Do stem cells cause cancer? Asks the cover of the latest (Dec. 27) issue of Forbes Magazine,
Dirks and a handful of other mavericks argue that this indiscriminate approach is wrongheaded. They believe a single type of cell may be cancer's main growth engine:mutant stem cells that, though barely present, spawn other cells that then spark growth. "This has profound implications," says researcher Thomas Look of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "The major cells you see under a microscope may not be the ones you need to kill in order to cure the disease." He adds that the theory "is definitely still very controversial" in some quarters.
Figure out a way to isolate these mutant cells and target only them, Dirks says, and maybe cancer can be stopped outright--and the kids he treats might stop dying so soon after he operates.
These mutant stem cells already have been found in breast cancer, two types of leukemia and multiple myeloma. This fall Dirks and six scientists at the University of Toronto proved the existence of the cells in human brain tumors, pinpointing a small group of cells believed to be the driver of the tumors' growth. "In every brain tumor we have looked at, in both adults and kids, we are able to find these cells," Dirks says.
-=-=-=-=-=
From the web:
In 1902, Beard had called attention to the role of "totipotent germ cells" in the development of cancer. In embryology, the word "totipotent" means that a cell is capable of giving rise to all types of differentiated cells found in that organism. This anticipated the contemporary attention to totipotent stem cells, although human embryonic stem cells (ESC) were not isolated until 1998 (16). Human ESCs are described as totipotent and in fact they release hCG (17,18). The relationship between Beard's totipotent germ cells and contemporary totipotent stem cells deserves further study.
-=-=-=-=-= Also from the web:
This is significant because to isolate the stem cells, scientists peel away the trophoblast
Someone finds something out like this about every five to ten years. For instance, it was known back in the early 1900s that cancer was basically the same and grows in the same manner no matter where it appears in the body. Go back and study the research of Joseph Beard (do a google).
The problem is that more people make a living from treating cancer than actually die from it. There is an insane amount of money changing hands over cancer, so no matter what new, improved, and more successful treatments pop up over the years, they rarely see light of day. Why? Because there is an industry entrenched around radiation/chemo and all the oncologist read about these new treatments...and go right on treating patients the same way. Regardless of results, that's how they have paid for the big houses, made their Porsche payments, and sent their kids to college all of these years.
Yes, some of this is the FDA's fault. But if cancer was cured tomorrow, fifteen years from now, there would still be oncologists treating cancer with radiation/chemo, if they could get away with it.
I don't have time to go and set in a class somewhere, so I have been spending my spare time studying for the Network+ and Cisco CCNA exams. I take a lot of practice exams, and even write my own study questions. You know, I could waste time doing puzzles or playing games, but I figure I can kill two birds with one stone if I make these exams a type of fun personal challenge. Not only am I keeping my brain active...but it really looks good on a resume.
Those companies don't pay the 4.00 per chipset, that gets passed down to...us, the consumer. Those army of lawyers it will take to bust this patent...paid for by...us. If they lose and have to pay the 4.00 and for the army of lawyers, well, just raise the prices a bit. And if they win, does anyone think they will lower the price?
What these companies should do to get around the patent is to pool their money and develop a *better* Open Source alternative to the patent in question.
If they did that, that 4.00 in savings still probably wouldn't make it down to the consumer level, but maybe some developing country could use the OS tech to make some free chipsets where it would benefit someone in those countries through lower prices to the consumer.
Yeah, I ain't going to hold my breath, but that's what these compaines should be doing.
I live in a small town that used to have a Wal-Mart and a Wonder World (was part of K-Mart). Wonder World sold CDs for approx. 12.99 to 13.99. Wal-Mart sold CDs for approx. the same price. Well, the very day that Wonder World closed its doors, leaving Wal-Mart as the only place to buy a CD, I stopped by Wal-Mart, only to find them marking *up* the price of their CDs.
The good thing about OS is that after the other guy closes up shop, OS is still free...and if it is good enough software to make the other guy close up shop, then it is what is known as a win/win situation!
If Novell really wants to make money, what they really need to do is come up with a good Linux certification test. Put some good marketing behind the certification, and make the test really hard, so that people need to take it multiple times. Sell some books that explains how to pass the test, even...but include questions on the actual test that aren't covered in the books.
In the end, Novell makes money, and the employeed people who are Novell Linux certified are actually happy that they forked over hard earned money to Novell. I think they call that a win/win situation.
But seriously, a good Novell Linux certification would be good for Linux.
Maybe if they made it easy to bookmark sites, and had easy access to the database created by this service, and made the service easy to use....maybe, and I said maybe, the number of links from *real* people would outnumber the links by spammers, and Google searches would quit pulling up links to pages funneling us to a freaking Ebay auction.
Also, some way for Google to pick up that huge amounts of *real* people hated the link they clicked on from a Google search, would allow Google to move that link down in the results. So maybe people could not only bookmark sites, on Google's bookmark service, but attach emotion to them somehow.
Well, looks like my memory was wrong, but Donley has been involved in legal actions against his record company. There is some information here:
http://www.thesingersworkshop.com/article26.html
Good quote:
"Typically," says attorney Danny Hayes, who negotiates for Tool, Lit and Linkin Park, "new artists have no leverage and won't see a dime of royalty money until they sell over one million albums."
If memory serves me correctly, Sheryl Crow is also against having to sign away ownership of her songs to record companies, too, isn't she? So, the attempt by this AC to make it look like artists like the current system is also one sided. Maybe Sheryl is against her music being stolen on P2P and by her record company...
Anti-virus companies. How many people spend 30.00 - 60.00-plus each year for anti-virus software? Multiply 35.00 x just a million Linux Live users and see what a bite this will take out of the anti-virus industry.
(Yes, I know there are other ways to get a virus than through the Internet, but that is where about 98 - 99% of people are getting them. If you weren't connected to the Net, you could go years without getting one...instead of getting one in 30 seconds while connected, like you do now).
I have posted about this before...but I think bootable CDs w/ a Read Only HD while you are online is going to be what everyone will have to be doing to bypass the virus problems we are facing now.
Having used Ubuntu Live and mostly loving it, I agree with this post about problems with the modem, though. Even though it is possible to get the right drivers and get a winmodem going, bootable CDs are not really going to take off until all modems are picked up and configured correctly on the first try. When that happens, people will see that they can surf safely and Linux Live CDs will breakthrough to the general public.
Again, modem support should be the number one focus of Linux Live CDs. When people boot up, they should enter the phone number to their ISP and logon. It should be that simple.
In a reply to someone saying that copying music wasn't stealing but a copyright violation, someone said, "well I guess making a copy of a bank database isn't stealing, as it didn't deprive the bank of the use of its own database."
The difference I see, is that almost every single person I know has violated a copyright where music is concerned, yet I don't personally know a single person who has ever illegally copied a bank data base.
I'm not saying criminal activity on a large scale justifies said criminal activity...but when every single person you know "steals" music, then maybe the law that makes this a crime should be examined. And if nothing else, maybe the penalties for breaking this law need to examined and put more in line with reality.
I saw a progam on placebos and they talked about people who were mistakenly told they had cancer, or that their cancer had returned, and the people died in just a few weeks or a couple of months. And after they died, an autopsy revealed that the doctor was wrong about the cancer coming back.
On the same show, they talked about people being given fake chemo treatments. After the "treatments," the patients would throw up, and in a couple of days their hair started to fall out!
The show was on the discovery health channel. Don't know how accurate it was, but it was so good I went to their web site trying to get a copy of it...but it wasn't offered.
Well, I have a lot of **time** in some practice Cisco CCNA test questions and I released them under a Creative Commons license:
http://www.quest4.org/ccna/
I guess some people might think it is crappy, but in the end, I hope to have a test question pool that equals the questions in software that sells for anywhere between 10.00 and 60.00 (true, you do get some extra features).
Why did I release under a Creative Commons? Because I really wish someone could fill in the holes and come up with a really good test engine for the questions. I don't have time to do that, myself. And as long as they don't charge for the program, I don't care what they do with the questions.
In the end, I think everyone wins with Creative Commons.
The easiest way to get rid of guns in America is to make speeding a felony.
Saying that no one has the right to "publish information that could have been provided only by someone breaking the law," is like saying the First Amendment could be done away with by passing a law stating that it is illegal to publish information.
Pretty funny for all the "everything will be connected, even your toaster," crowd out there... it now seem that because of the ever increasing spyware/malware/viruses, etc., pretty soon we will have to boot up a live Linux CD to use the Internet.
I would use Ubunto, which is the first live Linux I have gotten my hands on, but it wouldn't pick up my modem correctly (probably a win modem thing). Other than that, and the fact that it wouldn't play MP3s without a plugin, I loved Ubunto. Linux is way close to "getting there."
But after I wasted three days getting some powerful trojan crap off my computer not too long ago (yes, on an XP system), running from a CD and having a read only hard drive while connected to the Net seems like a pretty good idea, to me!
That's pretty funny. A friend once told me a funny one that happened to her.
With the whole family sitting around the computer, including her visiting mother, they decided to try and look up some swing sets...So she typed in "swinging."
Gosh, you mean like the wear and tear on said vehicles EVERY TIME YOU HIT A SPEED BUMP. That's why you put them in the same places you would put a speed bump...where you would want someone to slow down anyway.
Imagine if everytime you hit a speed bump in a mall parking lot or at a toll booth gate, etc., the "bump" depressed just enough to turn a generator and then reset for the next car. Imagine how much electricity could be generated if one of these were placed in the right spot on a California road, with a *sea* of cars moving...much more regularly than the wind and easier to harness than the tides.
I realize there are limitations to these "speed bumps," because they could only be placed where a vehicle was going fairly slow...but heck, isn't that what speed bumps are for?
Anyone want to start a company and get some VC? Heck, someone might hit the lotto just by patenting this and selling the patent to a power company (who would really probably want this to never see the light of day).
This is a good and, I think, fair article on radiation from cell phones:
You can find this article at:
http://www.alternativemedicine.com/ and search for cell phone. The name of the article is "You Make The Call."
-=-=-= Studies show that people who don't think cell phones have adverse health effects need to have their heads examined.
-=-=-=-
Cell phones are not just here to stay. They have evolved into ever more versatile and powerful devices and have become indispensable to our way of life. Why, then, can't we make these technological marvels safe?
Of course, according to the cell phone industry, cell phones are perfectly harmless: "After a substantial amount of research, scientists and governments around the world continue to reaffirm that there is no public health threat from the use of wireless phones," says Tom Wheeler, president and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).
According to numerous prominent researchers, that statement is nonsense. Henry Lai, Ph.D., is a research professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington. Over the last several years he has conducted cell phone studies funded originally by the U.S. Navy and Air Force and later by the National Institutes of Health. "I have a list of about 600 research papers from the past ten years alone, 70 percent of which show definite effects from exposure to this kind of radiation," says Lai, "but the industry continues to say that there is nothing to worry about."
What about cell phones and cancer, the most publicized concern? "Studies have been conducted to determine whether there is an association between cellular telephone use and an increased risk of certain types of cancer," according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). "Although the majority of these studies have not supported any such association, scientists caution that more research needs to be done before conclusions can be drawn about the risk of cancer from cellular telephones."
"More research" is the mantra of all three groups - industry, government and scientists - each with their differing motives. And, in fact, more research is needed - but not to prove that cell phones do pose a health threat: That has been proven beyond any doubt. Swedish researcher Clas Tegenfeld, who is writing a book on biological effects of electromagnetic fields, says "Already there are at least 15,000 scientific reports on the subject. I am afraid the truth is that we don't want to know."
There have, in fact, been several studies that show no correlation between cell phone use and cancer. These studies were conducted by respected institutions and researchers and the results published in peer-reviewed journals. However, these were all simple statistical studies that compared the incidence of brain cancer among cell phone users to that of the general population. Typical of these studies is an oft-cited one from Sweden that was published in the July 1999 issue of the International Journal of Oncology. According to the NCI, "This study compared cellular telephone use in a group of 209 individuals who had brain tumors (the case group) with a group of 425 people without brain cancer (the control group). The study reported a statistically nonsignificant increased risk for brain tumors on the side of the head on which the cellular telephone was used. However, researchers found no overall increase in the risk for brain tumors with cellular telephone use."
Does this prove that cell phone use does not lead to increased risk of brain cancer? No. As the NCI itself points out, "Cancers that take a long time to develop would not have been detected by these studies." What has been shown in numerous studies, however, is that the radiation coming from cell phones does have measurable effects on brain cells that can lead to cancer, as well as neurological diseases.
Lai's experiments are instructive in this regard. One of his main findings was that radiation from cell phones at levels b
When my father dies, there will be little left of him but pictures and my memories. If all goes as planned for me, when I die, there will be an e-mail trail going back decades. I already have e-mail stored going back probably 7 or more years (some of which dates back to BBS QWK mail packets, if anyone remembers those).
For this reason, I have treated my e-mail as sort of a personal diary or blog, often e-mailing myself all sorts of things I want to keep. In them you will find my religious views, my political views, lists of CDs and DVDs I own, and messages from close friends.
The only down side to this is using an e-mail client that keeps things in a proprietary format. Unless you store in an easily portable format like HTML or text, you run the risk of having a ton of data that nobody knows how to read.
I backup in the proprietary format of my e-mail program, but I also export to html. I then keep copies of this on CD-R, with a copy for myself and a copy I keep at my parents house in case my house burns down.
Interestingly, without a pretty short time period on your timmer, your server, Net connection, or ISP could terminate your account due to non-payment before the script went into real action.
This is where, and I have seen these discussed on Slashdot, a service that you could pay ahead would come in handy. It would also be good to stay ahead on your web hosting and domain names for this reason as well, so your web pages would stay online for at least a couple of years after you were gone.
*shrug*, granted it has been about 10 years since I have worked for Wal-Mart, unless something drastic has changed, I would say you were the exception to the rule. Not that I'm an expert on Wal-Mart or anything, but after discussing this with various Wal-Mart employees and from various stores, over the years, they all said about the same thing I did (at least for the store and not the warehouse, which does hire a lot of full time employees). At Supercenters, the policy seems to be department managers are full time and regular associates are part time for quite some time before getting to go full time.
Wal-Mart is also very good at hiring seasonally, as well. Which is another good crop of people they will never have to pay for insurance on.
But if you went to full time after 90 days, sounds good to me!
Way back then, I left Krogers to go to Wal-Mart because the union at Krogers sucked and there was no way to advance other than waiting for the people at the top to die. Wal-Mart, even with no insurance, was better because hard work *could* pay off. But I would hate to have to go back to either place, personally.
They do have good health insurance *if* you are a full time employee. The thing is, unless you work at a Wal-Mart Warehouse (fairly good money there) or you are in Wal-Mart Management and/or have a skilled office job (e.g. working in the Cash Office counting their money), you will *only* be part time. (As a side note, the only job I have ever seen where part-time employess get fully-paid health insurance is the union-controlled Krogers. But they have their own problems, too.)
There are people who have worked many years at Wal-Mart and are still only part time, thus no insurance. I myself worked over a year at a Wal-Mart with no hint of ever going full time, until I got promoted to the Cash Office. Had it not been for that, I'm not sure I would have ever gained full-time status.
Let me tell you, these mega-corps have it figured out and they aren't going to spend a penny they don't have to pay, because they have 200 vice presidents, all with health care, that are going to get a fat bonus every year for keeping it that way.
Slashdot Mirror
Do stem cells cause cancer? Asks the cover of the latest (Dec. 27) issue of Forbes Magazine,
Dirks and a handful of other mavericks argue that this indiscriminate approach is wrongheaded. They believe a single type of cell may be cancer's main growth engine:mutant stem cells that, though barely present, spawn other cells that then spark growth. "This has profound implications," says researcher Thomas Look of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "The major cells you see under a microscope may not be the ones you need to kill in order to cure the disease." He adds that the theory "is definitely still very controversial" in some quarters.
Figure out a way to isolate these mutant cells and target only them, Dirks says, and maybe cancer can be stopped outright--and the kids he treats might stop dying so soon after he operates.
These mutant stem cells already have been found in breast cancer, two types of leukemia and multiple myeloma. This fall Dirks and six scientists at the University of Toronto proved the existence of the cells in human brain tumors, pinpointing a small group of cells believed to be the driver of the tumors' growth. "In every brain tumor we have looked at, in both adults and kids, we are able to find these cells," Dirks says.
-=-=-=-=-=
From the web:
In 1902, Beard had called attention to the role of "totipotent germ cells" in the development of cancer. In embryology, the word "totipotent" means that a cell is capable of giving rise to all types of differentiated cells found in that organism. This anticipated the contemporary attention to totipotent stem cells, although human embryonic stem cells (ESC) were not isolated until 1998 (16). Human ESCs are described as totipotent and in fact they release hCG (17,18). The relationship between Beard's totipotent germ cells and contemporary totipotent stem cells deserves further study.
-=-=-=-=-=
Also from the web:
This is significant because to isolate the stem cells, scientists peel away the trophoblast
Someone finds something out like this about every five to ten years. For instance, it was known back in the early 1900s that cancer was basically the same and grows in the same manner no matter where it appears in the body. Go back and study the research of Joseph Beard (do a google).
The problem is that more people make a living from treating cancer than actually die from it. There is an insane amount of money changing hands over cancer, so no matter what new, improved, and more successful treatments pop up over the years, they rarely see light of day. Why? Because there is an industry entrenched around radiation/chemo and all the oncologist read about these new treatments...and go right on treating patients the same way. Regardless of results, that's how they have paid for the big houses, made their Porsche payments, and sent their kids to college all of these years.
Yes, some of this is the FDA's fault. But if cancer was cured tomorrow, fifteen years from now, there would still be oncologists treating cancer with radiation/chemo, if they could get away with it.
Usurper_ii
I don't have time to go and set in a class somewhere, so I
have been spending my spare time studying for the Network+ and Cisco CCNA exams.
I take a lot of practice exams, and even write my own study questions. You know, I
could waste time doing puzzles or playing games, but I figure I can kill two
birds with one stone if I make these exams a type of fun personal challenge. Not
only am I keeping my brain active...but it really looks good on a
resume.
Usurper_ii
Those companies don't pay the 4.00 per chipset, that gets passed down to...us, the consumer. Those army of lawyers it will take to bust this patent...paid for by...us. If they lose and have to pay the 4.00 and for the army of lawyers, well, just raise the prices a bit. And if they win, does anyone think they will lower the price?
What these companies should do to get around the patent is to pool their money and develop a *better* Open Source alternative to the patent in question.
If they did that, that 4.00 in savings still probably wouldn't make it down to the consumer level, but maybe some developing country could use the OS tech to make some free chipsets where it would benefit someone in those countries through lower prices to the consumer.
Yeah, I ain't going to hold my breath, but that's what these compaines should be doing.
Usurper_ii
I live in a small town that used to have a Wal-Mart and a Wonder World (was part of K-Mart). Wonder World sold CDs for approx. 12.99 to 13.99. Wal-Mart sold CDs for approx. the same price. Well, the very day that Wonder World closed its doors, leaving Wal-Mart as the only place to buy a CD, I stopped by Wal-Mart, only to find them marking *up* the price of their CDs.
The good thing about OS is that after the other guy closes up shop, OS is still free...and if it is good enough software to make the other guy close up shop, then it is what is known as a win/win situation!
Usurper_ii
Thanks. Didn't know that, but I think we can all rest assured that Novell will be around for a long, long, time, now. :)
Usurper_ii
If Novell really wants to make money, what they really need to do is come up with a good Linux certification test. Put some good marketing behind the certification, and make the test really hard, so that people need to take it multiple times. Sell some books that explains how to pass the test, even...but include questions on the actual test that aren't covered in the books.
In the end, Novell makes money, and the employeed people who are Novell Linux certified are actually happy that they forked over hard earned money to Novell. I think they call that a win/win situation.
But seriously, a good Novell Linux certification would be good for Linux.
Usurper_ii
www.quest4.org/ccna/
.
Maybe if they made it easy to bookmark sites, and had easy access to the database created by this service, and made the service easy to use....maybe, and I said maybe, the number of links from *real* people would outnumber the links by spammers, and Google searches would quit pulling up links to pages funneling us to a freaking Ebay auction.
Also, some way for Google to pick up that huge amounts of *real* people hated the link they clicked on from a Google search, would allow Google to move that link down in the results. So maybe people could not only bookmark sites, on Google's bookmark service, but attach emotion to them somehow.
I don't know, just a thought.
Usurper_ii
Well, looks like my memory was wrong, but Donley has been involved in legal actions against his record company. There is some information here:
l
http://www.thesingersworkshop.com/article26.htm
Good quote:
"Typically," says attorney Danny Hayes, who negotiates for Tool, Lit and Linkin Park, "new artists have no leverage and won't see a dime of royalty money until they sell over one million albums."
Usurper_ii
If memory serves me correctly, Sheryl Crow is also against having to sign away ownership of her songs to record companies, too, isn't she? So, the attempt by this AC to make it look like artists like the current system is also one sided. Maybe Sheryl is against her music being stolen on P2P and by her record company...
Usurper_ii
Anti-virus companies. How many people spend 30.00 - 60.00-plus each year for anti-virus software? Multiply 35.00 x just a million Linux Live users and see what a bite this will take out of the anti-virus industry.
(Yes, I know there are other ways to get a virus than through the Internet, but that is where about 98 - 99% of people are getting them. If you weren't connected to the Net, you could go years without getting one...instead of getting one in 30 seconds while connected, like you do now).
Usurper_ii
I have posted about this before...but I think bootable CDs w/ a Read Only HD while you are online is going to be what everyone will have to be doing to bypass the virus problems we are facing now.
Having used Ubuntu Live and mostly loving it, I agree with this post about problems with the modem, though. Even though it is possible to get the right drivers and get a winmodem going, bootable CDs are not really going to take off until all modems are picked up and configured correctly on the first try. When that happens, people will see that they can surf safely and Linux Live CDs will breakthrough to the general public.
Again, modem support should be the number one focus of Linux Live CDs. When people boot up, they should enter the phone number to their ISP and logon. It should be that simple.
Usurper_ii
In a reply to someone saying that copying music wasn't stealing but a copyright violation, someone said, "well I guess making a copy of a bank database isn't stealing, as it didn't deprive the bank of the use of its own database."
The difference I see, is that almost every single person I know has violated a copyright where music is concerned, yet I don't personally know a single person who has ever illegally copied a bank data base.
I'm not saying criminal activity on a large scale justifies said criminal activity...but when every single person you know "steals" music, then maybe the law that makes this a crime should be examined. And if nothing else, maybe the penalties for breaking this law need to examined and put more in line with reality.
Usurper_ii
I saw a progam on placebos and they talked about people who were mistakenly told they had cancer, or that their cancer had returned, and the people died in just a few weeks or a couple of months. And after they died, an autopsy revealed that the doctor was wrong about the cancer coming back.
On the same show, they talked about people being given fake chemo treatments. After the "treatments," the patients would throw up, and in a couple of days their hair started to fall out!
The show was on the discovery health channel. Don't know how accurate it was, but it was so good I went to their web site trying to get a copy of it...but it wasn't offered.
Well, I have a lot of **time** in some practice Cisco CCNA test questions and I released them under a Creative Commons license:
http://www.quest4.org/ccna/
I guess some people might think it is crappy, but in the end, I hope to have a test question pool that equals the questions in software that sells for anywhere between 10.00 and 60.00 (true, you do get some extra features).
Why did I release under a Creative Commons? Because I really wish someone could fill in the holes and come up with a really good test engine for the questions. I don't have time to do that, myself. And as long as they don't charge for the program, I don't care what they do with the questions.
In the end, I think everyone wins with Creative Commons.
Usurper_ii
The easiest way to get rid of guns in America is to make speeding a felony.
Saying that no one has the right to "publish information that could have been provided only by someone breaking the law," is like saying the First Amendment could be done away with by passing a law stating that it is illegal to publish information.
Think about it.
Usurper_ii
Pretty funny for all the "everything will be connected, even your toaster," crowd out there ... it now seem that because of the ever increasing spyware/malware/viruses, etc., pretty soon we will have to boot up a live Linux CD to use the Internet.
I would use Ubunto, which is the first live Linux I have gotten my hands on, but it wouldn't pick up my modem correctly (probably a win modem thing). Other than that, and the fact that it wouldn't play MP3s without a plugin, I loved Ubunto. Linux is way close to "getting there."
But after I wasted three days getting some powerful trojan crap off my computer not too long ago (yes, on an XP system), running from a CD and having a read only hard drive while connected to the Net seems like a pretty good idea, to me!
Usurper_ii
That's pretty funny. A friend once told me a funny one that happened to her.
:)
With the whole family sitting around the computer, including her visiting mother, they decided to try and look up some swing sets...So she typed in "swinging."
True story
Gosh, you mean like the wear and tear on said vehicles EVERY TIME YOU HIT A SPEED BUMP. That's why you put them in the same places you would put a speed bump...where you would want someone to slow down anyway.
Imagine if everytime you hit a speed bump in a mall parking lot or at a toll booth gate, etc., the "bump" depressed just enough to turn a generator and then reset for the next car. Imagine how much electricity could be generated if one of these were placed in the right spot on a California road, with a *sea* of cars moving...much more regularly than the wind and easier to harness than the tides.
I realize there are limitations to these "speed bumps," because they could only be placed where a vehicle was going fairly slow...but heck, isn't that what speed bumps are for?
Anyone want to start a company and get some VC? Heck, someone might hit the lotto just by patenting this and selling the patent to a power company (who would really probably want this to never see the light of day).
Usurper_ii
This is a good and, I think, fair article on radiation from cell phones:
You can find this article at:
http://www.alternativemedicine.com/ and search
for cell phone. The name of the article is "You
Make The Call."
-=-=-=
Studies show that people who don't think cell phones have adverse health effects need to have their heads examined.
-=-=-=-
Cell phones are not just here to stay. They have evolved into ever more versatile and powerful devices and have become indispensable to our way of life. Why, then, can't we make these technological marvels safe?
Of course, according to the cell phone industry, cell phones are perfectly harmless: "After a substantial amount of research, scientists and governments around the world continue to reaffirm that there is no public health threat from the use of wireless phones," says Tom Wheeler, president and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).
According to numerous prominent researchers, that statement is nonsense. Henry Lai, Ph.D., is a research professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington. Over the last several years he has conducted cell phone studies funded originally by the U.S. Navy and Air Force and later by the National Institutes of Health. "I have a list of about 600 research papers from the past ten years alone, 70 percent of which show definite effects from exposure to this kind of radiation," says Lai, "but the industry continues to say that there is nothing to worry about."
What about cell phones and cancer, the most publicized concern? "Studies have been conducted to determine whether there is an association between cellular telephone use and an increased risk of certain types of cancer," according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). "Although the majority of these studies have not supported any such association, scientists caution that more research needs to be done before conclusions can be drawn about the risk of cancer from cellular telephones."
"More research" is the mantra of all three groups - industry, government and scientists - each with their differing motives. And, in fact, more research is needed - but not to prove that cell phones do pose a health threat: That has been proven beyond any doubt. Swedish researcher Clas Tegenfeld, who is writing a book on biological effects of electromagnetic fields, says "Already there are at least 15,000 scientific reports on the subject. I am afraid the truth is that we don't want to know."
There have, in fact, been several studies that show no correlation between cell phone use and cancer. These studies were conducted by respected institutions and researchers and the results published in peer-reviewed journals. However, these were all simple statistical studies that compared the incidence of brain cancer among cell phone users to that of the general population. Typical of these studies is an oft-cited one from Sweden that was published in the July 1999 issue of the International Journal of Oncology. According to the NCI, "This study compared cellular telephone use in a group of 209 individuals who had brain tumors (the case group) with a group of 425 people without brain cancer (the control group). The study reported a statistically nonsignificant increased risk for brain tumors on the side of the head on which the cellular telephone was used. However, researchers found no overall increase in the risk for brain tumors with cellular telephone use."
Does this prove that cell phone use does not lead to increased risk of brain cancer? No. As the NCI itself points out, "Cancers that take a long time to develop would not have been detected by these studies." What has been shown in numerous studies, however, is that the radiation coming from cell phones does have measurable effects on brain cells that can lead to cancer, as well as neurological diseases.
Lai's experiments are instructive in this regard. One of his main findings was that radiation from cell phones at levels b
When my father dies, there will be little left of him but pictures and my memories. If all goes as planned for me, when I die, there will be an e-mail trail going back decades. I already have e-mail stored going back probably 7 or more years (some of which dates back to BBS QWK mail packets, if anyone remembers those).
For this reason, I have treated my e-mail as sort of a personal diary or blog, often e-mailing myself all sorts of things I want to keep. In them you will find my religious views, my political views, lists of CDs and DVDs I own, and messages from close friends.
The only down side to this is using an e-mail client that keeps things in a proprietary format. Unless you store in an easily portable format like HTML or text, you run the risk of having a ton of data that nobody knows how to read.
I backup in the proprietary format of my e-mail program, but I also export to html. I then keep copies of this on CD-R, with a copy for myself and a copy I keep at my parents house in case my house burns down.
Usurper_ii
Interestingly, without a pretty short time period on your timmer, your server, Net connection, or ISP could terminate your account due to non-payment before the script went into real action.
This is where, and I have seen these discussed on Slashdot, a service that you could pay ahead would come in handy. It would also be good to stay ahead on your web hosting and domain names for this reason as well, so your web pages would stay online for at least a couple of years after you were gone.
Usurper_ii
*shrug*, granted it has been about 10 years since I have worked for Wal-Mart, unless something drastic has changed, I would say you were the exception to the rule. Not that I'm an expert on Wal-Mart or anything, but after discussing this with various Wal-Mart employees and from various stores, over the years, they all said about the same thing I did (at least for the store and not the warehouse, which does hire a lot of full time employees). At Supercenters, the policy seems to be department managers are full time and regular associates are part time for quite some time before getting to go full time.
Wal-Mart is also very good at hiring seasonally, as well. Which is another good crop of people they will never have to pay for insurance on.
But if you went to full time after 90 days, sounds good to me!
Way back then, I left Krogers to go to Wal-Mart because the union at Krogers sucked and there was no way to advance other than waiting for the people at the top to die. Wal-Mart, even with no insurance, was better because hard work *could* pay off. But I would hate to have to go back to either place, personally.
Usurper_ii
They do have good health insurance *if* you are a full time employee. The thing is, unless you work at a Wal-Mart Warehouse (fairly good money there) or you are in Wal-Mart Management and/or have a skilled office job (e.g. working in the Cash Office counting their money), you will *only* be part time. (As a side note, the only job I have ever seen where part-time employess get fully-paid health insurance is the union-controlled Krogers. But they have their own problems, too.)
There are people who have worked many years at Wal-Mart and are still only part time, thus no insurance. I myself worked over a year at a Wal-Mart with no hint of ever going full time, until I got promoted to the Cash Office. Had it not been for that, I'm not sure I would have ever gained full-time status.
Let me tell you, these mega-corps have it figured out and they aren't going to spend a penny they don't have to pay, because they have 200 vice presidents, all with health care, that are going to get a fat bonus every year for keeping it that way.