Posts by Diogenesister

100

American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister in

canada has universal healthcare.

the consensus is that america never will.

can anyone explain why, please?

Diogenesister

All of us (who do pay taxes) think our taxes are high enough already. For example -- If my employer pays a $10,000 bonus for Christmas (or end of year bonus) to me, the cost to the company is $10,765 (plus some other minor taxes based on that amount). After federal, state, local and social security taxes are withheld from my bonus, I will receive about $6,000 total (or only about 55% of what it cost my employer).

Most people in the UK pay tax. Your bonus is pretty much unheard of in the UK...unless you're the CEO of a major company. So there's pros & cons but I'm afraid a system where you're a job loss and illness away from disaster....no thank you. I've seen too many otherwise healthy young people get cancers that would bankrupt an American (and frequently do).

100

American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister in

canada has universal healthcare.

the consensus is that america never will.

can anyone explain why, please?

Diogenesister

Paul was born with a heart condition called truncus arteriosus – whereby there is only one large artery leaving the heart instead of two. This means that too much blood goes to the lungs and too little oxygenated blood reaches the rest of the body, leading to difficulties with breathing.

After his initial diagnosis in 1967, when he was just a few months old, Paul’s local hospital referred him to GOSH. At the time, clinicians could only offer a palliative operation that would help relieve the symptoms of the condition for as long as possible.

Innovative surgery

Eight years later a GOSH surgeon introduced a new operation called the Rastelli procedure, that was developed by international colleagues. This meant Paul’s condition could now be treated.

Paul is thought to have been one of the first in the UK to have this operation, when he was just eight years old. At the same time as the Rastelli procedure, surgeons also closed a hole in Paul’s heart.

The operation on Paul’s heart was a success, and his care at GOSH continued until he was 17 years old. During this time, he had further treatment at GOSH, including valve replacement surgery.

Paul said, “I’m so proud to be a part of the NHS’s story and am grateful for the incredible care I received at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Thanks to this, I’m now thought to be one of the eldest survivors of truncus arteriosus in the UK.

“When I was 17 and about to have my second major operation at GOSH, I felt the enormity of what was about to happen. It felt like a second chance at life, and a chance for me to do my bit in the world.

“In my role as a Church Minister, I now support people in the UK as well as overseas. Charitable work has given me my career as well as my life.”

Paul now has treatment at Barts Hospital in north London. His consultants also work at GOSH and care for children and young people with congenital heart conditions, like Paul’s.

Paul added, “It was a surprise to be chosen by GOSH to represent them, amongst some big names.

“I’ve not been involved in anything as public as this before. However, I feel it is important to show our pride in our universal health system, and the support its charities give.

“It has been fun.”

Caring for children with rare cardiac conditions today

GOSH is a specialist centre for many heart conditions children are born with, which are known as congenital cardiac conditions. The Hospital’s Cardiology team receives referrals from across the UK and the world.

Emma Carter, Senior Chief Cardiac Physiologist – Specialty Lead at GOSH said, “In the space of 50 years we have gone from offering palliative care for truncus arteriosus to being able to diagnose the condition in foetal life and operate within months of being born.

100

American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister in

canada has universal healthcare.

the consensus is that america never will.

can anyone explain why, please?

Diogenesister

https://www.gosh.org/news/former-gosh-patient-features-in-rankin-exhibition-celebrating-75-years-of-the-nhs/

100

American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister in

canada has universal healthcare.

the consensus is that america never will.

can anyone explain why, please?

Diogenesister

https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/separating-conjoined-twins-yigit-and-derman/

100

American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister in

canada has universal healthcare.

the consensus is that america never will.

can anyone explain why, please?

Diogenesister

https://www.gosh.org/get-involved/philanthropy/impact-of-philanthropy/face-value/

100

American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister in

canada has universal healthcare.

the consensus is that america never will.

can anyone explain why, please?

Diogenesister

We hear anecdotes about Canada and England and Europe but no facts

Well in the UK everything is free at the point of use, from primary care to complex cutting edge surgical procedures such as the separation of conjoined twins and heart lung transplants etc

For example when I had my twins my initial appointment was with my GP (primary care physician) who referred me to the community midwives. They were responsible for my overall care with regular checkups/scans etc. I was also referred to the care of a specialist obstetric cardiologist for heart scans (as well as my twins whilst in utero) as well as my named obstetrician. All this free of course.

Pregnant women also receive free dental care and for the first year after birth. We do have NHS dentists, but we have to pay towards costs on a three point scale (so a small amount for check ups rising to the largest amount for root canals etc. Kids & OAPs get free dental care.

Anyway my son was born with a fused skull and was under the care of Great Ormond Street specialists. He had a 9 hour operation with a neuro surgeon, plastic surgeon and paediatric anaesthetist (all consultants).( The Dr he's under Mr. Dunnoway travels the world with a charity correcting facial deformities in third world kids who would be ostracized otherwise ).

The aftercare, including specialist opthalmologists, has been regular right through his childhood

No cost of course.

I cannot conceive of having to fear not being able to pay for healthcare.My sons operation, carried out 13 years ago, would have been in the region of £50,000 even then. That's just the operation, no drugs or hospital care etc.

78

Top AI inventor Geoffrey Hinton reluctantly concluded that AI will probably humanity fairly soon

by slimboyfat in

geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .

“if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.

there’s no way to make that happen.

Diogenesister

I thought this post, particularly the last paragraph, under a video SBF posted on this thread, very interesting! (I hope I've copied it accurately since cut and paste of replies under you tube isn't possible)

@alexshenderov4975. 6 days ago The claim that believers in Al Almighty (benevolent or otherwise) are the real experts that have thoroughly debunked every doubt expressed by those pesky skeptics makes one somewhat skeptical about the other claim: one of an open-minded discussion. Once it is assumed that flops equal intelligence, the rest of the alleged "discussion" appears rather pointless.s-wise, all the brilliant human minds at Bletchley Park - Max Newman, Andy Wiles, my Flowers, Alan Turing - couldn't hold candle to Colossus: they couldn't decrypt coded messages anywhere near as fast as Colossus did. All they did was build it and asked it the right questions. If you count s as smarts, computers were born smarter than humans. Singularity occured ;8th February 1944.rick-hauling capacity is misleading, fusing and ultimately meaningless. s comparing the human mind with a digital calculator on the basis of making digital calculations. Yet it appears to be the favourite pastime of some alleged experts.
Brick-hauling capacity is misleading, fusing and ultimately meaningless. s comparing the human mind with a digital calculator on the basis of making digital calculations. Yet it appears to be the favourite pastime of some alleged experts. Unsupported, read religious, rhetoric Al systems that are generally smarter 1 humans" is IMHO anything but benign. It is already doing serious damage to human confidence (already low in the middle of the pandemic of misanthropy & cynicism), paralyzing decision-making until a voice from the sky tells us mere mortals what to do). The prediction of human inferiority may therefore become a self-fulfilling prophecy - not by machines acquiring goal-setting capability, but by us humans forfeiting it (at a particularly bad moment, too - there are a lot of important decisions to be made ASAP). If that happens arithmetic will actually become Add a reply...

Desperation of some folks for attention other perks, but shell games with ds, substituting meanings when no s looking, don't help understanding nature of Nature). Nor are there theoretical models of how goals, bts, dreams, disputes, frustrations, osity, ambitions could emerge in a ng-computable model set run on a modular, digital, electronic hardware (again, shell games and other marketing tricks don't count). Sure, there are experts willing to stretch the interpretation of some really odd texts and drawings as far as it takes to claim the capture of a unicorn, - just like other experts stretch the interpretation of anything in Nature into evidence of an oversized white-robed bearded white male unsupported, read religious, rhetoric Al systems that are generally smarter 1 humans" is IMHO anything but ign. It is already doing serious damage uman confidence (already low in the dle of the pandemic of misanthropy cynicism), paralyzing decision-making until a voice from the sky tells us mere mortals what to do). The prediction of human inferiority may therefore become a self-fulfilling prophecy - not by machines acquiring goal-setting capability, but by us humans forfeiting it (at a particularly bad moment, too - there are a lot of important decisions to be made ASAP). If that happens arithmetic will actually become Add a reply...

Meanwhile, as transhumanists worship mythical AGI and neo-luddites feed apocalyptic scenarios to Hollywood, pragmatists are busy using machine learning. The machine does the deterministic, rational, traceable heavy lifting: crunches massive amounts of data. We the somewhat irrational humans provide imagination and direction: ask the questions, tweak the databases, evaluate the answers. This arrangement actually works in drug development and city planning, movie casting and airport security, logistics and manufacturing. Al is a useful tool, provided proper adult supervision. Hence the attempts toAl is a useful tool, provided proper adult supervision. Hence the attempts to disclaim responsibility for the future of our species, by transhumanists and neo-luddites alike, are reminiscent of earlier worldviews delegating this responsibility to Baal, Odin or Zeus. The superiority of a glorified calculator at calculations is no better reason to entrust it with making decisions for us than, say, hammer's superiority at hitting nails. It's still up to us to choose where the nails go.
Apologies this is a disaster please refer to below slims first video post!!

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Diogenesister

SBF My contempt for people propping up this ~~expletive~~ grows by the day.

Agree!! But I do think there's a lot whose first language isn't English. Hence a lot goes over their heads & they miss the nuances in his behaviour. Not to mention missing whole video posts & blogs on major grievances people have had with him. I think a post - a page back or so - was an example of someone like that. Fast Jehu also said the Holier-than-thou Reddit exZJ mods don't help!!

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Diogenesister

The heart of the issue is that Schofield was corresponding with the employee on SM when he was about 16. (Nothing sexual) He started working with the company after he turned 18 and they commenced sexual encounters at age 19. (Schofields is 61).

There's a video of him 'out to dinner' alone with the boy at 13. They met when he was 10 at a boys theatre school. The teacher who introduced them has been prosecuted for grooming his young students.

There's way more to this than meets the eye.

78

Top AI inventor Geoffrey Hinton reluctantly concluded that AI will probably humanity fairly soon

by slimboyfat in

geoffrey hinton, major inventor of artificial intelligence: .

“if you take the existential risk seriously, as i now do—i used to think it was way off, but now i think it’s serious, and fairly close—it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further, but i think it’s completely naïve to think that would happen.

there’s no way to make that happen.

Diogenesister

Dearest Fish Can't we just pull out the plug?

Yep! exactly what I was going to post.

I suppose the worry is that we wouldn't even be aware of it.

Or at least by the time we were it would be too late.

Let's face it, we're pretty easy to fool as a species. If eight overweight pensioners in Warwick with zero education between them can pull it off, the most powerful intelligence on the planet surely can.