We Americans haven't had such good luck in Iran. The Shah was a wipe. Look where that left us.
So now, they have in their possession a virus specifically designed to take down infrastructure. Doesn't Iran have computer specialists too? How long before they simply reverse-engineer this virus and use it against us? Against Israel? Their neighbors?
Reminds me of the Viet Cong digging up our landmines only to replant them in our own path. Cheap, effective and has the "value added" aspect--the enemy foots the bill for their own destruction.
Don't let the marketing get to you, and do not encourage it.
If you are shopping for processors, simply disregard the "upgrades" and treat the product accordingly. Does it compare with fully unlocked competitors?
No? Then don't buy it. Yes? Then buy it but don't upgrade.
"Presumably it ensures that there will still be decent fish stocks in the area in decades to come."
That would make sense.
The citizens of Kiribati will always have the fishing grounds--flooding does not equate to total loss of rights and ownership--and as such, this move will simply put the value of those fishing-grounds in a sort of "Trust Fund" for future generations. They will need it--the debt from purchasing a new COUNTRY will not go away anytime soon.
I think it is a great thing this country is doing--thinking about the welfare of future humans. We all need to do that a little more often then we do. Otherwise, I think we humans are pretty well fucked. There are far too many people willing to fuck over the future for a few bucks in the present.
"Or, since no one can fish, they will move away from low lying Kiribati and there will be fewer people to be swamped by rising sea levels.
Daft."
Underwater is pretty low, yes. Unless you're a fish. That is the idea. A Fish "Savings & Loan", if you will. Everyone is leaving. If they lose the rights to the fishing grounds, they lose EVERYTHING. By maintaining the fishery, they maintain a link to their past, as well as a link to something real--fish. The FISH will be their claim to an ancestral land as well as a link to past cultural pastimes--fishing--regardless of where the existing population ends up.
In essence, the children of Old Kiribati will go home to fish, and honor those ancestors that honored them with a future. Beautiful.
Not only do I find it interesting that not one, but two (claimed) doctors responded to my post, but far more interesting is the mod war that seems to be going on as far as modding my post goes.
I've watched it immediately get modded -2 Flamebait, back into the positive with +2 interesting, then back down to -1 flamebait. Interesting.
To the doctors that responded: Why the FUCK can I not even get that much of an explanation when I am PAYING for it, in a doctor's office? You folks don't come cheap.
"You yourself seem not to have come to any harm from it..."
No? How about losing three jobs in total, over the course of 10 years, due to heartburn so severe that I often resorted to induced vomiting the get rid of the gastric juices that were literally backing up enough that I have had trouble breathing? In that 10 years, not a single doctor even MENTIONED diet until I brought it up, and even then I was met with the aforementioned responses.
NOTHING can excuse that sort of pervasive intentional ignorance/ignoring of what might be crucial information. Do you think I am the only person like this? One person already responded to my post with similar results. I personally know several others that have had similar experiences. I even know someone up in Alaska that had his stomach partially removed due to severe heartburn--only to have me tell him that the CASE of soda(corn syrup) he was drinking a day probably had something to do with it. But, did the doctors even ASK him about his consumption of corn syrup? Nope. Surgery first.
But, you know what? I'll bite. Show me ONE peer-reviewed document that suggests that this has even been studied seriously...Just one.
Every time I mention it, I get a response along the lines of..."Interesting.", or "I hadn't heard that.". The reason I bring it up is because it makes me sick, literally.
For many years I had severe heartburn. The doctors prescribed everything, none of it worked. In short, I received no relief by going to a doctor. Later, after deciding to experiment myself, I altered my diet. The first thing I focused on was the ingredient that was most pervasive--corn syrup.
I now avoid it like the plague. Within a month of removing it from my diet (as much as possible, the shit is in everything), the heartburn stopped entirely.
Since then, I have brought it up with every single doctor I have seen and they all react with the same indifferent, ambiguous reply. They all seem to know nothing about it, nor do they appear interested in the results I've experienced. And every time I see that response I have to ask myself why they aren't more interested--why? I've literally spent thousands of dollars trying to find a solution to a medical problem and they refuse to discuss a possible cause, casually dismissing my findings? Why?
The only logical conclusion I can come to, considering the stuff (corn syrup) has been in HEAVY use for decades now, is that the medical "industry" knows, but cannot monetize the solution--removing corn syrup from ones diet. Telling people to stop eating it would actually cut into their business. Corn syrup makes them money in the form of direct medical symptoms that need to be treated and the inherent medical problems associated with obesity. LOTS of money.
Try it next time you're at the doctors. Just say something like "Hey, a friend told me that corn syrup causes heartburn." and see what sort of response you get. Do a Google search. Notice how the vast majority of the sites that mention it are "alternative" medicine sources and bloggers? Where is the industry standpoint on the issue?
This entire experience has been enlightening for me, in a sad way. I now see doctors as humans with the same fallible nature as the rest of us--some are just greedy fucks that have not a care in the world for my actual health.
"I am truely flabbergasted by this resistance to change."
Why?
The AV industry would be doomed if everyone applied your fancy-schmancy "wisdom". Think of the jobs(and billions of dollars!!) lost.
Facetiousness aside, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if companies like McAfee and Symantec were covertly behind some of the malware/virus releases. We already know as fact that some unscrupulous individuals will infect machines just to sell a fix (often bogus itself). Is it really that hard to believe, in this age of Enron and other "Responsible Corporations", that the resistance of which you speak might be on the part of the industry and not the end-users?
As far as navigating that cesspool called "social-networking" is concerned, Confucius once said, "If you don't like swimming with shit and used condoms, stay out of the cesspool."
"The most dangerous tool is the one sitting in the chair."
Back in my auto shop days, we had a term for a certain diagnosis--The Loose Nut Behind the Wheel.
It referred to either the driver/owner being the source of the mechanical problem (such as pulling the parking brake out to hang ones purse on, then merrily driving away), or the driver/owner was simply insane (we had our share, and oddly enough, sanity is not a requirement for a drivers license).
Of course, this was a diagnosis we kept to ourselves. Explaining such a diagnosis to the driver/owner was usually awkward--"Sir, the reason your Ford Escort is never going to go straight again is because you weigh 600lbs. An alignment isn't going to fix anything. You just need to switch to low-octane fuel".
"...There are procedures under the Freedom of Information Act to get it later on, like when revealing it will cause minimal damage (and probably just PR damage)...."
Why wait?
From the article:
"And we do not control the fact that copies were disseminated prior to that second review process."
"No, it's just a change in one of the thousands of indicators...."
After reading up on post-glacial rebound, it appears the conclusion that the ice is melting half as fast is completely backwards.
So, lets assume that a 1000m thick glacier melted down to 500m over the last 50 years, judging by elevation readings on the surface of the glacier. But now we add a rise of 250m of the underlying rock due to post-glacial rebound over that same 50 year period. That means the glacier actually thinned by 75%, not the 50% that was originally thought--this theory would indicate an INCREASE in melting, not a decrease.
Did I miss something, or is this just more climate policy/propoganda/nonsense?
You get a male, adult mannequin, dress it up like dad (get the facial hair just right!), and prop it up in the breakfast nook. Put the video camera that dad will be getting his feed from behind one of the eyes of the mannequin (I do NOT recommend the "Third Eye" effect. THAT shit is creepy) and put the speakers he will be heard over behind the mouth.
If anybody wants to chat with dad, they go sit with him in the breakfast nook. Rap about school over bagels and lox.
Dad can also be parked on the front porch while everyone is away, keeping a watchful eye on the home-front. Park a nice lemonade or beer next to him for the full effect.
"Get off of my lawn, you punk kids!" BBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!
Sure, it can be entirely fabricated, and in no way confirms anything, but is nonetheless intriguing.
That page not only has very specific information (FAR more specific then any other single source I have seen) but has some interesting links located within it. The one I found the most interesting is, not surprisingly, the very last link on the page.
It is an obviously old, aerial photo of the area, from a fairly high altitude. And guess what? It matches PERFECTLY with this image from Google. The railhead nearby confirms it is the same location. The curve in the tracks is very unique and can easily be matched with an overlay. It is the same location.
In the old image, you can clearly see the open areas in a rough semicircle around the main building, located some distance from the facility. Those open areas were cleared for horizontal, 20m antennae (as the Google page states, and image scales would seem to confirm). If you look at the Goggle image (now that you know where to look), they are still clearly visible in the woods surround the buildings, although they now have plant growth obscuring them somewhat. What I took for old roads in another thread were exactly that--they lead to the aerials...and are overgrown. Lack of maintenance in Russia? Never!
If you zoom in, the antennae themselves are visible, no shadows needed (shadows really aren't visible as this image was taken mid-day).
So, in short, another piece of the puzzle--it was just one we already had.
Where did that information on the Google Sites page come from? So far, it is the most accurate collection of data on the site that I have seen. Where was that information sourced? The link between that older image and the other data on that page is what is important. One would seem to lend some credibility to the other.
Again, where was this information sourced? Ask Google?
A ten-fold increase in efficiency, and all they can think of for applications is clothing? A ten-fold increase in automotive battery efficiency would push electric cars into the realm of "practical-for-everyday-use-and-beyond". A shirt that might hold a few phonecalls worth of juice, that might not even survive a wash cycle? C'mon people, what ever happened to priorities?
Sounds like someone didn't like their article getting nit-picked.
"I'm assuming that you're referring to the Supreme Court Of The United States. Is this legal-speak or your own invention?"
Yes, that is what it means, and he is not in any way the first person to use that acronym.
There are many such acronyms in common use, such as POTUS (President of The United States), FLOTUS (First Lady of The United States), POTUS Jr. (Vice-President of The United States), OOTPOTUSATFLOTUS (Offspring of The President of The United States and The First Lady of The United States), and so on and so forth.
I know, it can be confusing, but rest assured these acronyms were put in place specifically to shorten the time it takes to say something, thus generating a net savings of over 50 million tax-payer dollars spent by our government, and that was during the Bush Administration alone! (No, I don't know which and I don't care. They could have simply "shut the fuck up" and it would have saved a lot more)
"How bloody hard is it to get together with your industry standards organization and publish a standard that says all IV tubes have a plug type A, all air tubes have plug type B, etc?? This is basic industrial and safety engineering--it's not rocket science."
The Automotive industry has been color-coding wiring, and making the connectors so they ONLY fit the mate connector for decades.
My 50 year old Ranchero had both color-coded wiring and asymmetric connectors.
Maybe some people are not as smart as we think they are, or as smart as they think they are.
Color-code(transparent colorants!) the actual tubing, and use specific connectors for specific tasks (i.e. Red for IV, green for waste products, blue for oxygen, etc.). Solves the problem. It is an easy solution that I am sure MANY have already thought of.
Many medical devices are invented by the people that use them--Doctors. But, from my OWN experience, they rarely do so unless the idea is patentable. Color-coding and connectors are unlikely to be patentable. I hate to say it, but this is the most likely reason none of this is in use--it is unlikely to increase profits from an individual doctors standpoint. Hospitals, on the other hand, have every reason in the world to do this--it will DECREASE liability, and hopefully reduce operating costs as a result.
"The clear picture is odd: can't distinguish ANY antenna shadows from all the building shadows."
Don't zoom in, zoom out.
First thing I noticed is that the building is definitely the highest structure in the shot (Wikipedia image). Most objects have no shadow in this shot, so it must be mid-day. Judging by the size of the shadow of the main building, it is probably 3-5 stories tall. I am not sure of the size of the antenna used for this frequency, but it could be in the building if it is small enough...but I doubt this is the case.
Zoom out further.
Notice the disturbed soil in a near perfect square surrounding the base? See the "stepped", grassy area along the lower side of the square? Those stepped areas indicate a rise in elevation, terraced to prevent erosion (they are also inadvertently created by cattle grazing on slopes). If you look closely, you will see similar indications all the way around this square. What appears, at first glance, to be cleared areas are actually slopes--The base is underground, or rather it was built, then buried, then camouflaged.
You might have also noticed that there are NO ground vehicles parked anywhere in sight. My guess is that all vehicles simply drive into the main building and are either parked inside it, or elevatored underground to hide how many people are (or, are not) actually using the facility.
We Yanks have done the same, but on a grand scale.
What I find really interesting is the sheer number of OLD roads that seem to radiate outwards from this site. The Google image shows them clearly, as well as a nearby railhead. Those access roads are old and over-grown, some very much so. In short, people have been coming and going, from all directions, to this location for some time. What was here before the transmitter started up, to merit this much access?
"(at least not by legal methods. I would be shocked, shocked, to discover that ambulances are based in a demographically predictable pattern, and that the guys driving them for not that much an hour respond faster to neighborhoods where the odds of being shot are low...)."
"Nobody ever bothered to sue Sprint in 2002, and they should have. I honestly don't understand people who allow themselves to be ripped off like that..."
I do. Many people are simply too lazy to sue.
Most of the people that I talk to on this subject think you need to wait for class-action suits to hop on the bandwagon. You do not.
Instead, file a personal damages suit in small claims in the same jurisdiction the object/service was purchased. It usually cost $5-$25 to file, and get this...the lawyers from these companies rarely show up. Why do they rarely show up? Because the damages cap in small claims is usually $5000--less then it would cost to fly a lawyer out. The noise over them failing to pay judgments would be louder then the noise of them writing relatively small checks, so they just write the small checks and go about business as normal--continuing to rip people off.
"The fungus controls the ants movements to a suitable leaf and causes the ant to grip onto the leaf's central stem, allowing the fungus to spore which will allow more ants to become infected."
Sounds like modern, social-networking.
I propose that, in the future, Facebook users are referred to as "Zombie Ants!" (must include the exclamation) and Facebook be referred to as "Killer FungusBook" (may be substituted with "Necrotizing FasciitisBook" when used in academic circles).
I believe this would remove a lot of the ambiguity and distrust pervading the current spectrum of social-engineerin...er, social-networking models.
Slashdot Mirror
More to come?
We Americans haven't had such good luck in Iran. The Shah was a wipe. Look where that left us.
So now, they have in their possession a virus specifically designed to take down infrastructure. Doesn't Iran have computer specialists too? How long before they simply reverse-engineer this virus and use it against us? Against Israel? Their neighbors?
Reminds me of the Viet Cong digging up our landmines only to replant them in our own path. Cheap, effective and has the "value added" aspect--the enemy foots the bill for their own destruction.
"Notice anything peculiar about the IP-number?"
No, I didn't, other then that they are all the same.
But I'll tell you what I did notice...this woman is nuts.
Edible computer chips...read the whole website. Completely and irrevocably nuts.
Don't let the marketing get to you, and do not encourage it.
If you are shopping for processors, simply disregard the "upgrades" and treat the product accordingly. Does it compare with fully unlocked competitors?
No? Then don't buy it. Yes? Then buy it but don't upgrade.
"Presumably it ensures that there will still be decent fish stocks in the area in decades to come."
That would make sense.
The citizens of Kiribati will always have the fishing grounds--flooding does not equate to total loss of rights and ownership--and as such, this move will simply put the value of those fishing-grounds in a sort of "Trust Fund" for future generations. They will need it--the debt from purchasing a new COUNTRY will not go away anytime soon.
I think it is a great thing this country is doing--thinking about the welfare of future humans. We all need to do that a little more often then we do. Otherwise, I think we humans are pretty well fucked. There are far too many people willing to fuck over the future for a few bucks in the present.
"Or, since no one can fish, they will move away from low lying Kiribati and there will be fewer people to be swamped by rising sea levels.
Daft."
Underwater is pretty low, yes. Unless you're a fish. That is the idea. A Fish "Savings & Loan", if you will. Everyone is leaving. If they lose the rights to the fishing grounds, they lose EVERYTHING. By maintaining the fishery, they maintain a link to their past, as well as a link to something real--fish. The FISH will be their claim to an ancestral land as well as a link to past cultural pastimes--fishing--regardless of where the existing population ends up.
In essence, the children of Old Kiribati will go home to fish, and honor those ancestors that honored them with a future.
Beautiful.
Not only do I find it interesting that not one, but two (claimed) doctors responded to my post, but far more interesting is the mod war that seems to be going on as far as modding my post goes.
I've watched it immediately get modded -2 Flamebait, back into the positive with +2 interesting, then back down to -1 flamebait. Interesting.
To the doctors that responded: Why the FUCK can I not even get that much of an explanation when I am PAYING for it, in a doctor's office? You folks don't come cheap.
"You yourself seem not to have come to any harm from it..."
No? How about losing three jobs in total, over the course of 10 years, due to heartburn so severe that I often resorted to induced vomiting the get rid of the gastric juices that were literally backing up enough that I have had trouble breathing? In that 10 years, not a single doctor even MENTIONED diet until I brought it up, and even then I was met with the aforementioned responses.
NOTHING can excuse that sort of pervasive intentional ignorance/ignoring of what might be crucial information. Do you think I am the only person like this? One person already responded to my post with similar results. I personally know several others that have had similar experiences. I even know someone up in Alaska that had his stomach partially removed due to severe heartburn--only to have me tell him that the CASE of soda(corn syrup) he was drinking a day probably had something to do with it. But, did the doctors even ASK him about his consumption of corn syrup? Nope. Surgery first.
But, you know what? I'll bite. Show me ONE peer-reviewed document that suggests that this has even been studied seriously...Just one.
Ask a doctor about corn syrup some time.
Every time I mention it, I get a response along the lines of..."Interesting.", or "I hadn't heard that.". The reason I bring it up is because it makes me sick, literally.
For many years I had severe heartburn. The doctors prescribed everything, none of it worked. In short, I received no relief by going to a doctor. Later, after deciding to experiment myself, I altered my diet. The first thing I focused on was the ingredient that was most pervasive--corn syrup.
I now avoid it like the plague. Within a month of removing it from my diet (as much as possible, the shit is in everything), the heartburn stopped entirely.
Since then, I have brought it up with every single doctor I have seen and they all react with the same indifferent, ambiguous reply. They all seem to know nothing about it, nor do they appear interested in the results I've experienced. And every time I see that response I have to ask myself why they aren't more interested--why? I've literally spent thousands of dollars trying to find a solution to a medical problem and they refuse to discuss a possible cause, casually dismissing my findings? Why?
The only logical conclusion I can come to, considering the stuff (corn syrup) has been in HEAVY use for decades now, is that the medical "industry" knows, but cannot monetize the solution--removing corn syrup from ones diet. Telling people to stop eating it would actually cut into their business. Corn syrup makes them money in the form of direct medical symptoms that need to be treated and the inherent medical problems associated with obesity. LOTS of money.
Try it next time you're at the doctors. Just say something like "Hey, a friend told me that corn syrup causes heartburn." and see what sort of response you get. Do a Google search. Notice how the vast majority of the sites that mention it are "alternative" medicine sources and bloggers? Where is the industry standpoint on the issue?
This entire experience has been enlightening for me, in a sad way. I now see doctors as humans with the same fallible nature as the rest of us--some are just greedy fucks that have not a care in the world for my actual health.
"I am truely flabbergasted by this resistance to change."
Why?
The AV industry would be doomed if everyone applied your fancy-schmancy "wisdom". Think of the jobs(and billions of dollars!!) lost.
Facetiousness aside, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if companies like McAfee and Symantec were covertly behind some of the malware/virus releases. We already know as fact that some unscrupulous individuals will infect machines just to sell a fix (often bogus itself). Is it really that hard to believe, in this age of Enron and other "Responsible Corporations", that the resistance of which you speak might be on the part of the industry and not the end-users?
As far as navigating that cesspool called "social-networking" is concerned, Confucius once said, "If you don't like swimming with shit and used condoms, stay out of the cesspool."
"The most dangerous tool is the one sitting in the chair."
Back in my auto shop days, we had a term for a certain diagnosis--The Loose Nut Behind the Wheel.
It referred to either the driver/owner being the source of the mechanical problem (such as pulling the parking brake out to hang ones purse on, then merrily driving away), or the driver/owner was simply insane (we had our share, and oddly enough, sanity is not a requirement for a drivers license).
Of course, this was a diagnosis we kept to ourselves. Explaining such a diagnosis to the driver/owner was usually awkward--"Sir, the reason your Ford Escort is never going to go straight again is because you weigh 600lbs. An alignment isn't going to fix anything. You just need to switch to low-octane fuel".
"...There are procedures under the Freedom of Information Act to get it later on, like when revealing it will cause minimal damage (and probably just PR damage)...."
Why wait?
From the article:
"And we do not control the fact that copies were disseminated prior to that second review process."
I eagerly await a torrent. Please.
"No, it's just a change in one of the thousands of indicators...."
After reading up on post-glacial rebound, it appears the conclusion that the ice is melting half as fast is completely backwards.
So, lets assume that a 1000m thick glacier melted down to 500m over the last 50 years, judging by elevation readings on the surface of the glacier. But now we add a rise of 250m of the underlying rock due to post-glacial rebound over that same 50 year period. That means the glacier actually thinned by 75%, not the 50% that was originally thought--this theory would indicate an INCREASE in melting, not a decrease.
Did I miss something, or is this just more climate policy/propoganda/nonsense?
"It's only weird when it's one way."
Well, what about half way?
Here's whatcha do.
You get a male, adult mannequin, dress it up like dad (get the facial hair just right!), and prop it up in the breakfast nook. Put the video camera that dad will be getting his feed from behind one of the eyes of the mannequin (I do NOT recommend the "Third Eye" effect. THAT shit is creepy) and put the speakers he will be heard over behind the mouth.
If anybody wants to chat with dad, they go sit with him in the breakfast nook. Rap about school over bagels and lox.
If you add accessories, your wife can haul it into the bedroom after the kids go to sleep. I suggest http://www.adulttoys.com/ and http://www.apogeekits.com/pc_remote_controls.htm combined for a full array of functions.
Dad can also be parked on the front porch while everyone is away, keeping a watchful eye on the home-front. Park a nice lemonade or beer next to him for the full effect.
"Get off of my lawn, you punk kids!" BBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!
"I think "exersize" is what you call someone who doesn't exercise. :)"
SuperSize...a minor savings that induces you to eat more.
GiantSize...Fuck the cost, I'm hungry.
ExerSize...So big, lifting it burns calories.
"...I found this site..." ( http://sites.google.com/site/stationuvb76/january-2009 )
Very interesting! I had not seen this page yet.
Sure, it can be entirely fabricated, and in no way confirms anything, but is nonetheless intriguing.
That page not only has very specific information (FAR more specific then any other single source I have seen) but has some interesting links located within it. The one I found the most interesting is, not surprisingly, the very last link on the page.
It is an obviously old, aerial photo of the area, from a fairly high altitude. And guess what? It matches PERFECTLY with this image from Google. The railhead nearby confirms it is the same location. The curve in the tracks is very unique and can easily be matched with an overlay. It is the same location.
http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&q=56.082778,37.089444&ie=UTF8&ll=56.082316,37.089221&spn=0.004424,0.010933&z=17
In the old image, you can clearly see the open areas in a rough semicircle around the main building, located some distance from the facility. Those open areas were cleared for horizontal, 20m antennae (as the Google page states, and image scales would seem to confirm). If you look at the Goggle image (now that you know where to look), they are still clearly visible in the woods surround the buildings, although they now have plant growth obscuring them somewhat. What I took for old roads in another thread were exactly that--they lead to the aerials...and are overgrown. Lack of maintenance in Russia? Never!
If you zoom in, the antennae themselves are visible, no shadows needed (shadows really aren't visible as this image was taken mid-day).
So, in short, another piece of the puzzle--it was just one we already had.
Where did that information on the Google Sites page come from? So far, it is the most accurate collection of data on the site that I have seen. Where was that information sourced? The link between that older image and the other data on that page is what is important. One would seem to lend some credibility to the other.
Again, where was this information sourced? Ask Google?
Seriously? Flamebait?
A ten-fold increase in efficiency, and all they can think of for applications is clothing? A ten-fold increase in automotive battery efficiency would push electric cars into the realm of "practical-for-everyday-use-and-beyond". A shirt that might hold a few phonecalls worth of juice, that might not even survive a wash cycle? C'mon people, what ever happened to priorities?
Sounds like someone didn't like their article getting nit-picked.
"..."OOTPOTUSATFLOTUS"? What was wrong with "kids of the presidential pair"/etc.?..."
Gee, and I kind of thought POTUS Jr. would have given me away.
Clothing? CLOTHING?
How about putting a whole bunch of them in a box. Then put this box in a car. Hook up electric motor in car to box.
Maybe? Please? Fucking marketing dweebs.
"I'm assuming that you're referring to the Supreme Court Of The United States. Is this legal-speak or your own invention?"
Yes, that is what it means, and he is not in any way the first person to use that acronym.
There are many such acronyms in common use, such as POTUS (President of The United States), FLOTUS (First Lady of The United States), POTUS Jr. (Vice-President of The United States), OOTPOTUSATFLOTUS (Offspring of The President of The United States and The First Lady of The United States), and so on and so forth.
I know, it can be confusing, but rest assured these acronyms were put in place specifically to shorten the time it takes to say something, thus generating a net savings of over 50 million tax-payer dollars spent by our government, and that was during the Bush Administration alone! (No, I don't know which and I don't care. They could have simply "shut the fuck up" and it would have saved a lot more)
"How bloody hard is it to get together with your industry standards organization and publish a standard that says all IV tubes have a plug type A, all air tubes have plug type B, etc?? This is basic industrial and safety engineering--it's not rocket science."
The Automotive industry has been color-coding wiring, and making the connectors so they ONLY fit the mate connector for decades.
My 50 year old Ranchero had both color-coded wiring and asymmetric connectors.
Maybe some people are not as smart as we think they are, or as smart as they think they are.
Color-code(transparent colorants!) the actual tubing, and use specific connectors for specific tasks (i.e. Red for IV, green for waste products, blue for oxygen, etc.). Solves the problem. It is an easy solution that I am sure MANY have already thought of.
Many medical devices are invented by the people that use them--Doctors. But, from my OWN experience, they rarely do so unless the idea is patentable. Color-coding and connectors are unlikely to be patentable. I hate to say it, but this is the most likely reason none of this is in use--it is unlikely to increase profits from an individual doctors standpoint. Hospitals, on the other hand, have every reason in the world to do this--it will DECREASE liability, and hopefully reduce operating costs as a result.
So, who do YOU think is in charge?
"The clear picture is odd: can't distinguish ANY antenna shadows from all the building shadows."
Don't zoom in, zoom out.
First thing I noticed is that the building is definitely the highest structure in the shot (Wikipedia image). Most objects have no shadow in this shot, so it must be mid-day. Judging by the size of the shadow of the main building, it is probably 3-5 stories tall. I am not sure of the size of the antenna used for this frequency, but it could be in the building if it is small enough...but I doubt this is the case.
Zoom out further.
Notice the disturbed soil in a near perfect square surrounding the base? See the "stepped", grassy area along the lower side of the square? Those stepped areas indicate a rise in elevation, terraced to prevent erosion (they are also inadvertently created by cattle grazing on slopes). If you look closely, you will see similar indications all the way around this square. What appears, at first glance, to be cleared areas are actually slopes--The base is underground, or rather it was built, then buried, then camouflaged.
You might have also noticed that there are NO ground vehicles parked anywhere in sight. My guess is that all vehicles simply drive into the main building and are either parked inside it, or elevatored underground to hide how many people are (or, are not) actually using the facility.
We Yanks have done the same, but on a grand scale.
http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/USAAF/Boeing/index.shtml (Interesting photos of American camouflage efforts)
What I find really interesting is the sheer number of OLD roads that seem to radiate outwards from this site. The Google image shows them clearly, as well as a nearby railhead. Those access roads are old and over-grown, some very much so. In short, people have been coming and going, from all directions, to this location for some time. What was here before the transmitter started up, to merit this much access?
"(at least not by legal methods. I would be shocked, shocked, to discover that ambulances are based in a demographically predictable pattern, and that the guys driving them for not that much an hour respond faster to neighborhoods where the odds of being shot are low...)."
They are.
(Citation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2NEGywTGF4 Pay CLOSE attention at 1:22. Damnable evidence if I've ever seen it.)
"Nobody ever bothered to sue Sprint in 2002, and they should have. I honestly don't understand people who allow themselves to be ripped off like that..."
I do. Many people are simply too lazy to sue.
Most of the people that I talk to on this subject think you need to wait for class-action suits to hop on the bandwagon. You do not.
Instead, file a personal damages suit in small claims in the same jurisdiction the object/service was purchased. It usually cost $5-$25 to file, and get this...the lawyers from these companies rarely show up. Why do they rarely show up? Because the damages cap in small claims is usually $5000--less then it would cost to fly a lawyer out. The noise over them failing to pay judgments would be louder then the noise of them writing relatively small checks, so they just write the small checks and go about business as normal--continuing to rip people off.
"On October 19, 2009, pro se Plaintiff Craig Smallwood..."
Maybe the dude should change his last name and take up dating women (to some, they might seem mutually exclusive...).
Whoa! My bad!
Necrotizing Fasciitis is a bacteria.
I therefore propose Facebook be known as "Candida AlbicansBook".
Sorry for the confusion(mine, that is).
"The fungus controls the ants movements to a suitable leaf and causes the ant to grip onto the leaf's central stem, allowing the fungus to spore which will allow more ants to become infected."
Sounds like modern, social-networking.
I propose that, in the future, Facebook users are referred to as "Zombie Ants!" (must include the exclamation) and Facebook be referred to as "Killer FungusBook" (may be substituted with "Necrotizing FasciitisBook" when used in academic circles).
I believe this would remove a lot of the ambiguity and distrust pervading the current spectrum of social-engineerin...er, social-networking models.
"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt
That is, without a doubt, the most ridiculous, and ALARMING, statement I have ever heard coming from Google. VERY disturbing.
Sad realism, or corporate arrogance?