When I was at the Stanford cardiac unit last, they let me sleep. That wasn't the problem but they had a problem giving me privacy: door wide open, curtain wide open.
Patients with privacy are patients who end up dying. Hospital floor plans are designed to ensure that nurses can see if patients take a turn for the worse.
I was also at Stanford hospital earlier this year, for a few weeks over two different stays. I don't know which is the cardiac unit, but I remember being in units D1, D3, F3, and G2. Some times I was closer to the door; some times closer to the window. In both cases, I had times when I would need to specifically ask a nurse (or nurse assistant) to close the door (or the curtain), but I don't ever remember having pushback on my request.
Cults and other extreme forms of magical thinking take root whenever survival seems difficult. Chris Hedges' latest book delves into paths to anomie, self-destruction and insanity that are more likely as a civilization crumbles and slowly cannibalizes itself into oblivion.
Also note that Telegram and WhatsApp are insecure and horrible. I would use Signal, OTR and maybe iMessage if you trust the Apple bean-counter-turned-CEO.
That was interesting. That page took me to the paper, "Keys Under Doormats: Mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications" (2015) - http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/97690
From the conclusion:
> This report’s analysis of law enforcement demands for exceptional access to private communications and data shows that such access will open doors through which criminals and malicious nation-states can attack the very individuals law enforcement seeks to defend. The costs would be substantial, the damage to innovation severe, and the consequences to economic growth difficult to predict. The costs to developed countries’ soft power and to our moral authority would also be considerable.
<snip>
> If law enforcement wishes to prioritize exceptional access, we suggest that they need to provide evidence to document their requirements and then develop genuine, detailed specifications for what they expect exceptional access mechanisms to do. As computer scientists and security experts, we are committed to remaining engaged in the dialogue with all parts of our governments, to help discern the best path through
these complex questions.
This is a paper by experts in the field. The Australian government would do well to listen to them and not fantasize that they can legislate away reality.
The 1% don't care how money is made (who it kills or destroys the planet) so long that it flows. An existential threat from externalities is just another new inelastic market to exploit.
We played the beta and first release of CS in college (UCD). Ah the memories of AWP and skywalking (jumping up on crates with aid of a buddy and walking on top of the map's bounding box "sky").
Yes. What's missing from modern life is somewhat intended by corporations and the political elite: the atomizing of people from each other via glowing screens and burning down of community that churches functioned to anchor people together. The multitude of consequences are loneliness, isolation, friendlessness, depression, anxiety and more suicidal than ever. I'm not arguing magical thinking in any form has any inherent value, but the caring about each other and the social commonwealth collectivism, empathy and support it provided are indispensable to sane, decent, good and successful people. The charity, forgiveness and nonviolent disobedience by deed part of many traditional religous traditions embody virtues that to most are inherently inspirational, noble and provide the foundation of civilization as functional, decent and possessing integrity. If we let society devolve into Orwellian, Kafkaesque, social Darwinism, then feudalism, inverted or outright totalitarianism, bullshit and brutality will comprise the primary palette of the social contract.
