My husband almost never gets sick, but when he does, it's rarely a minor illness. A little over two weeks ago, he came down with a very severe, very rapidly-progressing respiratory infection. Within a period of 96 hours, it went from a mild cough with no fever to severe pneumonia and a fever over 40C. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin/clavulanic acid on the morning of the third day, but it didn't really have any effect. My husband only started to get better once the doctor put him on levofloxacin a couple of days later. I think there's a very good chance his infection was caused by some kind of drug-resistant bacteria, but they didn't do any cultures, so we'll never know for sure.
On the other hand, I seem to be getting fewer and milder respiratory infections in the past few years. Even though I've always been prone to respiratory infections (I used to get bronchitis and/or pneumonia pretty much every winter), and have become quite a connoisseur of antibiotics, the worst I came down with this time was a mild ear/sinus infection and extreme fatigue. I also managed to avoid catching the H1N1 flu despite staying home to care for my daughter while she had it in 2009.
Thermite is my husband's hypothetical tool of choice for hard drive destruction. He's never tested it out in practice though. I'd be very interested to hear how it worked if you've tried it yourself.
On the flip side, what's the harm in trying to live more sustainably now even if we're not sure of the answers to the other questions? What's the harm in walking, biking, or taking the train instead of driving? What's the harm in living in a smaller, more efficient house? What's the harm in eating more whole, locally-grown plant foods and less industrially produced, processed meat and dairy? What's the harm in trying to consume less in general? Rather than trying to legislate and implement political policy to address the possible human impact on climate change, what's the harm in taking personal responsibility and action?
In my opinion, one of the best games of all time was Below the Root. Despite the technological limitations, the gameplay was fantastic. I've gone back and replayed it, both on original hardware, and in an emulator, and still find it as enjoyable as I ever did. I really wish someone would remake that game, but I'm also kind of afraid they wold ruin what was so good about it to begin with.
I am a supertaster (highly sensitive to bitter tastes), and I also have asthma. Reading this made me wonder if there might be some connection. Any other asthmatic supertasters out there?
The first thing that came to mind for me when I read the summary was Interface by Neal Stephenson. It also comes to the conclusion that there are dangers associated with implanting microchips in people's brains.
Conversely, I've often wondered whether people with exceptional abilities might also have brains that have "rewired" themselves. For example, someone with an exceptional capacity for memory might be using areas other than the recognized memory centers of the brain to store memories. It seems that the majority of studies are focused on cases of damage or dysfunction, and relatively few on cases of above-average functioning.
Being raised in a totalitarian environment is a sure way to grow up with absolutely no ability for self control. When someone is telling you what to do constantly, you don't have to think, you just have to obey. Sadly, the prevailing parenting style in the USA emphasizes obedience and discourages challenging authority. By the time children get to their teens, they have already been trained to obey. The problem is, they are now obeying their peers.
My high school's sex education classes (in the mid-1990s) presented the potential risks and the level of risk associated with various forms of sexual activity, as well as the various options for mitigating the risks and the effectiveness of each option. It was emphasized that abstinence (including abstinence from oral and anal sex) was the only 100% effective method for preventing pregnancy and STDs. I determined what my acceptable level of risk was, and acted accordingly, but then again I can't claim to have been a typical teenager.
The ribbon is fine for average users; it has the tasks that average users need to do on an average day. However, the REALLY rare tasks are now so hidden that I had to enable the Developer tab to be able to do things like work with templates. As a professional user (I'm a technical writer. We mainly use Framemaker, but sometimes have to use Word for some documents), I find the ribbon horrible inconvenient.
Not until they stop paying children of postal employees $10-$12 per hour to "work" at "summer internships". The pay has probably gone up, too. I had an internship in 1997, and until a few years ago it was the highest paying job I'd ever had.
There's actually a list of countries, organizations, and individuals that a company that does business with the US federal government must agree not to provide products or services to. Iran is on the list.
If you're a girl geek, the gender ratio is dramatically in your favor, and you're guaranteed not to stay single for long. My male friends often ask me for advice on dating/relationships on the mistaken assumption that girls instinctively understand that stuff. I've made similar suggestions to wonkavader: find a social hobby/activity where the gender ratio is in your favor (dance is a good one) and get to know people. The only thing is, women generally still expect the guy to make the first move, so if you're really shy, that could be a problem.
I would argue that it's also possible that a preference for staying indoors is correlated with undiagnosed asthma. Especially when the weather is hot and humid, it can be very unpleasant for a child with asthma to play outside. Kids would very likely prefer to stay inside their climate-controlled house, where they're more comfortable.
Finland generally does have strong privacy laws, and even this law gives employers very limited rights compared to, for example, employers in the USA. The law would allow employers to log who users are sending mail to and who they are receiving it from in cases where they suspect an employee is leaking company-proprietary information. Afaik, the actual contents of the message are off limits. There has been plenty of public controversy over this, so I am still hopeful that the Finnish people value their privacy and are willing to stand up for it.
Well, I certainly hope so. From what I hear those machines are indeed standalone. However, you just need one doctor with a laptop that is infected connecting directly to such a machine and mayhem ensues. Are they allowed to do that? Probably not.... Will they do it? Probably yes...:-(
You would be surprised how much medical equipment is connected to the internet. My mother is a CT tech who works the night shift (in the USA). Rather than have a radiologist at each hospital all night to interpret the scans, they have one radiologist receive all the scans from all the hospitals in their group over the internet. The CT scan system is online: it takes the scans, stores them digitally, and then transfers the files to wherever they need to go.
They supposedly have a firewall and a VPN, but their IT department is not so bright, so I wouldn't count on them to be able to configure it correctly. I have heard tales of spyware infections of the CT scan terminal due to employee web surfing, and an employee who was (incorrectly) accused of viewing porn sites on the job.
Even when medical equipment is not directly connected to the internet, you can be pretty sure that patient records are stored on internet-connected machines (for things like sharing records between hospitals in the same system, etc.). It may not be directly life-threatening, but it certainly is a huge privacy concern.
Perhaps even more important than learning a foreign language is learning to write well in English. Few people, especially in technical fields, really learn how to write at a professional level. Research requires a lot of writing, usually in a highly specialized style and format. Take the time to really learn English grammar, punctuation, and usage. Familiarize yourself with a variety of writing styles. A course in technical writing might be worth taking.
The last time I visited was about 10 years ago when I lived in Maryland. I didn't know that much about crypto at the time, but I still found the museum fascinating. I especially liked the fingerprint matching software exhibit, complete with a sign for paranoid nuts like me that emphasizes that the computer does not store any of the fingerprints from the reader. I was already planning a visit this summer, and knowing that there are definitely new exhibits gives me all the more reason to go!
A word of advice...never take a girl there for a date.
"... smart video goggle system that records everything the wearer looks at, recognizes and assigns names to objects that appear in the video. Advanced programs then go back and create an easily searchable database of the recorded footage."
That pretty much describes how my memory works, except I usually remember things with all 5 senses, not just vision. When I need to find something, I close my eyes and call up the sensory data associated with the last time I saw it. Until recently, I thought that was just how everybody's memory worked. With these goggles, I guess it could be.
"Add in facial recognition technology and this would make for a great aid at conferences and family reunions."
The flip side for me is that I am terrible at putting faces with names. Even something as simple as my co-worker wearing a hat and overcoat caused me to fail to recognize him. I could really use something like this for matching people's names to their faces.
It's well known that the FBI used satellite imagery to observe Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, before arresting him.
It's the "obtain a warrant" part that's news.;)
Am I the only nut paranoid enough to worry about whether there will *be* an election at all? Getting involved in a war now would be the perfect excuse to declare martial law and postpone the next election indefinitely.
Slashdot Mirror
The last time congress officially declared war was World War II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States#Declarations_of_war The War Powers Resolution ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution ) notwithstanding, no action has yet been taken against a president for violations.
My husband almost never gets sick, but when he does, it's rarely a minor illness. A little over two weeks ago, he came down with a very severe, very rapidly-progressing respiratory infection. Within a period of 96 hours, it went from a mild cough with no fever to severe pneumonia and a fever over 40C. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin/clavulanic acid on the morning of the third day, but it didn't really have any effect. My husband only started to get better once the doctor put him on levofloxacin a couple of days later. I think there's a very good chance his infection was caused by some kind of drug-resistant bacteria, but they didn't do any cultures, so we'll never know for sure.
On the other hand, I seem to be getting fewer and milder respiratory infections in the past few years. Even though I've always been prone to respiratory infections (I used to get bronchitis and/or pneumonia pretty much every winter), and have become quite a connoisseur of antibiotics, the worst I came down with this time was a mild ear/sinus infection and extreme fatigue. I also managed to avoid catching the H1N1 flu despite staying home to care for my daughter while she had it in 2009.
Thermite is my husband's hypothetical tool of choice for hard drive destruction. He's never tested it out in practice though. I'd be very interested to hear how it worked if you've tried it yourself.
On the flip side, what's the harm in trying to live more sustainably now even if we're not sure of the answers to the other questions? What's the harm in walking, biking, or taking the train instead of driving? What's the harm in living in a smaller, more efficient house? What's the harm in eating more whole, locally-grown plant foods and less industrially produced, processed meat and dairy? What's the harm in trying to consume less in general? Rather than trying to legislate and implement political policy to address the possible human impact on climate change, what's the harm in taking personal responsibility and action?
In my opinion, one of the best games of all time was Below the Root. Despite the technological limitations, the gameplay was fantastic. I've gone back and replayed it, both on original hardware, and in an emulator, and still find it as enjoyable as I ever did. I really wish someone would remake that game, but I'm also kind of afraid they wold ruin what was so good about it to begin with.
I am a supertaster (highly sensitive to bitter tastes), and I also have asthma. Reading this made me wonder if there might be some connection. Any other asthmatic supertasters out there?
The first thing that came to mind for me when I read the summary was Interface by Neal Stephenson. It also comes to the conclusion that there are dangers associated with implanting microchips in people's brains.
Conversely, I've often wondered whether people with exceptional abilities might also have brains that have "rewired" themselves. For example, someone with an exceptional capacity for memory might be using areas other than the recognized memory centers of the brain to store memories. It seems that the majority of studies are focused on cases of damage or dysfunction, and relatively few on cases of above-average functioning.
It's always nice to see another STM fan.
Being raised in a totalitarian environment is a sure way to grow up with absolutely no ability for self control. When someone is telling you what to do constantly, you don't have to think, you just have to obey. Sadly, the prevailing parenting style in the USA emphasizes obedience and discourages challenging authority. By the time children get to their teens, they have already been trained to obey. The problem is, they are now obeying their peers.
My high school's sex education classes (in the mid-1990s) presented the potential risks and the level of risk associated with various forms of sexual activity, as well as the various options for mitigating the risks and the effectiveness of each option. It was emphasized that abstinence (including abstinence from oral and anal sex) was the only 100% effective method for preventing pregnancy and STDs. I determined what my acceptable level of risk was, and acted accordingly, but then again I can't claim to have been a typical teenager.
The ribbon is fine for average users; it has the tasks that average users need to do on an average day. However, the REALLY rare tasks are now so hidden that I had to enable the Developer tab to be able to do things like work with templates. As a professional user (I'm a technical writer. We mainly use Framemaker, but sometimes have to use Word for some documents), I find the ribbon horrible inconvenient.
Oh no, it's the Pocket President program in real life!
Not until they stop paying children of postal employees $10-$12 per hour to "work" at "summer internships". The pay has probably gone up, too. I had an internship in 1997, and until a few years ago it was the highest paying job I'd ever had.
There's actually a list of countries, organizations, and individuals that a company that does business with the US federal government must agree not to provide products or services to. Iran is on the list.
If you're a girl geek, the gender ratio is dramatically in your favor, and you're guaranteed not to stay single for long. My male friends often ask me for advice on dating/relationships on the mistaken assumption that girls instinctively understand that stuff. I've made similar suggestions to wonkavader: find a social hobby/activity where the gender ratio is in your favor (dance is a good one) and get to know people. The only thing is, women generally still expect the guy to make the first move, so if you're really shy, that could be a problem.
I would argue that it's also possible that a preference for staying indoors is correlated with undiagnosed asthma. Especially when the weather is hot and humid, it can be very unpleasant for a child with asthma to play outside. Kids would very likely prefer to stay inside their climate-controlled house, where they're more comfortable.
Finland generally does have strong privacy laws, and even this law gives employers very limited rights compared to, for example, employers in the USA. The law would allow employers to log who users are sending mail to and who they are receiving it from in cases where they suspect an employee is leaking company-proprietary information. Afaik, the actual contents of the message are off limits. There has been plenty of public controversy over this, so I am still hopeful that the Finnish people value their privacy and are willing to stand up for it.
This just proves what people have been saying all along: Windows really IS a virus with mouse support.
Well, I certainly hope so. From what I hear those machines are indeed standalone. However, you just need one doctor with a laptop that is infected connecting directly to such a machine and mayhem ensues. Are they allowed to do that? Probably not.... Will they do it? Probably yes... :-(
You would be surprised how much medical equipment is connected to the internet. My mother is a CT tech who works the night shift (in the USA). Rather than have a radiologist at each hospital all night to interpret the scans, they have one radiologist receive all the scans from all the hospitals in their group over the internet. The CT scan system is online: it takes the scans, stores them digitally, and then transfers the files to wherever they need to go.
They supposedly have a firewall and a VPN, but their IT department is not so bright, so I wouldn't count on them to be able to configure it correctly. I have heard tales of spyware infections of the CT scan terminal due to employee web surfing, and an employee who was (incorrectly) accused of viewing porn sites on the job.
Even when medical equipment is not directly connected to the internet, you can be pretty sure that patient records are stored on internet-connected machines (for things like sharing records between hospitals in the same system, etc.). It may not be directly life-threatening, but it certainly is a huge privacy concern.
Perhaps even more important than learning a foreign language is learning to write well in English. Few people, especially in technical fields, really learn how to write at a professional level. Research requires a lot of writing, usually in a highly specialized style and format. Take the time to really learn English grammar, punctuation, and usage. Familiarize yourself with a variety of writing styles. A course in technical writing might be worth taking.
Some good online resources include the following:
http://www.grammarnow.com/
http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
http://www.towson.edu/ows/
The last time I visited was about 10 years ago when I lived in Maryland. I didn't know that much about crypto at the time, but I still found the museum fascinating. I especially liked the fingerprint matching software exhibit, complete with a sign for paranoid nuts like me that emphasizes that the computer does not store any of the fingerprints from the reader. I was already planning a visit this summer, and knowing that there are definitely new exhibits gives me all the more reason to go!
A word of advice...never take a girl there for a date.What if she invites you? ;)
"... smart video goggle system that records everything the wearer looks at, recognizes and assigns names to objects that appear in the video. Advanced programs then go back and create an easily searchable database of the recorded footage."
That pretty much describes how my memory works, except I usually remember things with all 5 senses, not just vision. When I need to find something, I close my eyes and call up the sensory data associated with the last time I saw it. Until recently, I thought that was just how everybody's memory worked. With these goggles, I guess it could be.
"Add in facial recognition technology and this would make for a great aid at conferences and family reunions."
The flip side for me is that I am terrible at putting faces with names. Even something as simple as my co-worker wearing a hat and overcoat caused me to fail to recognize him. I could really use something like this for matching people's names to their faces.
It's well known that the FBI used satellite imagery to observe Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, before arresting him. It's the "obtain a warrant" part that's news. ;)
Am I the only nut paranoid enough to worry about whether there will *be* an election at all? Getting involved in a war now would be the perfect excuse to declare martial law and postpone the next election indefinitely.