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Comment Separating rubes from their $$$... (Score 2, Insightful) 75

I am a physician. In particular, I am a cardiologist.

Not a (work-)day goes by that I don't get a new consult for someone who got a CT scan of the chest for screening for lung cancer (because they have a smoking history) that shows calcification of the arteries of the heart. Or maybe it's a self-pay coronary calcium score. Or maybe it's an elevated Lipoprotein (a).

These tests lead to unnecessary consultations and increased anxiety. Not with me, but a lot of other physicians will then order stress tests compounding the unneeded testing.

I spend (waste?) my time explaining to them that the best thing they can do is regular exercise and diet and be on the watch for exertional symptoms. Sometimes it clicks with the patients. Other times they come with the mindset that they need a stress test or need a heart catheterization and will give me a poor review or even try to report my to the hospital network I work for.

A total waste of resources.

Comment Re:I thought we were saving the planet? (Score 2) 195

The problem with this is that some states want to tax not just the cars that are registered in the state, but all vehicles that drive through the state.

That being said, whatever rule goes into effect for EVs should be for all vehicles.

You want to do it by weight * miles driven? Great! Do it for all vehicles based on weight * miles driven. Make it payable every time you renew your car's registration.

Easily done.

Comment Re:Random Number Machine (Score 1) 84

>But in a good model, esp. a thinking model, one
>would expect it to think over which sorts of
>numbers are statistically over-chosen (birthdates,
>etc) and avoid them in giving its answers.

and even then, it doesn't affect the chance of *winning*, but rather the chance of being the *sole* winner, as opposed to having to share the price.

[there *is* another possibility, though, albeit unlikely: it could come across a flaw in the RNG that lets it avoid less likely combinations, or choose a more likely one. Again, though, this requires an RNG flaw.]

Comment Re:Make them occasionally? (Score 1) 186

>Mexico has a half peso coin, worth about 2 cents.

and a peso was like a dollar.

I recall my aunt feeling guilty about what she was paying down there when it dropped to about eight to a dollar.

And then they lopped three zeroes off to get the new peso.

I *think* this is half of those one-thousands of the prior peso . . .

After extreme inflation, small matters of rounding aren't even on the radar for what's important.

[Let alone the 27 or so zeroes lopped off in Germany {where, near the end, workers were reportedly paid twice a day, with their wives bringing wheelbarrows to collect, and rushing to spend it before it fell further! (which may be an urban legend; I've never been able to confirm it, but it's not inconsistent with the daily inflation)}. Or Yugoslavia, which lopped off 30 digits . . . ]

Comment Re:Also (Score 1) 48

bah.

Let me know when they start making *autographic* 120 film again. I have the camera, and am dying to shoot a roll!

The last rolls were apparently made in 1932. The cameras had a flap that could flip up and allow writing directly onto the film with a stylus. When you see handwriting on an old picture print, it was likely shot on autographic.

[and, yes, in fact my autographic camera *does* have bellows!]

Comment not really electrolux (Score 1) 123

That Electrolux isn't really an Electrolux.

a couple of decades ago, in one of those weird corporate maneuvers, it sold the name, and now sells its vacuums under another name, while the buyer sells non-electrolux as Electrolux.

So what she knows of Electrolux from the late 20th and early 21st centuries no longer applies.

But, yes, they were very good and lasted forever. Also extremely pricey.

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