What I want to know is,
if the music industry is so concerned
that the music we listen to be "licensed,"
then when will we be able to hold up
an old vinyl LP and say "I have a license,
so I can download mp3s from any song on this album."
No, that would be far too logical.
Better to charge the consumer for a new copy in whatever medium is in vogue, and then prosecute the people who try to (justifiably) download all the old songs they have on cassette or acetate 78 RPM record.
I'm just saying we should clear the slate.
If it's all about having a license, then let it be about that. But I think I'm owed a few credits for every album I've purchased more than once.
At first I thought it would be just about van Eck phreaking, which i did know about, but the additional information was also informative. Especially the software protection from van Eck phreaking. Nice to know we don't need Morse-code-blinking LEDs to protect against those kind of attacks.
For real. Saw it in a friend's tattoo magazine (he used to work in a tattoo parlor). But to be fair, the
KitchenAid mixer
does have some clean lines and nice style. It is a work of art.
Any other people out there with experience in the DJ's chair able to back me up on this one?
Between the hours of ~10PM and 4AM, profanity is allowed. I don't know all the specifics, but I do know that after a certain hour we had to read a disclaimer:
Between the hours of (x) and (y),
WQFS
may broadcast content that is objectionable to some of our audience. Listener discretion is advised.
And then we could play whatever the hell we wanted. What's wrong with playing "dirty" words after kids should be in bed? Adults have certainly heard those words before, and can change the station if they are offended.
I'm not saying it won't happen, but could such regulation possibly be effective? Wolfman Jack used to broadcast from a station in Mexico that upped the transmission power well beyond FCC regulations. With satellite radio, that isn't even necessary. The satellite is in place--just move operations outside the US.
I think it's more like the situation with cryptography or prohibited internet content. US laws only apply inside US borders, but unless you have guards at every inch of the borders, the laws have no real effect. We can't stop people from crossing our borders, so how the hell is the FCC going to keep out electromagnetic radiation? Not that they wouldn't try.
Yes, they could outlaw XM or Sirius receivers, but it's hard to find a passive device like a receiver. Someone want to explain how the UK TV Nazis can tell if you have an unlicensed TV in your house? Or how a radar detector can be detected? Not my area of expertise.
The White House is worried about a DOS attack from terrorist hackers. If there's anyone who hates Bush more than the majority of the American people, it's the entire rest of the world.
If I were a despot, I'd probably do the same thing. Hell, why does the rest of the world even need to know anything about what a despot is doing? That takes away the novelty of announcing a new trickle-down wealth-redistribution 5-year plan: slowly take all remaining possessions away from those in the lower tax brackets, boost the CEOs' incomes, and profit for the whole country!
Secondly, Pi was chosen somewhat haphazardly. For the unit circle of radius 1, Cir = 2*Pi. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter. But from a mathematical standpoint the diameter is not what's important - the radius is. Wouldn't it make just as much sense if not more to use the ratio of the Circumference to the radius (here designated as Cir)? The way things are formulated now, Pi is half a cycle in radians, halfway around the unit circle. Wouldn't a constant that represents a full cycle, Cir, make more sense? Have we grown so used to Pi that we have forgotten the arbitrariness of it's formulation?
I think you're a little mixed up. Pi is not arbitrary. And you just defined pi in terms of circumference and diameter, but why not in terms of area and radius? Area = pi * r^2, which is pretty elegant. If pi were the ratio of circumference to radius, then it would be 2 pi ~ 6.28. Then the aread of a circle would be pi * r^2 / 2.
Regardless, pi shows up in a lot more places than circles and sines. You can multiply it by a constant, but it will still be irrational, and will still show up in all the same equations--multiplied by an arbitrary constant.
As of now--the sum of the interior angles of a triangle = 180 deg. = pi radians. Would you prefer Cir/2 radians?
I read through the article, and looked at the graphic, and found no mention of "n". But I agree with another poster that the really elegant equation is the full form, with sines and cosines. Then plug in pi and it reduces to e^i*pi = -1.
That really blew my mind when I first saw it in high school, and it made no sense at all until I saw the Taylor series of e^x, vs. those of sine and cosine. But man, is it easier to work with exponentials than with sinusoids. Just like it's a lot easier to work with Laplace transforms via arithmetic than to try to manually solve differential equations.
It's true that Apple loses a bit of revenue on customers
who decide to pirate the latest major upgrade,
but if those customers are happier with their computer as a
result of it, Apple is still going to make future revenue from them.
It also helps that OS X upgrades actually make the system faster, in my experience. I was always so reluctant to upgrade to the latest version of Windows back when I had a beige box, because the bloat would inevitably slow my poor little processor to a crawl. Windows 2000 was more stable than 98, to be sure, but also a lot more resource-hungry. That's a pretty notable contrast, and is more likely to inspire loyalty, even if not every Mac owner abstains from piracy.
Regardless of the error about "genomes" vs. "genes" . ..
There are all sorts of DNA that don't encode for proteins, but do have functions. In the production of antibodies, for example, a cell uses a shotgun combinatorial attack using DNA as a template, basically a random-number source, to make a binding site for whatever antigen. There are certain sequences that are not genes, exactly, but can predispose a person towards autoimmune disorders.
Someone correct me if I'm making any egregious errors. The Major Histocompatibility Complex and all the other immunological complexities are very confusing. But the point is that the number of genes does not equate to the complexity of what those genes can do. For a programming analogy, think of unlambda or any of those other obfuscated functional programming languages. Another thing to consider is multi-functional proteins, with subunits that perform different tasks. Enzymes are a great example of that. It only takes one gene to produce beta-lactamase, but that enzyme chops antibiotics to pieces (not including vancomycin and some of the more exotic new antibiotics).
I'm an engineer. When I specify a quantity, I generally specify units. A degree can be an angle measurement, too, if you aren't more specific.
I live in the US and work in a lab on a daily basis. That means I use both Fahrenheit and Celsius (or Centigrade) on a daily basis. That means if I write a temperature in my lab notebook, I'd damned well better note what units I mean. The fridge is 4 C, but if I left off the "C" then someone looking at my notebook in the future might store a reagent at 4 F, which would be a big problem if the reagent didn't tolerate freeze-thaws. That's not even considering the absolute temperatures (Kelvin and Rankine) which are especially important in chemistry and physics.
And seeing as how everywhere outside of the US uses Celsius, but a very large percentage of native English speakers use only Fahrenheit, it would indeed make sense for someone translating the article into English to specify what kind of degrees they were talking about. Would you say that someone weighs 15? What would that mean? It's an acceptable weight for an infant, in pounds, but in the UK they still use stone to specify weight (which does mystify me).
The parent poster obvious was able to infer that the article meant Celsius from the context. Sounds like you're the one who doesn't understand this is a diverse planet.
If people keep doing undesireable things, it's only going to lead to undesirable features being built into the iPos and iTunes. It's really only.001% that want to do something like this; why ruin it for everybody else?
I disagree with the poster's sentiments, but the punctuation is fine. The clause beginning "why ruin it . .." can stand on its own, so a semicolon is required instead of a comma.
As a side note, I know I would love to use something like this for NPR's freely available internet programming. "Fresh Air" is one of my favorite shows, and is mostly available via streaming audio right now.
I think this is pretty damn cool, but not any more interesting than some of the other crossover techniques that have come out recently. One idea was to mimic the way ants find food and communicate to the colony where that is. Simulated ants with simulated pheromones were used to find a decent solution to the traveling salesman problem, where the salesman wants to hit each of a list of cities in the shortest possible route, without backtracking.
There's a pdf
here
on the subject
or you could read the google html version
here.
I can't stand bikers... and its because of the stunts like that. Now, if your biking the speed limit, this doesn't apply. While I generally cruise above the speed limit, I'm not the kind of jackass to start yelling because I'm the only one speeding.
You do realize this is total flamebait, right? Saying you can't stand bikers because of the "stunts" that some of them pull. Cars try to pass bicyclists even if it doesn't make sense. Where I live, I can easily go faster than cars on residential streets and downtown. I'll have a car behind me while I'm at a stop sign, and when I start to go the car behind me often guns it and tries to overtake me--only to stop at the next stop sign, at the next block. It's even more frustrating since bikes here are allowed to yield at stop signs without necessarily stopping, so I can keep pedalling for several blocks while the car behind me has to come to a complete stop at any intersection. Even worse is the
"right hook" (see collision type #4), where the car overtakes you only to turn right, cutting you off and potentially killing you.
However, when I'm on my way to school or work and a car is travelling 5-10mph below the speed limit I get pretty annoyed. So when its a biker who isn't hugging the curb, but instead taking up an entire lane, I reserve the right to get pissed.
Laws depend on where you live, but in Texas the law was that bicyclists can take any lane less than 15 ft wide. Honestly, an SUV cannot safely pass a biker when the lane is narrower than 15 ft. And although someone already made this comment, hugging the right side of the lane can be damn dangerous when there is a line of parked cars. A friend of mine tore her ACL when some jackass opened his car door without looking. She was riding in a bike lane, too.
I'm responding to you rather than flaming because you obviously don't know the perils of bicycling with cars around. Read through that bike safety site I linked too--these types of collisions are how bicyclists get killed.
On the other hand, I'm not defending irresponsible bikers, such as the ones that go the wrong way down one-way streets, or blow through stop signs when traffic is coming, or bike at night without blinkers.
There're a couple twits in my office that do this (Bike to work every day as exercies).
You can pick them out easily, because they end up smelling up the place.
For the sake of all that is good and holy, DO NOT bike into work unless you intend to SHOWER when you get there.
I sympathize with you having to be around smelly people, but the reason they smell bad is not because they don't shower when they arrive. Sweat doesn't smell bad (not to me, at least, or to most people). It's the junk produced by bacteria that grow in sweat that stinks.
I use one of those rock crystals for deodorant. It is NOT an antiperspirant, but it doesn't claim to be. It DOES inhibit bacterial growth, thus working better than the standard fragrant type. I get sweaty as hell biking to work, but I either dry off in ten minutes (if I don't change my shirt) or I put on a clean, dry shirt and I'm fine.
I live in Eugene, Oregon--one of the hippy capitals of the world. There are more miles of bike trails here than of highway. Bicyclists are a unique demographic that includes a disproportionate percentage of hippies, among other things. I suspect these "twits" who stink up your workplace would probably smell bad even if they didn't bike, because a lot of the people who like biking also like patchouli and dreadlocks and bathing only occasionally. I guess I'm saying that correlation is not causation. How do you know it's the biking that makes them smell bad? Maybe they just have poor hygiene in general, exacerbated by biking into work.
(Disclaimer: not all hippies wear patchouli or dreadlocks, and some of them have excellent hygiene.)
I'm not too keen on the road bike geometry. And where I live, there is no street maintained well enough to protect those thin road bike tires. I just got my first road bike, and where the ground is smooth it's awesome, but I'm sure I'll wipe out one of these days when my front wheel gets caught in a huge crack in the asphalt on the bike trail.
My favorite city bike is a mountain bike with rigid forks and fairly skinny tires (maybe twice the diameter of the average road tire). My tires are mostly slick and the hubs have low rolling resistance. Even though I have no shocks, it's very nice to hop a curb without damaging your wheelset. That's not even considering deep potholes that can ruin a road bike.
Mountain bikes are easier to maneuver, too, because of their smaller wheels. And although I did get a road bike, I got straight handle bars on it because drop bars suck, honestly. I think the drop bars are the number one reason people here in the US avoid road bikes.
On a semi-related subject, I've been thinking about converting an old Trek hybrid into a fixed-gear for commuting. Anyone have experiences to share with their fixed-gear bikes?
Since everyone seems to be citing their own experiences . . .
To work: 6 miles = 9.7 km; average speed 17 mph = 27.4 km/hr
Top speed: 32 mph = 51.5 km/hr (non-sustained, but on flat terrain)
Top maintainable speed: 21 mph = 33.8 km/hr
I enjoy racing myself back and forth when I go to work, but I'm not disciplined enough to actually compete. Cycling computers rock.
If you like stories about animals sniffing things, they also have stories about
giant rats sniffing out tuberculosis
and
dogs sniffing bladder cancer
just to name two recent stories. I check out their news section first thing in the morning, then the nytimes, then slashdot.
Got this address for the movie from the source, but it's not working quite right, either. I've downloaded 90k out of 26MB, so it's going to be awhile for me. Good luck.
Just a note that thefreedictionary.com just takes its info from Wikipedia and adds advertising. So please refer back to the original Wikipedia page. Wikipedia is the sum total of human knowledge. It rules.
I don't like it either when people snag their content from wikipedia. If I'd realized what I was doing, I would have found the wikipedia link. Why look at ads when you don't have to?
Mycobacterium is the only genus in the family Mycobacteriaceae of bacteria. This genus includes many pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, also called TB, phthisis, consumption, and nicknamed the white plague, is the most common infectious disease in the world today. It is caused by a bacterium, usually the Mycobacterium tuberculosis but any member of the so called Tuberculosis complex will do. If left untreated, more than 50% will die in a few years time. It causes about 2-3 million deaths per year out of 9-10 million cases and is especially prevalent in undeveloped, tropical countries.
and leprosy
Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy, is an infectious disease caused by infection by Mycobacterium leprae. The modern name of the disease comes from the discoverer of Mycobacterium leprae, G. A. Hansen. Sufferers from Hansen's disease have generally been called lepers, although this term is falling into disuse both from the diminishing number of leprosy patients and from pressure to avoid the demeaning connotations of the term.
Most mycobacteria are classified into two categories, the fast-growing kind and the slow-growing kind, and most mycobacteria share some common characteristics:
* They are widespread organisms, typically living in water (including tap water treated with chlorine) and food sources.
* They can colonize their hosts without the hosts showing any adverse signs. For example, millions of people around the world are infected with M. tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacteria that causes most cases of tuberculosis. Its genome has been sequenced.
It is a Gram-positive aerobic mycobacterium that divides every 16-20 hours. This is extremely slow compared to other bacteria which tend to have division times measured in minutes (for example, E. coli can divide roughly every 20 minutes). It is a small rod-like bacillus which can withstand weak disinfectants and can survive in a dry state for weeks but can only grow within a host organism.
but will never know it because they will not develop symptoms.
* Mycobacterial infections are notoriously difficult to treat. The organisms are hardy and can survive long exposure to antibiotics, which naturally leads to antibiotic resistance Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. Antibiotic resistance develops through mutation or plasmid exchange between bacteria of the same species. If a bacterium carries several resistance genes, it is called multiresistant or, informally, a superbug.
Most mycobacteria are susceptible to the antibiotics clarithromycin and rifamycin, but antibiotic-resistant strains are known to exist.
* Mycobacteria tend to be fastidious (difficult to culture), sometimes taking over two years to develop in culture.
Species
* M. tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis Tuberculosis, also called TB, phthisis, consumption, and nicknamed the white plague, is the most common infectious disease in the world today. It is caused by a bacterium, usually the Mycobacterium tuberculosis but any member of the so called Tuberculosis complex will do. If left untreated, more than 50% will die in a few years time. It causes about 2-3 million deaths per year out of 9-10 million cases and is especially prevalent in undeveloped, tropical countries.
* M. leprae
Mycobacterium leprae, also known as Hansen's bacillus, is the bacterium that causes leprosy (now called Hansen's disease). It is an intracellular, pleomorphic, but usually rod shaped, acid fast, gram positive, aerobic only remotel
Slashdot Mirror
No, that would be far too logical. Better to charge the consumer for a new copy in whatever medium is in vogue, and then prosecute the people who try to (justifiably) download all the old songs they have on cassette or acetate 78 RPM record.
I'm just saying we should clear the slate. If it's all about having a license, then let it be about that. But I think I'm owed a few credits for every album I've purchased more than once.
Grammar fascism aside, it's only a copyright violation where copyright exists. Not in, say, China.
At first I thought it would be just about van Eck phreaking, which i did know about, but the additional information was also informative. Especially the software protection from van Eck phreaking. Nice to know we don't need Morse-code-blinking LEDs to protect against those kind of attacks.
For real. Saw it in a friend's tattoo magazine (he used to work in a tattoo parlor). But to be fair, the KitchenAid mixer does have some clean lines and nice style. It is a work of art.
Thank you; that was exactly what I wanted to know.
Between the hours of ~10PM and 4AM, profanity is allowed. I don't know all the specifics, but I do know that after a certain hour we had to read a disclaimer:
And then we could play whatever the hell we wanted. What's wrong with playing "dirty" words after kids should be in bed? Adults have certainly heard those words before, and can change the station if they are offended.I think it's more like the situation with cryptography or prohibited internet content. US laws only apply inside US borders, but unless you have guards at every inch of the borders, the laws have no real effect. We can't stop people from crossing our borders, so how the hell is the FCC going to keep out electromagnetic radiation? Not that they wouldn't try.
Yes, they could outlaw XM or Sirius receivers, but it's hard to find a passive device like a receiver. Someone want to explain how the UK TV Nazis can tell if you have an unlicensed TV in your house? Or how a radar detector can be detected? Not my area of expertise.
If I were a despot, I'd probably do the same thing. Hell, why does the rest of the world even need to know anything about what a despot is doing? That takes away the novelty of announcing a new trickle-down wealth-redistribution 5-year plan: slowly take all remaining possessions away from those in the lower tax brackets, boost the CEOs' incomes, and profit for the whole country!
Regardless, pi shows up in a lot more places than circles and sines. You can multiply it by a constant, but it will still be irrational, and will still show up in all the same equations--multiplied by an arbitrary constant.
As of now--the sum of the interior angles of a triangle = 180 deg. = pi radians. Would you prefer Cir/2 radians?
That really blew my mind when I first saw it in high school, and it made no sense at all until I saw the Taylor series of e^x, vs. those of sine and cosine. But man, is it easier to work with exponentials than with sinusoids. Just like it's a lot easier to work with Laplace transforms via arithmetic than to try to manually solve differential equations.
The Wikipedia article shows the Taylor series expansion proof.
It's true that Apple loses a bit of revenue on customers who decide to pirate the latest major upgrade, but if those customers are happier with their computer as a result of it, Apple is still going to make future revenue from them.
It also helps that OS X upgrades actually make the system faster, in my experience. I was always so reluctant to upgrade to the latest version of Windows back when I had a beige box, because the bloat would inevitably slow my poor little processor to a crawl. Windows 2000 was more stable than 98, to be sure, but also a lot more resource-hungry. That's a pretty notable contrast, and is more likely to inspire loyalty, even if not every Mac owner abstains from piracy.
There are all sorts of DNA that don't encode for proteins, but do have functions. In the production of antibodies, for example, a cell uses a shotgun combinatorial attack using DNA as a template, basically a random-number source, to make a binding site for whatever antigen. There are certain sequences that are not genes, exactly, but can predispose a person towards autoimmune disorders.
Someone correct me if I'm making any egregious errors. The Major Histocompatibility Complex and all the other immunological complexities are very confusing. But the point is that the number of genes does not equate to the complexity of what those genes can do. For a programming analogy, think of unlambda or any of those other obfuscated functional programming languages. Another thing to consider is multi-functional proteins, with subunits that perform different tasks. Enzymes are a great example of that. It only takes one gene to produce beta-lactamase, but that enzyme chops antibiotics to pieces (not including vancomycin and some of the more exotic new antibiotics).
I live in the US and work in a lab on a daily basis. That means I use both Fahrenheit and Celsius (or Centigrade) on a daily basis. That means if I write a temperature in my lab notebook, I'd damned well better note what units I mean. The fridge is 4 C, but if I left off the "C" then someone looking at my notebook in the future might store a reagent at 4 F, which would be a big problem if the reagent didn't tolerate freeze-thaws. That's not even considering the absolute temperatures (Kelvin and Rankine) which are especially important in chemistry and physics.
And seeing as how everywhere outside of the US uses Celsius, but a very large percentage of native English speakers use only Fahrenheit, it would indeed make sense for someone translating the article into English to specify what kind of degrees they were talking about. Would you say that someone weighs 15? What would that mean? It's an acceptable weight for an infant, in pounds, but in the UK they still use stone to specify weight (which does mystify me).
The parent poster obvious was able to infer that the article meant Celsius from the context. Sounds like you're the one who doesn't understand this is a diverse planet.
But then again, I like things to do what I tell them to. That's why I no longer use Windows at home.
I disagree with the poster's sentiments, but the punctuation is fine. The clause beginning "why ruin it . . ." can stand on its own, so a semicolon is required instead of a comma.
As a side note, I know I would love to use something like this for NPR's freely available internet programming. "Fresh Air" is one of my favorite shows, and is mostly available via streaming audio right now.
There's a pdf here on the subject or you could read the google html version here.
You do realize this is total flamebait, right? Saying you can't stand bikers because of the "stunts" that some of them pull. Cars try to pass bicyclists even if it doesn't make sense. Where I live, I can easily go faster than cars on residential streets and downtown. I'll have a car behind me while I'm at a stop sign, and when I start to go the car behind me often guns it and tries to overtake me--only to stop at the next stop sign, at the next block. It's even more frustrating since bikes here are allowed to yield at stop signs without necessarily stopping, so I can keep pedalling for several blocks while the car behind me has to come to a complete stop at any intersection. Even worse is the "right hook" (see collision type #4), where the car overtakes you only to turn right, cutting you off and potentially killing you.
However, when I'm on my way to school or work and a car is travelling 5-10mph below the speed limit I get pretty annoyed. So when its a biker who isn't hugging the curb, but instead taking up an entire lane, I reserve the right to get pissed.
Laws depend on where you live, but in Texas the law was that bicyclists can take any lane less than 15 ft wide. Honestly, an SUV cannot safely pass a biker when the lane is narrower than 15 ft. And although someone already made this comment, hugging the right side of the lane can be damn dangerous when there is a line of parked cars. A friend of mine tore her ACL when some jackass opened his car door without looking. She was riding in a bike lane, too.
I'm responding to you rather than flaming because you obviously don't know the perils of bicycling with cars around. Read through that bike safety site I linked too--these types of collisions are how bicyclists get killed.
On the other hand, I'm not defending irresponsible bikers, such as the ones that go the wrong way down one-way streets, or blow through stop signs when traffic is coming, or bike at night without blinkers.
You can pick them out easily, because they end up smelling up the place.
For the sake of all that is good and holy, DO NOT bike into work unless you intend to SHOWER when you get there.
I sympathize with you having to be around smelly people, but the reason they smell bad is not because they don't shower when they arrive. Sweat doesn't smell bad (not to me, at least, or to most people). It's the junk produced by bacteria that grow in sweat that stinks.
I use one of those rock crystals for deodorant. It is NOT an antiperspirant, but it doesn't claim to be. It DOES inhibit bacterial growth, thus working better than the standard fragrant type. I get sweaty as hell biking to work, but I either dry off in ten minutes (if I don't change my shirt) or I put on a clean, dry shirt and I'm fine.
I live in Eugene, Oregon--one of the hippy capitals of the world. There are more miles of bike trails here than of highway. Bicyclists are a unique demographic that includes a disproportionate percentage of hippies, among other things. I suspect these "twits" who stink up your workplace would probably smell bad even if they didn't bike, because a lot of the people who like biking also like patchouli and dreadlocks and bathing only occasionally. I guess I'm saying that correlation is not causation. How do you know it's the biking that makes them smell bad? Maybe they just have poor hygiene in general, exacerbated by biking into work.
(Disclaimer: not all hippies wear patchouli or dreadlocks, and some of them have excellent hygiene.)
My favorite city bike is a mountain bike with rigid forks and fairly skinny tires (maybe twice the diameter of the average road tire). My tires are mostly slick and the hubs have low rolling resistance. Even though I have no shocks, it's very nice to hop a curb without damaging your wheelset. That's not even considering deep potholes that can ruin a road bike.
Mountain bikes are easier to maneuver, too, because of their smaller wheels. And although I did get a road bike, I got straight handle bars on it because drop bars suck, honestly. I think the drop bars are the number one reason people here in the US avoid road bikes.
On a semi-related subject, I've been thinking about converting an old Trek hybrid into a fixed-gear for commuting. Anyone have experiences to share with their fixed-gear bikes?
To work: 6 miles = 9.7 km; average speed 17 mph = 27.4 km/hr
Top speed: 32 mph = 51.5 km/hr (non-sustained, but on flat terrain)
Top maintainable speed: 21 mph = 33.8 km/hr
I enjoy racing myself back and forth when I go to work, but I'm not disciplined enough to actually compete. Cycling computers rock.
If you like stories about animals sniffing things, they also have stories about giant rats sniffing out tuberculosis and dogs sniffing bladder cancer just to name two recent stories. I check out their news section first thing in the morning, then the nytimes, then slashdot.
http://media01.cgchannel.com/images/news/2003_10_l iamkemp/TWL360x208.mov
Just a little background info, blatantly ripped off of this website: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/mycobact erium
Sorry for the crappy formatting.
Mycobacterium is the only genus in the family Mycobacteriaceae of bacteria. This genus includes many pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, also called TB, phthisis, consumption, and nicknamed the white plague, is the most common infectious disease in the world today. It is caused by a bacterium, usually the Mycobacterium tuberculosis but any member of the so called Tuberculosis complex will do. If left untreated, more than 50% will die in a few years time. It causes about 2-3 million deaths per year out of 9-10 million cases and is especially prevalent in undeveloped, tropical countries.
and leprosy
Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy, is an infectious disease caused by infection by Mycobacterium leprae. The modern name of the disease comes from the discoverer of Mycobacterium leprae, G. A. Hansen. Sufferers from Hansen's disease have generally been called lepers, although this term is falling into disuse both from the diminishing number of leprosy patients and from pressure to avoid the demeaning connotations of the term.
Most mycobacteria are classified into two categories, the fast-growing kind and the slow-growing kind, and most mycobacteria share some common characteristics:
* They are widespread organisms, typically living in water (including tap water treated with chlorine) and food sources.
* They can colonize their hosts without the hosts showing any adverse signs. For example, millions of people around the world are infected with M. tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacteria that causes most cases of tuberculosis. Its genome has been sequenced.
It is a Gram-positive aerobic mycobacterium that divides every 16-20 hours. This is extremely slow compared to other bacteria which tend to have division times measured in minutes (for example, E. coli can divide roughly every 20 minutes). It is a small rod-like bacillus which can withstand weak disinfectants and can survive in a dry state for weeks but can only grow within a host organism.
but will never know it because they will not develop symptoms.
* Mycobacterial infections are notoriously difficult to treat. The organisms are hardy and can survive long exposure to antibiotics, which naturally leads to antibiotic resistance Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. Antibiotic resistance develops through mutation or plasmid exchange between bacteria of the same species. If a bacterium carries several resistance genes, it is called multiresistant or, informally, a superbug.
Most mycobacteria are susceptible to the antibiotics clarithromycin and rifamycin, but antibiotic-resistant strains are known to exist.
* Mycobacteria tend to be fastidious (difficult to culture), sometimes taking over two years to develop in culture.
Species * M. tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis Tuberculosis, also called TB, phthisis, consumption, and nicknamed the white plague, is the most common infectious disease in the world today. It is caused by a bacterium, usually the Mycobacterium tuberculosis but any member of the so called Tuberculosis complex will do. If left untreated, more than 50% will die in a few years time. It causes about 2-3 million deaths per year out of 9-10 million cases and is especially prevalent in undeveloped, tropical countries.
* M. leprae
Mycobacterium leprae, also known as Hansen's bacillus, is the bacterium that causes leprosy (now called Hansen's disease). It is an intracellular, pleomorphic, but usually rod shaped, acid fast, gram positive, aerobic only remotel
Why didn't you just talk in terms of microns? That's what 1/1000 of a millimeter is, anyway.