That's simply not true. Anyone who was around during the 1957 flu season and isn't immuno-compromised has at least partial immunity. That's why it's not going after "the old folks" so much - they're mostly already immune.
So certainly requiring health-care workers over the age of 52 to get a flu shot is just bad science.
Also, the people who are twice as likely to catch this strain are those who have had flu shots in previous years. And those who are going to die from it are mostly the morbidly obese, and to a lesser extent, the obese, and those who have underlying health problems. For example, almost all the infants who have died so far had severe neurological problems, so if the flu hadn't gotten them, something else probably would have. It's opportunistic in that sense, and, while it's going to sound cruel and politically incorrect, in some cases, it's probably for the best.
It's not as simple and cut-and-dried as they make it out to be. Certainly, nothing to justify making the evening news.
And what happens if it happens to kill a couple orders of magnitude more than 250,000 to 500,000? Mass immunization is partial insurance against a dangerous mutation in this strain. As I see it, this strain is more likely than usual human-borne flu strains to become something more dangerous.
That would be a GOOD THING (tm). If it happened, we would be a much healthier population, because this flu is pretty mild - it's taking out mostly the morbidly obese (who, as one doctor pointed out wrt the ones who died, were sick enough that they were probably going to die anyway within 6 months) and those with severe underlying diseases (almost all the infant deaths had neurological problems). Interestingly enough, this variant is showing a preference wrt death rates, not must for the morbidly obese, but the "ordinary obese" as well. Now if we could just engineer it so that it kills off smokers in 7 days, rather than tobacco killing them in 20 years, everyone would stop smoking within a week (one way or another). Can I get my research grant now?
Polio surge in Nigeria after vaccine virus mutates
LONDON (AP) -- Polio, a dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria despite efforts to stamp it out. And health officials say in some cases, it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.
In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year -- about twice those afflicted in 2008.
Experts have long believed epidemics unleashed by a vaccine's mutated virus wouldn't last since the vaccine only contains a weakened virus strain -- but that assumption is coming under pressure. Some experts now say that once viruses from vaccines start circulating they can become just as dangerous as wild viruses.
"The only difference is that this virus was originally in a vaccine vial," said Olen Kew, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kew said genetic analysis proves mutated viruses from the vaccine have caused at least seven separate outbreaks in Nigeria.
It's not speculation - it's happening right now. Makes me wonder about the wisdom uf rushing out deployment of the "live virus" nasal vaccine. Gives a nice pool of infected people with the real McCoy. If you're looking for a mutation to happen, that's where it'll come from.
I've posted LOTS of links in this thread. Unfortunately, ONE got eaten. It happens, and we don't have an edit mode so we can't review our posts and fix broken links (how hard would it be to have an "append to post" button that will allow us to add stuff marked as an update to the post w/o altering the text of the original post?). The people who are the most vocally critical are the ones who refuse to do their own research. That's lazy. Rather than saying "you're wrong, and here's why" they go "you're wrong - prove otherwise", without any further justification.
They could at least present SOME proof as to why an assertion is wrong, or to look elsewhere through the thread (where the same link didn't get eaten).
So what's the big deal? Nobody died. This flu is opportunistic - its' victims have underlying problems. For example, of the under 100 infants in the US who have died from it, almost all had serious known problems - MS, cerebral palsy, etc. And look at the cohort of 10 adults who died in one hospital - all had one thing in common - they were all morbidly obese, and, as the doctors said, if the flu hadn't gotten them, something else probably would have in the next 6 months.
This flu isn't something to go ape-shit over unless you've got a serious underlying health problem. Like if you're already immuno-suppressed, in which case, your best bet is to keep away from the sick, and make sure that people you come into contact hash their hands, etc. (and you wash yours).
If you're reasonably healthy and you get it, so what? You're sick for a few days. There's now evidence that flu vaccines make you MORE, not less, likely to get the flu in the future, so wtf would I want to get a shot.
It's not like smallpox, where it's just one variant.
and can prevent you from retransmitting the flu to others.
Not true. You pick up something that is contaminated by someone else, and give it to a 3rd person, it hasn't gotten magically "decontaminated" because you touched it. Even if you were alive in 1957 and have antibodies to this variant, you still should practice preventative hygiene to help keep transmission rates down.
me@slashdot> slashdot -gamemode
SLASHGAME: YOU ARE NAGGED BY AN ANONYMOUS COWARD
SLASHGAME: EXAMINE ANONYMOUS COWARD
SLASHGAME: ANONYMOUS COWARD HAS NO MATH SKILLS
SLASHGAME: INVENTORY
SLASHGAME: YOU HAVE 3 POTIONS AND 4 SCROLLS
SLASHGAME: USE POTION
SLASHGAME: YOU MUST DRINK THE POTION
SLASHGAME: DRINK POTION
SLASHGAME: YOU DRINK THE POTION
SLASHGAME: THE ANONYMOUS COWARD HAS BEEN EATEN BY A GRUE
SLASHDOT: EXIT
me@slashdot>
And to show you were wrong when you stated: polio vaccine is the cause of polio in Africa.
Except I didn't say that - I quoted the World Health Organization, who said that the majority of the cases of polio are caused by a mutated virus that originated in the polio vaccine.
If you have a complaint, bitch to the WHO - they're the source of the story. Also, it's directly relevant because of the widespread use of "live" flu virus in the nasal flu vaccine now being distributed (though there's no such thing as a "live" virus. virii don't eat, don't grow, don't divide. They're all dead, Jim).
Too bad we're not smart enough to do make a rail launcher that climbs mount everest or even one of the smaller mountains in north america... a lot less g forces, a lot less atmosphere to chug through at the top...
Your math errors are huge - an order of magnitude off.
So are the rest of your arguments.
We already have a platform in place. Might as well extend its' life.
The ion tugboat concept is already planned for other missions, so what's your beef with them?
The payloads don't need to maneuver in orbit. They just have to be shot into a stable orbit, so that they can be picked up. Or they can use the trick that was first tested by the Gemini program - split the payload in 2, tether the two parts together, and start 'em spinning. Or even stabilize them by NOT spinning them.
Also, launch vehicle services are already something of a commodity market, with several suppliers competing. This would open it up.
As to whether it gets built or not, if things depend on people with your faulty math skills, nothing would ever get built.
So suck it up that you both don't know how to count, and don't know what you're talking about. No wonder you post AC.
BTW, you might want to check out the latest stats (search for them yourself - you'll be able to sift through more info that way and make your own independent conclusions) - almost everyone who's died from H1N1 had underlying health problems, many that involved the immune system.
In other words, it's just culling the sick and weak. If you're healthy, just follow the common-sense advice on washing your hands, etc., as described here and elsewhere.
Two interesting points to ponder:
those who have had flu shots in previous years are twice as likely to get H1N1. It appears previous flu shots allowed people to generate antibodies that aren't all that effective, as compared to older people who were exposed to the '57 flu.
the higher-risk-of-death group includes both the morbidly obese and the just plain obese. While it's funny that that the swine flu is attacking people who eat like pigs, this brings up another question: did excess HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) in the diet help compromise immune systems in some unknown way, because non-morbid obesity shouldn't have this result (we expected it of the super-sized, but not the plain ordinary extra-large or double-serving sized)?
There's a big difference between being exposed in the natural environment, when the largest organ your body has - the skin - can protect you, and injecting the stuff directly into you,
Case in point - HIV. There's no evidence that you can get HIV from getting contaminated blood splashed onto intact skin. There's LOTS of evidence for transmission via needle pricks, open sores, etc.
Couple that with the latest news - that previous flu injections can make you twice as susceptible to the H1N1 strain, and you've got to wonder about the advisability of trying to vaccinate against a rapidly-mutating virus.
Not that flu shots are all that trusted anyways - I don't know anyone who bothers with them. When I ask them how many times they've had the flu, most of them are like me - maybe once. I'll take the guarantee of being sick for a week once in my life and getting over it, over the possibility of increased susceptibility to a broad range of auto-immune disasters, like arthritis, in my old age. 10 to 30 years of joint problems isn't worth it, even if the odds are only 1 in 1,000. Actually, if the odds are anything worse than 1 in 52,000 for long-range auto-immune side effects, you're better off with catching the flu - especially a mild strain like H1N1, which is predicted to remain at the low range of lethality.
Another funny thing about this strain - being a fat slob seems to be the #1 indicator of being "at risk". Not just the morbidly obese, but the regular fatties who can still "belly up to the bar" at the all-you-can-eat. Well, it's one way to cull the herd, and encourage people to take better care of themselves, but you're not going to hear much about it, because it's just SO politically incorrect to tell people to stop stuffing their faces like every meal is going to be their last. Like it's politically incorrect for doctors to tell smokers that if they don't want to quit, the doc doesn't want to waste their time when they can be helping patients who DO want to quit. They claim the doctor has a moral obligation to help them, forgetting that (1) the doctor has no obligation to help a patient who won't cooperate in their own care, and (2) they doctor has the same obligation to help others, so since nobody has unlimited time, triage is necessary. Besides, after a few doctors not-so-politely tell them to FOAD if they won't help themselves, some of them get the message and get with the program. The others - they were going to die anyway, so give 'em their darwin.
It might sound cruel, but so is disease, and the biggest health-care problems are self-inflicted lifestyle diseases from smoking and over-eating, not the flu. Just look at the death stats.
Look - if you're one of the morbidly obese, YOU caused your own health problems, not me, not someone else. And as the doctor pointed out in one of the links, the people who died in their hospital from H1N1 were huge, with the health problems that go along with it - if H1N1 hadn't gotten them, something else probably would have within the next 6 months, but it's no surprises that fat slobs are at higher risk.
Everyone else is sick and tired about how so many of the uber-fat, rather than actually trying to shed their excess poundage, want "handicapped status." That's as ironic as someone killing their parents and then asking for mercy because they're an orphan. Want 2 seats on the plane? Pay for them. After all, when you want 2 extra-large pizzas, you pay for both of them.
It's the same with smokers who get cancer and then say "It's not fair! Why me?"
Part of the blame for the epidemic of obesity has to go to food producers who use too much HFCS, just like part of the blame for cancer has to go to the cigarette companies, but they can't claim victim status when they're both the principal architect and a willing, informed participant in bringing about their own situation. This is not something they don't have control over. If they aren't willing to control what they put in their mouth, then they have to accept the consequences, and one of those consequences is higher mortality from any opportunistic infection.
What are they waiting for? A vaccine to cure obesity? Obesity isn't a "disease", though watching the morbidly obese at feeding time WILL make many sick. We see it often enough in restaurants - 4 people come in, somehow manage to sit on the chairs without breaking them, and proceed to eat everything in sight. First thing people do is look in the parking lot to see if there's a car with [$INSERT_EVEN_FATTER_STATE] license plates.
It's having a "spill-over effect" on the general population. Too many of us have forgotten what a person who's not overweight even looks like. Saying "I'm not fat" when they're sedentary, their BMI is over 25, and their waste is bigger than their chest. Yeah, riiiight. Or saying "You need to put on some weight" when the person's BMI is over 25, and they really could afford to lose (and are trying to shed) a few pounds.
H1N1 isn't a serious threat. HFCS, obesity, tobacco - THOSE are threats that make H1N1 look like a case of the hiccups.
Almost 5 million people die because of smoking each year.
And now H1N1 is FINALLY sending us the common-sense message that those extra pounds, even if they don't make us officially "morbidly obese", put us at risk
The past four deaths have occurred in the past week, as hospitals in the valley report being inundated with patients with flu-like symptoms and doctors race to understand more about the new virus.
Most ICU patients have been overweight, he said, which is puzzling: Their weight isn't causing other health conditions that the federal government says puts people at higher risk of severe influenza complications, such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, he said.
"I really don't consider being overweight a disease, at least in the patients we're seeing," Dean said. "It's not like they're so [obese] they've gone into heart failure. Somehow, the disease is striking them."
So, they're not "that" fat, but they're big enough that they obviously got more than a few bowls of Crisco in common. Why is this so unexpected? We've been saying for decades that extra pounds are a health risk.
Don't be stupid (too late - you showed that when - TWICE - you made simple math errors like not being able to multiply by 10). The container doesn't need either an engine or a nav system, and especially not for "each hundred kg of cargo". Once it's in orbit, a separate ion tugboat can always pick it up. Outside the atmosphere is where ion engines will shine, and this is one practical use for them.
Actually, I'm posting as AC because I can't argue with people trying to make a business case out of this without getting a serious karma hit.
... and not to protect you from ridicule because you can't do basic math?
As others have pointed out, we can already build electronics and hardware that can withstand the launch forces. They don't have to get the costs down to 1/5 the competition - just enough under the competition so that, for enough payloads, it makes sense. Even a 10% differential will be enough of an economic driver. Same as any other commodity (or do you drive out of your way to pay more for "your" brand of gasoline?)
Gawd, but your math skills suck. No wonder you posted AC.
firing a day, 5 day work week, at $10k/kg
Are you kidding? That's 225 000 dollars per shot
225 kg * $10,000 per kilo = $2,250,000, not $225,000. You're off by an order of magnitude.
Here, lets make it simple:
225 kg x $1 per kg = $225.00
225 kg x $10 per kg = $2,250.00
225 kg x $100 per kg = $22,500.00
225 kg x $1,000 per kg = $225,000.00
225 kg x $1,0000 per kg = $2,250,000.00
BSD and linux are different in some aspects when it comes to sockets. Made it a real PITA to code on linux, runs perfectly, then won't compile on BSD without a few more includes and some extra code.
It proves that vaccines can have negative effects on immunity to closely-related diseases - which backs up my initial assertion that vaccines can have negative effects on the immune system.
H1N1 isn't any more lethal than other flus. This has been a real exercise in over-hype. People think it's worse than ebola, the way they're acting. It's the flu. It will cull the same (or in this case, fewer) of the population than the normal flu. Just quarantine the people who have it, and take the regular flu precautions (wash your hands, don't let anyone cough on you or use your keyboard, make sure there's adequate ventilation so the level of virus particles in the environment is low, get plenty of rest and eat right).
and if you were around for the 1957 epidemic, relax, unless you have other severe health problems, you're probably immune - the strains are close enough, which explains why older people aren't nearly as susceptible.
The stuff that drips down your throat naturally is much less contaminated than the crusties in your nose that some people seem to take so much delight in. Don't pick your nose, don't eat your boogers, and you can have my keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead hands - until then, don't put your booger-stained mits on it.
I remember one time when I had to fix a sales reps' computer, and I told the boss "Okay, I'll be back in 15 minutes." Went and bought bright yellow rubber gloves - the kind you use for washing the dishes. He said "you can't work on his computer in front of him like that!" I said "Then you do it - I'll tell you exactly what has to be done, but I'm not touching his keyboard. I know where his hands have been!" His response? "Use the gloves."
The bogosity isn't just from the large margin of error - it's also from they fact that there has NEVER been proper statistics done - NEVER been a proper count, so there are no valid statistics. It's guesswork, and always has been. Same as the bogus claim that "spinach is good for you - it has lots of iron" which turned out to be an oft-copied mistake from a single government chart with a misplaced decimal point. Spinach has no more iron than any other veggie, and most of that isn't even bio-available. And yet, people still say "eat your spinach - it's good for you!"
If H1N1 mutates into something else, then your vaccine targeted at H1N1 isn't going to help you very much, is it?
The death rate is lower than the official claim for the simple reason that they counted only people who went to the hospital. Not everyone goes to the hospital just because they think they *might* have the flu. So, since they admit they didn't account for anyone who didn't present at a hospital, the death rate has to be lower than "the official rate", unless people are dying in their homes, which is something we're not seeing. So no, this is a mild strain of flu.
also, the reason it doesn't affect most older people is because if you were around during the 1957 epidemic, unless you have serious underlying health problems, you're probably still immune.
The 3% of the population who are morbidly obese didn't give a shit about themselves while they ate their way to blimpdom, so why should I? "I can't lose weight" is a defeatist attitude. If they're not willing to try, I have no sympathy. If they're making an honest effort, they have my full support, because a waist is a terrible thing to mind. But when you see pictures of people complaining about delays in getting gastric bypass surgery, and they're holding a big gulp in one hand, and a 12" sub in the other, just kindly fuck off and die already, lardo. Stop blaming others for your own problem, and accept some responsibility for your current situation.
Same with smokers who, after being warned for years and years, and always smugly saying "I can quit any time", who then cry "but I can't quit!" You're rightfully excluded from the heart transplant list, even if you need one. Quit first.
Why can't people accept some responsibility for the messes they get themselves in? Plenty of us were warning about the housing bubble back in 2006, and we were told "no, housing always goes up", even though that has NEVER been true. Why should we bail out anyone who was greedy and reckless and didn't listen to the warnings? There were enough of them.
As one of the aforementioned fat slobs, I'd be sorely tempted to bloody your nose for you, for that one, if I ever got the chance
If you're one of the morbidly obese fat slobs that are at higher risk, I'm not worried about anything you might do except you sitting on me.
Morbid obesity is a "lifestyle disease" - completely preventable, and there is NO excuse. And there's a reason why they call it "morbid" obesity - it can kill you.
That 3% of the population in the US is morbidly obese says something grim.
So, if you're one of those morbidly obese fat slobs, clean up your act, stop stuffing your pie-hole, and claiming you're "disabled" (while too many of you sure manage NOT to be disabled when it comes time to belly up to the all-u-can-eat, though). You get that way one mouthful at a time, same as anyone else.
I have no more patience for the morbidly obese than I do for smokers saying "I can't quit". They knew the risks. They thought "I can quit any time!" They were wrong, and after decades of ignoring warnings from everyone+dog, they have ONLY themselves to blame. If they make honest attempts to quit, THEN they have my sympathy - but to say "I can't quit" is bullshit. They don't even try. I agree with doctors who refuse to treat patients who won't quit smoking. Just like I agree with the official policy of refusing heart transplants to smokers, and the morbidly obese. Waste of time and resources, and an exercise in futility.
Same as the morbidly obese who knew every time they looked in the mirror, or when they couldn't see their feet any more, that they were too fat. I mean, how do these people even wipe their asses? Oh wait, many of them don't - which contributes to that "morbidly obese person miasma" that surrounds many of them.
I'll save my sympathy for those who at least TRY to lose the excess weight, and TRY to quit smoking, and TRY to get off crack. If you don't care enough to even try, why should I give a shit. Or, more generally, why should anyone else give a shit when you don't.
If you're trying to lose the weight, you have my sympathies (a waist is a terrible thing to mind:-) If not, not.
So you can't google when the html eats the tag? No initiative?
The first hit for "152 deaths 7" is the WHO saying that the initial death count was extremely exaggerated.
You know, instead of knee-jerk reactions saying "vaccine always needed, always benign", do some research. H1N1 has a lower-than-average death rate, and there are millions of people who, contrary to the public policy being put into place of "vaccine or fired", can't benefit from the vaccine because they're already immune, having been exposed to a similar, but stronger, variant back in 1957. That's why older people are less affected.
Getting fresh air and insuring adequate ventilation helps you avoid the high concentrations of the virus in enclosed environments, you idiot! It also lessens the amount of time other people are coughing on you. Why do you think they change the air in the OR up to 30 times a MINUTE?
Eating right and staying fit would have made a HUGE difference in the 1918 pandemic. People were dying because they were in the middle of a world war. Lots of pools of hunger, bad diets, etc., that made them prone to the pneumonia that killed them (most didn't die of the flu).
As for immunity, there are hundreds of millions who are immune, simply because they were exposed to a predecessor virus during the 1957 epidemic, and for them, the shot has zero upside.
So, stay away from infected people, get lots of sleep, eat right, exercise, make sure that there's good ventilation and plenty of fresh air, wash your hands to help avoid transmission from phones, keyboards, etc., that may be contaminated with sputum, same as you would for any other respiratory virus.
And stop being a moron, you moron. Oh, wait, maybe you're one of those fat slobs who are at high risk? Doesn't matter, like the docs said in one report, if the flu hadn't gotten them, they'd probably be dead in 6 months anyway.
Simple - because too many idiots assume that vaccines are totally benign wonder drugs. They're not - they're foreign substances, and some of them can have long-term side effects. It should be up to the individual to decide - that's what informed consent is all about.
Or are you now going to claim that informed consent isn't for black people?
On another point, people who were around during the 1957 flu epidemic don't need the H1N1 vaccine, so it would be stupid to say "take this vaccine or we're going to fire you."
Posted like a true AC. Ignore the facts, such as that this strain is weaker than average, and the actual death rate lower, that its' been over-hyped from the beginning, is expected to further weaken, just like every other flu virus, and that many of us - hundreds of millions - are already immune and don't need no stinking flu shot.
Enjoy your flu shot. Me, I've never gotten one, never plan to get one, and I'm immune to this strain so it would be a total waste as well as an unnecessary risk.
Slashdot Mirror
You can ignore him now - he was eaten by a grue in this thread.
Instructions for "slashdot --gamemode" here.
That's simply not true. Anyone who was around during the 1957 flu season and isn't immuno-compromised has at least partial immunity. That's why it's not going after "the old folks" so much - they're mostly already immune.
So certainly requiring health-care workers over the age of 52 to get a flu shot is just bad science.
Also, the people who are twice as likely to catch this strain are those who have had flu shots in previous years. And those who are going to die from it are mostly the morbidly obese, and to a lesser extent, the obese, and those who have underlying health problems. For example, almost all the infants who have died so far had severe neurological problems, so if the flu hadn't gotten them, something else probably would have. It's opportunistic in that sense, and, while it's going to sound cruel and politically incorrect, in some cases, it's probably for the best.
It's not as simple and cut-and-dried as they make it out to be. Certainly, nothing to justify making the evening news.
That would be a GOOD THING (tm). If it happened, we would be a much healthier population, because this flu is pretty mild - it's taking out mostly the morbidly obese (who, as one doctor pointed out wrt the ones who died, were sick enough that they were probably going to die anyway within 6 months) and those with severe underlying diseases (almost all the infant deaths had neurological problems). Interestingly enough, this variant is showing a preference wrt death rates, not must for the morbidly obese, but the "ordinary obese" as well. Now if we could just engineer it so that it kills off smokers in 7 days, rather than tobacco killing them in 20 years, everyone would stop smoking within a week (one way or another). Can I get my research grant now?
There's ALWAYS a silver lining, Skippy.
Also, mass immunization isn't insurance against a mutation. Look at what's happening in Nigeria, where the polio vaccine mutated last year and is now the cause of the majority of polio cases.
It's not speculation - it's happening right now. Makes me wonder about the wisdom uf rushing out deployment of the "live virus" nasal vaccine. Gives a nice pool of infected people with the real McCoy. If you're looking for a mutation to happen, that's where it'll come from.
I've posted LOTS of links in this thread. Unfortunately, ONE got eaten. It happens, and we don't have an edit mode so we can't review our posts and fix broken links (how hard would it be to have an "append to post" button that will allow us to add stuff marked as an update to the post w/o altering the text of the original post?). The people who are the most vocally critical are the ones who refuse to do their own research. That's lazy. Rather than saying "you're wrong, and here's why" they go "you're wrong - prove otherwise", without any further justification.
They could at least present SOME proof as to why an assertion is wrong, or to look elsewhere through the thread (where the same link didn't get eaten).
So what's the big deal? Nobody died. This flu is opportunistic - its' victims have underlying problems. For example, of the under 100 infants in the US who have died from it, almost all had serious known problems - MS, cerebral palsy, etc. And look at the cohort of 10 adults who died in one hospital - all had one thing in common - they were all morbidly obese, and, as the doctors said, if the flu hadn't gotten them, something else probably would have in the next 6 months.
This flu isn't something to go ape-shit over unless you've got a serious underlying health problem. Like if you're already immuno-suppressed, in which case, your best bet is to keep away from the sick, and make sure that people you come into contact hash their hands, etc. (and you wash yours).
If you're reasonably healthy and you get it, so what? You're sick for a few days. There's now evidence that flu vaccines make you MORE, not less, likely to get the flu in the future, so wtf would I want to get a shot.
It's not like smallpox, where it's just one variant.
Not true. You pick up something that is contaminated by someone else, and give it to a 3rd person, it hasn't gotten magically "decontaminated" because you touched it. Even if you were alive in 1957 and have antibodies to this variant, you still should practice preventative hygiene to help keep transmission rates down.
me@slashdot> slashdot -gamemode
SLASHGAME: YOU ARE NAGGED BY AN ANONYMOUS COWARD
SLASHGAME: EXAMINE ANONYMOUS COWARD
SLASHGAME: ANONYMOUS COWARD HAS NO MATH SKILLS
SLASHGAME: INVENTORY
SLASHGAME: YOU HAVE 3 POTIONS AND 4 SCROLLS
SLASHGAME: USE POTION
SLASHGAME: YOU MUST DRINK THE POTION
SLASHGAME: DRINK POTION
SLASHGAME: YOU DRINK THE POTION
SLASHGAME: THE ANONYMOUS COWARD HAS BEEN EATEN BY A GRUE
SLASHDOT: EXIT
me@slashdot>
Except I didn't say that - I quoted the World Health Organization, who said that the majority of the cases of polio are caused by a mutated virus that originated in the polio vaccine.
If you have a complaint, bitch to the WHO - they're the source of the story. Also, it's directly relevant because of the widespread use of "live" flu virus in the nasal flu vaccine now being distributed (though there's no such thing as a "live" virus. virii don't eat, don't grow, don't divide. They're all dead, Jim).
Too bad we're not smart enough to do make a rail launcher that climbs mount everest or even one of the smaller mountains in north america ... a lot less g forces, a lot less atmosphere to chug through at the top ...
I'll bet the chinese beat us to it.
Your math errors are huge - an order of magnitude off.
So are the rest of your arguments.
We already have a platform in place. Might as well extend its' life.
The ion tugboat concept is already planned for other missions, so what's your beef with them?
The payloads don't need to maneuver in orbit. They just have to be shot into a stable orbit, so that they can be picked up. Or they can use the trick that was first tested by the Gemini program - split the payload in 2, tether the two parts together, and start 'em spinning. Or even stabilize them by NOT spinning them.
Also, launch vehicle services are already something of a commodity market, with several suppliers competing. This would open it up.
As to whether it gets built or not, if things depend on people with your faulty math skills, nothing would ever get built.
So suck it up that you both don't know how to count, and don't know what you're talking about. No wonder you post AC.
BTW, you might want to check out the latest stats (search for them yourself - you'll be able to sift through more info that way and make your own independent conclusions) - almost everyone who's died from H1N1 had underlying health problems, many that involved the immune system.
In other words, it's just culling the sick and weak. If you're healthy, just follow the common-sense advice on washing your hands, etc., as described here and elsewhere.
Two interesting points to ponder:
There's a big difference between being exposed in the natural environment, when the largest organ your body has - the skin - can protect you, and injecting the stuff directly into you,
Case in point - HIV. There's no evidence that you can get HIV from getting contaminated blood splashed onto intact skin. There's LOTS of evidence for transmission via needle pricks, open sores, etc.
Couple that with the latest news - that previous flu injections can make you twice as susceptible to the H1N1 strain, and you've got to wonder about the advisability of trying to vaccinate against a rapidly-mutating virus.
Not that flu shots are all that trusted anyways - I don't know anyone who bothers with them. When I ask them how many times they've had the flu, most of them are like me - maybe once. I'll take the guarantee of being sick for a week once in my life and getting over it, over the possibility of increased susceptibility to a broad range of auto-immune disasters, like arthritis, in my old age. 10 to 30 years of joint problems isn't worth it, even if the odds are only 1 in 1,000. Actually, if the odds are anything worse than 1 in 52,000 for long-range auto-immune side effects, you're better off with catching the flu - especially a mild strain like H1N1, which is predicted to remain at the low range of lethality.
Another funny thing about this strain - being a fat slob seems to be the #1 indicator of being "at risk". Not just the morbidly obese, but the regular fatties who can still "belly up to the bar" at the all-you-can-eat. Well, it's one way to cull the herd, and encourage people to take better care of themselves, but you're not going to hear much about it, because it's just SO politically incorrect to tell people to stop stuffing their faces like every meal is going to be their last. Like it's politically incorrect for doctors to tell smokers that if they don't want to quit, the doc doesn't want to waste their time when they can be helping patients who DO want to quit. They claim the doctor has a moral obligation to help them, forgetting that (1) the doctor has no obligation to help a patient who won't cooperate in their own care, and (2) they doctor has the same obligation to help others, so since nobody has unlimited time, triage is necessary. Besides, after a few doctors not-so-politely tell them to FOAD if they won't help themselves, some of them get the message and get with the program. The others - they were going to die anyway, so give 'em their darwin.
It might sound cruel, but so is disease, and the biggest health-care problems are self-inflicted lifestyle diseases from smoking and over-eating, not the flu. Just look at the death stats.
Look - if you're one of the morbidly obese, YOU caused your own health problems, not me, not someone else. And as the doctor pointed out in one of the links, the people who died in their hospital from H1N1 were huge, with the health problems that go along with it - if H1N1 hadn't gotten them, something else probably would have within the next 6 months, but it's no surprises that fat slobs are at higher risk.
Everyone else is sick and tired about how so many of the uber-fat, rather than actually trying to shed their excess poundage, want "handicapped status." That's as ironic as someone killing their parents and then asking for mercy because they're an orphan. Want 2 seats on the plane? Pay for them. After all, when you want 2 extra-large pizzas, you pay for both of them.
It's the same with smokers who get cancer and then say "It's not fair! Why me?"
Part of the blame for the epidemic of obesity has to go to food producers who use too much HFCS, just like part of the blame for cancer has to go to the cigarette companies, but they can't claim victim status when they're both the principal architect and a willing, informed participant in bringing about their own situation. This is not something they don't have control over. If they aren't willing to control what they put in their mouth, then they have to accept the consequences, and one of those consequences is higher mortality from any opportunistic infection.
What are they waiting for? A vaccine to cure obesity? Obesity isn't a "disease", though watching the morbidly obese at feeding time WILL make many sick. We see it often enough in restaurants - 4 people come in, somehow manage to sit on the chairs without breaking them, and proceed to eat everything in sight. First thing people do is look in the parking lot to see if there's a car with [$INSERT_EVEN_FATTER_STATE] license plates.
It's having a "spill-over effect" on the general population. Too many of us have forgotten what a person who's not overweight even looks like. Saying "I'm not fat" when they're sedentary, their BMI is over 25, and their waste is bigger than their chest. Yeah, riiiight. Or saying "You need to put on some weight" when the person's BMI is over 25, and they really could afford to lose (and are trying to shed) a few pounds.
H1N1 isn't a serious threat. HFCS, obesity, tobacco - THOSE are threats that make H1N1 look like a case of the hiccups.
Death toll from obesity catches up with tobacco http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Financial-Industry/Death-toll-from-obesity-catches-up-with-tobacco
Smokings Global Death Toll tp:wwwcbsnewscomstories20030912healthmain572833shtml
Almost 5 million people die because of smoking each year.
And now H1N1 is FINALLY sending us the common-sense message that those extra pounds, even if they don't make us officially "morbidly obese", put us at risk
So, they're not "that" fat, but they're big enough that they obviously got more than a few bowls of Crisco in common. Why is this so unexpected? We've been saying for decades that extra pounds are a health risk.
Don't be stupid (too late - you showed that when - TWICE - you made simple math errors like not being able to multiply by 10). The container doesn't need either an engine or a nav system, and especially not for "each hundred kg of cargo". Once it's in orbit, a separate ion tugboat can always pick it up. Outside the atmosphere is where ion engines will shine, and this is one practical use for them.
As others have pointed out, we can already build electronics and hardware that can withstand the launch forces. They don't have to get the costs down to 1/5 the competition - just enough under the competition so that, for enough payloads, it makes sense. Even a 10% differential will be enough of an economic driver. Same as any other commodity (or do you drive out of your way to pay more for "your" brand of gasoline?)
225 kg * $10,000 per kilo = $2,250,000, not $225,000. You're off by an order of magnitude.
Here, lets make it simple:
225 kg x $1 per kg = $225.00
225 kg x $10 per kg = $2,250.00
225 kg x $100 per kg = $22,500.00
225 kg x $1,000 per kg = $225,000.00
225 kg x $1,0000 per kg = $2,250,000.00
Like I said, you dropped a decimal place.
Assuming initial cost + interest at 5% as you posit, you have a total of $625 million after 5 years.
Carrying costs are therefore $31.5 million annually thereafter.
Even allotting for only 225 kg/shot, that's 2.25 million a shot available.
1 firing a day, 5 day work week, at $10k/kg is more than half a billion of revenue in the first year.
If they did like airplane owners, and ran it 7 days a week, 1 firing a day yields $821 million the first year.
30,000 firings @10,000/kg would be $67.5 BILLION. You dropped a decimal point somewhere.
Search for Gerald Bull and read abut his super-gun project.
#ifdef __BSD__
BSD and linux are different in some aspects when it comes to sockets. Made it a real PITA to code on linux, runs perfectly, then won't compile on BSD without a few more includes and some extra code.
It proves that vaccines can have negative effects on immunity to closely-related diseases - which backs up my initial assertion that vaccines can have negative effects on the immune system.
H1N1 isn't any more lethal than other flus. This has been a real exercise in over-hype. People think it's worse than ebola, the way they're acting. It's the flu. It will cull the same (or in this case, fewer) of the population than the normal flu. Just quarantine the people who have it, and take the regular flu precautions (wash your hands, don't let anyone cough on you or use your keyboard, make sure there's adequate ventilation so the level of virus particles in the environment is low, get plenty of rest and eat right).
and if you were around for the 1957 epidemic, relax, unless you have other severe health problems, you're probably immune - the strains are close enough, which explains why older people aren't nearly as susceptible.
The stuff that drips down your throat naturally is much less contaminated than the crusties in your nose that some people seem to take so much delight in. Don't pick your nose, don't eat your boogers, and you can have my keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead hands - until then, don't put your booger-stained mits on it.
I remember one time when I had to fix a sales reps' computer, and I told the boss "Okay, I'll be back in 15 minutes." Went and bought bright yellow rubber gloves - the kind you use for washing the dishes. He said "you can't work on his computer in front of him like that!" I said "Then you do it - I'll tell you exactly what has to be done, but I'm not touching his keyboard. I know where his hands have been!" His response? "Use the gloves."
The bogosity isn't just from the large margin of error - it's also from they fact that there has NEVER been proper statistics done - NEVER been a proper count, so there are no valid statistics. It's guesswork, and always has been. Same as the bogus claim that "spinach is good for you - it has lots of iron" which turned out to be an oft-copied mistake from a single government chart with a misplaced decimal point. Spinach has no more iron than any other veggie, and most of that isn't even bio-available. And yet, people still say "eat your spinach - it's good for you!"
If H1N1 mutates into something else, then your vaccine targeted at H1N1 isn't going to help you very much, is it?
The death rate is lower than the official claim for the simple reason that they counted only people who went to the hospital. Not everyone goes to the hospital just because they think they *might* have the flu. So, since they admit they didn't account for anyone who didn't present at a hospital, the death rate has to be lower than "the official rate", unless people are dying in their homes, which is something we're not seeing. So no, this is a mild strain of flu.
also, the reason it doesn't affect most older people is because if you were around during the 1957 epidemic, unless you have serious underlying health problems, you're probably still immune.
The 3% of the population who are morbidly obese didn't give a shit about themselves while they ate their way to blimpdom, so why should I? "I can't lose weight" is a defeatist attitude. If they're not willing to try, I have no sympathy. If they're making an honest effort, they have my full support, because a waist is a terrible thing to mind. But when you see pictures of people complaining about delays in getting gastric bypass surgery, and they're holding a big gulp in one hand, and a 12" sub in the other, just kindly fuck off and die already, lardo. Stop blaming others for your own problem, and accept some responsibility for your current situation.
Same with smokers who, after being warned for years and years, and always smugly saying "I can quit any time", who then cry "but I can't quit!" You're rightfully excluded from the heart transplant list, even if you need one. Quit first.
Why can't people accept some responsibility for the messes they get themselves in? Plenty of us were warning about the housing bubble back in 2006, and we were told "no, housing always goes up", even though that has NEVER been true. Why should we bail out anyone who was greedy and reckless and didn't listen to the warnings? There were enough of them.
If you're one of the morbidly obese fat slobs that are at higher risk, I'm not worried about anything you might do except you sitting on me.
Morbid obesity is a "lifestyle disease" - completely preventable, and there is NO excuse. And there's a reason why they call it "morbid" obesity - it can kill you.
That 3% of the population in the US is morbidly obese says something grim.
So, if you're one of those morbidly obese fat slobs, clean up your act, stop stuffing your pie-hole, and claiming you're "disabled" (while too many of you sure manage NOT to be disabled when it comes time to belly up to the all-u-can-eat, though). You get that way one mouthful at a time, same as anyone else.
I have no more patience for the morbidly obese than I do for smokers saying "I can't quit". They knew the risks. They thought "I can quit any time!" They were wrong, and after decades of ignoring warnings from everyone+dog, they have ONLY themselves to blame. If they make honest attempts to quit, THEN they have my sympathy - but to say "I can't quit" is bullshit. They don't even try. I agree with doctors who refuse to treat patients who won't quit smoking. Just like I agree with the official policy of refusing heart transplants to smokers, and the morbidly obese. Waste of time and resources, and an exercise in futility.
Same as the morbidly obese who knew every time they looked in the mirror, or when they couldn't see their feet any more, that they were too fat. I mean, how do these people even wipe their asses? Oh wait, many of them don't - which contributes to that "morbidly obese person miasma" that surrounds many of them.
I'll save my sympathy for those who at least TRY to lose the excess weight, and TRY to quit smoking, and TRY to get off crack. If you don't care enough to even try, why should I give a shit. Or, more generally, why should anyone else give a shit when you don't.
If you're trying to lose the weight, you have my sympathies (a waist is a terrible thing to mind :-) If not, not.
So you can't google when the html eats the tag? No initiative?
The first hit for "152 deaths 7" is the WHO saying that the initial death count was extremely exaggerated.
You know, instead of knee-jerk reactions saying "vaccine always needed, always benign", do some research. H1N1 has a lower-than-average death rate, and there are millions of people who, contrary to the public policy being put into place of "vaccine or fired", can't benefit from the vaccine because they're already immune, having been exposed to a similar, but stronger, variant back in 1957. That's why older people are less affected.
Getting fresh air and insuring adequate ventilation helps you avoid the high concentrations of the virus in enclosed environments, you idiot! It also lessens the amount of time other people are coughing on you. Why do you think they change the air in the OR up to 30 times a MINUTE?
Eating right and staying fit would have made a HUGE difference in the 1918 pandemic. People were dying because they were in the middle of a world war. Lots of pools of hunger, bad diets, etc., that made them prone to the pneumonia that killed them (most didn't die of the flu).
As for immunity, there are hundreds of millions who are immune, simply because they were exposed to a predecessor virus during the 1957 epidemic, and for them, the shot has zero upside.
So, stay away from infected people, get lots of sleep, eat right, exercise, make sure that there's good ventilation and plenty of fresh air, wash your hands to help avoid transmission from phones, keyboards, etc., that may be contaminated with sputum, same as you would for any other respiratory virus.
And stop being a moron, you moron. Oh, wait, maybe you're one of those fat slobs who are at high risk? Doesn't matter, like the docs said in one report, if the flu hadn't gotten them, they'd probably be dead in 6 months anyway.
Simple - because too many idiots assume that vaccines are totally benign wonder drugs. They're not - they're foreign substances, and some of them can have long-term side effects. It should be up to the individual to decide - that's what informed consent is all about.
Or are you now going to claim that informed consent isn't for black people?
On another point, people who were around during the 1957 flu epidemic don't need the H1N1 vaccine, so it would be stupid to say "take this vaccine or we're going to fire you."
Posted like a true AC. Ignore the facts, such as that this strain is weaker than average, and the actual death rate lower, that its' been over-hyped from the beginning, is expected to further weaken, just like every other flu virus, and that many of us - hundreds of millions - are already immune and don't need no stinking flu shot.
Enjoy your flu shot. Me, I've never gotten one, never plan to get one, and I'm immune to this strain so it would be a total waste as well as an unnecessary risk.