A number of years ago, we were all told that the phone companies needed to track our phone for the 911 service. That way they could find us if we called, but didn't know where we were. We were assured that it wasn't so the government could track our location. As of today, I have not heard about a single case where the tracking was used for the phone owners benefit, and every time I have called 911 from my cell phone, the person on the other end needed me to give them my location.
I don't know about you, but every time I've called 911 from a land line, the operator has asked me to tell them my location, too. Redundancy is important, a database error or a SNAFU with the GPS chip can't be risked when it comes to true emergencies. You don't want the ambulance to show up across town from your gunshot wound because of your new neighbor Robert'); DROP TABLE Residences;.
So why then have it, if they're just going to ask anyhow? Because sometimes they can't ask, consider a hypothetical person having an unsupervised stroke, they manage to dial 911, but can't offer any intelligible speech, depending on what form of aphasia the person is struck with, and how good the dispatcher is, they'll either send an ambulance or a police officer out to the location provided technologically.
TL;DR: Your tinfoil hat clashes with your jacket, take it off.
Ho many codes do you run on 30 yo pts? I've only run one on a pt less than 50 yo (Admittedly, I'm a great big walking white cloud. A source of no end of annoyance to me...some days I swear if I run one more little old lady with a cold, I'll scream.).
At any rate, I'd put my breakage rate up much higher than that, somewhere around 90%. I've never run a survey on the matter, so I've no idea if my co-workers run similar rates to me or to you.
Not knowing anything about how you do compressions, I'm left to wonder how it is that I break so many more than you do. I can come up with really about 1.5 possible reasons. The big one is that I do compressions to the monitor, I assume adequate depth when I see a robust deflection on a "CPR rhythm" (peaking at the clip size on the default view of a LP12, what mV that is, I don't know, off hand). Unfortunately, my current circumstances don't really permit me to run a research study on it, but doing it my way, I have, atm, a 44% save rate when I'm doing the compressions (As noted though, I'm a white cloud, I don't have a decent sized sample pool on that.) (Second note, I'm talking about "Dead when I pick them up, alive when I drop them off", not "...alive at discharge.").
The other possibility is that I'm just a big guy, I'm 6'8, and while not obese, carry with me the weight that is inherit in being that tall (plus the fat that comes from living my life in a E-350), not to mention the advantages of leverage. Perhaps I do just put more force into it than most, but a corollary of that is that I can keep up effective compressions for much longer than most people can, when I work as an ER tech on a code, I commonly do 10-15 minutes, 2 minute spell by someone else, then resume for another 10-15.
At any rate, this is something that I really hope to run a decent study on when I (hopefully) move back to the states in early 2012. I've seen studies that examine the outcome vs the strip, but never one that also factors in the physical size of the compressor, I think it could be interesting. Do you have any input?
You can be sued if you do CPR and crack someone's ribs if you're not certified.
Actually, no you can't. AFAIK, every state have so-called good samaritan laws which basically leapfrog the whole issue of liability in emergencies, as long as you're acting with good intentions, you're safe. Interestingly, I, as a paramedic, am not covered by some of those laws, even if I'm off duty, I'm presumed to have a higher level of knowledge, and if I screw up, it's just the same as if I screwed up while I'm on the clock. You're actually probably safer from liability performing CPR if you don't have a card.
And, as a side note, if you're performing CPR and don't break the ribs, you aren't doing it properly, you need to push harder, the whole point of ribs is to protect the heart and lungs [and a few other things] from pretty much exactly what you're trying to do with CPR. Ribs heal, the brain doesn't. (The exception to this is kids, their bones are more flexible, so they only may or may not break.)
Can you imagine toyota demanding a transfer fee or the right of first refusal when you want to sell your car?
I'd be quite surprised if Toyota were to do that, since i own a Nissan.
To complete the analogy, Toyota in this case would be the RIAA, or UMG/whatever....can you honestly tell me that you would be surprised about the RIAA demanding a transfer fee on something they had no part of?
What, pray tell, would you have had them broadcast for 9/11?
The EAS isn't a news service, it isn't meant for "OMG SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED!". The EAS is a method for rapidly disseminating instructions for the safety of the populace, so more along the lines of, "OMG SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED, and this is what you need to do to stay safe."
The only time I can recall the EAS being activated (And I heard it at the time), was when a tanker car had derailed and was leaking some HazMat, so the EAS was "If you're not in this area, stay away, if you are in this area and inside a building, close your windows and stay put, if you're in this area and not inside a building, either get inside a building or GTFO. Call this number if you experience these symptoms, you will be evacuated as possible."
What should they have said for 9/11? "If you're in the twin towers, get out"? "Don't let someone hijack your plane"?
As a final note, 9/11 was in no way shape or form an emergency for me, I was living on the other side of the country, it was a tragedy certainly, but not an emergency.
Those are all valid points, the big trick is, though, that KA isn't meant to replace traditional education, it's meant to supplement it, and, where necessary, provide SOME education where there are no schools, or where the schools (Like here in Honduras), are wholly inadequate. (Or at least, that's how I see it).
1) Although it is kind of a pain in the ass to get working, the videos are downloadable (and also the exercise framework), are downloadable, though admittedly, at the moment, I've only managed to get it working on my windows laptop as a server, rather than the linux server I want it running on.
2) The biggest barrier to entry is actually having a computer and the electricity to power it.
3) As TFA says, the school they're building is at least partially designed to get a feel for how schools SHOULD integrate KA, do some research on how it works in a wider variety of use-cases, and, as a side note, I would guess that this school is going to be built somewhere that isn't currently served by a traditional school system...though that could be wholly imaginary on my part.
I run a center in Honduras, which, among other things, uses the Khan academy system to teach/tutor math to children aged 8-17, and that's basically exactly how I run it.
I actually wind up doing very little instruction. I spend most of my time motivating the children, making them actually watch the videos instead of talking to their friends, etc. The other major thing I do is just break down the problems for the children when they get daunted...when they see 739421-5478, they tend to lock up, so I will break it down by asking, "Okay, what's 1-8...yes, that's right, you have to borrow from the 2..." etc. One of the most gratifying things I've seen is the children actually teaching each other.
I've only been doing this for about 2.5 months now, and most of that time has been spent getting them used to the system, I'm really only now getting underway in a significant manner, but I can tell you that it is working, and rather better than the "schools" around here do. (That's an entirely different rant.)
Except for how personal oxygen tanks have long been banned on commercial aircraft. And before you ask, not by the TSA, but by the FAA, and predating 9/11.
Some airlines will provide a tank for you, which are certified to be airworthy, and apparently a couple brands of oxygen concentrators are now certified airworthy (But won't provide anything near the kind of kick you'd need).
I tried to look for a cite for you, but after 45 seconds of googleing I hadn't found anything authoritative and my interest waned, so you'll have to look yourself if you don't believe me.
Sorry, I thought just after I posted the above that I should have addressed that particular concern. While I wouldn't care to generalize, I will say that every state and county I have ever lived or worked in has had it's own disaster agency, more over, three of the municipalities have had their own disaster agency. Even with an extraordinarily conservative extrapolation, I would assume there to be hundreds, if not thousands of such disaster response agencies (Though they may not all refer to themselves by that particular name, they will almost surely all respond to it.) spread across the country. It's not just FEMA, there is tremendous redundancy in this particular arena (As I, personally, think there very well should be...though I will admit to some professional prejudice should someone care to argue the point.)
Thus I don't think it's beyond consideration, nor even the least likely answer, that these nebulous "Dozens of other agencies" should be other disaster response agencies.
Actually, if you bothered to RTFA (I know, I know), or even for that matter, RTFS, you'd have seen that this is actually an exercise in hazmat response.
Emergency responders will test their capabilities as they use standard decontamination procedures to "treat" the zombies and make them "human" again during the exercise at Ohio Wesleyan University.
To be sure, the vast majority of the value in mock disasters is in the people working it (EMS, Police, Fire etc), but there are two reasons why you want to get a large number of "victims" involved. First, the larger the "victim" to responder ratio, the more it stresses the system, the better you can see where you need to improve (Though there's usually a cap to this, because at some point it just become pandemonium and nobody can learn anything). Second, the "victims" learn about the procedure, too. This is especially important in hazmat incidents. In a building collapse, for instance, it's essentially just a mass casualty, the "victims" lie there moaning/screaming/unconscious/singing show tunes, until we come get them, with a haz mat though, they learn things like "You don't run from the hot zone to the green zone just because you see that's where the ambulances are parked.".
All told, I think this is an excellent idea, the more people out there who have a notion of how to react to a disaster, the more likely we are to come through it well, and if dressing it up works to get people involved, then fabulous.
Motivated by Explorer 1's success, JPL Director William Pickering wanted to move into space exploration. He thought the relatively small, non-profit JPL could never raise the money necessary to remain on the leading edge of rocket technology as much larger aviation companies entered the rocketry business. He convinced the Army and President Eisenhower to make JPL part of the nation's new space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In that role, JPL, with its links to Caltech's science community, could lead in the creation of the new realm of space science. In December 1958, the Army formally transferred JPL to NASA, although it remained under Caltech management.
Okay, first off, you have to recognize that this is marketing-speak, not English, and worse than that, it's web 2.0 marketing speak. (Or 7.0 or mk 32 or whatever the hell they're calling it these days.)
That being said, your definition of a brand is a little narrow, even in English. A brand is not a trademark, it's a group of products which are linked in the public perception, before the megacorps, a brand was a company, now though...there are many companies which not only operate multiple brands, but even competeing brands. Coca-cola is a brand, Ford is a brand, Apple is a brand.
So, now onto curation, the big new thing (or at least, the new thing last time I paid any attention) in "The Web Experience", is that instead of our discovery of new websites etc coming from webcrawling search engines (Or before that professionally maintained directories (Think Yahoo! as it was), it's all done by referral through social media, etc. There will arise in our social circles someone who knows about subject X, and will provide a collection of information and links about subject X. That person will be the subject X curator. If a brand can gain the attention and trust of all of the subject X curators, they will be rich, or something.
I assume that "pull in" was used just because someone couldn't spell "leverage".
I actually have such a system installed in my home, it's basically just a 3600w charger/inverter hooked up to a bank of 12 12v 110Ah lead gel cell batteries in a series/parallel configuration (The inverter is more efficient working with 24v on the battery side). These aren't old car batteries, as you say, but rather purpose built for this kind of work. The whole thing installs just fine into a closet (Which happens to be the closet where my breaker panel is located.)
Now, I don't do solar or anything like that, I have it because I live in a third-world country, and my power goes out on a semi-regular basis, so this is in effect just a whole-house UPS.
Ultimately, this is no different than the battery backup systems used by server farms etc (aside from scale), and it really is sort of the industry standard set up, because it works.
Not that it's actually important to your point or anything, but I just tested my second generation iPod touch on it's genuine apple cable, it dangled like a champ, no disconnection. I even bounced it for a couple of seconds before it finally disconned.
Well, the funny snark and the odd informative is why I keep reading through comments, even though I usually swear I'm going to stop doing so about every third time I read through a story filled with nothing but trolls. (And I read at +2, mind).
I did see the pictures, but given the restraints put on me by living in the third world, I didn't bother frustrating myself by trying to watch the video. I was hoping to read the text and get a sense of exactly how closely the ports matched, and what made you think there might be a homage attempt implied.
I've been curious for a while as to why there are so many connectors available to something that the vast majority of the time operates over USB, and thus a maximum of 4 wires (Though I guess I should acknowledge the past presence of Firewire in the design). I was hoping you'd dig into that.
Slashdot Mirror
A number of years ago, we were all told that the phone companies needed to track our phone for the 911 service. That way they could find us if we called, but didn't know where we were. We were assured that it wasn't so the government could track our location. As of today, I have not heard about a single case where the tracking was used for the phone owners benefit, and every time I have called 911 from my cell phone, the person on the other end needed me to give them my location.
I don't know about you, but every time I've called 911 from a land line, the operator has asked me to tell them my location, too. Redundancy is important, a database error or a SNAFU with the GPS chip can't be risked when it comes to true emergencies. You don't want the ambulance to show up across town from your gunshot wound because of your new neighbor Robert'); DROP TABLE Residences;.
So why then have it, if they're just going to ask anyhow? Because sometimes they can't ask, consider a hypothetical person having an unsupervised stroke, they manage to dial 911, but can't offer any intelligible speech, depending on what form of aphasia the person is struck with, and how good the dispatcher is, they'll either send an ambulance or a police officer out to the location provided technologically.
TL;DR: Your tinfoil hat clashes with your jacket, take it off.
Ho many codes do you run on 30 yo pts? I've only run one on a pt less than 50 yo (Admittedly, I'm a great big walking white cloud. A source of no end of annoyance to me...some days I swear if I run one more little old lady with a cold, I'll scream.).
At any rate, I'd put my breakage rate up much higher than that, somewhere around 90%. I've never run a survey on the matter, so I've no idea if my co-workers run similar rates to me or to you.
Not knowing anything about how you do compressions, I'm left to wonder how it is that I break so many more than you do. I can come up with really about 1.5 possible reasons. The big one is that I do compressions to the monitor, I assume adequate depth when I see a robust deflection on a "CPR rhythm" (peaking at the clip size on the default view of a LP12, what mV that is, I don't know, off hand). Unfortunately, my current circumstances don't really permit me to run a research study on it, but doing it my way, I have, atm, a 44% save rate when I'm doing the compressions (As noted though, I'm a white cloud, I don't have a decent sized sample pool on that.) (Second note, I'm talking about "Dead when I pick them up, alive when I drop them off", not "...alive at discharge.").
The other possibility is that I'm just a big guy, I'm 6'8, and while not obese, carry with me the weight that is inherit in being that tall (plus the fat that comes from living my life in a E-350), not to mention the advantages of leverage. Perhaps I do just put more force into it than most, but a corollary of that is that I can keep up effective compressions for much longer than most people can, when I work as an ER tech on a code, I commonly do 10-15 minutes, 2 minute spell by someone else, then resume for another 10-15.
At any rate, this is something that I really hope to run a decent study on when I (hopefully) move back to the states in early 2012. I've seen studies that examine the outcome vs the strip, but never one that also factors in the physical size of the compressor, I think it could be interesting. Do you have any input?
You can be sued if you do CPR and crack someone's ribs if you're not certified.
Actually, no you can't. AFAIK, every state have so-called good samaritan laws which basically leapfrog the whole issue of liability in emergencies, as long as you're acting with good intentions, you're safe. Interestingly, I, as a paramedic, am not covered by some of those laws, even if I'm off duty, I'm presumed to have a higher level of knowledge, and if I screw up, it's just the same as if I screwed up while I'm on the clock. You're actually probably safer from liability performing CPR if you don't have a card.
And, as a side note, if you're performing CPR and don't break the ribs, you aren't doing it properly, you need to push harder, the whole point of ribs is to protect the heart and lungs [and a few other things] from pretty much exactly what you're trying to do with CPR. Ribs heal, the brain doesn't. (The exception to this is kids, their bones are more flexible, so they only may or may not break.)
As it happens, I just had to reinstall OS X 10.6 on a computer this morning, and I noticed that XCode was right there on the install disc.
Actually, I think you'll find http://xkcd.com/196/ is the correct OXKCD
Can you imagine toyota demanding a transfer fee or the right of first refusal when you want to sell your car?
I'd be quite surprised if Toyota were to do that, since i own a Nissan.
To complete the analogy, Toyota in this case would be the RIAA, or UMG/whatever....can you honestly tell me that you would be surprised about the RIAA demanding a transfer fee on something they had no part of?
What, pray tell, would you have had them broadcast for 9/11?
The EAS isn't a news service, it isn't meant for "OMG SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED!". The EAS is a method for rapidly disseminating instructions for the safety of the populace, so more along the lines of, "OMG SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED, and this is what you need to do to stay safe."
The only time I can recall the EAS being activated (And I heard it at the time), was when a tanker car had derailed and was leaking some HazMat, so the EAS was "If you're not in this area, stay away, if you are in this area and inside a building, close your windows and stay put, if you're in this area and not inside a building, either get inside a building or GTFO. Call this number if you experience these symptoms, you will be evacuated as possible."
What should they have said for 9/11? "If you're in the twin towers, get out"? "Don't let someone hijack your plane"?
As a final note, 9/11 was in no way shape or form an emergency for me, I was living on the other side of the country, it was a tragedy certainly, but not an emergency.
Those are all valid points, the big trick is, though, that KA isn't meant to replace traditional education, it's meant to supplement it, and, where necessary, provide SOME education where there are no schools, or where the schools (Like here in Honduras), are wholly inadequate. (Or at least, that's how I see it).
1) Although it is kind of a pain in the ass to get working, the videos are downloadable (and also the exercise framework), are downloadable, though admittedly, at the moment, I've only managed to get it working on my windows laptop as a server, rather than the linux server I want it running on.
2) The biggest barrier to entry is actually having a computer and the electricity to power it.
3) As TFA says, the school they're building is at least partially designed to get a feel for how schools SHOULD integrate KA, do some research on how it works in a wider variety of use-cases, and, as a side note, I would guess that this school is going to be built somewhere that isn't currently served by a traditional school system...though that could be wholly imaginary on my part.
I run a center in Honduras, which, among other things, uses the Khan academy system to teach/tutor math to children aged 8-17, and that's basically exactly how I run it.
I actually wind up doing very little instruction. I spend most of my time motivating the children, making them actually watch the videos instead of talking to their friends, etc. The other major thing I do is just break down the problems for the children when they get daunted...when they see 739421-5478, they tend to lock up, so I will break it down by asking, "Okay, what's 1-8...yes, that's right, you have to borrow from the 2..." etc. One of the most gratifying things I've seen is the children actually teaching each other.
I've only been doing this for about 2.5 months now, and most of that time has been spent getting them used to the system, I'm really only now getting underway in a significant manner, but I can tell you that it is working, and rather better than the "schools" around here do. (That's an entirely different rant.)
And and here I always thought it stood for Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.
Except for how personal oxygen tanks have long been banned on commercial aircraft. And before you ask, not by the TSA, but by the FAA, and predating 9/11.
Some airlines will provide a tank for you, which are certified to be airworthy, and apparently a couple brands of oxygen concentrators are now certified airworthy (But won't provide anything near the kind of kick you'd need).
I tried to look for a cite for you, but after 45 seconds of googleing I hadn't found anything authoritative and my interest waned, so you'll have to look yourself if you don't believe me.
Sorry, I thought just after I posted the above that I should have addressed that particular concern. While I wouldn't care to generalize, I will say that every state and county I have ever lived or worked in has had it's own disaster agency, more over, three of the municipalities have had their own disaster agency. Even with an extraordinarily conservative extrapolation, I would assume there to be hundreds, if not thousands of such disaster response agencies (Though they may not all refer to themselves by that particular name, they will almost surely all respond to it.) spread across the country. It's not just FEMA, there is tremendous redundancy in this particular arena (As I, personally, think there very well should be...though I will admit to some professional prejudice should someone care to argue the point.)
Thus I don't think it's beyond consideration, nor even the least likely answer, that these nebulous "Dozens of other agencies" should be other disaster response agencies.
Emergency responders will test their capabilities as they use standard decontamination procedures to "treat" the zombies and make them "human" again during the exercise at Ohio Wesleyan University.
To be sure, the vast majority of the value in mock disasters is in the people working it (EMS, Police, Fire etc), but there are two reasons why you want to get a large number of "victims" involved. First, the larger the "victim" to responder ratio, the more it stresses the system, the better you can see where you need to improve (Though there's usually a cap to this, because at some point it just become pandemonium and nobody can learn anything). Second, the "victims" learn about the procedure, too. This is especially important in hazmat incidents. In a building collapse, for instance, it's essentially just a mass casualty, the "victims" lie there moaning/screaming/unconscious/singing show tunes, until we come get them, with a haz mat though, they learn things like "You don't run from the hot zone to the green zone just because you see that's where the ambulances are parked.".
All told, I think this is an excellent idea, the more people out there who have a notion of how to react to a disaster, the more likely we are to come through it well, and if dressing it up works to get people involved, then fabulous.
Sorry, I think it's a miss, though if you were particularly inclined to argue, you might get away with it.
Motivated by Explorer 1's success, JPL Director William Pickering wanted to move into space exploration. He thought the relatively small, non-profit JPL could never raise the money necessary to remain on the leading edge of rocket technology as much larger aviation companies entered the rocketry business. He convinced the Army and President Eisenhower to make JPL part of the nation's new space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In that role, JPL, with its links to Caltech's science community, could lead in the creation of the new realm of space science. In December 1958, the Army formally transferred JPL to NASA, although it remained under Caltech management.
If you're interested, here's the URL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/joinnasa.php Note the URL, if you please.
tl;dr: Neener neener, you're wrong.
Fancy
Not bad, though I'll note you missed Apple, Google, the Democrats, and the Taliban.
Otherwise, good work.
PS: You mislinked your xkcd, I believe this is the one you wanted.
Your response is valid, well reasoned and based in fact.
It does not, however, leave room for a tin-foil hat, and thus there are people here it will never satisfy.
Firefox does as well, but please, sweet jesus, tell me you weren't copying my block of text for a marketing page.
Okay, first off, you have to recognize that this is marketing-speak, not English, and worse than that, it's web 2.0 marketing speak. (Or 7.0 or mk 32 or whatever the hell they're calling it these days.)
That being said, your definition of a brand is a little narrow, even in English. A brand is not a trademark, it's a group of products which are linked in the public perception, before the megacorps, a brand was a company, now though...there are many companies which not only operate multiple brands, but even competeing brands. Coca-cola is a brand, Ford is a brand, Apple is a brand.
So, now onto curation, the big new thing (or at least, the new thing last time I paid any attention) in "The Web Experience", is that instead of our discovery of new websites etc coming from webcrawling search engines (Or before that professionally maintained directories (Think Yahoo! as it was), it's all done by referral through social media, etc. There will arise in our social circles someone who knows about subject X, and will provide a collection of information and links about subject X. That person will be the subject X curator. If a brand can gain the attention and trust of all of the subject X curators, they will be rich, or something.
I assume that "pull in" was used just because someone couldn't spell "leverage".
I actually have such a system installed in my home, it's basically just a 3600w charger/inverter hooked up to a bank of 12 12v 110Ah lead gel cell batteries in a series/parallel configuration (The inverter is more efficient working with 24v on the battery side). These aren't old car batteries, as you say, but rather purpose built for this kind of work. The whole thing installs just fine into a closet (Which happens to be the closet where my breaker panel is located.)
Now, I don't do solar or anything like that, I have it because I live in a third-world country, and my power goes out on a semi-regular basis, so this is in effect just a whole-house UPS.
Ultimately, this is no different than the battery backup systems used by server farms etc (aside from scale), and it really is sort of the industry standard set up, because it works.
Not that it's actually important to your point or anything, but I just tested my second generation iPod touch on it's genuine apple cable, it dangled like a champ, no disconnection. I even bounced it for a couple of seconds before it finally disconned.
Well, the funny snark and the odd informative is why I keep reading through comments, even though I usually swear I'm going to stop doing so about every third time I read through a story filled with nothing but trolls. (And I read at +2, mind).
I did see the pictures, but given the restraints put on me by living in the third world, I didn't bother frustrating myself by trying to watch the video. I was hoping to read the text and get a sense of exactly how closely the ports matched, and what made you think there might be a homage attempt implied.
I've been curious for a while as to why there are so many connectors available to something that the vast majority of the time operates over USB, and thus a maximum of 4 wires (Though I guess I should acknowledge the past presence of Firewire in the design). I was hoping you'd dig into that.
Sadly, I spent my last mod point on a +funny much less worthy than this a couple days ago.