![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 87 to 111 of 117. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 4:34:58
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 3:54:40
From Andrew Levine's latest column.........
Remember too that while there is morbidity and mortality, there is hope.
Being notoriously fickle, the gods might just find it amusing to stop afflicting the world with the Donald, and instead, at long last, to turn on that vile creature himself.
If and when that happens, I, for one, would be especially pleased were cholesterol to be their instrument of choice. Thus, when I see that noxious Trump punimon my TV screen, I often find myself recalling the demise of Mr. Creosote in Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life. There is some consolation to be found in imagining Hispanic restaurant workers in one or another of Trumps gaudy golf resorts bringing the Commander-in-Chief his final cheeseburger and a bucket.
That is at least as likely a scenario as any involving the Democratic Party.
Posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 5:18:41
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 4:34:58
There has just been an earthquake! I have never been in a real one. It was like something was going wild in the base of the building. I didn't have my pants on! What will I do if the building starts falling apart? Look for my pants first and the keys? Birds started flying around unusually. Then it stopped. I was reading this which seems appropriate.......
Posted by beckett2 on November 11, 2018, at 18:53:16
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 5:18:41
> There has just been an earthquake! I have never been in a real one. It was like something was going wild in the base of the building. I didn't have my pants on! What will I do if the building starts falling apart? Look for my pants first and the keys? Birds started flying around unusually. Then it stopped. I was reading this which seems appropriate.......
>
> https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/09/when-it-comes-to-stone-throwing-democrats-live-in-a-glass-house/It's quite a rush, isn't it? I would think pants maybe? Once while driving, my car started bucking and I thought I had engine trouble until I noticed the street poles were swaying. I didn't realize you guys had earthquakes. But aren't you far from the epicenter?
Posted by beckett2 on November 11, 2018, at 18:54:50
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 3:54:40
> >sigi, I don't know what will be left of my state :(
>
> The same problem I read on Counterpunch extends up to Washington State (to say nothing of the glaciers). But Oregon has a reputation for being wet? And then down to California.
>
> The indigenous in Australia practiced many kinds of burning, mainly cool weather burning. The knowledge was largely lost, so Australia 150 years after their dispersal (that was the word) was more wooded with thinner taller trees. Like California, vulnerable to fire. Not the rainforest but the sclerophyll (which doesn't explain much but includes eucalypts) and then there is the heath that needs to burn to reproduce. But that has been Ausralia's pattern, not yours. In Wellington I saw many big west coast American trees, I can't recall their names.
>
> What a self absorbed idiot he is.What happens to your displaced farmers? All our assets are in our house.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 11, 2018, at 23:29:44
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 11, 2018, at 18:54:50
I didn't think Australia had earthquakes either. People laughed at me when I didn't want to put things, unsecured, on high shelves.
Are you sure it isn't the bombs going off?
Posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 1:48:45
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 11, 2018, at 23:29:44
> I didn't think Australia had earthquakes either. People laughed at me when I didn't want to put things, unsecured, on high shelves.
>
> Are you sure it isn't the bombs going off?Do you have them in NZ? Yeah, we never store things over the heads of the bed, etc. When I was on the east coast, I looked in awe at the fearlessly stocked bookcases towering overhead in home and schools.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:07:59
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 1:48:45
> Do you have them in NZ?
Yes, indeed. The country lies along a fault line and I was trained to secure things overhead in case of earthquake.
I was not taught spider and snake avoidance strategies, however. It was hard for me to remember to be careful of where you put your hands in the wild (e.g., under wood) because of spiders. And to make a noise when tramping to try and scare off snakes.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:09:45
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 5:18:41
Where are you Sigismund? I thought you were in Queensland.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:25:19
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:09:45
I'm in the Andes, in Peru.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:27:29
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 11, 2018, at 23:29:44
There was an earthquake around Newcastle. Sometimes fracking leads to strange movements, wells, rivers and water that can burn. The usual thing.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:33:07
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:27:29
Did Trump once say of his son with approval 'He'll grow up to be a cold blooded killer'?
For every killer there is/are some killed. We can demonise those. Losers! But his weak spot may be that he doesn't understand sacrifice, whether theological (married by Norman Vincent Peale!) or simply the sacrifices made every day by ordinary decent people.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:42:38
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:33:07
The 'killer' bit is metaphorical. But the 'cold blooded' isn't. It's the replacement of empathy and relation with some kind of narcissistic exaltation.
I can remember my parents talking about FDR. I can just remember Eisenhower. (Ever read about General Marshall?) Of course I remember the day Kennedy was shot. It really is a very sad trajectory. In the past there were men wrestling with complex problems.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:45:11
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:42:38
And that was the problem with Kavanaugh. So he coached young girls playing something or other sufficient to show his virtue. What a bloody ethical mess!
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 10:46:38
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:45:11
yes, fracking. that must be it. or something to do with mining, perhaps. earthquake doesn't sound at all plausible to me, but goes down as 'act of god / natural disaster' rather than industry caused with respect to the redistribution of funds via insurance.
the sewers flood in south dunedin every winter. predictably. it was an act of god up until recently. the insurance companies / lawyers have decided that, actually, it's the Dunedin City Council failing to provide adequate infrastructure for it's citizens / international students. that means that any of the people in south dunedin that had home and contents insurance (not likely given what the premiums would have been) will no longer get insurance assistance.
after the series of canturbury earthquakes in Christchurch quite a few new homes were built. the wealthiest people got payouts first / most substantive payouts and there are architectural homes further afield. the series of earthquakes over a few years gave people a good reason to distribute themselves further afield around the country. then a bunch of laws were passed under urgency (not via normal consulation process) in order to get a bunch of bad for the people but good for the firms decisions through... there was supposed to be some large convention centre that would be fairly self contained.
like a...
i don't know what it is called... futuristic building.
there was this book i read as a kid. teen fiction. this really really really huge building with multiple levels. most of the people lived in slum apartments. i suppose that is in our future. the people rich enough to buy into these apartments in the first place (so most are locked out to be subjected to all the fallout cancers). and then of course the slums within...
i mourn the loss of human potential.
what's really interesting with kismet is how you can train kismet to train someone to in fact back off when kismet wants them to. i... don't really have it in my nature to be sufficiently... obnoxious. venemous. vile. repulsive. repugnant. such that people will decide to avoid me, for a change.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:03:50
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 10:46:38
i mean in those momentary interactions. the ones where the person decides they are assessing me before jumping into my lane (when there are other swimming lanes that are vacant). when the person decides they are assessing me before telling me to put clips on... i don't know how to get them to decide that they are better off backing off of me and leaving me alone.
my natural inclination is to indicate that i wish them to back off by avoiding their gaze and partially turning away or fully turning away. that doesn't seem to have the desired effect. more recently i've taken to visibly snarling. like, curling my lip a bit and baring my teeth. oddly, that doesn't seem to have any effect, either. i've also more recently tried taking a belly full of air, puffing out my chest, and giving them a good old stare down but that also doesn't seem to work. maybe i could invest in an air horn? pepper spray? shotgun?
parallel worlds...
it's like the aboriginals with the fire to thin the trees... people, i mean. how the people who make these decisions view people. the 'natural disasters' that are an inevitable part of population control, these days, because people don't / won't hand birth control over to the people whose bodies it primarily affects (in the first instance). instead of being more humane in our... planting strategies... the idea is to sow the seed as widely as possible and then imposed disaster is supposed to thin the herd.
that strategy seems to be maintaining psychopathy at around 75%.
i don't know that our laws are getting more progressive (for a greater proportion of our people).
i don't know what the world population is, these days.
i don't know who does know / what they do know.
i know i have found some stuff that suggests to me that despite everything that we try and convey here, in New Zealand about there being too many unruly youth...
there's actually f*ck all of us. we are outnumbered by tourists something like 4 to 1.
if you aren't part of some artificially compressed herd being subjected to a constant stream of garbage persuading you that you are only one totally replaceable piece of sh*t then there's really no people about...
i wonder how much the rest of the world is like that, too.
on superficial glance mostly pop is thought to be okay...
on more of a look we have exceeded carrying capacity and are in exponential population growth in a way that isn't sustainable.the world health people try and track fertile women. that's all they care about.
it's really... the handmaidens tail but upside down and back to front. it's so very very very very cheap to cast spores to the wind and pop out a constant succession of babies.
then let natural disaster cull them all.
i've been thinking more recently about assisted reproduction and what kind of assurance there is that the egg and / or sperm are actually sourced from where they were supposed to have been.
maybe i am just what happens when you get too old. you start to see how the world works and there is little to no reason to live in it, anymore.
is it all just smoke and mirrors and false ideals until they're... what... 20? 23?
we don't have a health system because nobody wants people here to live very long. nobody really accumulates knowledge considered valuable enough to teach people....
nobody cares about valuable knowledge.
nobody knows it when they see it...
all the awful.... sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:24:16
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:03:50
don't mind me, it's a cool-down period after yet another year of awful.
a year of jumping through a hoop i've already jumped through because 'we don't recognise qualifications that are more than 5 years old'.
a qualification people only allowed me to enrol in because they thought i was mentally defective and didn't have any hope of getting what i'd said done, done.
people who have dragged their heels all year...
all the scholarships that are advertised...
i don't think they are actually awarded to anyone. i mean that genuinely. i think that they are a sham. a hoax. people think that the university is legitimate because there are scholarships and the like, but i can't find lists of people who were awarded them and / or the name of their project...
similarly with the jobs that are advertised in this country.
i think it's all just designed to waste people's time.
it's all an elaborate hoax.students from auckland got sent an email right before their second semester examinations telling them they didn't make the cut off to get an interview for medicine so their applications had been declined.
the students were upset at the appalling lack of timing.
the university said that they did a future forecast thing and assumed they got A+'s for their second semester courses and even with that projection they didn't meet the cut off.the students (rightly) pointed out that the university didn't see fit to tell them that before they enrolled (and paid fees for) their second semester courses.
that's right. that's just the fundamental lack of consideration and disregard for them all over.
quite a few scholarships say they are 'need based'. you are supposed to make a case for why you need the money (e.g., on grounds of hardship). sometimes they are on the basis of what you plan to do with the money. in all these cases there is no evidence the scholarships are ever awarded to anyone at all. it is just people... data collecting. there are scholarships that require people to write essays... again, no evidence they are awarded to people.
you would think that it would be better if... the university could publish a good journal. if the university could get students to work towards writing for the journal. if the university could showcase the best student work it had...
instead of giving the best student work it has failing grades...
it used to be that you could trust universities to look after their studentts. that's simply not the case anymore. these aren't really universities.
i'm afraid that teh universities here will lose their international affiliation / accreditation whatever it is any old day now.
there's a world directory of medical schools and it says things about the unis here that are false (that one is graduate entry and the other is undergraduate entry -- but they are both mixed entry)... they are 6 year programs (but everyone in the entire university can do all the first year subjects). and auckland organises teh first year subjects so you do biology, physics, organic chemistry, in the first semester and they go through masses of content so fast that it is impossible to do well unless you go into the year knowing most of it already. chemistry, in particular, they give you a workbook but they don't put in the structures or the key words that they actually want you to learn. you are supposed to fill these in yourself in lecture... so the kids in the best residential halls have tutors who give them the content they are supposed to learn and drum in the answers. everyone else... cannon fodder. stick around because they are told they have another shot if they finish degrees in minimum time (which means they can't transfer to another university). but then you have that third year bottleneck...
people overseas will know full well what is happening. all this information is readily available. all the essays stuedetns write and so on is uploaded to this online grading thing...
the developed world knows how badly new zealanders are treated.
we are the gamma babies of the developed world. pickled in alcohol and so on. the developed worlds slaves.
i don't see how i could see it any other way...
people have been dragging their heels all year... all year.... all year...
all my life... what was wrong with me was that i didn't say (with feeling)
for all the things people spouted at me...
'i know you are. but what am i?'
sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:35:18
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:24:16
I mean...
Let's say you can write a paper in a year that is of publishable quality.
Then let's say you have three friends who are similarly positioned.
Then let's say you decide to work together such that you read / respond / edit up each other's work so you can claim to have 3 collaboratively authored papers.
That works to mutual benefit (for the benefit of everyones CV).
Added value: The quality is likely to be higher. It might also be the case that together, an additinal piece can be published that arises from the conflict / tension / differences in the authors perspectives / points of view.
I mean...
This is how you get 5 publications in a year, yes?
It's a... Uh... No brainer.
Only... People here really don't seem to have caught on. Somehow... It's become about preventing the people around you from publishing (if at all possible) so that you somehow look better for having done that, once, or something. Something like that.
Of course mostly the problem is that people don't do what they say they will do in anything approximating a timely fashion.
Then the problem becomes that if someone does something in a timely fashion everyone wants to turn on them / stone them to death because such things are not posssible / allowed.
Nobody is allowed to do anything.
Everyone must go at the pace of teh slowest and everyone must spend all the time there is placating the slowest.
Otherwise, they deserve to be murdered in their sleep.
My problem was my Mother did not drink while pregnant. She also never fed me chemical rubbish processed crap. I guess they hadn't got to our water supply and the like, too...
I'm sure they've learned better.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 12:12:20
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:35:18
i know now to ask for evidence of scholarship recipients before i invest in time applying for things.
i got no scholarships this year.
most aren't available to MPhil students (2nd masters) they are only available to PhD or first Master's students.
but there were a few.
and i applied for those few. and i got nothing.
like, there was a faculty scholarship (which you would think would prioritise highest GPA and / or people with no alternative scholarships) but I didn't get that.
there was a district health boards scholarship and i was working on one of their stated priority areas and i didn't get that.
nothing.
it's great. i get to say 'i have no conflict of interest to disclose'. i get to say i have recieved no source of funding for my project.
if i wanted to take 5 years to do 1 years worth of work i would have got funding for my project. if i wrote a crappier thesis (e.g., one that was largely google found phrase then copy-paste the reference) in a post-modernist essay generated no meaningful ideas kind of way i would have got funding.
they do their best to teach people that this is the only way they are allowed to be.
i feel like someone is sitting down somewhere just laughing their f*ck*ng *ss off about all this...
i just want to do the work and get out.
but people are all about 'see see see see see see see this is why we can't get anything done here'.
it's so swampy, here.
who profits?
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 12:25:23
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:35:18
it just disgusts me when i think about how much money it costs to write a government report and how many people were paid how much to write it.
and they couldn't even give me a scholarship to cover my fees.
if i wanted to write garbage-out they would pay me for it. they would pay me to be complicit and contribute towards the garbage-out.
if i want to learn something to make a genuine positive contribution...
there's nobody home.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 13:15:37
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 12:25:23
welcome to a compulsory medicine course at a top 100 university. designed for people with little to no literacy to be indoctrinated about how they will get no healthcare because the country can't afford it and learn about how expensive surgeons are and about how everybody needs to be a manager / policy writer. that's what the world needs.
sigh.
Posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 21:16:23
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:07:59
> > Do you have them in NZ?
>
> Yes, indeed. The country lies along a fault line and I was trained to secure things overhead in case of earthquake.
>
> I was not taught spider and snake avoidance strategies, however. It was hard for me to remember to be careful of where you put your hands in the wild (e.g., under wood) because of spiders. And to make a noise when tramping to try and scare off snakes.
>
>Are they a NZ problem?
Posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 21:22:07
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:25:19
> I'm in the Andes, in Peru.
The quake you were in was in Peru?
Must be so quiet. And dark at night.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 22:16:18
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 21:16:23
only with customs / immigration.
i never had a startle reflex to a coiled hose until i moved to Australia.
so much for 'innate' reflex against such things that isn't dependent on prior learning.
but then i guess startle reflexes to guns (not present on evolutionary timescales) show us the same thing.
Posted by sigismund on November 13, 2018, at 4:17:39
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 21:22:07
I visited a friend's place. We came by car and returned down many many steps on foot.
We were higher than this
After half an hour of walking down steps we came to roads with cars and took a taxi.
The air is thin so the heart functions differently. Up on the hills surrounding it was at least 3,500m, so 11,500 ft. Get much higher and you can really notice it.
Posted by beckett2 on November 13, 2018, at 22:54:00
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 13, 2018, at 4:17:39
I didn't realize Cusco was this large. Is that the main square?
Go forward in thread:
Psycho-Babble Politics | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.