Also, the article cites an NYT analysis: Earleir this year, a new analysis by the New York Times has found that some of the most common prenatal screening tests are not as reliable as parents often are led to believe and many healthy unborn babies may be being aborted as a result of false positives. Examining five non-invasive prenatal tests, which involve drawing blood in the first trimester, the Times found an average false positive rate of 85 percent. To conduct its research, the newspaper examined multiple studies and interviewed researchers about five of the most common microdeletion (chromosomal disorder) tests performed on pregnant mothers: tests for DiGeorge syndrome, 1p36 deletion, Cri-du-chat syndrome, Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes. Those false positives could include Cox’s baby. "Could"...but they don't. The fetus has trisomy 18 - "Edwards Syndrome." The NYT article, which they quote (!) says: the screenings for Down syndrome (“trisomy 21”) and Edwards syndrome (“trisomy 18”) work well, according to experts.

@Jolly said in U.S. Senator’s son indicted for killing a cop: Does it matter that this was a Senator's son? Nuts is nuts. That is what made it news. Hunter Biden having sex with a stripper and then denying it was his kid. News because of who is father is. As you said, nuts is nuts.

@LuFins-Dad said in High drug prices? Mark Cuban to the rescue: That’s how the system is supposed to work and often will if you keep it transparent and keep the government out of it. No, you need the force of the government to achieve transparency. Nutrition labels, ingredient/material listing, allergen listing, tons of disclosures by various companies ... all these "transparency" you take for granted today would not be here if not for government regulations. We still have a long way to go to achieve transparency for healthcare and drug pricing.

@Renauda said in From what river to what sea?: @Copper Right you are, anyone’s son or daughter will do. We shall beat to quarters! Dunno. I do think the U.S. would benefit greatly from something akin to the Israeli model. Conscription where everybody goes and receives some very basic military training, then a very short period of active service followed by a couple of years in the reserves. Those who like military life could apply to enlist for a full-time hitch. To sweeten the pot, I think the young people on active duty and in the reserves should have access to helping complete their GED, some of their freshman college courses(fully transferable) or some specialised training in a civilian world skill.

Gawd, Hitchens was something, wasn't he?

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/07/google-shares-pop-after-company-announces-gemini-ai-model.html Shares of Google closed up 5% Thursday, a day after the company announced its latest artificial intelligence model called Gemini that will compete with products from OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta .

Watched 3rd quarter. Didn’t notice anything different.

Interesting slice of history. Thanks for sharing.

@Jolly said in US Marines have no Leader: You think it accomplished nothing? From his point of view, yes, it accomplished nothing. However, he did do something that is quite rare in today's political atmosphere. He managed to have a group of almost 99 senators be bipartisan against him. So, I guess we should give him credit for that. LOL

@Jolly said in Financially Illiterate: Have you looked at the amounts? I have not. I thought I saw somewhere that it was USD$1280 per month or something like that.

https://x.com/ZitoSalena/status/1732864149653201242?s=20

Organic and environmentally friendly?

@Jolly said in Merry Christmas, Vladimir: Some Republicans even want some all the action on the border. Period Cleaned it up for greater accuracy.

@Aqua-Letifer said in That's a fun email to come across: @Jolly said in That's a fun email to come across: @Aqua-Letifer said in That's a fun email to come across: @Mik said in That's a fun email to come across: How long until she can go into nursing full time? Quite a bit. She kicked ass on the TEAS but she just took it. Is she on the BS or AD track? Check out working as a nurse extern as soon as she gets to the junior point on the former or past the first year on the latter. Probably could PRN that on the weekends. There are other jobs, such as a transporter or ward clerk, but the hours might not work. Alternatively...Hospitals and healthcare systems will cover your tuition if you agree to work for them after graduation. Choose your hospital wisely. Yeah, her plan is to complete her ADN, then work as an RN while she rounds out her BSN. Does that sound legit? Also, any jobs she could start now, or after her first semester of clinicals? I try to help with her planning to the extent that I can but it's not my world, she's got to catch me up before can even help look around. Like I said, after her first year, she might can extern. An extern is a nursing student, usually working with and under a nurse, functioning like a nursing assistant with maybe a bit more paperwork. Right now, a lot of hospitals would hire her as a ward clerk, a scribe, an ER tech, transporter, admit clerk, etc. Be forewarned, a lot of those jobs don't pay very well. Lastly, be aware of how tough nursing school can be, both in the classroom and in the clinical rotations. Keep y'all's eyes on the prize. Most programs will tolerate one non-passing grade and make you repeat the course. Two gets you tossed.

@Horace said in Some people just need a good ass kickin': [image: 1701975474429-913fe0ea-69a5-4206-91ab-d7cb22fd2157-image.png] It's interesting how all the imbeciles these days are primarily afraid of fascism, and see it around every corner. Fascism is defined by its inability to countenance disagreement, disapproval, or dissent no? You toe the party line. Totalitarian, no? Which of the two sides in this seem fascist to you?

*Censured..." AFAIK, he can still say whatever he wants.