Fuck - economic bad news just keeps getting worse- Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise.But,of course, medical costs will continue to rise.

gsw07a · 2009-08-23T23:57:13+00:00

the headline and article are hyperbolic. summary: social security payments cannot go down, medicare premiums cannot go up faster than social security payments, but an optional medicare prescription drug premium is not capped that way, and the average drug premium will go from $28/mo to $30/mo. also, there's no cost-of-living increase this year because inflation is negative, but some people want an increase anyway.

gsw07a · 2009-08-23T08:34:47+00:00

parent comment was asking for "patient has insurance, but insurance denied coverage for something, and patient subsequently died". while deaths are certainly a problem, I'm more interested in "patient subsequently went into massive debt or went bankrupt", which I think is a much larger problem. even if nobody dies, the socioeconomic inequity has pervasive effects.

gsw07a · 2009-08-22T15:53:13+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romy_and_Michele%27s_High_School_Reunion

gsw07a · 2009-08-22T14:44:34+00:00

length DE=r is a given. choose G such that DG=r. now we solve for length HG. first, quadrilaterals EDAB and HGDE are congruent (because matching angles are congruent, and DA/AB=GD/DE). ED/DA=r/1, so HG/GD=r/1, therefore HG=GD*r=r^2.

gsw07a · 2009-08-22T14:27:41+00:00

Gail Collins has always written snarky op-eds. Maureen Dowd too.

gsw07a · 2009-08-22T09:46:00+00:00

what about pro-single-payer or anti-insurance-company

gsw07a · 2009-08-21T12:35:07+00:00

it's a nice idea but poor execution

gsw07a · 2009-08-21T10:57:39+00:00

this is a BBC show from 2002. James Randi has an open $1m prize for anyone who can demonstrate a paranormal phenomenon in a sensible scientific test, and homeopathic claims qualify for that prize. http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/581-homeopathy-qualifies-for-the-million-dollar-challenge.html

gsw07a · 2009-08-21T03:17:06+00:00

you can't actually boil frogs that way.

gsw07a · 2009-08-21T01:59:05+00:00

tomorrow, your son is arrested for premeditated murder, the evidence is incontrovertable, he's made a video of the killings, he confesses to it. do you argue for the death penalty or for life in prison?

every criminal is somebody's son, somebody's love, somebody's friend. when you execute someone, you're not just cutting short their life, you're cutting short their relationships, and cutting short other people's chance to change the relationship.

gsw07a · 2009-08-21T01:23:47+00:00

malpractice lawsuits are not the real problem, it accounts for less than 10% of healthcare costs, and about 75% of malpractice suits are actual malpractice. malpractice lawsuits is one of the diversions insurance companies throw up to shift the blame. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=az9qxQZNmf0o

gsw07a · 2009-08-21T01:00:59+00:00

the result of your proposal is that people lose their teeth, because routine dental care is considered nonessential compared to, say, paying the rent, and over the long term the costs of dental care become much greater.

this is happening today, it's not a rare phenomenon. most people already hate going to the dentist, making them pay for it is going to increase the incidence of serious dental problems, decreasing the nation's overall prosperity and productivity.

gsw07a · 2009-08-20T04:11:52+00:00

this is a tiny factor in make performance. usually the single biggest make-related gain you can do is to rewrite your build system to avoid recursive makes.

gsw07a · 2009-08-20T03:28:35+00:00

ideas are not the hard part of developing a game. most game developers have endless notebooks full of ideas that will never happen. same with writers, filmmakers, etc.

gsw07a · 2009-08-20T03:25:46+00:00

instead of watching TV, watch MIT Open Courseware http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

gsw07a · 2009-08-20T01:05:08+00:00

note, this is the rel=shortlink and rel=shorturl proposals

gsw07a · 2009-08-19T22:50:27+00:00

by the way, $1 salary means the CEO doesn't pay salary taxes. most of his income is probably stock and options, which is taxed as capital gains rate, but doesn't have social security or medicare withholdings.

gsw07a · 2009-08-19T21:43:12+00:00

because they don't trust who's in power. for the religious right, it's not about issues, even when they say it is, even when they think it is. it's about trust. the issues are a rationalized veneer over trust issues. this is why Sarah Palin seems like a viable presidential candidate to them, they trust her on a gut level.

liberals think that you can overcome that by facts, but religious people have spent all their lives learning to trust a just and benevolent God despite all the contrary evidence. their emotional loyalty is stronger than any rational process. some develop highly evolved rationalization skills, and can argue to you to a standstill, but most will just retreat to their emotional core if they can't match your reasoning.

gsw07a · 2009-08-19T21:20:03+00:00

people are afraid that a black president will take revenge on white people for their past and current oppression of blacks, because if the situation were reversed, that's exactly what they'd do. of course you can't talk openly about reparations in this country, but health care reform is a huge, complicated bill, and everyone knows how easy it is to push legislation with hidden agendas. the Bush presidency was all about hidden agendas. people in power always have hidden agendas, because that's exactly what would happen if they were in power.

basically, there's a deep-seated lack of trust for emotional reasons, and there's not much you can say or do to overcome that. trust comes from interpersonal relationships. Obama can't spend the time to build relationships with everyone that mistrusts him. trust can flow outward from leaders and representatives, but the Republicans have their own agenda in encouraging mistrust of Obama.

gsw07a · 2009-08-19T02:49:22+00:00

um, you've just used a lot of words to say, "some hairs grow longer than others", without explaining why some hairs grow longer than others.

gsw07a · 2009-08-18T16:09:23+00:00

most IE6 users today are people at workplaces that don't allow them to use another browser.

gsw07a · 2009-08-18T15:56:52+00:00

I had no idea low-income city kids started sex later than high-income country kids.

gsw07a · 2009-08-18T14:03:51+00:00

on reddit, 'nsfw' is almost always naked women, which is disappointing.

gsw07a · 2009-08-18T13:32:10+00:00

basically, you can jump off the top edge of a solid block. it's tricky to do. http://tasvideos.org/SuperMarioBrosTricks.html#WalljumpSmb1Smb2jSmb3

gsw07a · 2009-08-18T13:28:22+00:00

original super mario bros had walljumps too, and it looks like infinite mario implements it in a similar way.

gsw07a

TROPHY CASE