Recent Comments

1. about 4 years ago on Doonesbury

   This a happy ending that sadly never happened in real life.

2. over 4 years ago on Betty

   I find a lot of these assisted doors are very heavy and slow to open without the assist – and I’m a 6’3, 200lb guy in pretty good shape. I can’t really fault people for using the assist button when otherwise they need to heave hard on the door to open it without.

3. over 4 years ago on The Meaning of Lila

   American Sniper: when a violent sociopath, instead of being imprisoned, becomes a celebrated public figure in America.Oh, wait, that’s actually pretty normal.

4. over 4 years ago on Candorville

   Voter demographics are being changed, especially as Californians are driven out by high home and rental costs – something like 3 million+ have moved out in recent years, and are quite literally making states like Nevada, Colorado, and even Arizona and Texas more blue. So they’re improving the politics rather than simply suffering the stupidity.

5. almost 5 years ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   And now, Calvin would have a GoPro and post his vid to YouTube or social media. Watterson saw the future.

6. almost 5 years ago on The Knight Life

   However, currently, the earth is at the phase where polar insolation is decreasing – very slowly, on a roughly 23,000 year cycle, which we are about 6,000 years into, meaning the solar forcing is towards cooler climate, not warmer. The obliquity of earth’s axis is currently near the middle of the +-1deg variation it undergoes, and moving towards DECREASED obliquity – which means warmer winters and cooler summers for polar regions, all else being equal, which in turn means less total solar insolation toward the poles, and decreasing temperatures overall (maximum warming occurs at max obliquity, as the increased summer insolation more than offsets decreased winter insolation, leading to an overall warmer polar climate). We are experiencing a warming climate DESPITE (slightly) decreased solar radiance (the sun’s output varies slightly, and has decreased in recent decades), and despite the Milankovitch cycles also tending (slowly) towards conditions which would ultimately lead to glaciation (on a roughly 50,000 year timeline). But you keep believing what you want – it’s just not science, because it’s the opposite of reality.A primer: https://skepticalscience.com/Milankovitch.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles#Present_and_future_conditionshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles#Axial_tilt_(obliquity)

7. almost 5 years ago on Candorville

   I agree, I mostly pointed my example for two reasons – a visiting American would have to pay even though I didn’t as a Canadian, as you did note (although they’d get treated first, and billing worked out later), as well as to show the dramatic cost difference between what was really top-drawer care I received vs US costs. So basically to affirm your original point about the difference in costs – driven by both profiteering in the US, and the massive competing bureaucracies of insurance companies trying not to pay more than necessary, and docs and medical professionals trying to get paid (and paid as much possible). And Canadian healthcare is not particularly low cost compared to Europe, for example – because it’s fairly easy for docs and nurses to move between the US and here, Canadian medical professionals have leverage to get paid similar if not the same wages as in their US counterparts. The savings don’t, for the most part, stem from how much workers make – it’s the rest of the system.

8. almost 5 years ago on Candorville

   True, but there’s real costs even in Canada, the UK, Norway, etc for non-residents. I had a serious medical incident in December 7 years back – a major surgery, 3 days in intensive care, another 15 days under 1-to-1 nursing care with daily visits from my surgeon, the top thoracic surgeon in the region, and a total of 33 days in hospital, with tons of diagnostic imaging and medications. I wasn’t out of pocket other than my lost wages (and I did get some government assistance for that), but my mom-in-law estimated the cost to Alberta (Canada) healthcare was likely $70-80K (she used to run a hospital lab department, so she has some idea). Not cheap at all for ordinary people, but that was probably about 1/10th of what US hospitals would have charged for that level of care, based on some medical issues retired friends of my parents experienced while vacationing in Arizona around the same time.

9. almost 5 years ago on Jane's World

   Sounds like Twitter.

10. about 5 years ago on Over the Hedge

    It looks like Monday’s going to be even rougher on these guys than it is on Garfield!