TheRtRevKaiser's recent activity

  1. Comment on ‘We’re hemorrhaging money’: US health clinics try to stay open after unprecedented cyberattack in ~health

    TheRtRevKaiser
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    This is absolutely not the case, there are dozens of claims clearinghouses/healthcare clearinghouses in the US. Now, my understanding is that CHC did or does have some exclusive contracts for...

    That company is a monopoly or nearly a monopoly

    This is absolutely not the case, there are dozens of claims clearinghouses/healthcare clearinghouses in the US. Now, my understanding is that CHC did or does have some exclusive contracts for things like operating PBMs for some insurers/state medicaids and that kind of things, but they certainly don't have a monopoly on clearinghouse services.

    That said, the cost and effort involved in switching clearinghouses or medical billing software is, as I understand it, extremely high, mostly due to the patchwork of payers that these companies have to be able to interface with, each of whom have different requirements and technologies. There have been a few efforts to standardize things, for example there is a set of standardized medical transactions, but there are also a lot of gaps and differences among payers.

    1 vote
  2. Comment on Scientists make breakthrough discovery while experimenting with urine in ~tech

  3. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 12 in ~news

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    I suspect pretty much nobody, which is probably why he's not running...

    I suspect pretty much nobody, which is probably why he's not running...

    4 votes
  4. Comment on OpenAI releases Sora: Creating video from text in ~tech

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    I feel like I'm probably somewhere in the middle here. I did notice several pretty odd artifacts in the woman walking video. If you carefully watch her legs, her gait is pretty uneven and her legs...

    I feel like I'm probably somewhere in the middle here. I did notice several pretty odd artifacts in the woman walking video. If you carefully watch her legs, her gait is pretty uneven and her legs swap sides at least once, maybe twice. People in the background of the video also have occasionally unnatural gaits.

    However, I'd say that on the whole unless you're looking for it, these things don't really stand out. At a casual glance, scrolling by that video in a social media feed or seeing it playing on a screen somewhere, I'd almost certainly never notice any of those things.

    4 votes
  5. Comment on Those free USB sticks in your drawer are somehow crappier than you thought in ~comp

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    I don't think this is something that most descriptivists would agree with. In fact, I think most folks would disagree pretty strongly with that statement. Word don't always mean what you mean them...

    words mean what you mean them to mean

    I don't think this is something that most descriptivists would agree with. In fact, I think most folks would disagree pretty strongly with that statement. Word don't always mean what you mean them to mean. They mean what they are commonly understood to mean, in a given context. That means that it's entirely possible for a writer or speaker to be mistaken about how a word is going to be understood, either because they don't understand the meaning or connotations, or because they are using the word in a different context where it has a different commonly understood meaning.

    2 votes
  6. Comment on Christian Super Bowl commercial outrages US conservatives in ~humanities

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    I'm a little surprised you haven't heard of Dawkins. Harris and Pinker were probably a little less well known. Maybe I'm just old, but these guys were all over reddit in the early days. A lot of...

    I'm a little surprised you haven't heard of Dawkins. Harris and Pinker were probably a little less well known. Maybe I'm just old, but these guys were all over reddit in the early days. A lot of the worst of the "New Atheist" movement happened on reddit and similar sites. I think New Atheism, Gamergate, and some of the more troubling pockets of the online rationalist community are all examples of how groups of people are just vulnerable to manipulation, I really don't think a belief in the supernatural has much to do with it.

    7 votes
  7. Comment on Christian Super Bowl commercial outrages US conservatives in ~humanities

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Any ideological movement can fall prey to people who weaponize the sincerely held beliefs of its adherents. You only have to look at the New Athiesm to Alt-Right pipeline or the increasing...

    Any ideological movement can fall prey to people who weaponize the sincerely held beliefs of its adherents. You only have to look at the New Athiesm to Alt-Right pipeline or the increasing right-wing tendencies of techno-libertarians to see that.

    14 votes
  8. Comment on Christian Super Bowl commercial outrages US conservatives in ~humanities

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    This is pretty dismissive of a lot of folks who find something of value in faith. It's fine if you don't believe, but I don't think it's helpful to be dismissive or scornful toward those who do. I...

    This is pretty dismissive of a lot of folks who find something of value in faith. It's fine if you don't believe, but I don't think it's helpful to be dismissive or scornful toward those who do. I get the anger, believe me, but I don't think this is the way.

    31 votes
  9. Comment on Joe Biden criticises US snack makers for ‘shrinkflation rip-off’ in ~food

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    That song is the only reason I can consistently spell banana right every time.

    thanks Gwen for that spelling

    That song is the only reason I can consistently spell banana right every time.

    2 votes
  10. Comment on It's fair to describe schizophrenia as probably mostly genetic in ~health.mental

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Yeah I'm familiar with sex selective abortions. To be perfectly clear, I am not in favor of reducing access to abortion, even elective abortion, but it does seem like it can create some...

    Yeah I'm familiar with sex selective abortions. To be perfectly clear, I am not in favor of reducing access to abortion, even elective abortion, but it does seem like it can create some problematic situations when certain traits are desirable over others. And in this example it's hard to be overly critical, because schizophrenia is a really difficult thing to deal with. I'm not proposing banning anything, I'm just trying to express some discomfort with this practice that feels very much like eugenics when you look at it on a large scale.

    4 votes
  11. Comment on It's fair to describe schizophrenia as probably mostly genetic in ~health.mental

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Yeah I'm aware of genetic screenings available during pregnancy, and I'm uncomfortable with the idea in a way that I have trouble articulating or really explaining. On the face of it, it seems...

    Yeah I'm aware of genetic screenings available during pregnancy, and I'm uncomfortable with the idea in a way that I have trouble articulating or really explaining. On the face of it, it seems like giving parents the option of terminating a pregnancy in the event of an extremely debilitating condition is a good thing that reduces suffering, but it gives me a feeling of unease that I'm not sure that I can really defend. Because of that, I wouldn't try to tell someone else that they are wrong for taking those steps, but my wife and I did avoid those screenings because of that discomfort (both mine and hers).

    5 votes
  12. Comment on It's fair to describe schizophrenia as probably mostly genetic in ~health.mental

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link
    Maybe I don't understand the point he's trying to make here, but voluntary or not, this is essentially eugenics. I think most people that are uncomfortable with the idea of screening for something...

    Sometimes it’s because this completely voluntary process vaguely reminds of them of eugenics.

    Maybe I don't understand the point he's trying to make here, but voluntary or not, this is essentially eugenics. I think most people that are uncomfortable with the idea of screening for something like this are uncomfortable because of a perceived slippery slope. If screening for Schizophrenia becomes okay, what about autism? ADHD? I don't have an answer to this, but I do think that listening to bio-ethicists when they are uncomfortable with a practice is probably a good start...

    12 votes
  13. Comment on Most bingeable book series? in ~books

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Yeah Cultivation stories are definitely not new, I more meant founder as in "person who recognized a group of things as a separate genre" rather than "first person to write in this style". I'd...

    Yeah Cultivation stories are definitely not new, I more meant founder as in "person who recognized a group of things as a separate genre" rather than "first person to write in this style". I'd also consider Xianxia/cultivation fantasy to be just one corner of the Progression Fantasy genre but not the whole genre, there's lots of examples of Progression Fantasy that don't really take any cues from Xianxia like LitRPG, time loop stories, and more typical Epic Fantasy stories with a focus on the MCs growing in power.

    3 votes
  14. Comment on Most bingeable book series? in ~books

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Yep! I didn't want to get too much into the genre weeds, but I'd consider Will Wight to be one of the founders of the genre along with Andrew Rowe and a few others. Cradle is, IMO, probably one of...

    Yep! I didn't want to get too much into the genre weeds, but I'd consider Will Wight to be one of the founders of the genre along with Andrew Rowe and a few others. Cradle is, IMO, probably one of a handful of really good, readable examples of progression fantasy along with a few other standouts like John Bierce's Mage Errant series and Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl (bad name, excellent books) which I would also consider to be LitRPG.

    2 votes
  15. Comment on Most bingeable book series? in ~books

    TheRtRevKaiser
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Yeah, Cradle is like a really good shonen anime in book form. Eminently bingeable and really enjoyable.

    Yeah, Cradle is like a really good shonen anime in book form. Eminently bingeable and really enjoyable.

  16. Comment on If your morning routine were the subject of a montage in a movie, what would be the song that played over the top of it? in ~music

  17. Comment on How much does a creator's worldview influence whether you use their tech or consume their media? in ~talk

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Awww damn, I didn't know that about the creator of Samurai X :/

    Awww damn, I didn't know that about the creator of Samurai X :/

    4 votes
  18. Comment on Five of the best Terry Pratchett books and suggestions for how to read Pratchett's work in ~books

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    Skip witches, really? I'm a bit surprised at that. My favorites are the Guard and the Moist books, but I'm not sure I would consider any of the witch books skippable. But I'm really of the opinion...

    Skip witches, really? I'm a bit surprised at that. My favorites are the Guard and the Moist books, but I'm not sure I would consider any of the witch books skippable. But I'm really of the opinion that they're all practically required reading so I'm probably not the right person to ask 😅

    14 votes
  19. Comment on Do you sleep inclined? in ~health

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    I sleep in a hammock when I camp and I love it, but I haven't perfected my hang yet so I do sometimes still wake up with a stiff neck

    I sleep in a hammock when I camp and I love it, but I haven't perfected my hang yet so I do sometimes still wake up with a stiff neck

  20. Comment on Do you sleep inclined? in ~health

    TheRtRevKaiser
    Link Parent
    I have one of the wedges with the cutout for your arm/shoulder that are made for side sleepers. It took a lot of adjusting but I can't go back now.

    I have one of the wedges with the cutout for your arm/shoulder that are made for side sleepers. It took a lot of adjusting but I can't go back now.

    1 vote