numberfour002

I was just talking about this recently on here I think. I actually had a chance to dispel this myth a bit with a family member who came to stay with me recently.

They are convinced that their news feeds and ads constantly come up with topics that would be too coincidental to explain any other way than their smart devices are constantly recording their verbal conversations. Conveniently enough, it happened several times during their visit!

As examples, the family member and I talked about how we like okra and they mentioned it had been a long time since they had good okra. Afterwards, stories and recipes for okra started showing up in their news feed. We also chatted for a bit about a specific actor that used to be in a bunch of movies, but that we don't really see them in much of anything anymore. Then they started getting ads for that actor's movies. This happened with a couple more things as well.

In the end, it was all completely explainable.

After the okra conversation, I looked up okra recipes because I intended to make some as part of meal for us since we both enjoy it and hadn't had it for awhile. Since we're both on the same wifi (and thus have the same IP address externally), those news items were almost certainly triggered by my recipe search.

For the famous actor, my family member had been watching some of his old movies on one of our streaming services that they don't have at home, so they were trying to catch up on things they'd like to see while they were visiting. It's not hard to imagine if you watch a couple Tom Hanks movies on Hulu (no that's not the actual actor or service), then you might start seeing ads for related movies that he may also have starred in, again, given that your smart devices are on the same wifi and have the same IP as mine.

For me it's a little less haphazard, but I'm guessing this person has lived something of a life of privilege and is probably significantly younger than myself.

I had an ex who was arrested because a gas station employee accused him of not paying for gas after he declined the receipt. Grocery stores and department stores, I want a receipt because there's too much bullshittery and asshattery going on at those types of places for me to go without. I want to see when Walmart charges me $5.99 instead of $3.00 like it said on the shelf and I want the money back on my card when I inevitably have to do a return. Restaurants, I want my receipt because unfortunately some of the folks who run the card will "accidentally" miskey the tip amount, and strangely it's always in their favor.

And then Einstein clapped the Baby Jesus's ass and all the harpies cried at the wave after wave of baby bald eagles flying over. Amen.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII just want a fly. Put your arms around me baby. Put your arms around me baby.

I usually just prefer to run in relatively remote spots so that it's easier to pretend that there's some kind of mysterious super predator chasing after me to really get my flight instincts flowing.

For me it was the original Resident Evil on the Playstation.

It was the first time I saw live-action digitized full-motion video on a gaming system. I know there were a lot of FMV (Full Motion Video) games in that era on other systems, but I didn't own those other systems and I didn't know anybody who did. So, it was all new to me once I played a Playstation.

Resident Evil was also the first time a video game had ever given me a jump scare. Early in the game a zombie doberman bursts through a window unexpectedly and I was hooked! I loved introducing my friends to the game, specifically so I could see their reaction when the dog shows up. So much fun.

Honestly seeing and hearing Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo was kind of wow, too. The graphics boost compared to the 8-bit systems I was used to was incredible. And the sound quality compared to the other 16-bit systems I'd played (Genesis and TG-16) was a leap above. The experience probably pales in comparison to modern games, but back then there was wow factor to it.

To young me, Street Fighter 2 Turbo was pretty wow as well. It was "literally" the same as the arcade version to child me. I could not believe the home version was so close to the real thing, because prior generations of game systems like the NES couldn't come close to that level of performance.

Shitty wasps like Yellow Jackets give almost all the other wasps a bad reputation. Yellow Jackets are mean and spiteful, even when they aren't protecting their nest.

Most other eusocial wasps are pretty docile, unless you mess with their nest or really go out of your way to harass them.

In many parts of the world, like my own, there are far more species of solitary wasps than eusocial wasps. Solitary wasps are nearly all non-aggressive, they don't have communal nests to defend, and they basically don't have time to fuck around with stinging shit because they are too busy building a chamber for their eggs, collecting food for their upcoming progeny, and trying to stay fed and hydrated while doing it.

So what I'm getting at is that most wasps I encounter on a regular basis are pretty chill. Really, this goes for bees as well. Most of the ones I see on a regular basis are solitary types and non-aggressive. The most aggressive bees I tend to encounter are male carpenter bees. They are highly territorial and they'll even buzz a human to scare them off. However, there's no threat. Male bees and wasps cannot sting, they do not even have stingers.

The answer is "it depends". There are so many hoops and loopholes and gotchas built into the system that 2 identical people with the exact same background and ailment(s) could go see the exact same medical staff and yet still end up having to pay 2 completely different amounts for their care. But it's more complicated than that, because there are a myriad factors that come into play (insurance versus none, location/state of residence, etc) so there's no one concise and accurate answer to these types of questions.

Most non-wealthy people who don't have insurance, but who don't qualify for government/public medical care, simply go without care. Or they use the emergency room loophole to get some kind of treatment. The loophole, with lots of nuance and caveats, is that the emergency room has to at least give you enough treatment to temporarily stabilize your condition, regardless of your ability to pay.

For check-ups and counseling - In a lot of places that sort of stuff requires you to pay up front. You can sometimes haggle or work out a payment plan. If you're poor enough to qualify for government aid, it may be free. Otherwise, you're expected to have insurance and pay the co-pay. If that doesn't apply, these places usually have a "cash" price that's slightly more affordable, but still usually require payment ahead of time.

For meds, you basically always pay up front. There's really no concept of pharmacies providing medications in a manner where you can pay later. No money means no meds. It's also ridiculous to even ask how much a person would expect to pay for meds, it could be as little as a few USD to thousands, really depends on the meds, quantity needed, location, etc.

Xrays - This is where debt might actually come into play. You usually pay for these after the fact. If you go to the doctor, you might have to pay the standard fee (or copay) up front, but all the other services/tests/etc are charged after the fact. So you'll end up getting a bill after you've gotten the xray and consultation. To be honest, I don't know the average out of pocket cost for an x-ray if you don't have insurance, but it would differ from location to location and region to region. If you don't pay that bill, you'll get harassed and most likely you'll have to change doctors because the office you owe money to won't see you again until your debt is paid or you've worked out a payment plan.

For people with insurance, there's pretty much always a maximum yearly out of pocket amount, after which things are basically all paid for by insurance. Again there are nuances and caveats. And the maximum out of pocket varies by insurance policy, number of people insured, etc, but $8,000 - $20,000 are not uncommon amounts. To be honest, I don't even know what mine is, I've never actually reached it. Not everything is covered by the maximum out of pocket, though.

$27,000 medical debt could possibly be from someone who was uninsured or it may be several years of medical debt.

To give you an idea of how crazy the system is: I had a hairline fracture several years ago and what was deemed as "good" insurance. By the time everything was done, it ended up costing me around $3,000 out of pocket. That's for co-pays, x-rays, medication, etc over the course of months.

On the other hand: A family member of mine had a heart attack, required emergency surgery, had no insurance, and had no money to pay for anything. In the end cost them less than a few hundred USD out of pocket. Hospital wiped the debt clean. Government programs and drug company programs paid for meds. Eventually disability stuff kicked in and took care of everything else.

I heard that the problem was actually due to audio compression and that's not how Mr. Fudd sounds in real life.

I'll be upfront: I don't know. But I do have an anecdote.

I have a family member who swears that their phone is listening to every word they say. Their evidence is that they say they get ads or news regarding things they had recently had conversations about.

Fast forward a bit, they come and stay with me for a bit for a visit. This phenomenon starts happening while they are here. Absolute proof, right?

Well, no not really. Every single instance of "evidence" they pointed out could be explained as simple IP association.

"We were just talking about having okra for dinner and now my feed is filled up with okra recipes" -- well yeah, we talked about that, so me being the good host I am, I looked up how to cook okra so I could maybe fix some for our dinner.

"We also had that conversation about Tom Hanks and I just got an ad for one of his movies" -- yeah, we did, because you watched a couple Tom Hanks movies on Hulu yesterday so now they know someone at this IP is watching Tom Hanks movies and now might be a good time to advertise something else he's been in.

And this went on and on.

So anyway, I do wonder if there's a chance someone else on your same wifi / cell / whatever is looking this stuff up and it's just coincidentally seeming like the all knowing omniscient internet gods are leaking your private conversations.

If he's late 30s to early 40s then he did not age well. I know several full blown alcoholics in their 50s who look younger than the guy in this photo.

Yeah, the world changes. Old stagnant ideas that don't keep up tend to mostly die out. It's not a particularly shocking conclusion to arrive at.