In the spirit of procrastination (at work) I will attempt to answer these questions myself.
Should robots eat?
If they must eat, they should eat. I'm not sure I would like our food supply to be in competition with a bunch of robots. I would rather them simply sunbathe to sustain their daily energy requirements. I mean... let's try to perfect the human condition not worsen it. Imagine a billion hungry robots. They aren't going to sit around and take it like poor starving nations seem to do. They will revolt and imprison us! They'll take what they need. If they do not, they'll be at the very least competing with humanity for survival. Who do you think would win that battle?
Should they excrete?
If they must. Otherwise, wouldn't it be better if they recycled the energy?
Should robots be like us?
What like depressed and self destructive? Not sure I would want a bunch of those competing with the already self destructive people who exist in the world. Don't we have enough war? Don't we have enough excesses? Do we need robots to be this way? Who knows... maybe there could be a good reason for it, but like TreeBeard, I'm going to have to pretend that because I don't understand it, that it could be correct.
Should we be like robots?
If the programming is good, then yes, we could stand to be more like good programmed robots who obey their masters. But what about the arts? What about creative expression and free will? These are highly valued archetypes and many human beings would fight to the death to preserve them. Maybe it would be cool to have implants that augment human development positively. But I think it should be up to the person. No matter how large your data storage capacity is, or how fast you can process data -- wisdom will always be the true litmus test.
Should we care?
If we should, we won't. I think we should care about people and society and protecting freedom, but because I feel this way, it makes it very promising for someone to try and deprive me of this in order to gain something I have. So if I don't care, then it doesn't matter and I am more free. I care about evolution, being that the evolution towards a more robotic usage will be the most likely direction of humanity, but I do not have that level of intelligence to know what is the right direction of evolution. Not even a God has that level of intelligence (which is likely why we have free will, if you believe in religion and God). We are able to evolve, as we always have, through necessity.
However, Einstein said that humanity would have to be able to augment our physical forms with robotics in order to pioneer deep space. He said there would be no other way to handle the forces of nature out that way. So I guess the question is... do we want to die off on this rock, or do we want to live?
If you want to live, then support robotics and the direction of humanity towards that paradigm.
Out of all the pro-exercise responses so far, this is by far the very best one I have read. I would like to do this and I will, but first I have about five years of managing a healthy balance of what I eat and keeping my job; exercise comes on the days I'm well rested. I enjoy walking long distances. I can walk clear across town without getting too tired and I do it at least once or twice a week. It's good for my heart and I always feel better after doing so.
One of the problems I have with some folks is that they treat apnea suferers like they are regular folks. It's something that has to be handled like physiotherapy, IMHO. Too much can hurt and too little is not enough.
I'm certainly heading in the direction you are suggesting, but for now I have to manage a balance and get my sleep on track.
For my particular case, I was told that surgery would not likely help me. I have a very long neck, as a result of being a really skinny kid. That neck would kink like a hose when I was young and it got worse. To keep a hose from kinking, you have to cut the hose and shrink the length -- but that's not really a solution for me. The other problem is that I'm very alergic to dust. There is nothing they can do about the dust allergy except to insist I spend $40/month CAD on over the counter allergy pills.
Thank you for the post about the Dr. Sears books. I'll have a look at them.:-)
Thanks Robin! Feel free to email me for further discussion.
The sleep lab said I had OSA. It's not moderate, as they said I was asphyxiating 4 times per minute. So CPAP is the only real possibility for me. That and other remedies...
I'm glad that I don't have sleep apnea or that I'm not diagnosed anyway. I'd rather not have such an easy excuse.
You'll notice in some (or possibly one) of my recent posts I have indicated that I graduated from college, while still not being diagnosed with OSA. I am a very productive member of society, and I don't make excuses for myself. I simply wanted to provide insight as to the cause and effect of obesity and sleep apnea, as this was directly related to the article. I am saying, that obesity is a symptom of being sleep deprived -- not a cause of being sleep deprived.
Sorry if that's a little harsh, but sometimes you just gotta eat a damn salad and work out for a while, no matter how you feel.
This just proves you know nothing about what you're talking about. Doctors can't possibly understand obese people with apnea, because they are too busy putting them down to understand the truth.
The truth is: eating salads while having apnea will get you killed faster than eating McDonald's. Why? Because salads have no energy. They take generally *more* energy to digest than they provide, which is why people lose weight eating salads. But when you are driving in a car with apnea, and you had a bad night sleep, you had better stop and get something with a little extra substance, or you're dead -- and you'll take a family of five with you. Now I'd love to stop for a nice well rounded meal, but there aren't any low-cost meals available that are healty ( and forget what Jared says... those sandwiches have no energy to offer me, IMHO). The simple truth is that I require more fatty rich foods for the immediate energy boost it provides.
Like I'm not saying I stop at McDonald's every day. I don't. But I drink a lot of coffee, and I eat food that is easy and fast to prepare. I don't have the energy to make a healthy meal more than once a day. I'm 32 years old too.
People with apnea have to weigh quality of life against length of life. Sadly I'll have a shorter life than someone without apnea.
So while you think what you're saying is correct -- it's very narrow minded and apparently quite shallow.
So if you don't want to be a jerk, simply get an alarm clock that will allow multiple wakeup times. See if you can find one with 2000 slots, and set them four minutes apart. Put the alarm on semi-low so it doesn't wake you up completely, but it keeps you from having REM. Now try sleeping like this for a week and measure your food responses. Look at what you need to survive your daily life. You'll find that everything I'm saying is 100% correct.
If you want to see what CPAP is like, set the new super-alarm for about 250 times a night. You'll notice an improvement after 2000 times a night, that you'll feel better. But you'll still be waking up 250 times a night, so you'll still be very tired the next day... just not quite as tired/irritable.
As for napping: many many people could benefit from that. Unfortunately most western and in particular anglo societies frown upon it. Some people (myself included) can take a 15-20 minute nap and be really really refreshed. Some people can't though:( Any longer than that for those who can and we're just making up for sleep deprevation, which shouldn't be done a work.
Totally true! I think that people who have apnea should all be trained as programmers and given nice remote jobs so they can work at home and sleep whenever they want. I do, and I am very productive. I feel very sorry for folks with physical labour jobs who have apnea... they have it real bad, IMHO.
As for the sleep lab... it's really easy and fun, IMHO. I was so tired it didn't matter... I just wanted the miracle cure, which still hasn't come along. Maybe some scientists will get smart eh?
Blaming OSA for your weight isn't going to make it go away, or get you laid. It's just going to make you sound like a wining couch potato who snores.
Oh maybe, but at least I have provided information to others who might have this problem. Oh, and I don't snore anymore. One of the benefits of CPAP.:-) I just sound like Darth Vader.... which is not a novelty that wears off quickly. ROTFLMAO!!
Your description of falling asleep in lectures sound like classic symptoms of insulin overload from foods high in sugar.
Well, perhaps OSA causes other symptoms, but I have memories of having it when I was much younger. I attribute it to being the cause of all my problems, and it's okay... I'm living with it just fine. I think I just wanted to shed some light on this because I'm a good example of someone who is heavy because of the symptoms of a lack of sleep -- trying to recover lost energy through food. There really isn't much of a solution except to try and eat right -- at this point. I still get excercise now, but it's infrequent due to how bad my sleep is in winter months, due to really bad dust allergies.
I'd like to see a nutritionist, but frankly salad has no energy so I might as well act like a bear during winter time and just sleep it off.
Maybe someone could invent a bloody hybernation machine for apnea sufferers during the dusty months? Or perhaps I could get a coffin like Daredevil, and just sleep in that? (ie: sensory dep with water)
On my good days I'm very active. But I'm not losing weight that way... at least not yet. It's only been a couple of years since I was diagnosed. There are 30yrs of damage here.
How did lack of sleep force you to eat foods that were fast and easy to prepare or eat high fat foods?
I never became fat until I went to university and had to fend for myself. Up until that point I was literally dragged everywhere by my parents, who thought I was just a lazy kid. I can remember several times in my early youth when I would be dreaming in class with my eyes open, and I can also remember being numb from pins and needles while in gym class. Oh and I'd get dizzy alot too. All these are signs of a lack of energy, and all were overlooked, because at the time, doctors were not looking for OSA in children -- it was dubbed the fat man's disorder, because fat men were diagnosed with it. Doctors were looking for people who got fat and got apnea because they got fat -- they weren't looking at people who might get fat because they have apnea.
Today, doctors are still in the dark. My own doctor looked at me strangely when I explained that I became fat from being tired all the time. Nobody can understand how someone could be too tired to cook a meal for themselves, or get off their ass to do something physical. It's very painful to be tired all the time. Even now... I'm still tired.:(
The sleep lab said 2000 times per night, I would wake from apnea when I was diagnosed. Now that number likely grew from the slow deterioration from years of having untreated OSA. But to put it in perspective -- That's four times per minute. And that's a low average compared to some folks who are more like 20 times per minute. To try and understand this... simply have someone wake your ass out of bed at 4am ONCE with a blowhorn... they run in and shout crazy crap at you and then they leave. That's some of the fear and loathing associated with apnea. You might see how someone doing the blowhorn trick 2000 times a night would be at risk of being murdered outright by even the most angelical person.
It's truly a horrible thing, but it's life and I'm living a higher quality of it since I've been on CPAP. But not much higher. Realistically... I'd say that for 25% of the day I have 100% more energy and the rest of the day decreases on a curve until at 3pm I'm dead tired and juicing on coffee. But my job keeps me up too...
So to clarify; my parents would cook, but I would eat candy whenever I could get it. Steal it... borrow it and beg for it. I'd drink a load of juice too growing up. I'd get whatever I could to get energy. Drugs, alcohol... anything.
Now it's easier. I can nap from time to time during the day because I work as a programmer. And that seriously helps. Everyone with OSA should be able by law to have a nap ANYTIME. (well not while they are driving, but you get the point)
If it turns out that fat people have more trouble sleeping than thin ones, then they would sleep less, but trying to force them to sleep more (drugs perhaps) would not necessarily decrease their weight...
This is slightly true, but you're missing a key factor. Many more people have Obstructive Sleep Apnea than currently are being treated for it, and among those who are being treated, many are still suffering from sleep loss due to throat obstruction. This obstruction was thought to have been caused by obesity, and it still is by many doctors -- but as being someone who was very skinny in my younger life and someone who became overweight as a result of apnea, I can tell you that obesity is a symptom of sleep deprivation. We eat the things that are easy to prepare (or even fast food), and we eat more sugar to get boosts, as a direct result of not being able to function properly in society. Plus being in a semi-REM state all day long truly hurts one's ability to make sane/wise food choices. And workouts? HA! As if you're going to cruelly force someone who is sleep deprived to excercise! That would be cruel and unusual punishment -- but it's what doctors are recommending.
Until someone comes up with a way to let people with respiratory problems actually function like normal people, there are going to be people getting fat because of their lack of energy.
I'm thinking that oxygen in CPAP machines might actually help, but it's not a standard right now. Also, more humid climates might help if they weren't so bloody hot (making you more relaxed and making it harder to breathe).
Personally I would like to see a kind of room built that controlled the envorionment for people with OSA. If it was self-cleaning -- it would be perfect!
I have sleep apnea and I will testify before you all that because of significant sleep deprivation during my youth, I had to eat foods that were:
a) Rich in sugar or grease b) Fast and easy to prepare
If these conditions aren't met, I could not function very well, even with CPAP.
I was born with an unusually narrow throat, and I spent most of my early childhood as a beanpole -- I was super skinny. But after years of chronic apnea, due to the OSA, I slowly grew... and then suddenly I became super-sized.
I would daydream in class (ie: getting my waking REM), and even fall asleep during lectures.
I had zero energy, so I drank a pot of coffee in the morning and one in the afternoon, along with cigarettes to speed my heart up and get me going. I could never have graduated from school without doing this. Society requires that everyone must perform at a uniformed level, unless you have a disability, but my disability was never discovered until I was 30yrs. That's 30yrs of health slippage....
The point is... people with sleeping disorders need to have the disorders fixed, but the current CPAP machines are really not a solution -- they aren't ready to combat the seasons properly and they are horrible for people with dust allergies.
Until a solution for apnea is found and people realize that being overweight is not the cause, but a symptom -- people with apnea and other sleeping disorders won't be very healthy (mentally, emotionally or physically).
If thier PR campaign ends up working well for thier users, i say good show.
I don't think it will. I think what will end up happening is that MS will begin dividing types of spyware and saying that some of it is ok, when in reality it's all garbage. DRM anyone?
This started for me when I was heavily addicted to Quake. Red city post boxes looked like the 666, and some other obscure street items looked like the invis. Wondering now, perhaps the success to addictive gaming is centered around the similarities between the game you're designing and common items in daily living.
IBM Opens Their Patent Portfolio to Open Source
That does it. I'm buying a crapload of IBM stock. One good decision after another... but somehow I feel strange in doing so. How many of you remember when IBM were the bad guys?
EA Trying to Buy Ubisoft Shares... so that they can turn Ubisoft into EA. This can not be perceived as anything but a hostile takeover, and once again, EA is becoming the worst reputed games company of our day.
It's true that these anti-p2p groups are about equivalent to a group that is against driving cars, vs a group against drunk driving. It's the lack of precision in the anti-p2p camp that bothers me. They say they are against p2p when they should be against copyright infringement. They attack tools that can be used without malice, just to try and stop the infringements. That's not accurate and it detracts from the purity of their cause, IMHO.
>How is the photo misleading, considering that the title of both the slashdot posting and the linked webpage is Titan's Surface Revealed.
Because it's not the surface. It's a diagram based off some imaging. They make it sound like it's a normal picture and it's not. It looks like any number of Sim City maps I've seen.
The public are not geeky enough to understand the photo and will think it's a digital image much like the Mars photos. Scientists should have thought of that and given the image a more technical colour pattern. Green doesn't mean cold to the human eye, it means flora.
How is the photo misleading? Because it looks at first glance like Earth does with the naked eye. That's why. Until you start reading and realize what you're looking at, that is. Scientists are supposed to know better than to use colors that are misleading. They should have used pinks, blues and blacks or something else.
Slashdot Mirror
In the spirit of procrastination (at work) I will attempt to answer these questions myself.
Should robots eat?
If they must eat, they should eat. I'm not sure I would like our food supply to be in competition with a bunch of robots. I would rather them simply sunbathe to sustain their daily energy requirements. I mean... let's try to perfect the human condition not worsen it. Imagine a billion hungry robots. They aren't going to sit around and take it like poor starving nations seem to do. They will revolt and imprison us! They'll take what they need. If they do not, they'll be at the very least competing with humanity for survival. Who do you think would win that battle?
Should they excrete?
If they must. Otherwise, wouldn't it be better if they recycled the energy?
Should robots be like us?
What like depressed and self destructive? Not sure I would want a bunch of those competing with the already self destructive people who exist in the world. Don't we have enough war? Don't we have enough excesses? Do we need robots to be this way? Who knows... maybe there could be a good reason for it, but like TreeBeard, I'm going to have to pretend that because I don't understand it, that it could be correct.
Should we be like robots?
If the programming is good, then yes, we could stand to be more like good programmed robots who obey their masters. But what about the arts? What about creative expression and free will? These are highly valued archetypes and many human beings would fight to the death to preserve them. Maybe it would be cool to have implants that augment human development positively. But I think it should be up to the person. No matter how large your data storage capacity is, or how fast you can process data -- wisdom will always be the true litmus test.
Should we care?
If we should, we won't. I think we should care about people and society and protecting freedom, but because I feel this way, it makes it very promising for someone to try and deprive me of this in order to gain something I have. So if I don't care, then it doesn't matter and I am more free. I care about evolution, being that the evolution towards a more robotic usage will be the most likely direction of humanity, but I do not have that level of intelligence to know what is the right direction of evolution. Not even a God has that level of intelligence (which is likely why we have free will, if you believe in religion and God). We are able to evolve, as we always have, through necessity.
However, Einstein said that humanity would have to be able to augment our physical forms with robotics in order to pioneer deep space. He said there would be no other way to handle the forces of nature out that way. So I guess the question is... do we want to die off on this rock, or do we want to live?
If you want to live, then support robotics and the direction of humanity towards that paradigm.
I feel really insignificant now. Not even a *large* electron do we live upon... it's really tiny!
In the business world if its not broke why fix it?
It's broke if it can't auto-evolve, IMHO.
Custom Support Agreements are still available for customers that need them and can be obtained by contacting a Microsoft rep.
That's like buying a betamax, no? If you're running NT 4, you could be running something else.
Out of all the pro-exercise responses so far, this is by far the very best one I have read. I would like to do this and I will, but first I have about five years of managing a healthy balance of what I eat and keeping my job; exercise comes on the days I'm well rested. I enjoy walking long distances. I can walk clear across town without getting too tired and I do it at least once or twice a week. It's good for my heart and I always feel better after doing so.
One of the problems I have with some folks is that they treat apnea suferers like they are regular folks. It's something that has to be handled like physiotherapy, IMHO. Too much can hurt and too little is not enough.
I'm certainly heading in the direction you are suggesting, but for now I have to manage a balance and get my sleep on track.
For my particular case, I was told that surgery would not likely help me. I have a very long neck, as a result of being a really skinny kid. That neck would kink like a hose when I was young and it got worse. To keep a hose from kinking, you have to cut the hose and shrink the length -- but that's not really a solution for me. The other problem is that I'm very alergic to dust. There is nothing they can do about the dust allergy except to insist I spend $40/month CAD on over the counter allergy pills.
:-)
Thank you for the post about the Dr. Sears books. I'll have a look at them.
Thanks Robin! Feel free to email me for further discussion.
The sleep lab said I had OSA. It's not moderate, as they said I was asphyxiating 4 times per minute. So CPAP is the only real possibility for me. That and other remedies...
Feel free to email me for tips with your CPAP machine. Make sure you have a high quality mask. Are you using a face mask or a nasal one?
Anyway, shoot me an email if you want to discuss you're situation and get some support.
I'm glad that I don't have sleep apnea or that I'm not diagnosed anyway. I'd rather not have such an easy excuse.
You'll notice in some (or possibly one) of my recent posts I have indicated that I graduated from college, while still not being diagnosed with OSA. I am a very productive member of society, and I don't make excuses for myself. I simply wanted to provide insight as to the cause and effect of obesity and sleep apnea, as this was directly related to the article. I am saying, that obesity is a symptom of being sleep deprived -- not a cause of being sleep deprived.
Sorry if that's a little harsh, but sometimes you just gotta eat a damn salad and work out for a while, no matter how you feel.
This just proves you know nothing about what you're talking about. Doctors can't possibly understand obese people with apnea, because they are too busy putting them down to understand the truth.
The truth is: eating salads while having apnea will get you killed faster than eating McDonald's. Why? Because salads have no energy. They take generally *more* energy to digest than they provide, which is why people lose weight eating salads. But when you are driving in a car with apnea, and you had a bad night sleep, you had better stop and get something with a little extra substance, or you're dead -- and you'll take a family of five with you. Now I'd love to stop for a nice well rounded meal, but there aren't any low-cost meals available that are healty ( and forget what Jared says... those sandwiches have no energy to offer me, IMHO). The simple truth is that I require more fatty rich foods for the immediate energy boost it provides.
Like I'm not saying I stop at McDonald's every day. I don't. But I drink a lot of coffee, and I eat food that is easy and fast to prepare. I don't have the energy to make a healthy meal more than once a day. I'm 32 years old too.
People with apnea have to weigh quality of life against length of life. Sadly I'll have a shorter life than someone without apnea.
So while you think what you're saying is correct -- it's very narrow minded and apparently quite shallow.
So if you don't want to be a jerk, simply get an alarm clock that will allow multiple wakeup times. See if you can find one with 2000 slots, and set them four minutes apart. Put the alarm on semi-low so it doesn't wake you up completely, but it keeps you from having REM. Now try sleeping like this for a week and measure your food responses. Look at what you need to survive your daily life. You'll find that everything I'm saying is 100% correct.
If you want to see what CPAP is like, set the new super-alarm for about 250 times a night. You'll notice an improvement after 2000 times a night, that you'll feel better. But you'll still be waking up 250 times a night, so you'll still be very tired the next day... just not quite as tired/irritable.
As for napping: many many people could benefit from that. Unfortunately most western and in particular anglo societies frown upon it. Some people (myself included) can take a 15-20 minute nap and be really really refreshed. Some people can't though :( Any longer than that for those who can and we're just making up for sleep deprevation, which shouldn't be done a work.
Totally true! I think that people who have apnea should all be trained as programmers and given nice remote jobs so they can work at home and sleep whenever they want. I do, and I am very productive. I feel very sorry for folks with physical labour jobs who have apnea... they have it real bad, IMHO.
As for the sleep lab... it's really easy and fun, IMHO. I was so tired it didn't matter... I just wanted the miracle cure, which still hasn't come along. Maybe some scientists will get smart eh?
Blaming OSA for your weight isn't going to make it go away, or get you laid. It's just going to make you sound like a wining couch potato who snores.
:-) I just sound like Darth Vader.... which is not a novelty that wears off quickly. ROTFLMAO!!
Oh maybe, but at least I have provided information to others who might have this problem. Oh, and I don't snore anymore. One of the benefits of CPAP.
Your description of falling asleep in lectures sound like classic symptoms of insulin overload from foods high in sugar.
Well, perhaps OSA causes other symptoms, but I have memories of having it when I was much younger. I attribute it to being the cause of all my problems, and it's okay... I'm living with it just fine. I think I just wanted to shed some light on this because I'm a good example of someone who is heavy because of the symptoms of a lack of sleep -- trying to recover lost energy through food. There really isn't much of a solution except to try and eat right -- at this point. I still get excercise now, but it's infrequent due to how bad my sleep is in winter months, due to really bad dust allergies.
I'd like to see a nutritionist, but frankly salad has no energy so I might as well act like a bear during winter time and just sleep it off.
Maybe someone could invent a bloody hybernation machine for apnea sufferers during the dusty months? Or perhaps I could get a coffin like Daredevil, and just sleep in that? (ie: sensory dep with water)
On my good days I'm very active. But I'm not losing weight that way... at least not yet. It's only been a couple of years since I was diagnosed. There are 30yrs of damage here.
How did lack of sleep force you to eat foods that were fast and easy to prepare or eat high fat foods?
:(
I never became fat until I went to university and had to fend for myself. Up until that point I was literally dragged everywhere by my parents, who thought I was just a lazy kid. I can remember several times in my early youth when I would be dreaming in class with my eyes open, and I can also remember being numb from pins and needles while in gym class. Oh and I'd get dizzy alot too. All these are signs of a lack of energy, and all were overlooked, because at the time, doctors were not looking for OSA in children -- it was dubbed the fat man's disorder, because fat men were diagnosed with it. Doctors were looking for people who got fat and got apnea because they got fat -- they weren't looking at people who might get fat because they have apnea.
Today, doctors are still in the dark. My own doctor looked at me strangely when I explained that I became fat from being tired all the time. Nobody can understand how someone could be too tired to cook a meal for themselves, or get off their ass to do something physical. It's very painful to be tired all the time. Even now... I'm still tired.
The sleep lab said 2000 times per night, I would wake from apnea when I was diagnosed. Now that number likely grew from the slow deterioration from years of having untreated OSA. But to put it in perspective -- That's four times per minute. And that's a low average compared to some folks who are more like 20 times per minute. To try and understand this... simply have someone wake your ass out of bed at 4am ONCE with a blowhorn... they run in and shout crazy crap at you and then they leave. That's some of the fear and loathing associated with apnea. You might see how someone doing the blowhorn trick 2000 times a night would be at risk of being murdered outright by even the most angelical person.
It's truly a horrible thing, but it's life and I'm living a higher quality of it since I've been on CPAP. But not much higher. Realistically... I'd say that for 25% of the day I have 100% more energy and the rest of the day decreases on a curve until at 3pm I'm dead tired and juicing on coffee. But my job keeps me up too...
So to clarify; my parents would cook, but I would eat candy whenever I could get it. Steal it... borrow it and beg for it. I'd drink a load of juice too growing up. I'd get whatever I could to get energy. Drugs, alcohol... anything.
Now it's easier. I can nap from time to time during the day because I work as a programmer. And that seriously helps. Everyone with OSA should be able by law to have a nap ANYTIME. (well not while they are driving, but you get the point)
If it turns out that fat people have more trouble sleeping than thin ones, then they would sleep less, but trying to force them to sleep more (drugs perhaps) would not necessarily decrease their weight...
This is slightly true, but you're missing a key factor. Many more people have Obstructive Sleep Apnea than currently are being treated for it, and among those who are being treated, many are still suffering from sleep loss due to throat obstruction. This obstruction was thought to have been caused by obesity, and it still is by many doctors -- but as being someone who was very skinny in my younger life and someone who became overweight as a result of apnea, I can tell you that obesity is a symptom of sleep deprivation. We eat the things that are easy to prepare (or even fast food), and we eat more sugar to get boosts, as a direct result of not being able to function properly in society. Plus being in a semi-REM state all day long truly hurts one's ability to make sane/wise food choices. And workouts? HA! As if you're going to cruelly force someone who is sleep deprived to excercise! That would be cruel and unusual punishment -- but it's what doctors are recommending.
Until someone comes up with a way to let people with respiratory problems actually function like normal people, there are going to be people getting fat because of their lack of energy.
I'm thinking that oxygen in CPAP machines might actually help, but it's not a standard right now. Also, more humid climates might help if they weren't so bloody hot (making you more relaxed and making it harder to breathe).
Personally I would like to see a kind of room built that controlled the envorionment for people with OSA. If it was self-cleaning -- it would be perfect!
I have sleep apnea and I will testify before you all that because of significant sleep deprivation during my youth, I had to eat foods that were:
a) Rich in sugar or grease
b) Fast and easy to prepare
If these conditions aren't met, I could not function very well, even with CPAP.
I was born with an unusually narrow throat, and I spent most of my early childhood as a beanpole -- I was super skinny. But after years of chronic apnea, due to the OSA, I slowly grew... and then suddenly I became super-sized.
I would daydream in class (ie: getting my waking REM), and even fall asleep during lectures.
I had zero energy, so I drank a pot of coffee in the morning and one in the afternoon, along with cigarettes to speed my heart up and get me going. I could never have graduated from school without doing this. Society requires that everyone must perform at a uniformed level, unless you have a disability, but my disability was never discovered until I was 30yrs. That's 30yrs of health slippage....
The point is... people with sleeping disorders need to have the disorders fixed, but the current CPAP machines are really not a solution -- they aren't ready to combat the seasons properly and they are horrible for people with dust allergies.
Until a solution for apnea is found and people realize that being overweight is not the cause, but a symptom -- people with apnea and other sleeping disorders won't be very healthy (mentally, emotionally or physically).
If thier PR campaign ends up working well for thier users, i say good show.
I don't think it will. I think what will end up happening is that MS will begin dividing types of spyware and saying that some of it is ok, when in reality it's all garbage. DRM anyone?
This started for me when I was heavily addicted to Quake. Red city post boxes looked like the 666, and some other obscure street items looked like the invis. Wondering now, perhaps the success to addictive gaming is centered around the similarities between the game you're designing and common items in daily living.
(I am the submitter, as you can see from my email addy) The article statistically proves 4/90, but did so to see if the 80/20 rule applies.
This was also posted earlier to TotalFark (and was not greenlit). The link said: "BitTorrent Networks have Long Tails. Your dog to get tail envy"
ROTFLMAO
IBM Opens Their Patent Portfolio to Open Source That does it. I'm buying a crapload of IBM stock. One good decision after another... but somehow I feel strange in doing so. How many of you remember when IBM were the bad guys?
EA Trying to Buy Ubisoft Shares... so that they can turn Ubisoft into EA. This can not be perceived as anything but a hostile takeover, and once again, EA is becoming the worst reputed games company of our day.
It's true that these anti-p2p groups are about equivalent to a group that is against driving cars, vs a group against drunk driving. It's the lack of precision in the anti-p2p camp that bothers me. They say they are against p2p when they should be against copyright infringement. They attack tools that can be used without malice, just to try and stop the infringements. That's not accurate and it detracts from the purity of their cause, IMHO.
In other words they're patenting it FOR MS to use, not to prevent MS from using it!!!! Amen, brother.
>How is the photo misleading, considering that the title of both the slashdot posting and the linked webpage is Titan's Surface Revealed. Because it's not the surface. It's a diagram based off some imaging. They make it sound like it's a normal picture and it's not. It looks like any number of Sim City maps I've seen. The public are not geeky enough to understand the photo and will think it's a digital image much like the Mars photos. Scientists should have thought of that and given the image a more technical colour pattern. Green doesn't mean cold to the human eye, it means flora.
How is the photo misleading?
Because it looks at first glance like Earth does with the naked eye. That's why. Until you start reading and realize what you're looking at, that is. Scientists are supposed to know better than to use colors that are misleading. They should have used pinks, blues and blacks or something else.
Wow, you must be pretty dumb. Nice user ID though. How is he dumb? Oh I'm sorry, that must have been a troll.