And they come with no warning,
nature loves her little surprises.
Continual crisis!

Friday, April 1, 2016

Linkee-poo reposted

Sorry, lost several links because of my stupidity. Sorry about that.

"General Electric wants to be removed from the federal government's list of too-big-to-fail financial institutions, arguing that it's no longer a major player in the financial services industry." Good luck with that (actually they probably have a good chance). I'm sure the oversight on salary and bonuses paid had nothing to do with it.

Well, at least one Senator gets how important digital security is. (Grokked from Vince O'Conner)

"It’s about entrenched behaviors and facing the reality of the system we’ve created which allows one part of the system to attempt to carry the limitations of the rest." On our American medical fascination with using the Emergency Room/Department for standard care. The problem here, and what I see out there, is the gatekeepers don't have the knowledge to change sending people to the ER. EMTALA should not be repealed (that's the law the an ER can't deny you care for lack of ability to pay). And it's not fully enforced anyway. Also, as suggested elsewhere that EMS should have the right to refuse transport, EMT's don't have the skills to fully diagnose a patient and should not be in the position to determine if they should take a patient to the ER. I've seen patients who have come in with "flu like symptoms" crash (CODE Blue, get the crash cart, baby, it's almost Hammer Time). But I have also seen people come in for really no good reason except they couldn't see their PCP right away. Also, just a bone to pick, the government did fund EMTALA with direct payments to hospitals (which have been reduced under Obamacare). Again I'll float the idea of an integrated ER/Urgent Care unit. The doctor in the ER or UC could refer patients to the other which wouldn't be farther than a walk across the lobby. But that takes money and administration that has it's eyes open (right now, they are providing both through the ER, but they can charge more for ER services). So this is partly self-inflicted pain. (Grokked from Chip Dawes)

Affordable housing is an issue, again. With house prices rising at pre-collapse rates (>10%/yr), yeah, it's getting tougher out there. Also, as someone who's first house (which we're still in) is small because everybody is building mini-mansions and charging >$260,000 for a home, it was all I could afford. But moving up is also looking harder. I keep wondering just who the hell is buying all those places.

"The CIA left 'explosive training material' under the hood of a Loudoun County school bus after a training exercise last week, a bus that was used to ferry elementary and high school students to and from school on Monday and Tuesday with the material still sitting in the engine compartment, according to the CIA and Loudoun County officials." The fuck? They did a full inventory on Thursday and found all the material is accounted for. Um, shouldn't that have been done right after the training exercise? (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)

"The Republican National Committee has launched a website to inform the public about what happens in the event of contested GOP convention, the Washington Examiner reported. The website,, lists party rules regarding the delegates required for a candidate to be nominated to lead the GOP's 2016 convention, as well as the process if no candidate initially meets the requirement." LET'S GET READY TO RUUUMMMBBBLLLEE! Remember when Preibus and the RNC stated categorically that they were not scheming to get a contested convention sometime back in December/January when they had a meeting to discuss it? Good times, good times.

"(Chuck) Todd asked (Gov. Kasich) specifically about his efforts to reach out to the black community, and why his state ranks as the sixth worst place to raise a black child in. Kasich responded by saying he didn't believe the statistics, then decided to brag about his efforts to reduce infant mortality, and insisted that the 'minority (black) community' needed to become better partners at helping their babies not die, which he knows because white people have gotten with the program." As the article starts out that he keeps trying to tell people that Kasich "is every bit the toxic slime pile that Trump and Cruz are". Seconded. The only difference is John is a better politician and usually knows how to dog-whistle better than that. (Grokked from Patrick Nielsen Hayden)

Tweet of my heart: @tomtomorrow If you think your wacky April Fool's joke can outdo whatever's in the news cycle tomorrow, well, good luck with that.

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