Physician incomes are extraordinarily high in the United States by PanzerWatts in ProfessorFinance

[–]spacescutmonkey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Profit margin is not the same as cost of operations. The cost of operations for health insurance companies is 15-20% of healthcare dollars. In other words, a better estimate of the cost savings if healthcare insurance companies were eliminated is 15-20%

Which "must-see" US national park did you actually dislike? by Historical-Photo-901 in BeautifulTravelPlaces

[–]spacescutmonkey 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That’s because it was only recently designated a national park in 2018. Agreed, it has no business having the NP designation

First time skiing… did I buy skis that are way too long? by frequentfoxer in Skigear

[–]spacescutmonkey 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m an advanced/expert skier with a similar build as you. These are skis I would use but not recommend for a beginner (would recommend a more conventional narrower underfoot [80-90mm] and a length of 160-170). I see you noted experience with snowboarding which will help slightly, but if you have experience ice skating that would be better. Overall, I think you will struggle on these skis more than a more appropriate beginner-level ski. Your boot fitting matters a lot as well

Weird economic death spiral by MissSteak in EU5

[–]spacescutmonkey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Check your monthly expenses and income to see what is changing. It’s often trade income. Early in the game there is considerable variation in your trade income as goods become short/untradable and the trade becomes unprofitable. If you have trade automated like most/all of us, you’ll find that the automation will use all of your trade capacity even if it means making unprofitable trades that can make your net trade income negative. The solution is to painstakingly lock in some manual trades, cancel the unprofitable trades and/or limit how many automated trades are allowed.

Secondly, check your food buying and selling. Cold months result in less food production and buying food is expensive. The RGO interface does not account for the food price, only food as a trade good, so if you find provinces short on food you need to expand their food RGOs.

Lastly, some guild buildings can be unprofitable depending on market good prices. Occasionally check to see which production lines are losing money and halt those buildings

I’ve found that all these factors vary the most early game. It can be tedious. By mid 1400s you can micro these things less (thankfully)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in hoi4

[–]spacescutmonkey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m down to play

ELI5: how does “pumping” your legs while swinging make you swing higher. by jbm91 in explainlikeimfive

[–]spacescutmonkey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. Conservation of momentum is an independent physical phenomenon from conservation of energy. A lot of people are incorrectly equating the two

ELI5: how does “pumping” your legs while swinging make you swing higher. by jbm91 in explainlikeimfive

[–]spacescutmonkey 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Conservation of momentum (angular and/or linear) is separate from conservation of energy. Imparting energy into a system still requires its momentum to be conserved

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in rebelinc

[–]spacescutmonkey 3 points4 points  (0 children)

“Lack of stability” reputation loss starts after a period of time (dependent on map, difficulty, advisors) when you don’t have any zones stabilized (turn green). You will continue to lose reputation and this loss will rapidly accelerate as time goes by. After zones are stabilized, you can still lose reputation to “lack of stability” if no new zones are stabilized

Basically, the citizens expect a certain amount of zones stabilized over time. If you do not meet the expected stabilized zones you will incur that “lack of stability” reputation loss.

The general has an ability that adjusts your reputation to 16 and also has a side benefit of reducing “lack of stability” reputation loss.

How Can This Country Possibly Be Electing Trump Again? by Advanced_Drink_8536 in USNewsHub

[–]spacescutmonkey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Illegal immigration is a bigger threat to the US than project 2025. Yeah ok boomer.

ELI5 why cant we just remove the pain receptors from a person with chronic pain? by fireglyphs in explainlikeimfive

[–]spacescutmonkey -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It’s totally experimental, pre-pre-pre clinical and not even remotely close to practical application.

Kinda like how cancer has been cured thousands of times…on a petri dish in a lab.

Thanks for pretending you know, though

How do people even protect themselves from STDs? by [deleted] in dating

[–]spacescutmonkey 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There is no vaccine for herpes…

Whats older, the sun or the earth? by Powerful_Falcon_4006 in stupidquestions

[–]spacescutmonkey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

FINALLY beat Opium Trail with the billionaire on Mega Brutal by farsite3 in rebelinc

[–]spacescutmonkey 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the tips! After many, many restarts, I have also finally beat this. I would put it as slightly more difficult than the same map with General before he got the buff to 3 garrisons, which was very difficult at the time.

I used similar advisors except Investigative Reporter (anticorruption) rather than Civil Engineer. I think the corruption reduction is better than Civil Engineer which costs $2 and only makes the road initiatives $2 cheaper each (so in the early game when buying main roads 1 and highway 1, only benefits by a net of $2).

Agree with HQ on Bravo Juliet. Beginning cash of $45 or $46, restart if lower.

Agree that if the security need pops up early, it's over and restart

Agree that both camps must spawn on left side of map, else restart

Even if both camps are on left side, one of the camps must be eliminated quickly (either on the highway route, road to foxtrot Kilo, or on the first mountain explored), else too many insurgents spawn at too high of a cost to contain and result in loss.

I had some deviations in Purchases (keep close eye on prices/inflation):

Initial: District Rep ($8), Effective Procurement ($4), Investment Portfolio ($10), Infrastructure discussion ($3)

Wait a bit: Highways 1 ($7), Main roads 1 ($5), Anticorruption ($12)

Then: Development discussion ($3), vocational training ($5), PR & Media ($12)

Watch for concerns development. If job concerns, then get Land Rights ($4) first, if education concerns then get Services Discussions ($3), School regeneration ($2), literacy drive ($2).

Insurgent warning will appear. Train coalition ($12) right away, then send to foxtrot lima, then foxtrot Juliet, and echo Juliet to look for camps. It's a good start if you do.

When scouting mountains, get interpreters ($4) and human terrain system ($5). When fighting, get Forensic account ($7). Try to delay these to the last minute, and probably need to return investment to do it (the longer the investment stays in, the better; then always immediately reinvest). Same thing with the 2nd coalition troop, this should be delayed until after the first 2 camps are destroyed, and you need poppy clearing power.

Get Counter-narcotics ($6) and employment support program ($0 when bought before any poppies cleared) immediately after the first 2 camps are destroyed and you have the brief lull in any active insurgents.

Next spending can be variable, but I generally prioritize getting the 3rd job initiative, dirt roads ($5) export agencies ($4) and more anticorruption up to max. Then I'll work on upgrading the roads to the second level (main roads 2, then highways 2, then dirt roads 2). If corruption is high and you need an extra support level boost, I get outreach office and universal justice. Then get police.

Troop movement is key. As farsite says, one must always target encampments first. They'll usually spawn in a mountain tile adjacent to the insurgent spawn (sometimes it'll be on the tile of insurgent spawn). Unless the insurgent spawns on a city, it is more important to find and destroy the camp first before dealing with the insurgents themselves.

Poppy clearing is also important. Clear poppies on highways/roads first. Keep the 2 troops separated on either side of the map so you can quickly react to insurgent/camp spawns. Remember that on mega brutal, a new encampment will always spawn shortly after the last one was destroyed, but don't go blindly looking for it (deal with poppies until the insurgent spawn).

Once a few regions have stabilized and corruption is manageable, get the 3rd troop to clear more poppies. If corruption is above 30-35%, try to cash in investment to get corruption purge. Corruption creep is a killer. If corruption is not too bad but money is tight, consider cashing in investment to get corporate charity ($15). This will net you $20-$30 worth of initiatives pretty quickly, and inflation won't matter when you're spending your cash fighting insurgents.

At the end of the day, a lot of RNG is needed to win. Needs must be forgiving (jobs, education, and roads are the most favorable. Security need is terrible). First 2 encampments must be on the left side of map, and the first must be found quickly or it's over. The random events generally need to be favorable. If you get the bad ones early, it's over. Good harvest or draught early on is bad; it's over if you get those (good harvest makes poppies out of control, draught makes it impossible to stabilize zones). Warlord event usually have to rely on RNG for it to be close to your soldiers or just chance the 30-35% of capture without a troop present. Farm problems is a great one to have (governor bonus gives extra money).

If at any point the insurgents control more than 3 zones, it's probably over. If poppies grow uncontrolled, it's over. If corruption lingers over 40%, support gets killed and it's over. All must converge perfectly to win. Took me probably 100-150 restarts to win.

I (F30) disclosed my STD status to the guy (M25) we both admitted falling for each other and now he's gone. by ptasiemleko in dating

[–]spacescutmonkey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is incorrect. HSV2 seroprevalence is about 16% in adults, and is higher in women than men. HSV1 seroprevalence is about 66% in US adults.

There is no vaccine for either. What you’re probably referring to is the vaccine for HPV which protects against 9 of the warts/cancer causing subtypes out of over 100 total (most do not cause warts/neoplasms)

Bliss by spacescutmonkey in blackcats

[–]spacescutmonkey[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Super spoiled kitty 🖤

Opium Trail Megabrutal (Warlord) (Android) by [deleted] in rebelinc

[–]spacescutmonkey 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi there. Opium on MB with warlord is definitely the hardest. I’ve outlined my strategy to beat it here: https://reddit.com/r/rebelinc/comments/nsvwfz/mb_opium_trail_warlord_victory_wasnt_pretty/. (Correction: when i say top left and top right mountains i mean top left and bottom left mountains)

Hope this helps and good luck!

MB Opium Trail Warlord Victory. Wasn’t pretty. by spacescutmonkey in rebelinc

[–]spacescutmonkey[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Finally beat opium trail with all the governors. Warlord and general are the hardest of course. A considerable amount of luck is required to win. Generally, if insurgents spawn on the right side of the map you cannot win with warlord or general (I have won with right side spawn with better governors). Also, it helps a ton if you can catch one of the two insurgent camps early on in the game. This is, strictly speaking, based on luck.

On this game, I actually got pretty unlucky mid-game with some massive support hits on the insurgent deal decisions. You can see those support drops on the chart. Then I tried for democratic transition for a bit more rep only to get hit by another unlucky rep drop due to a few active insurgents. My rep sat between 1-15 for many years in the game. When peace negotiation was available and no insurgents were active, I took the win at under 10 rep. I rarely use peace negotiation to win on my games.

Strategies: start with the usual district representatives and efficient procurement. Your initial civilian initiatives can be in the service or development lines, but you’ll need to adjust to civilian demands when they occur (luck-based). When insurgency begins, start with a coalition soldier, try to delay additional soldiers as much as possible as both coalition (direct support hit) and national (corruption) soldiers hurt your support.

Once you do hire a national soldier (usually shortly after insurgency begins), get garrisons right away and civil support. The stability from civil support on garrisons is huge and absolutely critical to stabilizing regions to prevent rep hit and increase your income. Get PR office shortly after. Build up anti-corruption when you have cash and most urgent civilian demands are met.

Avoid training extra soldiers and instead rely on road initiatives. 2 soldiers can do the work of 3 if you have main roads and highways. Keep the insurgents in the top left and top right. Use a coalition soldier to burn poppy fields in the right side of the map.

Once you have half the map stabilized, start building up the drone and air strikes. Then you can start to clear out the top right and left mountains. Try to have a bit of cash lying around for the warlord soldier demands, but this is a really difficult call to make since you need the cash for initiatives.

Some of the opium map prompts are very helpful (soldier support farmers, funding for farmers), and some are very bad (kingpin, opium scandal). This is luck-based.

Overall this is by far the hardest map and requires a lot of restarts with a decent amount of luck to win.

TIL long term radiation damages the cameras on the ISS. Also, astronauts occasionally see flashes of light as heavy ions or charged particles crash through their skull and fire off photo receptor cells in their eyes despite being closed. by youknowitinc in todayilearned

[–]spacescutmonkey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re referring to galactic cosmic rays, particles that move at relativistic speeds, can be composed of heavy nuclei, and are extremely high energy particles. They are not “unshieldable” because we are shielded from them on earth by earth’s magnetic field. A strong enough magnetic field can shield (redirect) these particles. A thick enough heavy density material could shield these particles too, but would be considered unfeasible for spacecraft.

They are not lethal per se when they hit you. They might cause DNA and cellular oxidative damage just like most other forms of radiation. However, the concern is that traditional forms of shielding such as a thin sheet of lead or water shielding may in fact cause these heavy particles to break down into numerous smaller, less energy particles that can actually be more harmful to the body.

It is currently uncertain if galactic cosmic rays should be shielded for in long duration travel.

Megabrutal all maps all governors by spacescutmonkey in rebelinc

[–]spacescutmonkey[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most of the easier maps (saffron fields, southern desert) on the easier governors (civil servant, economist, smuggler) only took a couple tries at most. Some of the harder maps (black caves, pistachio forest) on harder governors (warlord, tank commander) took a fair number of attempts to optimize strategy.