Notices by Zauberlehrling (rvaughnmd@med-mastodon.com)

I don't use Windows much so I missed the whole Windows Recall debacle

The 11 biggest tech flops of 2024, ranked – from Windows Recall to the Apple Vision Pro

https://www.techradar.com/tech/the-11-biggest-tech-flops-of-2024-ranked-from-windows-recall-to-the-apple-vision-pro

Do bike lanes really cause more traffic congestion? Here's what the research says
Studies from around the world show bike lanes ease congestion, reduce emissions and are a boon to businesses

#cycling

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bike-lanes-impacts-1.7358319

Willie Sutton's Rule

Healthcare organizations are being hit hard by cyberattacks

https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/healthcare-organizations-are-being-hit-hard-by-cyberattacks

Another Dr. Death? Is that an above average death rate in a non-war zone?

https://www.thestate.com/news/nation-world/national/article293839719.html

Well he did warn her what would happen so does that count?

Man shoots and kills passenger when she throws fast food at him, Missouri cops say

#STL

https://www.thestate.com/news/nation-world/national/article293827739.html

A Hospital Kept a Brain-Damaged Patient on Life Support to Boost Statistics.

"staff discussed the need to keep Young alive for a year, because they feared another hit to the program’s survival rate would attract scrutiny from regulators"

"the transplant program’s director, Dr. Mark Zucker, cautioned his team against offering Young’s family the option of switching from aggressive care to comfort care. He acknowledged these actions were “very unethical.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/newark-beth-israel-lawsuit-darryl-young-heart-transplant

"Everything that can go wrong in the human body goes wrong when you are sleep deprived"

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TpPvltVJ8ag

Medicare Advantage Opens “AI Can of Worms” for Patients

“Plans continue to use AI tools to erroneously deny care and contradict provider assessment findings,” noted the letter. “We believe more detailed guidance is needed to protect access to care for Medicare beneficiaries and improve clarity for providers.”

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/medicare-advantage-opens-ai-can-of-worms-for-patients

A wild daylily appears

#gardening

Enjoying the garden before the heat wave takes its toll. First coneflower today! Climbing rose, wild strawberry.

#gardening

Clematis has entered the chat
#gardening

@bmacDonald94 Great cover of a great song.

@Teri_Kanefield

"we underestimated the depth of the reaction against multiracial democracy. Second, we overestimated the capacity of our institutions to withstand that reaction. These two phenomena – an intense authoritarian reaction and the vulnerability of our institutions – now threaten the very survival of American democracy."

@Teri_Kanefield

We need to evolve our democracy

"But over time, other countries shed their pre-democratic institutions.

Britain weakened the House of Lords, stripping it of veto power. Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Portugal, Greece, Taiwan got rid of their upper houses. Germany, Austria, and Belgium democratized their upper houses by making them more proportional to the population. Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, France imposed term limits on supreme court justices."

@Teri_Kanefield

"Democrats are overwhelmingly based in big metropolitan centers while Republicans are overwhelmingly based in more sparsely populated territory. That means the Republicans have a systematic advantage in the Electoral College, in the Senate, and on the Supreme Court. That institutional bias allows the Republicans, in effect, to hold power without winning a national majority. In other words, our counter-majoritarian institutions are beginning to undermine electoral competition"

@Teri_Kanefield

"The United States desperately needs institutional reform. We need to entrench voting rights. We need to replace the Electoral College with direct elections. We need to democratize the Senate. We need to eliminate the filibuster. We need to reform the Supreme Court.

But our Constitution is exceedingly difficult to change."

https://www.californialawreview.org/print/the-third-founding-the-rise-of-multiracial-democracy-and-the-authoritarian-reaction-against-it

Best healthcare system in the world

“Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your numbers,” said Day, who worked for Cigna until the late spring of 2022. “If you take a breath or think about any of these cases, you’re going to fall behind.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-medical-director-doctor-patient-preapproval-denials-insurance

It's game over man, game over ...

#STL: America's forgotten 'doom loop' city, where $205m skyscrapers are selling for under $4m and the decaying downtown has become a ghost town

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13319895/st-louis-ghost-town-san-francisco-doomloop-skyscrapers.html

@Teri_Kanefield

"The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."

Brandolini's Law

@pelielios @Teri_Kanefield

“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
― Garry Kasparov