Technically, last I checked, about 20% of Americans live in rural areas, not 5%, but your point stands.
A tiny number of Americans in predominantly rural states are, more and more, deciding everything because of their disproportionate impact on Senate seats.
We desperately need to move to proportional allocation of Senate seats, period, and do a better job of allocating House seats for the same reason, not to mention annihilating gerrymandering. Also to change FPTP voting (the only thing keeping the 2-party system viable) to something more modern, like ranked-choice voting.
Listen... Not to be "that guy" but, well... What if I told you that part of a culture of diversity is that some things won't include you?
I'm a straight white guy, but I've traveled enough and regularly interact with people of other backgrounds, ethnicities, sexualities, etc. to not have the American/Western European mindset of "pretty much everything I interact with is designed specifically around and for me".
So what if the Hugo awards is becoming female-centric? There are many, many other sci-fi awards. You can pay attention to some that you feel represent you better than ones that don't.
You're just used to, y'know, everything being about you by default. Just imagine for a minute what it's like, though, to be part of a demographic that isn't "the default" sci-fi reader: a straight white guy. For those people, which includes women, people of different races and nationalities, gay people, trans folks, and so on, everything feels like the Hugo award does to you, but all the time and for everything.
As the world shifts, there will be more things that just don't include you, and that's fucking fine. You can choose to pay attention to them or not, because that's how things work. Don't be a damn snowflake just because not everything is about you all the time; it comes across as childish. And I think we all know that with your attitude, you'd be shitting on anyone that's not a white male if they complained about not being included in one of "your" things, so shush it.
As near as I can tell, this is probably a direct result of Damore's lawsuit.
That is, Google almost certainly had a third-party firm come in and independently evaluate every point of Damore's lawsuit. The firm then would have determined the relative likelihood of any of Damore's claims standing up in court.
If Tim's postings were toxic enough, and especially if he had been reported to H.R. in the past and H.R. had a notable bias where straight white dudes were punished but non-cis / non-white / etc. people got a pass, then that would have been a major point where the independent firm would have stepped up and said "Yeah you suckers are gonna get railed, there's an overt bias here and that's not going to go over well in court, and we explicitly recommend terminating the worst offenders to reduce future liability".
And then Tim gets canned and starts crying, because his expectation up to that point was that he had special privileges and he's not adjusting well to ACTUALLY being treated equally.
I'm basing this off of having had to pressure my own work H.R. to call in an independent firm because they were letting a manager get away with overt retaliation against me, and they refused to admit there was a problem until the independent firm said "Yeah, no, there was definitely retaliation, and probably a hostile work environment because of the upper management condoning this behavior as well". Suddenly, the senior legal team was VERY interested and suddenly everyone was very concerned about employees being treated fairly.
Of course, that neglects the fact that, if you were actually travelling at c, you would experience no time whatsoever.
As in, the beginning and the end of the universe (or at least your emission and absorption, if you're a photon) are instantaneous to you.
So to answer the question, no you wouldn't see your hi-beams come on, because there's NO TIME in your reference frame. But theoretically... [sigh]-sure. You would see your hi-beams come on just fine. But it's kind of a non-question, since it presupposes that time (and hence, change) exists at light speed; as in, it doesn't even make sense as a question.
And, as already stated, an outside observer would measure both you and your "emitted" photons traveling at c in their reference frame; partially or completely because you are in a completely timeless "freeze frame" state relative to any non-lightspeed observer.
That's the easy stuff. You really want to cause brainhurt? Look up the "ladder and barn" paradox. It notes that objects shorten as they approach lightspeed; so let's say that you're carrying a ladder going so near to c that your length is cut in half to an outside observer. Thing is, you're still your "normal" length in your own reference frame... Now let's imagine that the barn is only as deep as 2/3 the length of your ladder. An outside observer would see you get all the way into the barn before you struck the back wall (relativistic explosion notwithstanding). You, however, in your own reference frame should see yourself only get partway in before you strike the back wall.
So which happened? Both? Neither? In the universe we know, only one should have happened; you either got all the way in, or you didn't. Now cue a LOT of handwaving by physicists that both A)ties your brain up in knots, and B)basically says "We dunno.". It's a NASTY one, and probably means that we don't understand the relativistic universe as well as we thought. My theory is that the universe "flattens out" relative to a lightspeed observer, so they both see the same thing happen (it fits) in the same way that time "flattens" to nothing at you approach c, but I'm not a physicist- though it does solve the problem, and kind of makes sense inside of the framework.
Oh, don't worry, I can tell you're not a physician, and almost definitely not associated with any medical field in any way.
Not to be insulting, but that patient had obvious massive intercranial pressure causing severe hemorrhage and compression injury to the cerebral tissue. I don't know where you're getting your information, but da-yum. We're not talking about how she looked on admission, we're talking about the continuous process of testing, assessment and evaluation that should have told the MD in question that his patient. Was. Brain. Dead. Didn't matter if she had a craniotomy; while you're right that initial amount of swelling is not really an indicator of actual damage, there's a poing at which the brain just crushes itself, cranial window or not. Sorry; and yeah, brain tissue can damn well hemorrhage out the ears if there's enough intercranial pressure. It's gross, and an indicator of a pretty piss-poor prognosis *eyeroll*.
Anyway, I get what you're getting at, but that patient was just plain gone. Finito. Meat on a vent. And that doc needed a serious cockpunch.
But please, be careful about giving out medical advice when you don't really know what you're talking about, especially with brain-injured patients. Way too many people get false hope that way, and needlessly put themselves through years of suffering and grief because of magical thinking about how the brain works and heals itself.
Um, reading this, doesn't it require specific software to be installed to be effective? This does not appear, from what little info is presented, to be a general "hackin' tool" to "pwn newbs". Or maybe it is. Let me know when you can actually get into anything with this.
As for releasing it: give it to the devs first. Let them patch things up. Then release it after patches are ubiquitous and discuss how clever you are. Anything else is just plain stupid.
You know, this actually might work out:
1) Use the repellent for X seasons, until no longer effective due to the bugs losing their fear of dead bugs.
2) Spread a known (bug-only!) disease the next Y seasons, until no longer effective due to the bugs regaining their fear of dead bugs.
3) See 1)
Actually, the same would theoretically work with antibiotics - have the FDA remove all, say, penicillin-based antibiotics from the market (except special cases, like where someone is allergic to every other antibiotic, or the only thing a specific bacteria is susceptible to is penicillin-based drugs) for a few years.
Studies show that bacteria quickly lose resistance to antibiotics (at least in the lab) when no longer routinely exposed - it takes more energy to produce the resistant proteins/plasmids, and the resistant bacteria are quickly outcompeted. Cycle in/out 1-2 major groups like this every few years, and the "superbugs" that have people so freaked out will be susceptible again. There, I solved that problem - 1 billion dollars, please. I'll take local checks.
Really, it's simple. Use evolutionary genetic patterns to our advantage - it's like hacking for the biosphere!...Cue: "what could possibly go wrong" here...
Heh, yeah. Get lost on Fort Carson in Colorado and just that kind of thing can happen. They are VERY unforgiving of people getting too close to the Aerospace Command centers up on/in Cheyenne Mountain. Almost everyone on base there has a story about something like that - my favorite one is where a guy pulling security near the top of the mountain called out for pizza and the delivery guy didn't have the little "Domino's" plastic identifier thingy on his car. So, the first guard to see him driving up put a couple of rounds through his engine block since he didn't immediately stop where he was supposed to. Then, according to legend, the poor pizza delivery dude got yanked out of the car, face-slammed into the ground, and hauled off to some detention area for half the day until his story got cleared.
They probably didn't even tip him.
Meh. I work a lot at Fort Sam - actually, at the hospital on base. The thing is about the place that it's a much more "open" base than pretty much any other one in the Army. It's a post dedicated almost entirely to training or medical support, and therefore can be much more laid-back than one with a buttload of ordinance and military "secrets" lying around. Also, last time I checked, they use semi-incompetent private security instead of armed military guards like almost every other Army post. I am absolutely unsurprised that there was a mistake like this made.
Anyway, that point being made, these guys are too relaxed. The hospital is "open" as long as you can show a valid drivers' license at the gate. The rest of the base is fenced off from there, but the same guards control the gates, and get used to waving anybody through that looks like they think they should be there - lots of drug reps, for example, have to do some of their contracting or product-related teaching on the main post, and it becomes a logistical mess to give them special access IDs and the like. There's a lot of mix-ups related to things like this, so surprise surprise, somebody slipped through who wasn't supposed to be there. It's not some goofy general's fault, really, it's just the unique challenge presented by a post like this one where it's Army, but doesn't have the same mentality as most of the rest of the Army.
Like you said - Pralidoxime and Atropine injectors are extremely old-school for the US military. Although I'm happy that there are new drugs for treating nerve gas poisoning, TFA makes it sound like the "new" drugs are still completely untested - only on petri dish models, if I read it correctly. So, while there is promise, there are no human or animal efficiency results yet, no toxicity tests - all kinds of things are needed to prove that these new molecules are appropriate to replace the old ones.
That's the thing about new drugs - they look wonderful and promising for a while in the lab, then you stick them in a monkey and his testicles melt or his hair falls out. Oops - back to the drawing board.
Anyway, I'm skeptical but hopeful. I've had biochem weapons training in the Army, and nerve gases are effing nasty. More power to providing more survivability...
Oh, let's see - maybe the fact that I have to share the roads with dangerous drivers?
We limit the rights of some to protect the rights of all - if you are an unsafe driver, I will happily limit your right to drive if it increases the rights of the majority to drive safely.
That, my snide friend, is what gives me the right - the same right that pretty much all of the laws of the US are based on. Also the same reason you have to take a driving test and maintain a driver's license. Yes, that's right, a license to drive. Pretty "Soviet", eh? In your view, is it only American if we just let everyone jump behind the wheel, even the blind and insane, because "America, Fuck Yeah!"?
I'm sorry, but think before you post. It enriches us all.
Re:Maybe there's a silver lining here...
on
Storm Worm Rising
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· Score: 1
That's the wonderful thing about having lobbyists - they "inform" the legislators. In this case, they could let Joe Sixpack Senator (R-TX) about how EEEVIL botnet creators are, how they're harming the InterTubes and online businessess and hence the GNP. The common good doesn't cut much ice anymore, but tell them how it's making businesses lose *money*, and stand back...
Also nice about lobbyists: they can even help these guys draft bills in ways that actually help make things work. MS and Google, at least, have lobbyists now... let's see them get their money's worth.
Maybe there's a silver lining here...
on
Storm Worm Rising
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I dunno - maybe this is what we need ~ a botnet big enough to do some real damage could actually catalyze some public awareness. Imagine if they DDoS'd MS, or Amazon, heck, Google? Maybe these guys (esp. Google) could handle this kind of slamming, but they've got lobbyists now. I really wouldn't mind seeing a well-funded FBI task force with the express purpose of rooting out botnets and going after their creators.
Yeah, yeah, most of them are not on US soil. I know.
However, imagine legislation that actually required the disconnection of infected bots from an ISP until it was cleaned, and a public awareness campaign that painted users who allow this to happen as idiots, and the ISPs as protectors of the rest of the internet users. Most people are concerned that there would be a backlash against the ISPs and they would stop complying for fear of loss of business, but that's where the legislation comes in. It's a quarantine situation - just like IRL, if you've got something nasty and contagious, the CDC can legally quarantine (forcibly, if you're an idiot like the TB guy) you because you're endangering the lives of others by going out and exposing them.
Same thing here - don't give the botnets a chance to expand, cut them off, force a windows-cleaning (ISPs could offer a cleanup disk, $5.95 plus tax, or something, to help make it worth it for them - don't want to hurt the small ISPs, even though I think TW and the rest are bastards), and let them reconnect afterwards. Simple, painless, and will definitely make sure people learn their lesson for next time.
That is possible - the other possibility I see is that these wanks are using oil company tactics: Crank the prices sky-high, let everyone get scared and angry, then back off 9/10 of the original increase. The consumers and stations feel as if they've won and that their activism has made a difference, but really they've just bent over a little further.
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Technically, last I checked, about 20% of Americans live in rural areas, not 5%, but your point stands. A tiny number of Americans in predominantly rural states are, more and more, deciding everything because of their disproportionate impact on Senate seats. We desperately need to move to proportional allocation of Senate seats, period, and do a better job of allocating House seats for the same reason, not to mention annihilating gerrymandering. Also to change FPTP voting (the only thing keeping the 2-party system viable) to something more modern, like ranked-choice voting.
Listen... Not to be "that guy" but, well... What if I told you that part of a culture of diversity is that some things won't include you? I'm a straight white guy, but I've traveled enough and regularly interact with people of other backgrounds, ethnicities, sexualities, etc. to not have the American/Western European mindset of "pretty much everything I interact with is designed specifically around and for me". So what if the Hugo awards is becoming female-centric? There are many, many other sci-fi awards. You can pay attention to some that you feel represent you better than ones that don't. You're just used to, y'know, everything being about you by default. Just imagine for a minute what it's like, though, to be part of a demographic that isn't "the default" sci-fi reader: a straight white guy. For those people, which includes women, people of different races and nationalities, gay people, trans folks, and so on, everything feels like the Hugo award does to you, but all the time and for everything. As the world shifts, there will be more things that just don't include you, and that's fucking fine. You can choose to pay attention to them or not, because that's how things work. Don't be a damn snowflake just because not everything is about you all the time; it comes across as childish. And I think we all know that with your attitude, you'd be shitting on anyone that's not a white male if they complained about not being included in one of "your" things, so shush it.
As near as I can tell, this is probably a direct result of Damore's lawsuit. That is, Google almost certainly had a third-party firm come in and independently evaluate every point of Damore's lawsuit. The firm then would have determined the relative likelihood of any of Damore's claims standing up in court. If Tim's postings were toxic enough, and especially if he had been reported to H.R. in the past and H.R. had a notable bias where straight white dudes were punished but non-cis / non-white / etc. people got a pass, then that would have been a major point where the independent firm would have stepped up and said "Yeah you suckers are gonna get railed, there's an overt bias here and that's not going to go over well in court, and we explicitly recommend terminating the worst offenders to reduce future liability". And then Tim gets canned and starts crying, because his expectation up to that point was that he had special privileges and he's not adjusting well to ACTUALLY being treated equally. I'm basing this off of having had to pressure my own work H.R. to call in an independent firm because they were letting a manager get away with overt retaliation against me, and they refused to admit there was a problem until the independent firm said "Yeah, no, there was definitely retaliation, and probably a hostile work environment because of the upper management condoning this behavior as well". Suddenly, the senior legal team was VERY interested and suddenly everyone was very concerned about employees being treated fairly.
Of course, that neglects the fact that, if you were actually travelling at c, you would experience no time whatsoever.
As in, the beginning and the end of the universe (or at least your emission and absorption, if you're a photon) are instantaneous to you.
So to answer the question, no you wouldn't see your hi-beams come on, because there's NO TIME in your reference frame. But theoretically... [sigh]-sure. You would see your hi-beams come on just fine. But it's kind of a non-question, since it presupposes that time (and hence, change) exists at light speed; as in, it doesn't even make sense as a question.
And, as already stated, an outside observer would measure both you and your "emitted" photons traveling at c in their reference frame; partially or completely because you are in a completely timeless "freeze frame" state relative to any non-lightspeed observer.
That's the easy stuff. You really want to cause brainhurt? Look up the "ladder and barn" paradox. It notes that objects shorten as they approach lightspeed; so let's say that you're carrying a ladder going so near to c that your length is cut in half to an outside observer. Thing is, you're still your "normal" length in your own reference frame... Now let's imagine that the barn is only as deep as 2/3 the length of your ladder. An outside observer would see you get all the way into the barn before you struck the back wall (relativistic explosion notwithstanding). You, however, in your own reference frame should see yourself only get partway in before you strike the back wall.
So which happened? Both? Neither? In the universe we know, only one should have happened; you either got all the way in, or you didn't. Now cue a LOT of handwaving by physicists that both A)ties your brain up in knots, and B)basically says "We dunno.". It's a NASTY one, and probably means that we don't understand the relativistic universe as well as we thought. My theory is that the universe "flattens out" relative to a lightspeed observer, so they both see the same thing happen (it fits) in the same way that time "flattens" to nothing at you approach c, but I'm not a physicist- though it does solve the problem, and kind of makes sense inside of the framework.
Oh, don't worry, I can tell you're not a physician, and almost definitely not associated with any medical field in any way. Not to be insulting, but that patient had obvious massive intercranial pressure causing severe hemorrhage and compression injury to the cerebral tissue. I don't know where you're getting your information, but da-yum. We're not talking about how she looked on admission, we're talking about the continuous process of testing, assessment and evaluation that should have told the MD in question that his patient. Was. Brain. Dead. Didn't matter if she had a craniotomy; while you're right that initial amount of swelling is not really an indicator of actual damage, there's a poing at which the brain just crushes itself, cranial window or not. Sorry; and yeah, brain tissue can damn well hemorrhage out the ears if there's enough intercranial pressure. It's gross, and an indicator of a pretty piss-poor prognosis *eyeroll*. Anyway, I get what you're getting at, but that patient was just plain gone. Finito. Meat on a vent. And that doc needed a serious cockpunch. But please, be careful about giving out medical advice when you don't really know what you're talking about, especially with brain-injured patients. Way too many people get false hope that way, and needlessly put themselves through years of suffering and grief because of magical thinking about how the brain works and heals itself.
Um, reading this, doesn't it require specific software to be installed to be effective? This does not appear, from what little info is presented, to be a general "hackin' tool" to "pwn newbs". Or maybe it is. Let me know when you can actually get into anything with this. As for releasing it: give it to the devs first. Let them patch things up. Then release it after patches are ubiquitous and discuss how clever you are. Anything else is just plain stupid.
PONG didn't have a story line either, and what's good enough for PONG is good enough for me!
Wait... You never got past the first level?!? Jeez, what a noob.
You know, this actually might work out: 1) Use the repellent for X seasons, until no longer effective due to the bugs losing their fear of dead bugs. 2) Spread a known (bug-only!) disease the next Y seasons, until no longer effective due to the bugs regaining their fear of dead bugs. 3) See 1) Actually, the same would theoretically work with antibiotics - have the FDA remove all, say, penicillin-based antibiotics from the market (except special cases, like where someone is allergic to every other antibiotic, or the only thing a specific bacteria is susceptible to is penicillin-based drugs) for a few years. Studies show that bacteria quickly lose resistance to antibiotics (at least in the lab) when no longer routinely exposed - it takes more energy to produce the resistant proteins/plasmids, and the resistant bacteria are quickly outcompeted. Cycle in/out 1-2 major groups like this every few years, and the "superbugs" that have people so freaked out will be susceptible again. There, I solved that problem - 1 billion dollars, please. I'll take local checks. Really, it's simple. Use evolutionary genetic patterns to our advantage - it's like hacking for the biosphere! ...Cue: "what could possibly go wrong" here...
Heh, yeah. Get lost on Fort Carson in Colorado and just that kind of thing can happen. They are VERY unforgiving of people getting too close to the Aerospace Command centers up on/in Cheyenne Mountain. Almost everyone on base there has a story about something like that - my favorite one is where a guy pulling security near the top of the mountain called out for pizza and the delivery guy didn't have the little "Domino's" plastic identifier thingy on his car. So, the first guard to see him driving up put a couple of rounds through his engine block since he didn't immediately stop where he was supposed to. Then, according to legend, the poor pizza delivery dude got yanked out of the car, face-slammed into the ground, and hauled off to some detention area for half the day until his story got cleared. They probably didn't even tip him.
Meh. I work a lot at Fort Sam - actually, at the hospital on base. The thing is about the place that it's a much more "open" base than pretty much any other one in the Army. It's a post dedicated almost entirely to training or medical support, and therefore can be much more laid-back than one with a buttload of ordinance and military "secrets" lying around. Also, last time I checked, they use semi-incompetent private security instead of armed military guards like almost every other Army post. I am absolutely unsurprised that there was a mistake like this made. Anyway, that point being made, these guys are too relaxed. The hospital is "open" as long as you can show a valid drivers' license at the gate. The rest of the base is fenced off from there, but the same guards control the gates, and get used to waving anybody through that looks like they think they should be there - lots of drug reps, for example, have to do some of their contracting or product-related teaching on the main post, and it becomes a logistical mess to give them special access IDs and the like. There's a lot of mix-ups related to things like this, so surprise surprise, somebody slipped through who wasn't supposed to be there. It's not some goofy general's fault, really, it's just the unique challenge presented by a post like this one where it's Army, but doesn't have the same mentality as most of the rest of the Army.
Like you said - Pralidoxime and Atropine injectors are extremely old-school for the US military. Although I'm happy that there are new drugs for treating nerve gas poisoning, TFA makes it sound like the "new" drugs are still completely untested - only on petri dish models, if I read it correctly. So, while there is promise, there are no human or animal efficiency results yet, no toxicity tests - all kinds of things are needed to prove that these new molecules are appropriate to replace the old ones.
That's the thing about new drugs - they look wonderful and promising for a while in the lab, then you stick them in a monkey and his testicles melt or his hair falls out. Oops - back to the drawing board.
Anyway, I'm skeptical but hopeful. I've had biochem weapons training in the Army, and nerve gases are effing nasty. More power to providing more survivability...
Oh, let's see - maybe the fact that I have to share the roads with dangerous drivers?
We limit the rights of some to protect the rights of all - if you are an unsafe driver, I will happily limit your right to drive if it increases the rights of the majority to drive safely.
That, my snide friend, is what gives me the right - the same right that pretty much all of the laws of the US are based on. Also the same reason you have to take a driving test and maintain a driver's license. Yes, that's right, a license to drive. Pretty "Soviet", eh? In your view, is it only American if we just let everyone jump behind the wheel, even the blind and insane, because "America, Fuck Yeah!"?
I'm sorry, but think before you post. It enriches us all.
That's the wonderful thing about having lobbyists - they "inform" the legislators. In this case, they could let Joe Sixpack Senator (R-TX) about how EEEVIL botnet creators are, how they're harming the InterTubes and online businessess and hence the GNP. The common good doesn't cut much ice anymore, but tell them how it's making businesses lose *money*, and stand back...
Also nice about lobbyists: they can even help these guys draft bills in ways that actually help make things work. MS and Google, at least, have lobbyists now... let's see them get their money's worth.
I dunno - maybe this is what we need ~ a botnet big enough to do some real damage could actually catalyze some public awareness. Imagine if they DDoS'd MS, or Amazon, heck, Google? Maybe these guys (esp. Google) could handle this kind of slamming, but they've got lobbyists now. I really wouldn't mind seeing a well-funded FBI task force with the express purpose of rooting out botnets and going after their creators. Yeah, yeah, most of them are not on US soil. I know. However, imagine legislation that actually required the disconnection of infected bots from an ISP until it was cleaned, and a public awareness campaign that painted users who allow this to happen as idiots, and the ISPs as protectors of the rest of the internet users. Most people are concerned that there would be a backlash against the ISPs and they would stop complying for fear of loss of business, but that's where the legislation comes in. It's a quarantine situation - just like IRL, if you've got something nasty and contagious, the CDC can legally quarantine (forcibly, if you're an idiot like the TB guy) you because you're endangering the lives of others by going out and exposing them. Same thing here - don't give the botnets a chance to expand, cut them off, force a windows-cleaning (ISPs could offer a cleanup disk, $5.95 plus tax, or something, to help make it worth it for them - don't want to hurt the small ISPs, even though I think TW and the rest are bastards), and let them reconnect afterwards. Simple, painless, and will definitely make sure people learn their lesson for next time.
That is possible - the other possibility I see is that these wanks are using oil company tactics: Crank the prices sky-high, let everyone get scared and angry, then back off 9/10 of the original increase. The consumers and stations feel as if they've won and that their activism has made a difference, but really they've just bent over a little further.