...and your government is putting the best part of a trillion dollars on the credit card every year. You're paying nearly $400 billion in interest which is expected to double over the next decade. When (and how) does that start to be paid down? The current projection doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room if you have to deal with another economic shock. I wouldn't be to chirpy about the economy just now.
Zero downside - really? I thought this was a tech site. Do we now have miracle jammers which stop at property boundaries now? I drive past a jail with a jammer fairly regularly and it will kill phone calls from a kilometre away. Beyond that there's an area where calls will get through but the signal is definitely degraded. It's a big problem when you have a minor accident and an older driver who is having bad chest pains. I had to flag someone down and ask them to drive up the road a little bit to call for an ambulance and then I had no idea whether they had bothered to make the call. I hate to think what it would be like with a severe accident where minutes counted.
Unless the jail is in the middle of nowhere jammers are a bad idea. You don't get to screw with people who aren't incarcerated because you can't handle your contraband problem. If they're smuggling phones in that's not all they can smuggle in.
I don't know how it is where you are but in Australia a psychiatrist has to have done a medical degree, internship, residency and then another five years or thereabouts of training while practicing as a doctor. A psychologist from memory needs a four year degree and a two year internship before they can be registered. Are things significantly different where you are?
When you say potentially a bit long for a tank of gas you are thinking 380 km not 380 miles right? Four hours would be travelling within the speed limit if you don't stop.
There is a difference between saying that x and y statements are inaccurate (and here is evidence that they are inaccurate) or relevant information z has been left out which gives an unbalanced impression and saying [media organisation] is an enemy of the people/country/whatever.
The former is valid criticism which gives the media organisation the chance to defend their assertions and editorial choices or correct the record and generally doesn't put anything beyond reputations at risk. The latter is straight out of the playbook of personality cults and tinpot despots. Rather than being an attempt to bring the facts to the fore, it is a vulgar use of raw power to attempt to crush perceived opponents. As it is leveraged power rather than facts in dispute it is very difficult to defend against and does put people in real danger - as we have seen very real examples of. Notable users of this tactic to to destroy opposition include Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and the Nazis Rather than encouraging a robust public debate it holds a gun to the head of any free speech that does not conform to the views of power.
Trial by facts and evidence should what the media has to deal with. Anything beyond that is straying into very dicey territory.
Where America is missing is we still have LOADS of old homes from pre WWII, which Europe does not.
Uh, citation please? My very superficial googling suggests that about 19% of US houses are pre 1949 as of 2009. (US Census Bureau) For comparison I picked two European countries that I know were heavily damaged in WWII. 2011 Eurostat figures put Germany at about 24% pre 1946 buildings and the UK at just short of 38%
We use paper ballots in Australia and usually the result is known within four hours of votes closing. I wasn't aware of some of the other protections that go into the process until I was early to vote one year. I was invited into the polling centre and asked to inspect the empty ballot boxes before they were sealed and signed to confirm that the serial numbers of the seals matched. This has to be done by a member of the public - it can't be done by an electoral official. I believe another member of the public must verify the seals again when the boxes are opened. I was also told that each polling centre has to account for all the ballot papers issued to them. Remaining blank ballot papers plus spoiled ballot papers (people made a mistake and exchanged for a fresh paper) plus votes cast must be very close to ballot papers issued or there is cause to dispute the result. At one election 1400 ballot papers went missing for the senate. The whole senate election was rerun. That's the sort of protection you want.
The other thing I really like is optional preferential voting. As a voter you can vote for as many candidates as you want in order - or not. All the first preference votes are counted and the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and their ballot papers are distributed to the next preference on the ballot paper. This is repeated until only one candidate remains. You can vote for an independent or minor party but if they don't get elected your vote still counts toward which of the major parties gets elected.
I suspect you're trolling hard but I'll play along.
Revelations 11 makes a reference to time to judge the dead, reward the righteous, and "destroy those who destroy the earth."
Your turn...
Australia has better than that to offer. Meet the Gympie-Gympie Tree Brushing against it is described as being like being burned with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time. Animals as large as horses have died within hours after being stung. People have been driven mad by the pain levels which can persist for months or years. A military officer who used a leaf off this bush as toilet paper reportedly immediately shot himself to escape the pain.
Wait, they're dumping spent nuclear fuel rods in train toilets? I had already pretty much sworn off train toilets for entirely different reasons - I feel like I've dodged a bullet here. That being said it's probably the only thing that would sterilise an old train toilet.
The one area that US healthcare statistically outshines the rest of the world is cancer survival. I wonder if this is why.
Does it? The CONCORD-2 study did a pretty large comparison of 60+ countries and while the US was well amongst the lead group it wasn't significantly ahead. Some graphs here. If you have different figures I'm interested to see them.
Which is tremendous unless you're the poor fool who used to get paid to clean the streets. But no matter, you can go on workfare too and do something that someone used to get paid to do. The next thing you know you've got a significant chunk of people with no spending power which which is going to take a bite out of business and make them start laying people off... work for welfare doesn't have a significant effect on a small scale but if you roll it out on a large scale it smells a little like economic death spiral to me. When you factor in administration and compliance monitoring this program is also going to be hellishly expensive.
Last I checked I think the US had a foreign born population of between 10 and 15 percent. In single payer countries like Australia and New Zealand that's more like a quarter so don't drop the less homogeneous excuse. I haven't checked the UK but I suspect the numbers would be at least comparable to the US.
If the federal government is too unwieldy then give it to the states. Some of the smaller ones may have to work together to increase their negotiating power but it's doable if the will is there.
I the biggest barrier to single payer in the US is a very effective propaganda war being waged by special interest groups.
If I have the choice between being confronted by a criminal with a knife and a criminal with a gun I'll go for the knife every time. Against a gun my chances are little better than the criminal can't shoot straight. Against a knife I have the opportunity to run if I choose and in most situations I can lay my hands on a weapon that will give me a chance in a fight. For example: from where I'm sitting now I can reach a glass lamp, a large screwdriver, a 2m length of coax, my chair and a claw hammer.
Not them, but certainly others. If you care to look you'll find that there are a lot of leaders around the world, including in the middle east, begging people to stop shooting in the air because people get injured and killed. Here's a couple of names to google: Brendon Mackey and Shannon Smith.
For the United States hard data is surprisingly difficult to come by but the guardian says that 903 people have been killed by law enforcement so far this year. The Washington Post says that the number is consistently above 1000 per year.
In Australia between 1989 and 2011 there were 105 people killed by law enforcement so maybe 5-6 per year.
I make the US population about 14x the Australian population so per capita US law enforcement are killing more than 10x the number of people.
I pulled up the CDC stats for 2013: 895 deaths by poisoning for people aged 0-19. A bit higher than the number you quoted but in the ballpark. Of these 754 were over 15 years of age. The year before there were 928 poisoning deaths in the 0-19 age group of which 756 were aged above 15. Go back another year it was 907/1072. It appears to me that you're taking what looks like teen suicides and maybe drug overdoses, blaming the parents, and suggesting that it is relevant to a discussion on accidental shootings involving toddlers.
Slashdot Mirror
...and your government is putting the best part of a trillion dollars on the credit card every year. You're paying nearly $400 billion in interest which is expected to double over the next decade. When (and how) does that start to be paid down? The current projection doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room if you have to deal with another economic shock. I wouldn't be to chirpy about the economy just now.
Zero downside - really? I thought this was a tech site. Do we now have miracle jammers which stop at property boundaries now? I drive past a jail with a jammer fairly regularly and it will kill phone calls from a kilometre away. Beyond that there's an area where calls will get through but the signal is definitely degraded. It's a big problem when you have a minor accident and an older driver who is having bad chest pains. I had to flag someone down and ask them to drive up the road a little bit to call for an ambulance and then I had no idea whether they had bothered to make the call. I hate to think what it would be like with a severe accident where minutes counted.
Unless the jail is in the middle of nowhere jammers are a bad idea. You don't get to screw with people who aren't incarcerated because you can't handle your contraband problem. If they're smuggling phones in that's not all they can smuggle in.
I don't know how it is where you are but in Australia a psychiatrist has to have done a medical degree, internship, residency and then another five years or thereabouts of training while practicing as a doctor. A psychologist from memory needs a four year degree and a two year internship before they can be registered. Are things significantly different where you are?
Interesting thing is that they say very similar things about the US.
When you say potentially a bit long for a tank of gas you are thinking 380 km not 380 miles right? Four hours would be travelling within the speed limit if you don't stop.
There is a difference between saying that x and y statements are inaccurate (and here is evidence that they are inaccurate) or relevant information z has been left out which gives an unbalanced impression and saying [media organisation] is an enemy of the people/country/whatever.
The former is valid criticism which gives the media organisation the chance to defend their assertions and editorial choices or correct the record and generally doesn't put anything beyond reputations at risk. The latter is straight out of the playbook of personality cults and tinpot despots. Rather than being an attempt to bring the facts to the fore, it is a vulgar use of raw power to attempt to crush perceived opponents. As it is leveraged power rather than facts in dispute it is very difficult to defend against and does put people in real danger - as we have seen very real examples of. Notable users of this tactic to to destroy opposition include Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and the Nazis Rather than encouraging a robust public debate it holds a gun to the head of any free speech that does not conform to the views of power.
Trial by facts and evidence should what the media has to deal with. Anything beyond that is straying into very dicey territory.
Where America is missing is we still have LOADS of old homes from pre WWII, which Europe does not.
Uh, citation please? My very superficial googling suggests that about 19% of US houses are pre 1949 as of 2009. (US Census Bureau) For comparison I picked two European countries that I know were heavily damaged in WWII. 2011 Eurostat figures put Germany at about 24% pre 1946 buildings and the UK at just short of 38%
We use paper ballots in Australia and usually the result is known within four hours of votes closing. I wasn't aware of some of the other protections that go into the process until I was early to vote one year. I was invited into the polling centre and asked to inspect the empty ballot boxes before they were sealed and signed to confirm that the serial numbers of the seals matched. This has to be done by a member of the public - it can't be done by an electoral official. I believe another member of the public must verify the seals again when the boxes are opened. I was also told that each polling centre has to account for all the ballot papers issued to them. Remaining blank ballot papers plus spoiled ballot papers (people made a mistake and exchanged for a fresh paper) plus votes cast must be very close to ballot papers issued or there is cause to dispute the result. At one election 1400 ballot papers went missing for the senate. The whole senate election was rerun. That's the sort of protection you want.
The other thing I really like is optional preferential voting. As a voter you can vote for as many candidates as you want in order - or not. All the first preference votes are counted and the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and their ballot papers are distributed to the next preference on the ballot paper. This is repeated until only one candidate remains. You can vote for an independent or minor party but if they don't get elected your vote still counts toward which of the major parties gets elected.
I suspect you're trolling hard but I'll play along. Revelations 11 makes a reference to time to judge the dead, reward the righteous, and "destroy those who destroy the earth." Your turn...
Australia has better than that to offer. Meet the Gympie-Gympie Tree Brushing against it is described as being like being burned with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time. Animals as large as horses have died within hours after being stung. People have been driven mad by the pain levels which can persist for months or years. A military officer who used a leaf off this bush as toilet paper reportedly immediately shot himself to escape the pain.
Wait, they're dumping spent nuclear fuel rods in train toilets? I had already pretty much sworn off train toilets for entirely different reasons - I feel like I've dodged a bullet here. That being said it's probably the only thing that would sterilise an old train toilet.
It's just as well there are no ocean currents which could carry irradiated water away from the sunken reactor.
The one area that US healthcare statistically outshines the rest of the world is cancer survival. I wonder if this is why.
Does it? The CONCORD-2 study did a pretty large comparison of 60+ countries and while the US was well amongst the lead group it wasn't significantly ahead. Some graphs here. If you have different figures I'm interested to see them.
Which is tremendous unless you're the poor fool who used to get paid to clean the streets. But no matter, you can go on workfare too and do something that someone used to get paid to do. The next thing you know you've got a significant chunk of people with no spending power which which is going to take a bite out of business and make them start laying people off... work for welfare doesn't have a significant effect on a small scale but if you roll it out on a large scale it smells a little like economic death spiral to me. When you factor in administration and compliance monitoring this program is also going to be hellishly expensive.
Last I checked I think the US had a foreign born population of between 10 and 15 percent. In single payer countries like Australia and New Zealand that's more like a quarter so don't drop the less homogeneous excuse. I haven't checked the UK but I suspect the numbers would be at least comparable to the US.
If the federal government is too unwieldy then give it to the states. Some of the smaller ones may have to work together to increase their negotiating power but it's doable if the will is there.
I the biggest barrier to single payer in the US is a very effective propaganda war being waged by special interest groups.
I dunno. My money is on the shark getting it's mouth full.
Isn't it methyl mercury that bio-accumulates? Ethyl mercury gets crapped out in pretty short order from what I remember. Citation?
If I had a hand in creating some of the web services the Australian government uses I would definitely be fleeing the country too.
With our bare hands. Now harden up.
Yes, but are these results typical or outliers?
If I have the choice between being confronted by a criminal with a knife and a criminal with a gun I'll go for the knife every time. Against a gun my chances are little better than the criminal can't shoot straight. Against a knife I have the opportunity to run if I choose and in most situations I can lay my hands on a weapon that will give me a chance in a fight. For example: from where I'm sitting now I can reach a glass lamp, a large screwdriver, a 2m length of coax, my chair and a claw hammer.
It what state is that legal?
Not them, but certainly others. If you care to look you'll find that there are a lot of leaders around the world, including in the middle east, begging people to stop shooting in the air because people get injured and killed. Here's a couple of names to google: Brendon Mackey and Shannon Smith.
For the United States hard data is surprisingly difficult to come by but the guardian says that 903 people have been killed by law enforcement so far this year. The Washington Post says that the number is consistently above 1000 per year.
In Australia between 1989 and 2011 there were 105 people killed by law enforcement so maybe 5-6 per year.
I make the US population about 14x the Australian population so per capita US law enforcement are killing more than 10x the number of people.
I pulled up the CDC stats for 2013: 895 deaths by poisoning for people aged 0-19. A bit higher than the number you quoted but in the ballpark. Of these 754 were over 15 years of age. The year before there were 928 poisoning deaths in the 0-19 age group of which 756 were aged above 15. Go back another year it was 907/1072. It appears to me that you're taking what looks like teen suicides and maybe drug overdoses, blaming the parents, and suggesting that it is relevant to a discussion on accidental shootings involving toddlers.