News that makes us laugh, cry, or both

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:35 am

(d) he is of good character and is not commonly known as one who violates Islamic Injunctions;
(e) he has adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practises obligatory duties prescribed by Islam as well as abstains from major sins ;
(f) he is sagacious, righteous and non-profligate and honest and ameen;
(g) he has not been convicted for a crime involving moral turpitude or for giving false evidence;
(h) he has not, after the establishment of Pakistan, worked against the integrity of the country or opposed the Ideology of Pakistan

Ha ha, wow, this is beyond stupid.

You told me that after Bhutto got assassinated that this country had absolutely no hope. But you were right, Frank. Pakistan is completely fucked.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:36 am

God... that assassination video still makes me feel ill.

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:57 am

sigma999 wrote: What happened to the fistfuls of comedians in the 80s and 90s making debut in Western comedy?
I mean, isn't that enough to feel prideful about?
Waynes World, etc. Classic.

It's not that Canada hasn't produced good things. It does, I just wish we would stop publicly fellating ourselves whenever we're mentioned or someone from there is mentioned. Seriously a news story about Canada being mentioned on an American comedy show that regularly mentions Canada? Give me a fucking break.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:57 am

Maxus wrote:http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/144 ... 09.article

My mouth laughs, but my heart is crying.

Pedestrians should have the right of way on most surface streets. It's just a crime that sidewalks go around roads instead of roads going around sidewalks, and that you can seriously go a quarter mile or more without a crossing.

-Crissa

PS, yes, Pakistan is fucked up. The funny thing is that because those words are in there, 62 hardly ever gets used when it really should - like the kickbacks cases and such.

Gelare · Post by **Gelare** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:45 pm

Crissa wrote:Pedestrians should have the right of way on most surface streets.

Pedestrians do have the right of way on all surface streets in some places. I believe that in Virginia, pedestrians always have the right of way, all the time, ever, even if there is no crosswalk. This is to make sure that drivers have some incentive to avoid mowing down people trying to skip across the street. Now, pedestrians who cross where there is no crosswalk are doing something illegal - specifically, they are jaywalking, and can be ticketed as such - but even so they still have the right of way and drivers must stop for them.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:59 pm

I read an article that said Jaywalking being made a crime was literally paid for by auto manufacturers to get people off streets and into cars.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:50 am

Or possibly it was made a crime because in some places jaywalking is downright suicidal, especially near turns where the drivers can't see you in time to stop.

Mind, sometimes jaywalking is literally the only way across a major intersection.

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:57 am

In Saigon, jaywalking is the only way to cross through this

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:32 am

Joe the Plumber wrote:Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don’t talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xXSKCH7oJE

Rock, Rock on, Joe the Plumber.

You're not as amusing as Michael Steele but you're getting there.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:40 pm

We live in a James Bond Universe.

-Username17

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:37 am

That's awesome. And, given he was merely imprisoned for drug trafficking instead of hanged, I can only assume he was found with maybe a single joint of marijuana, not several bags of coke. So that is a fantastic tale of heroism and bravery.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:46 am

i love it was the greek prisoners SECOND helicopter based jail break. Fantastic.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:25 am

If he could afford a helicopter escape, I'm sure it was more than marijuana.

-Crissa

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:52 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:OK, so Pakistan is having what is perhaps the dumbest political meltdown ever.

...

Fuck you Pakistan. Fuck you in your fuck holes.

-Username17

Eww Frank, and no. No, no.

I'm horny, but I'm also picky. My choice: Beat it with a brick, in the nads.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:12 pm

I gotta say, I've really been enjoying Michael Steele's tenure as RNC. It has all of the hilarity of having Sarah Palin being a VP candidate with none of the scariness or risk of, you know, actually having one of these fools in office.

And now he's feuding with Rush Limbaugh? Christmas came late for Lago this year, but it came in the end. I mean, having Al Franken as senator was supposed to be my Election Day present, then Chrismas Present, but this is a good consolation prize.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:25 am

He's apologizing to Limbaugh and calling him a leader now.

Of course, Limbaugh basically said Republicans weren't Republicans, if they don't believe the party is led by the RNC. What they hell are they, then?

-Crissa

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 4:06 am

911 for McNuggets
Clams fart laughing gas

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:14 am

I'm going to get really depressed asking this question about a nuclear power who is within stone's throw of another nuclear power, but I gotta know anyway.

What's the minimum amount of power/effort/handwaving you need to do to make it so that we never have to worry about a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan ever again?

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:52 am

I don't think that'll ever happen. The not-worrying. Unless the president of Pakistan has his family in Mumbai or something.

-Crissa

...I think the 911 operator and the clerk were both wrong. One should have transfered her to the local police desk, so she could file a claim of being defrauded, and the clerk should've refunded her money since they didn't have what they sold her.

But hey, I only live in a city where the local cops hate regional 911 because they never forward anything regarding street racers, drunk drivers, and break-ins unless there's an actual injury on the line.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:56 am

Crissa wrote:I don't think that'll ever happen. The not-worrying. Unless the president of Pakistan has his family in Mumbai or something.

-Crissa

Ah, good old fashioned hostage taking.

ckafrica · Post by **ckafrica** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:11 am

Pensions might need 1 trillion dollar bailout

Makes me glad I don't have a pension or live in a country that might need to bail pensions out

IGTN · Post by **IGTN** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:17 am

Doctors complain about effectiveness studies

Is this sensationalised, or do many doctors actually have this problem?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:11 am

Lago wrote:What's the minimum amount of power/effort/handwaving you need to do to make it so that we never have to worry about a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan ever again?

India annexing Pakistan. I'm not even kidding. Did you hear about how the Sri Lankan Cricket Team had to b helicopter evaced out of Pakistan because their bus caravan was attacked by Fejadin? Just like the Mumbai attack, but they didn't have to leave the country to do it because some foreigners came to them. And now no one will play cricket against Pakistan in Pakistan siting security concerns.

IGTN wrote:Is this sensationalised, or do many doctors actually have this problem?

Completely sensationalized. As some people noted, her statistics are way off and there actually are reasons to give pap smears to people who have had hysterectomies. But the big thing is that medicine is science. And it advances faster than anyone can keep track of. Pub Med reports that there were 6898 medical papers published yesterday. And yesterday isn't even over in Hawaii as I type this.

So if you look at any particular piece of research and then look out to see if there are doctors who aren't following the evidence based medicine that it suggests - the answer is yes. Even if research didn't contradict itself in many cases with different similar studies producing what appear to be opposite results, the fact remains that with literally thousands of papers published daily there is absolutely no way whatsoever for any doctor to stay abreast of what exactly the latest science is.

We read a lot, and we study hard, and we stay as modern and as well versed in the statistics of medicine - much more so than Begley who is literally just a crank author on the internet who pulled a rant topic out of a hat. But a good portion of it is art. Sorry, but it's true. Doctors eventually have to get into a routine and do things as best as they know how rather than constantly reading and comparing scientific literature. Medicine moves forward with incredible speed, but actually changing any particular practice is rather difficult. And deliberately so, considering how easy it is for one study or another to get an anomalous result and how frequently new procedures contain unforseen risks.

-Username17

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:15 am

There is so much knowledge in medicine it is impossible for doctors to actually keep up, especially as the profession is segmenting then plowing down many different paths - this is the creation of specalists.

But recommended care is consistently not delivered to patients - partly because recommended care is a moving feast, partly because recommended care is an intresting concept. There are numerous studies into the efficency of giving expert systems to doctors to ensure that they deliver recommended care though. However, this requires what is mostly a paper based manual profession to become electronic, and this is hard.\

Note its not electronic systems that make the decisions - its decision support. This may take the form of reminders that with the patients recorded white blood cell levels, diagnosis options XYZ should be undertaken, which the doctor is free to override.

The use of technology to support healthcare generally gets bundled into 'e-health' which is about using technology to revolutionise healthcare. This typically comprises elctronic patient records, decision support and infomation sharing across all the care providers involved in your treatment.

eHealth is a really big concept in Denmark and Canada, which do it exceptionally well. The NHS is pushing it, but I think that while they may get a great result, it is just so difficult to do what the national project for health IT is trying to do for any scale of organisation, that attempting it with large organisations in the world may be impossible.

The worlds bleeding edge implementation is probably in Kaiser Permanente in the US.

Here is a summary of Australia's e-Health strategy. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/ ... 051208.pdf

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:43 am

India annexing Pakistan. I'm not even kidding. Did you hear about how the Sri Lankan Cricket Team had to b helicopter evaced out of Pakistan because their bus caravan was attacked by Fejadin? Just like the Mumbai attack, but they didn't have to leave the country to do it because some foreigners came to them. And now no one will play cricket against Pakistan in Pakistan siting security concerns.

What are the odds on the annexation happening?

/only half-snark