Wiener

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"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage"

Suppose I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!

"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle — but no dragon.

"Where's the dragon?" you ask.

"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.

"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."

Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.

"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."

You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.

"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick."

And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.

Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.

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I also dislike private equity's involvement in hospitals, as I tend to think that trying to derive profit or excessive profit from medical care can lead to some really perverse incentives.

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These clowns look like such fools playing dress up for Rodeo every year.

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Spoke with a nurse not long after that and she confirmed that surgeons love removing it cause it’s a quick payday with minimal risk.

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It has been reported that Moderna Corporation paid individual scientists at NIH $700 million.

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Pfizer's operated at median gross profit margin of 66.0% from fiscal years ending December 2020 to 2024. Looking back at the last 5 years, Pfizer's gross profit margin peaked in December 2020 at 79.9%.

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My mother told me over 40 years ago that a cancer cure will never be found because there’s too much money for research. What’s the incentive to cure if you get paid millions to keep researching.

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