So this new bill leaves 4% uncovered - that's 4% of nearly 300 million people!
Whereas the healthcare systems of all other civilised nations leave no-one uncovered. Not even the tramps in the street.
NB UK NHS user here - Our system has its faults, but at least one of those isn't "Sorry, we can't give you that treatment because you can't afford it...so just hurry up and die."
My friend was making this point after his recent visit to the US.
Here in the UK, we have the 'Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974' which allows many offences to be stricken from one's criminal record after being 'spent' and one has served their sentence to the community.
It doesn't strike serious offences, or allow one to avoid declaring offences when applying for positions of responsibility to others (such as a train driver, teacher or nurse).
It does, however, mean that ex-cons can return to a nearly normal life once they have paid the legally-prescribed sentence for their crime(s).
Just on the point of the other replies to your question, I too don't believe you're trolling. Anthropology and the history of human evolution interests me precisely because it's full of so many unknowns. The biggest question I have is what selective pressures our ancestors were under to develop large brains and dextrous hands, and subsequently to develop language. Others are interested in different aspects of the human story.
I would thoroughly recommend you pick up "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins. An excellent story, told in reverse order, of how current evolutionary theory sees mankind having descended from the primordial soup.
On a slightly different tangent, I've lived without a watch for about 3 years now and find my internal 'timekeeping' to be far more accurate - I can usually guess the time of day to within a quarter hour and this often freaks out people who ask. Fun:)
And interestingly, you could argue that as physical remonstration is used by many species to punish their young, children have well-developed mechanisms of coping with and learning from such punishments.
Compare these to the 'new age' time-out techniques and the like which are based on adult psychology and are probably completely inappropriate for immature minds. Probably far more damaging, but we won't know for another couple of decades or so...
Let's just directly quote the conclusion of the linked paper (a randomised placebo-controlled trial on 45,000 patients - pretty good evidence in medical terms):
"The use of early beta-blocker therapy in acute MI reduces the risks of reinfarction and ventricular fibrillation, but increases the risk of cardiogenic shock, especially during the first day or so after admission. Consequently, it might generally be prudent to consider starting beta-blocker therapy in hospital only when the haemodynamic condition after MI has stabilised."
In other words, beta-blockers (well, metoprolol) do reduce deaths from some of the problems arising from acute MI, but can raise the risk of death from other problems arising from acute MI.
This doesn't blow beta-blockers out of the water by any means. As a doctor, these side-effects are entirely predictable. It is the last sentence of the conclusion that is the 'art' of medicine rather than the science - using a physician's experience to determine WHEN to introduce certain treatments to a patient.
Unfortunately, there is no way of measuring this 'art' in a scientific way.
You have to understand that the US has a history very different than that of European nations, in that we defined our very existence by fighting for our freedom.
Unlike those darned Frenchies, Poles, Russians, Spaniards, Czechs, Croats, Serbs etc. etc. who have never had to fight for their freedom from an oppressive foreign power?
It's also a convenient way of throwing up a smokescreen.
Making a lot of hoo-ha about an obviously manipulated photo leads you to believe in their integrity. Which then allows them to slip far more subtly doctored and 'serious' photos through the net.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - the US mobile phone system sucks. Don't start modding me because of some misplaced nationalism - the US choice of phones, software locks by networks, data pricing, choice of CDMA over GSM for a large part of your history, your pricing plans, your 'pay to receive' models - they all suck.
You need a system like the UK (no joke - we got something right for once and I'm going to sing its praises):
Prices including tax up front, and quite cheap in terms of purchasing power parity Pay only for texts you send or calls you make. No text or call spam because of this (well, like one message and call in the last 3 years) Shorter contracts Wide choice of phone GSM means you can switch out your SIM overseas (forget the iPhone here, it's quite unique in the market - Orange gives you your unlock codes after 6 months, where does that happen in the US?)
Dual boot into Windows for games. Productivity apps on OS X.
'Overpriced hardware'? Not really that overpriced considering the uptime. And the fact that you are probably an adult with a paid full-time job where a weekend of reinstalling drivers is no longer 'fun'.
At the core of it, you are equating the life of an unborn fetus to that of a grown adult. That is why you believe what you do - that abortion is wrong.
The argument against murder is made on multiple levels, none of which rely a belief in a supreme being/etc. - Murder denies an adult of the right to make choices in their life. - Murderers are likely to be caught and severely punished, reducing the likelihood that rest of your life will be pleasant. - Murder just feels wrong. No reliance on morals, ethics or metaphysics. It's just something that a functional member of society would not contemplate. Not because there's no reason not to do it, but because there's no compelling argument to do it.
So, try to grow up, accept that the majority of us do not need to call upon old books and sayings to guide our lives or dictate our spectrum of values, and that ad hominem attacks and veiled threats do not often go down well.
And the bonus is that in 10 years time, the wind turbines will have broken even and, barring maintenance costs, will be producing very cheap electricity.
Whilst the gas turbine would be paying over the odds for Russian natural gas.
Short termers and NIMBYs are ruining the environment. Wind turbines are a good investment.
Hmm...somnolence after ingesting a drug from a plant that looks like a lotus?
Could that possibly be opium? Growing freely in the fields of the near and middle east and certainly within trading range of the ancient peoples of Egypt and Greece?
Horseshoe-shaped continent a couple of thousand years ago? Could that be a misinterpretation of the mediterranean coast's geography at the time?
And just for kicks, I'm not going to end on an ad hominem.
I expect that the vast majority today would agree that an abortion is bad, at least in the sense of being an unfavorable outcome if not in an absolute metaphysical sense.
I would ask that you do not try to make up my mind for me. My moral compass is set differently from yours but that does not mean that it is wrong or broken.
Abortion is good, particularly in terms of being a favourable outcome (reducing the burden of raising a child by a parent who feels themself unsuited to the task or by the state) as well as saving the lives of women who would otherwise have abortions in an illegal setting. There is no metaphysical argument against abortion - the soul does not exist.
5 Malaysian Ringgit per user per month (as you rightly say = US$1.58) may not sound like much to us, but is equivalent Rp14,500 (Indonesian Rupiah) per user per month - quite significant when the average household income is only Rp84,000/month for those who are actually in regular employment.
And most mosques in Indonesia are spread amongst the poorest communities, where the average household income will be much lower and contributions to their local mosque lower still.
That US$1.58 becomes quite a significant proportion of the poor rural mosque's monthly income.
Slashdot Mirror
What do they loose? The dogs?
Personally, I'm more worried about one side or the other losing.
Doesn't sound like they will.
So this new bill leaves 4% uncovered - that's 4% of nearly 300 million people!
Whereas the healthcare systems of all other civilised nations leave no-one uncovered. Not even the tramps in the street.
NB UK NHS user here - Our system has its faults, but at least one of those isn't "Sorry, we can't give you that treatment because you can't afford it...so just hurry up and die."
-Nano.
Or at least until he can be tracked down and killed by Mossad/The CIA/MI6 etc...
-Nano.
My friend was making this point after his recent visit to the US.
Here in the UK, we have the 'Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974' which allows many offences to be stricken from one's criminal record after being 'spent' and one has served their sentence to the community.
It doesn't strike serious offences, or allow one to avoid declaring offences when applying for positions of responsibility to others (such as a train driver, teacher or nurse).
It does, however, mean that ex-cons can return to a nearly normal life once they have paid the legally-prescribed sentence for their crime(s).
-Nano.
Just on the point of the other replies to your question, I too don't believe you're trolling. Anthropology and the history of human evolution interests me precisely because it's full of so many unknowns. The biggest question I have is what selective pressures our ancestors were under to develop large brains and dextrous hands, and subsequently to develop language. Others are interested in different aspects of the human story.
I would thoroughly recommend you pick up "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins. An excellent story, told in reverse order, of how current evolutionary theory sees mankind having descended from the primordial soup.
-Nano.
I'm based in the UK but grew up in South East Asia.
That's gotta count for a little bit....
You raise an interesting point.
On a slightly different tangent, I've lived without a watch for about 3 years now and find my internal 'timekeeping' to be far more accurate - I can usually guess the time of day to within a quarter hour and this often freaks out people who ask. Fun :)
-Nano.
And interestingly, you could argue that as physical remonstration is used by many species to punish their young, children have well-developed mechanisms of coping with and learning from such punishments.
Compare these to the 'new age' time-out techniques and the like which are based on adult psychology and are probably completely inappropriate for immature minds. Probably far more damaging, but we won't know for another couple of decades or so...
-Nano.
it is a bold move from Microsoft, and it will be interesting to see how the operating system fails
Fixed that for ya'.
-Nano.
My friend still uses his 12" PB on a regular basis.
So much for those 5 upgrades in the meantime...
Let's just directly quote the conclusion of the linked paper (a randomised placebo-controlled trial on 45,000 patients - pretty good evidence in medical terms):
"The use of early beta-blocker therapy in acute MI reduces the risks of reinfarction and ventricular fibrillation, but increases the risk of cardiogenic shock, especially during the first day or so after admission. Consequently, it might generally be prudent to consider starting beta-blocker therapy in hospital only when the haemodynamic condition after MI has stabilised."
In other words, beta-blockers (well, metoprolol) do reduce deaths from some of the problems arising from acute MI, but can raise the risk of death from other problems arising from acute MI.
This doesn't blow beta-blockers out of the water by any means. As a doctor, these side-effects are entirely predictable. It is the last sentence of the conclusion that is the 'art' of medicine rather than the science - using a physician's experience to determine WHEN to introduce certain treatments to a patient.
Unfortunately, there is no way of measuring this 'art' in a scientific way.
You have to understand that the US has a history very different than that of European nations, in that we defined our very existence by fighting for our freedom.
Unlike those darned Frenchies, Poles, Russians, Spaniards, Czechs, Croats, Serbs etc. etc. who have never had to fight for their freedom from an oppressive foreign power?
Your point is invalid. Try again.
It's also a convenient way of throwing up a smokescreen.
Making a lot of hoo-ha about an obviously manipulated photo leads you to believe in their integrity. Which then allows them to slip far more subtly doctored and 'serious' photos through the net.
Now where's my tinfoil hat?
I've said it before and I'll say it again - the US mobile phone system sucks. Don't start modding me because of some misplaced nationalism - the US choice of phones, software locks by networks, data pricing, choice of CDMA over GSM for a large part of your history, your pricing plans, your 'pay to receive' models - they all suck.
You need a system like the UK (no joke - we got something right for once and I'm going to sing its praises):
Prices including tax up front, and quite cheap in terms of purchasing power parity
Pay only for texts you send or calls you make. No text or call spam because of this (well, like one message and call in the last 3 years)
Shorter contracts
Wide choice of phone
GSM means you can switch out your SIM overseas (forget the iPhone here, it's quite unique in the market - Orange gives you your unlock codes after 6 months, where does that happen in the US?)
umm...pH over 7 means alkaline, not salty.
I'm going to ignore your entire argument because you cannot contemplate that my ideas exist without unconscious reference to a supreme being.
However, I have one bone to pick - racist? What the fuck? Seriously? Where in any of my statements does race play an issue?
I now know I'm arguing with a child.
Ever heard of this little company called Apple?
Dual boot into Windows for games. Productivity apps on OS X.
'Overpriced hardware'? Not really that overpriced considering the uptime. And the fact that you are probably an adult with a paid full-time job where a weekend of reinstalling drivers is no longer 'fun'.
You should read what they're doing for 10.6. Seriously.
Complete strip down and ground-up rebuild of everything under the hood of OS X. From ageing Quicktime frameworks to all the new APIs.
Apple's intention is to make a light, snappy OS.
Windows? There's probably still crud under the hood from MS-DOS days. System calls that reference 4K blocks of memory and shit like that.
Unless MS is planning on doing the same for Windows 7 as Apple is already doing for OS 10.6, they will be dead in the water.
OS X 10.5 already beats the ass off Vista any day of the week. Oh no, can't play games? Well, some of us adults have to work with our machines...
What a fatuous, idiotic argument.
At the core of it, you are equating the life of an unborn fetus to that of a grown adult. That is why you believe what you do - that abortion is wrong.
The argument against murder is made on multiple levels, none of which rely a belief in a supreme being/etc.
- Murder denies an adult of the right to make choices in their life.
- Murderers are likely to be caught and severely punished, reducing the likelihood that rest of your life will be pleasant.
- Murder just feels wrong. No reliance on morals, ethics or metaphysics. It's just something that a functional member of society would not contemplate. Not because there's no reason not to do it, but because there's no compelling argument to do it.
So, try to grow up, accept that the majority of us do not need to call upon old books and sayings to guide our lives or dictate our spectrum of values, and that ad hominem attacks and veiled threats do not often go down well.
And the bonus is that in 10 years time, the wind turbines will have broken even and, barring maintenance costs, will be producing very cheap electricity.
Whilst the gas turbine would be paying over the odds for Russian natural gas.
Short termers and NIMBYs are ruining the environment. Wind turbines are a good investment.
Hmm...somnolence after ingesting a drug from a plant that looks like a lotus?
Could that possibly be opium? Growing freely in the fields of the near and middle east and certainly within trading range of the ancient peoples of Egypt and Greece?
Horseshoe-shaped continent a couple of thousand years ago? Could that be a misinterpretation of the mediterranean coast's geography at the time?
And just for kicks, I'm not going to end on an ad hominem.
I expect that the vast majority today would agree that an abortion is bad, at least in the sense of being an unfavorable outcome if not in an absolute metaphysical sense.
I would ask that you do not try to make up my mind for me. My moral compass is set differently from yours but that does not mean that it is wrong or broken.
Abortion is good, particularly in terms of being a favourable outcome (reducing the burden of raising a child by a parent who feels themself unsuited to the task or by the state) as well as saving the lives of women who would otherwise have abortions in an illegal setting. There is no metaphysical argument against abortion - the soul does not exist.
So you've never found caste a problem, except in two rather major cases?
How interesting...
I like it. Catchy.
5 Malaysian Ringgit per user per month (as you rightly say = US$1.58) may not sound like much to us, but is equivalent Rp14,500 (Indonesian Rupiah) per user per month - quite significant when the average household income is only Rp84,000/month for those who are actually in regular employment.
And most mosques in Indonesia are spread amongst the poorest communities, where the average household income will be much lower and contributions to their local mosque lower still.
That US$1.58 becomes quite a significant proportion of the poor rural mosque's monthly income.