Don't get me wrong, the idea that health care should be a for-profit business is bogus to start with. But I just watched the video of that Ted talk, and I think that guy is awesome.

I'm criticizing the framing, not the person

Heh, the question is "which ally contributed more to the war effort?"

Shows just how far revisionism and politics goes into the perception of history.

I understand, you are part of the social media mob that likes to react when it cringes according to the knee-jerk reaction you were already predisposed to. Since you seem to think the salient part of that TED talk is the title, I actually kind of doubt you watched the video. Because if you did, you would understand that the title makes total sense in context: this doctor is making an appeal to others to try to turn helping people into a business, within the confines of the existing landscape of insurance companies (here specifically, MediCaid). Of course you probably would still think the guy is a useful idiot being played by his capitalist masters at TED.

I mean, I am all for changing the system, but let's not see every good Samaritan who works within it as tool, alright?

��

Get back to me when you've:

1. Watched the TED talk

and can provide:

1. A reason for that doctor NOT to open a private practice exclusively serving patients on Medicaid, or failing that:
2. A better title to describe the talk he gave about that practice in a way that motivates other doctors to do the same (hint: they are running a business), or:
3. A five-paragraph essay explaining why TED is evil and nobody should ever use it as a platform, no matter how good their ideas and the <18 minute talks about them are.

Rants about socialism/capitalism receive an automatic F, unless they are a part of #3.

He's doing good work within the confines of Medicare, I agree with you there. I also acknowledge the criticisms you gave. I don't owe you a further explanation and you won't get one at this rate.

cf. why do socialists oppose social democracy

(Medicaid)



Lol! You should try that in court some time. I rest my case.

At any rate, I was mostly just curious to see where the snark in your original post came from, since the TED talk looks totally kosher to me.

Really the only valid criticism I can think of is that TED is highly selective about which talks they release or schedule, in order to conform to their own capitalist agenda. But even understanding that, I still think this particular talk would be worthy of publishing, even if they also released 100 other socialist talks as well. It's a good talk with a good title, totally undeserving of any kind of mockery in my opinion.

I do agree that healthcare shouldn't be a business. This guy is trying to solve a practical problem that perhaps shouldn't exist, which in my mind it goes into the same bucket as tech talks about the tireless work to, e.g., optimize web browser performance. No, javascript is not a good language for performance, yes, you're stuck with it, so we should be extra thankful for people who suffer through the work of making it more tolerable (rather than making fun of them from the sidelines and telling them to just use Ocaml and Ema

You can simultaneously consider a decision practical, congratulate someone for finding a profitable business model, and still think it’s unethical to buttress a failing system despite itself.

You could! But this is where I disagree. I don't actually think the doctor is acting unethically by "buttressing a failing system". Although maybe TED is.

I mean, you'd also have to consider Bernie Sanders to be unethical as well, for arguing in favor of Medicare expansion (as well as those who argue for Medicaid expansion, which is another popular idea).

Medicare for all/medicaid expansion brings monopsony power of the government to bear against the inefficiencies and unsustainability of any market with perfectly inelastic demand. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but this arrangement is still far more workable than what Americans currently do.

By the way, the state of JavaScript is unforgivable. We were not stuck with it. HTML was designed to support multiple scripting languages. When WHATWG (a handful of huge corporations) hijacked the standardization process they intentionally doubled down on JavaScript, despite the fact that HTML5 was a great opportunity for a clean break and there was already no hope for devices pre-HTML5 to ever support apps written to target it. That window is closed now. And let’s be frank here, the fact that it’s clearly impossible for a <1bn revenue company to make a modern web browser has done a lot to suppress the development of mobile OSes independent from Apple and Google. This is a great analogy for the American healthcare system after all, I guess.

Also, let's not pretend that the unethical doctors are the ones who choose to treat poor people (rather than deny anybody on Medicaid, like pretty much all doctors do).

Also: I agree with you. I can't wait for the day we can stop deluding ourselves that whatever the heck it is about our healthcare system is causing it to cost much more than what countries like the UK or Canada do, and that the only ethical thing to do as citizens and legislators is to tell the insurance companies to go **** themselves and implement something like the NHS.

Finally, even if you can find a doctor with Medicaid, most counties force their patients onto a managed plan... which is actually a private insurance company, albeit one regulated by statute.

That "whatever" is called private profit. Canada uses single payer insurance with private healthcare providers. Our healthcare is cheaper than yours, but it still costs a lot more (and delivers worse results) than the UK's, where the providers are also operated by NHS.

Demand and supply both need to be relatively elastic in order for markets to deliver efficient results. Y'all wouldn't be in this mess if you weren't a bunch of market nazis.

OK, I can start to see Reid's point. We Americans are all just a bit brainwashed by that market religion I guess.

Reminds me of those old Soviet monuments rotting away in Russia, somehow.

At first I honestly thought that was a tech demo for a new UE

How do people this retarded live lives? I swear to god man.

The right wing equivalent of male exhibitionism. It must really hurt those open carry guys to be forced to walk around with a perpetual boner for unloading their rifles on some poor mother****** and never getting the chance.

I think it's totally reasonable for the constitution to forbid castration, but that doesn't mean I get aroused by the idea of shoving my dick in the cop's faces in order to remind them of that.

Well the uploader's username is "all lives matter", so I guess the cop's spared him accordingly, being such nice guys. Although now that I think about it I'm not sure (or am I, who am I kidding) what they would have done with a black guy in that situation

I'm almost positive that video is an example of exactly everything you should do during any interaction with the police.

What a douchebag.

Me too I thought it was a bad one with poor procedurally generated houses but tbh I wasnt that far off.

Oh, EIFS with random patches of foam “rock” stuck to it.

edit: if you ever feel sad that you can’t afford a “million dollar” “house” like these ones, just keep in mind that other than the first house all of the envelopes are finished. So all of that water damage you see would have happened whether someone had been living there or not. **** EIFS.

Also, never buy a house built during a bubble. I know that’s a hard ask; in North America we don’t really open up land for development unless it’s during a bubble. You should do your best anyway.

Builders **** these houses out during bubbles like you’d never believe. It’s all fly-by-night companies using substandard trades labor, like first year apprentices being supervised by second year apprentices (all fired before third year), and labor saving building materials that workers are never properly trained on. Like EIFS (as used back then), which replaced stucco masonry and shiplap style siding with these huge glue down foam sheets that would trap moisture behind them if not properly sealed. Modern EIFS has a drainage plane behind it (like all other kinds of siding) so theoretically a new install should be ok, but why would you bother?

Oh, here’s another housing bubble thing you might see in the United States: coated or foil-covered cardboard sheathing.

Sheathing is where most house designs get their shear strength. It’s literally the only thing stopping your walls from turning into an arbitrary parallelogram.

US bubble houses had builders just subbing out OSB for thermoply or similar materials. Such houses are generally believed to be as much as 30% below code for their area.

Im gonna be careful and not accuse the manufacturers of cardboard sheathing of participating in this fraud, but in my subjective and non expert opinion I’m not exactly sure how these kinds of products are legitimately useful. They mostly seem to be a way to get a cheap “sheathing” product onto construction sites without arousing a lot of attention.

So, basically, American houses built around 2006 are made of wet cardboard.

You're not wrong on any of that and it drives me up the wall. For my part, I want to build a mostly earthen home + other buildings. And make a labyrinth of gabion baskets filled with concrete from the foundations of the buildings of capitalists and tied shut with the connective tissues of the ones who could not escape it.

They were wearing masks and body armor as well as carrying rifles and concealed pistols. Black or white (I don't think the cops knew at that point, given the call of duty gear) these morons are lucky to be alive.

Also, ironically, these second-amendment activists, now felons, are no longer allowed to own firearms.

jesus christ

Right? If there was ever a prime candidate for "shoot first, ask questions later," it's the guy marching into a police station wearing body armor, a face mask, carrying a rifle, and shouting some **** about sovereign citizenship.






I saw a lot of this in southern California. I guess they figured the weather is so mild it wouldn't be a big concern. Apparently the standard 1/2" CDX was too expensive? Even worse is thermo-ply, which is just foam (although it does have excellent insulating properties, thus the name).

Ya but 0.113” at R-1.8 per inch, versus ~1/2” OSB at R 0.6-1 per inch, so the difference isn’t really there. meanwhile if you actually care that much about indukstion to go exterior, you’ve got PUR SIPs, stuff like Huber zipsystem which has a moisture barrier, polyurethane foam, and OSB all bonded together in a single sheet. That stuff has actual excellent thermal properties, with the added bonus of possibly preventing your house from folding itself into a convenient portable shape after an earthquake.

So, Jon, I know you recently mentioned looking forward to not missing an 8 foot bed and in the past you talked about drywall not being too hard (I think when Tibby was living in a basement?). You now exhibit an above average sheeting knowledge. Just out of curiosity, will you elaborate on what building projects you've been engaged in?

I wasn't condoning or encouraging the use of thermo-ply or any other shortcut, merely pointing out I see it frequently as (I assume) a cost-cutting measure. Just go with plywood (or OSB I guess) and R21 for exterior walls. For exteriors, I like the look of stucco, though hardie board or vinyl siding are also nice (as your climate permits).

D:<