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Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#421

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_laws Which contains (apart from the obvious Murphy's law and Occam's razor) such pearls as the Peter Principle, the Dunning-Kruger effect, and Hofstadter's Law. 20+ tabs guaranteed!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists

I like that it references itself under 'Miscellaneous'.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#422
post #117

Browsing medical diagnosis codes... https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/ICD10/2016-ICD-10-CM-and... Some of the most mildly interesting: V9543XD Spacecraft collision injuring occupant, subsequent encounter W5602XD Struck by dolphin, subsequent encounter X35XXXD Volcanic eruption, subsequent encounter X52XXXD Prolonged stay in weightless environment, subsequent encounter Y0881XD Assault by crashing of aircraft, subseq…

Are these added added to the database as needed, or did a (group of) bureaucrat(s) make these up in one sitting?

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insurance billing. These need to be exact in order to correlate to a) rates negotiated b) data collected for future underwriting c) exact repayment. Medical billing is a crazy world.

Isn't all this coding a U.S. phenomenon? I've read that single-payer systems like Canada's require orders of magnitude less labor and paperwork.

In the UK there is still a lot of this, even though healthcare is centrally funded and (somewhat) centrally administered.

I worked briefly with a company doing medical transcription. It opened my eyes to how much billing-related paperwork goes on in hospital back offices.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#424
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Z62891 Sibling rivalry Y93G2 Activity, grilling and smoking food Y9286 Slaughter house as the place of occurrence of the external cause Y6553 Performance of correct procedure (operation) on wrong side or body part X962XXA Assault by letter bomb, initial encounter X05XXXA Exposure to ignition or melting of nightwear, initial encounter

> Y6553 Performance of correct procedure (operation) on wrong side or body part That's horrifying.

It happens. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/17/us/doctor-who-cut-off-wron...

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#425
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Z62891 Sibling rivalry Y93G2 Activity, grilling and smoking food Y9286 Slaughter house as the place of occurrence of the external cause Y6553 Performance of correct procedure (operation) on wrong side or body part X962XXA Assault by letter bomb, initial encounter X05XXXA Exposure to ignition or melting of nightwear, initial encounter

> Y6553 Performance of correct procedure (operation) on wrong side or body part That's horrifying.

Coincidentally, two posts talking about this kind of never event, with links:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12773709

They do happen, but they're quite rare.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#426
post #71

I posted a list of them a while ago. For several years I was interested in alternative worldviews -- grand sweeping theories of reality. Here's my list: http://ribbonfarm.com https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/ http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.co.uk/ http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ https://meaningness.com/ http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/ Enjoy :)

If you like those you might also like http://slatestarcodex.com It's Yvain's (from LW) blog. It's gotten quite popular, with lots of mainstream media referencing it.

Isn't it Scott Alexander (note the almost anagram) that blogs there?

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#427
post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like those you might also like http://slatestarcodex.com It's Yvain's (from LW) blog. It's gotten quite popular, with lots of mainstream media referencing it.

Isn't it Scott Alexander (note the almost anagram) that blogs there?

That's his current pseudonym, yes. Went by Train previously.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#428
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even... why in the world would it be important for a doctor to differentiate being struck by a dolphin or struck by orca (side note: orcas are dolphins!).

I believe it's for statistical purposes(if it's anything like death codes here in Aus). If there is an uptick in dolphin strikes, the Government(or some environmental management group) may do something about the dolphin problem.

Or if there's a sudden lack of dolphin related accidents it might be good to look into whether or not the end of the world is eminent[0].

[0] http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Dolphins

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite internet rabbit hole?

#429
post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like those you might also like http://slatestarcodex.com It's Yvain's (from LW) blog. It's gotten quite popular, with lots of mainstream media referencing it.

Isn't it Scott Alexander (note the almost anagram) that blogs there?

Yvain is Scott Alexander: http://slatestarcodex.com/about/
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