date.com
Herpes Dating, with Pictures. Now you can meet other singles
who have herpes and not worry about anything anymore!
\_ http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0737,taormino,77775,24.html
NINETY percent of Americans have already been exposed to HSV-1.
Americans are HORNY!
\_ it's just herpes. it won't kill you.
\_ You're an idiot.
\_ If everyone could keep it in their pants, all STDs would die out.
Chew on that one for a while.
\_ And if the sun burned out tomorrow, everything would die out.
Your tautology is astounding.
\_ Keeping it in your pants is your choice. Therein lies the
difference.
\_ It's just herpes. over 70% of the world has a cold sore.
deal. |
| 2007/9/12-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:48043 Activity:high |
9/12 I just found out a horrific crime occured this weekend on a
shady street corner where I usually walk to/from home. I'm
pretty shocked and at the same time not too surprised.
I'm thinking about buying a taser for personal safety. What
are the legal requirements for getting a taser? Age, safety
class, waiting period, citizenship, background check, etc?
Thanks for any help. I spent two hours crying! -concerned
\_ Take Karate lessons. It's a lot safer, plus you'll look good.
\_ Format Windows, install Linux, and work from home. And ride bike.
\_ super buff guy riding bike gets mugged by two huge guys
knocking him out and taking his bike.. karate? ..
concealed weapons carry a gun
\_ Now you see why so many of us drive cars instead of taking
public transit or walking. With a car you are not immune from
crime, but it sure beats walking on the street alone at night.
\_ troll++ well done.
\_ Bahahahaha this is funny. How about a Hummer? You can run
over gun wielding assholes and still be safe. Also you can't
possibly find parking in downtown or Berkeley without having
to walk through shady spots.
\_ Even a Geo Metro can run over gun-wielding assholes and still
be safe.
\_ You must have missed the episode of Mythbusters testing
guns vs. cars. Guns win.
\_ But...but...the movie always shows cars explode if you
shoot the hood, and flip if you shoot the tires!
\_ But if you shoot the driver he slumps over and the
horn stays on for a long time.
\_ I am sure your chance of becoming a lardass and dying of
heart disease from avoiding walking is much higher than your
chance of dying in a mugging. But go ahead and live in fear,
it doesn't bother me one bit.
\_ Because if you drive you're not allowed to exercise. You are
only allowed to exercise by walking in dangerous areas. Got
it, thanks.
\_ Sure, you can counteract the effects if you actually have
the time and discipline to do so, but how many have that?
Are you familiar with the studies correlating miles
driven with heart disease and obesity?
http://www.rand.org/news/press.04/09.27.html
\_ Where do you live? In some counties you can get a CCW without too
much trouble.
\_ What is CCW?
\_ Carry Concealed Weapon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry |
| 2007/8/23-27 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:47732 Activity:nil |
8/23 "Infectious diseases spreading faster than ever: U.N."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070822/hl_nm/un_dc
"It warned that global efforts to control infectious diseases have
already been "seriously jeopardized" by widespread drug resistance,
a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse of antibiotics."
\- one of the best non-fiction books i have read is THE COMING PLAGUE.
\_ Second that--and I'll add it's by far the scariest book
I have ever read. That's including fiction.
\_ But the housing bubble will kill us all before this ever happens! |
| 2007/8/22-23 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:47713 Activity:moderate |
8/22 'broad spectrum antibiotics' is my favorite position
\_ "Infectious diseases spreading faster than ever: U.N."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070822/hl_nm/un_dc
"It warned that global efforts to control infectious diseases have
already been "seriously jeopardized" by widespread drug resistance,
a consequence of poor medical treatment and misuse of antibiotics." |
| 2007/8/10-13 [Health/Disease/General] UID:47582 Activity:nil |
8/10 This isn't new, but:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/obesity.map
It looks like obesity is a disease that began in the midwest
and then took over the coasts.
\_ Obesity is not a contagious disease. Or even a disease. |
| 2007/8/2-22 [Health/Disease/General] UID:47518 Activity:nil |
8/2 Detect cervical cancer at home! (You need a speculum):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20094806 |
| 2007/7/25-26 [Health/Disease/General, Recreation/Pets] UID:47423 Activity:nil |
7/25 Guess what I found a really really cool site! Now you can find out
your dog's sire/dam (assume they're registered) along with their
genetic diseases (OptiGen test, CERF test, HIP test, etc). From
this you can [manually] generate a pedigree and find out if your
dog is from inbreed/linebreed, or inherited disease, etc!
Here's an example:
http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1266552#animal |
| 2007/7/17-19 [Health/Dental, Health/Disease/General] UID:47308 Activity:moderate |
7/17 Americans actually wait *longer* for health care than in
countries with socialized medicine:
http://www.csua.org/u/j5t
\_ While this may be true, don't forget that Americans get
HIGHER quality health care, like Cialis and Viagras. No
other countries enjoy sexual lives like we do.
\_ This blog is a joke, and so is Krugman. Every study I've seen shows
the opposite to this. Bring a few more and I'll start to care.
-emarkp
\_ Both of them are professors in Economics, but they disagree with
your opinions, so they are "a joke." Hers is a study quoted in
Busness Week, no doubt another "joke"
http://www.csua.org/u/j5u
Where are all these studies you have seen? I have not seen them.
\_ This is the blog which was saying that tax cuts tanked the
economy pointing to the post-2001 drop, while ignoring other
events of 2001 (like say certiain terrorist attacks).
http://www.csua.org/u/j3f
The studies I've seen are about how long it takes to go from a
GP to a specialist in socialized systems. Like how long it
takes to get an MRI.
http://csua.org/u/i1p
Note: also an economist. -emarkp
\_ No, the entry you point to does not claim or even infer
that "tax cuts tanked the economy." How did you even
possibly get that from that entry? What it does claim
is that the post-2001 recovery was very weak. The economy
was already in recession before 9/11, you know that right?
The actual economic effect of the WTC attacks was very
slight, but I guess you can try and claim that it retarded
the recovery somehow, though you are the first person I
have ever seen make that claim.
slight, but I guess you can say that it retarded the
recovery somewhat, though most economists disagree:
recovery somewhat:
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL31617.pdf
\_ Waiting times in Canada are shorter for critical
treatment (oncology) and longer for elective treatment
(plastic surgery, hip replacement).
(plastic surgery, hip replacement). Note that your
article does not compare Canadian waiting time to
US waiting times.
http://www.csua.org/u/j5y
\_ I'd be willing to fund preventative care (e.g. checkups) for
everyone, but nothing beyond that basic. That's basically what
dental plans cover. If you implement universal care then you
will see costs spiral even more out of control like they have
in Europe. There was a time two decades ago when European health
care was better than in the US, but that time passed once they
had to deal with immigration from poor countries in the same
way we have.
\_ Waiting times less in Canada than the US:
http://www.csua.org/u/j5v
Recent statistics from the Institution of Healthcare Improvement
document "that people are waiting an average of about 70
days to see a provider."
"In many circumstances, people initially diagnosed with
cancer are waiting over a month, which is intolerable."
And you know that Germany and France spend *less* per capita
than the US, right?
\_ I don't know about Germany and France, but I do know that
I wouldn't seek out care in Spain or Canada and that
health care in the Netherlands (see below) is not exactly
improving over time. By the way, do you know anyone who
had to wait 70 days to see a doctor? I don't, unless it
was some specific doctor they wanted to see.
\_ I know people who have completely been denied medical
care they needed because they didn't have insurance.
I don't know if that counts as more than 70 days or not...
\_ It shouldn't.
\_ I had a chance to talk to this guy last night
since I had dinner with him and his daughter.
He is waiting on average two months for his
appointments. He is impoverished and has to
depend on SF General for all his care. He has
some kind of kidney problems.
\_ We spend twice as much, per capita, as other countries on
health care, so it's our costs that are spiraling out of
control, not theirs. Universal health care just creates the
largest insurance pool possible, do you also want to make
private insurance illegal (except for basic dental services)?
Whether you pay premiums to your for-profit insurance company
or taxes to the government really doesn't make that much
difference except the government doesn't have a profit motive.
\_ One of the main reasons health care in the United States is
so expensive is we spend the bulk of money over the lifetime
of a human on medical care, in the last 6 months of life. Near
The End, American doctors order heroic tests and procedures
to prolong the life of the patient, often cutting short
those expected 6 months. In those glorious socialist paradises
those expected 6 months. In the glorious socialist paradises
of Europe, near The End, the doctor tells the family, and orders
pain killers to keep the patient comfortable. How would
pain killers to keep the patient comfortable. How
would the United States gradually move closer to the European
model? I have absolutely no idea.
\_ Can you back this up with any data? I'm wondering if
your source is legitimate or just word-of-mouth or
speculation.
\- San Francisco has many sidewalks.
\- Do you have some data to back that up?
\_ I have seen it both ways. American doctors told my aunt to
go home and die while Dutch doctors tried heroic measures
that saved her life. I also have seen Dutch doctors give up
on elderly patients and euthanize them. I think it depends
on the age of the patient. (My aunt was in her 40s at the
time.) Dutch medicine then was much better than in the US,
but my aunts living there now say it is no longer the case
and that benefits have been slashed from what they used to be.
I have aunts in France and Holland, a friend who is a doctor in
Greece, and ex-coworkers in Mexico, Japan, Korea, France,
and Spain, and US health care (with the exception of some
experimental treatments the FDA will not approve) is the
best in the world. It is also not free. Imagine that. The
Socialist Paradises in Europe and Japan are facing an upcoming
nightmare that makes the US Social Security problem seem
\- the people who know what they are
talking about all agree Medicare
is a much bigger financial liabiliy/
problem than Soc Sec.
small in comparison. They just cannot provide the services
they used to when faced with larger, less wealthy populaces
of the sort that the US has been absorbing for a long time.
\_ In what way is the US health care system the best in the
world? Do you have any evidence for that, other than your
assertion? The government pays for about half of all
healthcare in the US, btw, so your comment that it is
not "free" is somewhat misleading. In places like Germany
and France, the government pays for about 3/4 of all
health care costs.
\_ I am surprised nobody is discussing the RAND healthcare study, which
found that on average, medical spending has no effect on health (!):
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/05/rand_health_ins.html
http://www.rand.org/health/projects/hie
If this study is correct, discussions of comparative health care
quality would have to come with some serious qualifiers.
-- ilyas
\- yes, obviously something complicated like this comes
with qualifiers. for example the US's infant mortality
rate is "higher than it should be" because "the US"
tries to save some high-risk newborns, while in certain
(poorer) countries with allegedly lower IM rates, these
DOA cases get listed in a different column. however, that
doesnt change the large scale incentive issues here, e.g.
insurance companies foot dragging ... just like TIH hasnt
solved the cable problem, "the market" wont magically
"solve" the pathologies in insurance [actually it is not
exactly like cable, which is due to concentration, but this
is a problem of moral haz and adv selection also] and
it's not clear what "solve" means, since there are competing
public policy goals here.
\_ It seems that if spending doesn't result in statistically
significant return, AND there's isn't a lot of noise to
figure out why and correct this (or at least clamor for
bigger studies), then return isn't what
the spending is about. Hanson has some conjectures on
the reasons for our common attitudes about healthcare
spending. -- ilyas |
| 2007/7/13-18 [Health/Disease/General] UID:47283 Activity:kinda low 66%like:47289 |
7/13 bull scores double kancho
[unshortened url deleted by self appointed idiot]
\_ FINE
http://tinyurl.com/2ssdg3
\_ "Michael Lenahan had recently overcome testicular cancer that had
spread to his abdomen and the brothers were celebrating."
\_ "Michael Lenahan had recently overcome testicular cancer that
had spread to his abdomen and the brothers were celebrating."
This family's genital areas really have bad luck.
\_ This one is my fav:
http://www.csua.org/u/j5a
\_ No massive bleeding???
\_ Why the hack would anybody run in this?
\_ Because danger is exciting? I think there are much better
thrills to be had. I guess there's also a mystique to bulls
and Spain that probably goes back to Hemingway. And I guess
lots of people are idiots. |
| 2007/7/10-16 [Health/Disease/General, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:47246 Activity:moderate |
7/10 Global Warming Could Fuel War - Yahoo! News:
http://www.csua.org/u/j3z
"The authors reviewed 899 wars fought in China between 1000 and 1911
and found a correlation between the frequency of warfare and records
of temperature changes."
\_ Universal Privatization will solve the problem! -Republican
\_ economics cause wars. When you have an economy that is largely
depends upon weather, it is not a surprise that weather changes
cause wars. This is also the reason why a lot of information the
Emperor collects are percipataion records through out the land...
He knew his throne is depend upon it.
\_ You mean Emperor George II of the Royal House of Bush?
\_ Aggression increases with temperature. Just look at how people
in S Cal drive. Also look at Africa and the # of wars.
South=dumb, north=smart.
\_ Damn those dumb ... smart Canadians.
\_ Yes, the peaceful Vikings.
\_ Yes, England was very peaceful. You have to tell me
what you are smoking.
\_ good thing it's imaginary
\_ Global Warming causes *everything*. Didn't you know?
\_ I thought everything caused GW?
\_ GWB causes GW, so by transitivity...
\_ Jared Diamond's "Collapse" has some pretty good analysis of
architectural evidence of wars and conflict surrounding the tail
archaeological evidence of wars and conflict surrounding the tail
end of the Mayan, Greenland-Norse, and Easter-Island civilizations
when they hit a time of severe resource shorages brought on by
climate change.
\_ Greenland Norse did great when it was warm. When it was cold it
was unsurvivably cold. Mayans most likely died of disease.
Easter Islanders simply used up their island. I'm sure it is
a really good book anyway.
\_ Jared Diamond is far too intelligent too attribute multiple
\_ If it's unsurvivably cold, how did the Inuit continue living
there? -tom
\_ because they were better adapted to living there
(culturally). This is one of the things covered in the
book, whose tag-line also is 'How Societies choose to
Fail or Succeed'. The Norse were doing some outright
stupid stuff, including, oddly, not eating fish, one of
the most abundant food supplies there.
\_ I've read the book. My point is that the Greenland
Norse more or less chose to starve to death rather than
change their culture. Greenland is not unsurvivably
cold, it's just unsurvivably cold for bovine-based
agriculture. -tom
\_ Yes. And we know what about the vikings? Oh yeah
that they had a farm+cow based culture and didn't
change. From which we can conclude it was
unsurvivably cold for our subjects. Thank you.
\_ 32 degrees is "unsurvivably cold" for someone
who refuses to put on a jacket. The point is
that Greenland temperatures are survivable,
but the society collapsed due to poor choices.
-tom
\_ Greenland didn't hit 32 degrees. Maybe 32
below. Their society did not have the skills
or cultural understanding of what was required
to live in temps like that and wouldn't have
wanted to anyway. Even the Thuule/Eskimo/etc
had summer and winter homes they migrated
between. You can bet your ass they didn't
winter in Greenland during a mini-ice age
because it was unsurvivable.
\_ The Norse didn't understand environments as
cold as the southern tip of Greenland? Then
what do you call Trondheim?
\_ Not really. They just barely hung on, and they were
dependent on imports of key items like iron tools.
\_ The Norse? In Greenland? They starved to death or left.
\_ And/or killed each other for resources during the bad
winters, but this was mostly just the usual opportunist
stuff. Also, some intermarried and disappeared into the
native population.
\_ The native population? In Greenland? At that time?
Say what?
\_ Also known as "eskimos"
\_ At what time do you think this happened?
\_ That's "Thule-Inuit" to you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_people
\_ There's no evidence that the Norsemen ever
intermarried with the Greenlanders.
\_ You know, I don't if you're being contentious or
are arguing from an archeological/genetic POV.
The Norse were infamous for intermarriage; they
had extensive contact with the skraelingr in
Greenland; thus it's not a huge leap to infer
intermarriage. However, I have no archeological/
genetic proof to offer you.
\_ Jared Diamond is far too intelligent to attribute multiple
major collapse events to climate as a major cause. -- ilyas
major collapse events to climate as a major cause.
I have touched Jared Diamond. -- ilyas
\_ it wasn't just climate for all of them (Easter Island and
the Mayans were attributed more to environmental damge --
overfarmnig/deforestation), but the common thread was
conflict/warfare over the few remaining limited resources.
Not surprising -- who would expect people to starve to
death peaceably.
\_ and in the cases where climate change was attributed, it
was more as the tipping point that drove a marginal society
over the edge into chaos and decline.
\_ any society that close to the edge will eventually tip.
be it disease, war, lack of some resource due to any
cause, they're going over. climate change is not a
reason to fall over. the effects from climate change
might be but only for a doomed weak society. |
| 2007/7/8-10 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:47222 Activity:nil |
7/8 George Lucas vindicated - women can die of a broken heart:
http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=606042 |
| 2007/6/4-10 [Health/Disease/General, Politics/Domestic/Crime] UID:46848 Activity:moderate |
6/4 Enron exec gets only 2yr jail time for screwing up so many people's
retirement:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070604/bs_nm/enron_sentencing_dc
\- the real punishment issue is they got to "club fed" type
prisons, not ass prisons. how many years in non-ass prison
would you be willing to do to avoid 1 yr or ass prison?
would you be willing to do to avoid 1 yr of ass prison?
\_ Just send him to Iraq and tell him to patrol the city
neighborhood for road side bomb...
\_ As much as I hate Enron, I hate the idea that repeated gang
rape is an acceptable punishment, especially one to joke
around about, even more.
\_ Quite aside from the gang rape and psych. trauma
there is the very high risk of infection.
\- who is joking? i think it is a very serious inequity
in "the system" along the lines of the crack vs cocaine
sentencing disparity, some weird pathologies in the
mandatory sentencing guidelines etc. is your ass/non-ass
prison multipler less than 5? or maybe we should phrase
it in terms of "how many months are you willing to trade
for change in marginal risk of hepatitis, hiv etc." are
you willing to add a year to your sentence to take the
risk of hiv/hep from 5% to .1%?
\_ The prison system is broken. The sentence itself should
be the punishment. Getting raped, getting a disease, or
getting abused in some other way by the other inmates is
not justice and should not be part of the system.
\_ Agreed, but the solution is not softer sentencing for
corporate pirates.
\- Again, eliminating the abuses in the prison
system is a separate issue than the sentencing
disparity. For example you can feel the penalties
for drugs are overly harsh *across the board* but
it is a separate issue to look at the (racial)
disparate impact of the sentencing guidelines.
A better example, also turning on race, concerns
capital punishment. Again being pro/con capital
pusiment is a separate issue from the fact that
black people killing white people have VASTLY more
likely to get the death penalty than black people
"only" killing another black person. [and of course
this is a spearate issue than quality of repre-
sentation etc. but of course money makes a difference
whether it is law or medicine].
\_ OJ Simpson vs. Scott Peterson.
\_ The plural of ancedote is not data.
\_ I agree with you on the sentencing guidelines for
things like crack vs. cocaine. It's all coke and
should be treated the same. But is it? Isn't
crack a much stronger version of the same basic
stuff? Shouldn't a more serious substance get a
more serious penalty? If not, then why treat
pot use as a decriminalised activity but send
coke users to jail? Some lines? No lines? Or
just one big line that treats all drug offenses
the same?
\_ Coke and crack are both Sched. II substances;
as such, sentencing for possession/dealing
should be the same. However, judges have a
tendency to view coke-heads as still socially
redeemable, whereas crackheads are considered
irredeemable, and so sentences tend to be
harsher for crackheads. This is not consistent
with the espoused purpose of establing Scheds.
to begin with.
\- often there are arguments like "crackheads
are more likely to commit other crimes"
as opposed to upstanding wall street
coke users, or suburban upper middle
class coke heads etc. but it seems like
you should only be able to convict people
for what they did rather than statistical
propensities ... like if the crack head
paid for the crack by stealing car stereos
you need to convict him of that rather than
just infer it from "no visible means of
support". on the flip side, you also have
to wonder about "hate crime" laws with
harsher pentalities, under the theory that
hate-fuelled beatings are worse than run-
of-the-mill beatings ... if a hate beating
averages in 50stiches rather than 25 stiches
surely there is a way to have the sentencing
reflect the "actual damage" and dispense
with the "thought crime" aspect. although
i acknowledge something like hate-graffitti
may be different from "<my gang> rules"
type graffiti ... but once it advances to
something like arson, i dunno if you really
have to consider the "hate" element so
much.
\_ The why is always important in crime.
For instance look at the difference
between a premeditated mob hit and
a crime of passion.
\- fair point. but some whys matter.
like premeditation. does it matter
whether the premediated mob hit was
for financial reaasons [like say
remove competition/turf war ...
fundamentally about money] or say
to prevent a witness from testifying.
but i think we agree sentencing is
complicated and hard to make a
determiistic function of n-variables.
like for white collar crime how do
you factor in the magnitude of the
harm [embezzing $50k, vs $10m in
some kind of securities fraud],
what should be criminal vs civil
penalties etc.
\_ Crack and coke are the same thing, one is
not inherently stronger than the other,
though the method they are used leads to
slightly differrent effects. They may
finally be eliminating the sentencing
disparity, btw:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n656/a04.html
\_ If the method of use of one leads to a
greater (or less socially acceptable)
effect then I'd claim it is "stronger".
\- so for say assault, there should be
different sentencing guidelines
based on whether you are a welter-
weight or heavyweight or a black-
belt? how about just focusing on
the actual damage. if somebody
embezzles $2000 and buys math books
vs. mexican drinking binge, should
they get differnent sentences?
\_ In the case of drug sentencing the
charges are related to possession
not your blood content. So they
have to look at the potential
damage of selling 2kg of crack vs.
2kg of coke. If the potential
damage is the same, then yes they
should be punished the same. If
the crack is going to do more harm
to the community than the coke then
it should be punished more harshly.
Does one actually have the
potential to do more harm than the
other? I don't know. But the
judges dealing with these things
seem to think so.
\- drunk driving in a yugo vs a
humvee are treated differently?
yes, if the humvee drink driver
kills somebody and the yugo
driver just dents a mailbox,
that should be treatement
that should be treated
differently but saything there
are schedule I and schedule II
cars for DUI, is kinda odd.
\_ cars aren't drugs. car
possession is not (yet) a
crime. for a car wreck we
punish the effect. for drug
possession we punish based on
potential effect.
\- in the case of drunk
driving you can go
after them without a
car wreck happening.
it's being in posession
of a car while driving
because that might lead
to a car wreck, a pot-
ential effect.
\_ And for that potential
effect, the punishment
is extremely high. It
presumes that "this is
not your first time
doing it, so we'll
throw the book at you" |
| 2007/6/1-5 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Skin] UID:46832 Activity:nil |
6/1 Some stuff worth knowing for your next expedition to Africa.
http://www.cybertracker.co.za/DangerousAnimals.html
\_ "An Ostrich may attack humans if they get too close to its
nest. It does not help to run away, since one will never
outrun it."
I don't need to outrun the ostrich, I just need to outrun you.
\_ Shouldn't the URL be
http://www.cybertracker.co.za/DangerousHumans.html |
| 2007/5/31-6/13 [Recreation/Food/Alcohol, Health/Disease/General] UID:46800 Activity:low |
5/28 I'm in Mendocino now. What is worth doing here? I don't drink
wine BTW.
\_ Skunk Train. Lost Coast beach hike (20+ miles).
Buy hydroponics. -tom
\_ I 2nd the Lost Coast hike. do it now, don't do it
in the winter!
\_ Mendocino is a pretty big place. Are you near Jenner or Ukiah
or Leggett? Orr Hot Springs is quite nice, especially if you
like naked hippies. There is great beer in Hopland, at the
Medocino Brewing Company. You can kayak in the bay near Jenner.
Bodega Bay is really beautiful and there are lots of things
to do there, including diving for abalone. Occidental is nice
to do there, including diving for abalone. Occidental is good
if you want to get out of the fog. -ausman
\_ Mendocino Brewing Company is good, as is Anderson Valley
Brewing Company in Boonville. Try to find and read a copy
of the _Letters of Wanda Tinasky_.
\_ I was the op. Mendocino was a cute little walkable town. I
liked going to the one and only supermarket. It was almost
comparable to Trader Joe and Whole Food Market. Other than that
all the shops were selling useless things that no one really
needed. Food was pretty good, but nothing that you
couldn't get from the city. Fort Bragg totally sucked unless
you were interested in riding the Skunk Train. Weather was
far from ideal-- it never got above 63F, and overcast all the
time. Cold and windy. The drive to Mendocino was a total drag.
Route 128 was full of trailers, curves, etc etc. It was
painful to be on 128 for nearly 3 hours. Overall, the pain of
going to Mendocino was not forth the little pleasure you get
being there. I hate Mendocino and I'm never going back.
\_ sounds like you didn't take anyone's advice.
\_ I grew up there. It used to be a nice little hippie town, until
it got taken over by parasites (aka tourists) and all of the
stores that sold useful things were replaced by real estate
offices selling vacation homes and Wilkes Bashford outlets.
It sounds like you missed out on all the truly interesting
stuff that's hiding there, so you might want to consider getting
better advice and giving it another chance. --lye
\_ I advised you to go over the hill to someplace sunny, if you
got sick of the fog. -ausman |
| 2007/5/29-31 [Health/Disease/General] UID:46785 Activity:nil |
5/29 Entomologist gives the low down on colony collapse disorder.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvanishingbees.htm
\_ Beeist! Your beeism is not funny or acceptable! |
| 2007/5/15-17 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:46646 Activity:kinda low |
5/15 "Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared
to five other rich countries, according to a report released on
Tuesday."
Interestingly, Canada is rated second-worst, and Germany is rated
as having the best system.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070515/us_nm/healthcare_usa_dc
\_ You know, I've known this for years, but the average Joe on the
street thinks that AMERIKA HAS DA BEST DAM HELTH KARE! WE #1!!
And every time I say something different they decry the evils
of "socialized medicine".
\_ The average PhD is a left leaning socialism, and in many cases
a closest communist. Why is that the case, Peter?
\_ Better education? Though communism is a failed experiment:
I don't know anyone who is really a communist, even a
closet one, not even close. But plenty of leftists.
Aren't you upset by the erosion of the middle class,
decreasing access to health care as many Americans
are priced out of the market, concentration of wealth
and power into corporate hands, devaluation of labor
in comparison to capital? These are 3rd-worldization
trends. And yes, I get your point on me overgeneralizing
based on a few samples of the "Average Joe"--valid point,
but America *is* pretty hostile to the idea of socialized
medicine--even though it's been shown to be a superior
solution when implemented well. Whether US is capable
of a good implementation of socialized medicine is
another debate. --PeterM
\_ I find it very telling that they're against it if you
call it "socialized medicine" in a poll question, but
for it by 2 to 1 if you describe it differently.
\_ What's a better term? "Government health care"?
"Government health insurance"? "Universal health
care financed by tax revenue"? When talking to
people I usually use "universal health care" and
mention the Governator actually tackling that.
\_ http://www.overcomingbias.com/medicine/index.html
Search for "RAND Health Insurance Experiment". I am not
touching your 'socialized medicine is the better solution
if implemented well' claim, but this is a good read on
a related topic. -- ilyas
\_ I don't think that study shows what you think it shows. |
| 2007/4/25-29 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:46450 Activity:nil |
4/25 Why the media sucks:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html (Scroll down to april 24th entry)
\_ Great timing, especially as the Dow breaks 13,000.
\_ Huh? I can't see anything earlier than April 10th.
\_ April 24th is after April 10th |
| 2007/4/21-25 [Health/Disease/General] UID:46407 Activity:nil |
4/21 NASA employee gets mediocre performance review, buys legal gun,
shoots co-worker. Just to make the point.
\_ That guns don't kill people, people do?
\_ Cancer doesn't kill people, cancer cells do!
\_ Wars don't kill people. |
| 2007/4/11-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:46258 Activity:nil |
4/10 Adult stem-cell therapy may cure Type I Diabetes http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1637528.ece |
| 2007/3/30-4/3 [Health/Disease/General] UID:46159 Activity:nil |
3/30 Wow, crazy stalker impersonates dying blogger
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,261916,00.html
\_ This is HORRIBLE. Only a Libural would do something like this. |
| 2007/3/13-16 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:45958 Activity:nil |
3/13 Want to get your woman on the pill? Show her CNN's link:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/03/13/healthmag.pill/index.html
\_ About #2: Low-dose pills are actually better than high-dose pills
in preventing ovarian cancer:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070309/hl_nm/ovarian_cancer_dc
About #9: My wife's dentist told her that antibiotics also
decreases the effectiveness of the pill. |
| 2007/2/28-3/2 [Health/Disease/General] UID:45840 Activity:moderate |
2/28 Quick quiz: Which kills more Americans?
A) Insurgents in Iraq attacking US soldiers
B) Bungee jumping
C) Bees
D) STDs
E) African-Americans committing murder
F) Obesity
\_ It's not much of a stretch to include this under automobile
related deaths.
G) Trolls
++++++ H) Illegal aliens in the US committing murder ++++++
I) Space aliens
J) Cthulhu
K) Spontaneous Human Combustion
L) Automobile Accidents
M) Smoking
N) Burning
O) Cancer
P) Old Age
Q) Living
********R) My Ginormous Herpes Infested Penis***********************************
S) Bar fights and the subsequent shootouts.
T) Abortion
U) Space Monkeys
V) Squirrels
X) Mind numbing Boredom
\_ The answers: (2004) (of 2.4M US deaths)
1) Heart disease 652k
2) Cancer 553k
3) Strokes 150k
4) Lung disease 122k
5) Accidents 112k
6) Diabetes 73k
7) Alzheimers 66k
8) Flu + Pneumonia 60k
9) Kidney disease 42k
10) Septicemia 33k
\_ How dare you bring facts to the MOTD!!??
\_ Our laws governing automotive safety are as every bit as
retarded as our foreign policy in the Middle East. Both
need our attention and some solution. What makes Iraq
particularly important is that it's putting an enormous
strain on our resources (economically and militarily).
\_ You're right, if we moved every single soldier from Iraq,
Japan, Korea, Germany and Cuba to the Mexican border,
we might stop all illegal immigration. Kill.
\_ That wasn't something I was suggesting. Try again. -op
\_ It's about a sensical as your quiz. -!pp
\_ Or not. -op
\_ Precisely: your quiz was nonsense. -pp
\_ Hey! Thanks to the asshole who chnaged my post. choice B) is
supposed to be Illegal Aliens committing murder.
\_ I like how when lefties here don't like facts, they hide them.
\_ I don't like the fact that Cancer kills people??? |
| 2007/2/27-3/1 [Health/Disease/General] UID:45827 Activity:nil |
2/25 Alternative theory on mass extinctions of mega fauna in North America:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0004839D-C6AC-1CDA-B4A8809EC588EEDF&pageNumber=1&catID=4
\_ I'm having trouble getting the pages. We exterminated native
americans in large part because of disease. Is it fair to say
this article says that we wiped out megafauna by introducing
disease, too?
\_ If by "we" you mean humans from Asia 11k years ago, yes. |
| 2007/2/23-27 [Health/Disease/General] UID:45806 Activity:moderate |
2/23 Do women with gigantic tits get breast cancer more often
than ones without?
\_ http://i19.tinypic.com/30c8sx1.jpg does not have cancer.
\_ That's Amanda Wenk, right?
\_ the fat stores more of the cancer causing agents
more fat.. the more you can store
\_ I have read so.
\- It would make sense if the chance for any given cell to become
cancerous were fixed. Bigger breasts => more cells => greater
chance they get cancer.
\- i thought fat people didnt have more fat cells
but larger fat cells. BTW, a really quite good book
is "Why Zebras dont get Ulcers". --psb
\_ Not necessarily. I doubt cancer happens randomly with an
equal chance per cell. It is much more related to heredity
and environment. I would expect a woman with small breasts
who works at a radioactive biotoxin waste dump who had both
grandmothers, her mother, 3 aunts and 2 sisters die of
cancer to also get cancer while the OP's "gigantic tits"
woman who has no family history and lives in a clean
environment to likely never get cancer. My example is
extreme of course but just trying to make the point that
cancer is a disease with real causes, not a random event.
\_ Still, averaged over the entire population, it may well
reduce to, "more breast cells, higher chance of breast
cancer." For example, if your small breasted woman has a
large breasted sister who worked at the same dump, the
sister may have a higher chance.
\_ I would expect both to get it at approx the same time.
Another thing to think about: women who have had lumps
removed will often get breast cancer again (and again)
until the entire breast is removed. Yet the cancer
is often only in one breast. So after a first lump
removal you should have a higher chance in the other
breast but because of the environment (previous cancer
cells already in the first breast), that breast is
much more likely to grow more cancer.
\_ When I travel on an airplane I bring a bomb, because
it is *really* unlikely there will be two bombs on
the plane!
\_ Cute, but false analogy.
\_ That can't be real.
[... snip ...] |
| 2007/2/20-23 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Sleeping] UID:45778 Activity:nil |
2/20 TV is literally a health risk
http://physorg.com/news91104374.html |
| 2007/2/14-17 [ERROR, uid:45741, category id '18005#12.0059' has no name! , , Health/Disease/General] UID:45741 Activity:high |
2/14 A few days ago there was a brief discussion about socialized health
care. Walter Williams has a column today that addresses existing
problems of Canada and UK health care. -emarkp
http://csua.org/u/i1p
\_ The Canadian statistics there are interesting. They give numbers
like "the median wait for a CT scan across Canada was 4.3 weeks,
but in Prince Edward Island, it's 9 weeks". PEI is the smallest
and poorest province in Canada, though, so that's not really
surprising. All the above-the-median examples they give are from
the small, poor provinces -- this suggests that wait times in the
major provinces (Ontario, Quebec, BC) are significantly lower than
the numbers in the article, which fits with what my friends and
relatives have experienced. --mconst
\_ Wrong--not "significantly lower" than the median. A little
googling turned up the publication:
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=pb&id=863
"Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia had the shortest wait
for computed tomography (4.0 weeks)" -emarkp
\_ Oh, and here's the Observer article from 2002:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/nhs/story/0,,661090,00.html
"The number waiting a dangerously long time has doubled in two
years, says a devastating official study obtained by The
Observer." -emarkp
\_ BORRRRRING
\_ Not necessarily. If the population on PEI and other poor regions
is low than their numbers won't have a dramatic impact on the
average across the country. I don't have numbers for these
places and honestly don't care enough to look them up but your
basic logic is flawed.
\_ I'd rather wait 9 weeks for a govt paid CT scan than 2 days for
one that costs $15,000 out of pocket.
\_ What if your condition becomes terminal in that 9 weeks?
\_ There's no question that there's a trade off. But in the
end I believe that more people would benefit from the service
who don't have healthcare than those who would suffer because
of wait times.
\_ So, it seems like the obvious solution here would be to
allow people to pay for fast service if they wish. (I
haven't read the article yet.) -jrleek
\_ Which is explicitly disallowed, at least in Canada.
-emarkp
\_ There is a lot of room for debate on whether we should move to
socialized medicine. However, I find http://TownHall.com to be distress-
ingly partisan. Thank you for the article; please let us know if a
more reliable source has something to say. --erikred
\_ You attack the messenger because you don't like the message?
How about we examine the message itself. Is there a flaw in
their data or reporting?
\_ http://TownHall.com is a collection for opinions on the right. If you
reject a source of debate that you don't like, how can you have a
debate? Williams is an economist and from reading his columns, I
think he's clearly libertarian (in philosophy if not in party
registration). I'm perfectly happy reading opinions from the
left on (say) http://moveon.org, etc. and opinions from the right on a
different site. Why do you object to that? -emarkp
\_ Of course, anytime you ration the use of something, you are going
to cause a wait for it. In the US, we just ration by ability to
pay, in Canada they do it by the severity of your problem. People
die all the time in the US because they can't afford treatment,
and Dr. Williams is being disingenuous to pretend otherwise.
\_ Ah, but the difference is that when people bid up the cost of
something, there is financial incentive to bring more players
into the market. The US system, while deeply flawed, does allow
government (or charities) to subsidize the cost of care for
people who can't afford it, and those who can afford it can get
it by paying cash. -emarkp
\_ Where do the blood sucking parasites, I mean, insurance
companies fit into this equation?
\_ Insurance simply spreads risk. We pay them to manage risk
for us. However, the current insurance/medical regime is
the problem with the system. To some extent we *do* have
socialized care, since medical essentially determines
reimbursment amounts, and mandates care at emergency rooms.
-emarkp
\_ Tell me again how "no one dies" due to lack of
medical care in America:
http://www.csua.org/u/i26
But yes, in many ways we have both the worst of
socialism and the worst of capitalism all rolled up
in our terrible medical delivery system.
\_ I never said it in the first place. Can't you read?
-emarkp
\_ "I challenge anyone to show me people dying on
the streets because they don't have health
insurance." So you didn't say it, but your
source did. |
| 2007/2/7 [Health/Disease/General] UID:45678 Activity:nil |
2/7 The air is cold |
| 2007/1/7-16 [Politics/Foreign/Canada, Health/Disease/General] UID:45536 Activity:nil |
1/12 Crazy Canadians object to teaching Yoga in schools:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/01/09/bc-yoga.html
\_ Meh, I like yoga. The more active styles are really hard (and fun)
-jrleek
\_ Stop doing Yoga. You are a bad Mormon. |
| 2006/12/26-30 [Health/Disease/General] UID:45496 Activity:high |
12/26 What's the difference between "infectious" and "contagious" when
talking about diseases? Thanks.
\_ contagious is via the air
\_ This seems to be pretty much a distinction without a difference.
Some people try to call things you can catch by proximity
"contagious", so while both are infectious, rhinovirus would be
contagious, HIV would not. But I don't know of a standard,
widespread distinction.
Here's another possible distinction: Infectious means a disease
caused by a micro-organism. Contagious means an infected person
can transmit an infectious disease to another person
\- i am not an expert in this, but my understanding is: contagious ->
you can get it from another person [so this is probably what you
are thinking both mean], but infectious means it is caused by an
"infectious agent" ... e.g. if you cut yourself and get dirt in the
wound and get a strep-caused problem, you have an infection but
it wasnt contagious. so infectious is from "what" causes the
disease. contagious is focused on the "how" the transmission
occurs. what i am not sure about is what parameters apply to
contagious, e.g. does it have to be same species, does it just
include proximity or contact ... presumably something like
getting a prion disease from eating mad cow beef isnt considered
contagious ... since you are getting it via the medium of food.
same for getting infectious malaria from a mosquito bite.
now if somebody can explain the difference between iatrogenic
and nosocomial, i'd be delighted.
\- In practice they can be used sloppily but in "theory",
contagiousness is a QUALITATIVE MEASURE of how easy it is
to CATCH from another person [animal etc], and "infectious"
gets at whether the cause of the disease is an INFECTIOUS
gets at whether the CAUSE of the disease is an INFECTIOUS
AGENT [bacteria, virus etc, as opposed to structural
defect, toxin, chemical, radiation etc]. So it is reasonable
to say "airborne influenza is MORE CONTAGIOUS than ebola"
and to say "ebola is an infectious disease while osteoperosis
is not" [pace, some h pylori type discovery].
can somebody explain the difference between NOSOCOMIAL and
IATROGENIC. ok tnx.
IATROGENIC. ok tnx. --psb
\_ o.k. I probably won't do as good a job as the above, and
i'm no expert, but my understanding is that NOSOCOMIAL is
` particularly in regard to maledies resulting from being
in a hospital, where as IATROGENIC is used less
specifically to describe any treatment-caused ailment.
So that MRSA (resistant staff) is most likely to be
referred to as nosocomial, whereas my fucked up shoulder,
being directly attributed to the surgery, as opposed to
the hospital per-se, would be more likely to be called
iatrogenic.
iatrogenic. -crebbs
\- oh fair enough ... that seems like a meaningful
distinction. one is GEOGRAPHIC and one is SIDE-EFFCTTING.
so if i take my wife to the doctor and i get ill while
sitting int he waiting room, that is NOSOCOMIAL but not
sitting in the waiting room, that is NOSOCOMIAL but not
IATROGENIC. meanwhile, if i get an infection from self-
injections of insulin, that may be IATROGENIC. --psb
\_yep. (assuming, the injections were prescribed, if
not I don't think it counts, unless perhaps you
consider yourself a Doctor of some kind :) -crebbs |
| 2006/12/12-17 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men] UID:45439 Activity:nil |
12/12 So what are DeBeers and Tiffany's gonna do to debunk the
untrue story of Blood Diamonds?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/12/diamonds.koinange/index.html
\_ They will bombard the media with ads that claim that their
diamonds are clean. Voila! They've cleared up all misconceptions
AND increased their visibility.
\_ Tiffany, conflict-free since 2002
http://csua.org/u/hos (cbsnews.com) |
| 2006/11/3-4 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Eyes] UID:45139 Activity:nil |
11/3 After tech jobs, outsourcing now infests health care.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061102/ap_on_he_me/outsourcing_health
\_ Health care was destroyed the day the first HMO was born. |
| 2006/11/3-4 [Health/Disease/General] UID:45127 Activity:nil |
11/3 Cancer Alicia addicted to lollipops
http://tinyurl.com/ybwlkr - danh |
| 2006/10/30-31 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men] UID:45035 Activity:nil |
10/30 Sheldon Brown is dying :( It's a dark dark day:
http://sheldonbrown.org/journal/health.html
\_ Cheer up, so is Fidel Castro! |
| 2006/10/24-26 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44950 Activity:nil |
10/24 Thanks illegal immigrants! I was missing Tuberculosis. Especially the
drug-resistant strains.
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52555
\- "The states with the highest numbers of multi-drug
resistant cases in the last decade were New York,
California, Texas and Florida, according to the
CDC -- states with the highest populations of new
immigrants." ... gee, by coincidence, those 4 stats
immigrants." ... gee, by coincidence, those 4 states
also have the most Americans! ... http://csua.org/u/hak
\_ Nevertheless, it is a fact that illegals bring
this disease into the country.
\- What about American fastfood causingg obesity-related
problems in China, France etc?. What about Coca Cola
casuingMr Tooth Decay to arrive?
\_ What about them? Those are lifestyle diseases,
not contageous killers of millions who never made
the choice to eat crappy food.
\_ Yeah and so? You can't tell the difference between
someone choosing to drink Tooth Rot(c) and someone
getting resistent staph by walking into a hospital for
something else? |
| 2006/10/23-24 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44935 Activity:low |
10/23 The good news is that stem cells have cured a Parkinson's-like disease
in rats. The bad news is they also got brain cancer.
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061016/full/061016-16.html
\_ sounds like non-malingnant tumors, not cancer. (Still.) -tom
\_ Giant lump growing in my brain. Not good. I don't care if it
is malignant or not after it starts pressing against my
cerebral cortex.
\_ Yeah, that would suck. You might even eventually lose motor
control... oh... wait...
\_ As much as parkinson's would suck, crushing your CT would
be worse.
\_ Why did someone delete all the followups?
\_ Why do you hate non-malignant tumors?
\_ I love non-maglignant tumors. Why do you hate
non-malignant-tumor lovers? |
| 2006/10/17-18 [Health/Disease/General, Computer/SW/Virus] UID:44846 Activity:high |
10/17 Some iPods shipped w/ a Windows Virus:
http://www.apple.com/support/windowsvirus
\- why dont more viruses delete massive amounts of data?
it seems like if the virus writers wanted to hurt msft
that what they should do in addition to spreading.
it seems like viruses are still in the realm of annoying
rather than fatal. is there some techical reason they
cant do more permanent damage? [i understand thaty cant
instantly kill the host, as that will greatly reduce the
spread rate].
\_ one day they will take your data and you'll have
to pay Russians to get it back.
\_ Probably because most of these are all about tagging to get
their name out there in the el8 hax0r community to announce
their m@d sk1llz than really about anything truly malicious.
We have spyware for that now.
\_ sort of like the reason real viruses aren't more lethal .. they
kill off the host and can't spread any more.
\- yes i understand that is often the case but you would think
there would be at least a few that did massive damage. or
somebody would tweak the original to do a if p < .05 then
rm -rf /. especially when you consider how many people dont
like msft. making bill gates = borg tshirts doesnt hurt msft
but fear and trembling on the part of people running windows
might.
\_ There have been viruses which delete files; they don't
propagate very well, because IT folks are more aggressive
about finding and cleaning them. -tom
\_ IT folks don't find them until users complain, while
cleaning them at most places usually involves
Symantec's Ghost. Nuke it from orbit. It's the
only way to be sure.
\_ The best answer I've heard to this question is that the
purpose is not to destroy the host or to delete info, but
to gain remote access to the host and use its bandwidth
either for downloading software or for use in ddos attacks.
Deleteing data would give away the covert nature of the
infection and would make is more likely that the virus
would be removed before the author could make use of the
infected host.
\- i am not expressing surprise that most viruses arent
more destructive but that so few are. do you know of
anybody who lost everything that was not backed up
after a virus infection? i dont think most viruses
today give somedy a "covert channel" to control the
host or really do much purposeful things other than
propagage themselves [there are some that do ddoses,
but that is still the minority] ... again, look on
slashdot or in other parts of dweebworld and there are
so many people who hate msft. there are also so many
viruses. i'm ust surprised these two group have not
intersected to produce a really destructive virus ...
most of these viruses punish some comobination of
the owner of the computer, possible their IT slaves,
if in some institution with an IT staff ... but dont really
punish msft. of course it is possible this is common
among people running bootlegged OSes which are not managed
by "it staff" [say te random asian windoes pirate user]
but we dont hear about it much.
\_ Then I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but you may not know
much about viruses. Botnets for hire (spam, DDoS for
blackmail, mainly) are a pretty big "industry", all
things considered. Very few skilled virus authors are
your prototypical 13 year old "I H8 TEH M1CROSUX"
slashdot bandwagon dweeb nowadays. Most viruses/trojans
have a fairly pragmatic purpose, and while in a lot of
cases it's just to propagate and make a point (whee look
at me! I'm cool!) those, with a few notable exceptions,
tend to be among the large mass of badly written, easily
caught ones. There's some really technically interesting
stuff floating around that does stuff like use Windows ADS
for payload storage, much of which spreads fairly
discreetly and doesn't do exactly the kind of destructive
shit that might cause grandma to install Symantec. -John
\- this may be true now, but viruses have quite a long
history and these functional one are a relatively
recent phenomena ... certainly viruses changed in
the era of permanently and by default networked
windows boxes. also i also [and i could be wrong
here] modifying a virus is probably much simpler
than writing from scratch so the number of people willing
and able to "mutate" one into an rm-rf virus seems
fairly large. so do you know of a single
person who had his computer "deleted" by a virus?
[i mean deliberate erasure or corruption of disk ...
not accidentally hosing things trying to remove it].
again my whole point is my suprise about threasholds.
like there have been DDOSes against msft, but I'm
surprised there have not been more or more clever
anti-msft DDOSes.
\_ Because people with real technical skills have better
things to do than hate microsoft much less write
malicious code to damage windows machines.
\_ Yes, I know of quite a few who have had significant
amounts of data wiped by fairly primitive viruses
as a big fat bronx cheer for failing to take even
basic security measures. And what the above poster
said. There are extremely skilled and vicious DDoS
attacks (e.g. against gambling sites during large
sports events for blackmail purposes) using botnets
for hire. There's no money to be made out of hitting
MSFT. -John |
| 2006/10/10-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44749 Activity:moderate |
10/10 Believe it or not... I just came down with a flu. I realize it's a
bit [early] in the season but it's actually happening around me.
Wash your hands and be careful!
\_ Me 2. spent the last week out of it. no fun.
\_ I've had the flu since Sat., I guess that it is better to get
it over w/ early.
\_ I had one a month ago.
\_ I was gonna get a flu shot again this year. But then I remembered
I had one last year and got a flu anyway. So screw that. They
are offered at work though. How many of you get those?
\_ I got the flu shot last year, and I got waylaid by a non-flu
cold anyway. Ah, well, at least it wasn't the flu.
\_ EFI used to provide shots for free to employees, and for $10 to
family members.
\_ I don't believe you. Please provide evidence to back up your wild
claims. |
| 2006/9/22-25 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44503 Activity:nil |
9/22 There was a girl I dated at Cal that was also a bit of an anomoly
because she was willing to date me. The end.
\_ Ditto. Married her (my girl, not yours).
\_ why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free?
\_ what if you're lacktose intolerant?
\_ The cow wanders into someone else's barn.
\_ shuts the relatives up -pp
\_ ask them .. "Got Milk?"
\_ "Well, son, why milk the cow when you've got a fridge
full of steaks?"
\_ Apologies, the original is at http://csua.com/?entry=44500 but
I just couldn't resist. Penthouse letters lives. -John |
| 2006/9/22 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44500 Activity:nil |
9/22 There was a girl I dated at Cal that was also a bit of an anomoly
due to a mental illness. It's been a few years now (and I didn't
date her for that long) so the details might have vanished with
time, but in short this girl had a very small brain tumor.
For me, it was a tumor sent from heaven though, because I'm a
selfish bastard! This tumor was resting right next to the gland
that controls the onset of puberty and also triggers the body
when it thinks it's pregnant (pituitary gland maybe?). About
a month before we had met, she was diagnosed with this tumor
(non-cancerous), and it started to change her right around the
time we got together.
She was kind of a big and tall girl to begin with, so her bra
read 38DD, but they didn't really *look* like DDs, you know? They
were in proportion to the rest of her. Well, within the 4 months
that we dated, she went from the 38DD to a 38G, which look friggin
HUGE on anybody! Her doctor said that her tumor had pushed on the
gland and made it communicate to the rest of her body that she was
pregnant. She stopped having her period almost immediately after
we met, and she had some gentle weight gain. Nothing that made
her look bad remind you, she continued to fill out proporionally.
At the point of this memory, she had been measured for an bought
an F cup, but it hadn't really filled out yet. She was somewhere
inbetween the DD and F sizes. Her nipples had also gotten pretty
big and became incredibly sensetive. She hardly like me playing
with them because they were so sensitive sometimes, but that's
not to say I didn't get my fair share of breast play in with
this goddess!
Well, one night we're going at it, and since we both had been
tested and she wasn't capable of menstruating, I was riding
bareback! She was on top and had just climaxed and was like
"my God, my boobs feel swollen!" She started to play with her
nipples as I watched, and to my surprise, she starts milking
herself and squirting it on my chest!
My jaw must have been opened a mile wide, because she was like
"What, I didn't tell you about this?" She was milking herself
for a minute or so because she saw how much I loved it before she
dismounted from me. There was a pretty sizable puddle of milk on
my chest, and before I know it, she's there lapping at it. First,
she did the cat thing, which was damn cute, but then she realized
she had me well beyond the "cute" stage. Having that girl lap off
her breast milk was the sexiest thing anyone has ever done for me! |
| 2006/9/14-16 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44374 Activity:nil |
9/15 You think terrorism is bad. how about terrorism + bird flu!!
I think it's game over:
http://tinyurl.com/hxp9k |
| 2006/8/22-24 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44105 Activity:nil |
8/22 Data points for you guys. Appointment times and experience for
ophtamologist (for eye disease):
Kaiser Spring 2006:
Appointment: You must go to a primary doctor first, or talk to
a phone nurse who'll diagnose you. Wait time for a phone nurse
for me took 65 minutes (just waiting on the phone).
Wait period: 5 days before the nurse allows you to make an
appointment and actually seeing the doc
Waiting room: 45 minutes wait
Kaiser pharmacy time: 45 minute wait
Notes: You must go to a Kaiser hospital, and you must go to a
primary doc for referal. If it's an emergency visit, like
eye infection, you must talk to a Kaiser nurse for 15
minutes. Wait time to talk to a nurse has been
consistently 40-60 min. You must use the Kaiser pharmacy
BlueShield Summer 2006:
Appointment: You make the appointment directly, takes 5 min
Wait period: 1 days before appointment and seeing the doc
Waiting room: 45 minutes wait
Pharmacy time: You pick your own. I picked Walgreens. Fast.
Notes: You have a lot of flexibility. You can pick any BlueShield
network, which is pretty wide in California.
BlueShield cost a little bit more, but it's totally worth it. I don't
understand why people pick Kaiser, it totally sucks. I guess if you
never plan to get sick, it's not a bad choice.
\_ I have friends who use Kaiser and get great service, docs, etc.
I have friends who get the horror story experience. It really
really varies. A lot.
\- it is my belief that some kaisers are conistently and
significantly better/worse than others. in my experience
oakland kaiser gets a lot more second and third stringers
than say santa clara.
\_ Aren't your Blue Shield data points dependent on the particular
\_ Well aren't your Blue Shield data points dependent on the particular
clinic you chose?
\_ Exactly. With BlueShield PPO you have a choice, and you pick
the right choice. With Kaiser, you have no choice. You either
go to the primary Kaiser that is within 25 miles of your home,
or 100 miles away from your home. Moral of the story: It's
great when you have a choice.
\_ Blue Cross and Blue Shield suck just as much incredible donkey
ass as Kaiser, just a different donkey with different hair.
The health insurance system is totally Fucked (tm).
--subscriber to Premier Blue Cross PPO, the "best PPO they
offer"
\_ I have blue shield and is happy with my doctor. would you
like to elaborate? |
| 2006/8/16-18 [Health/Disease/General] UID:44034 Activity:nil |
8/16 Republicans will live longer than Democrats:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/15/spending.to.death.ap
\_ Nice trollbait, but the words "Republican" and "Democrat" do not
appear in this article.
\_ It's kind of like Bush in microcosm. I guess Americans are much
slower to get the message that their leadership blows.
\_ It's like the estate tax, but the money ends up in the pockets
of HMO CEOs. |
| 2006/7/26-28 [Health/Disease/General] UID:43812 Activity:nil |
7/26 http://csua.org/u/gjj (latimes.com) http://www.lobsterlib.com/canYouKill.html Hello Human Lobsters! \_ Btw, cutting out the brain would almost certainly do the job. Cf. sledgehammers and cows. Also, just because plants don't have the same nervous systems (or nervous systems at all) does not mean that they cannot/do not feel pain when culled to make your sprout salad. Take responsibility for your consumption: food = death. \_ That's why I only eat fruits and nuts which have already fallen from the tree or bush (fruitarian). \_ How many bacteria and viruses does your immune system kill every hour? Your murderer! \_ Self defense! \_ According to this argument, you would be ethically fine to eat roadkill. Just out of curiosity, do you know of a website or other such that advocates this lifestyle? I'd love to read more. \_ They'd eat us if they could. I'm just staging a pre-emptive strike. Mmh, lobster... -John |
| 2006/7/24-27 [Health/Disease/General] UID:43773 Activity:nil |
7/24 Is it just me or it seems like hard core bikers look as if they
have cancer:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/photo?slug=getty-cycling-tdf2006-landis_3_00_02_pm
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/photo?slug=getty-cycling-tdf2006-rasmussen_2_29_46_pm |
| 2006/7/11-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:43633 Activity:nil |
7/11 "It is not really a reversal of policy ... Humane treatment has always
been the standard, and that is something that they followed at
Guantanamo." -Tony Snow (July 11, 2006)
Can someone tell me why the first sentence is an out-an-out lie?
\_ According to the FBI: "On a couple of occasions, I entered
interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a
foetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most
times they had urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been
left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air
conditioning had been turned down so far ... that the barefooted
detainee was shaking with cold.
"On another occasion, the air-conditioning had been turned off,
making the temperature in the unventilated room probably well over
100 degrees ... The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor,
with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally
pulling his own hair out throughout the night.
We also waterboard prisoners, which is pretty clearly not humane.
\_ I believe the legal definition of "humane" is anything not
leading to permanent organ failure and death, but they don't
tell you that.
\_ No, the White House has tried to claim that this is the
definition of "torture," but even that is BS. Various
courts have determined that waterboarding, sensory
deprivation, beating, etc are inhumane.
\_ "As you know, the term 'humanely' has no precise legal
definition." -Alberto Gonzales
http://balkin.blogspot.com/Gonzales.Kennedy.supp.pdf
(see question 15)
\_ Isn't this the same Gonzales that said the Geneva
Convention didn't apply to prisoners at Gitmo?
Why do you think he is the authority on anything?
\_ I'm agreeing with you. My take on it is that humane
means nothing to our Attorney General, and therefore
"humane" is whatever is not torture, and as you
pointed out, torture is anything not leading to
organ failure / death. |
| 2006/6/21-26 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:43446 Activity:nil |
6/20 I'm thinking about getting health insurance for my 59 year old
mother. I've heard that it costs over $300/month. What companies
do you guys get for your parents and what do you actually
recommend?
\_ I can't help you too much, but beware - my mother who is a few years
younger than yours pays over $650 a month for insurance. She does
have a few preexisting conditions though. Is your mother healthy?
Insurance costs for the elderly are pretty insane these days.
\_ Move her to San Francisco:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14864194.htm |
| 2006/6/14-19 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:43390 Activity:nil |
6/14 Why do Canadians want girls? I understand why Chinese want boys.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-614babysex,0,6133219.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
\_ `It's new. It's scary. We understand that.' Wow. Condecending
\_ Boy kids are a pain in the ass. Girl teenagers are a pain in
in the ass.
\_ Ok, so no one knows anything about Canadian culture and why they
would prefer girls to such an extent they'd pay big $ for them? -op
\_ This doesn't quite help but, it's an article on sex
selective abortions in Canada, but doesn't mention a girl
preference at all:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=9faa3351-3db1-40d7-9e40-ccd59f4d3838&k=5557&p=1
\_ Study contradicting original article's claim:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12290078&dopt=Citation |
| 2006/5/30-6/3 [Health/Disease/General] UID:43231 Activity:nil |
5/30 http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/milkismilk20405.cfm This is from a link below. Now I understand why American women have bigger breasts than say, European women: "Eli Lilly, in its application for registration of rBGH, admitted that IGF-1 blood levels of injected cows are increased up to ten-fold. IGF-1 is resistant to pasteurization and digestion, and is readily absorbed from the small intestine... IGF-1 induces uncontrolled growth of normal human breast cells in tissue culture..." God bless hormones in our milk that make our women beautiful! On a more serious note, I'm wondering where I can buy milk milk without Monsanto's rBGH hormones? I'm a guy and I don't need bigger breasts. They're already pretty big for a guy. \_ Whole Foods definitely seels rGBH free milk. Probably Trader Joe's \_ Whole Foods definitely sells rGBH free milk. Probably Trader Joe's too. \_ TJ's has for a while (w/ the disclaimer that there's no way to actually test for it) Apparently Safeway's default cheap-o milk says it's rBST free now!? --dbushong \_ Almost all milk you buy in a store is rBST free. But there are a lot of milk products in most people's diet. Ever eat prepared foods? Or cheepish cheese? \_ Sexist! \_ Cowist! \_ ______ < hey! > ------ \ ^__^ \ (oo)\_______ (__)\ )\/\ ||----w | || || |
| 2006/5/30-6/2 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:43220 Activity:nil |
5/29 My fitness trainer/nutritionist says I should try to eat all
organic food from now on. He claims my American wife is huge
because of lack of exercise (which we're addressing right
now), and also because of all the excess growth hormones
we take in from milk, cows, and chicken. He claims that
Europeans are thinner because they exercise more (no dispute
in that) and also they eat more organic food and meat from
happy animals that exercise more and are injected with less
hormones and antibiotics. He claims that unlike US meat,
European meat aren't subject to carbon dioxidation and red
dyes to make them look more appealing. He also claims that
European cows are are injected with less antibiotics and
hormones, so while they look smaller and thus less profitable
to sell and more expensive to buy than the US cows, they're
much healthier to eat. How much of what he says is real
and/or bullshit? Are Americans really eating much more growth
hormones, antibiotics, and other residual chemicals than
the Europeans? Do extra hormones really make you unhealthy?
\_ Um "organic" does not necessarily mean "better". Your guy is
full of shit. The average European plate is smaller, food is more
expensive, and public transportation is generally better (I didn't
see that many fat people in New York.) Pesticides and additives
and what not don't have much to do with your fitness, as poster
below correctly says. Avoid corn starch, white flour, processed
sugar, etc. etc. etc., whole books have been written on how to
eat well. A good rule I saw was that a portion of protein should
be about the size of a deck of cards. -John
\_ He's right from a nutrition point of view. I'm not sure it
matters from a trainer point of view. That is, it's not good
for you to eat hormone-laced beef but by doing so, although you
may be less healthy, you'll probably not weigh any more/less
than a person who eats 100% organic beef (all else equal).
\_ What is true is that Europe has been moving more and more towards
not allowing really bad ways of factory farming animals, while
in the USA the government keeps relaxing the rules unless some
disaster happens (like mad cow). We use 8 times as many anti-
biotics for livestock as people in this country.
\_ Yes, but our cow is bigger and more profitable. Case
in point, look at the government endorsed Monsanto
Corporation and how their products increased farmers'
yields and saved farm families from going bankrupt.
Case in point, most of our milk today is produced using
rBGH, a synthetic hormone that has helped countless American
girls blosom into full bodied women; European women on
the other hand look unhealthily anorexic because they
lack rBGH intake in their dairy products. Hormones +
antibiotics=good profit + beautiful women. I guess you
regulation-loving communists will never understand it.
\- i think that is horseshit. many europeans eat smaller
portion sizes [why a friend of mine immediately began
gaining weight after moving back from london/amsterdam/paris
back to SF. as an illustration compare an "italian pizza"
with a usa pizza]. why are you approaching this in generic
terms? are you interested in discussing nutrition and diet
\- Your brain has been classified as: small. ok thx.
\_ Re: portion size in US vs Europe etc:
http://csua.org/u/g15
or do you have a fitness goal. assuming the latter, dont
worry about "the europeans" and just figure out what you
should do exercise/dietwise to get there. i would start by
tracking your food to see where your calorie/fat/protein
\_ proper dieting with strict calorie intake and moderate
exercise are good. Lack of unnecessary growth hormones,
fat, and anti-biotics would be even better. rBGH,
a growth hormone banned for health reasons in every
industrialized country, is still used heavily in the U.S.
Monsanto's own data revealed that feeding IGF-1 (from
to rBGH) to adult rats for only two weeks significantly
increased body and liver weights, and bone length.
More critically, increased IGF-1 blood levels have been
incriminated as a major cause of cancer. IGF-1 induces
uncontrolled growth of normal human breast cells in tissue
culture, and has been incriminated in their transformation
to cancer cells.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/milkismilk20405.cfm
is coming from and in what quantity. for example, at some
point i discovered i was ingesting maybe 1/3 of my calories
from sugary-liquids [fruit juice, orange juice, coke etc].
maybe you should ask your trainer/nutritionist what he/she
thinks about fruitcake. |
| 2006/5/20-25 [Health/Disease/General] UID:43127 Activity:nil |
5/20 Are you tall and skinny and have long fingers? You may be at risk
for having the Marfan Syndrome and may develop problems that
cause you to age and die prematurely. Check out the symptoms
to see if you have the Marfan Syndrome.
\_ Why are you so worried about Marfan's all of a sudden? why not
post a similar entry about other disease entities?
\_ Because I think I have it though I haven't seen a doctor yet.
I fit in the profile, AND I have very loose joints. In fact
I've dislocated both of my shoulders and my joints hurt
a lot especially my mouse finger and emacs pinkies. I am
afraid of finding out that I actually do have Marfan, or
maybe I'm just over-reacting, and in fact based on my
past experience with the medical community and from what I've
heard, I think they'll probably just ignore me and think that
I'm just over-reacting. So, until I have serious problems,
I think I'll just ignore my symptoms. BTW, erikred, what
exactly is the connective tissue disorder? -op
\_ OP, please email me. I would happy to discuss this further.
--erikred
\_ I was clinically diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome back in '84.
Recent genetic testing (and a refinement of the clinical
criteria needed to make a clinical diagnosis) reveals that I do not,
in fact, have Marfan Syndrome. I may have some sort of connective
tissue disorder, but it's not Marfan Syndrome. My point? Get a
genetic test. --erikred
\_ How tall are you, if you don't mind me asking? -pp
\_ Seven feet. |
| 2006/5/10 [Health/Disease/General] UID:43012 Activity:nil |
5/10 The Bush Administration's War on the Laboratory
"I never thought that now, in the twenty-first century, we could have
a debate about what to do with a vaccine that prevents cancer"
http://www.wesjones.com/specter2.htm
\_ This raises a huge question: HPV and cervical cancer aside, would
the Abstinence-Only people object to vaccines for any STD? How about
mononucleosis?
\_ People who get vaccinated against STDs will go out and have
unlimited amounts of sex. At least I think that's how their pea
sized brains see it.
\_ Of course they would. What's the ratio of people who are pro-
abstinence-only for reasonable, scientific, health-related reasons
to people who are _really_ behind it for religious reasons?
\_ Zero. -tom |
| 2006/5/10-12 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:43001 Activity:nil |
5/10 How a regular person can give Dubya good advice (on Medicare Part D)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060509-5.html
Look for the first "Applause" line in response to a questioner. |
| 2006/4/4 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:42658 Activity:kinda low |
4/4 http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060403/sc_space/churchgoerslivelonger Church Goers Live Longer. Does that mean our Mormon friends on motd will probably post long after while the liberals die from AIDS, meth, and other illegal substance? \_ It's moot. The religious fundamentalists will out-breed the liberals. \_ But we out recruit the fundies. \_ From their children? \_ But they live that longer life in a state of delusion.... W/o the religious vote, we would not have had the disaster that has been the Bush administration. But I guess it's not surprising that the religious people voted for a big hypocrite like themselves. \_ Yeah, the kettle thinks you're black too. \_ Doctor: You have six months to live. Patient: What can I do? Doctor: Well... you could give up sex, booze and cigars. Patient: Would I live longer then? Doctor: No, but it will seem longer... \_ If they're having all those kids it didn't come from giving up sex.... |
| 2006/4/4-6 [Health/Disease/General, Politics/Domestic/Crime] UID:42656 Activity:moderate |
4/4 "The [black] kids here have no hope. They have nothing to aspire to
other that being a rapper or an athlete, and that's a million-to-one
shot. In my neighborhood the only people recruiting are the gangs."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060404/od_nm/crime_newjersey_dc
\_ http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dead-kennedys/38151.html
"Empty plastic
Culture slum suburbia
Is a war zone now
Sprouting the kinds of gangs
We thought we'd left behind
This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere"
\_ Everything I know came from a lyrics site on the net, too.
\_ after centuries of oppression, what do you expect?
"here is your freedom from slavery, not get the fuck out
"here is your freedom from slavery, now get the fuck out
of here"
\_ Yeah, right.
\_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study
We gained so much valuable medical information from
these experiments.
And don't forget all blacks love that guy Jim Crow!!
\_ And up above you can see anonymous people arguing like idiots! -dans
\_ why are you not hanging out with your hot gf instead of
nuking the motd?
\_ UCSC is back in session. She has school, I have work to do
for clients. -dans
\_ You work for a think tank that studies the crazy political
positions of computer industry professionals? That's cool.
Are they hiring?
positions of computer industry professionals? That's
cool. Are they hiring?
\_ Get in line, buddy! I've been here way longer than
you! There's a seniority system in place.
\_ I totally agree that black kids have no hope. I mean until ROTJ
black kids could hope to become a Dark Lord of the Sith w/
unrivaled force powers and other 1337 mad skillz, but then Lucas
screws it all up by revealing that the badest black man in the
history of the universe was really a pastey old white geezer. That
is the real crime. Now all black kids have to hope for is to become
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Sec. of State or a Justice of the
Supreme Court. Not one lightsaber amongst them, talk about a total
let down. -stmg
\_ But they can be like Lando Calrissian and drink Colt 45!
\_ Lando sold out to a pastey old white guy. =(
\_ "I'm altering our deal. Pray I don't alter it any futher."
\_ Uh, so until then you thought Luke might be part black?
\_ "You don't know the power of the Dark Side."
Besides in a galaxy, far far awy, Black + White could
equal whiny, long haired blond luser. -stmg |
| 2006/4/3-4 [Health/Women, Health/Disease/General] UID:42638 Activity:nil |
4/3 Wow, new bladders grown from the cells of patients:
http://tinyurl.com/rmldp
\_ Not quite as cool as it at first sounds: the bladder isn't really an
organ, just a pouch made of a cells of a certain type. They get the
shape to make it a pouch by growing the (largely undifferentiated)
cells on a mold. Still cool though.
\_ Something similar was done to grow someone a new jaw. It's
definitely movement in the right direction.
definitely movement in the right direction. It's not super
simple though, the article mentions extracting "muscle and
bladder" cells, so they might also be growing a valve (I
forget what the name of that muscle is) too.
\_ urethral sphincter? detrusor?
\_ "Although you normally make the choice when to
urinate, once you decide to do so the nervous
system takes over and the process becomes
automatic. The detrusor contracts and the
sphincters relax to allow urine to flow. When
the bladder is empty, the sphincters contract
and the detrusor relaxes." |
| 2006/4/3-4 [Health/Disease/General] UID:42619 Activity:nil |
4/2 http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060401/sc_space/lonelinesskillsstudyshows "Social trends in the United States suggest a recipe for greater loneliness and thus higher blood pressure and risk of heart disease. The population is aging and more people move around and live alone than ever, contributing to greater separation from caring friends and family." Like I said, I just don't find endless suburb expansion to be all that good for the society. \_ Uhm, no. People moving out into suburbs has little or nothing to do with the social trend of more and more people living alone. The social trend of people living alone has a lot more to do with the "me" culture that permeates modern mainstream American society (especially amongst Caucasians and assimilated ethnics). Traditionally people used to live with their families, it was not unusual for individuals to live with their parents and grandparents. The rise of industrialism in the 20th century, the advent of modernity and individualism has slowly but surely eroded this traditional familial structure. It was once expected that one would take care of one's parents in old age. Nowadays this is become rarer and rarer. Add in the fact that people are living longer than ever beffore and divorces are more common than marriages which last results in a very large group of lonely people. So, essentially this is the price you pay in forgoing the "traditional" concept of family. I suspect that in the future newer concepts of what is "family" will have to be created and that a backlash (actually this has already occurred with the whole neo-con/neo-religous right movement of the past decade) against the erosion of the traditional family unit will occur. So, agian, no, your overtly simplistic analysis of a complex socio-economic problem is not right. Suburbs do not automatically equate to lonely people. \_ I disagree. The "me" culture may contribute to the problem, but I think it's due to a higher rate of changing social expectations. A few centuries back, you could have three generations living in one house and everyone was on more or less the same page in terms in terms of what was socially acceptable. Now, I think many peoples' expectations of what's "acceptable" have diverged noticeably from their parents' views, and certainly from their grandparents'. Noticable exceptions to this seem to be in extremely conservative (or liberal!) households, in which social values are shared across generations. -bishop \_ how do you balance people's material need for "territory" with people's need for each other? \_ You introduce a religion, and turn them into bald reproductionless vegetarian hermits. Wait it's call Bhuddism, Monks, and Monestary. \_ Bhuddism, Monks, and Monestary? Is that like Settlers of Catan? Sounds fun.... \_ just keep packing em in like rats. we know from rat studies that the more over crowded rats are the more psychotic they behave which is exactly what we want in human soci-- oh wait. |
| 2006/3/31-4/1 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men, Health/Sleeping] UID:42594 Activity:nil |
3/31 http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-02-08/news/feature_full.html I know this is a bit late but I'm wondering if you guys can help us find Jerry Tang. Thanks. \_ We care why? \_ Sorry. All my time is spent looking for poontang. |
| 2006/3/30-31 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:42536 Activity:nil |
3/29 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189547,00.html (second story) Spend your life inside Walmart! |
| 2006/3/29-31 [Health/Disease/General] UID:42518 Activity:nil |
3/29 Is it better to open all the windows and breath fresh air but
sleep at chilling 50F or close all the windows and live comfortably
with stale air at 65F? I hear pros and cons from both sides. My
German friends think fresh air and cold temperature build
strength. On the other hand cold weather increases the chance
of flu and cold transmission, no?
\_ Stale air means more sharing between people, which increases the
chance of virus transmission. Strike a balance between temperature
and staleness and go on with your life.
\_ Air out your house during the day and close the windows at night.
Also, as above poster suggests, stop sleeping with sick people.
\_ Agree with the previous poster. Open the window during the
day to get some air exchange, and close it at night. It
also depends on where you live. If you live close to a busy
street, you might want to open your window more
selectively, say avoid commute hours. If you are rich and
live in the hills, then you can probably open it anytime
you want. What you don't want, is to have the same air
circulate over and over again during the entire winter. You
may think this is common sense but I've been to houses (in
the bay area non less) where the air quality is just bad
and all I want to do is to open the window.
\_ ZE COLD AIR MAKES US STRONG FOR ZE RUSSIAN WINTER. -John |
| 2006/3/17-20 [Health/Disease/General] UID:42283 Activity:nil |
3/17 williamc. My uncle's a smoker and he does NOT have lung cancer. I also
know quite a few smokers who have been smoking for over 20 years and
don't have lung cancer. Those that have lung cancer probably got
it from something else. Therefore, there's no correlation between
smoking and lung cancer. Thanks for clarifying this, I'll tell my
uncle about this, he'll be really happy to hear it. Smoke on!
\_ I think you're missing the point: *williamc* never got lung cancer,
but if he was a smoker *then* there'd be no correlation whatsoever.
Glad to see that you're catching on, though.
\_ read "Thank You For Smoking" and catch the movie one day. |
| 2006/3/15-17 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Dental] UID:42253 Activity:low |
3/15 Most people in America - rich, poor, young, old - receive mediocre
medical care.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_he_me/mediocre_health_care
\_ Hmm, I haven't read the article, but this brings to mind a
discussion I had with my grandmother regarding the pros and cons of
universal health care. The outcome was basically that socialized
medicine raises the minimum care level for everyone, but
potentially lowers the maximum care level for those who have the
means and desire to pay for better care. -dans
\_ In other news, fire is hot, water is wet, all babies must eat,
'bad' means 'good' when teenagers or dans say it.
\_ What the fuck are you talking about? -dans
\_ I think the guy was saying he or she was annoyed by
obviousness + wordiness.
\_ Most Americans/motd readers are not familiar with
foreign health care systems. For example, the only
option for healthcare in the UK is the National Health
Service. Thus, if a Briton wants healthcare services
that the NHS is unwilling or unable to provide, he must
seek them outside of the UK. This option is only
viable for the super-wealthy. Granted, I'm neither a
UK citizen nor an expert on foreign health care so my
facts may be off. I fail to see how this is obvious.
-dans
\_ I think the guy thought the obvious part was
socialized medicine == minimum care level for
everyone increases (by definition), and maximum care
level for the rich potentially decreases.
Anyway, you have undergrads to near 40-year-olds on
soda, so you probably got a cranky alumnus annoyed.
\_ *nod* I consider it my solemn duty to annoy
cranky alumni. Of course, I also happen to be
one, which is probably why I bother reading the
motd. :) -dans
\_ socialized * raises the minimum level (often from 0) for everyone
but usually lowers the maximum level available
\_ It is noteworthy that it doesn't have to lower the max level. A
private elite care system layered over the socialized
infrastructure should allow the same max, unless innovation
is harmed by lost profit potentials in some way (drug
development?) or some kind of lower overall efficiency (not
obvious).
\_ Ah, but look at our schools. The affluent being able to
opt-out of having their kids exposed to public education has
reduced the quality of the public system.
\_ Prove it. (also the max is still high, which was my point)
\_ Currently, approx 1/3 of all the money spent on healthcare is
spent on PAPERWORK, so think of the efficiency improvement if
that could be reduced to 5% or lower.
\_ Medicare's administrative costs (includes paperwork) are
approximately 1%. -dans
\_ my googling is showing 3% Medicare, 15-25% HMOs.
-someone else
\_ mea culpa. Even so, 3% < 5%, and still kicks the
shit out of private healthcare systems. -dans
\_ Are you arguing for or against the socialization? I don't
see paperwork necessarily being much better for either.
\_ Although I'm not saying Canada's system is perfect,
it seems pretty clear that it has less paperwork:
http://tinyurl.com/equd5
"On a visit to the 900-bed Toronto General, Dr.
Himmelstein recounts searching for the billing office;
it ended up being a handful of people in the basement,
whose main job was to mail bills to US patients who
had come across the border."
"Back in Boston, Himmelstein visited Massachusetts
General Hospital, which was similar to Toronto
General in size and in the range of services
provided. He was told that Massachusetts General's
billing department employed 352 full-time personnel,
all of them fighting tooth and nail with hundreds of
insurance plans, each with their own rules about how
to document every item used for every patient."
\_ How is that different from what we have today? I can go into
my employer provided (crappy but free) Kaiser system and I
might survive a serious illness, or do POS/PPO which costs
more but I'll live or do cash-only out of pocket for all
services which will cost me less/year for normal services but
wipe me out for a major issue. If I was rich I'd get
fantastic service and survive.
\_ It isn't really, except we still have lots of people
uncovered, so that baseline isn't very good or very
solid. I'm just responding to the previous posters.
\_ The difference is that today the onus is on employers to
provide healthcare, and many part-time/low-wage workers do
not have healthcare as a result. The high cost of
healthcare for uninsured individuals disincentivizes them
from seeking out preventative care, thus increasing the
risk that they will need urgent/emergency care. Emergency
care is more costly, and puts a greater strain on the
entire system, which pushes prices up for *everyone*. -dans |
| 2006/3/13-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:42217 Activity:nil |
3/13 Might be time to unload cattle futures.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060313/ap_on_go_ot/mad_cow
\_ Oh no. Now Japan will never import American beef again.
\_ Ever! Because suddenly Japan's land crunch will end!
\_ buy EMRG |
| 2006/2/22-27 [Health/Disease/General] UID:41962 Activity:nil |
2/22 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060222/hl_nm/alzheimers_decline_dc Education delays Alzheimers. Better stay in school! In other news, Ronald Reagan's rapid progression of Alzheimer was most likely caused by his lack of education. \_ Yeah, but too much education wastes your life away so you don't want to remember it anyway. -bitter phd \_ Stop trying to troll ilya, he's not around anymore. \_ Who is ilya and is he like a typical Republican-- hard core, stubborn, self-righteous, and worships Reagan? \_ Do a search on "ilyas" in kais motd. I think you'll agree that the word "typical" doesn't belong in any sentence that has that guy's name in it. \_ No, he's hard core, stubborn, and self-righteous, but it stems from a violent, albeit somewhat understandable since he grew up in Communist Russia, suspicion and loathing for all forms of government social programs. \_ Yawn. "Who are you and are you like the typical <opposition party member>-- hard core, stubborn, self-righteous, and worships <recent President and member of opposition party>?" Thank you for playing the "Young Motd Troll Game". D-. |
| 2006/2/14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:41839 Activity:high 57%like:41840 |
2/14 Happy VD Day!
\_ Happy Venereal Disease Day? Well, that's true. |
| 2006/1/26 [Health/Disease/General] UID:41544 Activity:nil |
1/26 Quit it already, Mr. Furious. It's getting old and boring. Please
consider going to a shrink, it is possible that you have obsessive
compulsory disease mixed with a mild form of bipolarism. |
| 2006/1/11-13 [Health/Disease/General, Consumer/Audio] UID:41339 Activity:low |
1/11 Tom on Apple (last March):
\_ Because even with the numbers that soundly beat everyone's
expectations, and even if they're able to keep that level
of revenue coming in, the company's still not worth 45
times earnings. Prospects for growth from this Q's
revenues are pretty small in the near term. -tom
\_ And what did the anonymous coward think? Let's see where you
projected 14 million iPods in Q4 2005. (By the way, I still own
AAPL).
My current projection for Apple's future is mixed. I think there's
a way that they've become a Rule Maker; they are clearly defining
the market in digital music, and getting other companies to jump
to their call. (Half the MacWorld floor is music-related stuff).
Still, I think the company has challenges in defining itself.
Are they a computer company or a consumer electronics company?
What's the follow-up to the iPod? (Because iPod sales *will*
taper off; it's only a question of when). How much of a revenue
and inventory write-off hit will they take in transitioning to
Intel chips? (Probably non-trivial; my bet on why they didn't
announce an Intel tower is that they have too much inventory of
G5 towers).
Also, their CEO, the source of most of their cachet, has cancer.
Jobs left the company once before; the results of that should
be instructive. -tom
\_ oh and another thing: I believe the message you're quoting
was responding to "why did AAPL go down even after they
announced good earnings?" -tom
\_ He still has it? I thought he was "cured". I just had to
google this, never heard of it... and I have to wonder,
how did they find his cancer in time? Do people have
regular screenings for stuff like that or would there
be symptoms?
\_ His cancer is not currently threatening his life or health;
it has been treated. Still, it's something to worry
about as an investor. -tom |
| 2006/1/9-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:41309 Activity:nil |
1/9 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6248862 Flu activity by week. Click Previous / Next Week. Note that blue means "No activity", whereas light-green means Sporadic. (Had no idea this stuff spreads that quickly ...) \_ i'm glad i've already gotten the flu this season. \_ Fascinating. Are we getting this from Mexico? |
| 2006/1/9-12 [Health/Disease/General] UID:41308 Activity:kinda low |
1/9 Cough syrups are placebos.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-01-09-cough_x.htm
\_ I catch common cold regularly and in my experience Robotusin
and similar products are POS. A cup of tea with lemon and/or honey
works much better. If you're somewhere outside near a coffee shop,
buying a large cup of latte also helps (I get it with a single
shot of expresso since I don't like the coffee by itself that
much).
\_ What effect are you expecting robitussin to have?
\_ cough suppression
\_ robitussin is guifenesin (see below). the DM variety
uses a muscle relaxant. Looking at other, more informative
reports, it looks like they're saying the dextromorphan
dosage is too low to have any pronounced effect. any higher
though and its narcotic properties would make them dangerous
\_ dangerous? Dude, you've obviously never done Robo
properly. And don't even get me started on Romilar.
\_ dextromethorphan doesn't supress coughing, although it's supposed
to, and I've seen several studies on this.
guaifenesin is supposed to help make a cough more productive, and
this is the first time I've read that there's no scientific
evidence that it helps in this way. I have my doubts that the
USA Today author is completely correct.
\_ Agreed. This feels like a BBC style misinterpretation of
a medical journal report.
\_ I don't think you're agreeing with what you think you are.
The grandparent-poster agrees with the USA Today article.
\_ oops, grandparent-poster misspoke in last sentence.
corrected. sorry.
\_ Executive summary available from the source:
http://www.chestnet.org
"Cough and the Common Cold
1. Patients with acute cough (as well as PND
and throat clearing) associated with the common
cold can be treated with a first-generation
A/D preparation (brompheniramine and
sustained-release pseudoephedrine). Naproxen
can also be administered to help decrease
cough in this setting. Level of evidence, fair;
benefit, substantial; grade of recommendation, A
2. In patients with the common cold, newer
generation nonsedating antihistamines are ineffective
for reducing cough and should not be
used. Level of evidence, fair; benefit, none; grade of
recommendation, D
3. In patients with cough and acute URTI,
because symptoms, signs, and even sinus-imaging
abnormalities may be indistinguishable
from acute bacterial sinusitis, the diagnosis of
bacterial sinusitis should not be made during
the first week of symptoms. (Clinical judgment
is required to decide whether to institute antibiotic
therapy.) Level of evidence, fair; benefit,
none; grade of recommendation, D"
\_ I use the regular Robotussin (guaifensin only) with good
results. My coughs do become more productive. I guess even if
it's a placebo it works for me.
\_ Try whiskey. Same placebo effect, more fun!
\_ mm... DXM... hehehe. Good times. |
| 2006/1/2-3 [Health/Disease/General] UID:41193 Activity:moderate |
1/1 Pretend I live in an alternative dimension and I got really drunk
with Sergei Brin. Pretend we had consensual sex. Pretend
that I discovered 5 days later that he was taking herpes
treatment medication. Pretend 7 days later (after initial
contact) I developed herpes symptoms. Alternative dimension
Bizarro World Sergei didn't rape me or anything but he didn't
tell me he had herpes. Can I sue him? How do you sue someone
with an insane amount of more financial resources than you have?
\_ You have to stop drinking when you write on the MOTD
\- Why dont you distill this to the question you are really
asking. "Can I sue somebody for giving me a communicable
disease?" is a different question from the "civil procedure"
issues [what law do I sue under, where do I sue, how much
can I get, what happens when I lose, how is this appealed, how
do I collect etc.]. Also, this sort of touches on what are
called remedies at law vs. equity, meaning you can try to sue
somebody for $$$ or to get them to do something [more rare].
I think in this case you might be able to have this adequately
resolved outside the court system by offering to not to public-
ly disclose you were assmastered [I am assuming you are a sloda
male] in an alternative [sic] dimension by that Brin fellow.
An interesting question is "if i do not contract herpes, can
i sue for the unpleasant experience of worrying i may have
herpes for 2-days" ... that has some interesting consequences.
Anyway, some details about you story like "i got drunk ... we
had consensual sex", "i depvelop symtoms" as opposed to "i am
diagnosed with herpes" [n.b. I dont know anything about herpes
so i cannot comment on possibly relevant medical factors]
clouds the issue about what you are really asking. Another
interesting question is say the othe fellow believed with
very high confidence [say he mailed you a certified letter]
you knew he had disease X, but it turned out you didnt know,
how do things change? or what about if he disclosed he had
disease X and you asked "is that contageous" and he said
"i dont think so" ... how does that change things? --psb
\_ I didn't mean to sound cryptic with 'symptoms of herpes'.
Doctor confirms it is herpes. Lab results from the culture
confirm it is herpes. The 2 weeks of oozing pustules confirm
it pretty well too. Bizarre World Sergei knew he had herpes
but he didn't think he was contagious.
it pretty well too. Bizarro World Sergei knew he had herpes
but he didn't think he was contagious. Nearly 1/3 or greater
or some other scary amount of adults have herpes type 1
on their lips (also known as cold sores). If you stick
it on your genitals then you start calling it genital herpes.
Many people carry it for years without showing symptoms,
but are still communicable. The only way to avoid it is to
marry a Mormon who has never had a cold sore.
\_ 70-90% have oral herpes, up to 30% have genital herpes
http://health.enotes.com/childrens-health-encyclopedia/herpes-simplex |
| 2005/12/29-2006/1/1 [Health/Disease/General, Recreation/Pets] UID:41169 Activity:high |
12/29 Damn, I can't believe I need a prescription for my fucking pet
Are there any Mexican Vet Pharmacies online that will sell me
some .8mg levothyroxine pills. - can't get throught the spam.
\_ Unless you're opposed to prescriptions for humans, you have taken
an inconsistent position. Many of the medicines prescribed for pets
are the same as those used in humans, especially painkillers. If
you think they should all be available over the counter, fine.
But you can't just expect stores to sell prescription painkillers
over the counter with a label that says "only for pets" and expect
that to work.
\_ And yet you can buy a lot of medicines at a farm supply
(including some medicines a human would need a prescription
for) that would require a prescription for, say, a dog.
When a farmer needs to treat 1000 cows/chickens/whatever he
often treats them all and without a prescription. The
problem with shopping at a farm supply is that the
concentrations are often too high to dose a single pet.
\_ The law, much like life, is inconsistent. Deal with it.
\_ Can't believe? First pet?
\_ My cat might have this, too. What were the symptoms of your
pet?
\_ sounds like his pet is hypothyroid, so it'll probably
be lethargic, tired, overweight, and slightly cold.
\_ Why don't you just go to the vet. considering you know that
your pet needs levothyroxine, I'm assuming you realized this
because a vet told you.
\_ http://www.inhousepharmacy.com/general/eltroxin.html |
| 2005/12/12-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:40979 Activity:nil |
12/12 "Mice Created With Human Brain Cells"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051212/ap_on_sc/mice_human_brains
I've been pro-stem-cell-research, but this I think is going too far.
\_ Um, why? Is it the yuck factor?
|_ Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?
\_ for me it is about taking too many steps towards creating
chimera people. just because we can do something doesn't mean
we should. im very pro-research but there is something about
this beyond the simple yuck factor.
\_ So would you rather we use human subjects for such tests?
\_ Didn't you ever see the Secret of Nimh? Mice are cute!
\_ Err, thank you. -mice |
| 2005/11/22-24 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Disease/AIDS] UID:40700 Activity:kinda low |
11/22 http://www.lao.ca.gov/2000/calfacts/2000_calfacts_demographics.html Proof that when the economy is good, more people fuck and make babies. Recession=fewer babies, dot-com=lots of babies. Human beings are like cockroaches. When you give them food, they reproduce a lot. \_ Umm, and this wasn't obvious? This is just a corollary of the fact that people try to avoid spending money (babies cost a lot) when they feel like they've got less of it. \_ Only in the short term, in general, long term prosperity produces lower birth rates. \_ At current global growth rates, we'll have something like 40 billion people in 100 years, 15 trillion in 200 years ... The growth party will eventually stop and if history is any guide it's going to be "demand destruction" in the most painful sense possible. \_ Thomas Malthus... Paul Ehrlich... Anonymous MOTD poster... Man, that's a rich tradition of accurate forecasting of over-population doom and gloom. \_ Actually famine and population decimation has been pretty normal throughout all of history, including recent times. Witness Darfur, Rwanda, etc. \_ Don't worry, antibiotic/drug resistant AIDS, malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, flu, pneumonia, etc., famine, and war will knock down human populations well before the 40 billion mark. Hell, we might have uncontrolled antibiotic-resistant pneumonic plague, too. \_ For humanitiy's sake, stop participating FightAIDS@home and help reduce human population. Yeah, really! \_ Do your population estimates take into account that as economic conditions improve people become less fecund? \_ This is where the "at current global growth rates" bit kicks in. \_ IOW, no. Thanks for playing. \_ Something will stop the global growth rates, but it won't be improving economic conditions. |
| 2005/11/14-15 [Health/Disease/General] UID:40585 Activity:moderate |
11/14 Chilly external temperatures CAN lead to a cold. (duh)
http://csua.org/u/e0h (forbes.com)
"Researchers at Cardiff University in Wales asked 180 volunteers to ...
soak their feet in ice-cold water or place them in an empty bowl for 20
minutes. Of the people who soaked their feet in cold water, 29 percent
developed cold symptoms over the next four to five days, compared to 9
percent of those in the control group, the investigators report in the
Nov. 14 issue of the journal Family Practice."
\_ I say "placebo effect".
\_ The next experiment will have the control group soaking their
feet in warm water. Ph.D. here I comE1!!!!1
\_ They should have told the cold water crowd that the water
had been treated with a new drug that protects against the
cold.
\_ Indeed.
\_ These people were probably pulling ice cubes out
of their freezer. They had to do it for 20 minutes
a day for 1 week.
\_ Yeah, actually I'm reading that they just did the
20-minute soak for one day, and it was all students.
Not reliable. Oops! I'm with placebo guy, unless
they actually did virus count tests on all 180 ppl,
which I doubt. -op
\_ yeah, "duh". cold symptoms != having a cold. duh.
\_ latent infection -> full-blown cold symptoms -> real cold |
| 2005/11/8-9 [Health/Disease/General, Science] UID:40497 Activity:nil |
11/8 5 cases of polio in MN Amish group. link:tinyurl.com/atvhz \_ Good for them! They resisted the evil tyrannical gubbament and its attempts to inject nasty SCIENCE chemicals into their god loving children! \_ Hey, nice strawman. Did they get cervical cancer via HPV too? \_ Heh, thanks man. \_ Contrary to popular belief, the Amish embrace modern medical science. Note that the baby that spread the disease got it in a hospital. The amish are more hostile to technology that helps you get stuff done quickly. \_ Yup. See #4 in http://www.amish-heartland.com/?topic=FAQ |
| 2005/11/3-4 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:40428 Activity:very high |
11/03 I wasn't involved in the discussion below, but you self-righteous
do-gooders really blow my mind. I'm curious as to just how rampant
this type of (un)thinking is. It is time for a poll -phuqm
It is reasonable ...
to force children to have HPV vaccinations: .
unless they are Christian scientists or other similar wingnuts:
to allow parents to make this decision based on whatever beliefs: .
\_ So you disagree with mandating vaccinations in general? Or is
it just this vaccination that is nearly always effective against
a virus that will give you or your female partner cancer?
\_ dude, what is so hard about putting a little '.' next to the
first choice? Why would I want to talk to you if you aren't
willing to play along with my poll? Because I'm such a nice
guy I will assume that the first . in that category is yours
and will answer your question soon thereafter. -phuqm
\_ I'm contesting your question because it's loaded. If you
can't ask a direct question, don't expect a direct answer,
crebbs. --scotsman
--scotsman
\_ so you have some policy against answering loaded
questions? What are you a politician? feel free to
add your own category if you think these don't cover
all the basis, but I don't see what is wrong with the
way these are phrased (unless you object to me calling
C.scientists wingnuts, but somehow i doubt that is
is the problem.) If there is some other problem I'd LOVE
to see an explanation of it. -phuqm
\_ Oh, and you know who I am, and I know who I am, and so
do most people here who care, so is it really necessary
to keep outing me? (anyway i'm not him)
\_ Hmm... Should we tell root to squish his account
for sharing it?
\_ yes you are. -phuqm
\_ bastard.
\_ yep. -phuqm
\_ Or maybe they could squish you for talking
to yourself...
\_ if that's squishable, then I will have a
tough time coming up with a defense.
\_ So, yeah, i'm rabid libertarian and - despite the obvious free
\_ So, yeah, i'm a rabid libertarian and - despite the obvious free
rider problem - I never think it is o.k. to force a parent to
allow the government to inject something into their child. I
don't really care if the person's reason is that he thinks the
vial is full of little deamons that are going to steal his kids
soul; to me it is a simple question of who decides: the govmnt.
vial is full of little demons that are going to steal his kids
soul; to me it is a simple question of who decides.
\_ Do you also disagree with forcing kids to go to school?
What about the government taking kids away from parents who
the government deems incompetent? Just curious.
\_ If you were to live on an isolated desert island where
your choices had no effect on other ppl, then this line
of thinking makes sense. However, if you are living in
a place w/ thousands of ppl your choice not to vaccinate
your children can have a profound effect on the health
of other children. What right do you have to ask other
ppl to sacrifice their childrens health?
As I said below, once you agree to live in society there
is no such thing as an abs. right. Think of it as the
price of admission.
\_ Why would it have a profound effect on other children?
The other children would be vaccinated if the other
people are worried.
\_ Once you agree to live in society there is no such thing as
an abs. right. Every right is subject to some amt. of regulation
by the legislature/executive. If the gov feels that the best or
only way to deal w/ a major health problem is mass vaccination
and they have proof that the means chosen (mass vaccination) are
the best or only way to deal w/ the problem, then you have three
choices - go along w/ the vaccination, get the law repealed OR
leave society.
\_ indeed. though I fail to see what relevence this has on this
discussion. I would also point out (also somewhat ir-
relevantly) that there are few places left on the planet not
claimed as the dominion of some "society" or other, which makes
that last option increasingly difficult. -phuqm
\_ If this is a major health problem only option 1 makes sense.
Options 2 and 3 suggest that regardless of a finding that
this is a major health problem, the kooks have some rights
that trump. I'm saying no. Any right the kooks have are
subordinate to society's interest in the general welfare.
There are plenty of places in this world where society
doesn't really reach (different than claimed as territory
by some nation).
You can't let a bunch of kooks run around and not vaccinate
their kids b/c anything less than total vaccination will be
ineffective. If the legislature finds that this is a major
health problem, I'm willing to defer to that judgment b/c
the whole reason they were elected was to make this sort of
decisions (via advice from qualified agencies, &c.)
\_ Well, I guess it's ok so long as it's someone right
thinking like you deciding what is in the best interest
of society.
\_ You are skipping forward to the assumption that this is a
'major health problem'. Also, no one ever acknowledged that
drug companies have sold us plenty of crap over the years that
causes side effects such as sterility, liver failure, heart
failure, kidney failure, and death. Don't worry, it was all
tested! Yay! You're still fucked and can't undo the damage.
I guess we'll just raise taxes to pay for all the law suits.
\_ It's major if you're a woman.
\_ I'm not skipping forward. I'm merely saying that if the
gov. finds that this is a major health problem, they have
the pwr to act on it w/o having to worry about the rights
of the kooks. |
| 2005/11/1-4 [Health/Disease/General] UID:40371 Activity:moderate |
11/1 Stupidity watch: Religious groups opposing usage of 100% effective
vaccine against HPV. One of these people has been placed on the CDC
advisory board by Bush.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/31/MNG2LFGJFT1.DTL#story
\_ Not stupidity. Evil. Just call it what it is.
\_ How about evil stupidity? Fortunately most people can see
this for what it is: a Taliban level of desire to put
religion above the well being of people. It's truly
disgusting that this is even an issue in a supposedly
advanced country like the United States.
\_ How about evil stupidity? Fortunately most people can see this
for what it is: a Taliban level of desire to put religion above
the well being of people. It's truly disgusting that this is
even an issue in a supposedly advanced country like the United
States.
\_ we live in a fundamentalist Christian government. get used to it.
\_ uhm ok, i think im the only one here who RTFA. they oppose making
it mandatory for all kids, giving parents the choice about what goes
into their kid's drug stream. HPV isn't a plague upon the earth
killing millions of people every year. It isn't going to cause an
epidemic in school like typhoid. they aren't trying to ban the
shots from availability. when everything looks like a big deal,
nothing ends up looking like a big deal.
\_ Do you understand anything about public health?
Or for that matter HPV?
\_ Yes, what about it? Did you RTFA? Do you have something to
say about it? Glad to chat.
\_ not gonna eradicate a disease like that. If it can be eradicated
then people won't need it at all, in a decade or so. and really,
what the religious groups are doing will only hurt the lower class
who won't know any better. It's too bad they didn't know any
better when they voted in Pope Bush II.
\_ that's correct, allowing people to choose will not lead to
eradication. correct me if i'm wrong but isn't it the case
that we have yet to eradicate *any* disease despite having
active programs around the world and working vaccines for
decades for many things and a mandatory shot before entering
school? why is that so? once bush is out of office will all
these diseases suddenly become eradicated or is there some
other thing going on besides the bush boogey man?
\_ We are talking about the United States. Smallpox &
\_ We are talking about the United States. Smallpox, measles &
Polio seem to be pretty well under control here.
\_ You can't isolate a large population like 300m in the
US and claim you're eliminated a disease. We're talking
about the entire world. Giving mandatory shots to
American HS girls won't eradicate any diseases.
\_ Huh? When did we have control over other parts of
the world?
\_ We didn't and can't. Thus the concept of disease
eradication being the reason for mandatory shots
is silly. Glad you agree.
\_ But it has been eradicated HERE.
\_ Disease is world wide. And no, things we
once thought were eradicated HERE are
back and spreading again because they
were not eradicated world wide. Nothing
has been eradicated HERE for that reason.
\_ http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm
\_ god damn it... i thought we went through this 20 years ago...
The reason why conservatives doesn't want to make this vaccine
mandatory is because it actually has side effect of protecting
one from certain form of STD. Under that logic, we need to get
rid of condomns, and hepatitis vaccine as well, as Hepatitis
strictly speaking a STD too!
\_ And the reason for that is, according to the conservative and/or
extremist Christian brain, that if you cure STDs everyone will
sleep around nonstop and start having sex at age 8. Dying
from AIDS and suffering from STDs is preferable to that.
start sleeping around and having sex at age 8. Dying from AIDS
and suffering from STDs is a much better than that scenario.
\_ Some say that. Others say vaccines have caused other medical
problems and putting something in your body should be a choice.
You *are* pro-choice, aren't you?
\_ Parents should be allowed to opt-out. It's not easily
contagious.
contagious. It's STUPID because the downside is increasing
the chances your child will die from a cancer.
\_ Yes, it is truly stupid and I'd get my kids the shots
but I wouldn't *force* another parent to do so if they
didn't want to. It won't hurt my kid if their kid gets
cancer or HPV. Their kid can go get the shot themself
later as an adult (or probably younger than 18 frankly)
if their parents are that extreme. For something
contagious and nasty, yes, I believe enforced vaccination
is the right thing to do, but not HPV.
\_ Clearly you don't know much about HPV infection
statistics. You almost certainly have it already.
Vaccinating after you become sexually active is
pretty much useless.
\_ So I'm going to get cervical cancer? Uh oh....
HPV = STD. A kid who is having sex is going to
get a lot of things. Making a mandatory shot for
something you say I have and is doing nothing of
note to me is ridiculous. This isn't polio. This
isn't the plague. And mandatory shots are not
going to eradicate anything. Make it available,
make it free, whatever. Don't make it mandatory.
It has nothing to do with school, education, or
anything like that. It is not going to spread
at random by sneezing kids in the hallway. Again,
I ask, aren't you pro-choice? Shouldn't we have
the right to decide what does and does not go
into our bodies and what we do with them? That
is the underlying philosophy behind the right to
abortion, air pollution regulations and a bunch
of other things. Why are you forcing something
into some 9 year old's blood stream against her
parent's wishes?
\_ You're a blithering idiot. HPV might not
"do anything to you," but you can pass it on
to any female partner who can then contract
cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is one of
the leading causes of death in women. Condoms
can't really do jack shit to stop it. A women
could do the "right thing" and stay a virgin
until marriage, and still die because she
contracts the disease from her new husband (who
is very difficult to test for this virus and
likely has no idea that he has it). This is
a public health issue, not an issue of "choice."
Or do you just want anyone who ever has sex
to die?
\_ This made me laugh, thanks. "THE SKY IS
FALLING!" Yes, on my way to work I saw at
least 3 dozen women dying by the side of the
road of HPV induced cervical cancer. Again,
this is not a plague. It is not contagious
like many real killers. It is public
health issue in the way that drug use and
alcohol are. I'm glad you have such faith
in the pharmceutical establishment, but
they have a spotty record of selling us
things that turn out later to cause birth
defects, death, sterility, and pretty much
anything else you can think of. If an
entire generation of little girls finds out
they're sterile, you're going to say what?
"At least you're safe from HPV!"
\_ 250K deaths/year in the world isn't
nothing. And they are doing studies
on this first.
\_ Heh, so when I talked about the world,
I'm told we're talking about the US.
When I talked about the US, I'm told
we're talking about the world. I've
said my piece and don't feel like
playing catch-22 rhetorical games in
place of actual topic discussion. If
you have something to actually discuss
I'd be glad to continue. I'm not at
all interested in dormie-style point-
scoring intellectual dishonesty.
\_ You're talking to multiple people.
Deal with it.
\_ I already answered both the
US-only and World-wide people
with no real response. Nothing
to deal with. People who want
9 year olds to get mandatory
drug injections for diseases
that aren't spread in that
environment and aren't causing
polio-like problems are anti-
choice. If they're pro-choice
elsewhere they're inconsistent
and intellectually dishonest.
Dealt with. Done.
\_ So what should be done about
the measels/mumps/rubella
shots that are mandated now?
Are you working against those
because you're so pro-choice?
\_ There's a big difference
between the imposition of
being made to take a shot
and being made to give birth
against your will. The
difference is such that
calling someone who is for
mandatory immunizations
logically inconsistent
because they also support
abortion rights is totally
ridiculous. --PeterM |
| 2005/10/31-11/1 [Health/Disease/General, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:40363 Activity:nil |
10/31 Some tuna and sharks are partially warm blooded:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104543&org=NSF&from=news
\_ must be work of Saddam Hussin |
| 2005/10/28-31 [Health/Disease/General] UID:40325 Activity:nil |
10/28 Exxon-Mobil Employees Given Fake Flu Shots
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051028/ap_on_he_me/fake_flu_shots
\_ I got jabbed in the arm and I'll I got was this lousy placebo.
\_ We demand extra-strength placebos!
\_ I want some quality sugar cane not that corn syrup crap. |
| 2005/10/28-31 [Politics/Domestic/911, Health/Disease/General] UID:40316 Activity:low 92%like:40315 |
10/29 http://csua.org/u/duq [gothamist.com] "The whole city smells like maple syrup" - anyone know what's going on? \_ There's a section of pathway in Lakeside Park where there's a burst \_ There's a section of pathway in Merritt Park where there's a burst of maple syrup smell. I'm almost positive it's from a tree. Either from the bark or the leaves. \_ Perhaps there was a big pancake breakfast at the homeless shelter, such that the usual bum/urine smell was covered over by the new sweet smelling bums. \_ I just got back from NYC and had few little bum/urine/puke/ garbage smelling experiences. Unlike the mission, where I get to smell it everyday... I'm told that east coast cities smell less than SF/SOMA because it rains more there, but I'm thinking that there's more to it. Anyone have any crazy hypothosis? \_ California pee more odiferous. It's the cheese, man. \- it may just be colder. |
| 2005/10/28 [Politics/Domestic/911, Health/Disease/General] UID:40315 Activity:nil 92%like:40316 |
10/29 http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/10/28/maple_sugar_smell_mystery.php "The whole city smells like maple syrup" - anyone know what's going on? |
| 2005/10/24 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:40240 Activity:kinda low |
10/24 Dear motd baby experts, my wife and I have been trying to have a baby
for over a year but haven't had much luck. We're both over 30. This
month she had a fever and flu symptoms (muscle ache, chills, etc)
on the week she usually has her period and the fever lasted 2-3 days,
and she's about a week late. She doesn't want to "waste" EPT again
and now I'm really REALLY anxious. Are these signs that I may
finally be a daddy??!? Are these signs normal?
\_ It pains me to see people replace their professionally trained
doctors with motd.
\_ <hush falls over the crowd> ...... I think the motd baby experts
have spoken
\_ It's possible, pregnancy hormones can do some pretty crazy
stuff. Those symptoms are pretty severe though, my wife starts
getting nausea around her first skipped period. Home pregnancy
tests are pretty cheap.
\_ How much does an EPT cost?
\_ around $10 per test. Still pretty cheap.
\_ if you can't afford pregnancy tests, you really shouldn't be
having children... |
| 2005/10/14-15 [Health/Disease/General] UID:40099 Activity:nil |
10/14 Yay, we can now synthesize 1918 Spanish flu from scratch!
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1005/06natflu.html
"The group then used the recovered virus in experiments on mice,
chicken eggs and cultures of human lung tissue. It killed all the mice
within days, as well as chicken embryos normally used to produce
quantities of virus for vaccines. And it reproduced rapidly in lung
cells, even in cell cultures made to mimic certain body tissues where
flu cannot normally grow."
http://csua.org/u/dq3 (genomebiology.com)
"The findings raised enough concerns to inspire the US National Science
Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to call an emergency meeting
with the journals' editors, after which officials agreed that the
benefits of publication outweighed any risks."
http://csua.org/u/dq4 (Krauthammer column)
"The flu virus, properly evolved, is potentially a destroyer of
civilizations. We might have just given it to our enemies. Have a nice
day."
\_ this is old news. buy crucell's stock. buy buy buy.
\_ oops, sorry, I went on vacation the day the news broke.
anyway, some more informative links, mainly that there was an
informed decision by experts to release the data, and there is
a right-wing wacko today who chose not to mention that. |
| 2005/10/5-6 [Health/Disease/General] UID:39992 Activity:nil |
10/5 Today's NYTimes article:
Scientists reconstructed 1918 flu virus (from woman who died from it
and got buried in Alaska's permafrost), and say it is a bird flu.
Scary!
\_ We should just pass a law and make it illegal to be ill with the
the bird flu.
\_ Or have the army shoot them, how 'bout that?
\_ No, that presupposes that people will get sick of the disease.
Why plan for failure that will never happen? A solution that
presupposes no one will get sick is much better. Why create
a mechanism to deal with errors? Why debug? Just make sure
there are no errors and no bugs to start with.
\_ Would you please be so kind as to warn us if you ever run
for any political office with any real power? Thanks.
\_ Are you putting down President Bush's faith-based
initiatives?
\_ Or the poster below's unshakable faith there
will be a vaccine for any pandemic?
\_ I have a feeling that US Army is going to use it as a biological
weapon
\_ It already did. It's called the smallpox blanket.
Go Manifest Destiny!
A solution that presupposes no one will get sick is much
better. Why create a mechanism to deal with errors? Why
debug? Just make sure there are no errors and no bugs to
start with. |
| 2005/10/5-6 [Health/Disease/General] UID:39988 Activity:nil |
10/5 A failed-regime approval rating, and now he wants to use the military
to enforce an avian-flu quarantine:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/05/bush.reax
Can you say "Junta"?
\_ dude, this is not about avian flu. This is about rather we should
repeal 100 yr old ban and allow military to enforce civilian law!!
\_ If you were President and the flu hit this country in a big way with
the possibility of millions of citizens dying, what would your
policy be regarding quarantine and how would you enforce it?
\_ We've got this institution called the National Guard that is
supposed to be used for just this purpose. Too bad the current
administration has destroyed it's effectivity by using to fight
wars they got into with insufficent forces and now noone in
their right mind is willing to join.
\_ So instead of government controlled military we'll instead use
government controlled military?
\_ I'm a liberal, so I'm for limited, local government.
\_ I'm a human being, so I'm for getting rid of diseases.
\_ right, like the diseases of homosexuality, atheism, etc.
\_ Given the amount of warning(years) we've had about the avian flu,
I would never have allowed my country to be unprepared. With US
resources, I would've devoted time and energy into vaccine
research, manufacture and distribution.
\_ Yes, I'm sure our caring government will do just that by
leaving this monumental task to our almighty corporations.
\_ The sad fact is that it's entirely possible that no amount
of vaccine research/manufacture/distribution is likely to
be of any value. See, the pandemic will start soon after
the flu *mutates*, and so most likely any vaccine made
for pre-mutant flu strains will simply not work. --PM
\_ why is that necessarily so? If the two strains
share features, and the vaccine induced immune
response targets those features, it would still
work.
\_ or it may not in which case you've wasted tons of
cash and researcher time on a useless vaccine.
\_ compared to the cost of a serious pandemic,
the cost is minimal. research stage vaccines
already exist. one big question is how they
can be quickly produced (see crxl below).
\_ Get a better customs inspection policy in place or have the
heads of those responsible for said policy.
\_ Because customs can prevent people with the flu from crossing
\_ Because customs can prevent people with the fly from crossing
boarders?
\_ Reminds me of the movie "Outbreak".
\_ In a proper junta, the military leader would have significant pull.
I doubt Rummy would threaten to overrule either Bush or Cheney and
he has NO personal loyalty from the troops.
\_ Yep. A slow response to Katrina means Bush dropped the ball. A
planned fast response to a pandemic is a junta. You're quite a
piece of work.
\_ If he planned to execute anyone who contracted avian flu, that
would be a fast response, too, and I'd still condemn it. Try out
these new glasses; they let you see more than just black and
white.
\_ I missed the part where "fast = Hitler". Nice try though.
What do you think should be done if there were an Avian Flu
pandemic?
\_ Step one, do your best to _prevent_ an Avian Flu pandemic.
You never heard that an ounce of prevention beats an
ounce of cure?
\_ Uhm, it currently exists in other countries where they
have already killed millions of birds in an attempt to
contain it which has failed. Ok, now what? What
exactly would you do as President besides stand on TV
and say "My fellow Americans, we should prevent the
Avian Flu Pandemic because an ounce of prevention beats
an ounce of cure!" Maybe that'll work. People love
that down-home stuff.
\_ Human infections have been limited to Thailand,
Cambodia, and Vietnam, not countries well-known
for hygiene protocols involving poultry. Prevention
by means of strict hygiene conditions, enforced
surveillance of poultry for disease conditions,
Mad-Cow-Disease level population destruction of
infected animals, and strict inspections of imported
live and dead birds could very well nip this in the
bud. Before you start announcing plans for martial
law, you owe it to your citizenry to explore non-
military options.
\_ All good. However, it isn't guaranteed to stop
the flu. Like so: poultry farmer in one of three
countries gets mutated version of flu. Farmer
goes to market and infects a few dozen others
who each travel, infecting others, etc. Ok, now
we have a pandemic. What now? You can't force
these other countries to follow your standards.
Frankly, we can barely get our own farmers to
follow our own food standards. Even if we could
control the world as you'd like, a flu can still
spread from animail->human->pandemic despite the
best efforts to contain it at the source.
\_ Ask the President to invest your tax dollars in Crucell (crxl).
They will make large volume vaccine production quick and easy.
(Disclosure: It will also make me richer (crxl holder since 3.67))
(Disclosue: It will also make me richer (crxl holder since 3.67)) |
| 2005/10/2-4 [Health/Disease/General, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll] UID:39945 Activity:nil |
10/2 Scientist who saved literally millions of lives is persecuted
by Bush Administration and convicted of mishandling of
plague:
http://csua.org/u/dla
\_ I can't access it.
\_ Purports to require cookies; doesn't work in IE or Firefox
\_ Use this URL instead. It bypasses the stupid cookie detect.
http://csua.org/u/dld
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v40n11/36870/36870.text.html
\_ Tried this in 2 browsers. It says I need cookies on. I do.
\_ Works for me in Firefox.
\_ This is way too depressing to read. |
| 2005/10/1-4 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Sleeping] UID:39942 Activity:nil |
10/1 Acupuncture: real medicine or bullshit? Does it work and if so
how? I personally think it's bullshit, but I've never had it done.
Does anyone think it actually works? If so, how?
\_ I realize that this is anecdotal, but I know several people who've
been helped by it quite a bit, and they were not new age hippie
types who would just say that--this was in mainland china.
I think it may be bullshit in some contexts, but for chronic back
pain, it definitely does something when done right.
\_ http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/#work
\_ I would say it works, and the mechanism has something to do with
creating pain in one part of the body, numbing your body to that
sensation of pain, which happens to numb your body to the pain you
really want to remove. You are then able to articulate the
afflicted limb/area of your body, increasing blood circulation and
relieving mental stress, which is all good.
It's kind of like when you have a back or neck ache, you take an
Advil, you can relax again, and by the time the Advil wears off it's
better 'cause you moved around. Compared to having a stiff neck for
three straight days.
Then again I could be completely BSing you.
\_ only reason this thing survived is the fact that it simply works.
however, the system of credential is not well established, thus,
you really need to get refered by someone who really knows what
is he doing. I know a lot of Chinese American who failed to
get into medical school end up doing this. Not exactly the
best breed out there.
\_ Definitely. It works, but you have to find the right
practitioner.
\_ Can't you use this argument (longevity) for all kinds of wacky
stuff from tarot cards to Christianity?
\_ It works, but only in a certain group of people. it's one of
those phenomena/therapies where it works if you believe it
will (as opposed to traditional western medicine where people
believe it when it works). if you go in dead set with the
opinion that it won't help you, then it simply won't. if you're
open to new types of therapy, then there's a good chance it
will. Also, accupressure is best for chronic pain (e.g. back
pain, headaches, etc.), as opposed to acute pain (sudden
onset stomach pain), which is why it fits in well with current
medicine. Western medicine treats acute pain well, but fails
miserably at chronic pain management.
\_ I think it's real medicine, but I won't go for it because it's so
under-regulated. Basically I believe in acupuncture, but I don't
believe in most of the "doctors" who practice acupuncture.
-- Chinese
\_ A few months ago I heard on NPR that there was a huge sample size
(n=15000) and the results were that accupuncture had definite
benefits when used on the knees of those who have arthritis. |
| 2005/9/22-23 [Health/Disease/General] UID:39821 Activity:nil |
9/21 A deadly plague hits Warcarft world. Hundreds of dead virtual
bodies lie on the streets. Blizzard tried to control the plague by
staging rolling re-starts of all the servers supporting the Warcraft
realms and applying quick fixes. However, there are reports that
this has not solved all the problems and that isolated pockets of
plague are breaking out again.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4272418.stm
\_ Well you know vaccines and cures aren't always 100% effective
in the real world either. |
| 2005/9/12-14 [Health/Disease/General] UID:39635 Activity:low |
9/12 Some vaccine requires 2 shots, 6-1 year apart. When will someone
develop protection? A few weeks/months after the 1st shot? Or
only after the 2nd shot?
\- are you talking about say Hep A? some shots are configured
to require boosters for longer term protection. so you will be
protected for a while after the first shoot but if you get both
you may be protected for 10-20 yrs.
you may be protected for 10-20 yrs. the exact schedule recommended
depends on the disease and the vacc type.
\_ What about b that requires 3 shots? Are you protected after the
first shot?
\_ Each time your body reacts to an antigen, some B cells
targetting that antigen go into an inactive state with high
longevity. By reactivating them with boosters after the
initial exposure reaction is over, more storage cells are
created, often with different ways of targetting the same
antigen. So when you're infected by an active virus, your
body has a head start in dealing with it. The boosters
give you even more of a head start, so that possibly your
body can fight off a virus before there are any symptoms.
\- You should go ask an immunology professor about this.
Or maybe Peter Deusberg. But stand with your back to
the wall.
\_ Or wear a chestity belt backward. |
| 2005/8/24-25 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:39246 Activity:kinda low |
8/24 Doctor being reviewed for telling fat woman she's obsese:
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=59407
\_ if someone told her she was fat early on, maybe she wouldn't
be obese now...
\_ "My doctor told me I was fat. I said I wanted a second
opinion. He said, 'OK, you're ugly, too.'" - Henny Youngman
\_ This is sick. Good luck to that fat ass in finding another doctor.
What the fuck can she possibly be thinking. I doubt there is a
single person (other than her hired lawyer) who'll side with her.
\_ The fat doctor will side with her.
\_ No doctor will side with her. |
| 2005/8/22-23 [Health/Disease/General, Recreation/Music] UID:39215 Activity:nil |
8/22 RIP, Dr. Bob Moog, an early synthesizer pioneer, his Moog synthesizers
made famous by Wendy Carlos (soundtrack to Tron, Switched-on-Bach,etc.)
from brain cancer. PS: His name is pronounced like "vogue", and here
I had been thinking it was "mooooog" as in a cow all this time ...
\_ Coincidence? Back away from the Moog. Back away slowly.
\_ I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Moog last year. He was a
thoroughly warm and engaging individual. He will be missed.
\_ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050822/ap_on_en_mu/obit_moog |
| 2005/8/16-17 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:39141 Activity:high |
8/16 Oregon passes law requiring a prescription to get Sudafed as a way of
"controlling" the meth problem:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050816/ap_on_he_me/meth_bill
How long will this idiotic War On Drugs policymaking last? Don't
they realize all the manufacturing will just move (or is already
moving) to Mexico, where you can get a lot more than just sudafed
over the counter? Plug one hole and thirteen more open. When will
they ever learn?
\_ "While increasing amounts of methamphetamine comes in from Mexico,
bill supporters say it could sharply reduce the number of home meth
labs"
\_ Great, more outsourcing.
\_ There is a lot of property damage and theft that result from local
meth production. I don't like this measure, but apparently it has
helped in other places.
\_ Isn't there a free market solution of some kind?
\_ yeah, how about a "meth tax" where the government
takes 10% of every hit, sells it, and uses the proceeds to
pay for the hotels and apartment buildings that get blown
up by meth labs. -tom
(The funny part is, some people will think this is a good
idea).
\_ Making meth labs a legitimate business will probably be
enough. How many apartment buildings do conventional
businesses blow up? -- ilyas
\_ I don't think so. Free market models presume that
people are basically rational. Meth heads aren't.
\_ Uh, what does the fact that meth heads (or most
people) are not rational have to do with making
meth labs a legitimate business? Current legitimate
businesses are often misused by people being
irrational (fast food, etc), yet this does not imply
we should make the businesses illegal, nor does it
imply McDonalds is going to start exploding things.
-- ilyas
\_ I think that's 'legitimate', man. I bet that's
just a lame troll-hack. -Benefit of the Doubt
\_ No, I think that's how jctwu thinks.
Sadly. -- ilyas
\_ ilyas, what have I done this time? -jctwu
\_ I'm not sure what ilyas is talking about,
so I'm asking him off motd. In any case,
I'm pretty sure ilyas either mispelled
on purpose, or he didn't know the right
spelling. I don't think that's related
to why he brought up my name, though.
I think he was just annoyed at my
"fight the power" comment. -jctwu
\_ Uh, what do you bet is a lame troll-hack?
\_ just your ass.
\_ If you get into an argument with someone about
whether methamphetamine manufacture should be legal
or not, you've probably already lost.
\_ Errr, no. Try the Economist special issue on
legalizing drugs for a nice refresher course.
\_ http://csua.org/u/d2e
\_ hey man, i'm not arguing with you ...
fight the power!
\_ Parse the words exactly as they're used,
please. To make it crystal clear:
"legalizing drugs" = No
"methamphetamine manufacture" = No
And now the new ideas:
Marijuana = Yes, for medical use
Which implies:
/Some/ currently illegal drugs = Yes
Which makes no specific comment about:
Cigarettes / Alcohol = Yes/No, Good/Bad
Incidentally, what I've written above is
also the same as how many, many Americans
feel, so none of this is new. |
| 2005/8/8-11 [Health/Disease/General] UID:39043 Activity:nil |
8/8 http://peacehall.com/forum/pic/932.shtml Suicide bus bombing in China, reportedly by 42-year-old farmer with terminal lung cancer pissed off at lack of health services Warning: Graphic images \_ So reading articles about this, many mentioned the "rising cost of health care" and how health care cost increases are outpacing salary increases. This is true in the US too. My question is: are health care costs rising faster than the quality of care provided? If so, why? If not, is it just a case of our expectations of quality rising faster than what we can afford to spend? --dbushong |
| 2005/7/20 [Health/Disease/General] UID:38724 Activity:nil |
7/20 Alzheimer's disease is mental deterioration. What's the elderly
disease called that's about deterioration of muscle control, but not
mental ability? Thanks.
\_ Parkinson's?
\_ That's it! Thanks. |
| 2005/7/12-13 [Health/Disease/General, Science/Electric, Recreation/Music] UID:38556 Activity:nil |
7/12 Bob Moog is seriously ill with a brain tumor:
http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=bobmoog
If you don't know who he is, check:
http://www.synthmuseum.com/moog |
| 2005/6/15-17 [Health/Disease/General] UID:38145 Activity:low |
6/15 Condom technology has reached a new thinness. Hooray for people
who hate typical thick latex condoms:
http://www.003mm.com
\_ I think that would be everyone. Do you know anyone who
actually *likes* thick latex condoms???
\_ How about "Do you know anyone who actually *likes* condoms?
\_ Depends how you define *likes*. Sure sensation of sex
without condom >> sensation of sex with condom, but I have to
give props to the condom for cutting down on the risks of
disease and/or pregnancy while fucking around. I'd say it's
a tossup.
\_ People who have premature ejaculation problem may last longer
with thick condoms. |
| 2005/6/6 [Health, Health/Disease/General] UID:37980 Activity:nil |
6/6 Medical Marijuana, RIP:
http://csua.org/u/c9g
\_ O'Connor complaining that it's not repsecting state rights? I'm so
confused. Is this the Bizarro SCOTUS?
\_ States rights are only good if we like what the right is, like
citizens owning anti-tank weaponry and the government not knowing
who those owners are.
\_ Interesting that Justice Thomas dissented.
\_ Along with O'Conner and Rehnquist (he's still alive I
guess) |
| 2005/5/25-26 [Health/Disease/General] UID:37834 Activity:kinda low |
5/25 "Experts estimate a fifth of the world's population could be affected,
with 30m needing hospital treatment and around 7.5m dying. It is
estimated that up to 60% of humans infected by the [bird] virus have
died." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4579777.stm
\_ "I have here some very scary numbers that I made up. I really
think you should give me some money."
\_ "Scientists are working to develop a vaccine against bird flu,
but are hampered by not knowing what form it would take, should
it spread amongst humans." Yes, I can see where there might be
some issues to creating a vaccine for a disease that doesn't
exist.
\_ Just because the big one (earthquake) hasn't happened for
almost 100 years doesn't mean it'll never happen. What are
you, stupid?
\_ Did you mean to respond to a different post?
\_ No, I mean you, Mr. Mormon.
\_ Ummm... right. I didn't say it couldn't mutate, I
just thought what the article said was amusing.
Actually trying to develop a vaccine in advance
is probably pretty good research. I'm just saying
your post would've made more sense as a reply to
the previous post.
\_ 1918
\_ The 1918 flu pandemic was caused by that H5N1 flu virus?
Dang, I didn't know that.
\_ obviously you know very little about flu virus.
\_ Did you ever take biology at Cal? Do you believe in
evolution? The scientific concensus is that while the
bird virus is harder to transmit than common cold,
history and evidence show that virus often mutate to
be more transmittable in the future while still keeping
the same virulence. Now if you don't believe in evolution
or think that praying to Joseph Smith cures all, then,
that's fine too.
\_ Ha! You're funny. This post is just a really lame
ad hominem attack. I was mocking your statement
that that seemed to imply that this was the same
virus as the one in 1918.
\_ One definition of a troll is an information amplfier.
The better the troll, the higher the gain, where
gain is defined as the ratio of characters of flameage
to characters in the original troll. Generating all
this noise from "1918" is pretty fucking impressive.
Trollgain=145.
\_ it seems like the person who wrote 1918
remained actively involved in the followup
discussion, so I don't think it can be
considered a troll.
\_ So a troll is an amplifier with feedback. You
sacrafice gain for stability, with the potential
for massive oscillations if you screw up the
phase of your feedback.
\_ actually, I didn't intend for it to be a
troll, just a few sentences on the 1918
pandemic and why H5N1 has people scared. I
didn't have time to write all that this AM
so I quit out meaning to post something
later (now). Looks like I did end up leaving
1918 in my rush this morning. Anyway, This
is the first anything I've posted since that
aborted post this morning. --Jon
\_ don't worry, crucell will save the day. buy crxl stock, buy
buy buy. |
| 2005/5/18-19 [Health/Disease/General, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:37744 Activity:nil |
5/18 Mother Nature biggest polluter in Hawaii:
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7753
\_ "Mother Nature is terrorizing us with toxic fume. There is no room
for neutrality in the war against terrorism. Iraq, Iran, North
Korea, and now Mother Nature constitute an axis of evil.
You are either with us, or against us. We can no longer
solely rely on a reactive posture as we have in the past. We
cannot let Mother Nature strike first. As a matter of common
sense and self-defense, United States will act against such
emerging threats before they are fully formed. The reasons for
using nukular missiles on the volcano will be clear, the force
measure, and the cause righteous."
\_ <stupid unfunny joke reply deleted>
\_ williamc, you are most definitely not the humour arbiter around
here.
\_ It's spelled humor, you english prick.
\_ "English". |
| 2005/5/6-7 [Health/Disease/General] UID:37556 Activity:kinda low |
5/6 So infuriating it deserves to be posted again. US Religious groups
opposing HPV (genital warts) vaccination on moral grounds. Thousands
of womens lives will be saved from cervical cancer by these vaccines.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg18624954.500
More details from CDC on HPV:
http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm#common
Over 50 percent of sexually active men and women contract it in their
lifetimes, and by the age of 50, 80 percent of women will have
contracted the virus. While many cases of HPV disappear of their own
accord, it is the main risk factor in contracting cervical cancer for
women. The vaccines nearing approval prevented infection in over
90 percent of cases...
\_ Only sentence I found in the article supporting your claim is this:
"In the US, for instance, religious groups are gearing up to oppose
vaccination ..."
I think parents, not government should decide whether or not to
I think parents should have the right to decide whether or not to
vaccinate their pre-legal age daughters.
\_ Idiotic. Would you make measles, mumps and rubella vaccination
"optional" as well?
\_ Seriously, idiotic. If there were a safe HIV vaccine which
you could administer to children, would you say the same?
Also, another sentence is "Abstinence is the best way to
prevent HPV." This is only true if abstinence moved from a
personal choice to a perfectly executed legal requirement.
When half of the population are carriers, and carriers are most
often completely asymptomatic, the only effective way to prevent
infection, even if you remain abstinent until marriage, is this
vaccine for now. |
| 2005/5/5-6 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:37527 Activity:moderate |
5/5 Britta vs. Pur, round 1. Pur says it filters out bacteria whereas
Britta makes no such claim. Pur costs 1.5X more than Britta. Britta
(IMHO) has an acceptable after-taste, whereas I can't taste anything
in Pur. What are you thought?
\_ I don't believe that Pur filters (or any filter) will remove
bacteria. To do that, UV light filters are needed. These sorts
of filters merely remove dissolved solutes (like ions, etc.)
\_ There ARE filters that can remove bacteria, but these
tend to be the exotic ceramic camping ones.
\_ Can these filters remove virus as well?
\_ OK, but I was referring to household water filters.
\_ I just find it so much more convenient to have the filter hooked
right up to the tap, so I prefer PuR. I tried Brita before
and it tasted fine. No idea if they've made a tap device by
now. -bz
\_ I thought they always had it. I used Brita tap thing for years.
\_ I'm guessing you actually mean "1.5X what Britta costs", and not
really "1.5X more" |
| 2005/5/4-5 [Health/Disease/General] UID:37528 Activity:nil |
5/4 http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/18/1839 http://www.crucell.com More on upcoming influenza pandemic yet again. \_ Yes. I'm not disagreeing with anything in the article. As the author points out, vaccination is like any other public infratructure, as it is best handled by international and centralized agencies. Unfortunately, I don't see the U.S. government doing anything (or have the budget for it). In addition, there is a trend to privatize every little bits of infrastructure in the U.S. Just look at the trend from 1950s to now-- privatized healthcare, social security, mass transit, water, power, comunication, and in some states, privatized freeways and toll road. The U.S. shifts healthcare burdens to private enterprises, who are unwilling to invest in infrastructures that have slow pay back (such as flu vaccines). Public infrastructures cost a lot of money and make share-holders unhappy. In short, I think U.S. is fucked. |
| 2005/5/4-5 [Health/Disease/General] UID:37524 Activity:nil |
5/4 Fat states tend to be Red states:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155416,00.html |
| 12/24 |