To be honest disease spread and mortality have come down significantly per capita in the past 292 years (since Small Pox Vaccine). But to claim that it is primarily based on vaccination is laughable. Vaccines have been one small part of a vast change in lifestyle, knowledge, medical techniques & and sanitation. As little as 50 years ago we were dumping raw sewage into rivers and walking around with handkerchiefs (ye'olde Kleenex) in our pockets. 120 years ago we were amputating limbs with carpentry saws and treating diseases with bleeding and leaches 150 years ago in urban areas we were whipping bowls of feces and urine our of second story windows into the streets. Vaccines have been and will continue to be a valuable option to fight disease, but they are FAR from the final solution that so many try to make them out to be.
I've been sucking down Orange Juice and Milk, along with trying to choose vitamin rich foods and using multivitamins for the past few days. So far so good, even with a coworker hacking like she's been mining coal all her life sitting around the corner from me. Only time will tell though I suppose. I wish wearing N95 masks was more socially acceptable here in the US, from what I understand ~98% of common cold infections occur due to someone coughing/talking within 6' of you while their infectious, and I must have had a half dozen people stop in and sit across from me today alone trying to suppress coughs.
Not quite, here's some quotes from the CDC "How well the flu vaccine works (or its ability to prevent influenza illness) can range widely from season to season and also can vary depending on who is being vaccinated." "Preliminary data for the 2010-2011 influenza season indicate that influenza vaccine effectiveness was about 60% for all age groups combined, and that almost all influenza viruses isolated from study participants were well-matched to the vaccine strains (Unpublished CDC data)"
I don't know about your interpretation of those statements but mine says that, at least among all age groups, 60% is probably about the best case scenario for the influenza vaccine. It sounds like on some years it can be quite a bit less. There is also the question of what their definition of "effective" is (no symptoms, mild symptoms, communicability, etc) http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm
Aren't there some fairly simple solutions to this "issue"? Provide the spacecraft with more "natural" lighting and give the astronauts earth based work schedule (9-5 job). The article makes these suggestions as well but only in a few sentences in one paragraph out of 10. Astronauts should be deeply involved in adjusting/finalizing the missions survey areas, they can continue training and familiarizing themselves with their equipment and soon to be home. They should have plenty to do on their trip, not laying about waiting for the landing.
Not going to happen, and if it does it will happen in a way that will REINFORCE the monopolies of the current big players. Just look at how the wireless spectrum auction went down a few years back. Even Google, throwing around billions of dollars couldn't get a part of the spectrum designated for public use. Thankfully they were at least able to get open apps and devices pushed through, but the big players even fought that tooth and nail.
I believe these kind of armature cubesats are usually deployed at low altitudes, before the upper stage lights up to boost the main satellite into a higher orbit. Such orbits are only short term, even under the most optimal circumstances they could only stay up about 25 years, most deorbit within a couple years.
True, countries that have had long standing bans on firearms don't have as many firearms related crimes. Instead they have knife and other weapon crimes. Just look at the UK, they have rather strict firearms laws, they also have the one of the planets highest rates of knife crime. So much so that police there don't wear bullet proof vests, they wear a modern version of chain-mail. Countries like Japan and China, which also have strict gun controls, have also been grappling with their own school violence. In the past 2 years there have been at least seven attacks in China alone, all with hammers & knives. The tools are not the issue, those wielding them are.
I'm sure that after a "long and detailed study" they'll find that there are no adverse health effects from the scanners, no matter what the medical data says.
I can say this for it, its convenient. A few simple slider bars and a very short and sweet payment entry form and your done. The one thing that annoys me is that 8% "Operating Cost" that is deducted from your donation. Seems a bit hefty to me, maybe after the site has been running a while (assuming it survives long as others have mentioned) it will come down.
[whistles] Wow, how much fuel did they put in that thing? It spent around 8 months in lunar orbit, which usually eats up a bit of fuel right there, even without the several orbital changes they did while there. And then it leaves lunar orbit on its way to the Earth-Sun L2 point? I realize that once you get out of LEO the amount of fuel required to get anywhere (at least slowly) goes down exponentially but they must have packed quite a bit of fuel into that thing (I believe it is roughly the size of a walk in closet)
You know some in the military are hoping to use it, if they don't already have a prototype ready to go on the spacecraft, to deliver a "Project Thor" type kinetic weapon system to orbit. While the bay of this thing (7'x 4') wouldn't be able to fit the larger or even medium class Thor weapon, it would be able to fit a smaller one for taking out a motorcade/vehicle/person.
In the long run this "could" (though admittedly probably won't) be a good thing. Simply taking our nuclear waste and burying it has never been a good idea. From what I understand "Nuclear Waste" can be reprocessed back into usable fuel. A vast majority of what we call "nuclear waste" is still quite usable fuel, it simply is contaminated with elements that make it difficult/dangerous to use. Nuclear reprocessing can remove these contaminants and with some additional steps return the fuel to usable condition. The part of the fuel that can't be used looses 99.9% of its radioactivity after 40 years. It is a tad more expensive than just throwing it in a hole, but it vastly decreases the amount of nuclear waste, newer technologies have the hope of making it cheaper than throwing it in a hole, and it decreases the need for mining. The only issue I believe is that the nuclear industry has been wrapped in so much red tape & politics that it is next to impossible to do in the US, so much so that there has been talk of shipping our "waste" to other countries to have them reprocess it.
Break into some idiotically secured defense contractor website and try to donate some money to charities and have life in prison swinging over your head. Bankrupt millions of people and sabotage the world economy to pillage billions of dollars, get a series of bailouts and golden parachutes.
"What if they actually did their own research and development?"
I don't know about now, since the US government saw fit to screw up the patent system even further recently by trying to "fix it". But at least a few years ago there was a caveat in the patent system that an independently developed patent was just as valid as another. Significant documentation was required and many courts chose to all but ignore this part of the law but it was there. With the idiotic switch to "first to file" though I don't know if it still exists.
Standard "reinforced concrete" will not last for centuries. The fortifications in Europe are proof of that, steel rusts INSIDE the concrete (especially in coastal areas) and eventually shatters it. Unless you stabilize the metal for the long term (power coat?, paint?, special alloys?) it will be falling apart within 70 years. As far as the windows I'd simply use standard ones and put on some good old fashioned storm shutters (made out of steal of course). Besides those cautions a concrete home is a pretty good idea, even if it is flooded, if designed correctly it can be gutted and brought up to new condition in days or weeks, not months or years.
"Can anyone find where they explain further if the devices themselves were installed on the defendant's property?"
It probably doesn't matter, I highly doubt that the local government (let alone the DEA) owned any property in the area so the only other area that some might call "public" would be the road. I don't know how it works in this particular area but in my area the government doesn't "own" the land the road is on, it is an easement for transportation purposes. Originally that "transportation" was only horse, carriage, eventually car, and over time has been widened to include electric & communications. But the property is still owned by the adjacent property to the rough center of the road. So if their purposes were not "transportation" they were in effect trespassing if the property was marked, and if they entered the property to install the cameras then it was defiantly trespassing (again, if posted or reasonable), and as such it was evidence collected through an illegal act, hence should be thrown out.
Or a CCTV system "bug" suddenly causes the camera to zoom away from a beating and then after a minute or so, slowly, cautiously zoom back into the scene after it is sure the beating is over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmXTFr5hoOo
This is one of the reasons I DONT FLY anymore, I've taken several long distance trips in recent years, each one I rented a car and drove. I didn't have to worry about running up against some wannabe SS officer, I didn't have to worry about what in my luggage (I actually brought a rather large rifle on one of my trips because I had just bought it and wanted to get some shooting time in with it at my destination), and don't have to get felt up by some rent a cop. I find it disturbing that we've sunken so low here in the US, fifteen years ago if you would have said that in order to fly commercially you would have endure a pat down, or a virtual strip search they would have looked at you like you had just talked about being abducted by aliens.
There might be a few bugs in their mapping app, unless it is so advanced it can track oceangoing vessels. A bunch of hits on the map I am looking at are about 1,000 miles off the coast near Washington DC. I also wonder if they're going to include social attack emails at some point (I believe most reputable Webmail apps include an IP of the sender). I don't know about anyone else but at my workplace I regularly get 5 or more attempts a week to get a virus into my system by pretending to be a FedEx tracking code, or a "contract in danger" message, some of them are even rigged to look like they're from OUR It department. Luckily our spam filter catches most of them but once in a while one slips through.
Unfortunately $1k a month is pretty standard from what I understand. I've been told my employer pays about $1,000 per month per employee. A family member is on the board of a small local telephone company and he's said that they pay $1,200 per employee. I think my employer was paying close to $1,500 a month per employee before they switched us over to a high deductible plan ($1,000 a year). They're nice enough to give us the deductible in a HSA account though each year. Even on the old plan we had pretty high co-pay rates, even for "in network" providers.
Ah NASA, always choosing the most complicated method for something with a hundred simple solutions. Suctioning the surgery area is something that is has been done for decades here on earth, it would probably need minimal modifications for use in space. As far as free floating blood just put a high flow cotton air filter next to the wound. That should collect most free floating fluids, and if a few get loose so what? Its blood not Plutonium-238? The only real advantage I can see with this is that it would help limit blood loss and POSSIBLY allow use of any blood that did escape. But for 99% of the surgeries that would likely be required in space the minimal amount of blood loss wouldn't deed to be replaced anyway.
The biggest issue with plugin cars is the batteries, the packs cost thousands of dollars and have to be replaced every 5-7 years. While it is getting close to being economically even I don't think it is quite there yet. If a way could be found to either increase the lifespan, or decrease the replacement cost significantly it would beat out fossil fuel vehicles hands down. And unfortunately "economies of scale" don't quite work with current Electric vehicle battery designs, most are built on rare earth minerals, the prices of which would increase exponentially with increased demand. There are some technologies which try to do away with rare earths, or at least limit/vary them, but they either are still in development, or are encumbered by strict patent control. For the moment, we will simply have to wait until gas prices increase to the point that it becomes more economical to switch to PHEVs
Here in lower Michigan I filled up last night at $3.79, at least according to GasBuddy that same station is up to $3.94. Unfortunately this kind of thing is far from usual around here at least. At least once a month it will shoot up 20-30 cents in a day or two, then slowly go back down. Its of course blamed on refinery issues, or pipeline maintenance, or some other excuse. But in all likelihood the gas companies simply know they can.
"You mean like water, where you pay for what you use?"
I don't know about where you live but in most communities in my area it is an unmetered water system. Everyone uses as much water as they want, within the limits of their little 3/4" pipe going into their homes and are billed collectively. If you want a bigger pipe, you pay a higher percentage of the collective cost of the system. It works quite well for the most part. I don't see why it would be so different for data. If you are only going to check email, a dial up or extremely slow connection will do, if your going to watch a video stream sometimes and maybe download some data (but never at the same time) a medium speed connection will do, if you want to be able to watch one or two video streams while downloading data you'll need a higher speed plan. Each progression will cost you more, this has worked out quite well up till now. The reason it is falling apart now is, for the most part, the service providers have been pocketing all of money from their customers. Putting little to none of it back into their infrastructure like most businesses do, even when the government gave them billions for infrastructure improvement, they turned around and pocketed most of it, or used it to build their cell networks.
" it's never been easier to go off grid"
That may not be entirely true, while home power generation costs are far lower than they were a few years ago there are still significant issues to having an entirely off grid home. First off is of course the cost, while in the long term off grid prices are now competitive with on grid, the initial costs are difficult for most people to cope with (~$35,000 if you do most of the install yourself). Then there is the building code/regulation issues, in some areas they are so specifically written for "normal" homes that getting permits for occupancy/construction or even finding certified electricians that will do the final hookups is difficult. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if every home in the country had a solar/wind system feeding a regenerative fuel cell and power lines were going the way of the dodo, but if it ever happens its going to take a long time and its not going to be easy.
Slashdot Mirror
To be honest disease spread and mortality have come down significantly per capita in the past 292 years (since Small Pox Vaccine). But to claim that it is primarily based on vaccination is laughable. Vaccines have been one small part of a vast change in lifestyle, knowledge, medical techniques & and sanitation. As little as 50 years ago we were dumping raw sewage into rivers and walking around with handkerchiefs (ye'olde Kleenex) in our pockets. 120 years ago we were amputating limbs with carpentry saws and treating diseases with bleeding and leaches 150 years ago in urban areas we were whipping bowls of feces and urine our of second story windows into the streets. Vaccines have been and will continue to be a valuable option to fight disease, but they are FAR from the final solution that so many try to make them out to be.
I've been sucking down Orange Juice and Milk, along with trying to choose vitamin rich foods and using multivitamins for the past few days. So far so good, even with a coworker hacking like she's been mining coal all her life sitting around the corner from me. Only time will tell though I suppose. I wish wearing N95 masks was more socially acceptable here in the US, from what I understand ~98% of common cold infections occur due to someone coughing/talking within 6' of you while their infectious, and I must have had a half dozen people stop in and sit across from me today alone trying to suppress coughs.
"60% or more. depending an a variety of factors."
Not quite, here's some quotes from the CDC
"How well the flu vaccine works (or its ability to prevent influenza illness) can range widely from season to season and also can vary depending on who is being vaccinated."
"Preliminary data for the 2010-2011 influenza season indicate that influenza vaccine effectiveness was about 60% for all age groups combined, and that almost all influenza viruses isolated from study participants were well-matched to the vaccine strains (Unpublished CDC data)"
I don't know about your interpretation of those statements but mine says that, at least among all age groups, 60% is probably about the best case scenario for the influenza vaccine. It sounds like on some years it can be quite a bit less. There is also the question of what their definition of "effective" is (no symptoms, mild symptoms, communicability, etc)
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm
Aren't there some fairly simple solutions to this "issue"? Provide the spacecraft with more "natural" lighting and give the astronauts earth based work schedule (9-5 job). The article makes these suggestions as well but only in a few sentences in one paragraph out of 10. Astronauts should be deeply involved in adjusting/finalizing the missions survey areas, they can continue training and familiarizing themselves with their equipment and soon to be home. They should have plenty to do on their trip, not laying about waiting for the landing.
Not going to happen, and if it does it will happen in a way that will REINFORCE the monopolies of the current big players. Just look at how the wireless spectrum auction went down a few years back. Even Google, throwing around billions of dollars couldn't get a part of the spectrum designated for public use. Thankfully they were at least able to get open apps and devices pushed through, but the big players even fought that tooth and nail.
I believe these kind of armature cubesats are usually deployed at low altitudes, before the upper stage lights up to boost the main satellite into a higher orbit. Such orbits are only short term, even under the most optimal circumstances they could only stay up about 25 years, most deorbit within a couple years.
" the average person don't have these crimes"
True, countries that have had long standing bans on firearms don't have as many firearms related crimes. Instead they have knife and other weapon crimes. Just look at the UK, they have rather strict firearms laws, they also have the one of the planets highest rates of knife crime. So much so that police there don't wear bullet proof vests, they wear a modern version of chain-mail. Countries like Japan and China, which also have strict gun controls, have also been grappling with their own school violence. In the past 2 years there have been at least seven attacks in China alone, all with hammers & knives. The tools are not the issue, those wielding them are.
I'm sure that after a "long and detailed study" they'll find that there are no adverse health effects from the scanners, no matter what the medical data says.
I can say this for it, its convenient. A few simple slider bars and a very short and sweet payment entry form and your done. The one thing that annoys me is that 8% "Operating Cost" that is deducted from your donation. Seems a bit hefty to me, maybe after the site has been running a while (assuming it survives long as others have mentioned) it will come down.
[whistles] Wow, how much fuel did they put in that thing? It spent around 8 months in lunar orbit, which usually eats up a bit of fuel right there, even without the several orbital changes they did while there. And then it leaves lunar orbit on its way to the Earth-Sun L2 point? I realize that once you get out of LEO the amount of fuel required to get anywhere (at least slowly) goes down exponentially but they must have packed quite a bit of fuel into that thing (I believe it is roughly the size of a walk in closet)
You know some in the military are hoping to use it, if they don't already have a prototype ready to go on the spacecraft, to deliver a "Project Thor" type kinetic weapon system to orbit. While the bay of this thing (7'x 4') wouldn't be able to fit the larger or even medium class Thor weapon, it would be able to fit a smaller one for taking out a motorcade/vehicle/person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment
In the long run this "could" (though admittedly probably won't) be a good thing. Simply taking our nuclear waste and burying it has never been a good idea. From what I understand "Nuclear Waste" can be reprocessed back into usable fuel. A vast majority of what we call "nuclear waste" is still quite usable fuel, it simply is contaminated with elements that make it difficult/dangerous to use. Nuclear reprocessing can remove these contaminants and with some additional steps return the fuel to usable condition. The part of the fuel that can't be used looses 99.9% of its radioactivity after 40 years. It is a tad more expensive than just throwing it in a hole, but it vastly decreases the amount of nuclear waste, newer technologies have the hope of making it cheaper than throwing it in a hole, and it decreases the need for mining. The only issue I believe is that the nuclear industry has been wrapped in so much red tape & politics that it is next to impossible to do in the US, so much so that there has been talk of shipping our "waste" to other countries to have them reprocess it.
Break into some idiotically secured defense contractor website and try to donate some money to charities and have life in prison swinging over your head. Bankrupt millions of people and sabotage the world economy to pillage billions of dollars, get a series of bailouts and golden parachutes.
"What if they actually did their own research and development?"
I don't know about now, since the US government saw fit to screw up the patent system even further recently by trying to "fix it". But at least a few years ago there was a caveat in the patent system that an independently developed patent was just as valid as another. Significant documentation was required and many courts chose to all but ignore this part of the law but it was there. With the idiotic switch to "first to file" though I don't know if it still exists.
"if you want it to last centuries"
Standard "reinforced concrete" will not last for centuries. The fortifications in Europe are proof of that, steel rusts INSIDE the concrete (especially in coastal areas) and eventually shatters it. Unless you stabilize the metal for the long term (power coat?, paint?, special alloys?) it will be falling apart within 70 years. As far as the windows I'd simply use standard ones and put on some good old fashioned storm shutters (made out of steal of course). Besides those cautions a concrete home is a pretty good idea, even if it is flooded, if designed correctly it can be gutted and brought up to new condition in days or weeks, not months or years.
"Can anyone find where they explain further if the devices themselves were installed on the defendant's property?"
It probably doesn't matter, I highly doubt that the local government (let alone the DEA) owned any property in the area so the only other area that some might call "public" would be the road. I don't know how it works in this particular area but in my area the government doesn't "own" the land the road is on, it is an easement for transportation purposes. Originally that "transportation" was only horse, carriage, eventually car, and over time has been widened to include electric & communications. But the property is still owned by the adjacent property to the rough center of the road. So if their purposes were not "transportation" they were in effect trespassing if the property was marked, and if they entered the property to install the cameras then it was defiantly trespassing (again, if posted or reasonable), and as such it was evidence collected through an illegal act, hence should be thrown out.
Or a CCTV system "bug" suddenly causes the camera to zoom away from a beating and then after a minute or so, slowly, cautiously zoom back into the scene after it is sure the beating is over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmXTFr5hoOo
This is one of the reasons I DONT FLY anymore, I've taken several long distance trips in recent years, each one I rented a car and drove. I didn't have to worry about running up against some wannabe SS officer, I didn't have to worry about what in my luggage (I actually brought a rather large rifle on one of my trips because I had just bought it and wanted to get some shooting time in with it at my destination), and don't have to get felt up by some rent a cop. I find it disturbing that we've sunken so low here in the US, fifteen years ago if you would have said that in order to fly commercially you would have endure a pat down, or a virtual strip search they would have looked at you like you had just talked about being abducted by aliens.
There might be a few bugs in their mapping app, unless it is so advanced it can track oceangoing vessels. A bunch of hits on the map I am looking at are about 1,000 miles off the coast near Washington DC. I also wonder if they're going to include social attack emails at some point (I believe most reputable Webmail apps include an IP of the sender). I don't know about anyone else but at my workplace I regularly get 5 or more attempts a week to get a virus into my system by pretending to be a FedEx tracking code, or a "contract in danger" message, some of them are even rigged to look like they're from OUR It department. Luckily our spam filter catches most of them but once in a while one slips through.
Unfortunately $1k a month is pretty standard from what I understand. I've been told my employer pays about $1,000 per month per employee. A family member is on the board of a small local telephone company and he's said that they pay $1,200 per employee. I think my employer was paying close to $1,500 a month per employee before they switched us over to a high deductible plan ($1,000 a year). They're nice enough to give us the deductible in a HSA account though each year. Even on the old plan we had pretty high co-pay rates, even for "in network" providers.
Ah NASA, always choosing the most complicated method for something with a hundred simple solutions. Suctioning the surgery area is something that is has been done for decades here on earth, it would probably need minimal modifications for use in space. As far as free floating blood just put a high flow cotton air filter next to the wound. That should collect most free floating fluids, and if a few get loose so what? Its blood not Plutonium-238? The only real advantage I can see with this is that it would help limit blood loss and POSSIBLY allow use of any blood that did escape. But for 99% of the surgeries that would likely be required in space the minimal amount of blood loss wouldn't deed to be replaced anyway.
The biggest issue with plugin cars is the batteries, the packs cost thousands of dollars and have to be replaced every 5-7 years. While it is getting close to being economically even I don't think it is quite there yet. If a way could be found to either increase the lifespan, or decrease the replacement cost significantly it would beat out fossil fuel vehicles hands down. And unfortunately "economies of scale" don't quite work with current Electric vehicle battery designs, most are built on rare earth minerals, the prices of which would increase exponentially with increased demand. There are some technologies which try to do away with rare earths, or at least limit/vary them, but they either are still in development, or are encumbered by strict patent control. For the moment, we will simply have to wait until gas prices increase to the point that it becomes more economical to switch to PHEVs
Here in lower Michigan I filled up last night at $3.79, at least according to GasBuddy that same station is up to $3.94. Unfortunately this kind of thing is far from usual around here at least. At least once a month it will shoot up 20-30 cents in a day or two, then slowly go back down. Its of course blamed on refinery issues, or pipeline maintenance, or some other excuse. But in all likelihood the gas companies simply know they can.
"You mean like water, where you pay for what you use?" I don't know about where you live but in most communities in my area it is an unmetered water system. Everyone uses as much water as they want, within the limits of their little 3/4" pipe going into their homes and are billed collectively. If you want a bigger pipe, you pay a higher percentage of the collective cost of the system. It works quite well for the most part. I don't see why it would be so different for data. If you are only going to check email, a dial up or extremely slow connection will do, if your going to watch a video stream sometimes and maybe download some data (but never at the same time) a medium speed connection will do, if you want to be able to watch one or two video streams while downloading data you'll need a higher speed plan. Each progression will cost you more, this has worked out quite well up till now. The reason it is falling apart now is, for the most part, the service providers have been pocketing all of money from their customers. Putting little to none of it back into their infrastructure like most businesses do, even when the government gave them billions for infrastructure improvement, they turned around and pocketed most of it, or used it to build their cell networks.
" it's never been easier to go off grid" That may not be entirely true, while home power generation costs are far lower than they were a few years ago there are still significant issues to having an entirely off grid home. First off is of course the cost, while in the long term off grid prices are now competitive with on grid, the initial costs are difficult for most people to cope with (~$35,000 if you do most of the install yourself). Then there is the building code/regulation issues, in some areas they are so specifically written for "normal" homes that getting permits for occupancy/construction or even finding certified electricians that will do the final hookups is difficult. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if every home in the country had a solar/wind system feeding a regenerative fuel cell and power lines were going the way of the dodo, but if it ever happens its going to take a long time and its not going to be easy.