ravel-bar-foo

Why is there demand for something that is more likely to kill the user? Is it cheaper to produce? Harder to test for? Does it give a stronger high?

Aye. No problem with hospitals, insurance companies, doctors, or drug companies being greedy as long as they provide value. The problem is that over time the value received by the patient is dropping while the value extracted increases (as does the number of middlemen!). We have gotten to the point where the value proposition is highly questionable. I can drive to Mexico (or fly to the Bahamas) and get cheaper care, often even better care. The only thing that makes it worthwhile to stay in the US system is that one's employer shoulders the burden of insurance payments. In other sectors of the economy we call this vendor lock-in.

Vested interests have succeeded in creating a system where the individual has almost no agency, but the individual's interests are not being served.

If my primary care provider is too expensive or too inept, I should be able to seek out another. This does not happen, because my insurance company locks me into their network and hides the prices and complication rates.

If my healthcare provider denies too many claims, I should find another. This does not happen because either my healthcare provider is selected by my employer, or the claim denial rates are obfuscated.

If enough patients or insurance companies complain about drug prices, hospital administrators should negotiate with drug companies. This does not happen because until last year hospital administrators were able to take kickbacks from drug companies.

At every level the patient is given minimal information and minimal choice. The only way to be guaranteed affordable care without billing surprises is medical tourism.

I can't quite pin words on it, but just intuitively it feels like there is less barrier to reading and more of a break from studying when the newspapers are printed and sitting there than when you have to swipe on a screen.

Around 2013 our university digitized their newspaper displays. Prior to the renovation, newspapers were posted daily in large vertical glass-covered display cases in the student lounge of the library (the library would buy and post two copies so all pages were face up). Tens of students at a time would slowly walk down the row of newspapers reading during their study breaks and quietly chatting while sipping on coffee.

After the lounge was renovated and made into a digital media space this culture completely disappeared. I saw maybe two people use the digital kiosks to read newspapers in the subsequent year. It was heartbreaking to see the culture of community newspaper reading just collapse.

For that one would have to define morality. Also, the iterated evolutionary game theory of life supports the emergence of moralities among creatures which gain fitness by cooperating well to form groups that are more successful than individuals. It is not clear that digital beings will be cooperative social creatures.

By nature of being human and prioritizing my own existence and the existence of the people I love, I fundamentally believe humans (specifically these humans) have more moral worth than "digital beings." In fact, digital beings only have value to me insofar as they help humans and don't harm humans. I'm a human chauvinist, and proud of it.

Wait, I thought the 15 minute city idea was about reasonable mixed-purpose zoning and public transit, and now it is about limiting car access to cities?

That also means engineering, management and labor for construction are much reduced in cost, provided you can find domestic engineers working at domestic salaries and management which isn't corrupt.

What would your goal be in calling it out? Admin mandated ethics training, so it is either going to happen or it is going to "happen".

Professor is not getting grants to make research ethics slides, so he's not going to do it. The group needs a volunteer, but everyone else is already busy with assigned tasks. Would you volunteer to run the ethics training and do it properly?

After a scandal in our institution with medical professors publishing in pay-for-play journals, we were required to take an ethics class. Our PI scheduled this for 10 am, and not knowing better I booked an hour of time and brought a notebook.

The presentation was two slides. The title slide was presented, and then a content slide was presented. Professor's lecture on ethics was, in its entirety, "You guys know enough not to be unethical. Don't be unethical." We pretended to be learning from the second slide while someone took a picture to present to administrators, and the ethics class was dismissed. I had 55 minutes of my hour left.

Unethically completing an ethics class was one of the most ironic experiences I've ever had.

Do we? Besides takeoff and landing, it is pretty common to take off shoes during flights.

> I’ve heard it’s a pretty nice town with good outdoors options.

A US military vet once told me that "the base has good hunting and fishing" is code for "it's in the middle of nowhere".

Yes? If I were a minor, they would.

> The idea that might can make right in the modern world turned out to be false;

The idea of racial might has been disproven, but international might (including allies) very much still makes right. The undisputed winners of WWII were the USSR and the US, both with internationalist ideologies and very strong industrial bases. One might say that inclusive might makes right. (Another lesson would be to stay out of the fight and build up industrial capacity, supporting your allies by proxy while the other parties wear themselves down.)