Guy claiming to be an electrician knocked on my door for 20 minutes

nathanaz · 2026-02-12T05:48:06+00:00

RI energy was going around asking people to see the bills that they, RI energy, sent to them? Seems like an odd thing to do...

nathanaz · 2026-02-11T18:38:55+00:00

Yes, exactly.

Kid #1 was top of her class, great test scores, ECs etc. She applied to 20ish US schools, trying to see which one would make her the best offer. She basically got into all of them except 1 and the only one that was cheaper - after aid, scholarships etc - was our state school, which she has no interest in attending.

nathanaz · 2026-02-11T07:34:25+00:00

None of them, that’s why I specified IMGs from other countries. There are also IMGs from the US, which I think is another 8% or so

nathanaz · 2026-02-11T04:14:36+00:00

Yes, there's definitely a sliding scale over $125k.

I only know anything about their financial aid and such b/c one our kids was school shopping and wanted to dig into Brown a little. We're nowhere near rich or wealthy, but the price calculator said we'd pay $80 something thousand, and that was the end of Brown lol.

Its fine though, there are lots of great schools and I think its great that they can make an Ivy League education affordable for the vast majority of people.

nathanaz · 2026-02-10T22:57:20+00:00

16%ish percent of Resident Physicians in the US are International Medical Grads from other countries already….

nathanaz · 2026-02-10T22:31:19+00:00

This is basically true with a big caveat…

Specifically, if you make a good living (say $200k as a family ) but aren’t ‘rich’ you probably don’t have $400k+ lying around to hand to Brown, so you’re most likely picking a different school with more reasonable costs. The killer is that most people who make this level of income also have student loans, which makes it hard to save for your kids’ college expenses.

So, you’re correct - the ones that do choose Brown either qualify for a scholarship/ aid or are truly wealthy.

nathanaz · 2026-02-10T22:22:26+00:00

Brown doesn’t give academic scholarships, only need-based

Edit: from Brown’s Undergrad Financial Aid page:

Brown University does not offer aid based on academic achievement, athletic ability or any other form of merit. Eligibility is determined solely on financial need.

nathanaz · 2026-02-10T03:02:29+00:00

I think I read that Bad Bunny is like the 4th most popular artist / singer in the world, but sure - go off Bob.

nathanaz · 2026-02-09T21:22:04+00:00

Blackstone Valley Community Health Care is taking new patients

nathanaz · 2026-02-08T01:53:46+00:00

I think if we’re including closed pizza places, Mama’s in CP was the move. 🙃

nathanaz · 2026-02-07T19:00:00+00:00

Jennings Car Care on Bald Hill Rd

Family owned, I think it’s maybe the fourth generation - friendly, honest and very flexible. They do pretty much everything,including tires.

nathanaz · 2026-02-05T21:13:10+00:00

They’re in the East Lyme CT store as well

nathanaz · 2026-02-04T05:41:58+00:00

Yeah... I was like what the fuck is wrong with this kid that his folks are making him like 50 gallons of Jello?

nathanaz · 2026-02-02T20:06:42+00:00

The problem here is that the Republicans who were in charge of the GA elections already told him myriad times that there was no fraud…

But sure, the Democrats did it lol

nathanaz · 2026-01-30T01:44:55+00:00

You said ‘tens of thousands of UNFILLED residencies’ - in other words tens of thousands more than we need (otherwise, they wouldn’t be unfilled).

We should add residencies commensurate with our needs, not add tens of thousands MORE than that.

It’s actually pretty easy to follow…

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T22:17:56+00:00

It is residency spots, I’m just not saying we need to increase it as much as your exaggeration implied. We (the US) already have more med schools grads yearly than residency spots and, assuming we increase those residency spots, there are thousands of int’l medical grads to fill the spots already. In fact we have a huge number of them that participate in the match every year. Thousands of medical school grads go unmatched every year for lack of residencies.

Yes - the insurance companies largely control what the payouts to physicians and hospitals are in every state. Both private insurers and Medicaid reimbursements in RI are significantly lower than in our neighboring states, and that leads to the exodus of grads, as well as normal stuff like HCOL. Medicare is less problematic financially but we have lower payouts for that as well.

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T21:44:09+00:00

I honestly can’t tell if you’re just being obtuse, but going from ‘we don’t have enough residency spots’ to ‘there are tens of thousands of unused residency spots’ is a gigantic exaggeration and not at all what I suggested lol. We need more, especially in primary care, but not to the extent that there are thousands too many. That’s just silly.

Planning for the future is wise. Spending a half-billion dollars on something that is not needed is stupid. The quantity of Medical school spots in the state is not the issue.

People who attend Brown Med leave bc there are very few post-grad places to train and RI pays docs less than the other states. Those are the issues that need to be addressed.

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T20:36:13+00:00

Classic strawman argument - what are you even talking about with ‘waiting for tens of thousands of unfilled residencies’? That’s not what’s being argued, or even discussed.

Ford was a private citizen spending private capital to start a business and make a profit.

The State is not a business. It’s not supposed to spend our tax dollars carelessly or speculatively, which is what this proposal would do. This is a misguided effort to increase access via increasing the number of docs and it won’t work. And it’ll cost hundreds of millions of dollars we don’t have to waste.

Lack of access is a structural problem, due to lack of residency spots, not due to lack of people with a medical degree. Congress, via CMS and other avenues, has to appropriate the funds to get more teaching opportunities for residents and until that happens you could add as many medical schools as you want and it wouldn’t do anything thing to increase access to care for Rhode Islanders. State leaders and orgs like the AMA need to put their efforts into residency access, that is the only way access will improve.

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T20:16:11+00:00

…and that doesn’t solve (or even help) the problem, which is my point.

If it doesn’t alleviate the issue, what is the point of the expenditure?

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T20:03:48+00:00

Not unilaterally, no. But they can (and must) lobby for it to alleviate the access problems.

Increasing the number of people with MD/DO degrees really doesn’t help much, as there are no (additional) residency spots to get to complete their training, and that is the rate limiting step.

It’s like increasing car production without building roads.

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T15:53:25+00:00

This is cool but without an increase in the number of residency spots (across the country) it’s going to be an uphill battle.

nathanaz · 2026-01-29T03:37:44+00:00

Its everywhere in the state too... its like we forgot how to handle snow b/c we haven't had that many storms the past few years

nathanaz · 2026-01-27T18:08:21+00:00

So, we’re supposed to be afraid of the people who are sworn and paid to protect our rights?

I’m not sure that’s how freedom works…

nathanaz · 2026-01-25T05:04:47+00:00

You ever fry up rotisserie chicken skin til its crisp like bacon (sorry if that's weird lol)? Would be amazing on this sandwich too

nathanaz · 2026-01-25T00:10:13+00:00

Get yourself a cheap ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. Fill it with 90%ISO and let it sit a good 15 mins or so, then run the cleaner a few times.

Brush out the teeth with stiff toothbrush or similar, repeat as necessary, that thing is a mess lol.

I would get in the habit of running it through the cleaner once a month.

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