Perfect. Instant buy for me if they can deliver on their promises. No other car in recent memory has spoken to my minimalist frugal engineering mind like this one. Hope my 2000 4runner lasts until the Slate gets delivered to my door!
Fuck. Reading the original post on Something Awful, then your experience in 2021 in the days leading up, and then this all these years later... it's just harrowing. I'm so sorry.
Wondering the same. I couldn't make it through the article. Fascinating discovery, but poorly written and difficult to navigate the author's thoughts. The interstitial quotes were particularly disorienting.
I’m confused. You say that you “go to” an annual event, but then you describe it at a massive private festival that you’re self organizing. Which is it?
There are all sorts of volunteer roles someone needs to do, from directing parking, to helping in the kitchen, to roaming around at 3am to see if anyone needs help, to working the first aid stand, and a hundred other things. I always sign up for at least a couple of shifts doing something, so feel like part of the "we" helping to put it on, but it's still something I go to as a participant to have fun.
In Australia these are known as "bush doofs" and are essentially community events - they're organised, run and attended by a group of people rather than an organisation.
You can't buy tickets to them, you have to know someone who's in the group chat for them. You can just turn up on the day if you know where the event is; they're always incredibly remote, usually on a patch of bush (forest) on someone's enormous farm or a national park, pitch a tent, join in, help out where you can. Security is "if you act like a dickhead you'll be asked politely to leave by a bunch of people". There's no financial contribution, except sometimes a hat is passed around if someone had to pay for equipment hire or similar. You can buy drugs there, but only if you know the person you're buying from; usually better to sort yourself out before you go, there won't be anyone advertising anything for sale at the doof.
That's the Kellerberrin B&S, I think: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_and_Spinster_Ball. Hence why the uploader called it a BnS, the girl at the start says "welcome to the blokes and skanks ball", everyone's driving a ute with a sick bullbar instead of mum's station wagon, and they look like they're all fucked up on Bundy and coke instead of MDMA and coke.
Strictly speaking it's a West Australian Inseminator's Ball (as titled) which were for a while run in parallel with the B&S balls although to the best of my knowledge they've both died down in popularity - Muresk Agricultural College very nearly closed, although it's gotten fresh grant money in recent years which may have changed things up a bit.
It shares a bit of overlap with many other variations of a bush party that I've been to, they've all been a little bit unique, a little bit the same.
There's even been a odd local lesser version of the more famous US Burning Man here - inspired by is perhaps the best description: https://blazingswan.com.au/ and not like a B&S, a bush doof, nor a Burning Man.
None of these things look like an inner city warehouse rave or nightclub either.
Read the whole article (quite a fascinating story!) yet this key detail is still unclear to me: why is the state fighting the divers on this? What do they have to gain, or to lose, in the matter? If it is some historically insignificant ship, as the state claims, what's the risk in letting the divers salvage it?
Yes that part seemed crazy to me as well. Is it just some power tripping person who likes to prevent anything from happening? Is there some sort of environmental risk? Are they worried the couple who found it are not qualified enough to safely and correctly perform the salvage? My guess has to be the last one being hopeful it’s not just some attempt to block for the sake of it. Maybe they want it removed and documented to certain standards and they don’t feel these people are qualified to do that. The couple does seem to have good intentions though so I would like to see something happen before they pass even if another group does the salvage.
As I read it, nobody is necessarily in the wrong. I get that they want to be able to confirm this while they're young enough to dive it, but at the same time that may not be the best thing for the wreck itself.
I am guessing you're correct and it's the latter - that they don't feel like the couple and their associates are qualified/equipped to mess around with it if it /is/ archeologically significant. The amount of effort to protect the single piece they were allowed to bring up gives some idea of the kind of sustained effort of many highly trained people it would involve.
Now, if the state believes the raised piece to be from an 1800s fishing vessel as apparently the one expert says, it's also possible that they just don't think it's worth the effort and expense, and that the divers are misinterpreting the wreck site and seeing what they want to see.
Conversely, if it did believe it was the genuine article, there may not be the funds to do an operation like this immediately. Archeological sites are generally fairly stable when left in place, so for an instituation waiting 10 years to make a move on this isn't a big deal, and there are likely other sites that need to excavated before they're destroyed for various reasons - but if you're an aging couple and this is your big dream, then there's an urgency here that may easily be considered reckless if you're evaluating purely based on the best way to approach an archeological site, more so than a sense of romance and adventure.
This very much resonates with my recent experience. I've searched for a tiny, battery efficient music player for exercising and backpacking trips, and there's just nothing of reputable quality out there made today. All low quality Amazon junk. I miss my Sandisk clip from ~10 years ago!
> Total fraud in that case was $900 million, for a only 500 patients, or almost $2M per patient.
That seems so outside the bounds of reality that I'm questioning if it's what happened here. I can't imagine how that would pass any kind of sniff test by Medicare.
Quote from the article: "In less than two years, more than $900 million in bogus claims were submitted to Medicare for grafts that were used on fewer than 500 patients, prosecutors said."
The alternative interpretation of this is that the grafts were _applied_ to 500 patients, but potentially many many more were billed for grafts that they didn't need (and didn't receive). Maybe more feasible?
Horrible, disgusting, yet not at all surprising. I don't know what medical billing accountability looks like in this dizzyingly complex system, but as a US citizen and patient of the US healthcare system, it looks barely existent. My family has fought our fair share of bogus healthcare charges. One instance: after my daughter was born at a birthing center (independent of a hospital), my wife experienced postpartum complications and was transferred to a nearby hospital for care. As if that experience wasn't stressful and traumatic enough, many months later we were hit with a surprise charge from the hospital for treatment and care of our newborn baby - the baby that was delivered hours earlier, in a separate location, that never left my arms in the hospital!
All that to say - it's alarmingly easy for a charge to get processed in a batch of other charges, and either insurance pays it without question, or the patient pays it unknowingly. During our experience, we learned that this kind of thing is exceedingly common. The power dynamic between patients and healthcare administration severely misaligned, the information imbalance is huge, and the patient is always in a compromised position.
The article doesn't include details on how they tracked down these criminals (I'm curious to know!), but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if this is just the tip of the iceberg.
My son got his first official letter when we was about two weeks old. It was a bill from the hospital for his birth: $8,000. He was directly charged on that bill, not us parents.
And that was on top of the $24,000 bill that we had received from hospital. So $32,000 for a no-frills (from a medical viewpoint) birth and that was many years ago.
The health insurance paid 100% of both bills, so we ended up not following up.
When our first child was born (a long, traumatic story in itself), after the ordeal was over and we were resting in the hospital, a nice fellow came by and asked whether we wanted to test our baby's hearing. Sure? No mention was made of a price. He put a device in the baby's ears. Hearing was fine. Then we got the bill. Hundreds of dollars, maybe $500, for a moment's effort and no expenditure of resources. We had almost no money at the time and certainly no insurance. This was in Nashville. He was an independent contractor they let wander the halls of the laying in ward accosting unsuspecting new parents. He bought the machine. Now he's got a steady income from this grift.
Another event in Nashville, my wife cut her hand making dinner. We walked to the emergency room. Eventually someone saw us. He asked whether we wanted to try some experimental tree sap glue to close the wound. Sure? It actually wasn't much of a cut and it had stopped bleeding. No mention of a price. While he was squeezing a droplet of liquid out of a tube the attending physician looked over his shoulder. Yep, checks out. It was basically a glance, less than a minute's interaction and no interaction with out. The whole experience, again, when we had essentially no means to pay, cost hundreds of dollars. They guy who glanced over glue man's shoulder tacked on a couple hundred for himself. Coming through the door and signing some papers then waiting hours to be attended to cost us maybe $400.
I've got similar stories from Washington, DC. My son (not the baby with the hearing test) had to deal with the medical system in Vermont. He's dead now but we're still paying the bills. And now we have insurance.
Regular healthcare in the US looks a hell of a lot like a scam. If you have insurance, the scam is less visible, but it's the same system.
> This was in Nashville. He was an independent contractor they let wander the halls of the laying in ward accosting unsuspecting new parents. He bought the machine. Now he's got a steady income from this grift.
Newborn hearing screening is standard, or even mandated, in most states. This wasn't just a grifter they allowed to roam the halls. They were contracted with the person to administer the tests. It's likely it was even required by your state lawmakers:
Well, it wasn't presented to us like that. He asked, "Do you want it?" Implying we could say no. We looked at each other, shrugged, and said, "Okay." It was very sweet until we got the bill.
We had two kids more after the first one. No one offered to test their hearing or required that it be done. The second one is the one who died, but not from hearing-related complications.
>and some medical practitioners are solely in for the money
So is everyone else that works any kind of job. 'Solely in it for the money' is such a weird complaint, as if you'd do your job for free if you were independently wealthy.
Actually, most people have multiple motivations for working in their field. Nursery school teachers like kids. They also like getting paid. Most doctors like the status their job confers and helping people in need. They also like getting paid. People who have jobs that suck -- septic tank pumper, say -- may well be in it solely for the money.
