MIT Engineers

[sardis]

You, crash?

http://nypost.com/2017/02/14/this-82-ye ... on-tinder/

[crashcourse]

nope 95 % of the year I don't use em. vacation sex when the toys come out yeah

nope the problem with an 82 yo hardon is trying to find pussy that isn't at least 70 years olds itself--I still have 25 years before I worry about that anyway

[eCat]

You guys know anything about these summer schools these colleges have they pitch to high school juniors?

Do they really help you gain admission to the school or are they just summer camps for kids that can afford it?

My daughter is getting invited to attend these and I can't find a consensus on whether they add to her college resume or not.

[Bklyn]

My cousin spent the Summer at Columbia and they rejected her. I don't know if it hurt her...but it didn't help her enough to get an acceptance letter.

[eCat]

My cousin spent the Summer at Columbia and they rejected her. I don't know if it hurt her...but it didn't help her enough to get an acceptance letter.

do you know what other offers she got?

[Bklyn]

She got into University of Delaware. She got into Cornell. She ultimately went to Davidson, though. She did go to a Summer program at Oxford after her junior year at Davidson.

[eCat]

She got into University of Delaware. She got into Cornell. She ultimately went to Davidson, though. She did go to a Summer program at Oxford after her junior year at Davidson.

cool, I hope things are going well for her.

We've accepted one for my daughter. When the first one came in we were like - wow , this is a big deal, then she got like 6 more over the next two weeks. Kinda took the exclusive feel away from them.

[Bklyn]

Thanks, man.

She graduated last May. She works in DC now for a law firm, with an intention of ultimately going to law school next year. I put her in touch with my buddy at the White House last Summer, but the Buster Douglas'ing of the last election threw off a few of the plans I was trying to put in place for her. She's bright and a hard worker, so she'll be alright on this other path she had to walk down.

I don't think any Summer program is ever bad. It's normally a good precursor to the culture shock college can present to some kids. Just don't break the bank on it.

[hedge]

The last few posts reminded me of the scene in Caddyshack where Danny was at the yacht club and Judge Smails' clerk told him he was about to graduate from Harvard law school (or wherever) and then asks Danny where he's going to law school and Danny just kinda coughs into his hand and looks down.

Needless to say, Brook = Judge Smails' clerk and eCat = Danny...

[Saint]

Chicks put out during summer school so that's something to consider, too.

Oh wait, you said your daughter. Forget that part then.

[eCat]

a few weeks ago I was pimping the new high speed internet we were getting.

I've been using DirectTV for cable since 1999, and Spectrum (was Time Warner) called me up and offered 100mbps internet, 200+ channels , free DVR and free Modem, and a VOIP for $90 a month , no contract for 12 months

so I decided to make the switch.

Called them up and went thru the long sign up process on the phone which resulted in a total cost of $109 a month after adding an additional DVR. Was told the guy would show up on Tuesday between 8am and noon.

Guy never shows. Call them back up, say they never got my order, I must have been high or something, so I scheduled again for Thursday -and we were wrong about the price - its $124 a month - but we're going to give you a $20 credit for us screwing up...whatever. guy shows up, hooks me up and then informs me that my setup doesn't support 100mbps or all the promised HD channels. They are going to have to send someone out to my neighborhood box and amp it up or some shit. Whatever. oh, and we no longer support whole house DVR.

So then I sit down and start trying to learn the new channels etc., Turns out I only get 89 unique channels and the rest are repeats . I get ESPN on 3 different channels - all of which counts toward my 200 channels in HD.
Also, I don't get comedy central which was listed in the sign up page. So I call them up to tell them there must be mistake, I reviewed the channel lineup before I made my decision and I can even show them their webiste that tells me I am getting Comedy Central. That was on the old plan and you can't go by the website - thats only suggested channels in the base package and it varies by zip code/region. The base package doesn't include Comedy Central or TCM. Whatever.

So I get my bill in the mail a week, not a month, later - and its $183 with the $20 credit.

So I call them up and explain to them I signed up for the $90 a month deal that with all the tax and other horseshit is $124. Dude on the other end says he doesn't know what I'm talking about. Now mind you , in the background I hear a woman telling a customer about their new $90 a a month promotion, so I tell him to shut up a moment and listen to the woman behind him. He tells me he is only focused on me and doesn't pay attention to what is going on around him.

So he says he can't help me and I have to talk to a customer solution specialist. I get transferred and this woman says I should have never received the promotion offer to begin with. I inform her that the promotion offer is on page 5 of my 6 page bill. So the $183 bill you just sent me is telling me how I can save on my bill by using the $90 a month promotion to which she sighs and says she'll have her supervisor call me. What is a good number to contact me at, so I give her my work number.

I get an email notification at 8:30pm that Time Warner called my work number and left a long rambling message. So I check my work voice mail and in it they tell me that I am not eligible for the promotion (a lie) but they are extending me a credit each month to my bill to lower my cost to $124 as promised ( at least they documented it).

whatever

I'm yet to get my new bill. I suspect I have at least 2 more phone calls in my future.

[Bklyn]

All cable companies are the devil. Fuck them all. Dinosaurs.

[Saint]

Yep, TimeWarner/whatever the fuck it is now is not to be trusted. They once billed me for 3 months for service I canceled before it even began.

[Bklyn]

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch ... es/517368/

[hedge]

So my dad had a very mild heart attack the other day, the only reason I'm even saying he had one is b/c the doctor said so, based on his slightly elevated enzyme levels, so I guess that's the medical definition of a heart attack even if you don't keel over dead or at a minimum stagger around the living room like Fred Sanford clutching his heart. He obviously was having some symptoms (heaviness in the chest), I basically had to force him to go to the doctor and then when the doctor told him he needed to go to the emergency room, he (the doctor) had to call me to talk my dad out of signing the "leaving contrary to medical advice" papers and force him to go to the emergency room.

Well anyway, they confirmed the tests and booked him on a ride up to Raleigh where there's a good heart center. By this time my aunt was there so he couldn't resist both of us. He was scheduled for a heart cath Tuesday morning, I figured he had some blockage and they'd just put the stint in, but when I got back to his room after the procedure, he was laying on the bed pushing his palms up towards the ceiling in "raise the roof" fashion. Heart cath was completely clear. So now I'm back to wondering what the hell happened in the first place, and they don't know either. Said it could've been a small clot that got dislodged when they jacked him up with blood thinners in the ER in Wilson or could've been a result of a fluttering heartbeat (A-fib?).

Anyway, he's never taken any medicine for any long period of time, i.e., he has no chronic conditions and now they've got him on a baby aspirin, a blood thinner, one other thing and also a statin. His cholesterol wasn't high and he didn't have any blockage, so I don't know why he's on the statin. Everything I read about statins makes me think I would do anything I could to not take them. Anybody else in here on a statin? From what I read, if you're over 50 and see a doctor, they're going to try and put you on one, irregardless of your health. The guy I went to see (who the MIF used to work for) for a checkup when I turned 50 told me my cholesterol was kinda high, but he didn't like statins at all (something about the alzheimers). Anybody else dealt with this before?

[AlabamAlum]

Statins are routine in this case.

Here's some info: http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-hea ... -is-normal

[hedge]

Can't access that...

[eCat]

I've been fighting with my doctor on statins for about 3 years.

I know this - when I take them my joint aches and I don't think I am as mentally sharp. If I don't take them I can go up and down stairs without issue. If I do take them I feel it.

that said, I quit taking them and start exercising , eating less and I lost 30 pounds so I thought my bloodwork would come back amazing. That statins had nothing to do with my weight loss, it was a concentrated effort on my part.

It didn't. My cholesterol was thru the roof and my doctor freaked out.

Now I take them maybe 3 times a week in an effort to balance out the side effects and keep my cholesterol in a reasonable range. I don't know if that is working or not. I have another blood test next month.

The reality is unless I have a diet of tuna, almonds and oatmeal, I'm going to have high cholesterol

[AlabamAlum]

Can't access that...

Trust me. Or register.

[AlabamAlum]

Harvard Men's Health Watch
Should you take a statin even if your cholesterol is normal?

Published: November, 2012
Consider this option after determining your personal risk with your doctor.

Statin drugs reduce LDL ("bad") cholesterol, the type that puts you at risk for cardiovascular disease. But even if your cholesterol is not particularly high, it could still be smart to consider starting a statin.

Drugs have risks, and doctors are wary of giving them to healthy people to prevent future illness unless the benefits are clearly established. Besides, critics say, we already have a safe and effective way to prevent cardiovascular disease: a healthy diet and regular exercise. They also think the evidence for preventive statin use isn't entirely established yet.

Cardiologist Dr. Paul Ridker, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, disagrees. He was the lead scientist on the landmark JUPITER trial, which showed that statins might offer a substantial benefit to people with normal or even low levels of cholesterol, but certain other risk factors. And he thinks the evidence is good enough for doctors to consider offering preventive statins to more people.

"Multiple randomized clinical trials tell us that statin therapy can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 25% to 50%, even among individuals with normal or low cholesterol," says Dr. Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "People at high risk should talk to their physicians about whether they should take these agents—not as a replacement for diet, exercise, and smoking cessation, but as an additional preventive therapy."

What the science says

In a study earlier this year in The Lancet, researchers pooled the results of past research involving about 174,000 people. They found that people who took a statin and lowered their cholesterol by 40 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) cut their overall risk of cardiovascular "events" by about 20% over a period of five years. The events included nonfatal heart attacks and strokes, treatment to restore blood flow in a blocked coronary artery, or death due to cardiovascular disease.

The 20% lower risk could translate into 11 fewer heart attacks for every 1,000 people who lower their LDL by 40 mg/dL—again, over a period of five years. This absolute benefit may seem modest. "But over 20 years it's a substantial risk reduction that we need to be honest with our patients about," Dr. Ridker says.

Statin benefits

In the Lancet study, people on statins did better even if they were at relatively low risk of cardiovascular disease. Why? Ridker's
JUPITER trial, which concluded in 2008, hinted at an answer.

The Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: An Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER) study gave statins to people with normal to low cholesterol but high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is a marker in the blood for inflammation, which is thought to play a key role in cardiovascular disease.

In JUPITER, taking the statin rosuvastatin (Crestor) reduced the risk of a first heart attack or stroke by 50% and the risk of death by 20%. "Statins appear to be 'two-fers' that lower cholesterol and inhibit vascular inflammation, and both are powerful determinants of developing heart attack and stroke," Dr. Ridker says.

Because of JUPITER's design, the scientists could not distinguish whether the benefits of statin therapy are due to cholesterol reduction or to both lowering cholesterol and suppressing inflammation. However, the trial lends support to the "two-fer" theory. "Fifty percent of heart attacks and strokes happen in people with average or normal-to-low levels of cholesterol," Dr. Ridker notes. "Cholesterol remains crucially important, but it can't be the only way we think about this disease."

Preventive statins for you?

A statin might save your life if you have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, have suffered a heart attack or stroke, have peripheral vascular disease, have undergone coronary artery bypass or stenting to treat coronary artery disease, or have diabetes.

People with these conditions would be advised to start taking a statin unless there is a clear medical reason why they cannot. As for the rest of us, there are some generally accepted guidelines, although they may change as more clinical trial data come out in the near future.

Based on JUPITER and other studies, Ridker advocates a simple guideline for prescribing preventive statins. If you are older than 50 and have high LDL, low HDL (the "good" cholesterol), or high CRP, clinical trials have shown that statins provide a net benefit, so consider discussing these drugs with your doctor. Again, statins should never take the place of exercise and a healthy diet, although many doctors turn to statins after lifestyle change fails.

Figuring your risk

The decision to take a preventive statin is a judgment call based on your estimated risk of suffering a heart attack or death from heart disease in the coming decade. The decision is made based on your personal characteristics and health history. (You can determine your heart attack risk using several online calculators available at health.harvard.edu/116.) If the risk is 1%, then only one in 100 people with that risk level will have a heart attack or die in the next 10 years. No one would prescribe a statin to such a person.

However, if your risk is around 10% or higher, many doctors would seriously consider a statin. If the risk is 20%, then you would be on the short list. If you choose this option, understand that you will probably take it for life, because the risk of heart disease only rises with age.

Risks of statins

No medication comes without risks, and statins are no different. The most commonly reported side effect is muscle pain or weakness. Statins can also slightly increase blood sugar and therefore the chance of being diagnosed with diabetes. Some people have reported sudden and severe memory impairment while taking statins. On the other hand, clinical trials results show that the risk of muscle pain and diabetes are clearly outweighed by the benefits of statins. And the memory problems are rare and poorly documented.

Statins and older men


Still, not every older man needs a statin. If you have normal cholesterol and blood pressure and are not overweight, you are probably not in the statin zone. However, if you are in your 70s and have multiple other major risk factors, you might be. As with many controversial topics in medicine, the final decision is yours.

"Once we move beyond diet and exercise, all things in preventive medicine are a balance between individual benefit and risk, so it's up to you and your physician to decide whether a given therapy is right for you," Dr. Ridker says. "But in order to make that decision, you have to know what your risks are and what the benefits are."

Cardiovascular risk and preventive statins

Cardiovascular
risk factors

Risk of cardiovascular event within 10 years

Consider
preventive statin?

High CRP

Older age

Male gender

Family history

1% –
10%

X

No. At this comparatively low risk level, most doctors would be unlikely to recommend a statin drug.

Sedentary lifestyle

Smoking

High blood pressure

Diabetes

10% –
20%

?

Maybe. At this intermediate risk level, some doctors would be willing to consider prescribing a statin, even if your cholesterol is not particularly high.

Excessive alcohol intake

Unhealthy diet

High cholesterol

High triglycerides

20%
and higher

?

Yes. This level of risk is considered high enough to warrant a preventive statin, even if your cholesterol is normal.