- I’m not sure why libraries are installing 3D printers. Implications could be intriguing. (H/T Pat)
- Ancient DNA is telling us we’ve been all mixed up much more than previously supposed.
- Garland, Paris, Charlie Hebdo and dangerous myths. Well done. Garry Trudeau should be ashamed.
- The question Joss Whedon keeps asking. (I’m not sure that’s the question at all; interesting article anyhow.)
- Overkill on medical testing and procedures. When I saw the headline I suspected another creepy Emanuelesque justification of diminishing medical care. This is the genuine good stuff, though.
- She suffered through cancer. Then she designed the cards she would have liked to have gotten from friends and family.
Those library printers aren’t ready for prime time. I printed three books, and when I got home I found all the pages stuck together; couldn’t open a single darned book.
Thanks for the article about genes. Fascinating!
I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the Hebdo article. This kind of minute dissection of events and people I have barely heard about just makes me tired. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Who the hell cares?
I did get to this funny point though: “the right of people to speak their minds without fear of murder”. Sheesh, can people be that obtuse? There is no such right. Speaking one’s mind always entails some risk. Just deal with the risk and get on with your life. Stop imagining this pie in the sky is going to protect you; talk about a “dangerous myth”! The gun in your holster is what protects you.
[Aware that no one is going to help the settlers if he doesn’t, Captain Mal resolves to return the advance deposit Niska paid him, return the medicine to the settlers, and walk away. Niska objects; violence ensues. The settlers get their medicine, Niska gets his money, and Mal gets an implacable enemy.]
Bad decision Mal. If you are someone with scruples, the thing to do is find out what the job is, before accepting a contract with a guy like Niska. It’s not like he didn’t have plenty of warnings what the result would be.
I responded this way to the question of the article:
“Wrong question. Obviously, everything is already for sale. There is no such concept as whether it *should* be for sale; that is just pointless daydreaming. The real question is, what things that are on the market, should you as an individual buy or sell? The answer is controlled by your sense of decency, by what you can stomach, by what allows you to sleep at night. Your answer might not work for someone else.”
On the medical article (I admit I didn’t read much): People have these weird ideas about medical care, as if providers are supposed to be saints. They are not. They are people out to make a buck, just like everybody else. Caveat emptor…
Upon the question of what should be for sale, it got me thinkig of the Pied Piper. Particularly about what happened when the village council decided to violate the contract and not pay him. They probably should of called Truly Nolen.
Digging deeper in the Hebdo/Garland thing:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/05/no_author/gladio-texas-style/
Maybe the whole thing is one gigantic manipulation…
Very interesting article, but I think the author’s admiration of Medicare and the Unafordable Obomacare act will prove to be a problem to him and all who share that faith.
As I’ve said so many times before… this medicine thing is going to get a lot worse before it gets much better, and that goes for those of us who know what to look for and how to judge what’s offered. The game is rigged, even if you are willing and able to pay for it yourself.
I’ve not seen a doctor in ten years, and don’t want to, but I need a blood test. I’d like to have it about every four or five years, though I CAN manage do do without it. The problem is that I can’t get the test without involving a doctor, and I’ve never met one who would be happy to have me walk in, ask for the script and walk out. Oh no, they want to assume control and, especially, they want me to take the pills. I won’t do it.
One thing the author never even mentioned was the enormous role unnecessary and harmful drug therapy plays in this avalanche of unnecessary medical care. It is an even larger problem than unneeded tests and surgery and it kills thousands of people each year – not to mention the mind bending cost of it all.
People can keep doctors and hospitals, etc. honest, without preventing them from making a living, exactly the way we can and should deal with plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics and so forth. The doctors, etc. are simply never going to be saints, anymore than the plumber.
I love the Empathy Cards. There should be more for various illnesses and medical problems. Some people make jokes at patients’ expense, others belittle the patient’s symptoms or refuse to understand what’s involved, some are noisy and ill-mannered, still others ask the most asinine – and the nosiest – questions. The cards should be sold in every hospital gift shop, for the enlightenment it might give to visitors.
There’s several ways to look at medical overkill. It began about the same time that TV started advertising drugs (and for symptoms rather than illness, which made a rather large advertising budget), lawyers were given leeway to advertise, medical lawsuits were on the rise, and technology brought out new (expensive) equipment for diagnosing – which of course had to be paid for. All this made a lot of doctors and hospitals nervous, the result being that this equipment was installed – and used – in order to justify their diagnosis and their charges. If a mis-diagnosis occurred, the doctor/hospital was *immediately* blamed and labelled incompetent, and nobody could prove they weren’t. In addition, medical schools were turning out a new breed of doctor, based on the schools’ R & D program and playing footsie with government, rather than attempting to treat the patient AND GET HIM WELL. And all of this slam-dunked home by government interference, plus insurance/pharmaceutical companies’ greediness (‘greediness’ not to be confused with ‘making a profit’).
None of the above excuses the overkill, but it does help to explain how it got to this point.
We aren’t “all mixed up.” We’re all human.
How can Trudeau et al not understand they’re all on the same hit list.
Joss Whedon isn’t asking about pay, he’s talking about freedom.
Young River Tam: People don’t like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don’t run, don’t walk. We’re in their homes and in their heads and we haven’t the right. We’re meddlesome.
The cards are good. But keep in mind that different cancer patients have different ways of dealing with the situation, and need to hear different messages.
Empathy Cards? That would be a problem for me I don’t do empathy. How about offering a kidney, piece of your liver, couple grams of medicinal marijuana from your personal stash etc instead of a card? Spend time with the person, watch the sunset with them, hold their hair out of the way while they hurl in the toilet, learn how to prepare food that won’t make them sick or hasten their demise. Find them an empty Chock-Full-O-Nuts coffee can. Sit in their room so they know they don’t have to die alone. Guess I know why I don’t work for Hallmark.
Good point, Paul, and thanks for the link…I do question this statement: “Neither the AFDI nor the patsies involved in the shooting deserve the public’s sympathy or defense.” Well, guess what? The AFDI and the patsies aren’t getting the public’s sympathy or defense…most of the attention is going to the Garland PD officer that took out the would-be jihadists with a handgun.