It will be tough. I have my doubts but wish them well. @jon-nyc Weren't you going to (or actually did) travel on some airline company that was like an only business class airline that offered pretty good rates. Are they still in business? I met a US guy a while ago, and we started talking about the different airlines we had been on. He had been on Pan Am quite a bit, and he told me that then beginning of the end for Pan Am was when Lyndon Johnson (I think) did not allow Pan Am to fly any domestic routes. Cant remember the reason he told me why this was not allowed - believe it had something to do with Texas and Johnson was from Texas and some sort of protection........... (or something like that. LOL)

@Jolly LOL Yeah, you get what you pay for.

Interesting.

@Mik said in Halal: So they consider the ritual slaughter to be unnecessarily cruel? I also did not know. You bleed them out. I guess Sikhs just wack 'em. Now, here's where it gets interesting... Shoot a deer with a bow. It's not ritualistic, but the deer usually dies from blood in the lungs or sometimes exsanguination. If the deer dies from blood loss caused by razor sharp broad head blades, is that different than cutting the animal's throat?

@axtremus, I don't think so. Malpractice requires 3 proofs. An injury occurred The injury was a result of the physician's care The care was outside the "standard of care." That standard is determined by expert witnesses and policies of the department and hospital. That said, heart surgery is pretty mundane stuff, other than when it's not. Almost any well-trained resident/fellow/associate can do the mundane parts: Harvest a vein Open the chest, expose the heart Cannulate the great vessels and be ready to start CPB (Heart-Lung machine) Here's the non mundane parts. Sew the anastomoses (hookups) from the aorta to the obstructed coronary vessels. Or open the aorta or left atrium and replace the aortic or mitral valves. Semi-mundane. Wean the patient from CPB with the gas-passer giving whatever drugs necessary will give the heart the "kick" that it needs to work on its own. Mundane: Close leg (or other vein harvest site) Wire the chest closed, along with all other tissues and transport to ICU. I've been told that at Texas (don't remember if it was this place) they would "stagger starts" so that by 9 AM Cooley (or whoever) could to the non-mundane parts in Room 1 while Room 2 was just finishing their "mundane" parts. He'd walk across the hall and do the non-mundane parts. Meanwhile. Room 1 is back to mundane, and Room 3 is getting into their mundane. That's how Cooley could claim that he did 6-8 open heart surgeries a day. Is this bad medicine? I dunno. It's certainly efficient, but I always found it a bit...deceitful. Also, when you're in Room 2 and things in Room 1 go south, what are you going to do? Which patient gets abandoned? Our small place, with one heart surgeon and no assistants never had such experiences.

The end of democracy as we know it has always been bushwa. To quote J.E.B. Stuart, he was "keeping up the skeer".

Snyder is a very good historian of modern Poland and Ukraine. His theories of what he calls Politics of the Inevitable and Politics of the Eternity are well conceived and not by any means some leftist gibberish. He is, in fact, every bit as critical of radical left populism as he is of right wing populism. While I do not agree with everything he says about Trump and company, his analysis of the populist trends in Europe are not off the mark.

@jon-nyc said in What I am doing on September 11th…: I’m flying to DC from Vienna on the 11th. I bet I could join you. Let me look at deets … Sounds good!

@bachophile said in Darwin: https://www.thedailybeast.com/allen-ray-mcgrew-killed-after-reportedly-placing-lit-firework-on-his-head-in-south-carolina Too late. He already has kids…

I can't read the thread on X, so the gist of it escapes a bit to me: all churches/chapels refer to St Michael except Stella Maris in Israel. So what does the straight line mean? Looking on a globe (not a map) this no longer is a straight line. PS: I visited Skellig last year, was magnificent

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

That is rich.

@jon-nyc said in Feel old yet?: You’re right on the cusp between Grant’s 2nd and Biden’s. Thanks. A lot.

@jon-nyc said in July 4th - what are your favorite summer foods?: Pussy. Same as all seasons. hahaha how non PC

ChatGPT: A hangman's fracture is a specific type of fracture involving the C2 vertebra, also known as the axis, in the cervical spine. It typically occurs through the pars interarticularis, which is the part of the vertebra connecting the upper and lower facets. This type of fracture is named "hangman's fracture" because it was historically associated with judicial hangings, where the sudden extension and distraction of the neck would lead to such an injury. This fracture usually results from hyperextension and distraction injuries, such as those that might occur in a car accident when the head is thrown backward. Symptoms can include severe neck pain, limited range of motion, and, in severe cases, neurological deficits if the spinal cord is affected. Treatment depends on the severity and can range from immobilization with a cervical collar to surgical intervention.

@jon-nyc said in Spanish Speaking Socks in TNCR: No los he visto publicar nada aquí. Lo han hecho? I haven't seen them post here. Have they? They haven't, but the worry is that these bot accounts may act like sleeper agents, that someday they will be activated to wreak havoc. In any case, I have set registration to require "Admin Approval" for this site, which should stop these socks from successfully registering here.

Looks like a nice house. But, I always worry about houses near rivers and the possible flooding.