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Rebecca Heineman has died

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Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#181
post #174

Feature request: make it so the black bar is a hyperlink and it takes you to the thread it is referring to. This article is not on the front page so it took me a while to find what the black bar was referring to.

[deleted]

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have any evidence that the cancer is a type that would have been caught by a screening regime currently in place in other countries which is not in place in the US? Do you have any evidence that it wasn't? I honestly don't know if earlier detection was possible, or would have helped her out or not. What I can tell you is that given the state of health care in this country, you can bet that my default assumpt…

> you can bet that my default assumption would be "yes" and "yes" until proven otherwise. That's a recipe for healthcare inflation. There are endless unproven tests and treatments.

Looking at corporate profit levels versus wage levels over the past twenty years, the U.S. as a capitalist country can afford a great deal more of healthcare inflation in order to raise the quality of life for its population.

Should its businesses afford that out of their profits?

Since households can’t afford eggs, much less health care costs, at the wages paid by businesses; so this decision is up to firms rather than households to decide. Founders, your input would especially be appreciated here.

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence that the cancer is a type that would have been caught by a screening regime currently in place in other countries which is not in place in the US? Without such evidence your post reads more like propagandizing a death for political purposes than an honest argument.

> Do you have any evidence that the cancer is a type that would have been caught by a screening regime currently in place in other countries which is not in place in the US? Do you have any evidence that it wasn't? I honestly don't know if earlier detection was possible, or would have helped her out or not. What I can tell you is that given the state of health care in this country, you can bet that my default assumpt…

> Do you have any evidence that it wasn't?

Most types of cancers are not routinely screened for. The post says that the cancer was in her liver and lungs, and neither liver cancer nor lung cancer are routinely screened for (lung cancer screenings are recommended for people with a history of heavy smoking).

> What I can tell you is that given the state of health care in this country, you can bet that my default assumption would be "yes" until proven otherwise.

This is clearly a politically-motivated point rather than one grounded in science or reality. Cancer screening in the US is generally more aggressive, not less aggressive, than in other developed countries. For example, the US has historically recommended annual mammograms starting at age 40, while Europe doesn't start until age 50 and only does them every two years. US guidelines are to start screening for colon cancer at age 45 (c.f. 50 in most of Europe), and the US uses a much more invasive (and costlier) approach to colon cancer screening on top of the age gap.

If anything the US probably overinvests in cancer screening. The evidence in favor of starting mammograms at 40 is extremely dubious, as is the evidence for invasive and expensive colonoscopies (standard US practice) over fecal matter tests (standard European practice) for colon cancer screening.

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#185
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The United States is the wealthiest nation on the planet according to Forbes, richer than the subsequent three nations combined. This framing by Forbes (any many others really) is insidious because it doesn't take into account the population number and how unevenly wealth is spread. For instance, Switzerland is not a huge economy - around the 20th in the world, but its citizens enjoy an extremely high quality of li…

Population size is usually included in those calculations. It’s typically GDP per capita . But I couldn’t agree more that the inequality and social safety net (or lack thereof) make the numbers deeply disconnected from QoL. Which I believe is the whole point.

> It’s typically GDP per capita.

If so, then the US is ~7th, or 5th among nations numbering in the millions. Still very high, just not at the top.

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems Bard's Tale 3 can be played on the DosBox emulator: https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=188&letter=B ... which is available for many platforms, including Windows and Linux: https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 although the latest version of DosBox seems to be from 2019, so maybe others can suggest a more actively-maintained emulator.

DOSBox-X is a port that is actively developed and has many features missing in vanilla DOSBox. There are a few other ones as well. DOSBox Staging is one. Magic DOSBox seems to be the most popular on Android. There is some iOS port as well.

That sounds promising. Do they also have a "compatibility by game title" database?

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#187

What a true legend. The amount of people she has touched with her work is enormous. Feeling a bit of regret. I feel like I made a poor first impression on Rebecca when I first met her a few years back at VCF East. I saw her again recently but was suffering from severe undiagnosed sleep apnea so much so that I was practically asleep at the event. I didn't know about the cancer. Thought I would have another chance. Thi…

> I saw her again recently but was suffering from severe undiagnosed sleep apnea so much so that I was practically asleep at the event. Go visit a pulmonologist and get a diagnosis. Getting one and starting on a CPAP was life-changing for me.

Just began using a CPAP last week. My first attempts were to try and use a nose clip, sleep wedge, and other tools to no avail. Following a take home test I discovered my apnea was severe. I have now started with a CPAP machine. Results are promising.

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#189

Many years ago I played one of her works, Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate and enjoyed it very much. It was a masterful blend of RPG, dungeon crawl, and puzzles and had a memorable soundtrack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru5kg35dNso Having a bard in your party let you choose a soundtrack and their songs brought magical effects. For example, the Rhyme of Duotime let your party attack more frequently in combat: https:/…

Interesting, I didn't know BT3 was by a different author, it definitely had its own vibe distinct from the first two, which this guy wrote (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cranford). I liked them all though.

The steam remasters are incredibly faithful to the originals - right down to the timing and flow of the turn-based combat. Makes me wonder if they are emulating the original code somehow.

Re: Rebecca Heineman has died

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ahh i have fond memories of this game... and the silly anti piracy attempts (decoder ring) they shipped it with.

In middle school, a friend and I 'cracked' that decoder ring by copying all the info by hand on to paper so we could both play the game from one store bought copy because we were poor. I don't think we ever finished the game, but it's still one of my happiest early gaming memories. They remastered all three of the first Bard's Tale games a few years ago and released them on Steam with many quality of life improvement…

It is hilarious to think if you could beat BT3 you could also crack the decoder ring
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