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Yes. I meant to put a "bad" modifier in front of the sugar I was talking about. Here's the way I look at a nutrition label:

• Total Carbohydrate (X)g
  • Dietary Fiber (Y)g
  • Sugars (Z)g

My rule of thumb is that less than half of the total carbohydrates [Z less than or equal to X/2] should be from the "sugars" category listed on the label. If it's more, then I consider it to be too much of a stress on my body.

It's just a simplified way for me to choose what I indulge in day to day. Easy to remember and use this method and it works for me.

That's exactly what Olestra is.

And? Are you proposing that? Because I clearly was not.

And, what's worse, people that actually *do* need the antibiotics often stop taking them once they begin to feel better,

Well, gee, that's why I said "with proper isolation", which includes supervision.

I am curious though...can you name me one research project that has conclusively linked feeding animals antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance in bacteria that infect humans? I have not seen any to this point.

Will an FDA press release do?

Rattlesnake poison is one thing... Aflatoxins are another. Aflatoxins are produced naturally by certain species of the Fungus Aspergillus, and have LD50s on the scale (around 100 mcg/kg) of Sarin, VX, and other related organophosphates.

Then there is also Ricin, commonly available in Castor beans, which grow wild in many places. When injected, Ricin has an LD50 at around 3 micrograms/kg. Plus you get the bonus of going through several days of high fever, organ necrosis, and gastrointestinal hemorrhage, before you die. Fun!

Then there's nicotine, easily available by doing an extraction on tobacco. When injected, Nicotine has an LD50 of around 1-5 mg/kg. So I guess that's a lot safer...

Beware of Monosodium Glutamate! It is evil !

The years of suffering I went through because of that fucking additive...

This reminds me of a longstanding FDA position that the labeling of GMO Free food is misleading if it implies that said food is superior to other foods that are genetically modified. This is not just an idle position, the FDA has acted several times to stop the voluntary labeling of non GMO foods.

I can see the RIAA and the MPAA taking a similar position. I know the FCC's mandate is less restrictive than the FDA's, but the argument could seem compelling in the face of millions of dollars of campaign contributions. Law-abiding citizens should have no reason to violate their shrinkwrap agreements, and the copy control mechanisms are only there to enforce those licences. It would mislead the law-abiding public, the argument would go, to mandate the labeling of protected content because good, modern copy controls are invisible to the end user and in no way degrade the experience. Besides, they would continue, nearly all content is GMO^H^H^H copy controlled one way or another, therefore fears of copy control schemes are unfounded.

Not that I agree with the above arguments, but I can definitely see a certain Harvard professor having those debates with a group of bloodsucking lawyers from LA.

In general, MSG is safe for anyone but a small percentage of people, yet most people in the US avoid it like the plague, though most good Chinese and Japanese food includes it.

One of these days, Chairman Mao is going to call the President of the United States and tell him to surrender.

Chairmain Mao will explain that Chinese Corporations are the subcontactors to the subcontractors to the subcontractors of the Department of Defense Subcontractors and furthermore; China now makes ALL the key components for ALL of America's military weapons and machines.

Then he will let out an evil sounding Chineese Laugh! (The kind you hear in James Bond movies.)

How can the US maintain it's power if all it's strategic manufacturing capability is located offshore? Recently, we nearly lost the US Steel Industry and it's not over yet.

Sure we have rules and laws which on paper prevent this sort of problem, however as the FDA recently found out in the "Tainted Strawberry Harvest", these rules are not always followed. In this specific case the FDA had rules that all food used in school lunch programs must be grown in the United States. The subcontractors decided to ignore the rule and subcontract from Mexico and imported 1.7 million pounds of Hepatitis laced frozen Strawberries. The good news is that the fraudulent company was the lowest bidder and we saved tax dollars.

I won't even comment on the strategic technology which has been leaked to other countries by defense subcontractors.

Greed will destroy us!

[ I'm sorry, but I just want to scream when I hear people talk like this. "It won't hurt my kids; we did that all the time when I was a kid; I never got sick from it." You sound like my father-in-law, who would be very lucky to make it to age 70 after all his occupational exposures to various chemicals. He has certainly been crippled by them. ]

Lead is toxic in any quantity. It doesn't change toxicity just because you have less of it. The real issue is "at what quantity does this toxicity pose an unacceptable risk to me or my child?" Do you know how much lead you or your child can safely tolerate? Did you look it up? I'll save you the trouble. According to the CDC the current action level for lead is 10 micrograms/dL. That's been reduced about 10 micrograms/dL per decade since the 1960s, when they first decided 40 micrograms/dL was too much.

An average adult has about 5.6 liters of blood. Figure a child under 12 as having about half of that. That means you should be concerned if your child's blood contains more than 280 micrograms of lead. .00028 grams. A 1-ounce fishing sinker contains one million times this amount. If you can see the gray smears on your hands and fingers after handling the lead, you probably have more than that right there on your hands. Wash it off.

Children also have a much higher absorption rate of ingested lead -- adults absorb about 11% of the lead that reaches the digestive tract, while children absorb about 35%. For this fact, others, and a listing of the damage lead can do to a human, read this FDA report.

Keep in mind that lead does not exit the body. Lead builds up over time. If your child acquires .0001 grams of lead this year, .0001 grams next year and .0001 grams the year after, he will exceeded the actionable amount of lead.

The CDC and other federal agencies have been lowering the acceptable limit of lead dramatically every decade since the sixties, and not just for children. They lower it because they know the dangers of lead poisoning are real, and the studies keep showing neurological damage occurs at lower and lower levels. They don't know at what level (other than zero) it's safe.

And regarding telling the kids about "aerodynamic glue", I didn't know if you were the sort of person who would feel the need to have a cover story to hide behind. As you may have guessed, I certainly told my son the truth about the lead sinkers we were using, and we washed our hands carefully afterwards. Hell, I made our whole family wash our hands after working with the Christmas tree light strings this year, because I discovered they use lead-based pigment in the green electrical insulation!

Lead exposure is a serious health problem, and one that you can help avoid every time you avoid exposure. And this is an easy one to avoid -- use an alternate substance. If your car is .1 gram overweight at the official scale, use a drill and remove wood instead of lead.

But don't go telling people stuff like "it's OK, that's not enough lead to hurt you or your kid." That's irresponsible in the extreme.

but the US FDA resists this simple and absolutely necessary step to halt the progress of the perfect pathogen throughout the United States.

Err... you're a little behind the times. The FDA banned mammalian protein in livestock feed way back in 1997.

I'm not sure I understand the analogy -- drugs must become public domain when their patent term expires, just like copyright -- but just FYI I believe the standard patent term is 20 years, plus possible 5-year extension, plus any special legislation Congress might see fit to enact. Of course the patent can be sold or given away like any other property, but it's not worth a nickle after expiration.

Drug patents are a hot issue to say the least. Prescriptions of Prozac dropped 80% immediately upon the end of its patent. A generic typically costs a fraction of the branded price. There's an industry wisecrack that the first pill costs millions, the second costs 30.

The ransom plan sounds to me more like a sort of layaway plan.

I discovered it when it was recommended to me for a nasty GI virus that wouldn't go away by normal starvation. Killed the sucker right off. As a nursing student I will be trying to bring this into any hospital I eventually work for.

Please don't. I'm serious.

As someone with medical training, you should KNOW that most diseases go away by themselves and there's no substitute for double-blind, placebo controlled studies to ascertain the efficacy of a given treatment. Please don't rip off poor people in their time of need by sending them to GNC to pay lots of money for various things that just don't work, and in some cases kill.

Note that no links to peer-reviewed articles exist on the link you provide. Just assertions who all curiously use the commercial name of the product. Look at the broad range of things it claims to cure...missing only "the vapors" and "consumption" to be pure snake oil.

A quick check of the FDA, however, reveals that these makers haven't bothered to put it to the test of actually trying to show it cures people instead of making outrageous claims:

first letter

a href="http://www.fda.gov/cder/warn/cyber/cyber2002 .htm"> second letter

And since the stuff you'll be foisting off on suffering, desperate people is unregulated, you won't even know that the brand they buy actually contains the advertised product, nor that it's safe.

Hell, I don't know exactly why switching everyone in the middle east to purple robes wouldn't bring peace, except that nobody's shown even a correlation between purple-robe-wearing and sudden elimination of religious fanaticism (though it'd be fun to try on Pat Robertson in a study). Similarly, since no one has actually shown that the concoction you ingested (if it actually contained what its maker claims it did) had anything to do with your improvement. It's not as if all your white blood cells up and died, leaving it as the only thing between you and death.

Please, go to pharmacy school if not getting a full MD before prescribing drugs, because that's exactly what you'll be doing if you recommend it to anyone.

And that's just plain wrong.

• No offense, but I tend to seriously doubt anything that's labeled with the typical "medical conspiracy theory." And, I highly doubt that a doctor would diagnose a sprained muscle if what actually happened was shingles. They're two totally different things, with totally different symptoms. In other words, either you've got a really, really bad doctor, or there's some embellishment in your story. I won't speculate on to which it is.

• There is NO cure-all for bacterial and viral infections. NONE. If there was, you would hear about it in prominent medical journals. But so far there's been a lack of any evidence that colloidal silver works in anything other than sales literature. Why, you may ask? I can tell you: because it DOESN'T work.

• Oh, and by the way, the FDA has no approval to ban web sites that sell dietary supplements. That's the FTC's job, because it's a case of false advertising. And let me tell you what, the FTC isn't going to shut down a web site just because some vaguely-defined "pharmaceutical company" wanted it shut down. Please, give us readers a little bit more credit than that.

• Furthermore, you web site has a link to an "FDA Safety Report." All that link leads to is a page on a sales site (NOT an FDA site) that purports to be a letter from the FDA saying that no adverse reports have been reported to HHS.

• Here's a few links to FDA sites, which I trust more, and some quotes from each:

No offense, but I tend to seriously doubt anything that's labeled with the typical "medical conspiracy theory." And, I highly doubt that a doctor would diagnose a sprained muscle if what actually happened was shingles. They're two totally different things, with totally different symptoms. In other words, either you've got a really, really bad doctor, or there's some embellishment in your story. I won't speculate on to which it is.

There is NO cure-all for bacterial and viral infections. NONE. If there was, you would hear about it in prominent medical journals. But so far there's been a lack of any evidence that colloidal silver works in anything other than sales literature. Why, you may ask? I can tell you: because it DOESN'T work.

Oh, and by the way, the FDA has no approval to ban web sites that sell dietary supplements. That's the FTC's job, because it's a case of false advertising. And let me tell you what, the FTC isn't going to shut down a web site just because some vaguely-defined "pharmaceutical company" wanted it shut down. Please, give us readers a little bit more credit than that.

Furthermore, you web site has a link to an "FDA Safety Report." All that link leads to is a page on a sales site (NOT an FDA site) that purports to be a letter from the FDA saying that no adverse reports have been reported to HHS. Here's a few links to FDA sites, which I trust more, and some quotes from each:

"colloidal silver or silver salts are not recognized as safe and effective and are misbranded."

"Furthermore, FDA has no information that your product is generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions" [referring to a site selling colloidal silver for killing bacteria]

Nothing against you personally, I only feel that a report like this should be countered with views from the other side. Let each reader be their own judge.

No offense, but I tend to seriously doubt anything that's labeled with the typical "medical conspiracy theory." And, I highly doubt that a doctor would diagnose a sprained muscle if what actually happened was shingles. They're two totally different things, with totally different symptoms. In other words, either you've got a really, really bad doctor, or there's some embellishment in your story. I won't speculate on to which it is.

There is NO cure-all for bacterial and viral infections. NONE. If there was, you would hear about it in prominent medical journals. But so far there's been a lack of any evidence that colloidal silver works in anything other than sales literature. Why, you may ask? I can tell you: because it DOESN'T work.

Oh, and by the way, the FDA has no approval to ban web sites that sell dietary supplements. That's the FTC's job, because it's a case of false advertising. And let me tell you what, the FTC isn't going to shut down a web site just because some vaguely-defined "pharmaceutical company" wanted it shut down. Please, give us readers a little bit more credit than that.

Furthermore, you web site has a link to an "FDA Safety Report." All that link leads to is a page on a sales site (NOT an FDA site) that purports to be a letter from the FDA saying that no adverse reports have been reported to HHS. Here's a few links to FDA sites, which I trust more, and some quotes from each:

"colloidal silver or silver salts are not recognized as safe and effective and are misbranded."

"Furthermore, FDA has no information that your product is generally recognized as safe and effective for the above referenced conditions" [referring to a site selling colloidal silver for killing bacteria]

Nothing against you personally, I only feel that a report like this should be countered with views from the other side. Let each reader be their own judge.

Ok, this is just one of those stupid theories that won't die because it's gotten too much discussion. I am happy that you seem to indicate the dubious nature of it, but people need to start looking in other places.

Don't be so quick to discount what hasn't been proven. Vaccines are a huge source of income for drug companies. How difficult is it to get a study to show whatever you want? A quick search on google shows several studies supporting conflicting points of view on this topic.

Here's a couple of things that strike me as interesting:

Some vaccines contain thimerosal, a preservative which contains mercury.

Children can recieve unsafe does of mercury from vaccines. (from the FDA: depending on the vaccine formulations used and the weight of the infant, some infants could have been exposed to cumulative levels of mercury during the first six months of life that exceeded EPA recommended guidelines for safe intake of methylmercury.)

The symptoms for autism are similar to the symptoms of mercury poisoning. ("Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning" by Sallie Bernard)

Maybe there's no link, maybe there is...

• Autism is caused by mercury (thimerosal) in vaccines.
  
• Autism is caused by methylmercury in fish, when eaten during pregnancy.

• Autism is caused by mercury (thimerosal) in vaccines.
  
• Autism is caused by methylmercury in fish, when eaten during pregnancy.

The way Ortho-K is used most often (the way you describe) is deemed unsafe by the FDA. Just something to keep in mind. The FDA has only approved one contact lens for Ortho-K, and it's a daywear lens. Anyone marketing any other use for this lens, or marketing any other Ortho-K lenses, is breaking the law.

Sure, mild trauma to the skull may not re-open the cut, but imagine even a glancing blow to the eye? Check the FDA site posted earlier, it specifically suggests NOT getting the procedure done for martial artists, etc.

When is LASIK NOT for me:
"You actively participate in contact sports. You participate in boxing, wrestling, martial arts or other activities in which blows to the face and eyes are a normal occurrence."

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/LASIK/when.htm

No it doesn't. LASIK uses a laser to vaporize parts of the cornea, which causes the cornea to change shape before healing, just like with RK (I wouldn't say that either method "causes the eyeball to collapse in on itself" though). Read up for some more info on LASIK, as well as comparisons to RK and PRK.

There are no procedures to reshape the lens itself. You can, however, get your old lens removed and an artificial lens implanted. This is usually done to people with cataracts--my mom just had it done a few weeks ago, and she no longer needs glasses. Some people do get their lens replaced even when they don't have cataracts, but that seems a bit too extreme to me.

I'm not sure if you've already looked at the FDA's When is LASIK not for me? site but you'd better have a look at their suggested restrictions. Among them: your vision has not stabilzed yet and history of autoimmune diseases.

GMD

Righto. According to information on the FDA web, the first bacteria resistant to Penicillin was found only 4 years after the drug went into mass production.

That was in the dark ages of molecular biology. We have a much learer understanding now of how drug resistance is shared between bacteria, but that doesn't mean that we can stop it. In fact, it's pretty clear that as soon as one wild population of bacteria develop a resistance, it's just a matter of time before they all have it.

And the trick is, it's an arms race, and patients are not passive objects to be disinfected. You can wipe a counter down with 100% ethanol, and then set the wet spot on fire, and that's good sterile procedure. You can't do that to someone's bloodstream. If I'm in the hospital with a systemic staph infection, and my doctor wants to start me on penicillin "Just in case your Staph isn't resistant," you can bet your ass that I'll have a new doctor pretty fast. I'm in the hospital, the guy next to me is dying, and I have to wear a dress with no back. I want the best bug-killer he's got, and I want it now!

and anyone who knows better is going to think just like me! How can you, a healthcare provider, reduce the frequency of behavior that encourages resistance, when your patients' most rational demand is for you to break out the big guns right away?

Here's the page on colloidal silver at Quackwatch. Apparently the stuff can turn you permanently gray anywhere you're naturally light--skin, whites of the eyes, some of your insides (lungs? fat?) etc. And, the producers are big on hype, not so interested in rigorous testing or even keeping microorganisms out of their medicine bottles. See also this FDA site. As for a conspiracy preventing effective medicines from reaching the consumer, isn't it obvious that researchers, pharmaceutical company stockholders, scientists, and doctors are all ALSO consumers? They and their families are just as likely to get cancer or heart disease as you are. Think they'll suppress something that could cure their kid of leukemia so that the company can profit? Give me a break.

It works for narcoleptics and it's what the good 'ol millitary trusts when pilots have to pull an all-nighter in the video game called 'life'.

Seriously though... my wife's a pharmacist and says this stuff makes it seem like you had a full night's sleep...

After researching, I found an FDA warning about it. I'm not sure that it is Kava-Kava itself, or just the process it undergoes, or just a strange reaction that some people have though. The people native to the island of it's origin, whom consumed it for years never seemed to have problems, so it could be just a certain drug companies method for extraction. If you remember the movie medicine man, I'm pretty sure that is the drink that they are making where they chew the root then spit. Extraction has changed a lot since then :)

we can not digest plant material thoroughly because we lack the ability to break down plant cell walls, thereby refusing our digestive system access to the chemicals needed inside the cell.

This is called fiber and it is good for you!

Why is fiber important to your diet?

• Glutamate is an amino acid that naturually occurs in the body (as a neurotransmitter, for example).
• Eating glutamate does not affect the concentration of this amino acid in the brain (therefore, you can't eat it and cause a headache).
• Glutamate occurs naturally in many foods, including tomatoes, milk, mushrooms, peas, parmesean cheese, and seaweed, to name a few.
• Glutamate has been shown in scientific studies to help people with poorly functioning taste buds increase their consumption of food (the elderly, for example).
• Scientists have shown that taste receptors on the tongue respond only to glutamate and not to any other combination of sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. The taste has been named "umami", or the "savory" flavor.
• Glutamate was first identified by a Japanese scientist way back in the early 1900's. Japanese broth (dashi), which is as common as chicken broth in the west, is made from seaweed containing loads of glutamate.
• Monosodium glutamate is simply a convenient salt form of this naturally occuring amino acid.

• Glutamate is an amino acid that naturually occurs in the body (as a neurotransmitter, for example).
• Eating glutamate does not affect the concentration of this amino acid in the brain (therefore, you can't eat it and cause a headache).
• Glutamate occurs naturally in many foods, including tomatoes, milk, mushrooms, peas, parmesean cheese, and seaweed, to name a few.
• Glutamate has been shown in scientific studies to help people with poorly functioning taste buds increase their consumption of food (the elderly, for example).
• Scientists have shown that taste receptors on the tongue respond only to glutamate and not to any other combination of sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. The taste has been named "umami", or the "savory" flavor.
• Glutamate was first identified by a Japanese scientist way back in the early 1900's. Japanese broth (dashi), which is as common as chicken broth in the west, is made from seaweed containing loads of glutamate.
• Monosodium glutamate is simply a convenient salt form of this naturally occuring amino acid.

I did a little book-ish research on Botox last month. Here's what I found.

Botox is basically botulism toxin. Botulism works by imparing nerves from sending neurotransmitters, so your muscles don't work; when your muscles don't work, you can't breathe and you die from asphyxiation. Nice, huh?

Botox is a dilute protein extract of botulism. When injected under the skin, it works by paralyzing your muscles, thereby unabling the muscles from forming new wrinkles (I couldn't find how it actually erases existant wrinkles). I'm not terribly surprised people have fewer headaches, as it blocks nerve signals, although not sensory nerves.

The "problem" with Botox is that its effects disappear after a few months, so a fresh set of injections is needed.

Botox isn't new; as the article says, it's been used for a few years for treatment of other muscle problems, including palsies.

Check out some articles:

Botox

this one on botulism and medicinal uses

the product's site

Europe's Botox equivalent, Dysport

a nice technical pdf on botulism

a sort of faq-like series on botulism and Botox

It's called Olestra but it gives me the shits.

Our company's business is shipping medical software on laptops for drug studies. We had to start complying with 21CFR Part 11 for all studies done in the US (has to do with electronic signatures and record-keeping). Fully half of the sites that we have visited for training or orientation on a study have post-it notes with user IDs and passwords either on their screens or on the underside of the laptops...and this is when they KNOW we're coming to train them on this and they KNOW we're gonna holler at them for the violation, because the FDA will do more than holler at them when they show up for an audit and the FDA doesn't have to announce their visit before they show up.

I would be less surprised at this if we forced strong passwords, but we don't. 21CFR Part 11 doesn't specify how strong passwords have to be, so we use fairly weak rules--four to ten characters, not case sensitive, symbols allowed, expire after a year. (And the only reason we went with four characters was because the user ID is three characters and we didn't want the password to match the user ID). Then we had one of our trainers going around suggesting to users that they use their year of birth as their password...nobody knows anyone else's year of birth, right? We actually had a user at one site write THAT one down on a post-it note, too...

We actually had to fight administration here on development of our next software package because the PHBs wanted passwords to be a minimum of one character. I finally convinced them by having the vice-president change his screen-saver password to a one character password and manually hacked it while he was sitting there, but then he just wanted to change it to two characters! We finally got them up to five characters, but it took some doing...and forget about trying to get them to approve case-sensitive or forcing numeric entries too...

Fortunately, natural techniques are available that may be able to help people improve blurred eyesight caused by problems such as myopia or astigmatism. For further information on the topic of natural eyesight improvement, a good starting point is the ISEE website.

I read about this product from time to time, and I never hear any ill effects. it's just screaming "Too good to be true" to me, and I cannot seem to find anyone who has anything bad to say about it. I think I'll look it up on Google.

Side effects (in the order Googlegave them to me):

• Shortened attention span?
• Headaches, nausea and tingling in the wrist
• Modafinil, Provigil or Alertec is associated with the following side effects - headache, nausea, anxiety, increased blood pressure and heart rate, insomnia. Modafinil, Provigil or Alertec must be taken early in the day to avoid sleep disturbances.
  Also: Modafinil, Provigil or Alertec is able to decrease the effectiveness of oral contraceptives because it increases the metabolism of oral contraceptive hormones by the liver. An adjustment in oral contraceptive therapy may be required. (Anything that interacts with the liver or effects it's metablolism enough to be on a warning concerns me greatly -RG)
  [virtualdrugstore.com]
• FDA Provigil page

It's "Food and Drug Administration," not "Federal Drug Administration."

Jeez, lazy, aren't you.

Their "customer service team is anxious to hear from you." Call them up and ask them about boobies. You know you want to. Here's an insider look.

Anyway, breast implants are usually not filled with silicone. They're filled with saline solution or with soybean oil.

• Device failures:

  Six eyes experienced interruptions during the surgical procedure due to laser system failures: a faulty on/off switch (1); internal timing error (3), double pressing of footswitch by operator (1); and failure to track due to simultaneous activation of tracking and printing (1).

Found an article that nicely describes antibiotic resistance and evolution:

From the FDA Web site The Rise of Antibiotic Resistant Infections:

The increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance is an outcome of evolution. Any population of organisms, bacteria included, naturally includes variants with unusual traits--in this case, the ability to withstand an antibiotic's attack on a microbe. When a person takes an antibiotic, the drug kills the defenseless bacteria, leaving behind--or "selecting," in biological terms--those that can resist it. These renegade bacteria then multiply, increasing their numbers a millionfold in a day, becoming the predominant microorganism.

British kidney experts are sceptical about the possibility that ACT has re-created the kidney in its entirety. ... It is possible that the company had made a simpler structure that could still produce urine, he said.

Even a incomplete organ would be better than nothing if it results in better treatment than dialysis every few days.

I'd like to second this. I got VERY lucky... just coming out of college and looking for my first job, I NEEDED something in the area, stable, and with decent pay. I found a job as a webmonkey (with training opportunities for database programming and multimedia) for the FDA's Center For Devices and Radiological Health.

The practical upshot is that I got lots of great training via the Killing-- err, the Learning Tree, expanded my skills tremendously, started out with a fairly eeeh salary but am now living quite comfortably... and most importantly, I did all of right at the start of the .Com Crash.

If I had jumped in on the corporate entry level (not that there were many jobs for someone who previously thought Cold Fusion was a physics thing) I'd probably have bounced around a couple jobs, maybe had to move once or twice, and definitely not had the ability to save money and get nice and financially stable. While others were auctioning off their Aeron chairs to afford cold cans of beans, I was sittin' pretty on my cheapo Ikea office stool (with homemade padding).

There are drawbacks. One, you don't start out with the Hat Made Of Money. If you can live 'comfortably' and likely single without needing a ferrari, this is not a huge hurdle. Two, if you're young, a lot of government employees are not. I'm the youngest guy in my office by about ten years. Three, no, the work is not very sexy. I view work as a means to an end (end meaning "$$$" which I spend on things I WANT to do). If a sexier job with the same amount of stability pops up, I'll go for it, but until then make mine federal.

If there were anything in 'Equal' besides the Aspartame and Maltodextrin listed on the label (e.g. methanol ["wood alcohol"], the FDA would be having a PR Field-day suing the crap out of deep-pocketed Monsanto...

In the Novemebr-December 1999 issue of FDA Consumer Magazine, the FDA said that aspartame ingestion results in the production of methanol, formaldehyde and formate. This statement was made by Dr. David Hattan, Ph.D., acting director of FDA's division of health effects evaluation.

So, the FDA (whom you and I can agree to being a "knowledgeable" party) says that ingesting aspartame results in methanol being in your body. Methanol is also known as "methyl alcohol" or "wood alcohol".

I agree with your stance: I drink Diet Coke buy the case, and agree that someone would have to mainline aspartame in order to produce sufficiently lethal concentrations of methanol. But, please, check your facts. Don't propogate false information just for the sake of winning an argument.

I'd like to take your daughter to see my leonids...

A few months ago I got a virus infection and the doctor gave me some anti-biotics. Out of curiosity I went to the FDA website and was surprised to learn that the drug companies can do some of things to certify their drugs online.

The US government also has an IP network physically separate for classified information. I have seen a lot of work get done over it.

Jeez, 400 posts in an hour? I hope you find this one in the swarm...

I was in the same situation: University of Maryland, College Park. Three years into a CS degree, hating the classes, withdrawing left and right to avoid getting D's. I love computers, I love creatively using them, I hate to program. I loathe my classes, am not having any fun at school and generally was completely and utterly miserable.

Then I found the Independent Studies (IVSP) department, and I was saved! (insert church organ sting here)

Seriously. Works like this: You design your own cirriculum on a focused concept, drawing from courses across multiple disciplines. Get sponsored, get approval, go through an application process... and if it's clear you're serious about this and what you want to study isn't just 'Like Such-and-Such Major, But Easier' then you're in.

In my case, I designed (I still don't like the name, but..) Computers and Interactive Media. Lots of art classes and writing classes combined with computer science. Since I was able to mix and match and apply my humanities to my inhumanities, so to speak, I could study topics I was keen on -- user interface design, new methods of interactivity, product design, etc. I even tossed in some film study and computer graphics to implement multimedia in my work.

Now I'm a web designer and database programmer for the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. I have a stable job and I do a smorgaboard of tasks for my division; I redesigned the homepage, I streamlined various user data entry applications, and I retouched the chairman's photo to make him look less bald. Work is (usually) an entertaining challenge with a variety of things to do, rather than pumping out code 24/7.

If the CS department is not ringing your bell, if they aren't providing what you really want in life, see if there's an interdisciplinary studies or independent studies department on your campus. It can be a lot harder than a normal major in a lot of respects -- I was writing a five page paper a week at one point and the application process was crazy -- but it also might be exactly what you wanted.

The results, however, still end up in paper form for the reasons cited - "publish or perish" tenure tracks, permanancy (a paper isn't a PAPER till it's on paper). This business model won't work unless you have a lot of money that can't directly pay for scientific research - the pharmaceuticals are heavily constrained as to how they can fund and advertise. There really is no equivalent in, for example, physics of low energy systems, primarily because there is no constraining government agency like the FDA.

Now we just need the naked clock...

As the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for -- you just might get it...

Apparently, there are some severe restrictions in the US with regard to laser intensity at various colors. He had to get a special permit to display his show in a public forum. You can find out about the standards here.

And for a good reason...

I have a friend who made a laser light show for a 4th of July festival. He had a heck of a time getting the colors to come out right. Apparently, there are some severe restrictions in the US with regard to laser intensity at various colors. He had to get a special permit to display his show in a public forum. You can find out about the standards here.

Now, this is some very cool stuff. I've actually seen him make holograms using his laser projector. But if you want to do anything out in public, you'll need to be sure you have the right papers.

It's still an incredibly stupid idea.

Why? If other countries that might otherwise have the option (any country with a nuke) feel they cannot threaten the US anymore, it creates an unacceptable situation. Most countries already feel the US dictates terms to them too much as it is. If we had the ability to nuke them and they couldn't nuke us back, we'd be able to dictate any terms we wanted. This would be unacceptable to any nation with a backbone.

If we build it big enough to shoot down 20 missiles, everyone will make sure they have 30. If we build it big enough to shoot down 2000 simultaneous missiles, they'll develop advanced decoy or stealth tech to make sure some get through. The more the US persists, the more the rest of the world will work together to make sure that the power does not remain unilateral. Even the US cannot maintain absolute technological dominance over the rest of the world working together.

There's no effective level of defense, ever. We can't ever develop a "limited" shield, because everyone will just make sure they're above the limit. It's as simple as that.

In the meantime, every country in the world will waste trillions of dollars, drawing effort from the thousands of other problems we all face.

The ONLY real excuse I can see is the accidental launch theory. In which case, let the US put it's money where it's mouth is - if this is really to save lives against accidental launches, let everyone have the technology. Set up NMD bases all over the world under UN control with oversight from every country at every site. Everyone will have the ability to shoot down 2 incoming ICBMs in case of an accidental launch or true suicidal wacko, and nobody will have the ability to develop it to a point where it interferes with someone's deterrent force. If it's really only defensive, then use it to defend everyone.

CNN has a story about botulinum toxin being used to treat back pain. Has anyone ever been treated with this stuff? I've heard it being used for people with twitchy eyelids and other spasms, numbing (read: killing) specific nerve endings. The toxin itself is one of the nastiest neurotoxins around, and sometimes pops up in canned foods. Another article.

Jeff


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