Epacris @146:
If foundation is profit, not service, it's continually pushing against care & safety.
And therefore the extra tests that insurance doesn't pay for, the push to prescribe the drugs that are part of the pharmaceutical companies' incentive programs, the pressure for unnecessary surgery.
I've been fighting with doctors over antidepressants for more than a decade. My current doc has largely solved the mystery with a low dose of thyroid medication and vitamin D supplements.
Some of those previous doctors were uninformed, certainly; there has been a lot of new research since I saw them. One was spectacularly lazy, diagnosing me based on a questionnaire I filled out in the waiting room. The most recent, it will be impossible to convince me that kickbacks aren't involved.
Zack @142:
There's one very bad assumption he's making in that article:
Imagine my father’s hospital had to present the bill for his “care†not to a government bureaucracy, but to my grieving mother. Do you really believe that the hospital—forced to face the victim of its poor-quality service, forced to collect the bill from the real customer—wouldn’t have figured out how to make its doctors wash their hands?
Not for a minute do I believe that who the invoicing machinery in a hospital gives the bill to will make a lick of difference. The only power a consumer has is to take their business elsewhere, and that's not so easy to do with health care.
Terry @38
What is being bruited about is the use of the word, "adhered" Mcaughey would have you believe the doctor is required to force the patient to adhere to the directive if said doctor is to avoid a small hit on the rating.
That made me angry to the point of incoherency. That provision gives the next of kin some weapon, however small, to make sure the living will is followed.
My mother assumed that the last trip to the hospital, like the ones before, would end with Dad coming home. So she agreed to the installation of a feeding tube. A few days after the tube was installed, he had a cascade of microstrokes that left him unable to swallow or talk. A few weeks later, he was moved to a nursing home.
Once there, his regular doctor was shoved out of the loop, and he was assigned to a staff doctor. Mom had come to accept that he would not be coming home and tried to get the tube removed. The new doctor refused, even with Dad's living will in front of him, and managed to thoroughly scare her about how it would increase his suffering. She called me, and I flew in to handle it.
Which I did, implacable, serene, and well-armed with copious research about his various ailments. And armed with the one thing that finally ended it when he switched from medical horror stories to arguments designed to guilt me into backing down.
"Doctor," I said, "my parents are Christians. They do not fear death. Rather, they see it as a rest and reward for a life well lived."
I have never been able to shake the feeling that money was at the root of his opposition.
I did allow them to continue to give him fluids, mostly because I felt that Mom needed the time. I've never regretted that decision. While he never regained the ability to swallow, he did eventually recover enough to talk, and he got to say goodbye.
Scott @78
The simplest counter-point is "God helps those who help themselves." Not that I have the SLIGHTEST idea where that expression came from, and am TOTALLY aware of its "God doesn't actually do anything undercurrent," it still expresses a popular attitude among religious people.
Ben Franklin writing as Poor Richard is probably the best known source (to Americans), but I don't think it originated with him.
Star Trek:
C. Wingate @ 660: Vg jnf rabhtu gb pbaivapr gur oevqtr perj, juvpu jnf nyy ur arrqrq.
Fbzrguvat V arrq gb erzrzore gb jngpu sbe jura frrvat vg ntnva: qvq Huhen creznaragyl eryvrir gur pbzzhavpngvbaf bssvpre, be qvq gur bevtvany sryybj gnxr gur fgngvba onpx nsgre ure nggrzcg gb fbeg bhg gur Ihypna naq Ebzhyna fvtanyf. Vs gur ynggre, gura fur jnfa'g ernyyl nonaqbavat ure cbfg gb punfr nsgre Fcbpx, fbzrguvat gung obgurerq zr sbe nyy fbegf bs ernfbaf.
Lee @ 650: BTW, at the end of the G.I. Joe trailer, I made an audible comment about, "Now, THEY got power suits! Why couldn't they have done that for Starship Troopers?" It got some laughs from the people around us.
I was thinking something similar with both G.I. Joe and Star Trek. Pub fnvq gurve fcnpr qebc fhvgf jrer nyzbfg vzcbffvoyr gb zbir va. V erpnyy urnevat gung gur vzzbovyvgl bs gur Ongfhvg jnf jul gur svtugf va Ongzna Ortvaf jrer svyzrq fb punbgvpnyyl. V jbaqre vs gung unq fbzrguvat gb qb jvgu gur jnl gur pnzren whzcrq nebhaq va gur svtug ba gur qevyy.
Star Trek
C. Wingate@ 644: Vg'f zber be yrff pnaba gung gur Ihypnaf unir n fhcrevbevgl pbzcyrk: frr "Nu, lrf, bar bs lbhe uhzna rzbgvbaf" ("Jurer Ab Zna Unf Tbar Orsber"). Gung fbeg bs guvat vf pbzzbacynpr va gur Gerx jbeyq, gur xrl rkprcgvbaf orvat Sreratvane, Onwbe, naq Rnegu.
Znlor vg'f whfg orpnhfr V unir grra-ntrq xvqf, ohg zl ernpgvba gb Areb'f fghoobearff ng gur raq jnf jrnevarff.
V guvax zl frafr bs gung fhcrevbevgl pbzcyrk pnzr zber sebz Fnerx, jvgu Fgne Syrrg abg orvat "tbbq rabhtu" sbe n Ihypna. Nalguvat Fcbpx fnvq ba gur fhowrpg nyjnlf sryg gb zr yvxr birepbzcrafngvba.
Nf sbe Areb, Xvex'f beqre gb sver frrzrq gb or bar cneg crefbany eriratr, bar cneg eriratr ba Fcbpx'f orunys, naq bar cneg zrepl fgebxr.
V gubhtug gur pbasebagngvba jnf jrnx orpnhfr V qbhogrq gung Fcbpx jbhyq sbyq fb dhvpxyl, ohg nyfb orpnhfr uvz univat sbyqrq, gurer'f ab pyrne ernfba jul Xvex fubhyq raq hc va gur pncgnva'f punve.
Fcbpx'f ernpgvba rpubrq gur fprar sebz uvf puvyqubbq. Gur ohyyvrf naq Xvex obgu uvg gur fnzr ubg ohggba.
Nf sbe Xvex naq gur punve, jr unir Cvxr znxvat uvz KB naq Fcbpx Cevzr gryyvat uvz gung ur UNQ gb gnxr pbzznaq. Juvpu nyfb yrq gb jung V guvax jnf gur ernfba sbe znxvat gur Xbonlnfuv Zneh fb pevatrjbegul: gur pbagenfg orgjrra gur vzzngher Xvex bs gur grfg naq gur zber frevbhf Xvex bs bayl n srj qnlf yngre.
Star Trek:
Wesley @ 593: VVEP, vg jnf Trbetr Gnxrv jub fhttrfgrq gur encvre.
V'z nsenvq V'ir nyjnlf pbafvqrerq encvref gb or cerggl zhpu hfryrff va n erny svtug. Gurl'er gbb yvtug naq gbb rnfvyl oebxra naq ernyyl bayl qrnqyl vs gur fjbeqfzna vf irel snzvyvne jvgu gur bccbarag'f nangbzl. V whfg nffhzrq gung Fhyh, yvxr zbfg srapref V'ir xabja, fghqvrf zhygvcyr fglyrf naq qrpvqrq n fynfuvat oynqr jnf zber nccebcevngr gb gur fvghngvba.
abi @ 586: Ihypnaf unir srryvatf, vg gheaf bhg, naq gurl'er enpvfg nffubyrf naljnl, fb jub arrqf gurve ragver nyvra phygher?
Ihypnaf unir nyjnlf unq srryvatf naq nyjnlf pnzr npebff gb zr nf univat n fhcrevbevgl pbzcyrk. Naq nyy bs gurfr punenpgref ner lbhatre guna jr erzrzore gurz, jvgu pbafvqrenoyl yrff aba-npnqrzvp rkcrevrapr. V'z ubcrshy gung gur rneyl erpbapvyvngvba jvgu Fnerx, naq jung V nffhzr jnf n yratgul qvfphffvba bss-fperra orgjrra gurz, jvyy gnxr gur cynpr bs fbzr bs gur rkcrevrapr Fcbpx unq va gur byq pnaba. V fhfcrpg gung gur byqre snaf jub, yvxr zr, guvax guvf vf n cebzvfvat fgneg jvyy ghea ba gurz va qebirf vs gur punenpgref qba'g frggyr bhg avpryl va gur frdhry.
thomas @85
I think the coverage on the San Francisco affiliate of NBC, which I've been watching in the past few minutes, has been pretty reasonable.
Must be nice.
Just the local news promos during last night's Castle was enough to send people already inclined to anxiety into full-blown panics. The newsreader seemed on the edge of panic herself, having to report that we might have a case of this strain of swine flu inside our state borders.
#68: It doesn't explain the deranking of the disability-related books.
Eloise:
What I did when selling books through Amazon and Half was set up a separate checking account and move the money out of it into my regular account as quickly as possible. I did this mostly because I don't really trust Paypal.
Of course, I'm lucky in banking at a credit union that has very low minimum balances to avoid fees. YMMV.
If you're dealing mostly in penny books, one of the swaps (I love Paperbackswap) is probably your best bet, but it's hard to justify swapping a book that sells for $5 on Amazon.
I wouldn't dismiss the profitability of vaccines too quickly. The vaccines Wyeth makes are widely reported to be one of the reasons Pfizer wants to acquire them.
Kennedy was reportedly conscious and talking to people by the time they put him in the ambulance.
anything that gets built, and a lot of what's rebuilt, has to provide extravagant roads.
I'm curious what you consider extravagant. Also where this extravagance is being required.
Quite a few years ago, wandering through a university library, I stumbled across a book-and-map set that turned out to be a translation of a pre-Great War German military analysis of the Russo-Japanese War.
They predicted the Front based on what they had seen in the East.
#37 cajunfj40:
OG, methane is the primary component of Natural Gas. Any gasoline powered car can be converted to CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) usage quite easily, and there are companies that make a business out of it. ... This is a solved problem, other than the availability of the fuel.
I'm aware of that. The lack of availability is what keeps it from being an option for many people. As the backup system for an electric car, though, that becomes much less of a problem.
There are a number of small towns and low-population counties whose landfills and treatment plants don't produce enough methane to justify building the facilities for storing and compressing it. They just burn it off. I can see the municipalities and counties I work with jumping all over switching out their public utilities vehicles to electric-plus-methane with refueling at the treatment plant, assuming they have help with the start-up costs and the economics of the vehicle cost + maintenance work out.
It's definitely something to keep an eye on.
#31 Bruce:
We're already producing methane from sewage treatment and landfills, a lot of which is immediately burned off. I'd love to see the new administration providing grants and/or loans to add processing and storage facilities. A feasible methane-powered car could be enough of a push to get it started.
Adrian @ 35: Have you tried a Gyration Mouse? I've also used Wacom tablets when my wrist starts complaining about my ergonomic mouse. Both work well for me.
ADM, I don't see that this picture "seems to accentuate McCain's physical impairments" or even reminds most people about them. I just see someone acting silly, and that silliness (mostly the facial expression) reminds me of the way a child will follow people and make faces and stalking motions behind their backs.
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