Icon pairings meme

Make a list of all the characters in your icons. (Although you may have more than one icon of a single character, they only go on the list once.) Alphabetize it. Take the first two people on the list; that's your first pairing. Second two people; second pairing. Etc. ( Read more... )

Right to die

I know an American lady (We'll call her Mary) and a member of her family is dying. There is nothing that can be done for him. He has a month or two left at most.

Her medical insurance does not cover hospice care. When he becomes unconscious, it will probably take him ten days to die if they withhold food and longer if they do not.

The cost of him dying is something that I can't see her ever being able to pay.

Am I the only person who thinks that the American cultural ethos of keeping people alive as long as possible, even when they have no hope of recovery, is not only cruel to both patient and family, but generates a hell of a lot of money for the medical profession?

I start getting very cynical when large sums of money are involved.

Just for the record, if I'm ever dying of something incurable, my husband and family have my full permission (indeed, my specific request) to try and get the plug pulled the moment I'm incapable of recognising them. They also have my full permission to donate any organs that may help someone else.

Measuring electricity usage

Is there any kind of gadget that you can plug into a socket behind a plug to find out how much power a fridge/cooker/TV/etc is using?

I'd like to find how expensive different items in our house are to operate and it isn't really practical to turn off everything except the item I want to measure, and watch the main meter.

I've heard that old fridges use a lot more power than new ones and that it could be cost effective to buy a new one, but I see no point in junking a perfectly good fridge unless it is costing a lot to run.