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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 31, 2012 10:07:14 GMT
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 31, 2012 10:10:52 GMT
Terrible news. I wish him a speedy recovery.
-Ralph
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Jim
Thunderjet
Micromaster Backside Monitor
Now in glorious Ultra HD 4K
Posts: 4,922
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Post by Jim on Dec 31, 2012 10:21:37 GMT
Same here, sad news.
I was probably barely 11 the first time I read something by him, and was delighted to find the same Peter David writing comics, Star Trek novels, even episodes of Babylon 5 through my teens and then when I went to University and got on usenet his great interaction with the online fandom. Hope he can get well soonest.
-Jim
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 31, 2012 11:43:42 GMT
Yes, I hope he recovers soon.
I found his Hulk comic first, and Mantlo aside nobody has come close to making the book as interesting as he has.
Andy
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primenova
Fusilateral Quintro Combiner
Posts: 6,057
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Post by primenova on Dec 31, 2012 20:28:11 GMT
I enjoy reading the run on Hulk. Great writer & also novel writer.
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 4, 2013 18:39:38 GMT
His wife has posted an update on PAD's blog. Omce again I shake my fist at the US healthcare system. He shouldn't need help to pay health bills FFS.
-Ralph
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Post by legios on Jan 4, 2013 19:46:01 GMT
I hope that PAD makes a strong recovery. He has given me much joy with his work over the past decades and it saddens me to hear about this situation.
Karl
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Post by Toph on Jan 4, 2013 20:08:54 GMT
Yeah, our healthcare is the shittiest part of our country. There are third world countries with better healthcare.
Americans go to CUBA to get healthcare.
This news makes me very sad. Peter David is one of my favorite authors.
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Post by blueshift on Jan 4, 2013 20:15:56 GMT
His wife has posted an update on PAD's blog. Omce again I shake my fist at the US healthcare system. He shouldn't need help to pay health bills FFS. -Ralph No, no, free healthcare is evil, the UK has death panels and 40 year waits to see a doctor, who will just stab you through the heart. Man, this is awful. Why does America resist decommercialising basic healthcare so much? |
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 4, 2013 20:28:21 GMT
I honestly don't understand why. Perhaps one of our American chums could enlighten us.
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 4, 2013 21:53:39 GMT
I would guess part of the culture of viewing government 'interference' in the individual's life as wrong.
Sad to hear about PAD.
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Post by Toph on Jan 4, 2013 23:38:05 GMT
I honestly don't understand why. Perhaps one of our American chums could enlighten us. -Ralph Believe me, it makes no sense to us rational people over here, either. I don't honestly understand it myself, but I can definately point out some major symptoms. Money. Insurance companies make a shitton of it, and they don't want to pay out a dime. Also, specialists make a shitton of money, too. Charging thousands of dollars for one minute use of specific machines. Everyone is trying to fleece everyone else. In the end, politicians get paid off by lobbiests not to change a thing. Another aspect is everyone is lawsuit happy. People look for reasons to sue other people here. Shittons of doctors get malpractice lawsuits put on them all the time, whether they deserve it or not. That drives up their premiums, and their own insurance is through the roof. As a result of this, in combination with how hard it is to get HMOs to pay out, lots of doctors have gotten out of privet practice. We literally have a shortage of doctors in this country, because people do not want to get into privet practice. Another symptom, medical schools. It's so hard, and costs so much to go through medical school, most doctors are in debt for most of the rest of their lives, thus making running a business much more expensive. also, fort max hit the nail on the head there with the "Government interference" part. There is a strong belief in that. Anti-Obama sentament, there are a ton of rightwingers who will do only the exact opposite of what they think he wants, just to spite him. And one of the biggest problems, is the rightwing echo chamber known as Fox News, who spred lies upon lies about "Death Panels" and bullshit like that, and spoonfed it to their gullible and poorly educated audience. The exact people that would benefit most from universal healthcare. The politics of this country has gotten insane, and it's broken. Speaker of the House John Boehner is useless and can't control hisside of the isle because of a handful (And I mean absolute minor handful) of extremist Tea-Partiers, who hate government so much that their only reason for being in office is to shut it down and break the machine. I'm sorry... this just fills me with rage. |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 6, 2013 17:45:47 GMT
To be fair as a regular user of such expensive machines for my research I can understand why the charges for them are so high. There are many contributory factors involved including skills, training, exotic materials and construction involved but essentially it boils down to a lack of sufficient trained personnel who can run, maintain and design such systems.
Frankly in my area of preclinical MRI we are desperately short of such people at every level. This is both a problem with shortage of personnel and retention of them. High charges resulting in reasonably competitive (but not high!!) salaries from companies involved for their workers are pretty much the only thing that makes a dent in this unfortunately.
But yes, there are some scamming companies out there as well. Unfortunately for them affordable 3D printing is already pulling the rug out from under them for some things.
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Post by Shockprowl on Jan 6, 2013 19:23:45 GMT
Aw no, just heard about Peter David. What's the latest on his status?
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 6, 2013 22:00:20 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 6, 2013 22:01:13 GMT
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Post by Shockprowl on Jan 29, 2013 16:18:28 GMT
He sounds very poorly. Hope for a good recovery.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 29, 2013 23:26:43 GMT
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