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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • As an American I’m still not convinced.

    Apple successfully sold themselves as a better choice, the “in”thing - to adults. Most adults I know have iPhones and the ones who don’t seem self-conscious about it. It might have partly to do with Android phones originally sold as the budget alternative. We’re the shallow ones.

    Kids can take their cues from adults: they see iPhones as the “better”, more desired choice. But also take it to the next level, with teasing and bullying.

    I find it hard to believe anyone cares about the color of text bubbles, especially since kids don’t use iMessage, despite all the media making that claim. It’s just an excuse, but the social stigma is real





  • But the question is deaths by car and you don’t need to entirely get rid of cars to make a huge difference.

    • inspections. It boggles the mind that some places don’t have them

    Traffic calming really can work. I’m not talking about speed bumps, but things like curb bumps to narrow the road at intersection while increasing pedestrian visibility, traffic islands, roundabouts. Even repainting lines can make a difference. My town’s master plan is driven by accident stats, so every road rework is a noticeable improvement

    A couple years ago my town repainted a two lane road into one lane plus turn lanes. Now traffic is slower and calmer yet you get through that area more quickly. Most importantly it’s no longer one of the most dangerous roads in town

    Most recently they built a median. This was a dangerous intersection because it always backed up so impatient people would blast straight through in the turn lanes, causing accidents. Now they can’t

    And yes, because of Florida Man, my town built medians at every railroad crossing so idiots can’t go around the gates. We never had that problem, but idiocy is contagious.

    Every city and town can make a difference. Now. Relatively cheaply. Just by collecting accident data and prioritizing by that. Just by making small changes a little at a time






  • I’ve been looking at that decision. My furnace is well beyond its expected life and I’d like to replace it before it dies so it’s not an emergency. I’ve looked at heat pumps and really want to make that choice. The incentives help with the initial cost, at least for a couple more months.

    But then it comes down to gas is cheaper than electricity. If electricity is twice the cost per unit of energy, is it really sufficient for the heat pump to be twice as efficient? How can I rationalize the choice that is not only more expensive to install but more expensive to run?

    And the answer is not sinking yet more money into also doing solar. My house is mostly shaded, and I’m not killing treees just to make this mess work together

    Definitely part of the answer needs to be adjusting subsidies to bring the cost of electricity per unit of energy closer to the cost of gas, or maybe incorporating. The externalized costs would actually be sufficient



  • I’ll agree with we should have started 40 years ago. We knew we should have and we did have sufficient technology to take other paths.

    But I’ll disagree on whether we have the technology now. There was a recent post on Lemmy that in a sunny place like Las Vegas, you could replace 97% of energy generation with renewables and batteries. Cheaper. Not just that you can but that it’s cheaper. We have the technology.

    The challenge is always to bring the cost down. We do have technology to create aviation fuel from green sources. We do have several options for fueling shipping that we know how to do. Even if we’re just making ammonia or hydrogen or green diesel, that is a huge step forward that we have the technology for. The problem is we don’t yet have a compelling economic case to (especially since climate change is externalized, not counted as a cost), nor anyone with the fortitude to make it so



  • Are you open to moving?

    My niece jumped on a video program in high school and is going to college for film. In both cases, industry connections were a huge part of the program, and she has been able to find a good amount of part time work to help offset the costs of college. She even has IMDb.com profile and credits.

    From what little I know about the industry, this seems like one of those careers where connections are critical. Of course the problem is you’ll find only a small number of schools and locations with those connections.

    I know moving is not realistic for most people so I’ll second the other recommendations about seeing what your school can do for you.


  • If you want to read it yourself, there’s an entire section. Table of contents ….

    —-

    Subtitle B–Health

                          Chapter 1--Medicaid
    
    subchapter a--reducing fraud and improving enrollment processes
    

    Sec. 71101. Moratorium on implementation of rule relating to eligibility and enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs. Sec. 71102. Moratorium on implementation of rule relating to eligibility and enrollment for Medicaid, CHIP, and the Basic Health Program. Sec. 71103. Reducing duplicate enrollment under the Medicaid and CHIP programs. Sec. 71104. Ensuring deceased individuals do not remain enrolled. Sec. 71105. Ensuring deceased providers do not remain enrolled. Sec. 71106. Payment reduction related to certain erroneous excess payments under Medicaid. Sec. 71107. Eligibility redeterminations. Sec. 71108. Revising home equity limit for determining eligibility for long-term care services under the Medicaid program. Sec. 71109. Alien Medicaid eligibility. Sec. 71110. Expansion FMAP for emergency Medicaid.

               subchapter b--preventing wasteful spending
    

    Sec. 71111. Moratorium on implementation of rule relating to staffing standards for long-term care facilities under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Sec. 71112. Reducing State Medicaid costs. Sec. 71113. Federal payments to prohibited entities.

           subchapter c--stopping abusive financing practices
    

    Sec. 71114. Sunsetting increased FMAP incentive. Sec. 71115. Provider taxes. Sec. 71116. State directed payments. Sec. 71117. Requirements regarding waiver of uniform tax requirement for Medicaid provider tax. Sec. 71118. Requiring budget neutrality for Medicaid demonstration projects under section 1115.

            subchapter d--increasing personal accountability
    

    Sec. 71119. Requirement for States to establish Medicaid community engagement requirements for certain individuals. Sec. 71120. Modifying cost sharing requirements for certain expansion individuals under the Medicaid program.

                 subchapter e--expanding access to care
    

    Sec. 71121. Making certain adjustments to coverage of home or community-based services under Medicaid.