#27: "'Bigger than Sutton Hoo'? Oh, great. Now all the fundamentalist Hoovians are going to burn their records."
Well, at least they won't get fooled again! *GDANG*
CHip @#37, I think the point was that in Aus terms, and assuming a full 24 hours to drive that distance, it's an average of 85 mph. The distance is almost the same as driving from Chicago to San Francisco in one day.
For Europeans, it's about the distance from London to Damascus (2200 miles).
Robert Llewellyn (Kryten from Red Dwarf) talks about the National Health Service here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bobbyllew#play/uploads/0/4sQKTArZRcU
Warning: Contains Language! Opinions! Accents! Facts! (If you're at work put headphones on.)
earl@129
There was a change a few years after the Handover (still a capital letter Event here), which led to a charge for turning up to the ER. It used to be free, but it went to HKD 100 (about USD 12). This was mainly to discourage people using it for trivial diagnoses which their local doctors (usual visit about HKD 100) could do.
There was no significant change in the hospital rate for Hong Kong ID card holders.
As far as I recall, this was not connected to the handover, and more to do with discouraging peeople from using the ER as their GP.
Hospitals in China are notoriously money-seeky and you get spiels like: you can have this procedure for CNY X, or this procedure plus anaesthetic for CNY 2.X. Usually just after they're prepped you for the procedure and given you an approximation of the levels of pain involved.
I'll chime in here with my experiences in Hong Kong.
If you turn up at the ER with a problem, you get triaged; and dealt with as appropriate. My daughter had some sort of gastro-bug: we had to wait a few hours. My son had a broken arm: instantly stabilised, wait a bit for an x-ray, then a transfer to a hospital with paediatric facilities where they could pin it and sort it out.
Both children were born in public hospitals in HK at the princely cost of $68 per night of hospital stay. For both of them, this was three days, so $204 each. But that's HK dollars, so divide by 7.8: US$26.15 for three nights.
Hospital food was awful, but the Chinese way is that your family will bring you buckets of nourishing broth when you're sick, so the hospital food (rice or macaroni and vegetables) is really only for those with no families and probably better than they'd have in that case anyway.
(There was a canteen in the hospital where you'd frequently see the Doctors eating. Not the best, but not too bad. Pretty typical local lunchtime food: not Macdonalds, but your local sandwich shop, would be a good analogy. There was never a problem with bringing food up from there or bringing ambulatory patients down there.)
You can of course go private here, where you pay lots of money for the same care with better food, and maybe better access to the doctors.
(For what it's worth, and and as an expat point, almost everyone we've ever encounted in the HK public hospitals has spoken more than enough English to do their jobs perfectly. Doctors and nurses, of course, but even orderlies and cleaners have had good communication skills.)
#36, #30: "You say potator, I say bibentor, let's call the whole thing off?"
#108 ::: Fragano Ledgister ::: (view all by) ::: February 28, 2009, 10:55 AM:
Inquiaitive Raven #94: I got something similar purporting to be from South Trust Bank -- of which I was a customer -- about six months after that bank was swallowed by Wachovia. Financial news moves very slowly in Nigeria, it seems.
Or they're deliberately targeting people who aren't up to speed with the latest news because they're likely to be easier marks.
The other day I got a 419 scam as follows:
My name is Sgt.Brian Horn.of the Contract Unit of US Military here in Baghdad-Iraq,we have about USD$29.7 United States Dollars that we want to move out of the country.
The thought of a crack team of US soldiers resorting to dubious measures to smuggle a pocketful of loose change out to a safe haven made me laugh.
Way back when my daughter was tiny, and her little brother was a glint in my eye, I used to make bread.
In between times, I came down with a bad case of RSI, and kneading dough (although not needing dough) was a physical impossibility.
Fast forward to recently, when we moved to a larger place and found a simple bread machine.
It's not a patch on the local artisanal breadmaker (http://www.donq.co.jp - we're in HK, not JP, but if you're in HK and fancy real bread, go to Donq in the basement of the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay.) I dream, that one day, when I have moved to my secret lair, with the lava equipped kitchens, I will be able to bake bread like that.
Meanwhile, the bread I manage to make with a simple bread machine is devoured by my family, while it's hot and fresh. It is a simple recipe, but it works, and it's an amazing feeling to have people get excited when you cook what should be basic food item.
#15:
> Igor: "Wait Master, it might be dangerous... . you go first."
Igor '08: You can *see* he's got his head screwed on right.
Igor '08: A steady pair of hands[1] at the helm.
[1] Hands may not technically belong to the candidate. Yet.
Igor '08: The office of the president has become precious to us.
Soon Lee @141
odaiwai #99:
On account of Gregor Vorbarra being the Emperor of Barrayar?
Of course. Of course, thinking about it now, I'm not sure there's a connection between his family name and the fact that he's the emperor.
I'm still uncertain if Vorbarra House colours are red & blue. This casts some doubt, though the cover of "A Civil Campaign" shows Gregor & Imperial guard in red & blue, there was a suggestion that those are not Vorbarra colours. But they definitely are Imperial colours*.
I haven't read ACC a while, but I think you're right about the distinction.
obTopic, I'm currently Making Room for a nice big monitor from Dell to be delivered on Friday. The Macbook screen is feeling a little small...
#56Would that be a penguin in e.g. Vorkosigan House colours, i.e. brown & silver?
Shouldn't that be Vorbarra house colours? Or did I miss a book?
I was hoping he'd pick Hillary. Purely for his own self interest.
By which I mean that the kind of right-wing nutjob who'd think the country would be better off without an 'uppity'[1] president would balk at handing the job to a woman. And especially to a woman named Hillary Clinton.
Having an Old White Guy Veep reinforces the 'handing the country back to the right folks' vibe such a guy would get.
[1] and all y'all[2] know what I mean by that.
[2] my own choice for a second person plural would be ye, but I'm speaking transatlantic[3] here
[3] Although I'm trans-pacific at the moment, being in Hong Kong.
[4] Unlinked footnotes are usually a key indicator that I'm straying into alt.fan.pratchett territory.
Richard Anderson:
glitterflea, your children's book excerpt rings no bells, but I'm a bit concerned about the idea of swiping a lunging dog with one's fingernails. Seems like the use of a palm, fist, or hefty stick might be more appropriate....
My first reaction was that the hero was obviously a werewolf, or some such beastie.
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| 2006 | 1 |
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