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Ok so my kid had an ear infection, right? As kids often do.

The doctor scraped out a bit of earwax to have a better look inside.

I was sent a bill for $200 PER EAR for this 5 second procedure which I did not give permission for them to do.

That was key- they did not ASK me if they could do this "procedure". And, as I OWN a medical practice (it's me. The medical practice is me, sitting in my house on video calls) I knew to call them when this bill came in to be like "You did not obtain informed consent for this procedure, and it was not en emergency procedure. You had full ability to gain my consent and didn't. I'm not paying."

And the massive hospital who owned the bill said "yuh-huh you do have to pay."

And I said "I own a practice. I know these laws. I do not owe you money for this."

And they conducted an "internal review" and SURPRISE! Decided I totally owed them money and they had never done anything wrong ever.

And so I called my state's Attorney General office, and explained the situation because, as I mentioned, I know the law. The AG got in touch within a couple days to say they were taking the case and would send the massive hospital conglomerate a knock it off, guys letter.

Lo and Behold, today I have a letter where said hospital graciously has agreed to forfeit the payment.

"How not to get screwed over by companies" should be part of civics class.

Know your rights and know who to call when they're infringed on. This whole process cost me $0 and honestly less effort than I would have expected.

May this knowledge find its way to someone else who can use it.

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-- Patrick E. McGovern, Uncorking the Past

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Aimlessly Walking around or riding bike and listening to music is really imprtant

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forgiveness is not only a choice of ethics and morals but a spiritual and existential necessity that requires a death and rebirth of the self

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Many people imagine that during metamorphosis, as the larval cells begin to die or rearrange themselves, the body of the insect inside its cocoon or exoskeletal casing turns into something like a soup, with all the remaining cells fluidly sliding around together. But that’s not quite right, Truman explained. “Everything has a position … but it’s really delicate, and if you open the animal up, everything just bursts,” he said. To map the brain changes in that gelatinous mass, Truman and his colleagues scrutinized genetically engineered fruit fly larvae that had specific neurons that shone a fluorescent green under the microscope. They found that this fluorescence often faded during metamorphosis, so they used a genetic technique they had developed in 2015 to turn on a red fluorescence in the same neurons by giving the insects a particular drug. It’s a “pretty cool method,” said Andreas Thum, a neuroscientist at Leipzig University and co-author of the commentary with Gerber. It allows you to look at not just one, two or three neurons but an entire network of cells. The researchers zoned in on the mushroom body, a region of the brain critical for learning and memory in fruit fly larvae and adults. The region consists of a bunch of neurons with long axonal tails that lie in parallel lines like the strings of a guitar. These neurons communicate with the rest of the brain through input and output neurons that weave in and out of the strings, creating a network of connections that allow the insect to associate odors with good or bad experiences. These networks are arranged in distinct computational compartments, like the spaces between the frets on the guitar. Each compartment has a task, such as guiding a fly toward or away from something. Truman and his team found that when the larvae undergo metamorphosis, only seven of their 10 neural compartments are incorporated into the adult mushroom body. Within those seven, some neurons die, and some are remodeled to perform new adult functions. All the connections between the neurons in the mushroom body and their input and output neurons are dissolved. At this transformation stage, “it’s kind of this ultimate Buddhistic situation where you have no inputs, you have no outputs,” Gerber said. “It’s just me, myself and I.” The input and output neurons in the three larval compartments that don’t get incorporated into the adult mushroom body completely shed their old identities. They leave the mushroom body and integrate into new brain circuits elsewhere in the adult brain. “You wouldn’t know that they were the same neurons, except that we’ve been able to both genetically and anatomically follow them through,” Truman said. The researchers suggest that these relocating neurons are only temporary guests in the larval mushroom body, taking on necessary larval functions for a while but then returning to their ancestral tasks in the adult brain. That’s in keeping with the idea that the adult brain is the older, ancestral form within the lineage and the simpler larval brain is a derived form that came much later. In addition to the remodeled larval neurons, many new neurons are born as the larva grows. These neurons are not used by the larva, but at metamorphosis they mature to become input and output neurons for nine new computational compartments that are adult specific. The mushroom body in the larva looks very similar to the adult version, Thum said, but “the rewiring is really intense.” It’s as if the inputs and outputs of a computational machine all got disrupted but still somehow maintained their wireless functionality, Gerber said. “It’s almost as if you would deliberately unplug and replug” the machine.

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“Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.”

— Samuel J. Hurwitt

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Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus

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this song is what the evenings in late July feel like

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Falin, Oil on paper and digital

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