_vdpp

DDG results are a little “different” than Google’s but no worse. Like somebody else said, usually when DDG can’t find the answer neither can Google.

I’ll continue to use my critical faculties and exercise my own judgment as I see fit.

Downvote away, but the fearmongering is so tiresome (and has been for 30 years). The carbon emitters they want to eliminate are people.

On geologic time scales the CO2 level has been way way higher than it is today and the planet was still teeming with life.

Hey, speaking of tipping points, wasn’t climate change supposed to mean a constant stream of cat 5 hurricanes crashing into the eastern seaboard? And yet we just had a very quiet start of our hurricane season. Ah, but that’s weather, not climate. And yet whenever a bad weather event occurs, that’s evidence of climate change. Absence of bad weather is also evidence I guess. Almost like the whole thing is unfalsifiable. The climate changed before we ever got here and it will continue changing well after we’re gone.

Just as the petrochemical lobby has an interest in downplaying effects, there are plenty of other people with a profitable interest in the fearmongering as well. Their salaries depend on you being terrified and they’re doing a great job of it. They use your tax money to fly to climate conferences in Bali, Singapore, Paris, Rome. I’d take them more seriously if the conferences were held via Zoom or in places like Cleveland or Houston.

The politicians who keep telling me that this is a huge problem still fly their private jets everywhere and still own plenty of beachfront property. I’m more worried about a True Believer funding some kind of bioweapon to “heal the planet” and kill us all.

I don't know that they've accepted the harmlessness of it as much as raised the white flag on the fact that it's too widespread to be shut down, even if they wanted to.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I see "increase competition," but then see "put stronger safeguards in place" and assume that the regulations will be written in such a way that no upstart competitors can possibly abide by them, concentrating even more power in the hands of the incumbents and reducing competition.

Is there a Biff Tannen copycat crime spree I wasn’t aware of?

Anarcho-tyranny. The only crime is self-defense.

Is that any less reason to think this isn’t a good idea? How many latent, otherwise-benign disorders might become manifest if people experiment with these drugs?

It’s not just you. The first time I turned them on it was like “whoa, neat!” But they grew tiresome fairly quickly.

“Harmonic Donkey Transfer” would be a good band name or album title.

Vetted custodial staff with security clearances exist! As far as custodial pay goes, having a TS/SCI is probably going to put you in the top tier, it pays to stay out of trouble sometimes.

The security risk is a good reason to follow the advice of the article though - know your people. Also, badging and physical security.

I’ve long suspected that currencies are really just units of measurement convertible to the joule (or calorie).

I find a lot of the criticism of healthcare today to be misguided.

Why would healthcare be inexpensive? Go into a clinic today and there’s a legion of professionals who attend to each patient. Each of them has years of training, even the clerk at the desk.

They use a whole battery of expensive equipment. Multi-million dollar machines to literally see inside your body.

Every piece of tubing, bandage, needle, plastic fitting, etc is sterile, and used only once. They are made in a facility to exacting standards which is in turn monitored and supervised by another network of professionals with reams of policy dictating how the equipment is made, accounted for, and an army of lawyers behind the scenes as well.

The facility itself has exacting standards for cleanliness, emergency power, disaster-resistance.

The medical records are held in computer systems which abide by HIPAA requirements, again with a team of engineers and cybersecurity professionals ensuring that standards are met.

Healthcare is expensive because it’s expensive. The alternative is suffering with untreatable injuries or just dying, which we take for granted because we don’t see it that much anymore. We don’t have country doctors working out of their house charging a few bucks for a visit.

Are there inefficiencies? Is there waste, fraud and abuse? Are there greedy pharmaceutical execs making billions of dollars on the backs of unsuspecting pill poppers? Could we do things better or cheaper? I’m sure we could, but I don’t think there’s some kind of grand conspiracy to make us slaves to our employers vía medicine.