PHILOSOPHY: Are we in a simulation or a drug-​induced hallucination?

Thursday, March 6, 2025

https://nautil.us/can-we-prove-the-world-isnt-a-simulation-238416/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nautilus-newsletter

Philosophy
Can We Prove the World Isn’t a Simulation?

  • You might think we have definitive evidence we’re not in a simulation. That’s impossible.

By Dylan DiScenza January 26, 2022

*** begin quote ***

What about the other way around? Could we prove we are in a simulation? In The Matrix, Neo realized he’d been living in a simulation when he took the red pill and woke up in a different reality. He shouldn’t have been so sure. For all he knows, his old world was nonsimulated and the red pill plunged him into a simulation.

Still, we certainly could get very strong evidence that we’re in a simulation. The simulators could lift the Sydney Harbor Bridge into the air and turn it upside down. They could show us the source code of the simulation. They could show us private episodes from our past, along with the simulation technology that produced them. They could show me a film of my brain hooked up to wires in the next reality up, with an associated readout of my thoughts and feelings. They could give me control of the simulation, so that I could move mountains in the world around me just by pressing some buttons.

Even this evidence would fall short of absolute proof that we’re in a simulation. Maybe the world we’re in is a nonsimulated magic world, like the Harry Potter world, in which all-​powerful wizards are using their powers to convince us we’re in a simulation. Maybe most of my life has been nonsimulated but simulators have put me into a temporary simulated duplicate to fool me. Or maybe I’m having a drug-​induced hallucination. Still, I think that if I got evidence like this, I would probably be convinced that I am in a simulation.

*** end quote ***

If we are in either, what difference does it make?  We still have to “live” with the evidence presented us.  And, why would it be this way?  Is a wizard, a god, a space alien, or the flying spaghetti monster just playing with the equivalent of a kid’s train set?

Makes my head hurt so I’ll just pretend it’s “real life” until proven otherwise.

Ockham’s razor (i.e., fewest assumptions) says it’s “real life”.

Sigh! 

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Posted by reinkefj

VOCABULARY: mansplaining aka correctile dysfunction

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

https://www.boredpanda.com/offensive-things-people-say-to-women/

*** begin quote ***

Tempest 8 minutes ago

I remember a comment somewhere from some time ago which renamed mansplaining as “correctile dysfunction” and I’ve never forgotten it. Waiting for the day I’ll get to use it!

*** end quote ***

Pretty funny.

Never thought of it this way.

Some of the others are amazing as well.

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Posted by reinkefj

HEALTHCARE: Old medical bills and some tactics for dealing with them

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/how-to-not-pay-your-medical-bills-e9d195e6?st=Smcycm

How to Not Pay Your Medical Bills

  • Actually, that’s easy. This is how I paid a lot less.

By Joel Stein
Feb. 20, 2025 10:25 am ET

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As you probably recall, I had a mole removed about a year ago. As fresh as this is in all of our memories, a year is a fair bit of time, so I was surprised to get a bill in the mail for $604.80 from a company called DermTech. Apparently, much like wedding gifts, you have a year to send someone a medical bill.

*** end quote ***

A friend of mine, who is retired and better off than me, has a different strategy.  He calls and asks for a payment plan.  He offers 5$/month since that’s “all his budget allows”.  Each month he mails 5$ paper checks by US mail.  Sometimes people call and say don’t bother since processing the checks costs them more than 5$.  I don’t understand that but it seems to work for him. 

My only experience with “delayed billing” was with a hospital bill for my sainted wife’s last hospital stay that was about TWO YEARS prior.  It was bill for about 1½ M dollars.  That certainly made my eyes water. Talking to them yielded that someone forgot to send it to the insurance company and I should submit it to my insurance company. 

Instead, I called my lawyer.  His firm was conflicted out because they represent the hospital.  He recommended any local lawyer could take care of this with one letter.  Found one with an office near my home.  One visit.  TWO LETTERS required. 

First one to the hospital asking for their agreement with the insurance company.  After a two week delay, he sent a SECOND LETTER to the hospital that their agreement with the insurance company required all bills to be submitted within 180 days and, if not, were deemed “closed”.  A month later he got a letter saying basically “You’re right.  Have a nice day”.  Cost me about $400.  Slightly better than 1½ M$!   

At no extra charge, the local lawyer pointed out that the hospital wouldn’t want to make an issue out of it since the contract with the hospital applied to all hospital bills even if the patient was not insured or insured with some other insurance company.  I can understand why they don’t want that to become common knowledge.  Wonder if the hospital’s lawyers cleaned up their contracts?

Of course, YMMV.

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Posted by reinkefj

HEALTH: Now we know that ‘post-vaccination syndrome’ is real

Monday, March 3, 2025

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14421799/yale-scientists-covid-vaccine-study-message-victims.html

Yale scientists who risked careers to publish bombshell Covid vaccine study issue message to shot’s victims
By EMILY JOSHU STERNE HEALTH REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ISHITA SRIVASTAVA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: 01:40 EST, 22 February 2025 | Updated: 07:03 EST, 22 February 2025 

*** begin quote ***

On Wednesday, a team from Yale University known for their rigorous work revealed the mRNA shots can cause a previously unknown condition known as ‘post-vaccination syndrome.’

The syndrome appears to cause brain fog, dizziness, tinnitus, extreme fatigue and biological changes to patients’ immune systems.

Dr Akiko Iwasaki, the lead researcher behind the paper, told DailyMail.com she understands her findings could be seen as controversial. But she wants patients to know her team will keep studying to bring them ‘better transparency and safer vaccines.’  

*** end quote ***

Now we know that ‘post-vaccination syndrome’ is real.  And, who do we hold accountable and how?

What’s controversial?

People were harmed.  People were misled.  People were unemployed forcibly.

How can it all be made right?

How is it prevented in the future?

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

SAFETY: Dispose of Lithium Ion batteries properly

Sunday, March 2, 2025

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/see-a-garbage-trucks-cng-cylinders-explode-after-lithium-ion-battery-fire/

See a garbage truck’s CNG cylinders explode after lithium-ion battery fire

  • It happened recently in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Nate Anderson – Feb 20, 2025 5:21 PM |

*** begin quote ***

Garbage truck fires are never ideal, but they are usually not catastrophic. When a fire broke out on December 6 in the back of a garbage truck making its Friday rounds through the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, the fire department responded within five minutes. Firefighters saw flames shooting five feet into the air out the back of the truck, and they prepared to put the fire out using hoses and water. Four minutes after their arrival on scene, however, the garbage truck exploded in rather spectacular fashion, injuring several firefighters and police officers, damaging several homes in the vicinity, and scattering debris through the neighborhood.

*** end quote ***

What is an infrequent event  — a garbage truck fire  —  turned into a war zone!

Do you think all the warnings are just to give someone a job?

In this case, no one was hurt.  But that was just luck.

Remember this when you’re flying or just doodling around town on your e-scooter with your laptop.

Not everything has to be sabotage by a waring country; sometimes it’s just ordinary human stupidity.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

GUNS: Kentucky young man defends his home; Davy Crockett would be proud

Saturday, March 1, 2025

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/14-year-old-kentucky-boy-shoots-kills-two/

14-Year-Old Kentucky Boy Shoots and Kills Two Home Invaders With His Father’s Handgun

by Ben Kew Feb. 20, 2025 9:15 am

*** begin quote ***

The two men have since been identified as 44-year-old Roger D. Smith and 51-year-old Jeffrey M. Allen.

Smith was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries, while Allen was pronounced dead at the scene.

Manchester Police Chief Jeff Couch told NBC News that the boy was on his own at the time of the incident.

*** end quote ***

FAFO

Exceptionally good shooting under stress.  

Two ne’er-do-wells have been forcefully retired.  Wonder what their rap sheets look like.

—30—

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Posted by reinkefj

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