https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_dentistry

In 1998, a man was arrested in Van Nuys, California for operating an unlicensed dental practice out of the back of a toy store in a strip mall.

Heads up - potentially NSFL image at top:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_therapy

It Takes Two! I played it with my partner and really enjoyed the story and very imaginative game play.

Good call. I gave up halfway through S3 of umbrella academy. It was just weird and goofy, the tone didn't match S1 at all.

Oh damn, I forgot that part about "Earth being the control". That's hilarious!

My favorite one of them is Excession. I found the relationships / culture between the ship AI's so interesting and frankly, better written than many human relationships in the series overall.

Have you ever read the Culture novels, by Iain M. Banks? They explore a somewhat similar idea to "intelligence agencies of ~~fascist~~ post scarcity interstellar empires".

I can't remember if the contacted civilizations are ever socialist, although there's definitely a more feudal one and the overall themes may be interesting to you nonetheless.

Honestly at this point in my software career (~10 years), it's not evil per se, but I don't feel great about essentially existing to help rich people (VCs, PE, etc.) get richer. But I suppose that's a problem that isn't limited to IT.

From my understanding, unions require a vote from employees before being able to negotiate contracts with management. So if they want a few more people to come to a meeting, it's probably because they need a sense of whether they're gonna win that election and / or there is interest from more than a single employee.

Getting a union can be a long process, just to get to the bargaining table. Successful campaigns require a tireless dedication from at least one employee who wants to fight.

All worth it IMHO, and I'm heartened to hear about labor action for EMS staff. Best of luck in your efforts!

Not surprising - I watched this video about France's ongoing colonialism in Africa a few months ago, showed a side of them I never considered, at least in the modern era:

https://youtu.be/fiD24uEvY1U?si=kqH-ixnhSvc4S_HG

Suddenly, the Libyan adventure last decade makes more sense.

I'm going through a very similar thing except with blood clots and anticoagulants. I was in the hospital for 3 days for a pulmonary embolism, but the docs couldn't figure out why. Instead, they just put me on the blood thinners for life.

This is a big bummer because I have a pretty active lifestyle (cycling, caving, scuba) and being on the meds means I can't feel safe doing these things anymore.

I'm trying right now to talk to different doctors and see if there's a way to safely stop the meds but I'm fighting against their flow charts that simply say this is the reality from now on.

Looks exactly like the British soldier demon dude from Netflix's Locke & Key.