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Comment Re:for profit healthcare needs to go and the docto (Score -1) 51

This is retarded.

1. It isn't for profit healthcare that is the problem, it's THIRD PARTY PAY.
2. I don't use third party pay, ever, for healthcare. I've been insured nonstop for over 30 years, and NEVER ONCE has my insurer paid my doctor.
3. Even when I've had emergencies, I still called around, negotiated a fair cash up front rate, paid cash up front, and billed it to my insurer. My cash up front rate was sometimes below any co-pay negotiated with my insurer, lol.

I just recently had some elective surgery that would have cost me about $2000 on my annual deductible, but I was able to cash pay a negotiated rate of $400 including a follow-up "free". I submitted the $400 to my insurer and they reimbursed me.

Third party insurance exists because YOU VOTERS demanded the HMO Act of the 1970s, which tied health care to employment, and then employers outsourced it to third parties.

Health care is remarkably cheap in the US (cash pay, negotiated) and I don't have to wait months to see a doctor when I call and say I am cash pay. They bump me up fast.

Comment Not sure if this affects local fees, but maybe (Score 1) 15

At least around where I live, if a cable provider wants to offer service in a given town, they negotiate a deal with that town where the town gets a little bit of money per cable customer. That money funds things like community-access TV stations, staff and gear, studios at high schools, and so on, so you can watch the local sportsball team, or whatever boring town government meeting, and so on and so forth.

Those community-based things have taken a huge funding hit due to cord-cutting, so they (and towns) have been curious about whether something similar might be worked out for high-speed broadband on a per-customer basis. The local community-access station here has also started looking for sponsorships from local businesses and such, to make up the gap in funding.

Comment Re: trump take electricity (Score -1) 238

Nah.

Iâ(TM)m 51. Iâ(TM)ve had health insurance continuously for 35 years and have used it exactly ZERO TIMES.

I am self pay. For everything but true life threatening emergencies, which Iâ(TM)ve had zero.

Even the ER is cheaper when negotiated self pay.

My urologist is stunned that I pay $85 for his visits. Self pay. Including labs. My colleague goes to the same urologist and his insurance pays $550 for the same visit and naturally it comes out of his deductible lol.

Insurance is a scam. All insurance is legal gambling and gamblers never win.

Comment Re:HBO canceling will get aggressive (Score 3, Funny) 25

Im not a Max user, but I remember Netflix having account tiers for different amounts of streams at once or whatever.

After that, it seems simple, just use a FIFO. If youre allowed N streams, have N streams going, and another person logs in with the same credentials and starts a stream? You just disconnect whoevers been on the longest. Maybe pop up a little message saying "your account allows N streams; a new stream was started from [IP, Geolocation, sub-account profile, whatever] so youve been logged out." If the person who got booted is smart enough to log right back in, whoever connected right after them gets booted. And so on.

The problem would resolve itself very quickly, although it would temporarily result in a huge increase in the sentence "Police said the victim and their attacker were known to each other."

Follow me for more tips on family harmony.

Comment Re: Expecting the public to THINK?! (Score 1, Troll) 160

The essence of current scientific philosophy was nailed down by Popper:

Popper essentially said that you cannot prove anything, all you can do is try to disprove it and if you fail it is probably true.

Explaining Popper to the great unwashed is difficult but must be within the bounds of a great communicator. Teaching of science in schools does not explain this important point. It must be possible to change the school curriculum to help children discover this and maybe they will help educate the adults.

When future generations look back, they will not be able to believe we had a situation where a failed lawyer with a strong brandname was in charge of healthcare policy of the largest and richest country in the world, and who clearly has no scientific understanding.
It is very uncommon for politicians to have a scientific background : in the UK Margaret Thatcher was the last top level politician who did: she had a PhD in chemistry from Oxford.

Comment Re:Oh holy shit (Score 2, Interesting) 89

Everyone I know who makes my equivalent AGI, except for my household, has 1+ dogs, work crazy hours, and have been told that their dogs are lonely and depressed.

Not one or two people.

EVERYONE. Dozens upon dozens of my clients, colleagues, peers, friends from grade school, etc, have a dog or two, and then they have to have someone come spend time with said dog when they're putting 10+ hours away from them.

Wag/Rover/etc is part of their crazy consumer spending. I always am shocked to hear they're spending $1000 a month on their pets.

Americans are insane about their pets. Instead of buying a dog, I invest in corporate veterinary hospitals, because it's crazy profitable.

Comment Make a US-based Foxconn (Score 1) 233

If Palmer really wants to make a difference, rather than trying to copy an American company's product that is currently manufactured overseas for price reasons, he should try to copy the overseas manufacturing processes, capability, etc. I'm pretty certain CNC lathes, laser cutters, EUV lithography equipment, et cetera are all available in the US for anyone willing to spend the money. US-based flexible contract manufacturing capability, immune to tariffs and ITAR, could definitely be a thing.

Comment Re:It's About Time.... (Score 2) 118

UNESCO stands for the "United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization"
and was founded after WW2 to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science, and culture.
UNESCO sites include Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.

Yes, this. UNESCO doesn't "do" science, it promotes international cooperation in science. About twenty years ago, when George W. Bush was President, I went to UNESCO headquarters in Paris for the "Third Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts and Islands," convened by something called the "Global Ocean Forum," led by the late Dr. Biliana Cicin-Sain. At that point in time, the Forum was hosted at the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy at the University of Delaware.

That was an age when the US saw value in having a leadership role in global policy on things involving Education, Science and Culture, the ESC in UNESCO.

We now have a President and administration that sees Education, Science and Culture as things to be attacked. Times have changed.

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