So, I go in and this good ol' American dentist says yep you waitied too long. It looks like you're going to need a root canal. It'll cost about $1300. I can do it this week...
and
Well sure enough, I went back to Taiwan and had my root canal for thirty bucks.
Yes, health care in US (incl. dental) is expensive. It's still good though. Some basic or common procedures can be done, with the same quality, elsewhere in the world for much less. It's the specialized procedures that US health care excel in. I think that's what the parent of your post wanted to say. Also you're talking about situations where you have to foot the bill out of your pocket entirely. If you have insurance (and most working people do), the payments will not be that painful.
The main reason it's so expensive in the US is not that is so much better than anywhere else, but the risk of ligitation. Americans are very "sue happy" (all these lawyers must make their living). Any smallest mistake by a doctor, and he's sued for millions. Doctors to protect themselves against such ligitations buy expensive insurances. Insurance companies want to make a profit, so anytime they pay these outrageous amounts, they increase their premiums. Doctors have to pay more to cover themselves, and since money has to come from somewhere, the bill you receive from doctors is higher. This process repeats itself, until we get the ridiculous prices that we have today. I was once told that a doctor actually receives only about 2% of the hospital bill that a patient pays, which is wrong.
Another thing: don't judge the whole system by one dentist. He might have been a jerk, maybe he wasn't very good. The point is: you do have a choice (you can change dentist), and the overall level of health care in US is very high.
yes, I second that. I used greetings.com and filled in my email address so I would be notified when the recipient opened her greeting card. I made sure to uncheck each and every so called "offer" before submitting the card. Guess what happened: I started to receive 100+ spam email a day. Today its over 200/day. I seldom check this account nowadays.
Capitalism is about providing people what they want...
Isn't that the definition of freedom?
...Democracy is about providing them what they NEED.
Ah, but you're assuming there is a higher body who will fulfill my needs. And who is to decide what you and I need? The government???
It's like the analogy with a wild and domestic animal: a wild animal lives in a dangerous environment, never know if he'll find food, depends on his survivor skills. But he's FREE to create the environment that fits him.
The domestic animal is kept warm and dry, never hungry, but totally dependent on his owner (human being). Now this if the owner takes care of him. If the owner is neglective and/or abusive... different story
There are risks associated with freedom, you know...
Don't know about you, I prefer to be free and take care of myself, than to have someone else "taking care" of me.
sales tax which is an unfair system, because the same $20 shirt with tax is still $20 whether you make $5000 a year or $500,000 a year.
The idea of sales tax (as opposed to income tax) is to create an incentive to save, as opposed to spend. One of the many tax reform proposals said to eliminate income tax altogether, and having a higher sales tax. This way you would keep all you make (an incentive to earn more), but have to think twice about what you want to spend your earnings on.
In your example above, why should my income decide how much I pay for a shirt? Nonsense.
When a pager beeps or vibrates, you can (depending on the model) just look at the top screen as its clipped to your waist to see the number, your hand doesn't have to touch the pager.
I haven't used a pager for several years now, but I remember I had to press a confirm button for it to stop paging. If I didn't it would keep paging forever, several pages every minute, or every 3 minutes or something. Similar to a clock radio.
Samsung already has. They may not have intended it but mine has been accidently soaked in booze more times than I care to (or can) remember.
Reminds me of my old Nokia (don't remember which model). I dropped it in snow once unintentionally while walking the dog. I found it several hours later by taking my wife's phone, and calling myself. I've seen a cool green glow from under the snow, no problems there.
On another occasion I dropped it into my coffee cup (half full). It stopped working for a day, then after it dried out, it worked as if nothing has happened.
I swear to god, if my eyes roll any harder, they're going to fall out of my head.
Really, considering the near-symmetric encompassment of your sockets around your eyes, and the juicy friction-reducing fluid your eyes are lubricated with, I fail to see how any angular momentum of your eyeballs would result in translational motion away from your head.
Yes, this is exactly the type of reply I would expect here on/.
1. The quality that makes something laughable or
amusing; funniness: could not see the humor of the situation.
2. That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
3. The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express
what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd.
One and two apply to the original post, three is what you are lacking.
I agree with this. But this should be moderated as Insightful and NOT funny!
I just can't imagine this not giving the user a pounding headache after a few hours.
Agreed. After watching this picture (the 3D one) just for a few seconds, I got a "tired" feeling in my eyes, and had to look somewhere else. Similar to when watching CRT TV at very close distance. And this was just a small picture. Can't imagine watching whole screen of this stuff, not to mention for hours.
Maybe this technology will improve in the future, or maybe our brains/eyes will adapt, but for now it just doesn't seem like ready to use technology. Did they perform any tests on people using this technology for hours at time?
Surely it is nothing more than an arrow directing your co-workers in the direction of your genitalia.
I'm not sure what this says about people who wear bowties...
Programmers tend to have delayed-phase sleep syndrome (which means we like to stay up late).
People who are delayed-phase, tend to migrate toward those jobs they can do at late hours and don't have to wake up at a specific time to do them.
That is certainly true. But why is that a bad thing (I got the impression you stated is as such)? I'm much more productive during late hours, and I still get things done. I think in this context (the original poster's question), it really doesn't matter if you are delayed-phase or not. The only problem would be if he were expected to be most productive in the mornings, which doesn't seem to be the case.
one good exercise way to learn about relaxation and willpower is martial arts.
I second that. Martial arts will give you a healthy dose of workout (if done on regular basis), teach you about relaxation, and also strengthen your "inner self", your mind and spirit. All this will help you a lot with concentration, and having things done in general.
Thanks to globalization, the middle class will find themselves increasingly distanced from the wealthy.
Uhm, wrong. Thanks to globalization the middle class across the globe will grow. We're right now in a transition period, where some of the wealth is exported to poorer countries. Nothing wrong with that. Some of the middle class here will feel a pinch for a while, but heck, we're all professionals: have you considered retraining, specializing, or even (gasp!) opening your own business instead of bitching about lack of jobs?
Our lifestyle is way above those countries (to which jobs are outsourced) anyway, and will remain so for some time. In the long run, their middle class will grow, as well as their economies, and everyone will benefit. The market will just increase.
Think long term and look at the whole picture instead. So yes, the free ride's over, but the impact on economy this will bring is quite positive, I must say (again, in the long term).
It's a question that's been bothering me for a while: why the stories from Australia? I mean, if you watch "regular" world news, Australia is practically NEVER on the news radar. Last time I remember it being mentioned is when the list of countries supporting US war on Iraq was listed.
And yet, on/. Australia appears if not daily, then certainly several times a week (usually censorship, ISP, firewalls, etc. stories). So what gives? Here's a few of my theories:
1. There's a very active Australian/. submitter out there,
2. Australia has a very oppressive government which tries various things to control/censor its citizens,
3. CowboyNeal (and/or Hemos and/or some other/. editor) thinks Australia is just another US state...
You can do your part by making sure that Freenet is also used for downloading music!
Funny this got modded as interesting. Although there is a point (Chinese government really ignores music/movies piracy), I really think the poster tried to be ironic/funny.
I was always hoping that there would be another community to come along that was about the same size...
I've seen this types of posts ("Ah, those were the days") before, not only here, but on other discussion forums as well. What can I say? stuff changes, accept it. In this case, why is growing of/. considered a Bad Thing?
Sometimes I wonder who it is they hire to work at the USPTO.
Back in the days, they patent office used to have Einstein, and the likes on staff. Since he got transfered to Princeton to become a physics professor, things only got worse...
Still... I can understand measuring the continental drift over time, since various portions of land are moving relatively to each other. But "tilting"? Could it be that instead of the GB island tilting, the GPS angle of attack (so to speak) changed slightly making the appearance of the island tilt?
So f.ex: if I look at a distant object, and the object moves I can detect that. But if I move left or right, I will look at the object from slightly different angle. If I didn't know that I moved, I would think that the object "tilted" one way or the other.
And besides, don't you have to measure it for a long period of time (at least a couple of decades, if not centuries) to even notice this kind of movement? If the land "moved" fast enough to measure over a period of one year, that would be certainly a worrisome event for people living there.
Slashdot Mirror
So, I go in and this good ol' American dentist says yep you waitied too long. It looks like you're going to need a root canal. It'll cost about $1300. I can do it this week...
and
Well sure enough, I went back to Taiwan and had my root canal for thirty bucks.
Yes, health care in US (incl. dental) is expensive. It's still good though. Some basic or common procedures can be done, with the same quality, elsewhere in the world for much less. It's the specialized procedures that US health care excel in. I think that's what the parent of your post wanted to say. Also you're talking about situations where you have to foot the bill out of your pocket entirely. If you have insurance (and most working people do), the payments will not be that painful.
The main reason it's so expensive in the US is not that is so much better than anywhere else, but the risk of ligitation. Americans are very "sue happy" (all these lawyers must make their living). Any smallest mistake by a doctor, and he's sued for millions. Doctors to protect themselves against such ligitations buy expensive insurances. Insurance companies want to make a profit, so anytime they pay these outrageous amounts, they increase their premiums. Doctors have to pay more to cover themselves, and since money has to come from somewhere, the bill you receive from doctors is higher. This process repeats itself, until we get the ridiculous prices that we have today. I was once told that a doctor actually receives only about 2% of the hospital bill that a patient pays, which is wrong.
Another thing: don't judge the whole system by one dentist. He might have been a jerk, maybe he wasn't very good. The point is: you do have a choice (you can change dentist), and the overall level of health care in US is very high.
use online greeting card companies
yes, I second that. I used greetings.com and filled in my email address so I would be notified when the recipient opened her greeting card. I made sure to uncheck each and every so called "offer" before submitting the card. Guess what happened: I started to receive 100+ spam email a day. Today its over 200/day. I seldom check this account nowadays.
Capitalism is about providing people what they want...
...Democracy is about providing them what they NEED.
Isn't that the definition of freedom?
Ah, but you're assuming there is a higher body who will fulfill my needs. And who is to decide what you and I need? The government???
It's like the analogy with a wild and domestic animal: a wild animal lives in a dangerous environment, never know if he'll find food, depends on his survivor skills. But he's FREE to create the environment that fits him.
The domestic animal is kept warm and dry, never hungry, but totally dependent on his owner (human being). Now this if the owner takes care of him. If the owner is neglective and/or abusive... different story
There are risks associated with freedom, you know...
Don't know about you, I prefer to be free and take care of myself, than to have someone else "taking care" of me.
sales tax which is an unfair system, because the same $20 shirt with tax is still $20 whether you make $5000 a year or $500,000 a year.
The idea of sales tax (as opposed to income tax) is to create an incentive to save, as opposed to spend. One of the many tax reform proposals said to eliminate income tax altogether, and having a higher sales tax. This way you would keep all you make (an incentive to earn more), but have to think twice about what you want to spend your earnings on.
In your example above, why should my income decide how much I pay for a shirt? Nonsense.
This is fear-based ratings pandering by the source.
And in geek style I read it as:
This is fear-based ratings pandering by The Force.
When a pager beeps or vibrates, you can (depending on the model) just look at the top screen as its clipped to your waist to see the number, your hand doesn't have to touch the pager.
I haven't used a pager for several years now, but I remember I had to press a confirm button for it to stop paging. If I didn't it would keep paging forever, several pages every minute, or every 3 minutes or something. Similar to a clock radio.
Samsung already has. They may not have intended it but mine has been accidently soaked in booze more times than I care to (or can) remember.
Reminds me of my old Nokia (don't remember which model). I dropped it in snow once unintentionally while walking the dog. I found it several hours later by taking my wife's phone, and calling myself. I've seen a cool green glow from under the snow, no problems there.
On another occasion I dropped it into my coffee cup (half full). It stopped working for a day, then after it dried out, it worked as if nothing has happened.
I swear to god, if my eyes roll any harder, they're going to fall out of my head.
/.
Really, considering the near-symmetric encompassment of your sockets around your eyes, and the juicy friction-reducing fluid your eyes are lubricated with, I fail to see how any angular momentum of your eyeballs would result in translational motion away from your head.
Yes, this is exactly the type of reply I would expect here on
Keep it up guys!
1. The quality that makes something laughable or amusing; funniness: could not see the humor of the situation.
2. That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
3. The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd.
One and two apply to the original post, three is what you are lacking.
I agree with this. But this should be moderated as Insightful and NOT funny!
I just can't imagine this not giving the user a pounding headache after a few hours.
Agreed. After watching this picture (the 3D one) just for a few seconds, I got a "tired" feeling in my eyes, and had to look somewhere else. Similar to when watching CRT TV at very close distance. And this was just a small picture. Can't imagine watching whole screen of this stuff, not to mention for hours.
Maybe this technology will improve in the future, or maybe our brains/eyes will adapt, but for now it just doesn't seem like ready to use technology. Did they perform any tests on people using this technology for hours at time?
Surely it is nothing more than an arrow directing your co-workers in the direction of your genitalia.
I'm not sure what this says about people who wear bowties...
hmmm... "look around, nothing's here"
It would be interesting to find out what portion of /. readers where ties regularly...
OK, repeat after me:
where as in "what location",
(to) wear as in "having clothes on",
and were as in past "is" or "to be".
so please try to be correct, how in heck would I understand this:
Where were you yesterday in that wear?
I rarely were pants...
So you were being pants once... I heard about a guy claiming being shoes once, but pants it's a first.
This is going to be the next "In Soviet Russia," isn't it?
yes, it goes:
In Soviet Russia telemarketer calls You!
Oh, wait...
Programmer_In_Training (just too lazy to log in)
or too afraid to offend someone...
Gee, I must be bored or something...:)
Programmers tend to have delayed-phase sleep syndrome (which means we like to stay up late). People who are delayed-phase, tend to migrate toward those jobs they can do at late hours and don't have to wake up at a specific time to do them.
That is certainly true. But why is that a bad thing (I got the impression you stated is as such)? I'm much more productive during late hours, and I still get things done. I think in this context (the original poster's question), it really doesn't matter if you are delayed-phase or not. The only problem would be if he were expected to be most productive in the mornings, which doesn't seem to be the case.
one good exercise way to learn about relaxation and willpower is martial arts.
I second that. Martial arts will give you a healthy dose of workout (if done on regular basis), teach you about relaxation, and also strengthen your "inner self", your mind and spirit. All this will help you a lot with concentration, and having things done in general.
when slashdot gets boring...
What! Slashot gets boring sometimes???
You're only part time geek, aren't you?
Thanks to globalization, the middle class will find themselves increasingly distanced from the wealthy.
Uhm, wrong. Thanks to globalization the middle class across the globe will grow. We're right now in a transition period, where some of the wealth is exported to poorer countries. Nothing wrong with that. Some of the middle class here will feel a pinch for a while, but heck, we're all professionals: have you considered retraining, specializing, or even (gasp!) opening your own business instead of bitching about lack of jobs?
Our lifestyle is way above those countries (to which jobs are outsourced) anyway, and will remain so for some time. In the long run, their middle class will grow, as well as their economies, and everyone will benefit. The market will just increase.
Think long term and look at the whole picture instead. So yes, the free ride's over, but the impact on economy this will bring is quite positive, I must say (again, in the long term).
And yet, on
You can do your part by making sure that Freenet is also used for downloading music!
Funny this got modded as interesting. Although there is a point (Chinese government really ignores music/movies piracy), I really think the poster tried to be ironic/funny.
previous poster: ;)
/. considered a Bad Thing?
Its been downhill ever since
and:
I was always hoping that there would be another community to come along that was about the same size...
I've seen this types of posts ("Ah, those were the days") before, not only here, but on other discussion forums as well. What can I say? stuff changes, accept it. In this case, why is growing of
Sometimes I wonder who it is they hire to work at the USPTO.
Back in the days, they patent office used to have Einstein, and the likes on staff. Since he got transfered to Princeton to become a physics professor, things only got worse...
Still... I can understand measuring the continental drift over time, since various portions of land are moving relatively to each other. But "tilting"? Could it be that instead of the GB island tilting, the GPS angle of attack (so to speak) changed slightly making the appearance of the island tilt?
So f.ex: if I look at a distant object, and the object moves I can detect that. But if I move left or right, I will look at the object from slightly different angle. If I didn't know that I moved, I would think that the object "tilted" one way or the other.
And besides, don't you have to measure it for a long period of time (at least a couple of decades, if not centuries) to even notice this kind of movement? If the land "moved" fast enough to measure over a period of one year, that would be certainly a worrisome event for people living there.