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OT: The News Thread

Yeah when I think of 12 I think of playing GoldenEye tournaments on the N64 with buddies, lots of hockey games, collecting the more challenging Lego sets, reading, swimming, going to Wonderland, etc.

Oral wasn't even on my radar. :lol
 
JaysCyYoung said:
Yeah when I think of 12 I think of playing GoldenEye tournaments on the N64 with buddies, lots of hockey games, collecting the more challenging Lego sets, reading, swimming, going to Wonderland, etc.

Oral wasn't even on my radar. :lol
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I've done all of that (minus the Lego) in the past 12 months.
 
JaysCyYoung said:
Yeah when I think of 12 I think of playing GoldenEye tournaments on the N64 with buddies, lots of hockey games, collecting the more challenging Lego sets, reading, swimming, going to Wonderland, etc.
Click to expand...

Yep, same here.

Oral wasn't even on my radar. :lol
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Wasn't really on mine until I was making out with some bird and she started rubbing my cock, then it made perfect sense.
 
MindzEye said:
Yep, same here.



Wasn't really on mine until I was making out with some bird and she started rubbing my cock, then it made perfect sense.
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Heh.

Never went to sleepaway camp myself, so can't say I had the same experience. I'm a little surprised she was so forward that age... or maybe I'm not...
 
JaysCyYoung said:
Heh.

Never went to sleepaway camp myself, so can't say I had the same experience. I'm a little surprised she was so forward that age... or maybe I'm not...
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Dude, you missed out. I had my first kiss, played with my first titties, and got blown for the first time at summer camp. The councillors (basically a bunch of 16-18 year olds) were so busy trying to bang each other (didn't realize this at the time, but do now) that a lot of shit went down after dark.
 
Growing up on a horse farm my parents held summer camps with an on-property dormitory for the students...needless to say, the male-female ratio was always about 95% skewed to the girls...

I had a great learning environment....
 
I was too much of a repressed guilted religious nut to hook up with anyone until I was 16 (and yep, it all happened at summer camp). But me and my boys were building and banging snow pussies all the way back in grade 2 or 3.
 
SundinsTooth said:
Growing up on a horse farm my parents held summer camps with an on-property dormitory for the students...needless to say, the male-female ratio was always about 95% skewed to the girls...

I had a great learning environment....
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In my experience equestrian girls tend to be bitchy, rich, and too attractive for their own good. Good on ya.
 
The Most Efficient Healthcare Systems In The World (INFOGRAPHICS)

As supporters and opponents of the Affordable Care Act debate the best way to overhaul a clearly broken healthcare system, it's perhaps helpful to put American medicine in a global perspective.

The infographic below is based on a recent Bloomberg ranking of the most efficient countries for healthcare, and highlights enormous gap between the soaring cost of treatment in the U.S. and its quality and effectiveness. To paraphrase Ricky Ricardo, the American healthcare system has a lot of 'splainin' to do.

It's remarkable how low America places in healthcare efficiency: among the 48 countries included in the Bloomberg study, the U.S. ranks 46th, outpacing just Serbia and Brazil. Once that sinks in, try this one on for size: the U.S. ranks worse than China, Algeria, and Iran.

But the sheer numbers are really what's humbling about this list: the U.S. ranks second in healthcare cost per capita ($8,608), only to be outspent by Switzerland ($9,121) -- which, for the record, boasts a top-10 healthcare system in terms of efficiency. Furthermore, the U.S. is tops in terms of healthcare cost relative to GDP, with 17.2 percent of the country's wealth spent on medical care for every American.

In other words, the world's richest country spends more of its money on healthcare while getting less than almost every other nation in return.

It's important to note that this data doesn't necessarily reflect the best healthcare in the world; it is simply a measure of overall quality as a function of cost. Bloomberg explains its methodology as such:

Each country was ranked on three criteria: life expectancy (weighted 60%), relative per capita cost of health care (30%); and absolute per capita cost of health care (10%). Countries were scored on each criterion and the scores were weighted and summed to obtain their efficiency scores. Relative cost is health cost per capita as a percentage of GDP per capita. Absolute cost is total health expenditure, which covers preventive and curative health services, family planning, nutrition activities and emergency aid. Included were countries with populations of at least five million, GDP per capita of at least $5,000 and life expectancy of at least 70 years.

So what can the U.S. learn from the many countries that get more bang for their healthcare buck? Unsurprisingly, there is no one formula for success when it comes to efficient medical care. The systems that rank highly on Bloomberg's list are as diverse as the nations to which they belong. The unifying factor seems to be tight government control over a universal system, which may take many shapes and forms -- a fact evident in the top-three most efficient healthcare systems in the world: Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.

Ranking third on Bloomberg's list, the Japanese system involves universal healthcare with mandatory participation funded by payroll taxes paid by both employer and employee, or income-based premiums by the self-employed. Long-term care insurance is also required for those older than 40. As Dr. John W. Traphagan notes in The Diplomat, Japan controls costs by setting flat rates for everything from medications to procedures, thus eliminating competition among insurance providers. While most of the country's hospitals are privately owned and operated, the government implements smart regulations to ensure that the system remains universal and egalitarian.

Meanwhile, Singapore's healthcare system is largely funded by individual contributions, and is often hailed by conservatives as a beacon of personal responsibility. But as conservative David Frum notes, the system is actually fueled by the invisible hand of the public sector: individuals are required to contribute a percentage of their monthly salary based on age to a personal fund to pay for treatments and hospital expenditures. In addition, the government provides a safety net to cover expenses for which these personal savings are inadequate. Private healthcare still plays a role in Singapore's system, but takes a backseat to public offerings, which boast the majority of doctors, nurses, and procedures performed.

Despite being considered by some as having the freest economy in the world, Hong Kong's universal healthcare system involves heavy government participation; its own health secretary calls public medicine the "cornerstone" of the system. Public hospitals account for 90 percent of in-patient procedures, while the numerous private options are mostly used by the wealthy.

All this government care isn't taking much of a bite out of the state's bustling economy: According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong spends just 3.8 percent of GDP on healthcare per capita, tied for the third-lowest among nations surveyed and good for the most efficient healthcare system in the world.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/most-efficient-healthcare_n_3825477.html




Full list: http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-efficient-health-care-countries
 
JaysCyYoung said:
Yeah when I think of 12 I think of playing GoldenEye tournaments on the N64 with buddies, lots of hockey games, collecting the more challenging Lego sets, reading, swimming, going to Wonderland, etc.

Oral wasn't even on my radar. :lol
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really? I though of stuff like that... and getting my dick sucked.
 
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/29/painkiller-kill-morepeoplethanmarijuanause.html


Prescriptions for painkillers in the United States have nearly tripled in the past two decades and fatal overdoses reached epidemic levels, exceeding those from heroin and cocaine combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

At the same time, the first-ever global analysis of illicit drug abuse, published this month in the British medical journal The Lancet, found that addictions to heroin and popular painkillers, including Vicodin and OxyContin, kill the most people and cause the greatest health burden, compared with illicit drugs such as marijuana and cocaine.

High-income nations, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, had the highest rates of abuse, 20 times greater than in the least affected countries, according to the Lancet study.

In the United States, enough painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around the clock for one month.
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When I was first held up from the broken ankle (cast comes off on Tuesday, I hope) I was prescribed percocets. The things are absolutely amazing. Total body numb, virtually no pain for hours. I can totally see how someone with a natural predisposition to addictive substances would be hooked. Hell, I even contemplated trying to get another round from my doctor...but wisely talked myself out of it.
 
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