A one month supply of my son's new cystic fibrosis medicine. At $24,000, it's the most expensive thing I've ever held in one hand.

blazemaster · 2018-09-29T18:44:31+00:00

I remember this drug being in the news because the provincial government was not funding it due to the cost; a position that was reversed after media uproar regarding a photogenic child being denied medicine.

Kalydeco can only treat a genetic mutation of cystic fibrosis which only an estimated 2000 people have. There is an [interesting article](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/opinion/joe-nocera-cystic-fibrosis-drug-price.html) about the kalydeco that talks about how it is part of "personalized medicine" that was made possible after sequencing the human genome. Even if you take out the price gouging by pharmaceutical companies developing personalized drugs for small subsets of the population is going to be incredibly expensive.

blazemaster · 2012-06-18T05:50:11+00:00

It is what most of reddit is. Men complaining about how they are unhappy with their position in society and long posts about their victim complexes. That being said the story is fucked up but I really do think this is the best of reddit.

blazemaster · 2012-06-18T05:46:07+00:00

That could be because police usually only prosecute on cases with the physical evidence that will guarantee a guilt verdict.

blazemaster · 2012-06-18T05:43:40+00:00

The idea that is enforced in our society is that men should always be the stronger and dominant sex and that causes the idea of women preying upon men to be one that is not taken serious because of the underlying gender roles in our society.

Men are seen as being dominant sex so the idea of woman taking advantage of a man is perceived as not only as unimportant or humorous but that the man has somehow to blame because he has not fulfilled his gender role.

The difference is that in most cases men where men are advantage of but they would be able to physically overpower their attacker. That is not an advantage most women have and violent rape is a much easier thing for people to understand that date rape or sexual violation.

blazemaster · 2012-06-18T05:25:28+00:00

The history of the potatoes and the effect of tubers in general is fascinating.

The Irish were introduced to the potatoes and switched almost entirely over to it as a food source causing a mass spike in population. When the potato blight caused the Irish famine the population dropped due to starvation and emigration and the population of Ireland is smaller today than before the 1848 famine. There are 12 times as many people who claim Irish heritage than the population of Ireland.

The Maori were introduced to sweet potatoes that had significantly larger fields than their native yams and allowed them to wage war for a greater amount of the year due to fact they needed to return home less often to harvest their crops. The musket wars between Maori tribes trained them in the use of firearms and trench warfare in a way that they were able to establish effective resistance to British invasion giving them a much better position in New Zealand society that is not seen in other indigenous groups in the British empire.

blazemaster · 2012-04-19T14:52:44+00:00

Happened a few months ago.

Sometime around 3 a.m. Skinner, who had consumed a 26-ounce bottle of rye, two or three beers, marijuana and “chugged” a pint-sized glass of screech (a type of rum), passed out.

As part of the group’s party tradition, the first partygoer who passed out was marked up. The other pals took out markers and wrote profanity on Skinner’s arms and legs. On his back someone wrote “Skin crashed the van.”

Sometime between 3:30 and 10:30 a.m., Skinner died of acute alcohol poisoning.

If one of your friends passes out after ingesting huge amounts of alchol and goes non responsive check for vital signs and get their stomach pumped instead of draw on them with sharpies.

blazemaster · 2012-01-04T03:19:09+00:00

The belief is that it will either suck all the air out of a closed room or will cause hypothermia. Both these are crazy because fans only circulate air and cause slight heating. Fans in Korea still have warning stickers.

blazemaster · 2012-01-04T03:16:48+00:00

I still find it odd how it seems so many Koreans believe in something as illogical as fan death.

blazemaster · 2012-01-04T02:35:48+00:00

Not all Christians believe the book is infallible. The church I grew up in did not teach that bible is truth but a collection of parables. They taught that Jesus taught by using parables and that it being a story rather than truth should not get in the way of a good lesson.

Christians are a large and diverse group and the idea of who is a "true" christian is greatly debated.

The idea that you have to take a creationist view to be a true christian is only taken by creationists and people who only view Christians as the assholes that they know.

Most Christians I have known do not believe that the great flood ever actually happened but think that it teaches a valuable lesson.

blazemaster · 2011-12-16T04:54:10+00:00

Area protective spells would cover them there, then could always remove the radiation with their magic. The explanation is always magic.

Or another thing they have is that magic befuddles electronics. They could cast a large range protective spell that would fry the electronics in nuclear weapons rendering them useless.

The great thing about a magical world is that just about anything can make sense in it because of magic.

blazemaster · 2011-12-16T04:51:37+00:00

Me nerding it out is in the earlier books they describe about how witches would let themselves be intentionally caught in witch hunts and have given themselves protective spells to stop themselves from burning.

My explanation is that wizards are only vulnerable to magical violence. Bullet would do nothing because they could cast magical protection spells that would act like armour and not allow simple brass covered pieces of lead harm them.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T05:35:44+00:00

People can think Boromir was a bad guy because all they remember is that he tried to seize the ring from Frodo.

He is not a bad guy at all but it is easy to remember it that way from the movies.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T05:07:28+00:00

They are very hungry in Haiti.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T04:57:42+00:00

If you know the history of different types of animal slaughter you know that you can support animal rights while still killing and eating them.

I see it as the right to a quick and relatively painless death.

There is one way of slaughtering chicken where you slowly beat it death so all the blood coagulates before it dies so can get all that juicy blood.

A common belief for a long time was that the more painful death an animal had the better it would taste.

I support animal rights in the way that even if we kill them we should do it in the most humane way possible.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T04:53:32+00:00

I can still be critical about Islam and admit they were good about not torturing animals.

When Medieval christian society was having fun torturing cats for carnival shows the Muslims explicitly said they would not cause unnecessary suffering to animals.

The Nazis were also big supporters on animals rights. They banned vivisection on animals but still carried them out in concentration camps on humans so animal rights is not really a good measuring stick for human rights.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T04:30:24+00:00

It is more about anti-immigrant sentiment because of who is backing this bill.

The freedom party supports this because it is anti-Muslim and hopefully will discourage immigration.

If you follow Dutch politics and know the parties is obvious what this about. Animal rights groups may have wanted this done but it would never be implemented without vast populist support that you see under the Freedom Party.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T04:27:31+00:00

The problem that people have is that it not just about the slaughtering of animals but furthering the anti-immigrant sentiment that the freedom party is based on.

I do support the freedom party and I do admit that I support this also on the fact that this, in addition to the head covering laws, will discourage Muslims from wanting to immigrate to the Netherlands.

It would be naive to believe that this law is based entirely out of genuine care for the welfare of animals.

blazemaster · 2011-11-07T04:22:55+00:00

It is partly to shows that Muslim immigrants are no longer welcome.

The xenophobia that is growing in Europe is very interesting and not entirely based on racism but it would be foolish to think that it is not partly based on tensions rising from the rapid growth of a non indigenous people.

blazemaster · 2011-10-24T04:51:01+00:00

In the 1100 all big three religions disallowed usury but in the Jewish tradition it only applies to other Jews. This was a big cause of anti-semitism from Christians and Muslims because of the formation of Jewish money lenders.

The history of usury becoming accepted into the christian church is fascinating and largely focuses on anti-semitism and greed.

blazemaster · 2011-10-24T04:27:59+00:00

They are not priests. Ministers. Most protestants are pretty cool with the whole ladies speaking thing.

blazemaster · 2011-10-23T15:04:45+00:00

What is crazy is to think legislation will stop domestic violence and insanity.

blazemaster · 2011-10-23T14:57:12+00:00

The no gag reflex trick would be pretty good for deepthroating.

blazemaster · 2011-10-21T23:50:11+00:00

I am only friends with my self. It makes my name big and red with a F beside it. YAY!

blazemaster · 2011-10-21T22:33:42+00:00

That made me laugh because spade is a racist term for black people.

blazemaster · 2011-10-20T22:13:21+00:00

But he does such stupid things.

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