jonathan butz » General

Overheard at work

Jonathan — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:40:26 +0000

“The thing of it is is that…”

English is tricky.

Information: E Britannica vs. Wikipedia

Jonathan — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 16:25:42 +0000

Nature published a review of 42 articles from Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia, finding an average error rate of 3 per article for EB and 4 per article for WP. WP has sprung into action to first discern whether this is true and second to fix it.

One Slashdot user was quick to point out that EB lacks an article on the lightsaber and is thus qualitatively inferior.

Political compass

Jonathan — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 18:43:54 +0000

Take the Political Compass test to see how you score. It only uses two dimensions, but it’s a defeinite improvement over left-right.

Me:
Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.46

That’s Gandhi, acording to them. But I’m pretty sure I could kick Gandhi’s ass.

Pull the plug

Jonathan — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 16:27:08 +0000

Just so there can never be any doubt, if the chances of [i]my[/i] meaningful recovery are less than 30%, I prefer an overdose of morphine.

And if I end up in a hospital permanently disabled, attached to a machine and too weak to leave under my own power, sign me out, fly me to Africa and introduce me to the nearest pride of lions.

Europe: it’s the little differences

Jonathan — Fri, 27 May 2005 15:37:00 +0000

Two weeks: Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Brno.

Petrol (Gasoline) is $1.25/l ($5/gal).

Trucks are only allowed to go 90km/h (55mph).

Cars are supposed to go 130km/h (80mph), but there wasn’t any speed enforcement that we could see.

Most cars have smaller (often diesel) engines, but there are still plenty of 3l and 4l gasoline VWs, Audis, BMWs and Mercedes who make it very clear that 160km/h is a cooler speed.

McDonald’s is everywhere but with local flavor and language. (Achievement award plaques are always in English.)

Instead of WalMart, they have Tesco, equally everywhere and equally putting local businesses out of.

Almost everyone speaks some English in the larger cities, though you sometimes have to inflect as a local to be understood. In smaller towns, pointing suffices.

Private health care joys

Jonathan — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 21:25:37 +0000

I was injured in August, spent that afternoon and evening in the ER and OR.

Since then, I’ve been ignoring the bills because I was insured and knew they were just mistakes on somebody’s part.

Today I spent two hours on the phone with the hospital, the clinic out of which the surgeon operates and the insurance company.

One claim was mistakenly filed out of network, leaving a $300 balance for me. The other claim was mistakenly categorized as out of network by the clinic, leaving a $1000 balance for me.

Niether of these outstanding balances actually exists, but I had to figure out what happened, and then I had to fix it.

On top of that, if I hadn’t had any insurance at all and paid out of my own pocket, my bill would have been 25% higher.

Pennies are worthless

Jonathan — Thu, 25 Nov 2004 23:49:34 +0000

Onceuponatime, a newspaper cost $.02. Coffee: $.05. But now, those little coins weigh more than they’re worth.

Put them all in the change dish; round up and down.

Groceries: $44.96. That’s $45.
Gas: $24.82. That’s $25.
Milk: $1.14. Tough one. Why not $1.25?
Breakfast sandwich: $4.08. Down is okay, too. $4.

And so on.
But nobody does this. And you’d be amazed how often vendors display emotion over $.02.

Tagline

Jonathan — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 19:18:51 +0000

In America, it’s spelled and pronounced “Nukular” — for at least four more years.
-Slashdot tagline