It works perfectly. It's the ONLY WAY to make sure that no one is
left behind.
In Canada, the cost is the same, per capita, as in the USA. Yet,
100% of the population is COVERED.
The point you bring up is valid, and I've heard some other
scary stories about Canada. There are lots of people who have long waits.
But Canada has some success stories as well -- I've had friends who've
had good experiences with the system. And let's not forget the HMO horror
stories we have down here. Maybe there's some solution that can provide
better coverage than an existing system.
It just had been revealed recently that those horror stories were
totally false; they have been concocted by the myriad interests
that want the universal health care wrecked.
The fact is that in the USA, plenty of lives have been wrecked by the
private health-care system (and I mean by secondary effects, like firing
people because they cost the collective insurer too much, or
You can have free-market medicine catering to a publicly-funded
insurance system. The competition will be there, both on the care side
and the insurance side.
This will be more costly, because the State (and therefore the taxpaying
public) will have to pay more taxes in order for those competing
companies to make a profit, and pay for the amount of duplicated
overhead.
If the sanctitiy of profits for the insurance companies are paramount how do you propose to deal
with people who have a higher then normal chance of getting some disease or another? What do
you do with someone who has no coverage, who can not get coverage and who is sick?
Three words:
Compulsory State Insurance.
Just like it's done in Canada, for example.
--
Re:The decision is obvious, different buyers targe
on
Is It OK To Sucks?
·
· Score: 1
(and when you buy Murphy's you're not supporting the IRA).
Oh. And which stouts DO support the IRA? 'caus, after all, those limeys ain't got no friggin' business in Eire.
The French Resistance, in WW2, often communicated with the
Allied forces via coded messages in newspapers, etc.
During the (world) war (II), a few allied intelligence agencies had squads
of knitters working for them. They were testing whether the knitting patterns
to be printed in some newspapers were genuine knitting patterns rather
than secret messages!
Well, our bus station over here in Northampton, Blighty
has a big array of screen showing departure times and such, and up to a
year ago whenever they crashed they'd be showing Amiga Guru Meditation
screens.
I've seen those Amiga guru screens in quite a few video peep shows, too...
The tidal forces involved would kill everything anyway,
so you don't need to worry if the project actually worked.
Tidal forces would be a problem if the gravitational gradient would be
extremely high, such as orbiting a neutron star or a black hole. In any
case, the gravity gradient of an asteroid smaller than the earth will be
lower than the Earth's, so therefore there no tidal danger with the method.
The Niven Novel's version worked by jetting Uranus in and
out of other planet's orbits to shift Earth's orbit until it was orbiting
as one of Jupiter's moons. Niven points out the dangers of this as well:
99% of the earth was scorched, uninhabitable deserts. The only places that
could sustain life were the poles, and the south pole was a humid, tropical
junge.
Actually, moving the Earth was done after that, during a war, Persephone
(a yet undiscovered tenth gas-giant planet) was hurled into the Sun, prematurely
turning it into a Red Giant, thus scorching the Earth in the process. The
move was decided later after a makeshift reflector put between the Earth
and the Sun proved ineffective in controlling the climate.
For future reference, one country (Sweden?) HAS switched from left-handed driving to right-handed
driving, to match the rest of Europe. They report few problems. Speed limits were kept fairly low (30
mph/50 kph?) during the first week while the old signage was covered or replaced, and then gradually
returned to normal over the next few weeks.
Pakistan will be doing the same thing in January 2002. The changeover will be implemented in a period of two weeks. During the first week, the cars will switch side as an experimental measure, and if all goes well, trucks will then switch a week later.
This is what I really don't get. Bind needs root permissions
only to get access to port 53. After that, why doesn't it give up root
permissions, like Apache?
If UNIX/LINUX treats everything like a file, why not TCP/IP
ports, too? That way, you could assign a port to a group/user who could
access that port without being root!!!
Roads are fixed, so the speed limitation could be very easily done with a fixed short-range transmitter posted at the start of the restricted-speed zone. No need for a messy and unreliable road speed database that has to
be carried with the car and would never be up to date. Short-range transmitters,
OTOH, could be setup whenever convenient or as needed (like for work slow-zones).
Capping the speed of the car wouldn't be very wise; for example, in
case of emergency and you need the speed (like if you're overtaking that
big tanker while a floatful of bricks is carreening your way). A loud siren
inside the car (like in Singapore) would be safer.
Finally, a better thing would be an event recorder that records the
last 30 minutes or so of whatever the driver has been doing (including
the speed limitation he's been going through) which would be remotely downloadable
by the police, so it could ticket offenders as soon as they run accross
them. And also the information would be quite valuable to investigate eventual
accidents.
--
Re:Been done here for ages, and it works.
on
The Unblinking Eye
·
· Score: 3
Yes. Enforce copyright, and get rid of copy protection.
No draconian laws that remove fair use (e.g. DMCA) are needed. Just
a few narcs who hang out on IRC, use Napster, etc. When they catch someone
breaking the law (e.g. redistributing copyrighted material without permission),
get their identity somehow, and throw the book at 'em. Then publicize the
hell out of their victories in court, in order to spread fear.
Won't work. Too many jurisdictional problems. Too expensive (would
you rather see cops scour the net for child porn rather than bootleg Briney
Spears recordings?). And the true pirates will, as always, stay well beyond the reach of any law.
During the last few months in France, a debate has been inflamed by
some authors and certain groups representing authors which feel that libraries
are giving their work away for free, and that libraries should instate
fee-based book-loaning. That would be, I think, a quick shut-down of one
of the simplest sources of free information.
Writers may be very influential in France, but if such a thing would ever
pass, it would surely trigger yet another revolution. Besides, writers
aren't the one who lose the most with libraries, it is publishers. And,
thankfully, those aren't half as influent as writers.
While the hell the PTO doesn't employ some moderately technically
literate people to make sure these stupid patents are never granted in
the first place is beyond me.
That's because in the anglo-saxon mindset, people do not see working for
the State (like, for example, in the Patent Office) as a good thing(tm).
They think that working for a big corporation for a fat check, or
better, owning the big corporation and getting wads of dough IS the
good thing. So, for this reason, the Patent Office only gets clueless
morons to work for them.
As long as this stupid mindset will keep going, don't expect anglo-saxon
countries Patent Offices to have the slightest smidgeon of a clue.
Going with Thiokol over United [who, yes, had a better
design] was an engineering decision.
The hell it was. It was a darn fucking ACCOUNTING
decision.
A reporter asked Alan Shepard what was he was
thiking about while sitting on top of that Redstone rocket, waiting
to be shot into space, thus making history as the first american
in space.
-- The only thing I could think of was that every single
part that rocket is made of, down to the last nuts and bolts,
went to the LOWEST BIDDER.
Engineers hate risk. They try to eliminate it whenever
they can. This is understandable, given that when an engineer
makes one little mistake, the media will treat it like it's a
big deal or something.
Examples of Bad Press for Engineers:
Space Shuttle Challenger.
Hindenberg.
SPANet(tm)
Hubble space telescope.
Apollo 13.
Titanic.
Ford Pinto.
Corvair.
In the case of the Challenger and the Titanic,
engineers didn't fuck-up. It was clueless shareholders/administrators
who went ahead despite advance warning of disaster.
In the case of the Ford Pinto and the Corvair,
it was clueless accountants who either dismissed the need for
a 49 part or calculated that settling eventual lawsuits
would be cheaper than paying to have a safe fuel tank.
--
Re:Pardon me, but WTF is this
on
The Challenger
·
· Score: 2
The U.S. space program continues to be the most advanced
and vigorous of any nation in the world, a product of the
superb economic system that drives it.
If the U.S. economyc "system" was really superb,
people and corporations would be PROPERLY taxed a reasonable amount to
insure that the space program would really be progressive, in
the order of foresightly bring back untold riches for the benefit
of everyone, instead of being the dreadful acc
The day before the shuttle blew-up, a friend of mine gave me
back my copy of the Space
Shuttle Operator's Manual, after reading it.
I stopped thinking about it, and the next day, I went to a
head-hunter for a job interview. When I got there, everyone had
long faces. I sit in front of the head hunter, and he asks me
"did you hear the news?".
-- What news?
-- Whe space shuttle just blew up.
I didn't believe him, and he brought me in the boardroom where
everyone was watching the same famous tape looped back along with
a lot of pointless comment from the newscasters.
I sat totally dumbfounded and angry, and I then remembered
the book I had in my bag, and pulled it out, and about 6 engineers
almost ripped-it out apart trying to figure out what happenned,
while the head-hunter proceeded to tell me how he was involved
in the Gemini program (he was laying-out wire harness diagrams).
In the end, I did not get any job out of the interview; the
one I did was of my own fault...
* * *
Of course, I wanted to be an astro-nut when I grew up. But
one of the hardest things I had to do was to realize how much
astro-nuts are assholes. Of course, I knew that many an astro-nut
wife killed herself or ran off with another man (the first canadian
astro-nut managed to pull both stunts at once: she was found dead
in a car along with her lover); this should have given me some
hints.
Then I worked with that girl whose sister was an airline pilot
who married a doctor. Later, the doctor got selected as an astro-nut.
Then, he was so much overwhelmed with his training that when his
wife got pregnant, he neglected to do the necessary follow-up
during the pregnancy, including testing for genetic deficiencies.
The baby was trisomic.
And the fucker had the balls to blame her for it. Never mind
he's a doctor. And, to add insult to injury, he cancelled the
baby shower. That an astro-nut would be such a far-fetched
asshole definitely cured any desire in me to go up there.
Then they had to move to Houston, and, of course, the baby
needed special care, care that the insurance would of course not
pay for in Houston. So, the fucker insisted that she stay behind,
but she told me: it's your career or me.
He finally managed to scrape together the little balls it took
to DEMAND from the space agency that they pay for the special
care. Of course, the agency didn't want to. Fortunately, the other
astro-nuts went on strike to back his demand, and the agency finally
gave in.
But still, the guy is a perfect asshole for not ding the obvious by himself.
Slashdot Mirror
In Canada, the cost is the same, per capita, as in the USA. Yet, 100% of the population is COVERED.
It just had been revealed recently that those horror stories were totally false; they have been concocted by the myriad interests that want the universal health care wrecked.The fact is that in the USA, plenty of lives have been wrecked by the private health-care system (and I mean by secondary effects, like firing people because they cost the collective insurer too much, or
--
--
Compulsory State Insurance.
Just like it's done in Canada, for example.
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
- How big is your land, sonny?
- Lissen, dude, I can jump in my car in the morning, drive it until the sun sets, and I'll still be on my land.
- I used to have a car like that, too...
--
Roads are fixed, so the speed limitation could be very easily done with a fixed short-range transmitter posted at the start of the restricted-speed zone. No need for a messy and unreliable road speed database that has to be carried with the car and would never be up to date. Short-range transmitters, OTOH, could be setup whenever convenient or as needed (like for work slow-zones).
Capping the speed of the car wouldn't be very wise; for example, in case of emergency and you need the speed (like if you're overtaking that big tanker while a floatful of bricks is carreening your way). A loud siren inside the car (like in Singapore) would be safer.
Finally, a better thing would be an event recorder that records the last 30 minutes or so of whatever the driver has been doing (including the speed limitation he's been going through) which would be remotely downloadable by the police, so it could ticket offenders as soon as they run accross them. And also the information would be quite valuable to investigate eventual accidents.
--
--
--
Won't work. Too many jurisdictional problems. Too expensive (would you rather see cops scour the net for child porn rather than bootleg Briney Spears recordings?). And the true pirates will, as always, stay well beyond the reach of any law.
--
--
--
As long as this stupid mindset will keep going, don't expect anglo-saxon countries Patent Offices to have the slightest smidgeon of a clue.
--
The hell it was. It was a darn fucking ACCOUNTING decision.
A reporter asked Alan Shepard what was he was thiking about while sitting on top of that Redstone rocket, waiting to be shot into space, thus making history as the first american in space.
-- The only thing I could think of was that every single part that rocket is made of, down to the last nuts and bolts, went to the LOWEST BIDDER.
--
In the case of the Challenger and the Titanic , engineers didn't fuck-up. It was clueless shareholders/administrators who went ahead despite advance warning of disaster.
In the case of the Ford Pinto and the Corvair , it was clueless accountants who either dismissed the need for a 49 part or calculated that settling eventual lawsuits would be cheaper than paying to have a safe fuel tank.
--
If the U.S. economyc "system" was really superb, people and corporations would be PROPERLY taxed a reasonable amount to insure that the space program would really be progressive, in the order of foresightly bring back untold riches for the benefit of everyone, instead of being the dreadful acc
--
The day before the shuttle blew-up, a friend of mine gave me back my copy of the Space Shuttle Operator's Manual , after reading it.
I stopped thinking about it, and the next day, I went to a head-hunter for a job interview. When I got there, everyone had long faces. I sit in front of the head hunter, and he asks me "did you hear the news?".
-- What news?
-- Whe space shuttle just blew up.
I didn't believe him, and he brought me in the boardroom where everyone was watching the same famous tape looped back along with a lot of pointless comment from the newscasters.
I sat totally dumbfounded and angry, and I then remembered the book I had in my bag, and pulled it out, and about 6 engineers almost ripped-it out apart trying to figure out what happenned, while the head-hunter proceeded to tell me how he was involved in the Gemini program (he was laying-out wire harness diagrams).
In the end, I did not get any job out of the interview; the one I did was of my own fault...
* * *
Of course, I wanted to be an astro-nut when I grew up. But one of the hardest things I had to do was to realize how much astro-nuts are assholes. Of course, I knew that many an astro-nut wife killed herself or ran off with another man (the first canadian astro-nut managed to pull both stunts at once: she was found dead in a car along with her lover); this should have given me some hints.
Then I worked with that girl whose sister was an airline pilot who married a doctor. Later, the doctor got selected as an astro-nut. Then, he was so much overwhelmed with his training that when his wife got pregnant, he neglected to do the necessary follow-up during the pregnancy, including testing for genetic deficiencies.
The baby was trisomic.
And the fucker had the balls to blame her for it. Never mind he's a doctor. And, to add insult to injury, he cancelled the baby shower. That an astro-nut would be such a far-fetched asshole definitely cured any desire in me to go up there.
Then they had to move to Houston, and, of course, the baby needed special care, care that the insurance would of course not pay for in Houston. So, the fucker insisted that she stay behind, but she told me: it's your career or me.
He finally managed to scrape together the little balls it took to DEMAND from the space agency that they pay for the special care. Of course, the agency didn't want to. Fortunately, the other astro-nuts went on strike to back his demand, and the agency finally gave in.
But still, the guy is a perfect asshole for not ding the obvious by himself.
--