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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 22 to 46 of 117. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on November 6, 2018, at 12:13:06
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2018, at 22:52:13
>Opossums are not cute.
Are they American? They have them?
Posted by beckett2 on November 6, 2018, at 16:22:35
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 6, 2018, at 8:14:29
> Are all the native mammals of Australia marsupials? I exclude the dingo. There are monotremes too. We have native rats, but for the life of me I've never been able to know the difference between those and the standard rat.
>
> It's a relief anyway. I love Chris Hedges for daring to call out heretics and fascists. Of course Australia is not at all immune. We have just been sheltered somewhat from the worst of neoliberalism and the resulting nightmare. The ALP is by no means perfect but compares very well with the Democratic Party.Duck billed platypus?
Posted by beckett2 on November 6, 2018, at 16:24:21
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 6, 2018, at 4:19:40
> Ann Coulter is not Kelly Anne Conway, I just realised.
Haha nor is she Laura Ingram.
Posted by beckett2 on November 6, 2018, at 16:30:06
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 6, 2018, at 8:14:29
> Are all the native mammals of Australia marsupials? I exclude the dingo. There are monotremes too. We have native rats, but for the life of me I've never been able to know the difference between those and the standard rat.
>
> It's a relief anyway. I love Chris Hedges for daring to call out heretics and fascists. Of course Australia is not at all immune. We have just been sheltered somewhat from the worst of neoliberalism and the resulting nightmare. The ALP is by no means perfect but compares very well with the Democratic Party.The case with the Thylacine makes me and my son very sad. The last film and the poor thing paces in a cage. Anything in a cage (except finches and some birds) is miserable. (Maybe snakes don't mind either, depending on the confines.)
Posted by beckett2 on November 6, 2018, at 19:21:26
In reply to one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by beckett2 on November 5, 2018, at 19:17:45
I'm scared. Our polls close in three hours. I daren't look.
2016 was an arrow to my heart.
Is anyone up and want to chat?
Posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2018, at 21:28:16
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 6, 2018, at 12:13:06
somewhere you said something about older guys having a hard time... and that guy thinking he knew why...
i am not reprasing this very well...
i hope i haven't been... prescriptive. or dismissive. of how older guys feel.
i learned that older guys are high suicide risk in the US. i actually didn't know that... maybe it was just a faint memory... over here, it's about the young guys. and girls, too. but primarily the guys. the girls just self-harm in non-lethal ways. the 'gesture' thing. the guys actually tend to succeed in ending their lives.
anyway...
i don't really know much of anything about being an older guy. i hung out with older guys in the gym in Aussie. but they probably weren't 'normal' for older guys. it's also possible (i genuinely do not know) that they were a little chemical enhanced. i genuinely do not know.
i went to a lecture about prostate stuff a while back. it was the usual line on trying to justify why we don't test for prostate cancer or offer treatment for it if it happens to be found. he had a line on how older guys felt, too...
at the time... i might just have brought it hook and sinker. now... i guess you live you learn. i've learned rather a lot more about rather a lot more stuff than even i realise, sometimes...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2018, at 21:30:17
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by beckett2 on November 6, 2018, at 19:21:26
> I'm scared. Our polls close in three hours. I daren't look.
>
> 2016 was an arrow to my heart.
>
> Is anyone up and want to chat?i see... election stuff. sorry... i was swimming. or... trying to...
i need to read, now. otherwise i will have done nothing productive today. and trawl through journal list...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2018, at 21:33:39
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2018, at 21:30:17
oh, my, 'The Boston College Third World Law Journal' lolz.
Posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 6:06:54
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by beckett2 on November 6, 2018, at 19:21:26
It could have been worse. Beto didn't make it, nor did Gillem (sp?).
What do you think of David Pakman? I've almost finished his 3 hour thingo. He seems nice. Have you ever tried Fernet, I assume he meant Fernet Branca?
The problem will be that if the US electorate rejects responsibility for the dislocations resulting from climate change and foreign policy (Honduras! Thanks, Hilary. Count the coups.) the result may well be something like fascism as the problems generate a political reaction. Brazil was terrible. The Intercept has been good on that. I don't recall exactly. I recall maybe Kyle Kulinski talking to Glen Greenwald.
To what extent do you think this is a consequence of the Democratic party not standing for anything? When I think back to the Kavanaugh hearings, the Democratic senators were pretty weak. And no one, except one retired old supreme court judge gives sufficient emphasis to the fact that it is not only at all about the rape allegations. It is that in his response Kavanaugh showed himself unfit. In no other recent time or place would it have been. 'It seems like Ancient Rome.'
The nice thing about looking at this from outside the anglosphere is that only there is the overton window, the mind control, so strongly organised. Bloody Murdoch. Well, I'm not an expert, I haven't paid for a Murdoch publication since 1975. That was enough for me.
It is scary. That's why I relax with history. These things are not unusual.
Posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 6:21:33
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 6:06:54
A vaseline covered Dracula in an ill-fitting suit? Did I hear that?
Posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 7:24:34
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 6:21:33
https://therealnews.com/stories/democrats-take-the-house-what-now
Posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 14:28:30
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 7:24:34
I don't know her name, that lovely girl (forgive me, it's my age) on the Majority Report, she delighted me with......
'It's all flattened into equivalent bite sized pieces of the spectacle.'
Posted by beckett2 on November 7, 2018, at 18:41:27
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 14:28:30
> I don't know her name, that lovely girl (forgive me, it's my age) on the Majority Report, she delighted me with......
>
> 'It's all flattened into equivalent bite sized pieces of the spectacle.'
>I forget her name as well-- I enjoy her wit too.
While things aren't 'as' bad as they could be, the lack of a sharp rebuke of trump is worse than I imagined. A california representative toady indicted on 60 corruption charges (or more) won his re election to the House.
My suspicion has been confirmed by a few papers that the idiotic approach to the Kavanaugh led to a strengthening of the rep Senate.
The Democratic Party needs to make room for younger leadership.
Are people absolutely stunned by climate change? I can't imagine anything worse than that lurking in the subconscious. Or is it unconscious?
Two causes for joy; Florida felons will be allowed to vote again (maybe the state will shift a bit left); and Chris Kobach, leader of the defunct voter fraud committee lost his bid for Governor of Kansas.
Oh yes, and Devin Nunes will be defanged.
But Rosenstein will likely be fired before then. And whatever, because the Supreme Court.
Posted by beckett2 on November 7, 2018, at 18:43:09
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 6, 2018, at 21:30:17
> > I'm scared. Our polls close in three hours. I daren't look.
> >
> > 2016 was an arrow to my heart.
> >
> > Is anyone up and want to chat?
>
> i see... election stuff. sorry... i was swimming. or... trying to...
>
> i need to read, now. otherwise i will have done nothing productive today. and trawl through journal list...
>Hope you got some good reading done. Thanks for checking in last night. I appreciate it.
Trying to swim? Was there an issue at the pool?
Posted by sigismund on November 7, 2018, at 20:07:18
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 7, 2018, at 18:41:27
Maybe not many people have tried Fernet Branca? (That was from David Pakman. He said he was Jewish Argentinian, and they drink Fernet there.) My wife wouldn't't touch it. I'd read it was the only drink ever to cure hangovers. One other time I read it contained codeine (waste of time). I finished that bottle quickly enough and never bought another. David Pakman surprised me by saying "I don't care about the Bible.' That was nice and liberating but perhaps I prefer to remain angry at those who use the religion in this way. I can't see why they should get away with it. One of the things I like about Chris Hedges is that he went to Harvard Divinity School and is an ordained Presbyterian (?) minister.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 7, 2018, at 23:58:00
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on November 7, 2018, at 18:43:09
hey.
sigh.
i just get... upset about things, sometimes.
advertising in supermarkets. sometimes it rolls off my back. whatever. other times it really upsets me, a lot. how dare they blast advertising at me when i'm doing something hard like trying to compare ingredient lists... or do a price comparison.
lane sharing in swimming. i understand that lanes fill up and you have to share lanes. okay. but i don't understand why people share your lane when there are free lanes. i similarly don't understand why people use the elliptical (or bike or whatever) right next to me when there are a good 6 or 9 other ones with nobody on them. it's a personal space thing.
it annoyed me, yesterday that someone wanted to share my lane with me when there were free lanes and when i was doing breaststroke (where you simply can't kick properly if you are forced up against a wall or forced between two people in a lane sharing situatio.
i think...
people are used to freestyle, mostly, and don't understand a wide breastroke kick (to think that that is an issue at all). i also think... that people swim by pace (e.g., aim to swim for 30 minutes or whatever at a steady pace) and that probably the person thought my pace would be constant and by swimming with me we would both encourage each other to keep up our pace throughout the time (when one or the other would intermittently get the urge to slack off). but i swim different. i prefer to swim bursts / intervals. and i prefer to swim breastroke, mostly. and i prefer to try and be a torpedo through the water following the centre line precisely and i prefer to focus on what i'm doing instead of focusing on kicking narrow and swimming to the side of the lane (which means i'm kicking under the lane and into the next one, too, often)...
it's just a pain the *ss. it's... overcrowding. that's all.
i just get... an aversion / hypersensitivity to things, sometimes, is all. i'm okay...
i'm waiting to hear whether i have an interview or not (should hear over the next few days). they really leave it until last minute (flight prices will be well up).
and (of course) i haven't heard anything about my thesis...
I found some journal stuff last night that was nice. Partly about sexual abuse in our hospitals. as in... senior surgical staff telling people to do intimate (vaginal, anal, genital) on people anesthetised for surgery (without their consent). apparently... med students actually write they are uncomfortable about this... ethical dilemma stuff... most people do the exams because they are afraid they will be flunked if they don't... most people... feel bad about / write about these as ethical dilemmas... anyway... the thing was that this article was written by a senior person in the hospital system / a senior research person... they didn't say whether there was evidence that teh (few) students who did not comply were punished or flunked... but... well... milgrim experiment irl... anyway... there was a clear statement that such activity does in fact constitute sexual misconduct / abuse. so... that's good. i was worried that things were that bad, here, that nobody would see it as abusive / inappropriate, at all. i can write to the author and ask them about evidence of punishing the ones who didn't comply... ask for help knowing how to handle myself appropriately in such contexts... sounds like that isn't formally part of the curriculum at present... i am concerned i'll be flunked for such a thing. i believe i was flunked out before because i said things like 'maaori need control of their food supply chain' and so on... stuff that was different from what their political elites wanted me to spout...
anyway...
i'm ok.
you okay about election stuff? I am reading along... but i don't really understand... it's... space weather to me...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 1:45:53
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 7, 2018, at 23:58:00
it really is corruption.
health managers or administrators.
the money that was supposed to go to providing goods and services for a good quality public health system went into the pockets of managers and administrators and politicians.
there wasn't any point spending more on health from the government budget because any increase in expenditure would only have gone still more into the pockets o managers and administrators and politicians.they wanted cheap doctors. so they started advertising a clean green kiwi lifestyle to trained doctors from developing nations. intentionally trying to poach them from places like South Africa (that really really really need trained medical staff)... Then, when they came here, they refuse to register them properly (e.g., as specialist GPs). As in... They lose their application forms; they only run exams a few times a year and they just missed out; so on and so forth... Corruption. To get cheap staff.
the positions are all horrible hours to see people who are sick because they live in mouldy cold and leaky houses and eat plastic and sawdust and chemicals. people who are often horrible because they've been sexually and physically abused and bulled all their lives (right from the very first 'cervical exam' they had when they were just born) or the genital mutilation of their penis for skin transplant surgeries...
the line here is that the abused grow up to be abusers, which makes the whole thing okay. the idea is that everyone would be an abuser (if they thought they could get away with it) so boo hoo sometimes you lose it isn't like you'd be doing it any diferently if you couldn't get away with it -- right???
awful people.
so these awful people have been in charge for a while, now...
trying to make everyone believe the only way they will get to the top (have control over enough resources so as to make life feel like it's worth living) is to... collude.
yeah.
the district health boards wanted cheap surgeons. so they got cheap doctors who aren't registered and who haven't been accepted on any kind of training or continuing education program. and they teach our students that being a surgeon is all about having a rare and valuable skill such that you can get away with... well... murder. i'm sure.
apparently our med students start out with a brightness in their eyes..
i guess i need to figure out whether it's possible to get through the training without being flunked out for not abusing patients...
because if it isn't then there is nothing here for me in this country at all. because... i'm not going to do that. there's no reason for 4th and 5th (beginning 2 years of clinical medicine) students to be doing intimate exams... is there? and then, what, every intimate exam needs to be done... again? by someone who actually knows what they're feeling for? i was worried about this all the way back... prostate exams and the like...
do american people have guidelines on teaching / learning or...
?
we are a nation of sexual and physical abusers... informed consent... we don't have the notion of persons. of equality. there is no respect for persons or any kind of respect for a person wanting something different from you... if you can get away with imposing your will that's what you do. and if you don't fight to impose your will / get your way then too bad. you lose.
sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:03:41
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 1:45:53
and then it's the alcohol syndrom and effects and oxygen deprivation that occurs around the time of birth, perhaps even oxygen absorption problems from certain varieties of surfactant...
and these things lead (predictably) to people with very little brain.
and the very little brain is then subjected to all kinds of noises and flashing lights and chemicals and toxins and plastics and so on we call 'food'...
and very little reading, writing, and arithmetic.
to help confuse them and make it impossible for them to read ingredients labels. to care about things like what is in their food (when they are obese from malnutritoin)...
so they don't notice...
that the government expenditure...
$300 for end of supply chain shoes... from crazes... the inferior goods. the exhorbitant prices that people here (and the government even more than individuals) is paying for inferior goods.
that's the thing of it. look at how the government spends it's money.
the interview thing really is about drivnig the flight prices up. we'll see... when i'm offered an interview then all the flights will book out, i'm sure, and we'll see what the prices are.
you can get a flight for under $100 if you book in advance.
they were looking more like up to $200 a couple weeks ago.how far will they push them up for people to attend a med school interview from around the country?
what do you think?
should it cost me $1,000 new zealand dollars to attend an interview?
?
where someone can 'definite no' me for... uh... well, because they don't like the look of my face. maybe i'll accidentally say that i think people discriminate against maaori to the wrong person (apparently this is controverial and seen as a somewhat extreme view).
i guess they are just assessing how much they want to abuse me
how much they want to see me abuse others...is that really the whole plan?
you are going to have to show me differnet, nz...
we really could't be any more under-developed... fourth world... we need a new term, even...
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:15:53
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:03:41
I do not know / understand about internal american politics...
But the kinds of things I've been saying about our leaders, here...
I suspect most leaders are not as corrupt as our leaders have been. I suspect this because people generally seem to have a better standard of living in the US and Canada and the UK and Australia... I think... From what I can tell... Things are actually worse, here.
Anyway... You need to bear in mind that Trump is the face of America for all the other nations.See...
When Obama was the face of America for all the other nations, then all the other nations awful leaders kept approaching America looking for handouts or whatever so they could better oppress their people. Obama looked like a nice man. A kind man. A man who could be taken advantage of.
Trump doesn't. So much. Trump has an air of... You can try and fair trade with him, but he'll only take you for whatever he can get.
Which means... American is less likely to be approached / harrassed by other nations trying to screw one over on... Well... As many people as they can, honestly.
I don't know if that makes any sense.
This is why I worry about NZ for now. I looked at that UN Speech that our Prime Minister made and it sounded like NZ is aware it's got some things to be looking at and it isn't asking for handouts (to better exploit it's own people). And with the leader we have...
Did you see the line of nations leaders cuing up to speak with her?
I bet they were probably not looking for mutually beneficial fair deals... I bet they were probably looking for someone with a sense of guilt to appease by... Maybe by giving them a hand out so they could better screw over their own people or...
...
Politics is a nasty business.
What is the business?
Well... It's to placate people. Business as usual. Get up. Go to work. Do you work. Sometimes it's the time to buy buy buy! Other times it's the time to save save save! Keep doing that...
And some people have access to lots of resources. And other people have access to lots of... Uh... Pink plastic sausages and the like. Feelings of guilt for bad decisions they make (e.g., for giving in to their constant cravings to over-eat because their bodies won't stop screaming at them since they're so malnourished)...
...
It's just a facade to have us accept the status quo.
Because the alternative... Is what?
War??
Just so long as we believe that would be worse than what we have now.
Nobody eggs the politicians car. People seem to... LIke the fact that there's a guy who is paid, what? They accept it. Don't mind. Don't think that his stuff is there for their taking. Not that our politicians actually live here or buy foods in the supermarkets here. Clearly.
It's a farce.
There is no democracy here. There's nobody home.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:33:06
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:15:53
Sigh.
I'm alright, I'm just annoyed about how little notice they give us prior to interview.
I suppose I don't know when grades are finalised... I suppose it might actually be a push to rank everyone...
I should get an interview... Since they interview I think 3x as many as they accept. Would be very strange to think I couldn't make an interview with above an A average for the relevant year of study (60% selection) and a just a little below average UMAT score (where the average is for eveyone sitting UMAT in NZ and Australia and further afield -- and not the average UMAT score for the applicants at the particular uni I've applied to -- which would probably be a bit less since they will want Australians to see NZ as a 'absolute last resort' option / a 2nd rate Australia option)...
But, who knows. Apparently I can't can't break 30% for a first year public health essay so... Who knows. Hey, maybe I'll have my old exam grader as one of my interviewrs.
F*ck*ng yay.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:50:37
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 2:33:06
and the UMAT is only 15%
60% grade.that's for interview selection. and then 25% from interview and (the journals lead me to believe) 'definite yes' and 'definite no' can be the outcome of interview.
we can't talk about the UMAT questions... and i don't want to...
it was just incredibly odd, to me, that i did really really well on their section two ('understanding people') practice questions (that's not the surprising bit)... I mean... I'm not surprised I did well on that. I mean, I've studied quite a bit of English Lit. My understanding of mood and tone and theme and so on... And then my study of psychology, too. From behaviorism to psychodynamic theories to developmental to freud and jung and so on... My study of de-escalating things and so on...
It would surprise me, no end, if I didn't do really well on section 2. I mean... I've worked really hard at understanding people most particularly (but not limited to) writing... Over how many years?
And practice test seemed to confirm that...
But I did poorly at it in the exam. And the questions seemed... Odd. There was a clear answer in teh practice questions (IMHO) and there was not a clear answer in the actual test questions. It seemed like a personality test, to me. But... Well... What personality characaterists are the looking for?
A good person?
Seems not...
I did poorly. Huh.
Anyway... The UMAT is no longer. England is going to be administering their test for NZ and Australia from next year.
Do I have any reason to expect that would be less of a farce?
And then what of the STEP...
NZ... Makes teh whole wide world look bad. Someone really needs to do something...
Posted by sigismund on November 8, 2018, at 3:01:06
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 7, 2018, at 18:41:27
>the lack of a sharp rebuke of trump is worse than I imagined.
Was that the point? That one group of Americans wish to insult each other? When I listen to Mark Blyth or hear of some older woman who has a self-described 'abnormal love' for Trump, this comes to mind.
Here is David Byrne singing about it 40 years ago. (Do you think?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUrNrZqb1kw
And all this wretched whatever it is (we are close to identity politics?) obscures the similarities of interests......living wage, healthcare, cheaper education, rolling back the wars. The left has a lot more in common with the right than it does with the centre. I don't know how long it will take for corporate Democrats to learn. Or do you agree with Cenk, that they are paid to lose?
Talking along these lines 'white genocide' seems just around the corner.
You remember in the 60s there were a whole batch of musos who went all over the centre and the south, and on the whole, they wrote with generosity, I think. Nothing like that now.
Posted by sigismund on November 8, 2018, at 3:07:24
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by sigismund on November 8, 2018, at 3:01:06
Anyway, you have heard it all before. You can't pay attention to identity politics of your economic policy destroys jobs. I recall Obama and Clinton saying that they would all get better jobs.
There is more light/difference between the Democratic and the Republican Parties now?
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 3:46:14
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 8, 2018, at 3:07:24
people make money off people being uneducated.
that's why the push for that.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 3:49:25
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 8, 2018, at 3:46:14
many men do not want women to know how to prevent pregnancy
and so on...
many people do not want women to know that there are medications to induce miscarrage, too.
they'd rather their med students practice procedures.
the former is a little more of the giving the power back to the women thing. the later is more... repeating whatever it was that got her into that mess in the first place.
tis a nasty business.
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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