"We're the big kid on the playground, some little squirt kicked us in the shin"
Reminds me of a brilliant political cartoon I saw just after 911. There was a sea of heads streaching to the horizon all looking skyward at a giant uncle sam who was looking dazed and sporting a black eye. There was no caption, it didn't need one.
"couldn't the same mechanism that made the Earth warmer back then, also be responsible now?"
Yes but then you would have to explain why a 30% increase in CO2 over the last couple of centuries has not produced a warming signal.
"I'll buy the whole "man is making the globe warmer" argument AFTER the scientists can explain the previous global warming events from 100 to 1200 A.D. and circa 3000-2000 B.C."
"A peace prize, really? Screw the people who actually promote peace and settle conflict"
One billion refugees from the Yangzee and Ganges basins will be WW3 in the making. Curbing sea level rise and conserving the hymalayian glaciers is the most efficient way to PREVENT future conflict.
"leveraging his fame to get people to sit down long enough to hear the message"
Agreed, but he also gave private presentations to the worlds leaders and media moguls, Blair, Bush and Murdoch to name but 3. Bush and Murdoch grudgingly acknowledge the problem, Blair went further and came out with some policies. I don't think Brad Pitt would have had as much access to that sort of audience but I get the point.
Of course his movie was based on the 2004 report, both are look positively optimistic in the light of more recent research.
My post was a paraphrase of an argument given by ChristopherHitchen's. He is much more eloquent and knowledgeable than I and has done a fine job of sumarising my long held opinion on theisim.
It may not accurately reflect all the idioms found in your previous christian cult, but it does describe my skeptical/cynical attitude to the message I have been hearing from "Christians" for the last 50yrs (ie: morals come from god). More importantly your description does not reflect the behaviour of the Catholic church's handling of the US/UK/AU peodophile priests scandal, nor does it describe the money grubbing TV "evangelists" who more often than not get caught snorting coke off a hooker's arse.
"Just like how we've been 10 years away from running out of oil for close to 40 years, and about 10 years away from commercialized fusion for about the same amount of time."
Are you absolutely sure you have not been watching the same documentries over and over again for the last 40yrs?
I agree, it should need little more than a judicial reading of the contract and an itemized list of costs. However we are talking about the US legal system which even after a decade of reading slashdot still does not cease to surprise and entertain me.
"Better politely and PLEASENTLY letting them know that there's a problem."
Visiting in person and spitting the dummy can be deeply satisfying...
I came back to a busy mobile phone store for the fourth time regarding enabling a AU-$30 sim chip, I had also had several lengthy conversations with the phone company over that time. I went through the story (again) with a disinterested "manager" who said it was the phone companies fault, however I used to work for the telco so at this point I knew he was making excuses to brush me off and get back to earning comissions from the 30-40 people milling round the store. I had also just been watching him successfully use the same routine on the woman he served before me.
My blood started simmering but I kept a lid on it and said I no longer cared who's fault it was I just wanted my money back, he replied that the phone company had my money, I said (with a raised voice) "I don't care about the fucking phone company, I gave the money to you". He forcefully refused again claiming he no longer had the money. I replied with some loud random abuse and then picked up a display box of leaflets from the counter and threw them in the air along with the sim chip and paperwork. The "manger" was now tripping over a printer trying to back away into his office - I am at heart a "gental giant", realising I had already scared the shit out of the guy I calmed down.
I quietly turned around to leave and to my surprised delight the previously packed shop was now completely deserted, even his staff had run off! Most memorable $30 I ever spent, my kids still rib me about it 10yrs after the fact.
"Most people believe "the arithmetic mean" and "the average" to be synonyms, though there are many sorts of averages."
Indeed, in fact Mean and median are two different kinds of "averages". By convention "The average" in statistics refers to the arithmetic mean. Median is by definition the value that divides the population in half.
You mentioned waiting for 5 months for a "slipped disc" in th UK. I have a herniated disc, I've had it for 30yrs and it will occasionally put me in bed for a week but I can avoid this if I perform the simple 5min physio excercises regularly.
My adult daughter has had an operation to stop the siatica from her slipped disc. Five months waiting in the UK is probably not because of shortages, it's because surgery on your spine column is a last resort. My adult daughter spent 2yrs trying various treatments before the doctors gave up and booked her for ELECTIVE sugery (it was a 3 week wait after booking, she was on the exact same waiting list as those with additional private cover).
Yes, the govt encourages people to buy private cover, private cover will get you a gaurentee of a private room, dentistry, fake tits, "alternative" medicine, liposuction, face lift, hair transplant. What you can't buy with private cover is better doctors, better equipment, or faster access to either of them. The govt encourages private cover because the private room option has the practical benifit of reducing pressure on public beds.
My (unwelcome) advise to American's with your parochial opinions on UHC is to pull your ideological head in and learn from the practical mistakes and streamlined methods of others. I've lived under a US system, Australia one in the 70's, they also had the same doomsday communist crap from mass-media propogandists when they switched to UHC.
The Australian UHC system is clearly cheaper and better quality than what you have in the US, so much so that for the last couple of decades it consistently polls 80+% favorable support amoungst voters. This is not to say that the system is beyond improvement but even suggesting a return to a US style system will end an Aussie politician's career pretty dammned quick.
An effective UHC system means you can still pay a private premium to get fake tit's and the fat sucked out of your arse in a private room while EVERYONE else has equal access to "world class care" for serious/preventative health issues, and last but not least NOBODY goes bankrupt paying for it.
I agree the USA had "the best system in the world" but that was back in the 60's, since then the prevalent "red's under the bed" parionia in the US has put a suffocating layer of admin over it that is so busy spending money on red tape to work out who pays for what that they have lost sight of the system's purpose.
"Correlation is not causation." - If I had points I'd mod you funny.
None of the surgery you listed above is for life-threatening illness. I have been to a UK hospital while on holiday, walked in off the street and was attended to in 20 minutes. Australia and the UK have an agreement to treat each others tourists for "free". The antibiotics I was given were also "free".
USA (with no insurance/cash): waiting time for any treatment = the rest of your life.
"MEP Daniel Hannan said in early August..."
Your offering sound bites from obscure opposition MP's as hard evidence? - surely your post is a joke, as is your health system.
BTW: The US exports more health tourists than it imports, Mexico and India are the main destinations, cost is the main motivator.
Australia 362
Canada 388
United Kingdom 434
United States of America 460
Out of the above four nations, the US has the most expensive health system on a per capita basis, and gets the lowest quality care in return. Conflating Stalin with health care over the last 40yrs has done the US a great diservice by way of the ideologically convoluted health "system" it has created.
"Driving in such a way that you are likely to seriously hurt or kill someone does not in itself attract a severe penalty, given the potential consequences of those actions."
Mobile phone usage attracts an on the spot fine here, drink driving is not tolerated and the cops regularly set up roadblocks for random testing, punishment is handed out by a magistrate, it varies but typically it would be something like..
1st offence - no license for a year or so and a big fine
2nd offence - tear up your license, turn out your pockets and a good behaviour bond.
3rd offence - mandatory jail, time 3+ months.
If you do lose your license for DD it's likely you will have to be re-educated and have to pass a court ordered drink driving course to get it back, not to mention your insurance premium going thru the roof.
"rather controversial in the UK in recent years, following a string of court cases where people walked out with what amounted to a slap on the wrist after negligently killing someone. New laws are planned"
Statistically Victoria's has been a world leader in reducing the road toll. The DD laws came to be when we had a similar string of "wrist slaps" in the early 80's. Their campaigns have been remarkably successful.
Our registration fee includes compulsory third party insurance, when the DD laws were introduced it saved the state government billions in TAC payouts in the first couple of years. In effect the TAC had been "too successfull" and there was a huge political stink when the government took the savings from the TAC and put them into consolidated revenue.
"How could "God" know something to be true if there was no way to know it?"
Same way that the GP knows god exists - wishfull thinking. Wishfull thinking allows you to create whatever universe takes your fancy. A univesre created from wishfull thinking does not have to be consistent, it can be anything you want.
I'm not sure why so many people use wishfull thinking to create a universe were every detail of life is watched and controlled by a celestial dungeon daddy. However it does fit nicely with using a human sacrafice on a cross as a scapegoat for your sins because both allow you to ignore what critical thinkers call "personal responsibility".
"Personal responsibility" can make you feel bad, so for example if you're feeling bad about screwing your sister-in-law it's probably due to "personal responsibility" (or you got caught). However if you are a wishfull thinker you don't have to stop to feel good, you just have to admit your sins to god (who already knows anyway) and the bad feelings will go away. Oh wait....my sister-in-law is gourgeous......that can't be right,...I think I just demonstrated that religion is usefull, Nooooooooo!!!!
"Once you've hit someone while being distracted or intoxicated..."
...it's too late for justice, all your left with is heartfelt remorse and state sponsered revenge.
"My ideal system for dealing with texting / drinking / $distraction..."
I don't understand your problem with what amounts to a stupidity tax but my ideal would be to install a jamming device into the cars of people caught using a mobile, at their own expense of course.
I like that theory! To summarise - The social interaction in a car uses different unspoken rules to those found in a lounge room, which are different again to those used on a phone. Swapping contexts is dangerous because the brain starts unconsiously using the wrong attention pattern for driving.
I used to work the night shift and when driving home one summers night under a bright moon a spider leapt from the visor on a single silk thread. It paused for maybe a second in front of my face, just long enough for me to focus and regognise what it was. I could swear I saw a tiny smirk before it abruptly absailed down through my open overalls and into the croutch region.
I spent my youth working in the Aussie bush, spiders don't bother me. However the surprise factor of seeing it hover and then dive into my jocks brought me very close to my own distracted driver pile up.
Speaking of the bush, seeing a cow rolling over the roof of the car in front that's doing 100+km/hr is a whole different level of distraction!
I can talk to hands free, I can talk to a passenger but a mobile to my ear is down right dangerous and I stopped doing it of my own accord in the nineties. I found myself unconsiously averting my eyes upwards when I had to think about what was being said on the mobile. I don't know why a mobile is worse, perhaps it's a pavlov dog thing since when you have a phone to your ear you are normally trying to block out your surroundings.
Having said that, talking to a passenger is an experience thing, you have to learn how to ignore the social imperitive to engage with the person you are talking to, beginers universally suck at this particular skill. If you have ever tried to teach your kids to drive you will know what I mean.
Slashdot Mirror
"We're the big kid on the playground, some little squirt kicked us in the shin"
Reminds me of a brilliant political cartoon I saw just after 911. There was a sea of heads streaching to the horizon all looking skyward at a giant uncle sam who was looking dazed and sporting a black eye. There was no caption, it didn't need one.
"Terrorism is a threat. To think otherwise is naive"
Yep, always has been, always will be. To think that the military can stomp it out is insane.
"couldn't the same mechanism that made the Earth warmer back then, also be responsible now?"
Yes but then you would have to explain why a 30% increase in CO2 over the last couple of centuries has not produced a warming signal.
"I'll buy the whole "man is making the globe warmer" argument AFTER the scientists can explain the previous global warming events from 100 to 1200 A.D. and circa 3000-2000 B.C."
Sigh
"A peace prize, really? Screw the people who actually promote peace and settle conflict"
One billion refugees from the Yangzee and Ganges basins will be WW3 in the making. Curbing sea level rise and conserving the hymalayian glaciers is the most efficient way to PREVENT future conflict.
"leveraging his fame to get people to sit down long enough to hear the message"
Agreed, but he also gave private presentations to the worlds leaders and media moguls, Blair, Bush and Murdoch to name but 3. Bush and Murdoch grudgingly acknowledge the problem, Blair went further and came out with some policies. I don't think Brad Pitt would have had as much access to that sort of audience but I get the point.
Of course his movie was based on the 2004 report, both are look positively optimistic in the light of more recent research.
My post was a paraphrase of an argument given by Christopher Hitchen's. He is much more eloquent and knowledgeable than I and has done a fine job of sumarising my long held opinion on theisim.
It may not accurately reflect all the idioms found in your previous christian cult, but it does describe my skeptical/cynical attitude to the message I have been hearing from "Christians" for the last 50yrs (ie: morals come from god). More importantly your description does not reflect the behaviour of the Catholic church's handling of the US/UK/AU peodophile priests scandal, nor does it describe the money grubbing TV "evangelists" who more often than not get caught snorting coke off a hooker's arse.
"Just like how we've been 10 years away from running out of oil for close to 40 years, and about 10 years away from commercialized fusion for about the same amount of time."
Are you absolutely sure you have not been watching the same documentries over and over again for the last 40yrs?
I agree, it should need little more than a judicial reading of the contract and an itemized list of costs. However we are talking about the US legal system which even after a decade of reading slashdot still does not cease to surprise and entertain me.
"Better politely and PLEASENTLY letting them know that there's a problem."
Visiting in person and spitting the dummy can be deeply satisfying...
I came back to a busy mobile phone store for the fourth time regarding enabling a AU-$30 sim chip, I had also had several lengthy conversations with the phone company over that time. I went through the story (again) with a disinterested "manager" who said it was the phone companies fault, however I used to work for the telco so at this point I knew he was making excuses to brush me off and get back to earning comissions from the 30-40 people milling round the store. I had also just been watching him successfully use the same routine on the woman he served before me.
My blood started simmering but I kept a lid on it and said I no longer cared who's fault it was I just wanted my money back, he replied that the phone company had my money, I said (with a raised voice) "I don't care about the fucking phone company, I gave the money to you". He forcefully refused again claiming he no longer had the money. I replied with some loud random abuse and then picked up a display box of leaflets from the counter and threw them in the air along with the sim chip and paperwork. The "manger" was now tripping over a printer trying to back away into his office - I am at heart a "gental giant", realising I had already scared the shit out of the guy I calmed down.
I quietly turned around to leave and to my surprised delight the previously packed shop was now completely deserted, even his staff had run off! Most memorable $30 I ever spent, my kids still rib me about it 10yrs after the fact.
"Most people believe "the arithmetic mean" and "the average" to be synonyms, though there are many sorts of averages."
Indeed, in fact Mean and median are two different kinds of "averages". By convention "The average" in statistics refers to the arithmetic mean. Median is by definition the value that divides the population in half.
Bleach is chock full of negative ions, I wouldn't recommend it as a health tonic.
"The only place to find quantum mechanics, for any human being, is in said human's imagination."
The macro effects of quantum mechanics can be observed in the viscosity of mayonnasie and similar liquids.
"The only place to find relativity theory in action is off the planet."
Time dialation has been repeatedly observed on the surface of Earth and is important for navigation.
Newtonian physics is math but math is not Newtownian Physics.
You mentioned waiting for 5 months for a "slipped disc" in th UK. I have a herniated disc, I've had it for 30yrs and it will occasionally put me in bed for a week but I can avoid this if I perform the simple 5min physio excercises regularly.
My adult daughter has had an operation to stop the siatica from her slipped disc. Five months waiting in the UK is probably not because of shortages, it's because surgery on your spine column is a last resort. My adult daughter spent 2yrs trying various treatments before the doctors gave up and booked her for ELECTIVE sugery (it was a 3 week wait after booking, she was on the exact same waiting list as those with additional private cover).
Yes, the govt encourages people to buy private cover, private cover will get you a gaurentee of a private room, dentistry, fake tits, "alternative" medicine, liposuction, face lift, hair transplant. What you can't buy with private cover is better doctors, better equipment, or faster access to either of them. The govt encourages private cover because the private room option has the practical benifit of reducing pressure on public beds.
My (unwelcome) advise to American's with your parochial opinions on UHC is to pull your ideological head in and learn from the practical mistakes and streamlined methods of others. I've lived under a US system, Australia one in the 70's, they also had the same doomsday communist crap from mass-media propogandists when they switched to UHC.
The Australian UHC system is clearly cheaper and better quality than what you have in the US, so much so that for the last couple of decades it consistently polls 80+% favorable support amoungst voters. This is not to say that the system is beyond improvement but even suggesting a return to a US style system will end an Aussie politician's career pretty dammned quick.
An effective UHC system means you can still pay a private premium to get fake tit's and the fat sucked out of your arse in a private room while EVERYONE else has equal access to "world class care" for serious/preventative health issues, and last but not least NOBODY goes bankrupt paying for it.
I agree the USA had "the best system in the world" but that was back in the 60's, since then the prevalent "red's under the bed" parionia in the US has put a suffocating layer of admin over it that is so busy spending money on red tape to work out who pays for what that they have lost sight of the system's purpose.
"Correlation is not causation." - If I had points I'd mod you funny.
None of the surgery you listed above is for life-threatening illness. I have been to a UK hospital while on holiday, walked in off the street and was attended to in 20 minutes. Australia and the UK have an agreement to treat each others tourists for "free". The antibiotics I was given were also "free".
USA (with no insurance/cash): waiting time for any treatment = the rest of your life.
"MEP Daniel Hannan said in early August..."
Your offering sound bites from obscure opposition MP's as hard evidence? - surely your post is a joke, as is your health system.
BTW: The US exports more health tourists than it imports, Mexico and India are the main destinations, cost is the main motivator.
Nice boogy-man stories but look at any reputable stats, such WHO's Age-standardized mortality rate for non-communicable diseases (per 100 000 population), and it's clear which system has the most horror stories attached to it.
Australia 362
Canada 388
United Kingdom 434
United States of America 460
Out of the above four nations, the US has the most expensive health system on a per capita basis, and gets the lowest quality care in return. Conflating Stalin with health care over the last 40yrs has done the US a great diservice by way of the ideologically convoluted health "system" it has created.
"Driving in such a way that you are likely to seriously hurt or kill someone does not in itself attract a severe penalty, given the potential consequences of those actions."
Mobile phone usage attracts an on the spot fine here, drink driving is not tolerated and the cops regularly set up roadblocks for random testing, punishment is handed out by a magistrate, it varies but typically it would be something like..
1st offence - no license for a year or so and a big fine
2nd offence - tear up your license, turn out your pockets and a good behaviour bond.
3rd offence - mandatory jail, time 3+ months.
If you do lose your license for DD it's likely you will have to be re-educated and have to pass a court ordered drink driving course to get it back, not to mention your insurance premium going thru the roof.
"rather controversial in the UK in recent years, following a string of court cases where people walked out with what amounted to a slap on the wrist after negligently killing someone. New laws are planned"
Statistically Victoria's has been a world leader in reducing the road toll. The DD laws came to be when we had a similar string of "wrist slaps" in the early 80's. Their campaigns have been remarkably successful.
Our registration fee includes compulsory third party insurance, when the DD laws were introduced it saved the state government billions in TAC payouts in the first couple of years. In effect the TAC had been "too successfull" and there was a huge political stink when the government took the savings from the TAC and put them into consolidated revenue.
...but yeah, we use it because it works.
"How could "God" know something to be true if there was no way to know it?"
Same way that the GP knows god exists - wishfull thinking. Wishfull thinking allows you to create whatever universe takes your fancy. A univesre created from wishfull thinking does not have to be consistent, it can be anything you want.
I'm not sure why so many people use wishfull thinking to create a universe were every detail of life is watched and controlled by a celestial dungeon daddy. However it does fit nicely with using a human sacrafice on a cross as a scapegoat for your sins because both allow you to ignore what critical thinkers call "personal responsibility".
"Personal responsibility" can make you feel bad, so for example if you're feeling bad about screwing your sister-in-law it's probably due to "personal responsibility" (or you got caught). However if you are a wishfull thinker you don't have to stop to feel good, you just have to admit your sins to god (who already knows anyway) and the bad feelings will go away. Oh wait....my sister-in-law is gourgeous......that can't be right,...I think I just demonstrated that religion is usefull, Nooooooooo!!!!
*you - not you personally.
AKAIK negligent/intoxicated driving that results in a death attracts a charge of manslaghter here in Oz, I suspect it would in the UK also.
"Once you've hit someone while being distracted or intoxicated..."
...it's too late for justice, all your left with is heartfelt remorse and state sponsered revenge.
"My ideal system for dealing with texting / drinking / $distraction..."
I don't understand your problem with what amounts to a stupidity tax but my ideal would be to install a jamming device into the cars of people caught using a mobile, at their own expense of course.
I like that theory! To summarise - The social interaction in a car uses different unspoken rules to those found in a lounge room, which are different again to those used on a phone. Swapping contexts is dangerous because the brain starts unconsiously using the wrong attention pattern for driving.
I used to work the night shift and when driving home one summers night under a bright moon a spider leapt from the visor on a single silk thread. It paused for maybe a second in front of my face, just long enough for me to focus and regognise what it was. I could swear I saw a tiny smirk before it abruptly absailed down through my open overalls and into the croutch region.
I spent my youth working in the Aussie bush, spiders don't bother me. However the surprise factor of seeing it hover and then dive into my jocks brought me very close to my own distracted driver pile up.
Speaking of the bush, seeing a cow rolling over the roof of the car in front that's doing 100+km/hr is a whole different level of distraction!
I can talk to hands free, I can talk to a passenger but a mobile to my ear is down right dangerous and I stopped doing it of my own accord in the nineties. I found myself unconsiously averting my eyes upwards when I had to think about what was being said on the mobile. I don't know why a mobile is worse, perhaps it's a pavlov dog thing since when you have a phone to your ear you are normally trying to block out your surroundings.
/old_fart_anecdote
Having said that, talking to a passenger is an experience thing, you have to learn how to ignore the social imperitive to engage with the person you are talking to, beginers universally suck at this particular skill. If you have ever tried to teach your kids to drive you will know what I mean.
MOD the GP informative! And here's my $0.02.