This Week on the Net

 

When I'm not writing or farting around, I like to peruse the internet for tidbits of entertainment so you don't have to, but I'm not posting anything with cats /dogs, cute kids, the latest stupid meme or political bullshit of the day (unless it's juicy). I lean to the slightly obscure, sometimes trivial or thought provoking stuff.  Here are a couple of things you may find interesting.

 

How Europeans See Us

Reddit occasionally throws out a good question to ponder, this time it asks Europeans who benefit from a better standard of living, to opine on Americans. It's an eye opening view of our messy, wild and currently divided country. A little humility is good for our cultural psyche.

Step Aside Bureaucrat, this is a Job for the Community

 Government officials like to think they can handle problems and be in charge, but people directly affected by whatever- you know, communities- are much better at bringing about real results. Whether it's disaster management, helping the poor and homeless or just plain getting things done.

We Need This Here Now

 I have been saying this for years, "if you build it they will come" amusement parks, especially roller coasters would be a boon to the Northwest. There is an extreme one in Coeur d'Alene Idaho why can't we have one here in Oregon? There are some really good coasters to chose from and the one at Lake Compounce CT that would be ideal in the hills near Cottage Grove. How about an indoor park to go to on a rainy day? A popular You Tuber gives a good tour of one in Florida that can easily be here.

 Post Update

A project I missed in my last post. Apparently there are other organizations other than SETI looking for ETs. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galileo/home

 

Next week:

Chapter 2 of Shop Talk

Reddit Explains Healthcare

Start with this link at Reddit and I'll add my observation on the whole "GOP hates Obamacare " debate. 

As the top comment mentions, ". . .It makes it so insurance companies have to spend a certain percent of their revenue on actual health care, which essentially caps their profits at a certain percent." 

This is the crux of the resistant from the insurance companies who have been conspicuously silence during this debate. As a recent Time article pointed out the health care business is making tons of money and don,t want to see The Affordable Healthcare Act become law. Americans pay far more for health care than many other countries but get less for it. Why? Because no one is controlling the costs. Free market and all but health care is not a commodity to sell on the open market like cars or produce. 

The fact is most countries have some form of national health care that more or less works. There are flaws but some flaws are better than someone dying because they couldn't afford to seek medical help. Like you and me.