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Comment Re:Quality (Score 2) 378

The US also spends more money per capita on its healthcare than any other country, and only ends up with middling life expectancy. That is almost entirely down to the role of inefficient private (scattered and for profit) health care as opposed to most other countries in the OECD that have a more efficient public (centralised and not for profit) health system. Essentially the US might crow about its low tax rates but all they really did was privatise tax and force ordinary people to pay more money. As an aside, I hadn't found any numbers but I'd also expect that the US' middling life expectancy is pulled up by the ability of the rich to "buy" years. My guess is that, given the endemic povery in the US, their median life expectancy is even worse.

https://www.statista.com/stati...

So, that being the case, I'd be interested to see the extent of for-profit private education providers, which would include home schooling and religious schools, in the US system. The same thing may be in play?

I don't disagree that private providers might provide an individual like-for-like service, in an effcient way, but in then taking profit in the form of dividends they end up spending less effectively overall at a greater cost for the consumer. Their efficiency is only there to create profit.

Comment Re:LIkely in breach of GDPR (Score 1) 192

Article 5(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in common with existing data protection legislation in many jursidictions, defines requirements for accuracy of personal data. If the job title that a person held is regarded as personal data then Apple is in breach if it changes this data to something that does not reflect a true value and, worse, then exports that data out into other systems.

Why would it not be a breach to export it to external systems? it's personal information they aren't allowed to share without permission

If the job title that a person held is regarded as personal data then Apple is in breach if it... then exports that data out into other systems.

I needed to break my last sentence into two. Bad writing style. Sorry.

Comment LIkely in breach of GDPR (Score 1) 192

Article 5(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in common with existing data protection legislation in many jursidictions, defines requirements for accuracy of personal data. If the job title that a person held is regarded as personal data then Apple is in breach if it changes this data to something that does not reflect a true value and, worse, then exports that data out into other systems.

Is a job title personal data?

Article 4 of the GDPR states: "‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person."

Further:

"This element is very inclusive. It includes “objective” information, such as an individual’s height, and “subjective” information, like employment evaluations. "

So, in Europe, UK, Australia, and New Zealand (at least) this action by Apple appears to be illegal to start off with, and becomes doubly so if Apple refused to correct the mistake when asked. I'm not familiar enough with the US to know if it cares about data accuracy versus $$$.

Comment Re:Fuck no (Score 1) 869

Some people can not get the vaccines because they are immunocompromised.

Your comment is just so much BS. I'm immuno-compromised because of drugs I have had to take following a transplant following bone-marrow cancer. The transplant effectively wiped my immune system clean and then rebooted it. Every immunity I had had ever developed through vaccine or real life was gone and my new immune system decided I would make a better target, at least without drugs that would tell it 'no'.

My specialists were encouraging me from the earliest days to get a Covid vaccine as soon as I could, and get boosters to follow that. Talking with people in my support group the same has been true for all of them. Even now, with all that, I steadfastly work from home, supported by my employer, and wear a mask outside,and diligently wash my hands all of the time, hoping that I can tilt some of the numbers in my favour.

People talk about Omicron having really low fatality rates... well, I'm the person likely to be that statistic, and high rates of transmission in the community makes every interaction with other human beings something of a game of Russian Roulette, albeit with a much larger cylinder.

The only things that people like me cannot be vaccinated against are for diseases that require a live vaccine - chicken pox, measles, and mumps.

So, from the bottom of my heart, I thank every person who reads and writes here, and who decided to get vaccinated and care about the people in the world around you.

I hate - because you hate that which you fear - every person who spreads disinformation about the covid vaccine and stacks the numbers a little bit more against me every time they convince someone else not to get vaccinated, or not to follow up with a booster, or to walk around while knowingly infected.

Comment Re:Wow Irony (Score 1) 147

dude - in Australia the 'Liberals' are completely opposite of what you think they are in North America - you'd call them right wing republitards.

Except that the Australian Libtards hate the idea of a republic so maybe they are more like republi-mono-tards.

And then you consider that US Republicans would like an effectively unelected President with unlimited power and you begin to see that maybe they and their Australian political brethren aren't so different.

Comment Re:Other side of the coin (Score 1) 120

Yeah, this is way too USA-biased, not taking the benefits to Russia/siberia into account at all.

Benefits? When the Siberian permafrost defrosts, most scientific analysis suggests that it release massive amounts of methane, which is a significantly more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. It doesn't even need to be permanent. One good, unusually hot summer might be enough? The likelihood is that our somewhat pathetic attempts to reduce carbon emissions will then be irrelevant. This type of feedback - a negative consequence of further climate change - really will push this to be a full-blown crisis.

Maybe it won't matter to us because it might take decades for sufficient warming in Siberia to eventuate? Still, our children and grandchildren aren't going to remember us with any fondness. My guess is we'll be remembered the way we remember those who thought diseases were caused by noxious vapors and the Sun orbited the Earth.

Comment Re:Genesis (Score 1) 285

In further news, God says 'Meh, I did it in six days. I've got better things to do now' and settles back on the couch with Christoper Hitchens to have an all-night session watching season 2 of South Park that they downloaded from an illegal torrent.

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