At least some of those links I meant to post...

[moominmuppet]

I did go back through the stack of papers after all (at least part of it).

Loss of Oestrus and Concealed Ovulation in Human Evolution (pdf file) -- this is pretty fascinating, particularly in relation to my post a week or so ago (actually, I found the article when I was looking for more info in relation to those questions). I haven't finished it

Comments

[marnanel]

RTA is paid for 70% out of taxes anyway. Who cares if the other 30% is?

[moominmuppet]

Exactly. The benefits so outweigh the drawbacks.

[moominmuppet]

Fundamentally, infrastructure has to be a shared societal function. I pay for all sorts of car-travel related costs (especially road maintenance, and the assortment of corporate welfare for the automotive industry) that I'm not using or causing. And in terms of creating sustainable systems, I don't think it can be argued that's going to be accomplished without radically improving our public transit, and rethinking how the population of this country gets around.

[adrian_turtle]

One aspect of conventional nursing home care that surprised me is that most nursing homes do not permit married couples to share a room. I would not have expected it to be such a big deal, but my grandparents were on a waiting list for *years*, trying to get a room in the only place where they could be together. There were other nursing homes in Michigan and Ohio with places for people with Alzheimers, but they all required a woman to share a room with some strange woman, not with her husband of more than 50 years. Considering how much comfort my grandparents found in each others' presence, even in advanced dementia, it was strange to find it wasn't standard practice to keep couples together. I hope reforms are trickling down from the handful of groundbreaking facilities.

[moominmuppet]

*nod* I knew about the problems housing spouses (or even worse, non-married partners) together. There's also often a very strictly enforced anti-sex attitude in most homes, even for patients who are still interested in being sexually active, or even those who still have spouses. I see this as a tragic outgrowth of some of our most limited and unhealthy cultural views on relationships and the elderly.