I actually got this email from Quest Diagnostics (this is just the top part):
It’s in honor of leap year day!!!
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The appointment itself was farcical.
First I had to use a kiosk to sign in (there was no receptionist in sight). I had to scan my license and insurance cards front and back. There was a large waiting room, with only me and another patient. The technician got to me immediately. Fortunately she had a map to get to the test room. She was really nice.
The technician started inputting a lot of information into her computer, and scanned my license again. She agreed that maybe the kiosk wasn’t connected to anything. I gave her my written doctor’s orders. She looked it over, spent more time looking at the computer. I suggested that the CEO is probably paid really well, and she said she wished they could use some of the money to do a rehab on the site. Indeed it was small and shabby. Except for the waiting room. There’s some hopeful thinking going on there. By this time I was laughing.
Finally she said “We can’t do the blood test here. But we can use a sputum test or a urine test.” By this time I was laughing so hard at the company’s poor procedures I couldn’t stop. The technician thanked me for laughing; she said most people get really mad. I guess this happens a lot. Finally I said I’d like to cancel the appointment. My mouth is really dry due to meds I’m on, and I was laughing so hard I didn’t think I could fill the cup without getting it everywhere. She said “I’ll put the orders on hold.” Yeah like I’m going there again. I told her she should get a job at Labcorp. I thanked her for being so nice, and manage to wend my way out of the place.
Corporate health care at work!
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Very elaborate scams it’s good to be aware of.
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Series based on The Three-Body Problem due soon:
I had some problems with the novel, but it was definitely different. Be interesting to see what the series is like. (Maybe not literally.)
I would like to see Apple’s “Foundation” though.
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I’ve been listening to the audiobook of the first book of the series off and on, with about 3 hours left out of 13… the premise is interesting, and I’m not entirely bouncing off of it, but a lot of it feels like listening to a history textbook. I’m sure making a lot of that visual will help.
I’ve been enjoying that one, but it’s definitely not faithful to the books.
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I can’t get past the headline.
It should be either
- Goodbye, Horses. Hello, Spaceships.
- Goodbye, Kingdoms. Hello, Cosmos.
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I never though of it this way.
That means other humans have been able and willing to help.
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Oh… damn. Yeah… damn. That’s some DEEP shit.
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An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California.
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Police said they raided the centre on Thursday and rescued 383 Filipinos, 202 Chinese and 73 other foreign nationals.
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“By using a spreadsheet anyone (even non-developers) can explore and play directly with how a ‘real’ transformer works under the hood with minimal abstractions to get in the way,” writes Anand on the official website for the sheet, which he calls “Spreadsheets-are-all-you-need.” It’s a nod to the 2017 research paper “Attention is All You Need” that first described the Transformer architecture that has been foundational to how LLMs work.
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… I’m surprised everyone is so sanguine about encouraging an invasive species
Giant redwoods are being planted as saplings all over the country, often by local authorities in public parks or recreation grounds.
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Given the lack of credible way back to the climate of the past, how do you adjudicate the management of the landscape without just letting the native plants die in the heat, drought, and inundation? Desertification is the likely result. There’s a gap between the desertification caused by human ignorance of unexpected consequences and the desertification caused by dead-eyed exploitation by large landowners. That gap used to be filled by indigenous practice and knowledge. We will have to fill the gap by coming back to the ultimate authority being a matter of practicality. The people who live in the region will be the people staffing and executing any remediation needed due to climate change and attempted mass despoliation. That means being under healthy democratic federations from the local level through the regional level to the very top of the we-pay-taxes-for-this-shit level.
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Over the years, we’ve had ants, mice, and termites in our house. Just yesterday we had a pest inspector/salesman come by. She tried to interest us in getting the blown in insulation in the attic replaced by a different type of blown in insulation, for only $5000. !!! Part of her sales pitch was that it would replace that asbestos stuff we have.
Asbestos has been banned in construction since 1989. We had ours replaced sometime in the 2010s.
Later that day, my wife found an ant in the kitchen.
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