Well, for one thing, they have medical care that's better than ours in hospitals that are better and more comfortable than ours filled with doctors that benefited from America's excellent medical education system.
I saw this on the telly 6 years ago. Some important bits: medical care in Thailand costs about 1/8th of what it costs here, and labor and malpractice insurance are cheaper in Thailand, so that keeps costs low.
Or how about India, where a hospital visit is 1/10th the cost?
The article is a very good read. Even if you factor in the cost of a plane ticket you end up saving a lot of money.
In the video game Mirror's Edge, the player character (and her comrades) are "runners" - private couriers who use Sneakernet (i.e. moving data in portable data storage on foot) to transport things from A to B because the networks are monitored by a totalitarian government. The lines are all bugged, so the only safe way to get info from A to B is on foot.
Perhaps it's high time to start up an interstate courier business...
That's a possibility that I would like to believe, and Occam's Razor hits an impasse here for me. Complete morons, or political geniuses? Both are valid explanations.
Really? What about all of those politicians that don't believe in evolution, believe in young earth creationism, etc.? I'd say largely the politicians are just as dumb as the rest of us with the exception of politically-relevant skills (spinning, P.R., maintaining a public image, etc. - and even then they fuck those up a lot!).
I don't give a crap if it's photorealistic either. I give a crap when it works out to something like, what, $1.75-$3.50 a sheet? You get maybe 200 sheets of paper out of an inkjet cartridge, and they're usually $35 at the cheapest.
I'm still wondering what the hell a Bitcoin even is. I read up a little bit on it but it's hard to wade your way through the astroturfing and B.S. and find out what's true and what isn't.
One of the "Homeless Guys on Street Corner" in my neighborhood was a former college professor. I don't know how exactly his life fell apart, but he'd occasionally snap out of whatever haze he was in and we could have a very insightful conversation.
I am by no means an Apple fanboy, but Apple does have some standards in regards to how their outsourced workers are treated. Most companies just say "Give us the product", Apple says "Give us the product and also follow these basic workplace and factory guidelines".
That said, considering the premium you pay on pretty much every Apple product, you'd think they could afford some better conditions for what ultimately amounts to their employees.
Here's what works for me. "If I were a plumber, I sure as hell wouldn't unplug your toilet for free. That's my livelihood, and the only person who gets a blank check in my business is my mom."
I doubt it. GTA 5 wouldn't be a killer app for Macs; people wouldn't go out and buy one specifically for it, especially considering the Apple Tax. PCs are nearly as common as televisions in your average industrialized nation household, so there's not a huge need to go and buy something new.
Chiropractors are voodoo doctor wannabes, just like acupuncturists. They're glorified knuckle crackers.
The entire basis of chiropracty is essentially that any sort of illness is a result of something wrong with the nerves, ultimately leading to somewhere in the spine. Tinker with the spine, problem solved!
Rockstar has a lot of clout and rightly so. If they said "Fuck consoles, GTA5 is going to be PC and Mac only" they'd still sell millions. While I think you may be right, I also don't think that Rockstar can be pushed around as easily.
Yes, but even here in New Jersey I have choices to, say, get my heating from someone other than PSE&G. You can't exactly use a Verizon service on a Sprint network without some sort of hassle. (Thankfully, B.S. roaming charges seem to be less and less prevalent.)
So do I, but considering that we don't even have decent data protection laws like a lot of European countries yet I don't see it happening for a long time.
Rather than have the government take over yet another aspect of our daily lives, I would propose that the better solution is the same thing that many net neutrality advocates offer when asked about how to handle the vicious, uncompetitive monopolies that dominate the home internet business.
Buy out the networks. Buy out the wireless towers and infrastructure. Make upkeep the responsibility of the government just as the roads, rail, power, and phone lines are. Let the carriers compete for access, just as we would have ISPs compete for it.
Just being picky, but how long do you figure that will last? I'd wager at least half of the capped data plans started out as "completely unlimited". Once someone in the higher ranks of corporate sees dollar signs in his eyes, Virgin might falter as well.
However, let's say that Sprint is pretty much the last holdout among wireless carriers. They really do offer truly unlimited and use this as a marketing tactic. Unless they have a significant amount of people moving over to them for specifically that reason, they will lose out to the other companies who are screwing over a (currently) minority of users who expend a lot of data. At that point Sprint will either fold, stop doing the whole "unlimited" thing, or keep doing it but remain in a pathetic, underpowered last place among the major wireless carriers.
Despite this, we have three things working in our favor.
One, bandwidth is getting cheaper every day. New devices are constantly designed, new and better codecs are thought up, etc.
Two, the proliferation of things like Netflix, Hulu, Steam, YouTube, etc. means that for the last 5 years or so people have been getting more and more used to getting the media they want when they want.
Third, the last one or two generations of people have a tremendous sense of entitlement. They will literally whine their way to victory.
Actually, a lot of buffets have instituted 90, 60, or 30 minute time limits.
One of my best friends is the type who is in spectacularly fit shape yet has one of those envious metabolisms where he eats more than three people combined every day and doesn't really gain a pound. He's been kicked out of buffets numerous times for basically eating "too much food" (example: six plates of snow crab legs in one sitting). It's happened many times at different locales.
The prices have been steadily going up which is understandable considering that food prices are going ever higher, but the service is actually being reduced what with the time limits and being ejected for arbitrary reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, at least the courier in Mirror's Edge is pretty hot.
Well, for one thing, they have medical care that's better than ours in hospitals that are better and more comfortable than ours filled with doctors that benefited from America's excellent medical education system.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/21/60minutes/main689998.shtml
I saw this on the telly 6 years ago. Some important bits: medical care in Thailand costs about 1/8th of what it costs here, and labor and malpractice insurance are cheaper in Thailand, so that keeps costs low.
Or how about India, where a hospital visit is 1/10th the cost?
The article is a very good read. Even if you factor in the cost of a plane ticket you end up saving a lot of money.
Of course, it's just as likely he was purposefully dumbing it down out of habit...
In the video game Mirror's Edge, the player character (and her comrades) are "runners" - private couriers who use Sneakernet (i.e. moving data in portable data storage on foot) to transport things from A to B because the networks are monitored by a totalitarian government. The lines are all bugged, so the only safe way to get info from A to B is on foot.
Perhaps it's high time to start up an interstate courier business...
That's a possibility that I would like to believe, and Occam's Razor hits an impasse here for me. Complete morons, or political geniuses? Both are valid explanations.
Really? What about all of those politicians that don't believe in evolution, believe in young earth creationism, etc.? I'd say largely the politicians are just as dumb as the rest of us with the exception of politically-relevant skills (spinning, P.R., maintaining a public image, etc. - and even then they fuck those up a lot!).
I don't give a crap if it's photorealistic either. I give a crap when it works out to something like, what, $1.75-$3.50 a sheet? You get maybe 200 sheets of paper out of an inkjet cartridge, and they're usually $35 at the cheapest.
I'm still wondering what the hell a Bitcoin even is. I read up a little bit on it but it's hard to wade your way through the astroturfing and B.S. and find out what's true and what isn't.
One of the "Homeless Guys on Street Corner" in my neighborhood was a former college professor. I don't know how exactly his life fell apart, but he'd occasionally snap out of whatever haze he was in and we could have a very insightful conversation.
Yes, because it's none of the government's goddamn business what we put in our own bodies.
Like most good social experiences, this is way more common in places other than America, especially Europe.
July 11, 2013: Larry Page and Sergey Brin are killed when their planes collide in midair.
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." -Eric Schmidt
Oh how much more delicious it would have been if that quote was from one of the above guys...
I am by no means an Apple fanboy, but Apple does have some standards in regards to how their outsourced workers are treated. Most companies just say "Give us the product", Apple says "Give us the product and also follow these basic workplace and factory guidelines".
That said, considering the premium you pay on pretty much every Apple product, you'd think they could afford some better conditions for what ultimately amounts to their employees.
I don't see how we can do things like "Adopt a Highway" and not do similar "Adopt a Railway/Train Station" sort of things.
Hell, look at New York City. Imagine the money they could roll in by changing 33rd street Station to Pepsico 33rd Street Station.
Here's what works for me. "If I were a plumber, I sure as hell wouldn't unplug your toilet for free. That's my livelihood, and the only person who gets a blank check in my business is my mom."
I doubt it. GTA 5 wouldn't be a killer app for Macs; people wouldn't go out and buy one specifically for it, especially considering the Apple Tax. PCs are nearly as common as televisions in your average industrialized nation household, so there's not a huge need to go and buy something new.
Shit, that's how modern business works, not just your everyday individual criminal. Recall if you will the "car recall" speech from Fight Club.
Chiropractors are voodoo doctor wannabes, just like acupuncturists. They're glorified knuckle crackers.
The entire basis of chiropracty is essentially that any sort of illness is a result of something wrong with the nerves, ultimately leading to somewhere in the spine. Tinker with the spine, problem solved!
Rockstar has a lot of clout and rightly so. If they said "Fuck consoles, GTA5 is going to be PC and Mac only" they'd still sell millions. While I think you may be right, I also don't think that Rockstar can be pushed around as easily.
Yes, but even here in New Jersey I have choices to, say, get my heating from someone other than PSE&G. You can't exactly use a Verizon service on a Sprint network without some sort of hassle. (Thankfully, B.S. roaming charges seem to be less and less prevalent.)
So do I, but considering that we don't even have decent data protection laws like a lot of European countries yet I don't see it happening for a long time.
Rather than have the government take over yet another aspect of our daily lives, I would propose that the better solution is the same thing that many net neutrality advocates offer when asked about how to handle the vicious, uncompetitive monopolies that dominate the home internet business.
Buy out the networks. Buy out the wireless towers and infrastructure. Make upkeep the responsibility of the government just as the roads, rail, power, and phone lines are. Let the carriers compete for access, just as we would have ISPs compete for it.
Just being picky, but how long do you figure that will last? I'd wager at least half of the capped data plans started out as "completely unlimited". Once someone in the higher ranks of corporate sees dollar signs in his eyes, Virgin might falter as well.
However, let's say that Sprint is pretty much the last holdout among wireless carriers. They really do offer truly unlimited and use this as a marketing tactic. Unless they have a significant amount of people moving over to them for specifically that reason, they will lose out to the other companies who are screwing over a (currently) minority of users who expend a lot of data. At that point Sprint will either fold, stop doing the whole "unlimited" thing, or keep doing it but remain in a pathetic, underpowered last place among the major wireless carriers.
Despite this, we have three things working in our favor.
One, bandwidth is getting cheaper every day. New devices are constantly designed, new and better codecs are thought up, etc.
Two, the proliferation of things like Netflix, Hulu, Steam, YouTube, etc. means that for the last 5 years or so people have been getting more and more used to getting the media they want when they want.
Third, the last one or two generations of people have a tremendous sense of entitlement. They will literally whine their way to victory.
Actually, a lot of buffets have instituted 90, 60, or 30 minute time limits.
One of my best friends is the type who is in spectacularly fit shape yet has one of those envious metabolisms where he eats more than three people combined every day and doesn't really gain a pound. He's been kicked out of buffets numerous times for basically eating "too much food" (example: six plates of snow crab legs in one sitting). It's happened many times at different locales.
The prices have been steadily going up which is understandable considering that food prices are going ever higher, but the service is actually being reduced what with the time limits and being ejected for arbitrary reasons.