“Xenotransplantation” is pretty #%^*ing metal. It’s pretty wild being alive these days. Lots of big stuff the species is struggling to adapt to and figure out how to exist with. But also… we got the tablets from Star Trek. And now we have the ship’s computer from Star Trek, and the early makings of the holodeck. And we’re making pigmen senior citizens who would otherwise be dead. It’s quite something to stop and thin…
Meanwhile we can’t figure out how to provide a basic level of housing and healthcare to everyone.
Housing can be affordable or an investment. It can't be both
I was just thinking about heart transplants and how they’re treated as commonplace now, but they are nuts when you think about them. You can hook up the nerve wires and blood pipes from one body into the heart from another body and it works? Just thinking about the simple physical connections would make me nervous. Why isn’t there blood just leaking out in your body? Why isn’t that other heart sliding out of place wh…
Blood pipes yes, nerves no. Transplanted hearts are de-enervated.
Insane take. Even if you confiscated ALL the money from all the billionaires (instant 100% wealth tax) and spread it to everyone worldwide, it would be a one time sum of under $2000. And what then?
You can shear a sheep many times but skin him only once.
It seems like billionaires have a knack for making lots of money every year. Why don’t we just take a bit more of it than we do now and invest it into useful projects?
Defense is only 13% of federal spending: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder... Military spending has actually decreased a lot as a % of GDP in the US over time, so old narratives about this have become less true. So the anti-military-spending orgs have to abuse the numbers if they want to keep that narrative going: https://econofact.org/u-s-defense-spending-in-historical-and... Though, a rea…
If you include things directly related to, but not classified as defense spending, like veterans benefits, VA, and the cost of foreign bases; the military is about ~20% of the total US budget.
Insane take. Even if you confiscated ALL the money from all the billionaires (instant 100% wealth tax) and spread it to everyone worldwide, it would be a one time sum of under $2000. And what then?
Then the former billionaires won't have the ability to influence society to pass laws that favours them. We'll finally be able to build a society for everyone.
I was just thinking about heart transplants and how they’re treated as commonplace now, but they are nuts when you think about them. You can hook up the nerve wires and blood pipes from one body into the heart from another body and it works? Just thinking about the simple physical connections would make me nervous. Why isn’t there blood just leaking out in your body? Why isn’t that other heart sliding out of place wh…
Fun fact: the nerves between the brain and heart are never reattached. A heart already has all of the facilities to keep working all by itself.
Even weirder is that an adult kidney transplanted into a child will actually shrink to fit.
I was just thinking about heart transplants and how they’re treated as commonplace now, but they are nuts when you think about them. You can hook up the nerve wires and blood pipes from one body into the heart from another body and it works? Just thinking about the simple physical connections would make me nervous. Why isn’t there blood just leaking out in your body? Why isn’t that other heart sliding out of place wh…
It's not exactly the same as a biological heart transplant (I assume), but you might be interested in reading the surgical instruction manual for a SynCardia artificial heart: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf3/P030011c.pdf