It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
... as long as they're famous and/or rich. Otherwise, whatever.
That's not true. Non-famous rich people don't get that treatment.
Furthermore, the famous people being overly honored is a function more of how many people have heard of famous people than celebrity worship. If a non-famous co-worker dies, we eulogize them. It's not national news for obvious reasons.
Not to defend American culture on slashdot or anything that would risk making me stand out from the cool kids, but I think this also goes on pretty much everywhere. People's natural tenancy is to honor the dead and remember them fondly. Famous people are by definition people that a lot of people know about, so when they die, of course there's more people doing that.
To an individual, maybe not, but for drug trials, yes. Knowing definitively that your test subjects had the disease or did not would be better than judging by symptoms. I'd also wager that there are probably a few other non alzheimers problems that show similar symptoms early on, it would be valuable to know if it was AZ or not AZ and instead might be a brain tumor, for example.
Does the test for both show that there's still no consensus on the cause, or has one been established as the cause and the other an effect?
I think the fact that both are used merely shows that there's consensus that both are strong markers of the disease. Actually proving cause and effect is going to require better animal models, better culture systems to replicate the disease in a dish, or people willing to sacrifice themselves. I heard a seminar about 3 years ago by a "tauist," who was arguing that if you artificially expressed tau in mouse brains, their neurons started acting like early stages of alzheimers, but the mice never developed plaques. He suggested plaques might be a symptom that only comes up in human brains, or after several years longer than mice live, or some more complicated reasons, but he really didn't know. I haven't heard any research from a BAPtist, so I don't know the other side of the story. I'm guessing there haven't been any definitive answers since then.
The answer could be entirely academic anyway, this one causes that other one but both are necessary for the actual disease, so a treatment for the dependent step might be all you need, or the answer could be that both are required together, or that either one is sufficient to cause the other one.
Nearly every person with Alzheimer's had the characteristic spinal fluid protein levels
So it can 100% predict what not 100% of them have...?
There were two proteins being tested. Say out of the hundred alzheimer positives, two had tau levels that were below the average for alzheimer patients by a statistically significant amount BUT significantly higher than the average your non-alzheimer population , and their beta amyloid levels were normal for an alzheimer positive, then you could say it was 100% accurate, nearly every patient had the -characteristic- levels, and the NY times would probably summarize it like they did.
Alternatively, maybe beta amyloid and tau were not detectable above noise in people without alzheimers, and were present in every alzheimer patient, but there was some variety in the levels due to amount of plaques present (amount of tissue leaking these proteins). That could also account for the "nearl every person had the characteristic levels..."
I'd guess it wouldn't be worth the expense since, as you noted this is secondary. It's not even a secondary -symptom-. It's not going to do anything besides cause massive headaches. Literal headaches, that is. It would be a bit like trying to fight a fire by clearing the smoke out of a burning building.
Who the fuck gave them the right to provide a "legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers."?
The free speech bit, just as many slashdotters offer their own legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers who happen to be browsing slashdot. If it gets passed, I'd ask who gave the legislators the idea to accept what corporations recommend.
At least with Verizon I can say "fuck you" and cancel my service. I don't know how to do that with Congress.
But of course if you say FU to verizon, in most places that means you go with an equally bad alternative. Kind of like how in most places you can choose between one of two equally bad candidates for congress.
Article mentions they were in Hawaii. I'm guessing if I stayed in Hawaii since first grade, I too may have been just as relaxed and carefree as I was in first grade, playing on the beach every day.
With the rabid anti global-warming deniers, I can at least identify where they're coming from. They hate environmentalists and academics and prefer to think there's a conspiracy rather than think that industry has caused a lot of damage. The anti-creationist crowd I completely understand and am part of, though I don't mod down just for that.
What I have a harder time understanding is the fairly overactive pro-nuclear faction present on slashdot. Express skepticism about nuclear power being completely safe or the only option, and you get modded down as a troll. Where the hell does that come from?
If the near epileptic fit the left had over Bush didn't clue anyone in... how can you be surprised or dismayed by some from the right?
Maybe because it seems to me that when the far right does it, it works and our politicians and media slide to the right. When the left does it, it fails and gets ignored by the politicians and media.
For instance, the left protested the patriot act, the wars, and the tax cuts, and they all sailed through. The right protested universal healthcare, it barely squeaked through having been modified to the point of not doing much of anything.
The USA needs Democrats with balls to propose truly liberal policy, not watered down compromises, imho
And repudiate our proud tradition of running in fear every time someone says they don't like us?!? But they could say we're unamerican or like taxes!!!
I just wet myself thinking about that possibility. I'm going to be hiding under my desk for a while...
That's where you are wrong. There is a lack of resources, funding, and computers cycles. There have been cycles running for years. I know cancer researchers, and I've donated time, money, and my computer cycles
While all research could use more funding, cancer research has to be one of the best-funded research fields out there. It's either that or defense. It lacks funding like I lack funding because I can't buy a mansion.
Could you be more specific as to what those cycles were for? I'm guessing they were for protein folding, which is essential and good research but is not going to directly find a cure. If google had run all it's computers on protein folding, we'd likely be only marginally closer to a cure for cancer.
The limiting factor in cancer research is -not- computing time. A bigger one is the fact that there are many different types of cancer, and the biggest one is that it's incredibly difficult to kill millions of any one type of cell without killing a lot of other cells in a human body. For most of our history, we had no idea how to specifically kill bacterial cells in a human body. It's still an issue.
Great job though moderators, bump up misinformation. You'd rage too if you were 34 and had to deal with this shit. And watch, I'll get marked as Troll again, even though I'm not and have a great post history. Whatever.
You're also going to get modded troll because you were asking for it. If you're 34 you should have at some point learned how to calm down and not take things so seriously.
Gas taxes are what is used to maintain the roads. A large part of the states Transportation budget comes from the revenue collected through gas taxes.
If we go with hydrogen fuels, then obviously a tax on fuel will still be possible, and would be much easier than GPS for everyone. If we go with electric cars, then increased license and registration, increased sales tax on cars, and increased other taxes would still be an easier path to covering those expenses than GPS. If for some reason we are absolutely sold on sticking with "You pay for exactly how much you drive," I'd expect some type of correspondence with your odometer, not telling them your position at all times.
Installing a GPS in everyone's car is the most complicated and expensive way of measuring how much one has used the roads and would face significant public opposition. Politicians usually take the path of least resistance. I think it's unlikely GPS will be trotted out as a widespread policy.
PS: An activist judge is a judge who makes a ruling that you disagree with.
Exactly. Makes you wonder about the sanity of politicians and pundits who, upon hearing that one of the three branches of government does something they don't like, their inclination is to neuter that whole branch of the government. Not only that, but many of the same people were happy to see executive powers expanded when their guy was in office, apparently not thinking about the day when someone they -didn't- like inherited those powers.
a whole other industry would be put out of business: prosthetics
Sorta like how the glasses industry was put out of business by laser eye surgery advances?
This is muscle cells, many steps away from regrowing full muscles, and even more steps away from regrowing full limbs with bone, ligaments, muscle, tendons, vasculature, skin, and nerves. Even if we do make it the rest of the way, that's going to be a complicated, expensive procedure that's probably going to leave you with a starter limb that will take years of therapy, muscle conditioning, and growth to function as a a full limb. Furthermore, many leg prosthetics are very effective. Trading in a mostly functional below-the-knee prosthetic for an extremely expensive flesh-and-blood replacement, even if it is perfect, is something many people would likely not do.
Arm prosthetics on the other hand aren't as good, and of course if one arm is weaker than the other one, you're still able to walk around fine, maybe people would opt more for arm replacements than arm prosthetics. Then again, there's still the issue of the tech is far off there too. If we develop fully functional robotic prosthetics, I'd wager an arm regeneration industry would have a hard time developing.
I have to note that a cat is not a viable replacement in that regard. Pretty sure my cats would rub up against burglars, purring, and then lead them to their food bowls, which happen to be near the computer.
How about New York State Thruway? Or Ontario's 407ETR? These are toll roads... you don't pay, you take a slower route. The car analogy holds this time!
But this is not true of the vast majority of roads. So thanks for making me feel better about the current issue (even if it turned out not to be true anyway.)
Shhh!!! You're ruining the karma whoring for the rest of us, tying them to apple, MS, and al quaeda and making fun of their "don't be evil" motto. Why you gotta ruin it with facts? This is slashdot: gossip for nerds...
Remember you said that if you're ever scared out of your mind about a medical issue and make sure you see a doctor before the cancer cells undergo metastasis / the STD causes permanent damage / your kid's fever kills him / the infection requires amputation.
Slashdot Mirror
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
... as long as they're famous and/or rich. Otherwise, whatever.
That's not true. Non-famous rich people don't get that treatment.
Furthermore, the famous people being overly honored is a function more of how many people have heard of famous people than celebrity worship. If a non-famous co-worker dies, we eulogize them. It's not national news for obvious reasons.
Not to defend American culture on slashdot or anything that would risk making me stand out from the cool kids, but I think this also goes on pretty much everywhere. People's natural tenancy is to honor the dead and remember them fondly. Famous people are by definition people that a lot of people know about, so when they die, of course there's more people doing that.
Only fools see such issues as black and white.
Wheras only smart people see the world in terms of fools and smart people :-P
He completely surprised me... gives me hope (probably false hope) that even the most ridiculous ideologues can be brought to reason.
I'd like to think that even on slashdot, no one has any religious beliefs in market forces or anything net related.
And apparently -elitist- nerds. The most ridiculous type. It's like comic book guy from the simpsons making fun of millhouse.
To an individual, maybe not, but for drug trials, yes. Knowing definitively that your test subjects had the disease or did not would be better than judging by symptoms. I'd also wager that there are probably a few other non alzheimers problems that show similar symptoms early on, it would be valuable to know if it was AZ or not AZ and instead might be a brain tumor, for example.
Does the test for both show that there's still no consensus on the cause, or has one been established as the cause and the other an effect?
I think the fact that both are used merely shows that there's consensus that both are strong markers of the disease. Actually proving cause and effect is going to require better animal models, better culture systems to replicate the disease in a dish, or people willing to sacrifice themselves. I heard a seminar about 3 years ago by a "tauist," who was arguing that if you artificially expressed tau in mouse brains, their neurons started acting like early stages of alzheimers, but the mice never developed plaques. He suggested plaques might be a symptom that only comes up in human brains, or after several years longer than mice live, or some more complicated reasons, but he really didn't know. I haven't heard any research from a BAPtist, so I don't know the other side of the story. I'm guessing there haven't been any definitive answers since then.
The answer could be entirely academic anyway, this one causes that other one but both are necessary for the actual disease, so a treatment for the dependent step might be all you need, or the answer could be that both are required together, or that either one is sufficient to cause the other one.
Nearly every person with Alzheimer's had the characteristic spinal fluid protein levels
So it can 100% predict what not 100% of them have...?
There were two proteins being tested. Say out of the hundred alzheimer positives, two had tau levels that were below the average for alzheimer patients by a statistically significant amount BUT significantly higher than the average your non-alzheimer population , and their beta amyloid levels were normal for an alzheimer positive, then you could say it was 100% accurate, nearly every patient had the -characteristic- levels, and the NY times would probably summarize it like they did.
Alternatively, maybe beta amyloid and tau were not detectable above noise in people without alzheimers, and were present in every alzheimer patient, but there was some variety in the levels due to amount of plaques present (amount of tissue leaking these proteins). That could also account for the "nearl every person had the characteristic levels..."
300 people. In the summary.
100% meant it was, as tested, 100% accurate with no false positives or negatives.
I'd guess it wouldn't be worth the expense since, as you noted this is secondary. It's not even a secondary -symptom-. It's not going to do anything besides cause massive headaches. Literal headaches, that is. It would be a bit like trying to fight a fire by clearing the smoke out of a burning building.
Who the fuck gave them the right to provide a "legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers."?
The free speech bit, just as many slashdotters offer their own legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers who happen to be browsing slashdot. If it gets passed, I'd ask who gave the legislators the idea to accept what corporations recommend.
At least with Verizon I can say "fuck you" and cancel my service.
I don't know how to do that with Congress.
But of course if you say FU to verizon, in most places that means you go with an equally bad alternative. Kind of like how in most places you can choose between one of two equally bad candidates for congress.
Article mentions they were in Hawaii. I'm guessing if I stayed in Hawaii since first grade, I too may have been just as relaxed and carefree as I was in first grade, playing on the beach every day.
With the rabid anti global-warming deniers, I can at least identify where they're coming from. They hate environmentalists and academics and prefer to think there's a conspiracy rather than think that industry has caused a lot of damage. The anti-creationist crowd I completely understand and am part of, though I don't mod down just for that.
What I have a harder time understanding is the fairly overactive pro-nuclear faction present on slashdot. Express skepticism about nuclear power being completely safe or the only option, and you get modded down as a troll. Where the hell does that come from?
If the near epileptic fit the left had over Bush didn't clue anyone in... how can you be surprised or dismayed by some from the right?
Maybe because it seems to me that when the far right does it, it works and our politicians and media slide to the right. When the left does it, it fails and gets ignored by the politicians and media.
For instance, the left protested the patriot act, the wars, and the tax cuts, and they all sailed through. The right protested universal healthcare, it barely squeaked through having been modified to the point of not doing much of anything.
The USA needs Democrats with balls to propose truly liberal policy, not watered down compromises, imho
And repudiate our proud tradition of running in fear every time someone says they don't like us?!? But they could say we're unamerican or like taxes!!!
I just wet myself thinking about that possibility. I'm going to be hiding under my desk for a while...
That's where you are wrong. There is a lack of resources, funding, and computers cycles. There have been cycles running for years. I know cancer researchers, and I've donated time, money, and my computer cycles
While all research could use more funding, cancer research has to be one of the best-funded research fields out there. It's either that or defense. It lacks funding like I lack funding because I can't buy a mansion.
Could you be more specific as to what those cycles were for? I'm guessing they were for protein folding, which is essential and good research but is not going to directly find a cure. If google had run all it's computers on protein folding, we'd likely be only marginally closer to a cure for cancer.
The limiting factor in cancer research is -not- computing time. A bigger one is the fact that there are many different types of cancer, and the biggest one is that it's incredibly difficult to kill millions of any one type of cell without killing a lot of other cells in a human body. For most of our history, we had no idea how to specifically kill bacterial cells in a human body. It's still an issue.
Great job though moderators, bump up misinformation. You'd rage too if you were 34 and had to deal with this shit. And watch, I'll get marked as Troll again, even though I'm not and have a great post history. Whatever.
You're also going to get modded troll because you were asking for it. If you're 34 you should have at some point learned how to calm down and not take things so seriously.
Even a school kid without a job could buy a few games a year by cutting down on candy.
nom nom nom nom...
But without my gold-leafed hershey's kisses, I won't have enough energy to fight the zerg! ...nom nom nom nom
Gas taxes are what is used to maintain the roads. A large part of the states Transportation budget comes from the revenue collected through gas taxes.
If we go with hydrogen fuels, then obviously a tax on fuel will still be possible, and would be much easier than GPS for everyone. If we go with electric cars, then increased license and registration, increased sales tax on cars, and increased other taxes would still be an easier path to covering those expenses than GPS. If for some reason we are absolutely sold on sticking with "You pay for exactly how much you drive," I'd expect some type of correspondence with your odometer, not telling them your position at all times.
Installing a GPS in everyone's car is the most complicated and expensive way of measuring how much one has used the roads and would face significant public opposition. Politicians usually take the path of least resistance. I think it's unlikely GPS will be trotted out as a widespread policy.
PS: An activist judge is a judge who makes a ruling that you disagree with.
Exactly. Makes you wonder about the sanity of politicians and pundits who, upon hearing that one of the three branches of government does something they don't like, their inclination is to neuter that whole branch of the government. Not only that, but many of the same people were happy to see executive powers expanded when their guy was in office, apparently not thinking about the day when someone they -didn't- like inherited those powers.
a whole other industry would be put out of business: prosthetics
Sorta like how the glasses industry was put out of business by laser eye surgery advances?
This is muscle cells, many steps away from regrowing full muscles, and even more steps away from regrowing full limbs with bone, ligaments, muscle, tendons, vasculature, skin, and nerves. Even if we do make it the rest of the way, that's going to be a complicated, expensive procedure that's probably going to leave you with a starter limb that will take years of therapy, muscle conditioning, and growth to function as a a full limb. Furthermore, many leg prosthetics are very effective. Trading in a mostly functional below-the-knee prosthetic for an extremely expensive flesh-and-blood replacement, even if it is perfect, is something many people would likely not do.
Arm prosthetics on the other hand aren't as good, and of course if one arm is weaker than the other one, you're still able to walk around fine, maybe people would opt more for arm replacements than arm prosthetics. Then again, there's still the issue of the tech is far off there too. If we develop fully functional robotic prosthetics, I'd wager an arm regeneration industry would have a hard time developing.
I have to note that a cat is not a viable replacement in that regard. Pretty sure my cats would rub up against burglars, purring, and then lead them to their food bowls, which happen to be near the computer.
How about New York State Thruway? Or Ontario's 407ETR? These are toll roads... you don't pay, you take a slower route. The car analogy holds this time!
But this is not true of the vast majority of roads. So thanks for making me feel better about the current issue (even if it turned out not to be true anyway.)
Shhh!!! You're ruining the karma whoring for the rest of us, tying them to apple, MS, and al quaeda and making fun of their "don't be evil" motto. Why you gotta ruin it with facts? This is slashdot: gossip for nerds...
Remember you said that if you're ever scared out of your mind about a medical issue and make sure you see a doctor before the cancer cells undergo metastasis / the STD causes permanent damage / your kid's fever kills him / the infection requires amputation.
Sounds like I might not want to know, but what is "ordinary debridement?" Just cutting it off with a sterile knife?