Rochester, Minnesota apparently also has an abnormally high rate of autism and asperger's (This comes from Autism discussion lists and Wired's "Autism in the Silicon Valley" discussed previously here - I have no links to research). IBM has a large facility there and there also is the Mayo clinic. The air is clean, but a lot of geeks live there.
Some parents are blaming everything from fluoride in the water, Mercury as stabilizing agent in shots, and measels virus from the MMR.
As a biochem grad student with a child on the spectrum, I can say that the current state of research is abysmal - at best shots in the dark based on heuristic arguments and hearsay.
Agree, when I was in the Army(92-99), all the pencils, pens, clocks, and furniture came from a govt-sponsored organization that provided people with disabilities good jobs. So the clocks come from the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, but as far as software goes, the Army was falling all over itself to pad Bill's wallet. Sad and frustrating.
I believe that DNA computing experiments will soon run into problems involving DNA structure. As an example, there are many well known WC helices that aren't anything like the straight B form structures pounded into the brains of biochem students.
The real future power of DNA computing will undoubtedly involve long stretches of random sequences (flanked by constant primer regions)- otherwise the synthesis of a pool required for any interesting problem would be tremendously difficult. With random single-stranded regions come the problems of structure (see http://ozone.chem.wayne.edu/)
I'm not dismissing DNA computing out of hand. I find whiplash PCR and related papers absolutely cool (David H. Wood, Hong Bi, Steven O. Kimbrough, Dongjun Wu & Junghuei Chen -DNA Starts to Learn Poker). But I find simple WC base pairing boring. And designing double-standed DNA to perform as a stand-alone automaton (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48697,00.html) has, imo, the intellectual significance of a bad crossword puzzle (even if all rxns are done in one pot).
I know of at least two papers that will, over the next year, report on success in forcing a low number of nucleic acids to perform serial problems.
Finally, I believe that the nonbiological molecules being forwarded by the likes of Reed/Tour and Heath/HP will win out over the long haul. But one can imagine DNA being coupled to the process.
but I suppose latex doesn't biodegrade very well. Plus they might complain about the sensitivity impact.
Re:Forever War == Starship Troopers after Vietnam
on
The Forever War
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· Score: 1
Yes, he still teaches there. He spoke of it when he came to Yale to lecture to the Science Fact and Science Fiction class --
http://classes.yale.edu/browse.html
Pull down the Term window to select: Fall 2001.
Pull down the Home Page window to see Engineering and Applied Science 111a.
He also claimed to invent "collapsars" (wormholes) for the book to make the math work out. During its initial publication wormholes were proven to be theoretically possible. How cool.
All USMA grads have a BS in which they at least minored in engineering - even if they majored in something like English or History. Additionally, each cadet was required to take at least four semesters of English courses, History, sociology, philosophy, and law classes. My comments are based on my experience (92 grad, physics and nuc. engr).
But the real "well-roundedness" training came in the form of leadership and physical training during the hours not spent in a classroom (afternoons, evenings, and summers).
I loved the experience because common-sense problem solving was always emphasized.
As a biochem grad student I now watch in amazement at many of my classmates (keeping in mind they're ~7 years younger than me) who are brilliant, but whom in my opinion will fail miserably as a principle investigator who has to actually deal with people and problem solve issues not dealing directly with their little experiments (lab budget, goals of the lab, etc).
--------
Who wants an orange whip. Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips. -- John Candy
Re:Arm Pilots Guns n Pressure
on
More On Tragedy
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· Score: 1
As a former army intel pilot, I was trained to deal with rapid loss of cabin pressure - unless a front windshield was blown out there is no way a small arms weapon will create a hole that will do anything more than start a slow leak in pressure.
I have to admit that I hadn't thought about it when I was flying, but a technique might be to dump the cabin pressure to about 12-15k feet ASL thus immobilizing cabin occupants, but not killing them (unless you were up there for a really long time). The trick would be to shut off any O2 through the cabin masks.
Also closed circuit tv within the cockpit monitoring the cabin would also be good.
Finally, it is a really bad idea to lock the pilots inside the cockpit with no possible way for anyone to get in. Maybe an alternative would be a situation where one pilot would have to be actively preventing the door from opening by using an emergency hijack lock, ie holding a spring-loaded deadbolt in the locked position. This would prevent the unlikely event of three crewmembers in the cockpit having simultaneous heart attacks being locked inside.
Slashdot Mirror
Some parents are blaming everything from fluoride in the water, Mercury as stabilizing agent in shots, and measels virus from the MMR.
As a biochem grad student with a child on the spectrum, I can say that the current state of research is abysmal - at best shots in the dark based on heuristic arguments and hearsay.
Agree, when I was in the Army(92-99), all the pencils, pens, clocks, and furniture came from a govt-sponsored organization that provided people with disabilities good jobs. So the clocks come from the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, but as far as software goes, the Army was falling all over itself to pad Bill's wallet. Sad and frustrating.
The real future power of DNA computing will undoubtedly involve long stretches of random sequences (flanked by constant primer regions)- otherwise the synthesis of a pool required for any interesting problem would be tremendously difficult. With random single-stranded regions come the problems of structure (see http://ozone.chem.wayne.edu/)
I'm not dismissing DNA computing out of hand. I find whiplash PCR and related papers absolutely cool (David H. Wood, Hong Bi, Steven O. Kimbrough, Dongjun Wu & Junghuei Chen -DNA Starts to Learn Poker). But I find simple WC base pairing boring. And designing double-standed DNA to perform as a stand-alone automaton (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48697 ,00.html) has, imo, the intellectual significance of a bad crossword puzzle (even if all rxns are done in one pot).
I know of at least two papers that will, over the next year, report on success in forcing a low number of nucleic acids to perform serial problems.
Finally, I believe that the nonbiological molecules being forwarded by the likes of Reed/Tour and Heath/HP will win out over the long haul. But one can imagine DNA being coupled to the process.
My $0.02, Ken
but I suppose latex doesn't biodegrade very well. Plus they might complain about the sensitivity impact.
http://classes.yale.edu/browse.html
Pull down the Term window to select: Fall 2001.
Pull down the Home Page window to see Engineering and Applied Science 111a.
He also claimed to invent "collapsars" (wormholes) for the book to make the math work out. During its initial publication wormholes were proven to be theoretically possible. How cool.
Click on Homepage: Engineering and Applied Science 111a
All USMA grads have a BS in which they at least minored in engineering - even if they majored in something like English or History. Additionally, each cadet was required to take at least four semesters of English courses, History, sociology, philosophy, and law classes. My comments are based on my experience (92 grad, physics and nuc. engr). But the real "well-roundedness" training came in the form of leadership and physical training during the hours not spent in a classroom (afternoons, evenings, and summers). I loved the experience because common-sense problem solving was always emphasized. As a biochem grad student I now watch in amazement at many of my classmates (keeping in mind they're ~7 years younger than me) who are brilliant, but whom in my opinion will fail miserably as a principle investigator who has to actually deal with people and problem solve issues not dealing directly with their little experiments (lab budget, goals of the lab, etc). -------- Who wants an orange whip. Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips. -- John Candy
As a former army intel pilot, I was trained to deal with rapid loss of cabin pressure - unless a front windshield was blown out there is no way a small arms weapon will create a hole that will do anything more than start a slow leak in pressure.
I have to admit that I hadn't thought about it when I was flying, but a technique might be to dump the cabin pressure to about 12-15k feet ASL thus immobilizing cabin occupants, but not killing them (unless you were up there for a really long time). The trick would be to shut off any O2 through the cabin masks.
Also closed circuit tv within the cockpit monitoring the cabin would also be good.
Finally, it is a really bad idea to lock the pilots inside the cockpit with no possible way for anyone to get in. Maybe an alternative would be a situation where one pilot would have to be actively preventing the door from opening by using an emergency hijack lock, ie holding a spring-loaded deadbolt in the locked position. This would prevent the unlikely event of three crewmembers in the cockpit having simultaneous heart attacks being locked inside.