Do you like smoke flavor? Looking at the net I'm imagining building a fire nearby and letting the smoke waft through it once in a while. A friend has a freezer full of elk meat and now I'm thinking we should make some elk jerky out of it. The net is (unfortunately) some plastic material. I wouldn't...

While I definitely think that freeze drying is the bee's knees, if you find yourself in the desert, a good net will dehydrate most anything. I've been living off of jerky for the past few weeks. The real stuff is nothing like commercial jerky...... Do you like smoke flavor? Looking at the net I'm i...

It may be an apples and orange comparison because 2008 was a completely different set of conditions. The worst of it was not concentrated in the FDIC institutions.The biggest failures in 2008 were investment banks. There is a note on the graphic that says they are excluded. Lehman Brothers alone was...

I could write volumes on the issue of tort litigation, but cutting to the chase, the idea of huge jury verdicts in nursing home cases is a myth. The one plaintiff's case in which I was involved led me to do a comprehensive review of past jury verdicts in care facilities, and the awards in even the ...

I could write volumes on the issue of tort litigation, but cutting to the chase, the idea of huge jury verdicts in nursing home cases is a myth. The one plaintiff's case in which I was involved led me to do a comprehensive review of past jury verdicts in care facilities, and the awards in even the ...

glennds, am I correct that it's your position that the bad publicity of this kind of thing and the threat of lawsuits keeps it from being a big deal? Xan, No. If that was your impression, let me correct it. First off, nursing home abuse whenever or wherever it occurs is always a big deal. What I am...

One, how is the average person supposed to save up an additional $4 million or so (this is presuming they had to plan for the worst-case scenario of, say, $200K annually of full-time around the clock care for roughly twenty years i.e. assuming they will be stricken with Alzheimer's and several othe...

This statistic is telling in regards to your third point: "The United States has the 12th highest obesity rate in the world at 36.2%." Vinny, If you ignore the Polynesian and South Pacific island nations, the United States is number one reigning champion in obesity. https://data.worldobes...

A private duty caregiver is a phenomenal solution with a lot of important ifs. Assuming you could find the right person with the right personality for your particular loved one (maybe not an easy person themselves), If they are willing to live in, then in theory you have 24/7 coverage. But would the...

Did your friend catch anything on tape? Yes, apparently quite a bit. Depending on how long ago this was, and what state it happened, your friend might want to shop that tape around. If it is a state with enhanced remedies under elder abuse and neglect legislation, there will undoubtedly be a big he...

Horrifying, Maddy. I'm curious how you found out about the situation with the friend's mother? Was the mother able to believably describe what happened? My friend saw his mother's distress over something that was happening--enough so that he was motivated to put a tape recorder under the bed. Did y...

The existence of those commercials indicates to me that this is a serious and ongoing problem, rather than that bad stuff doesn't happen because of the threat of lawsuits. The fact that terrible nursing homes exist would seem to indicate that the mechanism of state penalties / governor embarrassmen...

glennds, I didn't realize you had insider information on the industry! Good to hear how CCRCs are performing in your experience. Yes, I'm an insider alright. I don't want to sound like I'm defending the senior care industry. Personally I think it's a quintessential Gordian knot. There are good faci...

ChatGPT just totally flubbed the knights & knaves logic puzzle. I still love it, though. Maybe version 4 does better. So far it's 3 for 3 on giving me good recipes. Two nights ago I asked it for a good recipe for roasted Greek lemon potatoes. I used the recipe it gave me with no changes and it ...

No, but in situations where there isn't a guarantee, I don't like to pay up front. That's my main concern with the CCRCs. That's a reasonable position as a consumer. When I was active in the senior living industry, mostly on the development side, there were some states where CCRCs were preferred mo...

The existence of those commercials indicates to me that this is a serious and ongoing problem, rather than that bad stuff doesn't happen because of the threat of lawsuits. Your conclusion is the intended goal of the commercial. Believe me, they are mostly opportunistic commercials for a lucrative a...

I'd be curious to know what kinds of promises these CCRCs make with respect to quality of care. Are they definite enough that they could be reasonably enforced? Usually a CCRC is maybe 75% or more independent living, and 25% or less other levels of care such as Assisted Living, Memory Care and Skil...

The continuing need to bring in new people to replace people dying makes sense, and that's a reason that service needs to be maintained. I'm not sure being able to sell your "share" to somebody else is a reason: if service has gone downhill, your share will be worth less, and you won't be...

Everyone's favorite topic! However there's a ray of hope. First, if that measure is per account (which is how it's described) rather than per person, then $266K is a big underestimate. No one has just one retirement account. I have 8 active accounts plus 3 that I emptied out (to try to consolidate ...

But then... is the USA really going to soon collapse as the kingpin of the global financial order? This has been predicted for decades. Yes, it will happen eventually since nothing lasts forever, but is this really the moment? I don't think so. Even if this were the moment, I'd like to think we won...

I do not believe that there is any evidence that the Chinese government has used TikTok in any way that we are supposed to fear them doing? Plus Social Security is considered the third rail because the politicians do not want to antagonize those senior voters. Are the politicians really going to an...

Yikes: Could the RESTRICT Act Criminalize the Use of VPNs? There's going to be a lot of businesses that let employees work from home on a VPN very unhappy... It's a clickbait headline. Nobody is talking about banning VPNs that are being used for legal purposes like employees working from home. Usin...

Here is a video summary that does a great job of deconstructing the circumstances around the RESTRICT Act bill and the proposed movement to ban TikTok. Many hurdles to come, but the momentum is building. The discussion of how anti-China sentiment has evolved is good. If you have 9:42 to spend, and f...

TikTok is more dangerous as a tool of persuasion than of espionage. The US Government doesn't like tools of persuasion that they can't control (and apparently they haven't figured out how to profit from it) hence they want to ban it. Agreed. I think there's a real ability to use the algorithm to pu...

If a VPN is used, how would anyone know what you accessed? Isn't the whole point of a VPN privacy from your ISP and the watchful eyes of any agency? That's a common response among the tech types. Especially crypto fans ask how the gov't will know they have banned bitcoin on their external, encrypte...