Uh, did that last thread fill up awfully fast? It was like strange creatures ripping up through the floorboards and shredding the populace, which is how the rest of the web sees us, anyway.
I guess I need to make like Doug McClure and get these crazy comments under control.
And I agree with Alan K, what’s next ??
Well, a misfortune that could have been much worse.So let’s be happy that it wasn’t !
On Medical Treatment
MEdical dramas to the contrary, it’s easier to restore your credit rating than it is to bring you back from the dead. The finances can always be worked out.
Now universal catastrophic care I do support, and transient ischemic events quality as catastrophic events.
Rorschach:
No, no free treatment. I could have gone to the emergency room, and yes, they would have treated me. But then they would have billed me until there was nothing left of me. The leading cause of bankruptcy for individuals in the USA is medical bills.
My brother did talk to my usual doctor’s partner (a general practitioner, and the guy on call), and that doctor decided from my symptoms, as described over the phone, that I was unlikely to die if I didn’t go to the emergency room, but that I should go if it occurred again. He advised seeing the doctor as soon as possible in the coming week. He would have liked to have seen a bunch of tests done.
Sorry to seem obtuse – my post crossed with your’s!
I am no expert in all of this but just as a thought …
If you went to a doctor over here I am sure you would be considered for anticoagulants, such as Warfarin. These need routine monitoring at a frequency depending on a range of factors (typically every 1, 2 or 3 weeks with a machine available at my local surgery).
Warfarin carries its own set of risks. I am currently on Warfarin to reduce the risk of clots if my heart goes out of rhythm again.
An alternative would be low-dose aspirin. Over here “normal” aspirin tablets (i.e. Aspirin B.P.) are 300 mg. 75 mg tablets are also available (i.e. ¼ dose) and these are used on as a precaution.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anti-platelets-aspirin-low-dose-/Pages/Introduction.aspx
I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I HAVE NO SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE AREA OTHER THAN AS AN INTERESTED PATIENT.
However, since you are concerned about cost (understandably) you might wish to consider this as a possibility but you will need to consider if there are any contra-indications.
PLEASE do not take my word for it. Read up about it yourself and get proper advice.
Lyanna, 497
Smell different? Probably stress. Dogs and cats it seems can pick up our moods from how we smell.
Please remember that you had what used to be called a stroke. A minor, transient stroke, but a stroke. No matter how a blood vessel got blocked, it got blocked and nerves downstream of it were denied oxygen and nutrients. I have read about how the body starts routing blood around the blockage from the moment the clot occurs, going so far as to grow new blood vessels, but even when the blockage occurs in a capillary — as appears to be the case in your situation — routing around the clot can take time. Which means you are going to lose neurons, and the memories, skills, and capabilities you once had. I really haven’t noticed what my stroke did to my coordination, but a good neurologist could spot the stroke related damage in my case.
Ask your doctor about a neurologist referral, and work out the finances with his staff. It means going short for a bit, then you go short for a bit.
Or, you could write a tell all about Pharyngulites and post it on the web. I know a couple of people who’ve written on web-published books and raised a decent amount of cash that way. One of them is the author David Freer, who has raised the money to bring the family pets to Australia. Another (spaced her name) is about to have her book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland on a Boat of Her Own Making published in hard cover.
Not the only way to make money, but since you write well here I figure you’ll get an audience on the Web. And I’ll help promote your web book. Give it a shot and take control of your life.
Specifically, it’s rat poison. Don’t overdose on it.
Rorschach,
In the US an Emergency Room will treat an immediate problem for free or at low cost. A bleeding ulcer or broken bone will receive treatment. However a CAT scan won’t be done unless it can be justified for immediate treatment.
The health care system here is majorly fucked up. I’ve good excellent health insurance so if I had an episode like Lynna then any testing or follow-up care would be covered. Without insurance I’d wouldn’t be able to afford treatment.
Alan B, 601
An emergency room doctor (wrenched foot) put me on full strength aspirin (as well as a pain killer for the ankle), though my regular doctor dropped it back down to 81mg.
Then there are stronger clot busters, for the truly gnarly cases. I think Type II Diabetes complications can call for strong clot busters on occasion.
#497
Simvastatin.
I am on it at 40mg per day taken at night. “Avoid consumption of grapefruit”, it says on the label. A large number of people in the UK are put onto statins of which this is the most common.
Lynna,
Here’s something for you. Sorry I can’t offer more.
Afford blood tests? This is so absurd. There’s something fundamentally wrong with a country where a simple blood test isn’t made accessible to all of its citizens.
Alan B, the doc did tell me to take one low-dose, buffered aspirin (81 mg here) per day. My brother bought some for me yesterday.
And don’t worry, I’m not taking anyone’s online advice as gospel, nor am I acting on it without talking to or seeing my doctor.
mythusmage is right about the offline-event (as I’ve decided to call it), being a stroke, a minor and small version of a stroke, but still a stroke. I like being stroked, but not in that way.
Big hug for Lynna.
Sorry to hear the news, hope all goes well.
505
That would be #501. You space so much crap when you have Aspergers
Tis Himself, 504
This is why I counsel self reliance, using your talents and abilities to your best advantage. You’ve got the talent and the ability, use them to better your condition. Lyanna writes well, so I advised she web publish as people have done before. Success is not guaranteed, but at least she’s taking some measure of control back from the apparatchiks that run this world.
Never ascribe to conspiracy what could adequately explained by the workings of bureaucracy.
And you stay healthy, you add a lot to Pharyngula.
Lynna,
Please try to look into whatever resources may be available to help you. If you can find out how much your medical bills might be, perhaps some private assistance might be arranged (hint, hint, wink, nudge say no more fellow Pharyngulites).
#503 David Marjanović said:
Doh! That’s why you are monitored!!
Warfarin acts by reducing the effectiveness of the blood clotting system. In excess it kills rats (and people) by causing massive internal bleeding.
A target level is set for “INR” which is a measure of how quickly the blood clots. In addition, a range is set within which the INR should remain. In my case it is 2½ ± ½. The actual dose needed to keep in this range depends on a large number of factors which is why you need to be monitored.
The INR value is a balance between reducing the risk of clotting and increasing the risk of internal bleeding, the objective being to minimise the overall risk.
Alan B, 507
I know an Aussie (British expat) who went through a sex change because of a statin. (Long story, includes a case of androgen insensitivity, and endocrine system oddities.)
511
Correction: Never ascribe to conspiracy what could adequately be explained by the workings of bureaucracy.
Hi Lynna,
It sounds like you’re pretty certain it was a TIA, and you’re likely to know better than me, seeing as how it’s happening to you, but this is not the only thing that causes these symptoms. I get complex partial seizures which sound a lot like what you wrote, with attendant memory loss. It sounds like your memory is returning — I’m happy for you. It’s disturbing to be missing chunks of time when you have evidence that you were doing things.
Lynna,
IANAM, but it’s possible what you had was not a TIA: statins are known to be associated with transient global amnesia, but this does not seem to imply an interruption of blood supply to the brain, so far as I can discover.
For some obscure reason, the NHS has been advertising TIAs prolifically on UK TV over the past year. They seem to fixate on something for a while and then drop it completely.
But in the UK there would be no issue of being unable to pay to be tested. It’s all about contacting the medics as fast as possible, so that they can at least find out in what way you’re broken. The money shortage mostly only affects what treatments are allowed at all on the NHS.
‘Tis Himself @507: I liked the Old Blind Dogs Live. I washed the dishes, that’s how inspired I was. :-)
I’ll look into this brain fart business more later. I think I’ll take a nap and play invalid for an hour or two.
BTW, I used to have about $30,000 saved up. Then I spent it all getting my shoulder repaired. It’s not like I didn’t try to be a regular citizen, with savings and all. The insurance I had at the time had a high deductible, the only kind I could get. Don’t even have that anymore because the feckin’ insurance company refused to pay for the MRI done on my shoulder because I hadn’t called an ambulance to come get me in the wilds of Idaho, so I somehow breeched the insurance company rules for defining an “accident.” I reported them to Idaho’s Attorney General and the news came back that I should have read the policy more carefully. I could have called an air ambulance (helicopter) *if* there had been any cell phone coverage in that area, but even then I would have lost the game because a trip by air ambulance would have been covered up to only 60 percent of the cost. Well… on and on.
It was insurance companies that insisted my father be sent home from the hospital as soon as he could walk, even though his doctor recommended that he stay for several more days. They did that three times … until finally he couldn’t walk and everyone was satisfied.
In the meantime, I heard on NPR this morning that mafia-like gangs have been set up specifically to rip off medicare and medicaid for millions of dollars. I wonder if they offer courses?
My G.P., Dr. Leland Krantz, is a good man. He tried to fight the insurance company on my father’s behalf and got called on the carpet by the hospital administrator for doing so. I think one has to learn to be sneaky in order to get care for the not-so-rich. But I’m not naturally sneaky.
#514 sounds a bit like a threat of sex-change aimed at Alan B. So, Alan B., you must let me know if you decide to join the Wild Women of Pharyngula.
Later, Reflector of the Light of God.
Oh, yes, forgot a P.S. to Mr. Fire. I’m so glad that Mrs. Fire loves the book. This will make it easier for you to maintain the Mural of Devotion.
For Lynna
Might bring a smile with the squeeky falsetto!
#518
Warning came too late for the BGs …
The obscure reason, SEF, is people like me – to get them thoroughly checked out and on correct medication as soon as possible.
I can remember when someone with a TIA or even a mild stroke would be given an aspirin, patted on the head and sent to bed. Result: disability, decline, death.
Now it is either straight to hospital or, via the GP, seen by a specialist within two weeks maximum, tests immediately to confirm diagnosis. Result: I’ll be around and able to participate on this blog for perhaps another 3 decades.
It is certainly a better use of resouces but only you can decide whether having me around is a plus or a minus.
When I read Lynna’s story and hear those nutcases on FoxNews claim the US has the best healthcare system in the world (because Americans have the highest cancer survival rates), I’m thinking I’d like to strangle someone.
I didn’t know what a TIA is. Seems it’s the same thing my sister’s best friend had to go through last week. Here in France, she was in the hospital the same day of the attack, for 4 days, where she underwent all the necessary tests, CT Scan, etc… all paid for by the community of tax payers. As a school teacher with not much savings and no private insurance she still got the best and most rapid care one can think of.
I feel so sorry for Lynna. Sincerely hope you can find a way to get the adequate medical diagnosis, treatment and support.
#518 Lynna
Now there’s an offer I don’t get every day!!
An honorary membership, perhaps, until they take effect?
medico?
magician?
madman?
masturbator?
moptop?
Alan B – I just saw on Hoyden About Town this morning that that very song is useful for self-timing of CPR compressions. “Stayin’ Alive”: A Pilot Study to Test the Effectiveness of a Novel Mental Metronome in Maintaining Appropriate Compression Rates in Simulated Cardiac Arrest Scenarios.
Poo, that was a paywall.
Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted with medical students and adult specialty resident physicians previously certified in 2005 AHA guideline CPR/ACLS. All participants initially watched an AHA update on the 2005 CPR/ACLS changes to assure baseline knowledge. Subjects were randomly paired and alternated administering chest compressions and ventilating a standard CPR training mannequin in a standardized cardiac arrest scenario. During compressions subjects listened to a recording of The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” (Saturday Night Fever, The Original Movie Soundtrack; Polygram International Music, 1977), and were asked to time CPR compressions to the beat of the music. The tempo of the song was verified at 103 BPM using MixMeister BPM Analyzer (MixMeister Technology, LLC). Chest compression rates, hand placement, chest recoil, and compression depth were assessed by videotape review. After a minimum of five weeks, the participants were retested and observed in a similar standardized scenario without listening to the recorded music and CPR techniques were assessed. Attitudinal views of the experience and provider demographic information, including prior CPR experiences, was gathered using a post-session questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi square test, and paired samples t-test.
Results:
Fifteen subjects (Average age 29.3 years, 66.7% resident physicians and 80% male) were enrolled. Forty-six percent of subjects had performed CPR an average 6.6 times (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.7-10.4) in the prior 6 months. No subject had emergency medical services (EMS) experience. The mean CPR rate during the primary assessment (with music) was 109.1 BPM and the secondary assessment (without music) was 113.2 BPM, increasing 4.1 BPM between each testing (95% CI 1.45 – 6.7). CPR rates and rate changes did not vary by training level, sex or CPR experience. CPR hand placement, chest recoil and compression depth was excellent and did not vary between primary and secondary testing. Subjects felt utilizing the music improved their ability to provide CPR in accordance with the AHA guidelines (mean score 7.6 [1 strongly disagree −10 strongly agree]; 95% CI 7.1-8.2), and felt more confident in performing CPR on a patient (mean score 7.1, 95% CI 6.3-7.93).
Sven,
Medic! My first thought was IANAD (doctor) – but of course, I am! What’s more, I bloody worked for the title, unlike these medics with a bachelor’s degree who get to call themselves “Doctor”!
As another Doctor-but-not-a-“real”-Doctor, I share your outrage. Plus in my case, I have taught way too many premeds to have any automatic respect for MDs.
Please join me in using only the correct term, “physician,” instead of “doctor” in the limited sense.
I don’t understand. Who ascribed anything to a conspiracy here?
(…Except me my bizarre exclusion from the OM induction orgies. But that was on another thread.)
Why the fuck do you watch Faux Noise? How do you even – do they stream it on teh intarwebz?
Differs between countries. Where I come from, they used to have a master’s degree when they got to call themselves “Dr” until recently (BTW, the lawyers still do), and now they actually have to write a doctoral thesis to get that title.
In the US of A, the word “medic” has nearly universal military connotations. Even though ambulance-jockies are called “paramedics”.
@ #521:
Only if all the people around you were useless before seeing the
lightadvert.It’s not as though it’s really only last year that people knew a stroke (big or little) was a bad thing and that something ought to be done about it. It’s also not new to recognise what one looks like. Nor even that new to be trying to do more than just send someone to bed with aspirin.
The obscure bit is what it is that suddenly sets off whoever it is who actually gets to order up an advertising campaign – and determines which bee of many possible bees they get in their bonnet.
Well, it’s a chemical. It’s used as a rat poison. Also as a medicine.
BS
David,
caus’ it’s the only American channel I get from my TV service provider. CNN and CNBC are the Europeanized versions.
I don’t watch that much, but an hour or two of weekly exposure is sufficient to satisfy my masochist side :-O
Also, to get a better idea of the level of deprivation of American conservative and libertarian politics.
Sven,
Ah, yes, “physician” is much better than “medic”!
Oh gosh Lynna, my thoughts are with you. I also have NO health care. Today I’m applying for some program through the VA, but most likely they will deny me, or put me on a four year wait list.
#527, #528, #529
I agree with David Marjanović: it does depend on the country. In the UK only those who have successfully defended a thesis with original work can style themselves “MD”. Hence, MD now is equivalent to PhD. Obviously, the term “doctor” is widely used by the general public but usually when they mean “General Practitioner”.
Mind you, all those practicing medicine have to be Registered. Registration is in several forms. The lowest level (“Provisional Registration”, IIRC) requires completion of a 5 year undergraduate course and that stage of registration only allows you to go on to the next 2 years of on-the-job training. At the end of which you go on to a different category on the Register (“Full Registration”, again IIRC – look at the GMC website if you want details).
Entry to medical school is highly competitive – only the best students can get in and many Universities expect you to have already demonstrated your commitment by work experience and/or voluntary work.
Thus, only the best students
5 year undergraduate course
2 years on-the-job training.
All right, I know that is not the same as a 3 year UG degree and 3 year PhD but it is 1 year longer and they have to work hard all the way through. It is NOT a soft option. Then further training to rise above the minimum level of qualification plus professional development training throughout their career …
Seems to me “doctors” (in the general sense) deserve a bit of respect (although I am well aware that things are different in the US).
#525 Carlie
Yes, I’ve heard that too. OK as long as the paramedics don’t dress up for Saturday Night Fever with medallions and hairy chests. Enough to send anyone back into a coma if they came round in the middle of the routine!
That reminds me… I think it’s time to apply for medicaid again. Most likely though, they’ll just tell me to get a job; and an American passport, while I’m at it
*sigh*
also, I insist that Lynna keeps us informed on whether she could scrap together enough cash to get a proper check-up at her doctor’s. Because if not, we might have to put together a Pharyngula-loves-Lynna health fund.
That’s what I mean.
And Pharyngula isn’t enough for that?!? You really must have a masochist side.
Most such degrees take 5 years (or rather 10 semesters) in Austria.
(That’s the minimum duration, only achievable if you happen to get into every required lab course in time and the like. There is no maximum.)
On BBC4 now – The Secret Life of Chaos.
Now talking about Turing’s work on morphogenesis.
It is not often that I cry these days, but some things still hit the trigger: Murrow on Buchenwald.
–o–
Denmark: Bachelor – 3 years – MAX 180 ECTS (that’s a change since my time)
Reporting in. Still kicking.
Lynna, good to hear.
Just keep away from that bucket!
Ouch! My spleen (in joke for Brewster Rocket, Space Guy cartoon fans).
Nitroglycerin is a heart medicine and an explosive. Which makes me wonder about who was the person who decided to see what medical effects minute amounts of an unstable explosive might be.
Silly me. I forgot to use the intertubes to research my question posed in #545. The font of all knowledge, wikipedia, has this to say about nitroglycerin:
The Mythbusters found that such a minute about of nitroglycerin is used, that they couldn’t get an explosion even with a homemade defibrillator (spatula’s used for electrodes).
I recall the story of the discovery. The good doctor swallowed a couple of drops just before seeing a patient. (couldn’t afford a rat?) His heart was racing so fast he thought it might explode. He only just managed to finish the examination.
Speaking of explosions, the person who did the “residue left after evaporation to dryness” test happened to have his back turned at the critical moment so he saved his sight. He did get some glass fragments in his backside, though.
My buddy, who supervised the demolition of a nitro plant claimed nitroglycerin was addictive.
BS
It’s much more mundane than that – in the time before spectroscopy &c a standard part of chemical characterisation along with colour, texture, smell and so on was taste. The chemist simply noted his symptoms upon ingestion. Much like homoeopathic proving, I’m ashamed to say.
Patricia:
Good luck with that, Patricia. I wish we could get together and kick the living daylights out of the people blocking the development of a decent public health care program.
In the UK that was the doctors! The NHS had to be forced through against them. I wonder if the modern US is that much different or if doctors still (however secretly) make up a significant component of the opposition.
Lynna,
I’m so sorry to hear about your TIA. I hope you continue to do okay.
Is there a talkorigins-type resource, or even a decent book, that provides an uncompromising analysis of the US healthcare debate?
I hate, HATE, the status quo, and I am passionate about the idea of automatic, quality, affordable (or even better, free) healthcare for everybody in the US, like I used to get in the UK (and my personal experience of NHS care was that it was wonderful). So I need to get educated on the details. I have found myself getting unstuck in arguments with people over the universal/single-payer issue, for want of facts. I would also, of course, like to be aware of the arguments I shouldn’t use.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me, fellas – payment will of course be made in the usual units of bacon.
I don’t know if you all know this already, but the fourth Symphony of Science video is out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOLAGYmUQV0&NR=1 . IIRC, the first three were the featured as entries on Pharyngula, but this one hasn’t been. Either way, it’s awesome and y’all should watch it.
In the US it’s the health insurance companies. Can’t make a profit if the gummint is offering the same service for free.
But how many more people could be covered with profit monies?
Another Mormon hypocrite has been exposed. State Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack was arrested on suspicion of DUI, resigns.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011602369.html
The depressing part of it is, his own father was killed by a drunk driver when the Senator was a teenager.
Not that this is his first foray into hypocrisy. Killpack voted for (among other things) bills to require Utah state to fund private school tuition. His day job is for Academica West, a private company which helps to establish private schools.
Two more Very Special Laws he helped pass in Utah:
Senate bill 1SSB 97, “Student Clubs Act” which forbids any club which “present[s] or discuss[es] information relating to the use of contraceptive devices or substances, regardless of whether the use is for purposes of contraception or personal health.” Also banished are any clubs which discuss sex that doesn’t take place in legal marriage, and any club which advocates preventing others from engaging in legal activities. The last one, of course, has a religious exemption: you can advocate that rights are removed or restricted, so long as you have a religious reason for doing so.
Senate bill 3SSB 96, “Origin of Species Curriculum Requirement Bill” which requires science classes to stress that no “Scientific” theory of the origin of human or their present state is agreed on by all “Scientists”. (Scare quotes in original bill.)
In 558, the information came from Project Vote Smart
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=50467
I meant to include this above.
Thanks, Miki Z. I had been googling around to find some more info. on him- votesmart.org slipped my mind.
Regarding his DUI arrest, I, for one, refuse to speculate* on the fact that he was with a male passenger at the time of the incident. In the middle of the night. With his inhibitions lowered by an intoxicating substance.
*I will, however, insinuate the hell out of it.
A Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulled over Killpack after observing Killpack’s car driving erotically.
The passenger with him, Mark Walker resigned in 2008 rather than face an ethics inquiry after being accused of trying to bribe his opponent in the state treasurer’s race.
Oops. Spelling failure above.
That should be “State Treasurer’s race”.
#558 Miki Z
Seems to me that the wording leaves wide open the possibility of discussing in class the difference between a Scientist and a “Scientist”.
And what the **** does that mean?
You are telling me that the Bill passed with such ridiculous wording ?
The omission of the s was my mistake, but the bill does seem to have passed with the wording. I think it’s intended to cover both those nasty contentions that people did evolve and that people are still evolving. The note on the bill says that they believe it will pass constitutional muster. It doesn’t require that any alternatives be taught (teach the controversy!) only that it be stressed that “Scientists” don’t agree.
@ Miki Z #561:
It might say more about the state of mind of the trooper than the senator for the car to be pulled over after being characterised as driving erotically rather than erratically.
Looking into it, that bill passed the Senate but died in the House over concerns that the legislature should not be trying to do the job of the Department of Education.
Lyanna, 518
Zoe’s case is a unique one. She was intersexed to begin with, had a mild case of androgen insensitivity syndrome, and then her GP put her on a statin. Before a month was out she was transiting from male to female, and this includes physical changes. Such as his testicles migrating back up into the abdomen and turning pre-cancerous. He developed micro-penis syndrome, and at that point she started looking into gender correction surgery.
BTW, Zoe is a rocket scientist, and is now working on her PHD.
There seem to be about 24 people all told who started spontaneous male to female transitioning out there, Zoe would know more about it.
#561 Miki Z
* My emphasis.
Would you care to clarify how the cops knew the car was driving erotically?
To be fair, “Scientists” studying people in Utah could be excused for not recognizing any ongoing evolution in humans (at least since 1847).
SEF@565:
Oh, dang, that was my typo. The report says erratically.
David (529)
Do you read anything besides Pharyngula on the web?
Two words: Conspiracy theorist. Google it.
Their units got frisky?
An Unintended Consequence
In California the state MediCal program used to pay the going rate for medical treatment. But then the state legislature decided to give the state MediCal board the power to regulate what MediCal would pay in fees. And that’s what California did.
No thought given to why physicians etc. were charging what they did, California would only pay a certain amount for treatment, and if them profit mongering profit mongers didn’t like it, they could lower their rates.
And they added more paperwork to keep track of these new regulations and the new fee schedule.
So, physicians etc. found themselves with more overheard to pay for, and a shortfall on the money they were reimbursed for care by the state of California. Costs which were, and still are, passed on to those patients paying for themselves or relying on private insurance.
You live in California you’re being doubled taxed (so to speak) to pay for medical care for people like me.
Government paid health care is not a convenience for everybody.
573
Forgot this part:
In order to save money the State of California recently decided to stop covering dental and optometric care. You need dental work or your vision checked, it’s cash, credit card, or provider financing.
The state is not a reliable resource.
the only reason I’m not going to tell you to go DIAF for that, in this thread, at this moment, is because I’m going to believe you about your Aspergers. Fuck convenience; there’s 45000 people dying every year because there is no government-paid, universal healthcare in this country; many others go bankrupt, or are “merely” crippled for life because of it.
Negotiated rates with health insurers have this same effect as well. In one year, my wife’s medical bills topped $400,000 before adjustment. After adjustment, this dropped to just over $100,000 because of negotiated rates with her insurance company.
Disgraced Utah state rep. Mark Walker, who was in the car with Senator Killpack, is/was a Boy Scouts of America Scout Master.
*/any insinuations regarding this comment are those of the reader, not the poster. just sayin’.
mm, FYI: Cross-country comparisons (health care).
Look at where the USA stands internationally, in this table of developed nations.
Lowest life expectancy.
Highest infant mortality rate.
Highest per capita expenditure on health.
Highest health-care costs as a percent of GDP.
Highest % of government revenue spent on health.
Lowest % of health costs paid by government.
boygenius@577: So then we know he’s not one of them fuckin’ atheists. You know how those people are. No morals, no ethics, no respect for the law.
At the risk of giving an economics lecture to a bunch of people who already know this stuff…
There are three problems confronting health insurance:
1) Adverse selection — basically, sick people have more incentive to buy insurance than healthy people. Because the insurance companies don’t know who is sick but the buyers (presumably) know whether or not they are sick, there’s asymmetric information. As a result, the voluntarily insured population tends to be sicker than the population as a whole.
2) Moral hazard — people with insurance will take bigger risks or seek more expensive care than those without, since they know that their insurance will cover it. If, hypothetically, someone had an event that might be a TIA, they would be more likely to see a physician if insurance would cover the visit. In this sense, “insurance creates the expense”.
3) Risk blindness — people are phenomenally bad at estimating the odds of adverse events. Most young people who say “I’m young and healthy so I don’t need insurance” have no idea what their risk for cancer, vehicular accident, ectopic pregnancy (the males are probably pretty accurate in their self assessment), genetic disease, sports injury, etc. actually are, nor how much these things would cost. As such, any argument that “people should be able to make their own decisions” is advocating that people decide whether or not to buy lottery tickets.
These three problems exist whether or not you think people deserve health insurance. If a healthy young adult without insurance crashes their car, should they be allowed to bleed to death because they “made their choice”? If not, who bears the costs? In the U.S., a single auto accident with injury is likely to bankrupt most families if they are forced to (attempt to) pay the medical costs.
Jadehawk, you’ve nailed it. My L5-S1 disk was herniated 5 years ago. The surgery would have been $14,000. I couldn’t afford the surgery at the point where it would have been effective. Now, the nerve damage is irreversible and I am indeed ‘crippled for life.’ As an architectural woodworker, my livelihood is seriously compromised due to my reduced range of motion, lifting ability, etc. Had I been treated in a timely fashion, I would still be contributing to the tax base. Now, not so much.
In the UK that was the doctors! The NHS had to be forced through against them. – SEF
Not so much forced through as bribed through. Aneurin Bevan, the Secretary of State for Health in the post-WWII Labour government, said after a meeting at which he had at last secured the grudging assent of physicians’ (thanks Sven!) representatives:
“I stuffed their mouths with gold.”
Unfortunately the practices of over-paying physicians, and allowing consultants (senior hospital physicians) to work for the NHS and privately simultaneously, has continued ever since.
Since the Honorable (former) Representative Walker hails from Sandy, Utah, I believe it’s safe to say that he’s not one of them fuckin’ atheists. Rather, he’s a Mormon politician and you know how those people are. No morals, no ethics, no respect for the law. Plus, as a Scout Master, he was a mentor to young, impressionable boys.
*/any implications drawn from the above comment are those of the reader and not the poster.
I was thrilled when the Berkeley Sea Scouts (an affiliate of the BSA) lost their free berth at the Berkeley marina because of the Boy Scouts of America policy that gays and atheists are barred from membership. The city of Berkeley has an ordinance which prohibits benefits (such as a free marina berth) to groups which discriminate.
They lost their appeal to the California Supreme Court, and yet they (the BSA) still claim that they are being discriminated against and that the First Amendment means that Berkeley owes them money.
How different is the statement
from the claim that opposite-sex couples are somehow owed the right to define marriage and that they would be damaged by same-sex-marriage?
Did the Berkeley Sea Scouts designate a pegboy for each excursion?
See: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pegboy
Dammit, I can’t get my Firefox text format toolbar to properly format text as a link. Any suggestions for an HTML newb?
I wish someone would start a secular, inclusive scouting type organization. Scouts learn cool shit, they shouldn’t be forced to conform to a restrictive, dogmatic worldview in order to participate.
To use the Text Formatting Toolbar extension for FireFox:
0. Make sure the Toolbar is set to generate HTML (and not, e.g., BBcode (use the right→most pulldown menu on the toolbar)).
1. Highlight (select) the text you want to be turned into a hyperlink.
2. Click the icon which looks like a paperclip-superimposed-on-a-globe, and a window will pop up.
3. Type the URL into that pop-up box (note that it automagically includes the starting http:// magic prefix so be careful not to duplicate that bit of magic).
4. Click OK and you’re done.
Alternatively, the raw HTML is:
<a href=”http://…”>text</a>
Be sure to include the “quotes” surrounding the URL! (Omitting them is perhaps the most common mistake.)
Testing:
Boy Scout Bullshit
Thanks, blf.
/slinks away to feel like a dumbass in private
boygenius @586:
There’s Camp Fire USA, which doesn’t seem to offer the Pokemon-style evolution into an Eagle Scout™ but offers the same sort of opportunities to both boys and girls.
I’m not sure if they operate in any countries outside of the USA. I didn’t find anything on a 30-second search, but that doesn’t mean they don’t.
Miki Z,
Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! That’s the kind of organization I want my niece to participate in. I had never heard of them before. Cool!
When the niece gets a little bit older, Uncle Jason is gonna foot the bill to send her to Camp Inquiry.
I wish I’d had the opportunity to attend when I was a young skeptic.
I use BBCodeExtra addon for blockquotes and URL’s. Copy and paste, except you paste in the proper format from the menu. Copy your link to the clipboard, then highlight the text and paste using “make a link” option. On my Mac this menu is activated with the control key, which is usually a right button with Windows.
As long as it’s wet, nitroglycerin doesn’t explode. (We actually made a thick drop of nitroglycerin in a chemistry lesson once, and the professor took a hammer to it. Nothing happened.) Problem is… you can’t get it out of the dryer. Instead, the dryer will come out to you.
Actually you can. In Germany private health insurance companies exist, and you can choose to adhere to one so that the doctors smile at you more, wave you through faster, and give you more expensive treatments.
<headdesk>
…Wow.
Of course. I thought you were responding to something specific in this thread. It now appears you were just putting a random chunk of general wisdom out there instead; nothing wrong with that, it was just confusing because you unintentionally put it in a context.
Not if it’s done wrong!
Why isn’t it being done wrong elsewhere?
NoR, OM,
Thanks. I think? I have it fingered out.
Some light reading?
The Scouts themselves are much less religious as an organization over here.
…Some cling to Baden-Powell’s original pre-military rituals, though. Disgusting.
Sounds kinky. Or you use Morse Code to enter text.
David Marjanović,
Are they the Boy Scouts of AmericaTM or a splinter organization that is piggybacking on the name recognition?
Jadehawk, please check out the bottom of the “Ken Ham, baffled” thread. You shouldn’t ever have cause to believe you should force-feed me raw mushrooms with vinegar. :-)
“America”? Baden-Powell was British. It’s a global organization.
blf:
..-. .. -. –. . .-. . -..
BBCodeXtra add on for Firefox is my personal fav. No thought required.
BS
.–. –.. .. … — -.– — .- … – . .-. .-.-.- -.-. – …. ..- .-.. …. ..- .. … — -.– .-.. .. . –. . .-.-.- .. … …. .- .-.. .-.. — …- . .-. -.-. — — . .-.-.-
boygenius, are you really swearing fealty to PZ and Cthulu in morse code? Get hold of yourself! Recover your punctuated equilibrium!
This proves humans are born atheist:
Pirahã tribe of Brazil returns Christian Missionary, Daniel Everett, to atheism
–. — .- – … — -. ..-. .. .-. .
— -.- –..– -. — – -.- .. -. -.- -.– .-.-.-
That’s an awesome clip !
.–. –.. .. … .- .–. — — .–. -.– …. . .- -..
#570
Pity – I was looking forward to the arresting officer explaining that to the jury!
— …. -.. . .- .-. .– …. .- – …. .- …- . .. -.. — -. .
..-. .. -. –. . .-. . -.. -.-.–
.— ..- … – .– .- .. – ..- -. – .. .-.. .–. –.. –. . – … -… .- -.-. -.- ..-. .-. — — …. .. … – .-. .. .–. .- -. -.. … . . … .– …. .- – .– . …. .- …- . -.. — -. . – — …. .. … -… .-.. — –. .-.-.- …. . .—-. … –. — -. -. .- -… . .–. .. … … . -.. .-.-.-
boygenius:
.– . .—-. .-. . – .-. -.– .. -. –. – — -.-. ..- .-. . -.– — ..- .-. — — .-. … . -.-. — -.. . .- -.. -.. .. -.-. – .. — -.
.– .. – …. — — .-. . — — .-. … . -.-. — -.. .
;)
All right. That’s enough of this nonsense. I’m already in enough trouble when PZ gets home. I admit that I started it, but you all egged me on.
–. — — -.. -. .. –. …. –
You guys need to get out more, clearly.
Morse Freakin Code? Seriously?
There is no way I’m going to painstakingly translate that shit.
what’s next, Serbo-Croation?
You mean I need to find better, less silly excuses to procrastinate? Good point…
Next it will be disemvoweled Morse Code, obviously.
See also this one and pretty much the entire list of related videos at the bottom right.
From now on all posts must be in Esperanto. If you don’t understand Esperanto, tough shit.
Жао нам је, не знам српско-хрватска. Ово је Генералисимо Гоогле-ов идеја о српском језику (од енглески).
I think blf just kicked my ass. :(
Mizera, ankaŭ ne sci* Esperanton. Nek Generalisimo Google. Ĉi tiu estas de alia ejo.
Ah, that’s why my toe hurts!
The first one was a Generalissimo Google™ translation into Serbian (it doesn’t know Serbo-Croation), and the second was another site’s translation into Esperanto. I don’t actually know either language (some say the same about my English, and even I say the same about my French), but I
dodid know Morse Code (admittedly not a language).Bandage your toe. Put some ice on it. You’ll be fine. I, however, must go to bed. It’s 9:11 AM and I’ve been up all night. Oooohhhggggrrrrppppzzz.
Aaaaand we’re back to discussing toes…
Great.
like snapping turtles to a day-old can of sardines
godless tribe deconverts christian 1 of 4
That looks very good, actually. The transcription of “Google” is laughable, and there are two possible case mistakes (I only know Russian, alas), but the rest…
The case “mistakes” could be mine. I’ve a tendency to use uncommon case in English, and I’ve noticed that for other languages, the Generalissimo Google™ translator tends to preserve case.
@603: Good link. Thanks for posting that.
Thanks to boygenius, Miki Z, and others for calling the mormons out for any recent episodes proving that they are hypocrites.
I’m still in more-rest-than-usual-is-needed mode. Apparently, the brain likes to sleep while it reroutes things around damage. I still have a craving for oranges (luckily, my brother brought me some), and I have an illogical vision of little workers with hardhats working 24/7 in my brain: “If you reroute that there, she’ll crave oranges!” “Well, it’s the only quick fix, so do it! We’ll clean up the oddities later.”
I’ll add just one link for the discussion about Boy Scouts:
http://www.postregister.com/scouts_honor/index.php
No way am I decoding all that morse code. But … I am amused by its appearance in the thread.
I have always wondered about the distinction between “boy scouts” and “The Boy Scouts of America”…I will say IMNSHO that the latter is a ridiculous crock of shit, all consideration of institutionalized discrimination aside. This is something I realized even before being asked to leave that organization*. Its really just an exercise in flag-worship, paramilitary posturing (badges/uniforms/salutes, etc.) and rote memorization of aphorisms/rules -of-thumb, and other such vacuous tidbits that passes for wisdom**. Scout leaders for the most part consist of sad men seeking a cheap position of authority at the expense of the intellectual and emotional development of young boys…a bunch of know-nothing jokers who like dressing up in uniform on the weekend, saluting each other, and behaving like some weak war council. Even if the scouts weren’t actively indoctrinating children in homophobia and spook-fear, it would be a worthless organization nonetheless.
*I wasn’t kicked out for being gay or an atheist. I had it coming.
**Must…control…urge…to rant…Losing control…
Lynna,
Here’s an easy copy and paste translator, if you get curious about the Morse code:
http://www.onlineconversion.com/morse_code.htm
For the record, I also don’t give a damn about the girls scouts, although I know less of their secret rituals/discriminatory practices. What I DO know is that their cookies cost too goddamned much, and they are not even that good.
There. Got that off my chest.
“If you reroute that there, she’ll crave oranges!” “Well, it’s the only quick fix, so do it! We’ll clean up the oddities later.”
Lynna,
Eddie Izzard on oranges. The oranges happen about halfway through. “They’re getting through! Make the peel so it breaks off only in small pieces!”
Proceedings of the International Society for Thread-Everlasting Studies:
Preliminary results from the anastomosation experiment are now available.
I think you meant ‘depravity’, surely?
I don’t think that is entirely true; you can offer extended services such as cosmetic & elective treatment, you can offer ‘first class’ accommodation, nurses in japanese school-girl uniforms that offer ‘extras’, or you can even actually provide the basic services under contract to the govt. and for a reasonable price. I know, that latter idea is complete anathema to business interests so it can’t be entertained by anyone outside a small circle of rationalists.
Carlie @634: great Eddie Izzard! Thanks for that. An entire disquisition on oranges, marvelous.
I have the Stalinist oranges at the moment. :-)
I am eating them instead of watching them rot.
Sven @635: Hilarious! Well done. And may you always rebel against the Overlord.
That was awesome. Perhaps you can also publish in Productive Procrastination Review?
Looks like the eternal thread is having a life of its own. It swallowed the creationists whole, so they were never seen again. Showing the fallibility of our overlord.
I rather liked Izzard’s comparison of oranges to Das Boot. I fink I now understand why about the only thing I can successfully do with an orange is make juice. I shall start referring to my juicer as a depth charge.
And here’s a sentence which does not start with I.
I mean “case” as in “genitive case”. The distribution of upper- and lowercase letters is clearly correct.
But… is the new slope significantly different from either of the two old ones? Inquiring minds want to know !!
<diving under table>
X-D
The horror, the horror!
I’ve got to say, I enjoyed this little memory exercise. I actually learned Morse Code when I was a little kid, almost by accident, thanks to my cousin’s walkie-talkies. We used them mainly for fun and to get into mischief*, but apparently I ended up learning Morse Code and I haven’t forgotten that much since then**. It’s good to know that.
*Always his fault, mind you. I was a very good girl. :P
**Hey, I called PZ a poopyhead in Morse Code almost without looking at a conversion table!
That was hilarious.
I do have a bad habit of interpreting everything you say in a negative way, don’t I. but at least, this time I didn’t tell you to bite me ;-)
Ok. That’s actually something that I tend to ignore in French (and one reason my French is so bad). I think it’s just silly and so usually say « the Français-noun » (literally “the …”).
I al…most… ran it but then I started thinking about how the data would need to be reformatted to get SYSTAT to eat ’em and…nah.
And Excel is too cheesy to be able draw confidence intervals for those regression lines.
But speaking as someone who lives and dies professionally by ANCOVA, and has run hundreds of them, I’m going to say “yes” (0.001 <∼ P <∼ 0.02).
You did better than me then. I learned Morse Code when I got my amateur radio license (ham radio), but found I couldn’t recall it too well (I let the license expire multiple decades ago…). I had to write a quick bi-directional converter (AWK to the rescue!—I didn’t even think of looking on teh intertubes!), to check/correct my very faulty based-on-memory decipherings and encipherings.
I made a new wordle of the thread! I took out all of the header except the handles. Results:
Lynna is queen of this thread, and there’s too fuckin’ many OM’s hanging around here
:-p
That’s gender, not case :-)
And it allows you to keep track of two (or, in languages with 3 genders like German or Serbocroatian) three times as many nouns by just using pronouns. <vehement nodding>
“Mom! He’s quarreling!”
– My sister about my brother at every opportunity that can’t be shortened to Mom, he.
I have a bad habit of not expressing myself clearly when I think I can leave everything implied or when I suddenly get afraid of giving TMI…
this is why I love nerds. they’re so adorably clumsy at flirting ^.^
<madly cackling with glee>
What do you think of R? I just finished a 2-week course on statistical tests and R.
I really should install Java already. (Not needing it for anything else so far – all my Mesquite needs are being met in the lab.)
<pout>
I have a paper to read (and another blog or two to procrastinate on). See you all later.
oh FFS… here’s the wordle, Java-free.
Ah, I see what you mean about OM’s. One might think were a bunch of meditation practitioners. OM…*snore*
Maybe I did better because it wasn’t that long ago. Not even two decades.
Thanks! You see, Java doesn’t come preinstalled with Windows the way it does on the Mac.
I gather the software automatically filters out “a”, “an” and “the”?
(…Yeah. I needed a break from the extra-nerdy phonetics blog.)
I suspect so; the same for numbers.
weren’t you going to leave and pout? :-p
David M
I know a bunch of practitioners of transcendental meditation, and the groups of meditators always include a few snorers. High school aged practitioners call it “Napitation” or “Napitating” because they’re always falling asleep, especially in the morning round. Supposedly, it’s a nice set-up for a restful sleep, though sleep is not the official goal.
Ok, I’ve learned something new then: They are not the same thing. What you’re calling “genitive case” I know as “possessive case”, albeit Wikipedia says the two aren’t precisely the same (for all languages). Without checking, I had assumed “genitive case” is just a long-winded way of saying “gender”.
And gender is still completely stupid. I hated in German, and I mostly refuse to learn or use it French. It’s arbitrary, discriminatory, un-necessary, and confusing. It’s general absence is one of the (few?) points where English is actually sensible.
Hey Lynna, glad to hear you getting better. I’m still about 100 comments behind and hope the sitch has improved since then.
Part of why I’m late is I have been reading the butterflies and wheels blog. In particular, this;
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/badmoves.php
And gender is still completely stupid. I hated in German, and I mostly refuse to learn or use it French. It’s arbitrary, discriminatory, un-necessary, and confusing. It’s general absence is one of the (few?) points where English is actually sensible.
To be fair though, English does have it’s share of gendered nouns.
In current news, have any of you heard that Focus on the
FamilyPatriarchy (corrected) will be releasing an anti-gay ad during the Super Bowl?I hate it in French too, but that’s because most nouns have a different gender in French than in my mother tongue. And that’s enough to confuse me*.
*Not that my French wouldn’t still suck if I could get gender right. It would.
hmm, I don’t normally fail at blockquotes.
#661- “In current news, have any of you heard that Focus on the
FamilyPatriarchy (corrected) will be releasing an anti-gay ad during the Super Bowl?”No, I hadn’t heard that. A national ad? Then it can’t be tied to any state’s gay marriage situations. Do they have the budget for a national ad during the Super Bowl? That shit ain’t cheap. Last I heard, Focus on Overthrowing the Government was having money problems and laying off staff.
Maybe it’s just a friendly, general reminder to the nation- “Enjoy the game, and BTW, don’t forget to Hate Teh Ghey™!!”
RickR, here it is. http://www2.focusonthefamily.com/press/pressreleases/a000001434.cfm
Football player Tim Tebow of U of Florida will be on the commercial.
They are mostly loanwords. It’s the he/she/it/… pronouns that are the only(?) significant remnant of OE(?) gender.
No, I haven’t heard that, that’s interesting. I’ve never actually seen an anti-gay ad on TV, I’ll keep an eye out if I end up watching (read:if the Colts get there), just to see how bigoted, sneaky, or outright dishonest they are. It’s allowed under free speech unless it has actual lies, right? And how is whether something is true or libel determined, anyway? I think I remember some case where a judge had to rule on the existence of god when somebody brought a truth-in-advertising charge against an atheist ad campaign. Anybody else remember that?
“It’s allowed under free speech unless it has actual lies, right?”
That never seems to stop NOM.
I said I needed a break! :-)
:-D
(That’s not me you’re replying to, though. It’s the Nerd.)
Enter Chinese noun classes: much less arbitrary, not discriminatory between genders*, unnecessary, and more confusing than anything found in Europe!!!1!
They took the “one piece of cake”, “one sheet of paper” construction and ran with it. Every noun now requires such a thing between it and the preceding numeral or demonstrative pronoun, and there are lots of different ones, some pretty obscure.
* Though speciesist, in lumping people with abstract nouns and separating them from “animals”.
Just a matter of practice. Fortunately, the only outright silly ones are la barbe and la pine.
Glad my mother tongue is neither inflected or tonal. (except for Pali, Thai, and Chinese loan words)
Get this (…and try to burrow your way through the randomly distributed commas…):
Size does matter.
Not sure if it’s what you are talking about. but a one-man-and-his-dog religious nutter group in England said it was going to launch a counter-campaign saying something like “there definiately is a god”. There was this fantastic quote from either the BBC or The Grauniad (cannot recall or find it now) saying, paraphrasing, “We could not get a statement from the British Humanist Association. We called and asked about the counter-compaign, but only got peals of laugher back.”
Gyeong Hwa Pak,
WIN!
Sorry to hear about the TIA, Lynna, I hope you are on the mend.
It feels strange that I have health insurance when so many of the natives don’t. I don’t think marriage would work out in this case, though… wrong state!
Yes, I definitely lack practice. I have family in France but they just visit once a year. And they all speak English anyway…
La barbe is also feminine in Portuguese (a barba) and in Spanish (la barba), so I don’t have a problem with that one. :)
Due to Thunderbird oddities, the abstract wasn’t copied right, with who knows what kind of line breaks, and at least one line somehow got deleted without leaving any traces… oh, there were two < signs in it. Again…
Size still matters. Utterly. <vehement nodding>
You actually keep the grammar of Pali and the tones of Thai and Chinese words???
PZ has consistently been using that correction for months.
Yes, some words will inflect for gender and number. But these word are rarely used. It think the most I’ve ever heard these words are in religious subject or in Dramas. My dad says that we use Thai and Chinese word that has tone but I haven’t heard any myself.
@Lynna: I wish I could give you a HUGE and a kiss and most definitely some medical insurance (FREE). I’m so sorry. This morning I found out that my ::cough:: prescription plan doesn’t cover my hypertension meds (been off those drugs for three months) or crazy meds (been off one for one month), so I’ve taken to my bed for the time being (only BC and diabetes drugs are covered, neither of which I need).
Sorry to make it about me as usual.
Miss you guys. Hope you all are well.
Lynna, please get well very, very soon.
Grrr — a HUGE hug…
I’m supposed to blame typos on Dr. Who?
Cooties given off by the Rev. BDC. They infest all keyboards that are attached to computers that regularly visit Pharyngula. We all bow to the King of Typos…
Ahhhh, thank you, Nerd of Redhead! And Darn you, Rev. BigDumbChimp!
There’s some Brian Dewan on youtube, but not this one;
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:fvfuxxqkld6e
so I only gotta 30sec clip. Well worth the effort.
I see the next subthread coming on the horizon.
what does “articulated to associated” mean? is that about how well the bones stayed together as they were when the critter was alive?
Full again. Do you people think thread is free or grows on trees or something?
Here’s more.