Sugoi & Yokunai

What's the difference between doctors and advanced nurse practitioners? The difference is getting to be small, and the best of nurse practitioners are better than the worst of the doctors. As clinicians become more scarce and as resources diminish, cost-conscious healthcare organizations will increasingly look for nurse practitioners. On the other hand, doctors will be needed but more as researchers and investigators than just care providers. The bar will be raised.

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Even China's birthrate is decreasing. Never seemed to be a problem before. What changed?

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Elon Musk weighs in on anti-Asian discrimination by elite schools. Musk can sway public opinion, so it's good that he's taking up this issue, even if briefly. As always, reactions to what he says are telling.

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Feel the need to bloviate? Words that deserve wider use. Time to expand your vocabulary.

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Incomes are falling in 17 states. Do you think Oregon is one of them?  Did you really need to click to find out?

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Fragrance that smells like brand new electronics. Yeah, that'll get the babes I wanna be with.

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Male menopause - is it a thing? The symptoms are lack of energy, weight gain (including “man boobs”), sexual difficulties, sleep problems, anxiety, irritability, depression. You don't have to be middle-aged to get these. Sounds kinda bogus to me.

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No, You Aren’t Getting a Bonus. Your Company Is Just Testing You. 

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That's gonna leave a mark. IRS says Microsoft may owe more than $29 billion in back taxes.  Of course, Microsoft disagrees, and I would bet that other companies use transfer pricing as well. This is probably being watched closely.

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A Low-Income Housing Complex Was Lauded as a Model for Pulling People Out of Homelessness. Three Years Later, Tenants Are Fleeing.  This is why Portland runs out of money. This is low-income housing. No need to get fancy. And sharing stuff with other low-income tenants is always a bad idea.  Check out their common areas:

No it's not made from the grain. Scientists at Rice university engineered a material can reconnect severed nerves.  I hope this is really something that will make a difference, unlike all those battery breakthrough announcements that don't lead to anything.

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Toyota is developing an ammonia-powered engine. The goal is a carbon emission-free engine, but is it worth the danger and expense?

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Now that X/Twitter is degenerating, some people want blogs to come back. Hey, this ronin is already there.

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Huge kicker refund is still on the table for Oregon taxpayers. The biggest yet. Will it survive Democrat efforts to grab some of that money?

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Don't drive too close to the Tesla in front of you. Maybe it's the front facing camera seeing objects that aren't there.

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When I was young, I heard that being a veterinarian was great, because you could be a doctor, but that it was a lot easier than working on humans. In reality, it's taking a toll. Many are finding that the demands and stress are unbearable.

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The walls of the budge sinkhole are steeper. How did this happen? The US national debt increased by half a trillion in just 20 days. The GOP run the House now, so it's clear the UniParty is in charge.

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Warp drive - still a ways away. Oh well. Two hundred more years before the 23rd century.

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This is true. With all that surveillance, how did Israel not know? All those eyes to look – but no brains to see.

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Migration into Oregon appears to be slowing. But there are less people ditching Oregon drivers licenses for Washington, California or Idaho, so what's the net? Maybe they're going to other states, like Arizona.

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This looks cool. Get the "Hollywood Look" with an iPhone!  Can it be true?  It's free and it doesn't "phone home"?  What's the catch?

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This is worthy of the Nobel Prize? They should eliminate the economics, literature and peace prizes and start a mathematics Nobel Prize. 

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While everyone (it seems) is striking, some employers are already replacing "lazy girl" jobs with A.I.  No wonder they want us to pay off their student loans.

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Pretending to care. Why should we take the US Commission on Civil Rights seriously? The government wants to tell Asians what kind of oppression and discrimination is acceptable and what is not, basically. Anti-Asian violence is bad, unless it's by black people. Discrimination is bad, unless it impacts black people. Is that it?

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No psychoactive mushrooms in California?  Clearly someone wants to seem reasonable prior to running for president. We see you.

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Can you say "Conflict of Interest?" This story is everywhere.  JAMA didn't dig deep enough when asking about disclosures. Now the report that supports the reason for Measure 110 is utterly discredited. Credits to Jeff Eager for rooting this out.

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Sign of the times.  What happened?

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Interesting – these two images are working QR codes.  They take you to the creator's website - QRBTF.ai.

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Generative AI Is a Disaster, and Companies Don’t Seem to Really Care.  Nope, not when there are short-term profits to be had.

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....the preliminary results of this investigation suggest that the login credentials used in these access attempts may have been gathered by a threat actor from data leaked during incidents involving other online platforms where users have recycled login credentials,” they said.

“It’s very concerning that 23andme has such a big loophole in their website design and security where they are just freely exposing peoples info just by typing a profile ID into the URL.

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Don't get sick. U.S. cancer centers report ongoing shortage of chemotherapy drugs. Anyone done with the Biden administration, yet?

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First external links. Now news headlines for news stories. X/Twiiter is getting to be less usable.

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What?!? This came out last summer and I missed it, but apparently Pfizer had two vax manufacturing processes: one for the clinical trials, and one for general public consumption. The one for clinical trials used PCR amplification, but the one for the public used plasmids. Now there are reports of plasmid contamination in the vax product. This is crazy! Why was the FDA asleep at the wheel.

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A deep dive into how time is defined. Something most people aren't generally interested in.

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Another one bites the dust.  Portland commercial real-estate values are going down fast. It's not worth paying off the loans. People are cutting their losses. Shame.

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Alexey Guzey's lifehacks came out in March, and I missed it. Alas, this ronin is probably too old for many of these, but it is still good to be reminded of some of the others.

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Mainstream media is seeing a significant decline in viewership, largely from a decrease in referrals from social media links. Musk is eliminating links in news stories in the name of having a more streamlined look. Sure, whatever. It may be more than that. Can't feel too sorry for the MSM, however, as they've become so partisan as to be useless as a purveyor of news. More a purveyor of propaganda.

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Strike Nation!  Astoria nurses at Columbia Memorial Hospital are striking now.  Don't get sick.

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Mixed feelings  Patrick Bowman is trying to close a loophole and prevent doctors from selling their practices to private equity.  He claims that studies show a decrease in quality of care. Well it's been happening and I haven't seen people stop referring to practices that have sold out. Many doctors don't have the stomach to be business owners, and with the turmoil since Obamacare was passed, I can see why. Doctors would rather practice medicine than deal with wrangling with partnership equity, the vicissitudes of reimbursement rates, making payroll, and what happens in Washington D.C. and in Salem. So Patrick wants to make it difficult to sell a practice. I think he should just stay out, not interfere, and let doctors do what they need to do.

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