LOL

China is fucked.

They're staring down the barrel of a self-inflicted one-child demographic problem that couldn't be worse if it'd been orchestrated by an all-powerful super-villain who hated China.

They've got hundreds if not thousands of Superfund sites ... but no Superfund.

A billion of their people are living in mud hut poverty, and the ones that aren't are living in a real estate bubble that's gargantuanly monstrously huge.

Their provincial debt problems are absolutely staggering.

They have an unbelievably corrupt and oppressive communist government.

The thing they're best at, cheap unskilled labor, is being increasingly exported to southeast Asia.

They've been an irrelevant inconsequential naval power since they burned Zheng He's ships eight fucking centuries ago. Today, they can't even sail to Taiwan.

Sure, China's going to dominate the world. Sure.

China is fucked.

"China is but an embryo slowly morphing into the mighty dragon it will become. It is already too late."

ell oh ell

You're so cute.

When it was "cool" to put wood paneling on the outside of cars.

Nice craftmanship, but they look ridiculous. To each his own.

I am lucky; I am content. Some of it's attributable to hard work, but most of the truth is I was born on 3rd base.

It's nice of you to somehow think I "deserve" more. But it seems you're just projecting your own dissatisfaction (with either your lot in life, or that of the middle class at large) upon me. How weird.

The headline asks why Americans work so much. I gave my answer. Who are you to tell me I'm wrong? That I'm getting screwed? That I should demand more?

In the 1930s my occupation didn't exist as anything remotely resembling what I do today.

It's a little odd for you to pretend to know what I "should" be getting paid, compared to then, on the basis of some speculation about productivity.

I work a job I enjoy and expect to able to retire by 50 (55 if the markets perform really poorly), and you think this is something to bitch about? What a sad fucked up little worldview to have.

I work 50-60 hours per week. That extra work now means I'll be able to quit working entirely around age 50-55.

I make the most of my time off now and don't feel overworked. I enjoy my job.

It does seem that most people are working extra hours to make the interest payment on the debt they incurred buying shit they didn't need with money they didn't have, but vaguely planned to earn later. Maybe that's just observational bias. Everybody likes to think they've got it all figured out and are acting rationally and responsibly, in a manner superior to the "average" person; I'm probably no exception.

But I don't think so.

How could a federal database of people with mental health problems (instantly searchable during the background check) possibly be in compliance with HIPAA?

Yeah, they're bastards, but if you want to understand nuclear disarmament, look at what happened to Ukraine.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, they willingly gave up their nuclear weapons to Russia in exchange for the solemn promise, pinky swear, that their sovereignity would be respected.

And Russia waited a little while and took the Crimean peninsula.

Now I ask you, having observed that, what nation would ever be stupid enough to give up their nuclear weapons, ever?

Xenon would be better. Above an inspired concentration of about 70%, it's a general anesthetic. Sleep first, perfect pain relief, then hypoxia, then death.

Of course, observers would still see movement and agonal breathing, and would (incorrectly) exclaim that the condemned is "suffering" despite being under general anesthesia.

What, did someone move it after it sank?

Heh, could be. But, you've got to keep one thing firmly in mind when it comes to nurse:intern interactions: the average intern hears 6 pieces of bullshit from a nurse for every piece of important, accurate information.

Next to a July intern, a confident seasoned nurse is the most dangerous person in the hospital.

So you're saying, that because sales stats show young people didn't buy very many cars during the worst recession since the Depression, that young people don't want cars?

That's like saying teenage boys don't really want pussy because they can't get any. Your entire post is one bitter rationalization of how you don't really want the things you don't have money to buy.

Nice touch tossing in the ad hominem racism attack at the end there.

I hope tomorrow is a happier day for you.

[Snowden] will be shown to be a hero, this decade's Cindy Sheehan.

Huh. Interesting. I must've missed the "Cindy Sheehan is a hero" memo. At least one of us is out of touch.

4 decades ago the US landed a man on the moon. They couldn't do that today - heck we couldn't even get a man into low earth orbit today. So being 4 decades behind the US space program doesn't sound like a bad thing.

The US could put a man on the moon fairly easily, and soon.

We just choose not to, because it's expensive, and as a nation we've judged that there's no point in going there for an afternoon of tourism. Especially considering our reduced tolerance for the risk of a blow'd up spacecraft and messily killed astronauts, risks that were easily accepted in the 1960s.

China's still in the "tourism is a useful learning experience" stage with expendable human cargo.

I know it's Slashdot-fashionable to downplay US abilities and stature in the world, but don't conflate the different goals and attitudes into a statement on capability.

Uh, they have a licensed pharmacist right there to analyze the results, in the rest of the world a pharmacist can basically do everything an NP can do because they have to know medicine and pharmacology to do their job.

As a physician, every time I read something like this, I think ... when the day comes that people get their "free" and "efficient" healthcare from the "friendly" and "responsive" NPs and other midlevels who "spend more time with me" and "empathize", they are going to get exactly what they deserve.

Kind of like that old saw about people getting the government they deserve. You're going to get the health care you deserve. The notion of a pharmacist making a diagnosis of anything based on blood work is just so far out into the realm of absurd that it all I can do is shake my head.

Consider the possibilty that you don't know what you don't know.

Medical specialty board certification doesn't work that way.

It is not (NOT!) required to practice medicine.

State licensure and credentialing by each facility is required to practice medicine.

Board certification for many specialties is not even possible until the physician is 2 or 3 years out of residency training. Of course they are working and practicing in the specialty during that time. These physicians are usually referred to as "board eligible" because they're in the examination process.

There are many phsyicians in all specialties who are not "certified" by their respective specialty boards. They may have been unable to pass the exams. They may have never bothered to take the exams. They may have been certified previously, but chosen not to pay the high fees and jump through the hoops (many of which are silly) to recertify. They can still practice medicine. There is something of a growing stigma to not being board certified, but it isn't unheard of.

Full disclosure: I'm a physician, certified by my specialty board. I value board certification and think it means something when it comes to the competence of a physician. But it's not the end all, be all.

My specialty's board can be an expensive pain in the ass. More than once I've wished I could just give them the finger and get certified by a competing organization ... but there is no competing organization.