tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post3709156578305870186..comments2024-03-17T05:03:46.056-07:00Comments on xkcd sucks: Comic 808: Randy Affirms the ConsequentCarlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074589998141327538noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-26524279258682203362010-10-25T20:37:22.937-07:002010-10-25T20:37:22.937-07:00Randall's logic isn't far above saying tha...Randall's logic isn't far above saying that if your dick isn't big enough to make you rich as a porn star, you must be a woman.<br /><br />Let's stick to challenging the claims that are <i>actually</i> made, please. It's far more productive.James M. Jensen IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17424548803826283101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-73399332836754822502010-10-25T00:59:44.651-07:002010-10-25T00:59:44.651-07:00"Just saying, dowsing is only used to find wa..."Just saying, dowsing is only used to find water."<br /><br />Hold your horses and read the Wikipedia on dowsing. Yourself is not a reliable source. Check. Mate.Gone Fishinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00512512356648772706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-50491439496987320172010-10-24T04:24:23.918-07:002010-10-24T04:24:23.918-07:00"astrodowsers" would be a better joke, a..."astrodowsers" would be a better joke, all scouting the universe for water, and therefore potential sentient lifeR.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-79674701099952325122010-10-23T22:41:05.538-07:002010-10-23T22:41:05.538-07:00Just saying, dowsing is only used to find water.
...Just saying, dowsing is only used to find water.<br /><br />Just saying. Randy doesn't even actually know how the mysticisms he's "debunking" work.Professor Ricketsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-9227164538530886212010-10-23T15:50:30.007-07:002010-10-23T15:50:30.007-07:00@Professional Mole No, because it would also be mu...@Professional Mole No, because it would also be much easier for competitors to slip into the market and undercut prices.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-78038713582855500202010-10-23T09:52:47.704-07:002010-10-23T09:52:47.704-07:00Which is why I proposed adding anthrax to the wate...Which is why I proposed adding anthrax to the water supply, in order to bring these issues to the fore. Bastards in government didn't listen, of course.Ann Apolishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08566528013026340201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-19319269497220614522010-10-23T09:48:20.454-07:002010-10-23T09:48:20.454-07:00@Evln
Here in the US our private health insurance...@Evln<br /><br />Here in the US our private health insurance companies simply drop your coverage if you get sick. In this way they neither have to pay for preventive measures or for treatment. (Disclaimer: this is mostly true for individuals buying health care insurance. It does not apply to unions or businesses.)<br /><br />While President Obama's health care legislation is designed to fix that problem, the health insurance companies are looking for any loop holes they can. It may be that the secretary of health and human services has the ability to close said loop holes as they appear. In the end though no one knows what will happen in practice until it does.Arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04837322808525126354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-70735971679924986402010-10-23T08:40:23.397-07:002010-10-23T08:40:23.397-07:00"so what you're saying is a book in 72 po..."<i>so what you're saying is a book in 72 point font with 100 pages is the same length as one in 8 point font with 100 pages?</i>"<br /><br />For books you would of course measure their format and thickness, ie. their volume. No, I really was too lazy to copy the blog post into a program to count its words and went for the length on screen which conveniently inflated Capn's part. Of course that's a bogus measurement.<br /><br />Saying "<i>the fields Randy mentioned [...] are, in fact, fields where companies are making a killing already</i>" is on its own irrelevant to the comic unless you ignore "using it to". With "using it to", Randall did not state anything about companies making a killing in the field if these companies are not using that particular phenomenon for it. So without the explanation that you meant "companies wouldn't use the phenomenons if they already have other ways of making money in that field", it wasn't clear to me you were referring to that.<br /><br />"<i>so that's why, when you said you "don't necessarily agree," you were responding specifically and exclusively to the line "while I think Randall is wrong?"</i>"<br /><br />Yes. It wasn't clear <b>what</b> Alsworth thought Randall to be wrong about. I pointed out the "using it to" thing, in case that was what Alsworth thought Randall to be wrong about.Evlnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-87497233709301241082010-10-23T08:37:59.651-07:002010-10-23T08:37:59.651-07:00Chaos: "Yeah, I wish the post here had includ...Chaos: "<i>Yeah, I wish the post here had included something about how the whole health care thing is flawed. If those preventive techniques worked, they would cause the health care industry to LOSE money. So obviously the health care industry wouldn't want to use them if they worked.</i>"<br /><br />What about insurances? You pay them monthly whether you are ill or not, so they technically don't care whether you are ill or not. The point is that they might have to pay for a therapy, medicine etc in case you are ill. Therefore, insurances are interested in (and might even pay you) preventive measures because they'll save money if that preventive measure succeeded in preventing an illness (or curing you early on). Disclaimer: that's how health insurances work here, you never know with the US.Evlnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-26909764730528316342010-10-23T08:28:47.289-07:002010-10-23T08:28:47.289-07:00"so what you're saying is a book in 72 po..."<i>so what you're saying is a book in 72 point font with 100 pages is the same length as one in 8 point font with 100 pages?</i>"<br /><br />For books you would of course measure their format and thickness, ie. their volume. No, I really was too lazy to copy the blog post into a program to count its words and went for the length on screen which conveniently inflated Capn's part. Of course that's a bogus measurement.<br /><br />Saying "<i>the fields Randy mentioned [...] are, in fact, fields where companies are making a killing already</i>" is on its own irrelevant to the comic unless you ignore "using it to". With "using it to", Randall did not state anything about companies making a killing in the field if these companies are not using that particular phenomenon for it. So without the explanation that you meant "companies wouldn't use the phenomenons if they already have other ways of making money in that field", it wasn't clear to me you were referring to that.<br /><br />"<i>so that's why, when you said you "don't necessarily agree," you were responding specifically and exclusively to the line "while I think Randall is wrong?"</i>"<br /><br />Yes. It wasn't clear <b>what</b> Alsworth thought Randall to be wrong about. I pointed out the "using it to" thing, in case that was what Alsworth thought Randall to be wrong about.Evlnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-91489825368012686122010-10-23T08:07:56.945-07:002010-10-23T08:07:56.945-07:00@Chaos
You reminded me of this passage from Nobel...@Chaos<br /><br />You reminded me of this passage from Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, Paul Krugman:<br /><br />"Things like this often happen when economists deal with physical scientists; the hard-science guys tend to assume that we’re witch doctors with nothing to tell them, so they can’t be bothered to listen at all to what the economists have to say, and the result is that they end up reinventing old errors in the belief that they’re deep insights. Most of the time not much harm is done. But this time is different."<br /><br />Source: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/unhelpful-hansen/Arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04837322808525126354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-74075820178351997962010-10-23T08:07:50.013-07:002010-10-23T08:07:50.013-07:00drunk drunk drunk drukn drunk drunk DRUNK
i actua...drunk drunk drunk drukn drunk drunk DRUNK<br /><br />i actually liked tjhis comic<br /><br />fuck you rob<br /><br />altho i like your anger<br /><br />good cunt<br /><br />drunk fdrunk.<br /><br />bye.<br /><br />asokdnmf wep[iogynnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-88764935690447957952010-10-23T06:51:02.049-07:002010-10-23T06:51:02.049-07:00About the whole health care thing:
Let's say,...About the whole health care thing:<br /><br />Let's say, for example, homeopathy worked. How would health care industry make any money, you wonder? Well, you could make tons of remedy with one miligram of medicine and hundreds of liters of water, and still sell it for the same price. Costs reduced, profit increased hundredfold.<br /><br />Or I'm dead wrong?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-3926241414986107862010-10-23T05:17:54.549-07:002010-10-23T05:17:54.549-07:00Yeah, I wish the post here had included something ...Yeah, I wish the post here had included something about how the whole health care thing is flawed. If those preventive techniques worked, they would cause the health care industry to LOSE money. So obviously the health care industry wouldn't want to use them if they worked. And then the post should have pointed out that Randy doesn't understand economics at all, but he doesn't have to because it's a stupid, stupid liberal art and not a hard science.Chaoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08409231090436554623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-83528873922981691642010-10-23T03:35:11.191-07:002010-10-23T03:35:11.191-07:00Hey look, Randy re-did the comic he already did ba...Hey look, Randy re-did the comic he already did back when he was still sort of funny. Thanks Randy.Frednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-37138933734986177812010-10-23T02:30:40.624-07:002010-10-23T02:30:40.624-07:00The biggest mistake Randall made when trying to ma...The biggest mistake Randall made when trying to make a funny joke about Los Alamos is that he would have to compete with Richard Feynman who is an actual physicist who worked at Los Alamos and is also a much much funnier man than Randall Munroe.Timofeihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06478844501804517520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-90998915143892503462010-10-22T23:46:17.333-07:002010-10-22T23:46:17.333-07:00It seems to me that christians would be very excit...<i>It seems to me that christians would be very excited if it turned out that alternatives to mainstream science and mainstream medicine actually worked.</i><br /><br />Knowing quite a few Christians, I'm going to say that they DO believe prayer works. That's kind of why they do it so much.<br /><br />Anyway, you'll meet VERY few Christians who believe in prayer only and nothing else. Most of them work under the belief of "God helps those who helps themselves" meaning pray for recovery but make sure you take medicine and go to the hospital too. To that end, insurance companies refusing to pay for medicine, or medical procedures and saying "Just pray" is going to alienate pretty much anyone. This is because the atheists will say it's bullshit, and Christians will say "I still need the medicine to help me get better even if I pray."<br /><br />Same thing with auras or homeopathy. Atheists and Christians alike would flip out if an insurance company started going off about auras and chakra, and people who believe in homeopathy would also likely not have insurance in the first place because they'd think medical science is all quackery.<br /><br />In fact, interestingly enough and to further prove that Randall's chart is wrong, many supporters of homeopathy say that the insurance industry and medical fields are trying to outlaw or discredit homeopathy BECAUSE it works so well and those companies can't make loads of profit off of it. So to them, the fact that doctors and scientists say "Homeopathy is garbage and we should outlaw/strongly discourage it" is absolute proof that it works.<br /><br /><i>what reason does a health insurance company have to try to reduce the number of costly and often redundant procedures and tests that you go through when you get sick?</i><br /><br />Okay, look. You clearly don't understand how insurance works, so I'll explain it.<br /><br />Let's say you break your arm. You go to the hospital. The hospital says "This broken arm will cost you 10,000 dollars to mend." (I'm just making that figure up, I have no idea how much it would be.)<br /><br />You go to your insurance company and say "How much of this 10,000 dollar bill are you going to pay?" They will then say "Under your level of coverage, will will pay x dollars/x% of this bill." In other words, insurance companies LOSE money the more you have to go to the hospital or undergo expensive procedures.<br /><br />So, it is ABSOLUTELY in the best interest of the health insurance companies to make you go to the doctor less. This is why health insurance companies refuse to cover people with pre-existing conditions, because they will be paying assloads of money for this person's bills, and this person hasn't paid them anything yet, and even when they do, the amount they will be paying to the company will be less than the company will be paying out.<br /><br />This is also why insurance companies will occasionally scramble to find reasons to drop people's policies if the person gets something like cancer, because chemo is expensive and the insurance company doesn't want to have to keep paying for that.<br /><br />So, if you never went to the doctor, basically health insurance would just be you sending them a check every month and them paying nothing. It would make them even richer. This is why Sam F is saying "Randall's chart is correct because if a health insurance company could push homeopathy/prayer/auras on people, the people would get better and the company wouldn't pay any money."<br /><br />Which is why I went into the thing that insurance companies would lose customers if they refused to pay money on the grounds of pushing those theories, EVEN IF those things legitimately worked. So therefore, the fact that insurance companies, or hospitals, or anyone refuses to use them is NOT proof that those things don't work.Natenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-80789930077848516232010-10-22T23:24:30.474-07:002010-10-22T23:24:30.474-07:00christians hate science and i have proven this emp...christians hate science and i have proven this empiricallyUndercoverCuddlefishnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-162885710832254632010-10-22T22:58:53.680-07:002010-10-22T22:58:53.680-07:00you don't know many christians then. you'r...you don't know many christians then. you're probably thinking of christian scientists?<br /><br />the thing is the only thing christians want to work is prayer. they aren't, by and large, anti-science or anti-medicine. they certainly aren't going to be pro-anything just because it goes against science or medicine. even the most devout fundamentalist young earth creationist doesn't actually Hate Science and want to crush it 'neath their heel. they just have strong opinions about certain fields.<br /><br />many of them are anti-"demonic activity", however, and anything like auras and psychic powers and things like that are occasionally seen as being gifts from satan etc.<br /><br />which is to say, they might not have much problem believing they worked, but they would also very probably believe that they worked at the expense of your very soul.<br /><br />(why do i get the feeling this is going to provoke some obnoxious "NO CHRISTIANS HATE SCIENCE" rant? please don't.)rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-1717905097867832932010-10-22T21:06:07.988-07:002010-10-22T21:06:07.988-07:00It seems to me that christians would be very excit...It seems to me that christians would be very excited if it turned out that alternatives to mainstream science and mainstream medicine actually worked. <br /><br />I'm not sure how atheists would react to such news. But as I implied before, their reaction to anything is pretty negligible.Arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04837322808525126354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-34138505954254099022010-10-22T20:45:19.343-07:002010-10-22T20:45:19.343-07:00i think what he's saying is that, even if thes...i think what he's saying is that, even if these things did work, their religious connotations would alienate a lot of people--such as atheists and Christians--and that would drive away customers. which is valid!<br /><br />basically there's lots of reasons, all of which are completely sound from a capitalist's point of view, that mainstream healthcare-providing companies (be they insurers or doctors and hospitals) would not employ alternative medicine techniques, <i>even if they worked.</i> driving away customers, reducing profits, &c &c.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-68544414118648107242010-10-22T20:38:33.592-07:002010-10-22T20:38:33.592-07:00What? You're proposing that the reason why au...What? You're proposing that the reason why auras and prayer aren't suggested by insurance companies is that they're worried about losing a small segment of their base represented by atheists? I think you give atheists way too much credit. We are not nearly that well organized as to be a part of anyone's political or economic calculus.<br /><br />The real problem with auras or prayer working is that then you wouldn't need, hospitals, doctors, nurses, MRIs, PET scans, mammograms, insulin, antibiotics, etc. Not to mention the health insurance superstructure that pays for all of this. All you would need is to get your christian scientist friends together and pray hard! Yes that would reduce (actually eliminate) health care costs, but it would also eliminate the health insurance industry. So why exactly would health insurance companies push these things? <br /><br />Better yet: what reason does a health insurance company have to try to reduce the number of costly and often redundant procedures and tests that you go through when you get sick? Sorry, but capitalism breaks down here.Arthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04837322808525126354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-20367872570439873052010-10-22T20:33:44.612-07:002010-10-22T20:33:44.612-07:00@Nate Your last line is false. Randall knows a lot...@Nate Your last line is false. Randall knows a lot about dick. "They are about this big, now can we as a culture please move on [to the mystery of wombs and females in positions of power]," remember?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-33977336540985380762010-10-22T20:26:01.201-07:002010-10-22T20:26:01.201-07:00sam f also seems to believe that literally every h...sam f also seems to believe that literally every human on the face of the earth wants to bring down health care costs, because consumers and businesses that have to pay for their employees' insurance want to bring down health care costs.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-11475815858569115512010-10-22T20:16:32.195-07:002010-10-22T20:16:32.195-07:00do you think your INSURANCE COMPANY wants to be pa...<i>do you think your INSURANCE COMPANY wants to be paid $300, or do you think they want to be paid $30?</i><br /><br />This is, I think, the problem that I'm understanding.<br /><br />Sam F is reading Randall's comic as "If auras and homeopathy and prayer were actually useful and worked, then health insurance companies would tell people to do them so that they wouldn't have to pay as much money, thus being more profitable."<br /><br />Everyone else (including me) is reading it as "If auras and homeopathy and prayer were actually useful and worked, then doctors/hospitals would tell people to do them which would mean that they wouldn't get paid as much money, which is stupid."<br /><br />The reason the way Sam F is reading it is retarded (even if Randall meant it that way) is that those things are very religious-based. An atheist isn't going to like it if his insurance company says "We won't pay for your medicine, you should just pray to get better." Likewise, a Christian won't like it if they get told "You should just work on your aura and try focusing your chakra to get better." That usually leads to loss of business, which is--GUESS WHAT--bad.<br /><br />So if, say, auras and prayer actually worked, they're still not going to risk lawsuits or customers leaving by pushing those things. Thus, the health insurance companies' lack of pushing those things isn't because they don't work, but because they don't want to get sued or have people go to another insurance company that won't push things against their religious beliefs.<br /><br />Thus further proving what Rob and everyone else has said in this thread, that the fact that a company will not use a certain thing is not proof that the thing doesn't work.<br /><br />tl;dr Sam F, you are stupid and wrong, and the comic is stupid and wrong and a fucking logical fallacy because Randall doesn't know shit about dick.Natenoreply@blogger.com