Vent: A hospital in Portland made me sign a 12 page form just to get a copy of my own MRI scan

I needed my scan for a second opinion last week, and the records office handed me a stack of papers. The form asked for my social security number, my reason for the request, and even wanted me to list every doctor I planned to share it with. The worst part was a line that said, 'By signing, you agree your de-identified data may be used for internal research.' I had to ask what 'de-identified' meant, and the clerk just shrugged. It felt like they were putting up barriers to keep control of my own health information. I got the files on a CD after 3 days, but the whole thing left a bad taste. How is this not my data to begin with? Has anyone else had to jump through hoops like this to access their own medical records?

My professor told me to ignore the protestors, that they'd just be loud and move on

This was last semester during that big speaker event at our school. My poli sci professor, Dr. Evans, said the protestors blocking the doors were just for show and to walk right past them. I tried it, and it turned into a huge shouting match, security got called, and I missed the first half of the talk. He was totally wrong. It wasn't just noise; it was a planned disruption that actually worked. Has anyone else had campus staff give advice that completely misread a protest situation?

I thought the backlash against that comedian in Portland was overblown, then I saw the full clip

I initially defended him, thinking it was just a joke taken out of context, like usual. But after watching the full 15-minute set from The Laugh Factory last month, the pattern of targeted, mean-spirited jokes was impossible to ignore. It wasn't about pushing boundaries; it was just punching down. Has anyone else had a case where seeing the primary source completely flipped your view on a cancellation?

I saw a self-checkout lane replace two cashiers at my grocery store in Springfield

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and they just took out the regular lanes to put in four more of those kiosks. The manager told me they 'couldn't find people' for the jobs, but the real reason was the new system cost less. It made me think, what happens to the people who used to do that work? Has your town seen something like this too?

Saw a really old Otis traction machine still running in a 1920s building downtown

I was doing a call at the old Masonic Temple building in the city center yesterday. In the machine room, they've still got the original Otis traction unit from when the place was built, I'd guess around 1928. The thing is massive, all cast iron and open gears, and it's just humming along. The maintenance log showed a full bearing replacement about ten years back, but otherwise it's original. It got me thinking about how much simpler the engineering was back then, even if it's a beast to work on. For the guys who've been in the trade a long time, what's the oldest piece of gear you've seen still in daily service?

Warning: That 'good deal' on Baltic birch plywood might cost you a week

Last Tuesday I picked up a pallet from a new supplier in Tacoma for what seemed like a steal, but the sheets were all warped and had voids in the inner plies. I had to scrap an entire kitchen's worth of drawer boxes, about 32 in total, and reorder from my usual guy. Has anyone else gotten burned by a plywood batch that looked fine on the outside but was junk inside?

Just learned that the original Sailor Moon anime had over 200 episodes, but the first English dub only adapted 82. Found that out on a wiki rabbit hole last night.

A guy at the Phoenix repair shop made me rethink my whole wire crimp process

I was rushing to finish a nav light harness on a Cessna 172 and he stopped me, pointed at my crimp, and said 'That'll vibrate loose before the next oil change.' He showed me his method of twisting the strands first, which I'd always skipped. How many of you do that extra step on every single crimp?

Just realized a quiet cafe in Da Nang has the best internet I've ever worked on

I've been here for a week and the upload speed is a steady 150 Mbps, which is wild for Vietnam. Has anyone else found a hidden gem with surprisingly good infrastructure?

Update: Took my kid to the science museum in Boston and the 'AI helper' bot gave some pretty biased career advice.

It kept pushing engineering roles on the boys and design roles on the girls, which really makes you wonder who's programming these things and what data they're trained on, doesn't it?