The Sony Xperia Z2, model D6503, should support all 4G bands used in North American and Europe - and is IP58 certified (waterproof to 1m depth for 1 hour).
The problem with any password manager/tool (of course aside from a simple text file, which is obviously out of the question) is that you are dependent on that piece of technology. A commercial password manager may exist for Desktop OS 1 today, but may not be supported in Mobile Phone OS 2 tomorrow. The cumulative turnaround time for your password inventory is often much longer than that of any particular device in your possession.
I've resorted to a lower tech solution for my own password inventory: A scheme that is based on the particular website (or other service name) in question. For instance, you may have an invariable prefix or suffix (perhaps an "encoded" phrase that's meaningful to you), a special character or two, and a component that is based on the web site or other name in question. In other words, something like:
FiXeD#pArT.service-specific-part
How you would "encrypt" that service specific component is really up to you - the point is that everyone would do so differently. But it should be something that you could train yourself to do relatively quickly.
The only downside with this approach is that with so many different services with so many different password rules (some require a minimum number of characters but no more than a maximum, some REQUIRE uppercase or special characters; others do not support special characters at all.... etc), it's hard to find a single universal scheme that works everywhere. However I've found that with a couple of different schemes of this nature, I've gotten by so far.
Another thing to think about is almost the opposite - how to enable access for your loved ones to certain places (e.g. to inventory your financial records etc) in the event of your death. Of course most of this can and should be done with signed affidavits etc, however, it can be difficult for them to get a complete view of all your accounts, policies, services etc unless you have a comprehensive summary somewhere.
The biggest issue was not that they abandoned Symbian. They were already set to do that anyway, what with MeeGo taking over on their highest-end devices and gradually onto mid-tier smartphones.
The biggest blunder was that they abandoned Qt as a development platform. That was their one strategy that would have kept new applications and development coming. You'd write an app using Qt (with some enhancements), and would with minimal effort be able to tailor both Symbian^3 and MeeGo devices.
That train has now left the station. There is now NO SINGLE application environment that a developer can use to tailor current and future Nokia phones. Not Java/J2ME. Not Symbian. Not MeeGo/Maemo. Not Qt.
Nokia has made a lot of serious blunders throughout the last few years (the N85 hardware quality, the N97 software quality, an ASD style management, etc). Allowing themselves to be completely hijacked by Elan/Microsoft for a last ditch futile attempt to promote WP7 is nothing short of astounding. The worlds largest cell phone maker, and at one point in recent history Europe's most valuable company, completely destroyed as little more than a pawn in Steve Ballmer's clumsy quest for making Microsoft relevant again is simply nothing short of astounding.
This is the shortest, sweetest and most constructive reply I read in this discussion!:)
One problem I can see is that as a private citizen, the OP probably does not have authority to build speed bumps, without prior permission from whatever government entity is responsible for that stretch of street/road.
As a private citizen, (s)he also probably cannot expect that any radar (s)he installs will be "validated" by the city government for the purpose of gathering evidence against speeders. (Too many potential ways that data could be manipulated unless gathered in an official way).
At least that's how it would be in the western world. I do not know much about the Middle East in general, much less about particular places and formal/practical government regulations.
I don't think I came across anyone discussing security concerns w.r.t the G1 being "open source" - but rather, that you'll be able to install anyone's application on the phone. (For "analysts" that are under the influence of Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field, this sounds very scary).
The issue of fairness comes up right away. Not everyone has a computer at home. Those that do are not necessarily a true representation of the general electorate.
One fundamental tenet of any fair voting system is that it must be equally easy or hard for every voter. Sure - the US fails on that score today - but introducing a system that benefits people who can afford a computer is not the way to solve this issue.
True. However, if you have a TomTom navigator, a Nokia N800/N810 internet tablet, or a bluetooth-enabled Mac (all recent Macs), you will be helpfully guided through the process of gaining internet access over DUN via your cell phone. Not much AT&T can do about that I suppose.
And it IS $15, not $19.99. The latter is a previous price, and came with 200 text messages per month as well. Now they separated them out, so you buy internet access for $15, and 200 text messages for $5.
Yes they are ignorant (MS), but not that ignorant, methinks. The main reason for not using symbolic (or hard, for that matter) links was that this requires a fundamental change in the filesystem - and was not nearly as easy to do with FAT (even the new VFAT, later renamed FAT16) filesystem.
Since then, of course, the ".lnk" files have taken a role similar to the old ".pif" files (Program Information File, used to store meta-information about DOS programs in Windows) - in that they can contain various attributes beyond just the path to the referenced file. (As a matter of fact, the extension is not important, so long as it is "executable". You can rename any executable file, be it a batch file, a command file, a DOS/Windows executable, etc, and rename it with a ".lnk" extension, and it will still run fine. This is a bug that is frequently exploited by trojans/viruses).
While you are on that topic, the Macintosh "Aliases" carried forward from Mac OS to Mac OS X (since both use the HFS+ filesystem), and are still widely used on that platform. When viewed in the "Finder" (the counterpart to the Windows Explorer), they appear the same way as symbolic links - but there are some differences. First, if the original file is moved or renamed, the Alias remains valid - while a symbolic link (since it is no more than a pointer by name) breaks. OTOH, it is not supported within the filesystem itself - so you cannot for instance go to the command prompt and say "cd diralias", where "diralias" is an alias to the directory.
In any case, every bureaucracy (whether it be the EU, the US, MS, or Apple) tend to have a "not invented here" attitude to outside inputs, and so keep reinventing and making incompatible standards. It's called "progress"..
Standards compliance. Wireless power was an Apple proprietary thing; they now use 802.3 (Power Over Ethernet) to power their computers. Of course, this presumes that you use wired ethernet, since 802.3 is incompatible with 802.11.
Chelating... great... I have a gluten free diet and a bridge to sell you also.
I hope you've also enrolled your son in an ABA program while you pursue a "cure".
What was that? When you mock chelation, gluten free diets, and "cures", aren't you inferring that:
This has nothing to do with mercury? (Hence, chelation is a ridiculous thing to do)
Autism is incurable (something which is proven to be incorrect), and
The only thing that works is therapy (like ABA)
The one in 150 figure is correct enough for the purposes of our discussion. We are not talking only about full-blown traditional autism, but about a spectrum of developmental disorders with the same/similar causes. In fact, I would not say that my son has classical "autism", though his professional diagnosis was Autistic Disorder.
All this said, I agree with your point that autism is not caused by vaccines alone. (Specifically, in my son's case, a part of the picture is proably that my wife had dental amalgams placed in her teeth while being pregnant with him - causing some release of mercury into her system over the next few days and months). There is also a genetic aspect, as well as an susceptability caused by strep infection at the time when vaccines are given. Hence my reference to the "multifactorial" aspect of it.
There is no question, however, that the trigger that caused the overt symtoms (i.e. the "autistic" classification) are 3-4 factors found in vaccines:
Mercury release from Thimerasol
The remaining part of Thimerasol, which mimics RNA and DNA in your body, and thus become stably integrated into cells
Live viruii from the DPT vaccine
Live viruii from the MMR vaccine
Anyway - I think at this point we are probably just debating semantics. Unless you have something new to add, I'll stop after this post.
I forgot to mention this, based on my personal insight:
Both my own son, and one of the other kids in our neighbourhood who is going through DMPS chelation, are now "dumping" large amounts of mercury from their bodies (as seen in urine tests, and more informally via so-called "detox rashes" on their skin). Simultaneously, they are both acquiring language and social skills at a rate that would not be possible by ABA, OT, or ST alone.
The fact that you still point to genetics as the only cause of autism means that you did not at all get (or even try to get) what I wrote earlier.
One more time: Autism (or more accurately, Autism Spectrum Disorders, ranging from full-blown Autism via Asperger's, to ADHD and ADD) is a multi-factorial disorder, or if you will, disease. One of these factors is genetic predisposition. But if that was the only factor, you could not explain why:
The number of autistic children has grown so epidemically over the last 20 years, even 10 years (Between 1992-2002, the Department of Education estimates that there has been a 714% increase in the number of autistic children. Today, the CDC acknowledges the number is about 1 in 166, even Eli Lilly, the maker of Thimerosal, says it's 1 in 150. In my neighbourhood, there are 3 autistic children, including my son; all of these are aged 2-4 years old).
Nearly all autistic children you'll meet were born in the late 1990s and early 2000s (coincidentally, as more and more vaccinations were added to the list mandated by the government)
To put it differently - there is no such thing as an "genetic epidemic". Autism is by far and large an enviromental issue. The only thing that has changed so rapidly over the last 10-20 years in terms of environmental exposure is the number of vaccines that these kids are given.
It is also a fact that the levels of mercury in these vaccines exceeds the levels approved by the FDA for adults 30-40 times. These vaccines are given starting at birth - to infants that do not even have fully developed liver functions. Moreover, ethyl mercury (found in vaccines) is probably more harmful than methyl mercury (found in seafood, and forms the basis for FDA's recommendation).
To address your points one by one:
If your wife's degree is in Psychology, the professional journals she is reading are not very likely to deal with biomedical issues related to autism, such as the role of exitotoxic agents on the glutamate receptors in your nervous system. For this type of information, you are better off trying to understand some of the biomedical science that is performed in this area, such as that provided by Bernard Rimland & others at the Autism Research Institute. Another excellent, though somewhat technical, explanation of what is going on with regards to thimerasol, specific viruii in vaccines, and the body of autistic children, is provided by Dr. Amy Yasko. Unfortunately, only a fraction of this information is on her web site - but if you are really interested in this subject, I strongly recommend her books ("The Puzzle of Autism", and "The Power of RNA") along with her conference presentations (available on DVD via the same site). She boasts a near 100% recovery rate of the patients she is seeing - which are often the hardest ones - those for whom traditional chelation (via DPMS or DMSA) failed to work.
Beware that there are siginifcant amounts of "bad" science conducted under direct or indirect sponsorship of pharmaseuticals, such as Merck, that will seek to discredit links between Thimerasol and Autism (just like they were doing "resarch" do discredit the link between Vioxx and heart failures in some patients). For instance, referalls to the so-called "Danish Study" are often used to "prove" that there is no link - wheras in reality this "study" (actually it was not a real study, just a snippet of government data extracted by the main Danish producer of Thimerasol-containing vaccines) would show the opposite. See this link for a more detailed explanation.
Thimerasol has never been evaluated for use in humans by either the manufacturer (Ely Lily), the pharmaseuticals that use it (Merck, Avent
Yes, he has been enrolled in an ABA program, with OT and Speech Therapy as well, ever since he was diagnosed in January. This is helpful, no doubt, but where we really saw a difference was with biomedical treatments (such as carnintine supplements to repair the liver, and specific probiotics to help get rid of yeast in the GI tract), as well as - yes - chelation. Not only did his behaviour and language improve, but he no longer gets sick (he used to have frequent stumach flus etc), his stools are much better, and the dark rings under his eyes are gone.
May I ask you: What stake do you have in this? Or to ask a different way: What qualifies you to have an informed opinion on the matter? What background do you have, and what literature do you read?
Please refrain from statements like:
Chelating... great... I have a gluten free diet and a bridge to sell you also.
These do nothing to portray you as someone who is informed on these issues.
Maybe you can illustrate for me why mercury chelation (via TD-DPMS) does wonders for him, if this has nothing to do with mercury?
Again, not to get too bogged down in a lengthy discussion (I have better things to do), but you ought to know that Autism is a multifactorial disorder. This means that - yes - genetics, such as large amounts of white matter in the brain - has a role, but that there are other factors as well. One of these is mercury. Another one is the part of the Thimerasol molecule that is left behind once the mercury has been dissolved into your bloodstream (this "turd" looks to the body like a DNA molecule, and thus gets absorbed in the body's DNA). Another one is the DPT and MMR vaccines themselves.
I suggest you look at some of the science that lies behind these issues - not just the slanted interpretation of studies that is provided by NIH, CDC, or Merck. Good places to start are:
www.autismanswer.com - a bit on the technical side
www.generationrescue.org - more for lay people - but with a wealth of literature, references to studies, etc.
Also worth noting is that there is not a single scientifically valid study that shows that Thimerasol is safe.
Sorry, there are a lot of flaws in your statements (including the idea that there is any money to be had from suing the perpetrators, such as Ely Lily and Merck. Congress took care of protecting these in a piece of special interest legislation in 1988).
Indeed, families with autistic children (such as ours) tend to suffer a large financial burden as a result of the government's negligence. My wife had to stop working to administer his special education program at home; this is more typical than not. We are spending a lot of money on various supplements (to restore liver health, and as a consequence mental health) and literature.
In addition, this affects tax payers. As of 2005, 1 in 150 children in the USA is autistic. This puts a huge burden on school districts, and their special education budgets (which in order comes from state, and ultimately federal funds).
I have a lot more to say on this topic, but
You hinted that you are a conservative Republican, of the kind that I have rarely found letting facts getting in the way of their ideology. You probably would not be persuaded by my first-hand experience with my son, nor by available research (not just studies, but actual science) that supports the Thimerasol-Autism link, and
You post as an AC. I don't want to spend too much effort and time in responding to someone who will not stand behind their statements.
What you say is a misinterpretation of the articles you quote. The vast majority of autistic children have no signs of autims until around 18-24 months of age (so-called "late onset autism"). Only a few children are autistic at birth or soon after.
Only the first of the articles you point to talk about genetics at all - and this article in the context of predisposition. 20 years ago, individuals with the same facial characteristics (e.g. low corners in mouth) did not normally develop autism.
My son, for example, was very alert, very playful, very communicative, and had very good eye contact until around 18-20 months. In fact, everything about him indicated that he was going to grow up to be a very bright kid. Gradually, from then on, symptoms started appearing (e.g. language delay, stereotypical behaviors). This, too, is consistent with the symtoms of mercury poisoning, which often take months to manifest.
To explain this point: Autism is always accompanied by "gut" issues: Yeast overgrowth in the GI tract, damaged liver, inability to break down specific proteins/peptides (such as gluten and casein, which in turn results in glidaorphine and casomorphine - optoids for the brain). What actually happens is that the mercury inhibits specific metabolisms, such as the MTHTf cycle (see: Pathway diagrams). Once e.g. the production of glutathione is compromised, it will take months for the results of the glutamate/glutathione balance to affect the nerve cells to the point of killing them.
This distinction, though maybe worth noting, has no bearing on the levels of mercury absorbed into your blood stream (liver, nervous system, etc). That's because the mercury in thimerasol (methyl mercury) is 90% absorbed by your body, wheras that in, say, fish & seafood (ethyl mercury) is only about 10% absorbed.
You seem to be just as much a victim of misinformation, relying, for instance, on a completely debunked Danish "study" for your argument. Just like in the case of Vioxx, pharma reports that draw on publicly available study data tend to draw the exact opposite conclusion of what the data itself suggests.
Just the fact that a single thimerasol-containing vaccine (such as the flu shot) contains 40 times more mercury than the FDA guidelines allows for adults, and that these vaccines are given to infants ought to set off some warning bells.
My firstborn son was diagnosed as autistic last January, at the age of 2 1/2. We had been increasinly concerned about his language delay, and specific stereotypical behaviors (hand flapping, head banging, etc). Looking back, we believe that these behaviors started appearing at around 18 months of age. Well -- guess what - during a 1-month period at that time, he had received 8 vaccines in 6 shots (including 5 vaccines in 3 shots on the day he got his MMR, and a flu shot 3 weeks later).
My wife had also received some dental fillings (amalgam) during her pregnancy. Despite denials by the ADA, there is also statistically significant data that shows that recent dental fillings in pregnant women will cause autism. I participate in various discussion groups related to autism - and this, too, seems to be a recurring theme: Multiple dental fillings around the time of pregnancy.
Then there is the genetic component. Some individuals are more prone to mercury poisoining than others. In partciular, individuals with a high level of early cognitive activity ("intelligence") are susceptible - because they tend to have higher releases of the peptite "glutamate" in their brains and nervous systems. (Glutamate, if not properly converted to GABA, and without proper levels of glutathione, will cause sensory overload - and over time kill a large percentage of nerve/brain cells in the body. Glutathione is normally produced in the liver, but this production is inhibited by mercury. For more scientific detail on this subject, see articles by Dr. Amy Yasko at www.autismanswer.com.
The only reason there is any controversy around the link between mercury poisoning and autism (and for that matter, asperger's, ADHD, ADD, alzheimers, and parkinson's) is political: the self-interest of pharmaseutical companies like Merck, coupled with unwillingness to face the reality as seen in bodies and organizations like the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, and American Dental Association.
Routers don't typically DROP the traffic, they REJECT it. There is a crucial difference: REJECT means that a TCP NAK response is sent back to the originator (of the SYN request), allowing them to immediately discern that there is no service at the given port. This allows them to do port scanning much faster, and consequently hogs your bandwidth.
In contrast, when you simply DROP incoming SYN requests in the bit bucket, the client has no way of knowing whether the response from your end is due to a net.lag (slow connection) or whether you are not listening on the given port. Although "nmap" has ways around this, it nevertheless slows down their port scanning as well as lowers their use of bandwidth.
Specifically, the question here was related to a Linksys router. Looking at the product documentation for a random Linksys product (BEF SER41), I see no reference to this type of functionality.
Seen as none of the comments so far has answered your question, let me just offer my 2:
Rather than using a Broadband NAT router, set up a firewall running Linux, *BSD, or similar. This way, you can send "irrelevant" traffic (e.g. ICMP ping requests, or TCP/UDP packets to ports on which you do not provide services) to the bit bucket ("DROP" in the language of Linux IPTables).
This slows down port scanning of your machine (e.g. using "nmap") to near a grinding halt, and thereby reduces the bandwith consumed by such port scans to near zero.
It is not bulletproof - someone could still direct DoS attacks against you - but it would nearly eliminate the traffic caused by causal port scanning of your machine.
You are generating collateral spam. The sender address (From: and/or Sender: headers, "MAIL FROM:" envelope) are always forged in the case of spam -- "bouncing" a message is just adding to the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
The Sony Xperia Z2, model D6503, should support all 4G bands used in North American and Europe - and is IP58 certified (waterproof to 1m depth for 1 hour).
I got it - works great!
The problem with any password manager/tool (of course aside from a simple text file, which is obviously out of the question) is that you are dependent on that piece of technology. A commercial password manager may exist for Desktop OS 1 today, but may not be supported in Mobile Phone OS 2 tomorrow. The cumulative turnaround time for your password inventory is often much longer than that of any particular device in your possession.
I've resorted to a lower tech solution for my own password inventory: A scheme that is based on the particular website (or other service name) in question. For instance, you may have an invariable prefix or suffix (perhaps an "encoded" phrase that's meaningful to you), a special character or two, and a component that is based on the web site or other name in question. In other words, something like:
FiXeD#pArT.service-specific-part
How you would "encrypt" that service specific component is really up to you - the point is that everyone would do so differently. But it should be something that you could train yourself to do relatively quickly.
The only downside with this approach is that with so many different services with so many different password rules (some require a minimum number of characters but no more than a maximum, some REQUIRE uppercase or special characters; others do not support special characters at all.... etc), it's hard to find a single universal scheme that works everywhere. However I've found that with a couple of different schemes of this nature, I've gotten by so far.
Another thing to think about is almost the opposite - how to enable access for your loved ones to certain places (e.g. to inventory your financial records etc) in the event of your death. Of course most of this can and should be done with signed affidavits etc, however, it can be difficult for them to get a complete view of all your accounts, policies, services etc unless you have a comprehensive summary somewhere.
Look at the title of the post. As of now, it STILL reads: "Volvo Plans To Have Self-Driving Cars In Swedish Capital Gothenburg By 2017".
Not to worry about not spotting that, it's commonly known as the Dan Quayle syndrome.
The biggest issue was not that they abandoned Symbian. They were already set to do that anyway, what with MeeGo taking over on their highest-end devices and gradually onto mid-tier smartphones.
The biggest blunder was that they abandoned Qt as a development platform. That was their one strategy that would have kept new applications and development coming. You'd write an app using Qt (with some enhancements), and would with minimal effort be able to tailor both Symbian^3 and MeeGo devices.
That train has now left the station. There is now NO SINGLE application environment that a developer can use to tailor current and future Nokia phones. Not Java/J2ME. Not Symbian. Not MeeGo/Maemo. Not Qt.
Nokia has made a lot of serious blunders throughout the last few years (the N85 hardware quality, the N97 software quality, an ASD style management, etc). Allowing themselves to be completely hijacked by Elan/Microsoft for a last ditch futile attempt to promote WP7 is nothing short of astounding. The worlds largest cell phone maker, and at one point in recent history Europe's most valuable company, completely destroyed as little more than a pawn in Steve Ballmer's clumsy quest for making Microsoft relevant again is simply nothing short of astounding.
Nokias. Biggest. Blunder. Ever.
This is the shortest, sweetest and most constructive reply I read in this discussion! :)
One problem I can see is that as a private citizen, the OP probably does not have authority to build speed bumps, without prior permission from whatever government entity is responsible for that stretch of street/road.
As a private citizen, (s)he also probably cannot expect that any radar (s)he installs will be "validated" by the city government for the purpose of gathering evidence against speeders. (Too many potential ways that data could be manipulated unless gathered in an official way).
At least that's how it would be in the western world. I do not know much about the Middle East in general, much less about particular places and formal/practical government regulations.
I don't think I came across anyone discussing security concerns w.r.t the G1 being "open source" - but rather, that you'll be able to install anyone's application on the phone. (For "analysts" that are under the influence of Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field, this sounds very scary).
The issue of fairness comes up right away. Not everyone has a computer at home. Those that do are not necessarily a true representation of the general electorate.
One fundamental tenet of any fair voting system is that it must be equally easy or hard for every voter. Sure - the US fails on that score today - but introducing a system that benefits people who can afford a computer is not the way to solve this issue.
True. However, if you have a TomTom navigator, a Nokia N800/N810 internet tablet, or a bluetooth-enabled Mac (all recent Macs), you will be helpfully guided through the process of gaining internet access over DUN via your cell phone. Not much AT&T can do about that I suppose.
And it IS $15, not $19.99. The latter is a previous price, and came with 200 text messages per month as well. Now they separated them out, so you buy internet access for $15, and 200 text messages for $5.
That is not their MEdiaNet plan, that is their PDA plan.
They charge differently for "Smartphones" (per AT&T definition), PDAs and such. Yes, those plans are more expensive.
The Unlimited MEdiaNet plan (ie. unlimited internet access for "regular" cell phones, including unlocked phones like the Nokia N95) is listed here:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/services/serviceDetails.jsp?LOSGId=&skuId=sku1160057&catId=cat1470003
You could also tether connection over Bluetooth via your cell phone. An unlimited data plan from AT&T (MEdiaNet) runs at $15/month.
You need:
- A bluetooth enabled computer
- A bluetooth enabled cell phone (except the iPhone)
- An unlimited data plan (e.g. MEdiaNet)
Off topic, but since you started.. :)
Yes they are ignorant (MS), but not that ignorant, methinks. The main reason for not using symbolic (or hard, for that matter) links was that this requires a fundamental change in the filesystem - and was not nearly as easy to do with FAT (even the new VFAT, later renamed FAT16) filesystem.
Since then, of course, the ".lnk" files have taken a role similar to the old ".pif" files (Program Information File, used to store meta-information about DOS programs in Windows) - in that they can contain various attributes beyond just the path to the referenced file. (As a matter of fact, the extension is not important, so long as it is "executable". You can rename any executable file, be it a batch file, a command file, a DOS/Windows executable, etc, and rename it with a ".lnk" extension, and it will still run fine. This is a bug that is frequently exploited by trojans/viruses).
While you are on that topic, the Macintosh "Aliases" carried forward from Mac OS to Mac OS X (since both use the HFS+ filesystem), and are still widely used on that platform. When viewed in the "Finder" (the counterpart to the Windows Explorer), they appear the same way as symbolic links - but there are some differences. First, if the original file is moved or renamed, the Alias remains valid - while a symbolic link (since it is no more than a pointer by name) breaks. OTOH, it is not supported within the filesystem itself - so you cannot for instance go to the command prompt and say "cd diralias", where "diralias" is an alias to the directory.
In any case, every bureaucracy (whether it be the EU, the US, MS, or Apple) tend to have a "not invented here" attitude to outside inputs, and so keep reinventing and making incompatible standards. It's called "progress"..
Standards compliance. Wireless power was an Apple proprietary thing; they now use 802.3 (Power Over Ethernet) to power their computers. Of course, this presumes that you use wired ethernet, since 802.3 is incompatible with 802.11.
What was that? When you mock chelation, gluten free diets, and "cures", aren't you inferring that:
The one in 150 figure is correct enough for the purposes of our discussion. We are not talking only about full-blown traditional autism, but about a spectrum of developmental disorders with the same/similar causes. In fact, I would not say that my son has classical "autism", though his professional diagnosis was Autistic Disorder.
All this said, I agree with your point that autism is not caused by vaccines alone. (Specifically, in my son's case, a part of the picture is proably that my wife had dental amalgams placed in her teeth while being pregnant with him - causing some release of mercury into her system over the next few days and months). There is also a genetic aspect, as well as an susceptability caused by strep infection at the time when vaccines are given. Hence my reference to the "multifactorial" aspect of it.
There is no question, however, that the trigger that caused the overt symtoms (i.e. the "autistic" classification) are 3-4 factors found in vaccines:
Anyway - I think at this point we are probably just debating semantics. Unless you have something new to add, I'll stop after this post.
I forgot to mention this, based on my personal insight:
Both my own son, and one of the other kids in our neighbourhood who is going through DMPS chelation, are now "dumping" large amounts of mercury from their bodies (as seen in urine tests, and more informally via so-called "detox rashes" on their skin). Simultaneously, they are both acquiring language and social skills at a rate that would not be possible by ABA, OT, or ST alone.
One more point of data for your reference.
One more time: Autism (or more accurately, Autism Spectrum Disorders, ranging from full-blown Autism via Asperger's, to ADHD and ADD) is a multi-factorial disorder, or if you will, disease. One of these factors is genetic predisposition. But if that was the only factor, you could not explain why:
To put it differently - there is no such thing as an "genetic epidemic". Autism is by far and large an enviromental issue. The only thing that has changed so rapidly over the last 10-20 years in terms of environmental exposure is the number of vaccines that these kids are given.
It is also a fact that the levels of mercury in these vaccines exceeds the levels approved by the FDA for adults 30-40 times. These vaccines are given starting at birth - to infants that do not even have fully developed liver functions. Moreover, ethyl mercury (found in vaccines) is probably more harmful than methyl mercury (found in seafood, and forms the basis for FDA's recommendation).
To address your points one by one:
May I ask you: What stake do you have in this? Or to ask a different way: What qualifies you to have an informed opinion on the matter? What background do you have, and what literature do you read?
Please refrain from statements like:
These do nothing to portray you as someone who is informed on these issues.
Again, not to get too bogged down in a lengthy discussion (I have better things to do), but you ought to know that Autism is a multifactorial disorder. This means that - yes - genetics, such as large amounts of white matter in the brain - has a role, but that there are other factors as well. One of these is mercury. Another one is the part of the Thimerasol molecule that is left behind once the mercury has been dissolved into your bloodstream (this "turd" looks to the body like a DNA molecule, and thus gets absorbed in the body's DNA). Another one is the DPT and MMR vaccines themselves.
I suggest you look at some of the science that lies behind these issues - not just the slanted interpretation of studies that is provided by NIH, CDC, or Merck. Good places to start are:
Also worth noting is that there is not a single scientifically valid study that shows that Thimerasol is safe.
-tor
Indeed, families with autistic children (such as ours) tend to suffer a large financial burden as a result of the government's negligence. My wife had to stop working to administer his special education program at home; this is more typical than not. We are spending a lot of money on various supplements (to restore liver health, and as a consequence mental health) and literature.
In addition, this affects tax payers. As of 2005, 1 in 150 children in the USA is autistic. This puts a huge burden on school districts, and their special education budgets (which in order comes from state, and ultimately federal funds).
I have a lot more to say on this topic, but
What you say is a misinterpretation of the articles you quote. The vast majority of autistic children have no signs of autims until around 18-24 months of age (so-called "late onset autism"). Only a few children are autistic at birth or soon after.
Only the first of the articles you point to talk about genetics at all - and this article in the context of predisposition. 20 years ago, individuals with the same facial characteristics (e.g. low corners in mouth) did not normally develop autism.
My son, for example, was very alert, very playful, very communicative, and had very good eye contact until around 18-20 months. In fact, everything about him indicated that he was going to grow up to be a very bright kid. Gradually, from then on, symptoms started appearing (e.g. language delay, stereotypical behaviors). This, too, is consistent with the symtoms of mercury poisoning, which often take months to manifest.
To explain this point: Autism is always accompanied by "gut" issues: Yeast overgrowth in the GI tract, damaged liver, inability to break down specific proteins/peptides (such as gluten and casein, which in turn results in glidaorphine and casomorphine - optoids for the brain). What actually happens is that the mercury inhibits specific metabolisms, such as the MTHTf cycle (see: Pathway diagrams). Once e.g. the production of glutathione is compromised, it will take months for the results of the glutamate/glutathione balance to affect the nerve cells to the point of killing them.
This distinction, though maybe worth noting, has no bearing on the levels of mercury absorbed into your blood stream (liver, nervous system, etc). That's because the mercury in thimerasol (methyl mercury) is 90% absorbed by your body, wheras that in, say, fish & seafood (ethyl mercury) is only about 10% absorbed.
That site should be:
www.autismanswer.com
You seem to be just as much a victim of misinformation, relying, for instance, on a completely debunked Danish "study" for your argument. Just like in the case of Vioxx, pharma reports that draw on publicly available study data tend to draw the exact opposite conclusion of what the data itself suggests.
Just the fact that a single thimerasol-containing vaccine (such as the flu shot) contains 40 times more mercury than the FDA guidelines allows for adults, and that these vaccines are given to infants ought to set off some warning bells.
My firstborn son was diagnosed as autistic last January, at the age of 2 1/2. We had been increasinly concerned about his language delay, and specific stereotypical behaviors (hand flapping, head banging, etc). Looking back, we believe that these behaviors started appearing at around 18 months of age. Well -- guess what - during a 1-month period at that time, he had received 8 vaccines in 6 shots (including 5 vaccines in 3 shots on the day he got his MMR, and a flu shot 3 weeks later).
My wife had also received some dental fillings (amalgam) during her pregnancy. Despite denials by the ADA, there is also statistically significant data that shows that recent dental fillings in pregnant women will cause autism. I participate in various discussion groups related to autism - and this, too, seems to be a recurring theme: Multiple dental fillings around the time of pregnancy.
Then there is the genetic component. Some individuals are more prone to mercury poisoining than others. In partciular, individuals with a high level of early cognitive activity ("intelligence") are susceptible - because they tend to have higher releases of the peptite "glutamate" in their brains and nervous systems. (Glutamate, if not properly converted to GABA, and without proper levels of glutathione, will cause sensory overload - and over time kill a large percentage of nerve/brain cells in the body. Glutathione is normally produced in the liver, but this production is inhibited by mercury. For more scientific detail on this subject, see articles by Dr. Amy Yasko at www.autismanswer.com.
The only reason there is any controversy around the link between mercury poisoning and autism (and for that matter, asperger's, ADHD, ADD, alzheimers, and parkinson's) is political: the self-interest of pharmaseutical companies like Merck, coupled with unwillingness to face the reality as seen in bodies and organizations like the Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, and American Dental Association.
Routers don't typically DROP the traffic, they REJECT it. There is a crucial difference: REJECT means that a TCP NAK response is sent back to the originator (of the SYN request), allowing them to immediately discern that there is no service at the given port. This allows them to do port scanning much faster, and consequently hogs your bandwidth.
In contrast, when you simply DROP incoming SYN requests in the bit bucket, the client has no way of knowing whether the response from your end is due to a net.lag (slow connection) or whether you are not listening on the given port. Although "nmap" has ways around this, it nevertheless slows down their port scanning as well as lowers their use of bandwidth.
Specifically, the question here was related to a Linksys router. Looking at the product documentation for a random Linksys product (BEF SER41), I see no reference to this type of functionality.
Seen as none of the comments so far has answered your question, let me just offer my 2:
Rather than using a Broadband NAT router, set up a firewall running Linux, *BSD, or similar. This way, you can send "irrelevant" traffic (e.g. ICMP ping requests, or TCP/UDP packets to ports on which you do not provide services) to the bit bucket ("DROP" in the language of Linux IPTables).
This slows down port scanning of your machine (e.g. using "nmap") to near a grinding halt, and thereby reduces the bandwith consumed by such port scans to near zero.
It is not bulletproof - someone could still direct DoS attacks against you - but it would nearly eliminate the traffic caused by causal port scanning of your machine.
You are generating collateral spam. The sender address (From: and/or Sender: headers, "MAIL FROM:" envelope) are always forged in the case of spam -- "bouncing" a message is just adding to the problem.
Much better to reject at SMTP time, using a 4xx/5xx SMTP response. For details, see the
Spam Filtering for Mail Exchangers HOWTO.