The USPSTF

 The USPSTF is an artifact of Obamacare. If it concludes tah something is essential then it gets covered. If it concluded it is not then it is not covered.

As the NY Times notes:

 Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans must fully cover services that it assigns an “A” or “B” grade. That gives the panel’s 16 volunteer members significant influence over the care Americans can afford. Over the past year, Mr. Kennedy has undermined the task force’s work, including by not replacing members whose terms ended in December. The task force issued fewer recommendations than is typical last year and missed a deadline for a legally mandated report to Congress after Mr. Kennedy postponed its meetings indefinitely.

 Well the classic incompetence in my opinion and in my experience was their rejection of PSA tests for older men. It was based upon flawed trials in Europe and the US. One key flaw was the PSA tests were given just once every 4 years. Aggressive prostate cancer goes from nothing to death in less time. Annual PSA would likely save these lives. This fifteen years later the extended trial demonstrated this but the USPSTF never got the message.

Likewise breast cancer kills women in their 80s but they were denied screening by this jumbled mass of bureaucrats. 

Now Kennedy and in turn is dumping this deadly organization which in my opinion is  essential and far to late for the lives lost by their incompetence. 

Yes or No

 One of the things I learned as an expert at trials is to answer yes or no to a question that allows that. Such as: "Have you ever traveled to Russia?", "Yes". Now I find that the younger generation, it now includes almost everyone, cannot do this. The have to tell you stories. 

For example if one asks a patient:

Miss Jones, have you had this pain for several days." 

The answer is a yes or no. Instead one gets what she had for dinner last night, how she arrived by Uber today at the clinic, where she went last weekend with her boyfriend, and on and on until you repeat the question as if she never heard it, and you get another set of desiderata. 

I see this across many environments. I assume they are not avoiding an answer it is just that they want to share their social life; meals, contacts, places, pets, etc. This phenomenon has become more so as social media has exploded. 

I just wonder if it is due to age or my lack of social media contact. It is great for an attorney since the witness will just ramble on telling you everything without aver asking. 

What Security?

 I had gotten a notice from the IRS to validate who I am. After some 65+ years they decided to force me to use the third party ID.me service. Now being somewhat astute at communications and computers I did find this complex. It demand that you have a cell phone with the updated capabilities that exceed my less expensive one about just three months ago. It took me some 4 hours to figure out how to work this annoying third party system. I had to give them a scan of my drivers license, front and back, my signature, my SS number, and connect to some foreign agent to validate me live and record my face, voice and God knows what other biometrics. Now some third party with foreign connections has more personal information on me that my attorney and accountant. The risk of ID theft has increased in my opinion many orders of magnitude.

To reiterate, the IRS demands you go through this process otherwise they will default any and all returns! I wonder what moron invented this scheme? Also why have a commercial third party control all this data?

Now the real problem is that for me, 4 hours is a burden, but I have a PhD from MIT in EECS and have spent sixty years in computers and communications. What does an 80+ year old have to do flopping around this junked up system? Our Government has managed to harass the older folks not to mention everyone else. I have a passport, why not use that? Answer, the want your video, voice, eye motions etc to have a full set of biometrics less a DNA swab. China and Russia are not this bad!

Now can it be scammed. Easy! One's drivers license has been used extensively to enter buildings in NYC and check into hotels. Thus getting that ID is simple. SS numbers are everywhere. AI allows for fake video to be used in their biometric system. Creating a false identity is simple! In fact they have made it fool proof.  

This has not in my opinion and my experience improved security, it has dramatically degraded it. It creates a massive burden on older  people. I would love to know who made this decision!

Cloudflare Stinks!

 It seems that more and more web sites use Cloudflare. This means more and more web sites have become inaccessible. One would assume if Cloudflare accepts you once then that is it. No, each web sites has its own idiosyncrasies. Which means you may pass the moronic test ten times then the eleventh they ban you! Worse, on one web site you get one article then the second is blocked by a never ending Cloudflare cycle! Why is page 1 OK and then page 2 blocked. 

What type of gross incompetents run this mess!  

Cloudflare states:

Automatically stop bad bots without interrupting legitimate users

Cloudflare analyzes behavior and detects anomalies in network traffic based on how requests deviate from the baseline.

Cloudflare's machine learning trains on a curated subset of hundreds of billions of requests per day to create a reliable bot score for every request.

 In reality it always interrupts legitimate customers like me. Whoever uses it. when I try to get on the website for which I paid and registered I am blocked at least half the time. One wonders what idiotic algorithm they employ. Frustrate the customer! Great way to lose business.