Overall what I understand of NuScale's approach seems to account for most everything that can go wrong. But what happens if there is a natural disaster that causes much of that water to leak away quickly? Is there a failsafe for that as well?
I use my phone extensively throughout the day but modern phones are good enough for most things.
All I want is an excellent camera built in, the higher optical zoom the better. It can be the most boring thing in the world otherwise. I hate that I always must shell out for a flagship phone to get this.
Sure, I have a really nice camera too, but the best camera is the one you have on you and it’s not practical to lug around something extra at all times.
I was recently in a wheelchair for a few weeks. Uber's ADA issues go beyond the scope of this lawsuit. Uber would consistently lie about the availability of a WAV vehicle, showing one as being nearby with low wait. Then when I would order it, either nothing was available or the wait time was completely insane. I never successfully hailed one.
>Uber would consistently lie about the availability of a WAV vehicle
Uber lies about the availability of all vehicles, I think! I live in a town where there are no Uber drivers, but if you open up the app it will show 3 available with times and prices and even let you book one! Of course it doesn't exist and they will never show up. I am not sure why they do this other then to look like they have coverage to shareholders or something.
Not defending the practice (which feels so dishonest) but it's a chicken and the egg thing of their on demand drivers system.
I know there are drivers who basically sit at home and check the current rates and when it's "worth it" to them they walk out and jump in the car and do a few rides.
That wouldn't happen if people were looking in the app seeing no drivers and not putting in that they needed a ride.
On the other hand, actually having at least one real driver would a) allow that driver to make bank by being basically a monopoly, until b) other real drivers saw this and entered the market making everything kosher.
No because Uber's reimbursement for their drivers is so low that most lose money once expenses get factored in. This is because I er looks at drivers as an expense and have consistently cut rates over time.
That is a good point, I was under the impression that the drivers had some input into what they would be willing to drive for and competition would do the rest. But if Uber has internal caps, that would make some small towns just untenable.
I was under the impression that the drivers had some input into what they would be willing to drive for and competition would do the rest. But if Uber has internal caps, that would make critical mass impossible in smaller towns.
This is true, but while that is annoying for an able bodied individual, it can be a crisis for someone who is not. The one time I successfully called an Uber WAV only to have it be a crazy long wait, I canceled not because of the annoying wait because by then I had no faith that I would ever be able to hail a ride back, and I was trying to get to an area with steep hills in every direction.
Agreed, I also live in a location with effectively no drivers and I have the same experience. I'd say based on that, the claim that it is specific to WAV is not the case.
> Therefore the court ordered that the Commission to propose a comprehensive plan that provides meaningful access to taxi services for passengers using wheelchairs. The plan must include targeted goals and standards as well as anticipated measurable results. Furthermore, until such a plan was proposed and approved by the court, all new taxi medallions sold or new street hail livery licenses or permits issued by the Commission must be for wheelchair accessible vehicles.
While this is more expensive for the taxi company to have ADA vehicles, that cost is spread out across the entirety of the customer base.
The difficulty comes with ride share that aren't licensed and displace taxi services resulting in difficulty spreading out the cost across all taxi rides... and that the ride share drivers (and companies) don't provide sufficient coverage is compared to the requirement for licensed taxis.
>> The difficulty comes with ride share that aren't licensed and displace taxi services resulting in difficulty spreading out the cost across all taxi rides... and that the ride share drivers (and companies) don't provide sufficient coverage is compared to the requirement for licensed taxis.
Wouldnt it make sense for Uber to subsidize the ADA compliant drivers for their extra costs (or reduced yield) and then for Uber to spread that cost across their entire service?
With Uber offering poor service for wheelchairs and similar, individuals needing those services remain using traditional taxis. Meanwhile, the regular riders (the bulk of the profits for a company) switch to Uber for whatever reason. This results in that the additional costs for handling riders that need the extra assistance are not borne by the unlicensed companies that are not providing the ADA services that the licensed companies are required to.
If one was to go with a "{A} should subsidize {B} for ADA rides" this would be "Uber should subsidize taxi companies" for the increased proportion of wheelchair accessible vans and similar that the taxi companies are required to maintain.
As it is, Uber isn't spreading any of the cost of ADA rides amongst their customers or drivers because (A) Uber doesn't have a sufficient set of vehicles available to address ADA and (B) Uber drivers are discriminating and not picking up passengers that have needs covered under the ADA.
Sitting in a hospital with discharge set for a few hours from now and expecting to use Uber WAV to get home with a broken leg... this is a little worrying.
> You did your part and got your patient through surgery with flying colors. But, uh-oh, the ride your patient was expecting to get home is a no-show. What should your ASC do?
> Well, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, your ASC has a legal obligation to only discharge patients to a responsible adult when they have been under the influence of sedation.
> Unfortunately, now that Uber and Lyft are such convenient options for transportation, many patients think they can simply hop in a rideshare vehicle and that’s the same thing as being discharged to a caring family member or friend.
> However, the law in many states is still unclear on whether a rideshare driver counts as a “responsible adult” who is actually taking responsibility for the patient’s care just by stepping into the vehicle. In fact, in a recent Outpatient Surgery Magazine poll, 69 percent of surgical facilities said they never discharge an unaccompanied patient to take an Uber, Lyft or taxi home.
Are you saying that you legally can't leave a hospital until somebody else promises to take care of you? That sounds a little unsettling. What do they do if somebody just walks out?
No, the effect is also that policy can be to put you're "non-compliant" in your medical record (see your sibling). If those words don't terrify you then this probably isn't an issue for you, but for some that can be a literal death sentence.
The title is "Discharge After Sedation or Anesthesia on the Day of the Procedure: Patient Transportation With or Without a Responsible Adult" from the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology
The checklist starts out with:
> Review and comply with federal, state, and local law and regulations as well as facility accreditation requirements
> Engage the facility’s legal counsel, risk manager and/or similar role to review and address liability and legal concerns.
There are significant liability risks for a hospital to discharge a person who has been sedated to anyone other than an adult who has the obligation to give care to the person if needed.
This includes things like discharging a person who has been sedated to a ride share who then robs them (you are free to imagine worse situations). As this has happened with intoxicated people being driven home from a bar, hospitals are rightly concerned that if they discharge someone to a ride share, they may be incurring significant liability of their own.
Going back to my sedation dentistry experiences, the person who is going to take me home has to be there with me at the start while I am not yet sedated and there were a number of forms that I filled out when I became a patient of theirs identifying the people who could drive me.
The laws around the requirements and liability for a medical facility to discharge person who has been sedated do not give much wiggle room for the hospital to get out of that liability.
If you have been sedated, many states have a law that say that you can only be discharged to the care of a responsible adult.
This has been an issue for me in the past when I was sedated for a root canal. I had my brother's girlfriend's father pick me up from the dentist.
As to walking out? I was in absolutely no shape to walk out.
If someone is still insistent on leaving:
> If you discover that your patient doesn’t have a responsible adult to take them home until after the procedure is complete and they’re dressed and insisting to go home on their own, your best option is to document as much as possible. Insist that the patient sign an AMA (against medical advice) form. Then write up the details of the patient’s non-compliance in an incident report in their medical record. Also, let their surgeon know.
Wow! I remember an exploratory conversation I had with the CEO of a large health insurance company's individual plan subsidiary and this was several years ago, a time when ridesharing was gaining traction. They were talking about partnering with rideshare companies for alternative patient transport (for non-emergencies). I guess that never took off.
They do that about everything. There are consistently a dozen nearby "available" drivers in the downtown area where I live within a 5 minute drive and I don't think I've ever actually gotten one of those drivers. I also frequently need rides early in the morning/late at night because of a weird work schedule. They also prominently advertise a discount for reserving a car two hours in advance and then proceed to charge me $15 dollars more than what it costs to get a ride at the time of night normally. It is worth it, so that I know I will have a ride at that time and that they will be there when I get out of work and I don't want to wait around for 30 minutes at 4am just to go home. But don't piss on my shoes and tell me its raining.
Is there any data on this 6% of global emissions claim? Do they mean 6% of CO2e emissions? (in which case the "2000x" claim is redundant and makes this statement overblown, as it's already factored into the CO2e calculation)
It's 2000x worse on a per-pound basis, using the Global Warming Potential (GWP), and 6% of total emissions on a CO2e basis. They are separate facts which are mentioned to serve different purposes: 6% is to emphasize the scale of the overall problem, and 2000x is to understand the leverage of this approach (small amount of material to handle for the impact).
I think there is a big difference between supplementing and replacing. Near total control leaves them sheltered, naive, and probably more rebellious, and of course it's silly to think that you can do a better job across the board than a bunch of professionals.
If you have the time, getting involved in your child's education is probably a huge win. Fill in some gaps you see, correct some biases. Help them get ahead in areas they are doing well in, help them catch up in areas they are not doing so well in. But just because those things are helpful doesn't mean that replacing their education entirely is going to be an improvement.
I was homeschooled from 5th grade on.
The reasons people have for homeschooling their kids varies widely, from hyper-religious to anti-establishmentism to the-schools-here-suck. The types of kids people have also vary widely. So my experience is not necessarily reflective of what your kids' experience might be. That said, here's my story:
My options were home schooling or a Christian school affiliated with my parents' church. I chose to be home schooled. My mother is high school educated, not a teacher, and frankly weak on most subjects. But she loves to dig in and research options, so she did a reasonable job of finding curriculums for standard things like math. I always had a strong thirst for knowledge of certain subjects, so she left me to my own devices on those things (this was pre-internet so I think this was an especially bad strategy. How's a kid with no money going to find the best resources to learn about these things that would normally be classes?).
In general, I have always loved learning, so I was relatively easy to homeschool. By 8th grade I was scoring at the 12th grade level, 99th percentile on the CAT across the board.
I had more free time than my peers and more flexibility in my schedule. Field trips were a breeze. By high school I was taking community college classes and tutoring the adults, which was extremely helpful to have those credits when I went to college - I got to skip some intro courses and had the flexibility to take a year off of school when financial hardship hit.
So far it sounds great, but I would not really recommend it. If you don't have access to quality schools for your kid, you should move if you can afford it at all. There were a few major issues:
- Social isolation. I had little access to kids my own age, mostly my parents' friends' kids, who were, frankly, shitheads. (Not that the Christian school was better. All but one girl in what would have been my class graduated pregnant or with a child, and therefore married or engaged to be, shotgun style)
- College Admissions. I was enrolled in an online high school program at an accredited school (the first one!), but even with the transcript + 4.0 GPA in a year's worth of community college credits, colleges were deeply skeptical about homeschooling and made me jump through extra hoops. I'm fairly certain my top choice rejected me because of this.
- Misinformation & bias. I know this is an issue in school too, and my alternative option of a religious school would not have been much better, but I had to unlearn so so much of what I was taught
- Extracurriculars. Opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities are extremely limited. Many things are associated with a school and not open to non-students.
It's also worth noting that while I did relatively well in this setup, I have siblings who were also home schooled and never finished high school or got their GED.
If you do go down this path:
- Have a strategy for how to socialize your kids beyond "well, some of my friends have kids"
- Find good curriculum
- Have a strategy ready for when a kid does not want to learn something
- Make sure you or your spouse will have a lot of free time to supervise
- Enroll them in a program that will get them a HS transcript from an accredited school.
- Find ways to expose them to extracurricular activities of their choosing, beyond your own interests.
It's so interesting hearing from someone with a similar experience, thanks for sharing.
The CAT exams were the same for me, always scored really high and above my grade level. I aced the 12th grade one by age 14. My parents took that as evidence that I was doing well, and I didn't trust them enough to confide just how desperately lonely I was. The CAT (and SAT) ended up being incredibly poor indicators of preparation for college level courses, many of which I failed my first semester despite also being a self-starter who reads voraciously. It was just too much of a jump for me from the unstructured way I'd been teaching myself previously, and I was missing too much background knowledge.
Even with my high SAT scores it was really hard to get into college. I ended up at a tiny private religious school (I'm not religious) because they were the only one that accepted me, and one of the few I was even able to complete the application for because many admissions offices didn't make allowances for homeschooling in their application process (this was around 2001). After a few years there I managed to bring my GPA up high enough to transfer to a state school.
In retrospect, I believe things could have been really different if I'd had access to a councilor with academic experience to explain how the system worked and tell me what paperwork I would need for college applications or what subjects would be necessary for the program I wanted to do. Even in 2001 with internet access I just wasn't able to navigate that on my own and ended up making a lot of costly (time, money, embarrassment) mistakes. And I was a pretty smart kid, I taught myself to code for one. It turns out being smart didn't make up for that much of a knowledge gap.
It was almost certainly a fuckup where the phone # was mistakenly stored in a shared schema, and someone on the ads side saw it and decided to use it for targeting, knowing nothing about 2FA or how it got there. This probably only affects a tiny fraction of their users.
>It was almost certainly a fuckup where the phone # was mistakenly stored in a shared schema, and someone on the ads side saw it and decided to use it
How is this an "almost certainly"? Do you have additional information you'd care to share on why you think so? If this were the case, it would point to insanely sloppy policies, procedures, and implementations.
>This probably only affects a tiny fraction of their users.
> This probably only affects a tiny fraction of their users.
Because most users provided their phone number when signing up, not just when setting up 2FA. Twitter has always been phone-centric (the first app was literally just sending SMS messages).
Maybe not the landfills once they are buried. But certainly from waste transfer stations or unburied waste, seagulls and other birds will pick up trash because it smells like food or may have some food in it, and then drop it outside of the landfill/transfer station.
