Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Anti-Matter Are you gonna have to get them removed?

@ThanosReXXX I will never, ever understand the human aptitude for taking simple things and making them as complicated as possible, nor how the default behavior of collective human activity is always bureaucracy.

I'm also starting to think that America's biggest problem, is having ever let the Dutch in. It sounds like most of our worst organization decision ideas are mirrors of the Dutch. And NY, being one of the most messed up of all places in the US in that regard, started from the beginning, with a very large Dutch population.......... It's also the home of Tulip Mania.....of which the modern US stock market and business model seems to be a model of.

"Eindhoven, one of the other big cities over here, and famous for being the home town of electronics giant Philips"

Endhoven.....Philips....

That read was interesting, but as with anything on Quora...it's...weird. Nothing is definitive, everything is some interpretative answer rather than using...you know...actual definitions And somehow it's a page of a bunch of systems analysts, technology executives, and software engineers, overwhelmingly from India and Pakistan answering questions as though authorities on all manner of topics far, far, far outside their field.... Which is pretty much EVERY question on Quora.

@Heavyarms55 But then how do they employ an army of hundreds of thousands of well paid Federal sloths qualified experts with abusive attitudes who can do minimum work for decades and collect large pensions and full benefits packages while threatening people that work all day and will get no pension, will never retire, will die at their jobs, and in turn will get "medical" insurance that covers up to 50% of their $3.6M asperin? I mean they can't even subversively use tax code to attack political enemies from within the shadows. What a backward island.

@bimmy-lee "Yeah Heavyarms, I guess it speaks to how nasty and difficult cancer can be that we treat it with radiation exposure and toxic pill cocktails which ravage the body. Sorry you had to see it. I’ve seen it. Makes me wish I was smart enough to come up with another way."

I'm not sure if it's a commentary on the disease or our primitive money driven medical system. there's always a million conspiracy theories...but some "hearsay" comes from more credible sources than others. Ultimately our medical system isn't designed to cure anything....treatment is a subscription forever....cures stop the cash cow. I've seen enough "hearsay" from sources that are a bit more than "hearsay" that it was already "cured" long ago....but that's not profitable. So they'll keep irradiating people in exchange for tens of thousands in insurance money a shot. Our medical system is more of a parasite that you have no choice but to play host to.

@NEStalgia - I hear you in regard to the way we deal with big C, it seems insane, but I don’t know an alternative, I haven’t had to look for one. I can tell you that my wife books six to eight months out, and she’s a mid level. The doctors at her practice are a year out. All people looking to treat the cause and not put a bandage on the symptom. They’re all people who want off big pharm’s depressing treadmill. The resources are there for people who want this sort of help, it just takes patience and difficult dietary and lifestyle changes many people are unwilling to undergo.

@NEStalgia Aaarghh!! My eyes! That picture! Kill it, kill it with fire!!

But yeah, that dreadful device indeed. And yet, they also gave us the compact disc, and other brilliant inventions, so for every miss they made, they also made far more good products, so I guess they're off the hook.
For now...

And yeah, the Dutch screwed up plenty of countries, back in those days. They've always been good with inventing rules and regulations (that are beneficial to the state), and with implementing them, confusing the heck out of the poor citizens with them. It even goes so far, that getting back money that you're entitled to, is buried under such an amount of paperwork to be filed and signed, that most people simply don't bother with it, meaning that, almost every year, at least a couple of hundred euros per person flows right back into the treasury...

As for your discussion with @bimmy-lee concerning medicine and treatment: I largely agree, but I do think we should tread carefully when discussing terminal diseases. I don't think that there's an active agenda going on with any medical society or foundation, to let people continue to suffer from these diseases, instead of actively seeking cures. Over here, there's a world-renowned cancer research institute (Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Institute), and since the 70's, they've made enormous progress in either slowing down, or even completely halting various kinds of cancer, so progress is absolutely being made, in that regard, and to the benefit of the patients, regardless of whether or not it will release them from the financial burden of (periodical and/or continued) treatment.

I'll be heading on vacation with my family for about a week starting tomorrow. I'll keep half an eye on the site and the forums at times, but I likely won't be posting as much. I'll be spending a lot of time in a vehicle though, so who knows? XD

@bimmy-lee I agree; treat the cause, not the symptom.

@Tyranexx Have a nice week, then. We'll probably be inclined to give you a short recap when you return,
to save you from having to scroll through the 12 to 20 pages that you'll miss out on...

@ThanosReXXX That would be much appreciated! XD I'm currently checking some topics here since I'm waiting to get called at an eye appointment.

@Tyranexx - Hope you have a great vacation and get a nice break from the office. I’ve just started a four day weekend to celebrate my daughter’s birthday.

@NEStalgia The Cynic in me approves of basically all you said. lol. But I still appreciate this backwardness.

@NEStalgia and @bimmy-lee The thing that made me violently angry was when I learned that nearly all the various poisons they called medicines they had him on, had "stroke" as a potential side effect and no one stopped and said "If we use all these medicines with the same potential lethal side effect, wont that be very likely?" The doctor admitted to my father, before the strokes (yes, plural, the estimate after his death was that he had dozens in the last few weeks) that they were not paying attention to the potential side effects and complications. They admitted to this after my father noticed a new medicine they had prescribed had stated high possibility of depression and thoughts of suicide - my father who forgot for years to get over depression about a decade prior pointed this out to his doctor who admitted he didn't even notice that side effect listed.

Suffice to say it's good that I have not seen this doctor in person since my father passed. In my opinion, he is a murderer.

@bimmy-lee happy bday to bim's daughter!
@tyranexx have fun on vaca
@morpheel I'll be on wolf tonight for sure if you want to try and do this co op thingy..same goes for @hobbitgamer.. it'll prob be in a couple hours or so.

@bimmy-lee Hey, buddy. Congrats with your little girl. Hope you got a great couple of days in store with some nice surprises for the birthday girl.

@bimmy-lee Thanks! I'll be on the road for a decent chunk of it and likely won't be driving much, so I should get a sufficient amount of handheld gaming in. I've also gotten into the My Hero Academia manga recently and intend to finally dig into volume 3 (and maybe 4 if I really make progress).

Happy birthday to your daughter! I hope you have a fun, long weekend! Long breaks like that help me recharge quite well.

@NintendoByNature Thanks! We're heading to the Carolinas; there'll be a couple of stops in North Carolina, then we'll spend most of the rest of the time that we aren't driving in South Carolina. I'm definitely looking forward to it minus the timezone shift. I'm not exactly a morning person lol.

@Tyranexx You get extra internet points if y’all get pulled over in Columbia by Richland county and wind up on Live PD. I’ll be watching.

Thanks everyone, it flies by @NintendoByNature ! Hey @ThanosReXXX , yeah, it should be a big weekend for her. She picked out her activities tomorrow, and it’s pure five year old. Breakfast out for French toast, the arcade for Mario Kart and claw games, afternoon movie at home (Homeward Bound for the 25th Time), and an evening zoo trip. Not to mention they get a big, combined birthday party in a few weeks with extended family, and she gets to do it all over again at the end of the month for her brother’s birthday.

@Tyranexx - You’re setting yourself up nicely for some good food in the Carolinas on vacation if you like barbecue.

@HobbitGamer - Do you really get to watch hillbillies get arrested in real time? That’s incredible. I think I’d get addicted.

@Tyranexx im sure it'll be a fun time. Never been to the Carolina's but I bet the weather will be perfect.

@HobbitGamer That would probably excite my brother. He loves police shows like that. XD Whether or not we get pulled over will largely depend on if my dad is driving. He's...not the most attentive.

@bimmy-lee I'm definitely a barbecue fan, as is most of my family. We'll definitely keep a lookout. Some nice, smoked barbecue ribs sound pretty good right now....

I like your daughter's thinking. I'd enjoy most of the described activities, and Homeward Bound was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I'm not sure if I could watch it over and over again though lol.

@NintendoByNature There's some forecasted rain at different points, but nothing too nasty that we can tell. We should be able to cram in a little beach time on one day.

I've been to Charlotte, NC for a work conference, but I don't have much experience with the Carolinas otherwise. Cutting as close as we are to Carowinds though....That'll be hard. I'm the only one who really loves thrill rides.

@bimmy-lee Sounds like it's going to be a blast, then. Regardless of having to do a Groundhog Day movie thing...

@Tyranexx The wanting to watch things over and over again is such a typical kid's thing: when my sister's daughter was still little, she always wanted to watch my Tom and Jerry cartoon collection, the entire series one cartoon after the other, every time she visited us. And even though she'd already seen them dozens of times, she still laughed just as hard as the first time she watched them.

It was both weirdly annoying and yet also magical, because it kind of made me realize how wonderfully simple our own childhood years were, combined with a small pang of regret for having lost that innocence, but altogether still nice, and it actually made me re-appreciate the cartoons again as well, after a while...

@bimmy-lee Live PD is amazing. It’s 3 hours of live field work by about 8 departments around the country.
Have fun with the party

@Tyranexx Don’t forget about that Low Country Boil

@ThanosReXXX Heh, agreed. I know that I did my fair share of driving my parents nuts by rewatching certain Disney movies and VHS show compilations over...and over...and over....

Ah, for a simpler time....

@HobbitGamer I think I've had something kinda like Low Country Boil before, but it's something I'll also keep an eye out for. Thanks for mentioning it! I'm always out to try new things.