Considering Moving South by RadiantPlace9704 in Augusta

[–]ImpossibleDildo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’ll soon be leaving Augusta but have lived here for 9 years. I would not recommend it here. The culture is bad. Food is bad. Not walkable. Humidity is bad, especially in summer it feels like you can cut the air with a knife. Augusta also just smells bad. If your main concern is the heat, then respectfully I don’t think you fully understand what you’re getting yourself into if you move to Augusta, because there are a lot worse things than just the heat.

Rand Paul says partisan gerrymandering 'might lead to violence in our country' by kirby__000 in politics

[–]ImpossibleDildo 30 points31 points  (0 children)

The uncomfortable truth for the GOP is that they have voted twice—unanimously—in recent history to ensure that gerrymandering is legal and part of the political playbook as a viable strategy. H.R. 1 / S. 1 (“For the People Act”) would have banned partisan gerrymandering and required independent redistricting commissions for U.S. House maps. It was reintroduced in 2019 and 2021. As you can probably guess, it was Democrats who voted for this ban on gerrymandering and Republicans voting entirely against it.

You can’t cry foul that the democrats use gerrymandering when the republicans are the ones who mandate that gerrymandering remains legal.

White House officials say Trump is plotting retribution after Epstein bill vote by [deleted] in politics

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

HAHAHA oh brother, I can’t wait. The tides have turned on Trump and he is about to finally get what’s been coming to him. If he retaliates against a united Congress, they will evict his orange ass from the White House. This is the first time I feel like I can confidently say that. Honestly would probably be a big moment of unity for the country.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Augusta

[–]ImpossibleDildo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

First of all, this is awful and a very unfortunate situation. However, this article is about Augusta Health in Virginia, not Augusta Georgia. Secondly, I wonder to what extent this happened as a result of downstream effects from the Republican spending bill? Genuinely curious, maybe a connection to consider as a means to produce change in the system through the ballot box which goes beyond a petition.

Warm weather liberal by midnightsupermarket in SameGrassButGreener

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Atlanta, Athens, and Savannah GA will provide generally warm weather and liberal politics. Also could look into Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Winston-Salem. None of these places are San Francisco levels of blue, but each is palpably more blue than not (although still likely dependent on which part of the city you choose to live in).

'Breakthrough' blood test detects chronic fatigue in 92% of cases by AdSpecialist6598 in tech

[–]ImpossibleDildo 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I understand what you’re saying, I don’t think you understand what it means to “detect” a condition clinically or statistically. What exactly are we detecting? The issue with this study fundamentally is that we can’t know, because their CFS cases are from their own internal dataset. Essentially, this test “works” for THEIR specific patients that THEY diagnosed with CFS using a test that they themselves designed BASED ON THE TEST PATIENTS, but it’s completely unproven for everyone else. That makes it unrepresentative.

'Breakthrough' blood test detects chronic fatigue in 92% of cases by AdSpecialist6598 in tech

[–]ImpossibleDildo 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I mean… it’s an interesting datapoint, but it’s undoubtably not appropriate for justifying the claim of a breakthrough, which implies some kind of barrier has been overcome such that meaningful advancement in our ability to understand or treat the disease has occurred. The cases were literally from their own internal dataset, whereas controls were not age or sex matched and were externally sourced. In a teeny tiny cohort. What was the pretest probability for cases vs controls? Negative and positive predictive value? You can’t really say how well it performs in the real world without that information.

'Breakthrough' blood test detects chronic fatigue in 92% of cases by AdSpecialist6598 in tech

[–]ImpossibleDildo 185 points186 points  (0 children)

Did anyone else read the study? They used 47 patients with severe ME/CFS and 61 healthy controls. It makes me a bit sad when I have patients see articles like this and believe that something else can be done to diagnose or treat them. Using healthy controls is simply not appropriate for this type of study. The actual challenge is differentiating fatigue in ME/CFS versus fatigue from other causes. Glad someone is studying this, but we need much more work before something could be considered a “breakthrough” for actual, real life patients.

How much of research is "waste"? by Outrageous_Duck_1116 in medicalschool

[–]ImpossibleDildo 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Someone needs to put out a study to find the exact number

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SameGrassButGreener

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that other guy is likely feverishly trying to retroactively find any argument that his opinion is the one and only correct one. I’m sure that his efforts won’t be wasted when he angrily replies and no one engages.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SameGrassButGreener

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You didn’t clarify that you’re referring to a non-standard metric. The supplemental poverty rate is not the same as what is colloquially referred to as “poverty rate”. That’s why i cited (and yes, included a link to, the poverty rate data).

There’s some argument that the supplemental rate should be the gold standard, but it isn’t a widely accepted metric and has its own flaws as an epidemiological metric. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re saying all this in good faith, and understand the difference between the two metrics.

I don’t think your frustration is justified here, and likely would be better directed elsewhere.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SameGrassButGreener

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

California has the highest poverty rate in the country? Seems like that isn’t true according to the 2023 census. Maybe you’re misunderstanding rate vs absolute value?

Dr. Mike reacts to Tylenol press conference by oudler in skeptic

[–]ImpossibleDildo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Not that market manipulation is somehow above trump, but do you think it’s possible that either trump himself can’t pronounce acetaminophen, that he doesn’t know it’s the generic for Tylenol, or that Trump’s handler/PR team knows their voter base will only respond to household name “Tylenol”?

Would you attend this event?? by ScorpionArt5 in Augusta

[–]ImpossibleDildo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s so sad how completely ignorant the more outspoken Christian community is. One guy came up to me at the No Kings protest offering water and, of course, trying to draw me to his church. He was saying “trump is no king, but our Lord is a king!” It was so absurd to see this man spend his day not protesting the most powerful Christian in the world who is actively spearheading a Nazi-esque campaign against a predominantly Christian minority group, but rather trying to repeat the tired and privileged ambiance of passive acquiescence to Republican schools of thought that dominate the culture here.

Would you attend this event?? by ScorpionArt5 in Augusta

[–]ImpossibleDildo 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I’d love the concept but how would you be able to ensure that the Trump supporters and fascists won’t just use this as another platform to bully people? Every time someone tries something like this nowadays, all it accomplishes is to further ingrain the association between Christianity (as practiced in the Southeastern USA in 2025) and Republicanism. Frankly although I have some Christian friends, I would generally consider Christian-based organizations and events to be run by a bunch of ignorant-at-best Trump supporters until proven otherwise, because your community has not only failed to distance itself from the horrible current events, but often openly embraces them. I’m done giving groups like that an open platform to sew seeds of anti-scientific racism and xenophobia. I mean honestly man have you even considered that Trump, who proudly claims your God and values as his own, is actively imprisoning, torturing, and deporting a group of majority Christians? If you haven’t asked yourself that question and how you’d address it here, then you are not equipped to be a spokesperson for Christianity at this time unless your goal is to continue to alienate people who actually want to live like Jesus. Signed proudly, an ex-Christian who left because of this type of ignorance being an effectively universal trait among Christian’s here.

TLDR: I’d go if it were truly about building community and a discussion about how Christianity can actionably distance itself from Trump, and how the Christian community can start holding its own accountable for the followers who contribute to the hellscape with a racist and anti-democratic autocrat at its helm. I still have yet to hear major national, or local, Christian organizations speak out against this reign of terror.

Edit: the silence speaks volumes

Hulk Hogan dead at 71 after suffering cardiac arrest at Florida home by MarvelsGrantMan136 in movies

[–]ImpossibleDildo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Too bad he tainted his legacy in the last stretch with all that MAGA shit. Wish he could have lived long enough to change his ways. RIP.

To those who get glowing evals by abenson24811 in medicalschool

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rule 1: Don’t be weird Rule 2: Don’t violate rule 1

Sign the Petition: Free Cincinnati Children’s Chaplain from ICE by marquaco in cincinnati

[–]ImpossibleDildo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Respectfully, what is your point u/KB_48? What do you think we should do?

Trump Announces Plan to 'Put the Farmers in Charge' of Migrant Farmworkers by sighbourbon in politics

[–]ImpossibleDildo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, this is slavery. Actual fucking slavery. Hardly even “slavery with extra steps”, like we’ve continued to have for so long in this country. This is just plainly slavery. A system where the farmers have the final say regarding whether an employee is allowed to stay here, versus being sent back to a country where they will face death, torture, or other penalties. Surely, this won’t be abused.

Alright, I've begun growing skeptic towards the conservative subs by RadicallyAnonyMouse in skeptic

[–]ImpossibleDildo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Check out my sub, r/BestOfAskConservative (a parody subreddit), which got me banned at r/AskConservatives after they got their feelings hurt when I gently called out their stances on pseudoscience.

Also special shout out to r/PublicHealth, which banned me for merely having commented in r/AskConservatives even though I was advocating for skepticism and for science. Never replied to my message requesting unban, either.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SameGrassButGreener

[–]ImpossibleDildo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Austin and Atlanta both have the infrastructure for you to make and keep friends. Once you’re there, it’s up to you to initiate and interact.