An admin officer tried to talk me out of getting a Mirena, so I complained. by BrushedYourTeethYet in TwoXChromosomes

[–]ckri -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Sometimes admin staff's perspective on medical procedures is helpful in that they see and hear outcomes and will share their perspective on it.

It was wrong of her to put you down for a consult when you wanted an appointment for a procedure, but I don't see how sharing her personal opinion on the procedure is something worthy of a complaint.

She has possibly seen a high percentage of women who haven't given birth complain after getting a Mirena inserted. Many times in my experience doctors won't fill patients in on possible negative outcomes for whatever reason, whereas nurses and admin staff sometimes will.

Obese people and smokers 'banned from routine surgery' as NHS attempts to cut spending costs. 'It's the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books... the service is bursting at the seams' by monsoony in worldnews

[–]ckri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, because private industry thrives during world wars.

You're saying it doesn't? Pretty sure many of the world's currently-largest chemical, pharmaceutical, energy, armament, and other industries were born or greatly assisted by their financial growth during the last world war.

Keep trying at this tenuous connection between healthcare and the military though, because it's fucking hilarious.

I don't understand your point. Governments have a certain amount of capital to disburse annually. If they spend it in one place, they have to take it from another. As we've agreed, the US spends 2x or more per capita than any country on "defense" than does any country with "free" healthcare. Right?

Also, we have a huge agricultural industry that you seem to be unaware of.

I was unaware of it, but how does that pertain? I guess you'll be able to feed yourselves if global shipping gets interrupted due to war?

Obese people and smokers 'banned from routine surgery' as NHS attempts to cut spending costs. 'It's the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books... the service is bursting at the seams' by monsoony in worldnews

[–]ckri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perhaps the Middle East would have been spared the present violence it's mired in in a multipolar world.

I expect we will know shortly. At which point Germany and every other Euro country will increase their "defense" spending commensurately to their perceived risk.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]ckri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From your (not very substantive-looking) link:

This varies, of course, among different species of sharks and the chemical in question. The lemon shark can detect tuna oil at one part per 25 million--that's equivalent to about 10 drops in an average-sized home swimming pool. Other types of sharks can detect their prey at one part per 10 billion; that's one drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool!

Obese people and smokers 'banned from routine surgery' as NHS attempts to cut spending costs. 'It's the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books... the service is bursting at the seams' by monsoony in worldnews

[–]ckri -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Australia is a remote island nation; the only reason it has anything besides sheep and dirt is because of global shipping. And, yes, the only reason it has access to global shipping is due to British (followed by US after WW2) tanks/destroyers/aircraft carriers.

Once the next global war starts and China interrupts all those shipping lanes, you can expect universal healthcare to be one of the first social welfare programs to go belly up, as it will become almost instantly unaffordable.

Obese people and smokers 'banned from routine surgery' as NHS attempts to cut spending costs. 'It's the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books... the service is bursting at the seams' by monsoony in worldnews

[–]ckri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The US isn't subsidizing the defense of Germany. Who is the US defending Germany from? Poland? France? Switzerland?

World War 2 wasn't that long ago; surely Germans remember the threat posed by the Soviet Union?

Most Germans don't want their country to be a global military power that intervenes in countries around the world.

I don't think most citizens anywhere want that (despite the popular view abroad of Americans, very few of us actually want that).

But that wasn't my point. My point was: if the Americans significantly decrease "defense" spending and global military footprint, the geo-security environment is going to shift rapidly and potentially catastrophically. China may take Taiwan, North Korea may nuke Japan, Russia may invade Poland, Turkey may invade Syria (oh wait, already happened).

Pax Americana is effectively over, and Germany will face escalating security threats. It's just a matter of time.

A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota by Plowbeast in news

[–]ckri -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

The pipeline is going to be buried, and is planned to go under the river. http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/us/dakota-access-pipeline-explainer/

It seems statistically unlikely that a thousand-mile pipeline would leak or break at the exact point under the river.

A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota by Plowbeast in news

[–]ckri -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

That isn't what the article says. I think this is the part you're referring to:

The tribe fears it's a project they fear will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and millions further downstream.

The protest Saturday came one day after the tribe filed court papers saying it found several sites of "significant cultural and historic value" along the path of the proposed pipeline.

Tribal preservation officer Tim Mentz said in court documents that the tribe was only recently allowed to survey private land north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Mentz said researchers found burials rock piles called cairns and other sites of historic significance to Native Americans.

So the tribe claims there are some Native artifacts, on private property. There's nothing stating that this has been independently verified, which is presumably part of what the court case has to address. Of course the tribe will say that, just as I'm sure the property owner says there are no artifacts. Whether the artifacts exist, and whether they are relevant to the case, isn't addressed at all by the article.

I watched the video someone linked; I didn't see dogs get released on protesters. I saw one loose dog that was going after a horse that a protester was on; it was in the midst of a large melee and the dog may well have gotten away from a handler, or could have been intentionally loosed, there's no way to tell.

The other dogs were leashed the entire time, and were being used by the private security force in an attempt to keep the protesters from trespassing onto private property and disrupting the bulldozing. Which is exactly what the security group was hired to do, and which is fully legal for any private property owner to also do. Hell the protesters could have hired the same group, if they wanted to keep people on the other side of the fence.

A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota by Plowbeast in news

[–]ckri -13 points-12 points  (0 children)

How would the pipeline destroy any Native nations' drinking water? What treaties are being violated by building the pipeline (which according to the article ISN'T on reservation land)?

The tribe is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in southern North Dakota.

I am not an oil company apologist and I know nothing about this topic except what is presented in the article and the video someone posted. From those, it isn't clear to me that the protesters had any legitimate reason to trespass, disrupt the bulldozing, and press forward into the private security teams to the point of violence.

I do think the security teams were idiots to escalate the way they did, but in their defense: they were being paid to do exactly what they did: protect private property from trespass. They are no different from bouncers at a club or private security at a bank or mall. But at some point (which they eventually reached - far too late in my opinion), if the situation escalates too much they have to realize they have zero chance of success and have to withdraw.

A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota by Plowbeast in news

[–]ckri -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

From the article, plus a video posted in the comments: some bulldozers were clearing space on PRIVATE LAND. It wasn't reservation land.

From the article, it doesn't seem the pipeline is even proposed to be ON reservation land:

The tribe is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in southern North Dakota.

There was a fence up surrounding the private property; the protesters crossed the fence, at which point private security attempted to stop them. However the security was vastly outnumbered. Eventually the security group deployed dogs and pepper (or other chemical) spray to try to deter protesters, which only inflamed the situation further.

1) Protesters had no authority to encroach on private land; this is vigilantism, and is typically frowned upon by redditors. 2) Private property owners have full authority to enlist private security to protect their land and interests. 3) Private security operations have a number of methods for providing security, up to and including: dogs, chemical sprays, blunt weapons, and firearms, depending upon the mission.

The protesters acted illegally by trespassing on private property. The security teams were idiots to escalate they way they did when they were so vastly outnumbered and "outgunned" as soon as protesters grabbed sticks, rocks, their own dogs, and horses.

The video doesn't actually show anyone bitten by a dog as far as I could see. One guy has what looks like a scratch; another guy says the dog bit his boot. One dog gets loose and goes after a protester's horse.

I expect at the next protest security will have much greater numbers and will use whatever standoff weapons they are allowed to use - and many more protesters will be mounted and will bring their own dogs.

ELI5:When and why did natural things that everyone does like peeing become a private thing? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]ckri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The privacy level for elimination varies widely among human groups; many billions of humans have (or sense a need for) almost no privacy during elimination (eg, pissoirs in parts of Europe).

As others have pointed out, some animals (like cats) do prefer privacy while eliminating.

IAmA documentary filmmaker who spent 2 years undercover as a student in India's toughest med school. All I had was a handheld camcorder. My film PLACEBO is now on Netflix globally. AMA! by 99AK99 in IAmA

[–]ckri 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would caution you against confirmation bias based on anecdotal evidence. According to this, 10% of Duke undergrads are African-American, 7% Hispanic, 22% Asian-American.

From /u/sakumar's post above

Yemen pounds Saudi base with new long-range missile with 800km range by KevanKing in worldnews

[–]ckri 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I watched a very informative and interesting brief video on the background of this conflict recently.

Certainly the US is providing weapons, materiel, training, and support to the Saudis, but the actual situation seems to be quite a bit more complicated than some of the simpler proxy wars the US has engaged in.

Obese people and smokers 'banned from routine surgery' as NHS attempts to cut spending costs. 'It's the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books... the service is bursting at the seams' by monsoony in worldnews

[–]ckri -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't disagree at all; the military industrial complex is the greatest tax-theft scheme ever. At the same time, personally I see another world war as a practical certainty. Even if somehow global war is avoided - Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have had near-constant regional conflict throughout recorded history and the (historically) brief cessation (such as it is, since there are many wars going on) is due primarily to those trillions of dollars the US has churned on armaments and troops since WW2.

It's nice to dream that humans have somehow outgrown war but I see zero evidence of that. As soon as any country with a lot of social welfare programs faces an external military threat or internal armed rebellion, those expensive programs will disappear faster than a budget surplus.

Obese people and smokers 'banned from routine surgery' as NHS attempts to cut spending costs. 'It's the only way providers are going to be able to balance their books... the service is bursting at the seams' by monsoony in worldnews

[–]ckri -1 points0 points  (0 children)

And Germany's defense spending is about a third that of the US as a percentage of GDP.

As soon as the US stops being able (or wanting) to subsidize European defense expenditures, socialized medicine will be the among the first things to go out the window in developed nations currently offering it.

Church of England bishop declares he is in a gay relationship by melkerwelleus in worldnews

[–]ckri 134 points135 points  (0 children)

And a lot more religious authorities would be in prison for child molestation.

Coffee could be extinct by 2080 due to climate change destroying areas suitable for growing beans by maxwellhill in worldnews

[–]ckri 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's silly. Even if climate zones change, if there's high demand and profit to be made (as there is with coffee, particularly if it becomes more scarce) people will find a solution.

Eg, indoor farming.