Thursday, October 02, 2003

Parking Ticket? Screw That. When I got out of work just now, I found a parking ticket on my truck.  It was for "parking with for sale sign"  I have never heard of such a thing... Sec. 157.08. Exhibiting for sale. No person shall place more than one vehicle displaying a for sale or exchange sign or notice on a highway in front of their residence. A vehicle shall be deemed to be displayed in violation of this section when found standing in front of a residence which is different from the vehicle's registration address. Such vehicle must be parked in full compliance of all other provisions of this chapter. (Code 1956, § 144.08; Ord. No. 17712, § 1, 2-8-90) Lying Bastards.  I was parked a long way away from any residence.   You can click the globe below to see exactly where I was. 11:31:03 PM    comment []

Mapping with location tool I have changed Brain Off's neat location.root tool code a little to make it point at a richer, layered map of Minnesota and I changed it to use UTM coordinates instead.  So I will use this post to point to where I went fishing on the Mississippi River a few weeks ago.  The next step is to add more fields for what layers I want and the magnification of the map.  11:20:53 PM    comment []

$15 Billion Per Year The Wall Street Journal has been doing an excellent series on health care costs.  Today they focused on dialysis.  I didn't know that kidney patients consume 6.4% of the medicare budget while they make up just 1% of those using medicare.  This is partly because congress voted to make medicare cover dialysis treatment and transplants no matter how old the patient.  This includes those covered by private health insurance.  Yes, insurance companies get a free ride on this one.  What the hell!?  Shouldn't private insurance companies cover their own kidney patients?  We could save billions per year and hurt no one. Here is a summary of the law from a history of dialysis: On October 30, 1972 the national ESRD program—Public Law 92-601—was passed as an amendment to the Medicare Act after only 30 minutes of debate with only one dissenting vote. The bill, signed into law by President Nixon, gave all Americans the right to treatment for ESRD, regardless of age. ESRD was and remains the only medical condition given this status. The law exceeded expectations and posed challenges due, in part, to its costs. At the time of its passage, the government expected to care for some 16,000 patients, a patient load reached by 1974. By 1999 there were one quarter of a million patients. Similarly, the annual budget was projected at $250 million but, by 2000, it was more than $15 billion. There are now 4,200 dialysis clinics around the country. Medicare covers 83 percent as primary or secondary payor. Part of the reason for the out of control costs is the rise of diabetes. 8:52:31 PM    comment []

Number 6 Nearly Escapes Number 6, imprisoned for years in the spatial anomaly called sugar beet country, manages to get control of a beet truck and was about to escape when the master intervened and sent another beet truck to crash into the commandeered beet truck.  As usual, everyone is pretending they don't know what he is talking about. 12:11:24 PM    comment []

When I buy stuff made in china, which I do all the time, I support things like this. and I don't know a thing we can do about it. 8:15:45 AM    comment []