thanks for the proper objective reply. Man I didn't think I would get flamed so hard for my story (by other people).
Anyway, here are some things to consider.
Indeed we where not in 'need' of IVF, more in 'want'. Though we wouldn't have died the other things would have applied. In this particular case my wife was suffering from Endomitriosis and Fibroid tumors of which one had allready been removed through an myomectomy a few years back. Not a pleasant operation. The successfull IVF has had an interesting side effect. Her pregnancy is now stopping the growth of the fibroids and even reducing the endomitriosis. So yes, it did prevent some kinds of sore. Not claiming this is the reason we did IVF ofcourse, that is the 'suffering in an objective' term. Not sure at what point you are in your life, but by the time you experience the 'need/want for kids' thing you might be wondering where this need comes from. I believe that it is a natural need that is encoded in our genes. Among other places this is mentioned in the book 'Mind wide open'. So not being able to fullfill our natural need one will indeed suffer.
Not that we wouldn't be able to overcome this suffering. We where allready getting ready for the adoption process and would have most likely lived happily ever after with an adopted kid too.
If life deals a bad card, and you have the money to change that card...isn't that what all this hard working is all about? Well, a socialist standpoint to distribute that wealth and change the bad cards of a group of people isn't all that bad (in MY opinion). But I am rather biased there...being from the Netherlands and all:-)
If a couple lacks the native ablilty to reproduce unaided then perhaps it is for a reason, no?
That hurts man. Seeing that someone believes that crap about 'devine reason'. If it was available, would you have gotten the flu vaccine or is it meant to be that more people will die this year because of the flu vaccine shortage? If a condom can stop VD's and prevent unwanted pregnancies, are you really claiming that we shouldn't use them? Do you take responsibility for your actions? Do you think for yourself? Columbine or 911, was there a devine reason?
My wife has Endometriosis and there is no reason for this. IVF provided us with the ability to raise our biological offspring. Why is this important? Because our brain makes us think it is. Yes it is hardcoded in our brain to produce offspring, and though we have the capability to ignore our basic instincts it takes an effort. Going with the natural flow of things is, well, natural.
So do your sister a favor. Let her listend to her body while you listend in private to your god.
Why did you have to bring another hell-spawn into this already overpopulated world? Maybe the fact that you couldn't have a kid was a sign from god that you are not fit to raise children
Though your response is most likely simple flamebait I will bite.
The world isn't overpopulated (yet). The problem is the uneven distribution of resources.
There is no god.
Nobody knows up front whether they are fit to raise kids. I think I stand a decent chance to do the right thing though. I am very educated (MSCS), have worked hard to build up a decent career, can support myself and my family and am more then willing to pay the taxes to support people who are not as fortunate as myself. This also goes for my parents, my parents in law, my siblings and my siblings in law. Alltogether a rather happy and healthy bunch of people that will provide a wonderfull environment for my kids to grow up in.
My wife and I considered going abroad for the treatment we where facing too. We where in need of IVF (in vitro fertalization) and this is typically not covered by insurance companies in the US. Some numbers suggest up to 2 million americans are in need of this procedure. Looking at about $15,000 per procedure without a guarantee of success we considered getting treated in Canada (less then $10k per try) or even going back to the Netherlands where it is insured by law reducing the patients cost to ~$1200 per try.
Given that I am in the top 5% income bracket we opted for just taking the treatment and paying for it. Still not a great thing considering that it could take several treatments after which there is still no gaurantee of success (other then losing the money).
We got lucky. First time was a success.
I have been wondering how the millions of other couples in america for whom this procedure might be the last chance are dealing with the cost. Going abroad maybe?
In favor of google: I do think they had the intent on creating a usefull tool.
In favor of google: As far as I know, all the information that their desktop search tool exposes can be found in simular ways using a veriety of tools including MS windows own 'find-in-files' search options. In other words, their desktop search tool doesn't go out and break user-protected barriers.
Against Google: Just because your intent is honerable doesn't mean you can ignore privacy concerns.
Against the media (CNN, et.al): No integrity to be found for a while now! Just plain bashing, advertising, manipulating, money-making propaganda.
Nice try, but the backspace key doesn't allways work. For example if the page you are visiting drops the cursor in an edit box like google. Instead you should use alt + left-cursor to navigate to the previous page!
we can look for the place where the moon landings took place to finaly debunk all those sceptics ?
If the comment was sincere then tell me how exactly you would want to convince someone who doesn't listened to reason. Hopefully you see the contradiction.
Here is my view of the universe:
The Real Universe - what really happens. What really is/was/shall be - population 0
The Physical Universe (feel free to call it something else like 'personal universe') - The rules we come up with that describe as best we can "The Real Universe". - population 1, you. This is what you believe to be the truth.
The Imaginative Universe - everything else. - When several people discuss their 'Physical Universe' the stuff that doesn't overlap, or hasn't been agreed upon. - population: everyone
This overview explains a few things. It explains that it is not possible to 'force' someone to change their Physical Universe view. If you do convince someone of your view you simply described it fitting with their own rules. You will find people in life with some really weird rules.
America's Army, the game, is freeware and has only one minor ad that is well hidden;-)
For those who don't know, the American Army (the real thing) spend some money to have a game developer create a FPS game including things the army has to offer. From weapons training to shooting the bad guys. The game was spread as freeware with the purpose of getting kids interested in joining the U.S. Army.
Anyway, just wanted to mention this ad with game inside.
It is not anywhere near as good a deal as you might think. The 2 megapixel sensor (CMOS I bet, from either Micron, Omnivision or the likes) are going to be flooding the market at about $5~$8 in bulk this year. This technology is booming and going straight for commodity prices. The lens technology is desperatly trying to catch up but is still lacking. Trust me that the lens on this thing is tiny and crappy. Good enough for a quicky vacation pic, but not good enough to replace a regular (sub)$300 digital camera. All the other parts are trivial....except the LCD. Can someone tell me how they managed to get a super cheap LCD in there?
I got several of those. The first one was an eye opener to the world of phishing for me. I did actually report it to Citi Bank through their online reporting mechanism. I'm hoping they are working with law enforcement to go after the purpetrators....ok, just kidding. At least I'm hoping that if enough people complain they might just have to come up with something that helps their real customers. I dunno, send out an 'awareness email', I know that my parents don't have a clue when it comes to phishing, they still think they are safe because they installed a virus checker.
You ofcourse mean ?. capitalizing the first letter only. This would be "Whatsdot", kinda rolls nicely of the tong. Fits perfectly as a generalized question as to what is happening in the world of the innernet without overly focusing on.com.
I have not RTFA, but I have heard and experienced this before. It is part of the contract that employers 'make' employees sign when they join the company. I have only seen this enforced on people who where part of the architecture team of one company and had insights and access into more then their own contributions. Is it fair to prevent these 'insiders' to work for the direct competition? As much as I don't think so it is nothing more or less evil then companies patenting every single thought their employees come up with.
Your right, but don't forget that the digital camera market is advancing at an incredible rate. At the end of this year the market will be flooded with 4M pixel CMOS sensors at sub $15. Next year that will be 8M pixels. Together with hotspot tracking (auto zooming on moving subjects) better compression techniques and cheaper mass storage this will make a big difference compared to the current security systems.
Not something I am particularly looking forward to if I may add.
thanks for your response. Definitly no offense taken and didn't mean to cause any either:-)
I'm with you on the terrorism discussion issues. I do discuss it with my american friends a lot (I live in the US but are from holland orriginally). I prefer to discuss it based on 'prevention' and 'defense'. How do we make people not hate us and how do we defend ourselves against people who choose to hate us anyway.
I totally agree that it should simply be "cautious regarding the unknown". That is proper behaviour. Avoiding hysteria is even a better thing to mention.
Yes, the MP3 thingy was humour. So was the "I for one welcome...". Though the last sentence was summing up some irrational fears. The phobia. Guess my post was a little too political, sorry.
Though you might have been kidding about beeing affraid about the evil alliens coming to visit and do evil things to us like take away our freedom (or worse, steal our MP3's), this does seem to be a bit of an unfortunate trend in modern thinking. Just because they look different, think different and have a different believe system we don't have to instantly nuke them when they are within reach.
I for one welcome our new green-multi-mouthed homosapienphobic omnivore doomsday-device-wielding neighbours!
For those interested in developing 3D games for embedded systems (not just cellphones). You may want to look at OpenGL ES by the Khronos Group.
As a preferred programming environment for embedded systems Java will provide access to 3D graphics through JSR184 a Mobile 3D graphics API for J2ME and more excitingly JSR239 direct Java bindings for OpenGL ES!
It is called OpenGL ES (Embedded Systems) by the Khronos group. The article started of with quotes from some guy from the Khronos group.
There are several initiatives to bring 3D to the Jave platform as well. JSR184 is a Mobile Graphics API for J2ME. Even more exciting is the upcoming JSR239 which will provided Java with direct bindings to OpenGL ES!
Slashdot Mirror
thanks for the proper objective reply. Man I didn't think I would get flamed so hard for my story (by other people).
:-)
Anyway, here are some things to consider.
Indeed we where not in 'need' of IVF, more in 'want'. Though we wouldn't have died the other things would have applied. In this particular case my wife was suffering from Endomitriosis and Fibroid tumors of which one had allready been removed through an myomectomy a few years back. Not a pleasant operation. The successfull IVF has had an interesting side effect. Her pregnancy is now stopping the growth of the fibroids and even reducing the endomitriosis. So yes, it did prevent some kinds of sore.
Not claiming this is the reason we did IVF ofcourse, that is the 'suffering in an objective' term. Not sure at what point you are in your life, but by the time you experience the 'need/want for kids' thing you might be wondering where this need comes from. I believe that it is a natural need that is encoded in our genes. Among other places this is mentioned in the book 'Mind wide open'. So not being able to fullfill our natural need one will indeed suffer.
Not that we wouldn't be able to overcome this suffering. We where allready getting ready for the adoption process and would have most likely lived happily ever after with an adopted kid too.
If life deals a bad card, and you have the money to change that card...isn't that what all this hard working is all about? Well, a socialist standpoint to distribute that wealth and change the bad cards of a group of people isn't all that bad (in MY opinion). But I am rather biased there...being from the Netherlands and all
CORRECTION: We where in 'want' of IVF. Not in 'need' as so many people have pointed out so nicely :-)
If a couple lacks the native ablilty to reproduce unaided then perhaps it is for a reason, no?
That hurts man. Seeing that someone believes that crap about 'devine reason'. If it was available, would you have gotten the flu vaccine or is it meant to be that more people will die this year because of the flu vaccine shortage? If a condom can stop VD's and prevent unwanted pregnancies, are you really claiming that we shouldn't use them? Do you take responsibility for your actions? Do you think for yourself? Columbine or 911, was there a devine reason?
My wife has Endometriosis and there is no reason for this. IVF provided us with the ability to raise our biological offspring. Why is this important? Because our brain makes us think it is. Yes it is hardcoded in our brain to produce offspring, and though we have the capability to ignore our basic instincts it takes an effort. Going with the natural flow of things is, well, natural.
So do your sister a favor. Let her listend to her body while you listend in private to your god.
Have a happy life.
Ok allready ... we where in 'want' of IVF. And we would have been trying to adopt kids if the IVF hadn't worked out.
I do however disagree with the premise that IVF is a luxury that should only be available to those who can afford it.
Why did you have to bring another hell-spawn into this already overpopulated world? Maybe the fact that you couldn't have a kid was a sign from god that you are not fit to raise children
Though your response is most likely simple flamebait I will bite.
The world isn't overpopulated (yet). The problem is the uneven distribution of resources.
There is no god.
Nobody knows up front whether they are fit to raise kids. I think I stand a decent chance to do the right thing though. I am very educated (MSCS), have worked hard to build up a decent career, can support myself and my family and am more then willing to pay the taxes to support people who are not as fortunate as myself. This also goes for my parents, my parents in law, my siblings and my siblings in law. Alltogether a rather happy and healthy bunch of people that will provide a wonderfull environment for my kids to grow up in.
Since I am looking into Laser Eye Surgery, can you provide some info (link) to this company.
Thanks.
My wife and I considered going abroad for the treatment we where facing too. We where in need of IVF (in vitro fertalization) and this is typically not covered by insurance companies in the US. Some numbers suggest up to 2 million americans are in need of this procedure. Looking at about $15,000 per procedure without a guarantee of success we considered getting treated in Canada (less then $10k per try) or even going back to the Netherlands where it is insured by law reducing the patients cost to ~$1200 per try.
Given that I am in the top 5% income bracket we opted for just taking the treatment and paying for it. Still not a great thing considering that it could take several treatments after which there is still no gaurantee of success (other then losing the money).
We got lucky. First time was a success.
I have been wondering how the millions of other couples in america for whom this procedure might be the last chance are dealing with the cost. Going abroad maybe?
Some considerations:
In favor of google: I do think they had the intent on creating a usefull tool.
In favor of google: As far as I know, all the information that their desktop search tool exposes can be found in simular ways using a veriety of tools including MS windows own 'find-in-files' search options. In other words, their desktop search tool doesn't go out and break user-protected barriers.
Against Google: Just because your intent is honerable doesn't mean you can ignore privacy concerns.
Against the media (CNN, et.al): No integrity to be found for a while now! Just plain bashing, advertising, manipulating, money-making propaganda.
my $0.02
Nice try, but the backspace key doesn't allways work. For example if the page you are visiting drops the cursor in an edit box like google. Instead you should use alt + left-cursor to navigate to the previous page!
very good! One of my favorite little jokes from the hhgttg by the way :-)
Did you know they where working on a new movie: http://www.hitchhikersmovie.com/
chears.
And this was 'informative' how exactly?
;-)
z: what does the 'z' stand for?
t: which 'z'?
z: any 'z'
(trivia: what book is this from?
we can look for the place where the moon landings took place to finaly debunk all those sceptics ?
If the comment was sincere then tell me how exactly you would want to convince someone who doesn't listened to reason. Hopefully you see the contradiction.
Here is my view of the universe:
The Real Universe
- what really happens. What really is/was/shall be
- population 0
The Physical Universe (feel free to call it something else like 'personal universe')
- The rules we come up with that describe as best we can "The Real Universe".
- population 1, you. This is what you believe to be the truth.
The Imaginative Universe
- everything else.
- When several people discuss their 'Physical Universe' the stuff that doesn't overlap, or hasn't been agreed upon.
- population: everyone
This overview explains a few things. It explains that it is not possible to 'force' someone to change their Physical Universe view. If you do convince someone of your view you simply described it fitting with their own rules. You will find people in life with some really weird rules.
my $0.02 philosophy
America's Army, the game, is freeware and has only one minor ad that is well hidden ;-)
For those who don't know, the American Army (the real thing) spend some money to have a game developer create a FPS game including things the army has to offer. From weapons training to shooting the bad guys. The game was spread as freeware with the purpose of getting kids interested in joining the U.S. Army.
Anyway, just wanted to mention this ad with game inside.
It is not anywhere near as good a deal as you might think. The 2 megapixel sensor (CMOS I bet, from either Micron, Omnivision or the likes) are going to be flooding the market at about $5~$8 in bulk this year. This technology is booming and going straight for commodity prices. The lens technology is desperatly trying to catch up but is still lacking. Trust me that the lens on this thing is tiny and crappy. Good enough for a quicky vacation pic, but not good enough to replace a regular (sub)$300 digital camera. All the other parts are trivial....except the LCD. Can someone tell me how they managed to get a super cheap LCD in there?
I got several of those. The first one was an eye opener to the world of phishing for me. I did actually report it to Citi Bank through their online reporting mechanism. I'm hoping they are working with law enforcement to go after the purpetrators....ok, just kidding. At least I'm hoping that if enough people complain they might just have to come up with something that helps their real customers. I dunno, send out an 'awareness email', I know that my parents don't have a clue when it comes to phishing, they still think they are safe because they installed a virus checker.
I have not RTFA, but I have heard and experienced this before. It is part of the contract that employers 'make' employees sign when they join the company. I have only seen this enforced on people who where part of the architecture team of one company and had insights and access into more then their own contributions. Is it fair to prevent these 'insiders' to work for the direct competition? As much as I don't think so it is nothing more or less evil then companies patenting every single thought their employees come up with.
my 2 cents.
Your right, but don't forget that the digital camera market is advancing at an incredible rate. At the end of this year the market will be flooded with 4M pixel CMOS sensors at sub $15. Next year that will be 8M pixels. Together with hotspot tracking (auto zooming on moving subjects) better compression techniques and cheaper mass storage this will make a big difference compared to the current security systems.
Not something I am particularly looking forward to if I may add.
'the only surviving motivation for continuing human spaceflight is the ideology of adventure.'
I find the idea of venturing into space for the use of expanding the living quarters of us here human race an appropriate motivation too.
Hey Jivan,
:-)
thanks for your response. Definitly no offense taken and didn't mean to cause any either
I'm with you on the terrorism discussion issues. I do discuss it with my american friends a lot (I live in the US but are from holland orriginally). I prefer to discuss it based on 'prevention' and 'defense'. How do we make people not hate us and how do we defend ourselves against people who choose to hate us anyway.
Peace indeed!
didn't mention Al Qaeda.
I totally agree that it should simply be "cautious regarding the unknown". That is proper behaviour. Avoiding hysteria is even a better thing to mention.
Yes, the MP3 thingy was humour. So was the "I for one welcome...". Though the last sentence was summing up some irrational fears. The phobia. Guess my post was a little too political, sorry.
Though you might have been kidding about beeing affraid about the evil alliens coming to visit and do evil things to us like take away our freedom (or worse, steal our MP3's), this does seem to be a bit of an unfortunate trend in modern thinking. Just because they look different, think different and have a different believe system we don't have to instantly nuke them when they are within reach.
I for one welcome our new green-multi-mouthed homosapienphobic omnivore doomsday-device-wielding neighbours!
Ha, Protoss will wipe you out!
For those interested in developing 3D games for embedded systems (not just cellphones). You may want to look at OpenGL ES by the Khronos Group.
As a preferred programming environment for embedded systems Java will provide access to 3D graphics through JSR184 a Mobile 3D graphics API for J2ME and more excitingly JSR239 direct Java bindings for OpenGL ES!
It is called OpenGL ES (Embedded Systems) by the Khronos group. The article started of with quotes from some guy from the Khronos group.
There are several initiatives to bring 3D to the Jave platform as well. JSR184 is a Mobile Graphics API for J2ME. Even more exciting is the upcoming JSR239 which will provided Java with direct bindings to OpenGL ES!