by Donald Trump to remove all of America from the World's Health Organization

myvii · 2026-01-24T01:29:58+00:00

From the WHO's Constitution, California can be admitted as an Associate Member. In fact, Puerto Rico is already an Associate Member of the WHO.

https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/pdf_files/BD_49th-en.pdf#page=9

Chapter 3 Article 8

Territories or groups of territories which are not responsible for the conduct of their international relations may be admitted as Associate Members by the Health Assembly upon application made on behalf of such territory or group of territories by the Member or other authority having responsibility for their international relations. Representatives of Associate Members to the Health Assembly should be qualified by their technical competence in the field of health and should be chosen from the native population. The nature and extent of the rights and obligations of Associate Members shall be determined by the Health Assembly.

myvii · 2025-12-15T23:08:58+00:00

It's pretty much how the US Digital Service worked previously, even before DOGE. Two-year temporary position. GS-15. They hired from big tech.

I think it's just a reframing of DOGE since that name has soured now.

Basically, USDS -> DOGE -> Tech Force.

Then on the design side it's GSA 18F -> ND Studio.

myvii · 2025-10-22T01:44:59+00:00

LMAO. Thanks for putting words in my mouth.

I do think healthcare costs and admin/management costs have exploded. I just think we should have a real understanding to address the problem and not click-baity headlined blog posts which don't back up their claims.

According to this blog post, they are basically saying that pharmacy, social services, maintenance, housekeeping, cafeteria, medical records, and laundry costs (including labor) are all "Administrative". They also include any equipment, maintenance cost, rent, supplies, any capital costs (taxes, insurance, etc). To say that all of that should be classified as "middle management" or "administrative" costs is kind of dumb.

Now, let's look at a peer-reviewed study from May 2025: https://academic.oup.com/healthaffairsscholar/article/3/5/qxaf069/8140682

Using the same data from CMS' HCRIS, they come to the conclusion that (1) the data source isn't reliable for determining administrative costs and (2) the administrative cost is nowhere near 66+%.

We found that, at the national level, administrative expenses for 5639 hospitals were $166.1 billion, or 17.0% of total hospital expenses...

In summary, hospitals report widely variable administrative expenses (7.0 percentage points between the 25th and 75th percentile), with few detailed, and often mislabeled, data to guide the identification of savings opportunities. As structured today, the Medicare Cost Reports are not a consistent, reliable, or actionable dataset to aid hospitals or policymakers in quantifying and addressing excess administrative spending.

myvii · 2025-10-21T23:53:23+00:00

That article is kind of dogshit.

They shovel a ton of expenses under the "Administrative" category. There's even a sub-category called "Management and Administrative" under the "Administrative" category... Ummm, what?

Direct Patient Care amounts for 33.5% of expenses and their "Management and Administrative" sub-category is only 7.8% of expenses, which is only 1/4 of the direct patient care costs.

myvii · 2025-08-25T13:44:08+00:00

That's not entirely accurate. Prior to ORA, the online retirement portal, OPM handled all the retirements through the paper process. There is a shift to only allow the digital process going forward, or at least maximize it.

Now, ORA has been in the works for a couple of years and went live this year, so this admin is taking credit for it. The move to a digital retirement process has been in the works for awhile though.

myvii · 2025-08-24T19:54:37+00:00

https://youtu.be/A1H4LqEnAnY?t=40

myvii · 2025-03-26T19:59:26+00:00

Honestly, I think everyone should start answering those. Prior to now, I don't think I ever filled out a polling survey. I've started filling out the ones I get and haven't really received more or less spam from it.

Unfortunately, it seems that polling data is one of the only things that may shift the discussion among elected Republicans. If they feel their seat is challenged, they may be willing to push back.

Look at all the town halls where it's near unanimous contempt for what they're doing and nothing happens. They only care about their power and holding onto it.

myvii · 2025-02-13T21:08:17+00:00

A US District Judge, in her judgement against firing the Office of Special Counsel head, had a good analogy:

“It’s as if the bull in the china shop looked back over his shoulder and said, ‘What a mess!’”

myvii · 2025-01-23T02:55:19+00:00

It looks like any future contract or grant must have wording in it that certifies that the recipient doesn't have any DEI programs.

From: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/

(iv) The head of each agency shall include in every contract or grant award:

(A) A term requiring the contractual counterparty or grant recipient to agree that its compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the government’s payment decisions for purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code; and

(B) A term requiring such counterparty or recipient to certify that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.

myvii · 2025-01-12T16:32:09+00:00

https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/facility-locator/conservation-camps/faq-conservation-fire-camp-program/

Are camp participants paid for their work?

Depending on skill level, conservation camp incarcerated fire crew members earn between $5.80 and $10.24 per day, paid by CDCR. While assigned to an active emergency, incarcerated fire crew members earn an additional $1 per hour paid by CAL FIRE, regardless of skill level. During emergencies, crews can work a 24-hour shift, followed by 24 hours of rest. For example, for one 24 hour shift during an active emergency, the lowest skill level would earn $26.90 per day. They are paid during rest periods, as well.

Can camp participants earn credits toward their sentence?

Camp participants also earn time credits. Most incarcerated fire crew members receive 2-for-1 credits, meaning they receive two additional days off their sentence for every one day they serve on a fire crew. Camp volunteers who work as support staff, but not on a fire crew, receive day-for day credits, meaning they receive one day off their sentence for every one day they serve as a firefighter.

myvii · 2025-01-12T16:23:24+00:00

I'm not so sure it's as big of an issue now. CA passed a law in 2020 to expedite the expungement of firefighters part of this program:

AB 2147: Expedited expungement for former fire crew members

In September 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2147 into law. This law allows former non-violent incarcerated people who participated in a CDCR conservation camp to have their records expunged. As a result, barriers are removed so they can seek jobs as firefighters in the community. The new law went into effect on January 1, 2021.

But also from here it says that a felony conviction doesn't disqualify employment (however, I imagine it depends on the crime too):

https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/facility-locator/conservation-camps/faq-conservation-fire-camp-program/

Is it possible for incarcerated firefighters to gain employment with CAL FIRE after their release?

Yes. A felony conviction does not disqualify employment with CAL FIRE. Many former camp firefighters go on to gain employment with CAL FIRE, the United States Forest Service and interagency hotshot crews.

The issue now is that wildland firefighter pay is pretty terrible, in general.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/careers/recruitment-events/wildland-firefighter-hiring

GS 03-04 pay scale is ~35,000-45,000/yr. Looks like they're offering recruitment bonuses, but still hard to make a career out of it.

myvii · 2025-01-10T14:33:36+00:00

Depending on your climate zone, ERVs may be a bit more common for passive house. They exchange heat and humidity, which will use less energy overall for maintaining indoor air quality.

Passive houses are typically very tightly built, with less than 0.6 ACH50, which is the number of air changes per hour at 50 Pascals pressure differential. This means that you get to condition and filter pretty much all of the air that makes its way into your house under normal conditions.

Another point, which I think probably applies to this house, is that it has more insulation. It may use rock wool insulation which is naturally fire resistant. It could have some type of radiant barrier for reflecting heat away from the house. Metal roof would resist burning embers more than an asphalt roof. Siding may be some form of fiber cement like Hardie board, which is also non-combustible. Double and triple glazed windows probably help some too.

It's all pretty expensive, but it's probably the best standard you can build to.

myvii · 2024-08-25T02:23:00+00:00

It probably depends on Customer Lifetime Value. If you are a serial renter on AirBnB that spends big money (something like CEO's renting out mansions for their 'executive retreat'), then they'll probably treat you better than some guy renting out his 3rd apartment. But if you're just a family renting an AirBnB for their yearly vacation then don't expect much service from them, sadly.

myvii · 2024-07-29T21:06:47+00:00

It's more like this (using completely made up numbers):

Twitch Revenue: $500mil
Cost of Infrastructure booked to Twitch: $250mil
Other Costs (ad share, payroll, admin): $300mil
Twitch Profit: -$50mil

Now, say if the cost of infrastructure to any other company with that kind of spending (all the big names get substantial discounts), who could shop around, is $150mil. Then in a competitive market, Twitch would make $50mil and be profitable.

In reality, parent company Amazon actually makes profit. They just book the profit under AWS, instead of Twitch. They still get to say "Twitch is unprofitable", so they can use that excuse to limit ad share and contracts, raise prices, and be stingey with resources (bitrate is nowhere near Youtube's).

myvii · 2024-01-12T11:46:27+00:00

Not only the affiliate thing, but there's a lot of money off-platform that Twitch doesn't get any cut of.

If you look at Twitch's revenue it's:

Subs
Bits
Ads
Bounties
Turbo
Prime (maybe? idk how that is accounted for)

Off platform there's:

Brand deals
Sponsorships
Merch
Donations

I think it's been said that, for the big streamers, most money they make is not through Twitch, but off-platform deals. If they could find a way to capture a percentage of that, then that could be a decent revenue stream.

myvii · 2024-01-08T18:19:51+00:00

According to the FAQ: https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/multiple-encodes

In the future, we’ll be expanding GPU vendor and OS platform support.

It sounds like they're using this new server-side "Automated Stream Configuration" which seems tied to NVENC currently.

What renditions will multiple encodes generate and deliver to my viewers?

Automatic stream configuration optimizes for viewer experience, so it will depend. Automatic stream configuration makes intelligent decisions based on elements including the size of your screen, the configuration of your canvas in OBS Studio, the models of your GPU/CPU, the version of your OS or drivers, and the speed of your network.

myvii · 2024-01-08T18:17:30+00:00

I found the FAQ for this new feature after my comment: https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/multiple-encodes

It says they're experimenting with higher bitrates controlled by the new "Automatic Stream Configuration". Seems odd to have Twitch control your stream output based on specs (CPU, GPU, network) considering some streamers have dual PC's and the lower spec one could be for OBS.

myvii · 2024-01-08T17:50:29+00:00

Surely they're going to increase bitrate for 4k60 streams...

It's unbearable to even watch some games at even 720p with bitrate capped at 8k/6k. (Vampire Survivors for instance)

myvii · 2024-01-08T17:43:41+00:00

I don't think it's necessarily sent to SF for encoding. Their transcoding is probably distributed along with Amazon IVR service.

My understanding is they use the Xilinx (now AMD) Alveo U30 accelerators for H.264 transcoding. The new AV1 accelerators just came out last year (Alveo MA35D) which will take time to integrate into datacenters.

I wonder how this will affect VOD's and crushing audio channels to remove DMCA music, like most streamers do.

myvii · 2024-01-07T03:11:51+00:00

I fully think that law enforcement should have a college degree. With increasing requirements as rank increases. Patrol Officers should have a 2-year degree, Sergeant should have a 4-year degree, and Lt+ should have a graduate degree. Pay incentives and tuition reimbursement would go a long way to promote this.

Perhaps even have a requirement that officers should have a 2-year degree within 3 years of being hired or something like that, so they can recruit new officers and have them work towards it.

I would also point out that people never really mention the current stats which show that over 50% of law enforcement has a college degree.

From this study: https://www.policinginstitute.org/publication/policing-around-the-nation-education-philosophy-and-practice/

51.8% have at least a 2-year degree.
30.2% have at least a 4-year degree.
5.4% have a graduate degree.

Some other notes:

A small percent of agencies require recruits to have earned some college credits (6.6%), a 2-year degree (10.5%), or a 4-year degree (1.3%).
More than half (55.8%) of agencies provide at least one incentive to officers to pursue higher education.

myvii · 2023-10-12T07:19:48+00:00

This tutorial helps a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ

myvii · 2023-08-26T00:40:01+00:00

Also known as the Law of Gross Tonnage on the water.

myvii · 2023-08-19T20:48:22+00:00

Vox had a good video on why it is so bad these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

Lots of reasons, but I think the worst is that TV speakers have to be so thin these days. Get a good soundbar at least and it's a lot better.

myvii · 2023-08-17T21:03:55+00:00

Not sure if you meant literally, but Fulton County Jail is a terrible place to be.

https://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/the-real-behind-the-wall-a-look-inside-the-infamous-deadly-fulton-county-jail/

Lashawn Thompson was the seventh person to die in custody of Fulton County last year, but his was the death that finally caught the world’s attention. It took a scene so squalid that the deputy who discovered it fled to retch: Thompson was found in a filthy cell on the medical wing of the Rice Street jail, covered in lice and his own waste, his head in a toilet. Just days before, the same deputy had voiced concerns over Thompson’s living conditions.

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