It boggles the mind why consumers want the gummint (or the automakers) to enforce standards they could easily support by voting with their wallet. Don't want a 300 horsepower land yacht? Don't buy one. If enough people don't buy one Detroit will stop making them;-)
Sorry, that would only work in the wonderland of informed customers that can actually make their own decisions. In reality, marketing decides what the consumer should buy, and the consumer complies in pretty much every case (see Vista). And right now, marketing wants the consumer to buy big heavy gas-guzzlers, because they can be made cheaply with yesterdays technology, thereby maximizing profits.
Suggestive, emotional, manipulative marketing is as much of a threat to the free market as any government regulation, since it intends to override the customers freedom to make a sensible, rational decision when purchasing.
It is only ze Germans who have the misunderstanding zat small means cheap and have abandoned that sector
Well, Audi had the most expensive small car (the A2), which consistently gets top scores in reliability and was available in a 75 mpg version. Too few buyers, though - not many people are willing to spend 15kEu on a small car, so they stopped manufacturing it.
And then of course there's the Smart ForTwo, ForFour, and Roadster, the Mercedes A-Class, the BMW 1 series, the Opel Corsa, the Ford Fiesta and Ka, the Audi A3...
If you line up Golf 1,2,3,4,5 next to each other you get a strong deja vu feeling.
No no no. They're just trying to sell the guy who bought a Golf 30 years ago a car that has what he needs now (space for a family) under the same name.
People who would have been Golf customers 30 years ago will nowadays buy a Polo.
Is it just me, or are humans getting better and better at science as time progresses?
No, we are just able to built on the foundations that have been laid over last couple of thousand years.
Personally, I believe that we're slowly getting worse at science, relying more and more on technology than the raw power of our brains. If you look at how much the scientists in the 19th and early 20th century accomplished with how little technology (or how much mathematicians accomplished in even earlier centuries), it certainly seems so.
They have to meet FCC Part 15 and other international standards, just like any other device.
Sorry, but you seem to be unaware that the FCC has exactly zero to do with pacemakers.
Heck. Even ECGs (that are fully compliant to FDA/AAMI specs) can affect pacemakers (which are also completely compliant to any regulations), simply because there is no rule about things like what frequency a certain device may use to measure respiration (it's done by measuring the impedance across the chest at a certain frequency in the 10's of kHz range, using a few hundred nA of current). Pacemaker and ECG are using the same frequency ? You're in trouble.
I had worked with computers for years and would never have though of doing it that way.
That's because computers and heavy machinery differ in one important point: If you cut the power to a computer, it's safe. Yeah, maybe it'll lose data, take days to get back up again, or even break the hardware, but it'll stop sparking and/or electrocuting the guy who stuck the screwdriver in the wrong place.
If you just cut the power to heavy machinery, bad things happen. People can get maimed, killed, or it can become impossible to recover severed body parts from the inside of the machine. The thing needs power long enough to enter a safe state where power can be cut safely without causing bad things to happen.
I've stayed in a college dorm, where the handles of the fire alarms and fire extinguishers had been painted with an odd silvery metallic powder. The powder reacts with water to produce blue ink.
Blue _ink_ ? Silver nitrate is the only way to go for this purpose.
I've also heard of a situation that went like this:
Hey, thanks to progress, no more janitors are required for this situation. Just use Windows, which will under certain circumstances perform a reboot at 3 a.m.
They're very anal about documenting frickin' _everything_, generating _huge_ amounts of paper. While one sheet of paper might burn nicely, burning several _tons_ of the stuff is a different matter altogether.
If you can't get individual coverage, you go with a group policy. Most people go through their employer, who pays for a portion of it.
So if I want to be self-employed (isn't running your own business something that many Americans would find desirable?) I'm outta luck as far as health insurance goes. Aww shucks.
Here, the public carriers can't kick me out. Unless I'm intentionally switching to a private carrier (which won't happen, since these guys don't want me), they're stuck with me. They might charge me 600 Euros a months, but if I ever decide to become self-employed, it's hopefully because it means that I'll make so much money that 600 Euros a month will be chump change.
Of course, most self-employed who are "insurable" will switch to a private carrier since that's cheaper unless they have a lot of kids, and brings some minor benefits (like being able to get a single room at the hospital, or coverage even outside of Europe (but some carriers specifically exclude the US - it's a real bummer to find that out after you've had emergency heart surgery over there, since the bill will just give you another heart attack)).
The planet lacks a sufficient mass for holding an Earth-like atmosphere.
Actually, lack of a magnetic field similar in strength to Earths is also a big issue.
You can terra-form all you want, pump loads of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen into that atmosphere... it's just going to be lost on the solar wind.
This is a veeeeeery slow process, though. It would take a couple of million years (really, that's nothing on a planetary timescale) for an atmosphere similar to Earths on Mars to get blown away into space.
Who knows. Maybe one day we can drill a hole from pole to pole on Mars and stick a big frickin' magnet through there. That should keep the solar wind out.
Maybe we might even be able to hit it with a couple of Nickel-Iron meteorites to increase its mass.
But what would be the cost of actually bringing that material back to Earth?
Why spend money on something that makes the material worth less ? If you care about space exploration, then any amount of somewhat-refined material that's not sitting in Earths gravity well is worth a lot more than anything that is.
We develop more new drugs than all of you combined.
... most of which are about treating ED and suppressing various psychological disorders. Or so it seems. Because you can make the most money off those.
You know when someone goes into an emergency room for health care we bill them, no credit check or anything. They get the treatment they need. Nobody dies, and they don't have to pay.
However, if there's only a remote chance of getting any money out of them, they're gonna be billed to kingdom come.
My health care costs $95 per month, my employer doesn't pay a cent.
And I guess you're young, healthy, and probably male, and coverage doesn't extend to your spouse or kids (if you have any of thise). Consider yourself lucky. You can get coverage like that over here, too, provided that you fulfill the above requirements. And the docs are going to kiss your ass since they make more money off privately insured patients. That doesn't help us uninsurables. Your healthcare provider would probably kick me out of the building if I dared to apply for insurance with them.
On the drug issue alone, your national health care plan won't pay for the most advanced drugs, isn't that cold and inhumane?
Dunno. The breast cancer patients I know are getting their 500Eu worth of Arimidex every month.
The problem with a national health care system is greed.
Nope. There are very simple ways to fix this. Even a minimal (10 Euros) co-pay will keep people from going to the doc for the stupidest shit. Why ? Because people are greedy. They're not going to pay 10 Euros if they know they only have stupid shit.
or because your back hurts,
If your back hurts (and keeps hurting), then by all means go to the doctor. Back issues are one of the leading causes of occupational disability.
Sure, you can sue your doctor, but only for your actual damages. Surgeon sews you up with a sponge inside? Sure, you can sue, but only for the cost to remove the sponge and treat any infection (unlikely, since those sponges are sterile).
And what about other costs ? Not being able to work for a while after the second operation, for example ?
Also, that sponge is far from harmless. People have died from stuff like that.
If you earn more than a certain amount or are self-employed then you must take out private insurance.
No. You can also choose to remain in the public insurance system. Only if you opt out of it, you will need to take out private insurance. That's very nice for us "uninsurables". If I even asked for private health insurance, they'd probably treat me as if I had just set a nice fat tarantula on their desk after reading the "preexisting conditions" section of the questionaire.
Invite all your friends to dinner, and most will have burgers instead of steak. Agree to split the bill equally, and a few will order steak, but pay less for their share. Eventually, everyone will want steak, and they'll wonder why no one can afford dinner.
If that's the American definition of "friend", then I don't want any of those.
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You're not going to stand much of chance against one of those unless you're sitting in one yourself, or better yet, in a tank.
It is their responsiblity to prevent morons from killing me off - or at least stay out of my way while I take care of it myself.
Sorry, that would only work in the wonderland of informed customers that can actually make their own decisions. In reality, marketing decides what the consumer should buy, and the consumer complies in pretty much every case (see Vista). And right now, marketing wants the consumer to buy big heavy gas-guzzlers, because they can be made cheaply with yesterdays technology, thereby maximizing profits.
Suggestive, emotional, manipulative marketing is as much of a threat to the free market as any government regulation, since it intends to override the customers freedom to make a sensible, rational decision when purchasing.
Well, Audi had the most expensive small car (the A2), which consistently gets top scores in reliability and was available in a 75 mpg version. Too few buyers, though - not many people are willing to spend 15kEu on a small car, so they stopped manufacturing it.
And then of course there's the Smart ForTwo, ForFour, and Roadster, the Mercedes A-Class, the BMW 1 series, the Opel Corsa, the Ford Fiesta and Ka, the Audi A3
No no no. They're just trying to sell the guy who bought a Golf 30 years ago a car that has what he needs now (space for a family) under the same name.
People who would have been Golf customers 30 years ago will nowadays buy a Polo.
No, we are just able to built on the foundations that have been laid over last couple of thousand years.
Personally, I believe that we're slowly getting worse at science, relying more and more on technology than the raw power of our brains. If you look at how much the scientists in the 19th and early 20th century accomplished with how little technology (or how much mathematicians accomplished in even earlier centuries), it certainly seems so.
Sorry, but you seem to be unaware that the FCC has exactly zero to do with pacemakers.
Heck. Even ECGs (that are fully compliant to FDA/AAMI specs) can affect pacemakers (which are also completely compliant to any regulations), simply because there is no rule about things like what frequency a certain device may use to measure respiration (it's done by measuring the impedance across the chest at a certain frequency in the 10's of kHz range, using a few hundred nA of current). Pacemaker and ECG are using the same frequency ? You're in trouble.
That's because computers and heavy machinery differ in one important point: If you cut the power to a computer, it's safe. Yeah, maybe it'll lose data, take days to get back up again, or even break the hardware, but it'll stop sparking and/or electrocuting the guy who stuck the screwdriver in the wrong place.
If you just cut the power to heavy machinery, bad things happen. People can get maimed, killed, or it can become impossible to recover severed body parts from the inside of the machine. The thing needs power long enough to enter a safe state where power can be cut safely without causing bad things to happen.
Blue _ink_ ? Silver nitrate is the only way to go for this purpose.
Hey, thanks to progress, no more janitors are required for this situation. Just use Windows, which will under certain circumstances perform a reboot at 3 a.m.
They're very anal about documenting frickin' _everything_, generating _huge_ amounts of paper. While one sheet of paper might burn nicely, burning several _tons_ of the stuff is a different matter altogether.
That pretty much applies in any case.
2) you are aware of their overreaction,
i.e. you're aware that you're now a terrorist suspect.
3) you fail to tell them that it is not a real emergency.
Why should they believe a stinkin' terrorist ?
He's just allergic to BS.
You need to be hit with the clue stick about how the insurance industry works.
Try finding health insurance without answering questions on preexisting conditions. Good luck, you'll need it.
If you have certain conditions, the insurance companies (all of them) don't want you. You're undesirable.
So if I want to be self-employed (isn't running your own business something that many Americans would find desirable?) I'm outta luck as far as health insurance goes. Aww shucks.
Here, the public carriers can't kick me out. Unless I'm intentionally switching to a private carrier (which won't happen, since these guys don't want me), they're stuck with me. They might charge me 600 Euros a months, but if I ever decide to become self-employed, it's hopefully because it means that I'll make so much money that 600 Euros a month will be chump change.
Of course, most self-employed who are "insurable" will switch to a private carrier since that's cheaper unless they have a lot of kids, and brings some minor benefits (like being able to get a single room at the hospital, or coverage even outside of Europe (but some carriers specifically exclude the US - it's a real bummer to find that out after you've had emergency heart surgery over there, since the bill will just give you another heart attack)).
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Actually, lack of a magnetic field similar in strength to Earths is also a big issue.
You can terra-form all you want, pump loads of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen into that atmosphere... it's just going to be lost on the solar wind.
This is a veeeeeery slow process, though. It would take a couple of million years (really, that's nothing on a planetary timescale) for an atmosphere similar to Earths on Mars to get blown away into space.
Who knows. Maybe one day we can drill a hole from pole to pole on Mars and stick a big frickin' magnet through there. That should keep the solar wind out.
Maybe we might even be able to hit it with a couple of Nickel-Iron meteorites to increase its mass.
Why spend money on something that makes the material worth less ? If you care about space exploration, then any amount of somewhat-refined material that's not sitting in Earths gravity well is worth a lot more than anything that is.
You know when someone goes into an emergency room for health care we bill them, no credit check or anything. They get the treatment they need. Nobody dies, and they don't have to pay.
However, if there's only a remote chance of getting any money out of them, they're gonna be billed to kingdom come.
My health care costs $95 per month, my employer doesn't pay a cent.
And I guess you're young, healthy, and probably male, and coverage doesn't extend to your spouse or kids (if you have any of thise). Consider yourself lucky. You can get coverage like that over here, too, provided that you fulfill the above requirements. And the docs are going to kiss your ass since they make more money off privately insured patients. That doesn't help us uninsurables. Your healthcare provider would probably kick me out of the building if I dared to apply for insurance with them.
On the drug issue alone, your national health care plan won't pay for the most advanced drugs, isn't that cold and inhumane?
Dunno. The breast cancer patients I know are getting their 500Eu worth of Arimidex every month.
The problem with a national health care system is greed.
Nope. There are very simple ways to fix this. Even a minimal (10 Euros) co-pay will keep people from going to the doc for the stupidest shit. Why ? Because people are greedy. They're not going to pay 10 Euros if they know they only have stupid shit.
or because your back hurts,
If your back hurts (and keeps hurting), then by all means go to the doctor. Back issues are one of the leading causes of occupational disability.
If the bank owns all the money which that someone spends, sure. He's living in poverty and has idiotic spending habits, but has a nicer TV than you.
Hahaha. If you think that that sets off red flags, imagine what happens if you write "spinal cord tumor" in the "preexisting conditions" field.
And what about other costs ? Not being able to work for a while after the second operation, for example ?
Also, that sponge is far from harmless. People have died from stuff like that.
No. You can also choose to remain in the public insurance system. Only if you opt out of it, you will need to take out private insurance. That's very nice for us "uninsurables". If I even asked for private health insurance, they'd probably treat me as if I had just set a nice fat tarantula on their desk after reading the "preexisting conditions" section of the questionaire.
If that's the American definition of "friend", then I don't want any of those.
Yeah, and the Romans thought he was a troublemaker (aka terrorist) and tortured and executed him.
Hammers are dangerous.