"Geek Syndrome", which is actually an undifferentiated jumble of bipolar and asperger's, is supposed to be closer to 20% amongst the geeks and the nerds of the world. Also, bear in mind that I suspect mental conditions are under-reported. The UK has twice the number of cases of Asperger's per capita than the US, and it's doubtful that that's genetics. The UK has some stigma with mental conditions, but nowhere near as much, hence the favourable view of eccentrics. It's likely bipolar is equally under-diagnosed in the US, and it's near-certain both are under-diagnosed in both countries as the mechanisms are unknown, so doctors just look at symptoms - which only works if you've a case that fits one of the standard criteria.
Look at all the genetic genealogy and genetic disease labs around the world - many going out of business from having too few orders. It would have derailed no-one if one or two Governments had decided the smart thing would be to do a complete analysis of the virus - and a vulnerability test on those who died vs. those who recovered, to see if there was any obvious indication of why there was a difference between Mexico and everywhere else.
And how many people use a modern Unix? Remember, Linux (the most modern *ix out there) has only reached 1% uptake. And even then, it won't help if the apps are only using 32-bit time_t structures.
Well, no. It's pointless shutting down the transit system, and sticking infrared cameras everywhere (as oa few places did) was unlikely to produce results either.
Britain ordered hundreds of thousands of filtered masks. Which might stop patients from being infected by health-care workers, but would not have stopped the health-care workers from being infected. They did not order much in the way of antivirals, which were known to be effective.
America closed some schools down, which did indeed shut down the vector of kid-to-kid transmission. As sick kids often end up going to work with their parents, it did however mean that you exposed adults to any potential infection, and kids would get infected from their parents. So it didn't actually do anything useful. Again, antivirals were not being ordered.
Canada took several weeks (maybe closer to a month) to isolate the flu virus from the first-known case. Well, in all probability, they got the sample, ignored it for ages, checked it, sat on the results for a long time, and then got round to telling someone. Active they were not. When they did inform the Mexicans, they obviously didn't inform the Americans as the CDC had no information on the flu in Mexico until the Mexicans sent them the data. So we can conclude the Canadian Government - even once the concerns started coming in - sat on their own data from Mexico. If this had been something dangerous, this political foppery could have been disastrous, and the Canadians couldn't have known at that point if it was going to be a nasty situation or not.
That should be enough examples to be getting on with.
Well, yes, I suppose that's true, which goes back to the thing of using a labeled isotope and tracking the lithium's effects on the brain. Once we know more about what the drug actually targets and does once it gets there, we stand a better chance of knowing what is actually needed by a patient.
(a) The total lack of action by the Mexican Government, when it was still considered entirely possible that it was going to be extremely dangerous.
(b) The totally inappropriate responses by most of the other world Governments, and
(c) The very slow and questionable response by health care officials who have been preparing for a major flu epidemic for some time now and AUGHT to have much better procedures by this time.
This particular strain looks like it's relatively mild. It is missing a protein that is carried by the deadlier strains, for a start. However, what this experience tells us is that those ultimately responsible for handling epidemics and pandemics are incompetent and/or corrupt, and will be utterly ineffective should a pandemic actually occur.
If this ineptness is repeated when a deadly flu virus outbreak does happen, we will see an outcome not much different from 1918 or any other such disaster. THAT is what we should be worried about.
(Not that this is new. After Y2K, did we see any effort to fix the 2038 bug? Nooooo. It's a long time off and we'll have replaced all our software by then, just like we did with our two-digit-date software before 2000.)
I've a very mild disorder and even I can't drop below the 700-750 range without adverse effects. I can't imagine people with an even milder form having suicidal tendencies. So if the levels in the water are high enough to have an impact on suicide rates, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the level being sustained can't be much below this. On the upside, it means it's impossible to die of water toxicity in Japan.
Considering that far, far more powerful mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics and other pharmaceuticals are routinely dumped into the US water supply (in sufficient quantities to deform the wildlife even at the level of dilution present), there really isn't much you could add to the water that could make it any more dangerous than it already is.
Why the hell the water companies don't properly filter the water they get, I don't know. But tap water is heavily polluted - contamination is sometimes orders of magnitude greater than what is permitted in the EU. Frankly, if they add lithium salts, it can't make it much more dangerous than it already is and might even improve the taste,
(One thing I -really- miss from the UK was water that tasted like water and not like a chemical waste dump.)
It can also cause thyroid problems and kidney failure. Patients must undergo very stringent tests to see if their body can cope with lithium, before it is given to them.
The problem is, lithium is highly toxic only very slightly above the theraputic threshold, making it extremely dangerous. Failure to drink, or sweating too much, will cause the lithium concentration to become dangerous or possibly deadly.
Well, that's -a- problem. Another is that it massively reduces the seizure threshold, so anyone potentially subject to seizures must also be put on anti-seizure medication to cancel the side-effect or risk having their brain turn into swiss cheese. However, each time you add medicines, you add risk of an abreaction to the new medication and also risk of the medications interacting in harmful ways.
(Many who die of medications they were prescribed die because the medications interacted.)
Despite Lithium being one of the longest-used medications for mental healthcare, it is still not very well understood. Patients are tried on it to see if it'll work for them, because it works much of the time. If it doesn't work, the doctor will try something else at random, and keep on going until something does work.
Why there haven't been studies using Lithium isotopes to trace the effects and identify the specific class(es) of condition(s) Lithium can deal with and which it can't, I don't know. It would seem easy enough and it would reduce the randomness in the mental healthcare industry.
What you are talking about is called "Content Addressable Memory", when it is at the computer level. I'm not sure CAM at the grid/cloud level is well-enough developed yet for there to be any formal term for it.
It depends. Did anyone successfully sue Bridgestone for their exploding SUV tyres for manslaughter? That's infinitely more direct and far more culpable, so if it failed in a case like that, it would almost certainly fail in a virus case.
Not necessarily newer, but certainly more robust (Windows 2000 is not something I'd consider reliable enough to be used in mission critical systems) and more secure (USB keys can carry viruses).
Usually, for something like that, as other have noted, you'd want a special-purpose OS or a very minimal layer on the hardware you can write apps directly to (eg: L4, OSKit, or something like that).
IPv4 is still gaining features that should have been in place to start off with. IPv6's biggest selling point is that it's designed to be retrofitted, whereas IPv4 is not.
Besides, if people were forced to use IPv6, how long do you REALLY think it'll take for the network companies to finish the protocol? A weekend at most, at this point. They're dragging their feet because R & D sees this as a cash cow they can milk forever if they never actually complete anything.
That makes sense, but really they would be better off just saying to customers "sorry, we have no bananas today" and telling them that they can get a great deal on IPv6 addresses instead.
(If the PHB's need to know more, IPv6 is like the GruntMaster 5,000 - including all necessary wormholing technology.)
That's assuming packed addressing. IPv6 is hierarchical, which means that it's largely sparse addressing, so your theory doesn't hold up. However, since each home network has 48 bits of address space, you still have enough addresses for your monitor - you just won't be able to use the mobility option.
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"Geek Syndrome", which is actually an undifferentiated jumble of bipolar and asperger's, is supposed to be closer to 20% amongst the geeks and the nerds of the world. Also, bear in mind that I suspect mental conditions are under-reported. The UK has twice the number of cases of Asperger's per capita than the US, and it's doubtful that that's genetics. The UK has some stigma with mental conditions, but nowhere near as much, hence the favourable view of eccentrics. It's likely bipolar is equally under-diagnosed in the US, and it's near-certain both are under-diagnosed in both countries as the mechanisms are unknown, so doctors just look at symptoms - which only works if you've a case that fits one of the standard criteria.
Look at all the genetic genealogy and genetic disease labs around the world - many going out of business from having too few orders. It would have derailed no-one if one or two Governments had decided the smart thing would be to do a complete analysis of the virus - and a vulnerability test on those who died vs. those who recovered, to see if there was any obvious indication of why there was a difference between Mexico and everywhere else.
And how many people use a modern Unix? Remember, Linux (the most modern *ix out there) has only reached 1% uptake. And even then, it won't help if the apps are only using 32-bit time_t structures.
Well, no. It's pointless shutting down the transit system, and sticking infrared cameras everywhere (as oa few places did) was unlikely to produce results either.
Britain ordered hundreds of thousands of filtered masks. Which might stop patients from being infected by health-care workers, but would not have stopped the health-care workers from being infected. They did not order much in the way of antivirals, which were known to be effective.
America closed some schools down, which did indeed shut down the vector of kid-to-kid transmission. As sick kids often end up going to work with their parents, it did however mean that you exposed adults to any potential infection, and kids would get infected from their parents. So it didn't actually do anything useful. Again, antivirals were not being ordered.
Canada took several weeks (maybe closer to a month) to isolate the flu virus from the first-known case. Well, in all probability, they got the sample, ignored it for ages, checked it, sat on the results for a long time, and then got round to telling someone. Active they were not. When they did inform the Mexicans, they obviously didn't inform the Americans as the CDC had no information on the flu in Mexico until the Mexicans sent them the data. So we can conclude the Canadian Government - even once the concerns started coming in - sat on their own data from Mexico. If this had been something dangerous, this political foppery could have been disastrous, and the Canadians couldn't have known at that point if it was going to be a nasty situation or not.
That should be enough examples to be getting on with.
Well, yes, I suppose that's true, which goes back to the thing of using a labeled isotope and tracking the lithium's effects on the brain. Once we know more about what the drug actually targets and does once it gets there, we stand a better chance of knowing what is actually needed by a patient.
If you've not seen "The IPCRESS File", it's available from Pirate Bay - errr, Amazon, and has to be one of the best spy movies ever.
What's interesting is:
(a) The total lack of action by the Mexican Government, when it was still considered entirely possible that it was going to be extremely dangerous.
(b) The totally inappropriate responses by most of the other world Governments, and
(c) The very slow and questionable response by health care officials who have been preparing for a major flu epidemic for some time now and AUGHT to have much better procedures by this time.
This particular strain looks like it's relatively mild. It is missing a protein that is carried by the deadlier strains, for a start. However, what this experience tells us is that those ultimately responsible for handling epidemics and pandemics are incompetent and/or corrupt, and will be utterly ineffective should a pandemic actually occur.
If this ineptness is repeated when a deadly flu virus outbreak does happen, we will see an outcome not much different from 1918 or any other such disaster. THAT is what we should be worried about.
(Not that this is new. After Y2K, did we see any effort to fix the 2038 bug? Nooooo. It's a long time off and we'll have replaced all our software by then, just like we did with our two-digit-date software before 2000.)
Wouldn't it make more sense to name it after Tom Cruise or John Travolta?
I've a very mild disorder and even I can't drop below the 700-750 range without adverse effects. I can't imagine people with an even milder form having suicidal tendencies. So if the levels in the water are high enough to have an impact on suicide rates, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the level being sustained can't be much below this. On the upside, it means it's impossible to die of water toxicity in Japan.
I think it more likely they only break into the accounts they can profit from (aka as the Airbus scandal).
Yes, but the problem is that the CIA has far more wannabe James Bonds than it has wannabe Harry Palmers.
You forgot the most important part - the machine that goes "Bing!"
Considering that far, far more powerful mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics and other pharmaceuticals are routinely dumped into the US water supply (in sufficient quantities to deform the wildlife even at the level of dilution present), there really isn't much you could add to the water that could make it any more dangerous than it already is.
Why the hell the water companies don't properly filter the water they get, I don't know. But tap water is heavily polluted - contamination is sometimes orders of magnitude greater than what is permitted in the EU. Frankly, if they add lithium salts, it can't make it much more dangerous than it already is and might even improve the taste,
(One thing I -really- miss from the UK was water that tasted like water and not like a chemical waste dump.)
It can also cause thyroid problems and kidney failure. Patients must undergo very stringent tests to see if their body can cope with lithium, before it is given to them.
The problem is, lithium is highly toxic only very slightly above the theraputic threshold, making it extremely dangerous. Failure to drink, or sweating too much, will cause the lithium concentration to become dangerous or possibly deadly.
Well, that's -a- problem. Another is that it massively reduces the seizure threshold, so anyone potentially subject to seizures must also be put on anti-seizure medication to cancel the side-effect or risk having their brain turn into swiss cheese. However, each time you add medicines, you add risk of an abreaction to the new medication and also risk of the medications interacting in harmful ways.
(Many who die of medications they were prescribed die because the medications interacted.)
Despite Lithium being one of the longest-used medications for mental healthcare, it is still not very well understood. Patients are tried on it to see if it'll work for them, because it works much of the time. If it doesn't work, the doctor will try something else at random, and keep on going until something does work.
Why there haven't been studies using Lithium isotopes to trace the effects and identify the specific class(es) of condition(s) Lithium can deal with and which it can't, I don't know. It would seem easy enough and it would reduce the randomness in the mental healthcare industry.
They probably do, but I don't speak Martian.
http://www.ipv6porn.com/
What you are talking about is called "Content Addressable Memory", when it is at the computer level. I'm not sure CAM at the grid/cloud level is well-enough developed yet for there to be any formal term for it.
It depends. Did anyone successfully sue Bridgestone for their exploding SUV tyres for manslaughter? That's infinitely more direct and far more culpable, so if it failed in a case like that, it would almost certainly fail in a virus case.
Not necessarily newer, but certainly more robust (Windows 2000 is not something I'd consider reliable enough to be used in mission critical systems) and more secure (USB keys can carry viruses).
Usually, for something like that, as other have noted, you'd want a special-purpose OS or a very minimal layer on the hardware you can write apps directly to (eg: L4, OSKit, or something like that).
There's apparently free porn on offer in New Zealand for those who are using IPv6 as an incentive to switch.
A layer 2 or layer 3 switch, yes. A router or a switch/router would have problems unless IPv6 is supported OR you are tunneling over IPv4.
IPv4 is still gaining features that should have been in place to start off with. IPv6's biggest selling point is that it's designed to be retrofitted, whereas IPv4 is not.
Besides, if people were forced to use IPv6, how long do you REALLY think it'll take for the network companies to finish the protocol? A weekend at most, at this point. They're dragging their feet because R & D sees this as a cash cow they can milk forever if they never actually complete anything.
That makes sense, but really they would be better off just saying to customers "sorry, we have no bananas today" and telling them that they can get a great deal on IPv6 addresses instead.
(If the PHB's need to know more, IPv6 is like the GruntMaster 5,000 - including all necessary wormholing technology.)
Nah. Ford already uses most of their /8 in assigning each nut and bolt in each of their cars its own IPv4 address.
That's assuming packed addressing. IPv6 is hierarchical, which means that it's largely sparse addressing, so your theory doesn't hold up. However, since each home network has 48 bits of address space, you still have enough addresses for your monitor - you just won't be able to use the mobility option.