Well that was either '62 in Perth or '82 in Brisbane, both a looooong time ago. I reckon your mate was being hauled away for being annoying rather than having leprosy. And besides, what has his disease to do with anything? Was he stuck in a leper colony, or forced to wear a bell? Or was he being treated by the public health system at no cost to him for a disease that he was unfortunate enough to get. Even the US has 100 - 200 new cases per year (CDC figures). Bad things happen.
I knew the doctor responsible for treating lepers in the NT in the 90s and they were down to a handful by that stage (new cases, rather than existing cases since it is a chronic disease requiring long term treatment and follow-up). The NT is now officially leprosy-free by UN standards, but they are still seeking out (and treating) new cases via contact tracing (community screening has stopped because of the low rates of infection). Don't know what Premier Pete is doing in Queensland though. Not much, I expect...
Those who live in thirld world conditions in this country do so by choice. I have seen shitloads of money pass through the hands of those living in "third world conditions". The only mismanagement is their own. Here's a hint, if you get a big royalty cheque from the mines, try not to blow it on a new Tojo and green cans. Every year.
"Nerd porn threads appear in the Mac forums. Some lunatic (usually from Japan) with too much time and money on his hands disassembles the new device down to the bare, soldered components and posts pictures.Ars Technica does the same thing a week later, and uses some really technical terms in the process".
In case no-one RTFA, the database is storing the DNA fingerprint as data, not the entire sample. If you don't know what that means, or if you think that DNA fingerprint data can be reverse engineered into an entire genome, please read up on it before replying.
Anyway, even if they did keep the whole thing, here's what they can't do with your DNA sample:
Track you. OK, you can be tracked if the Man wants to follow you with a swab just like in CSI, but since he's already following you, why does he need DNA? He just needs a camera and a good pair of shoes.
Judge your phenotype. Unless you have some weird elephant-man-type disease and they have specifically tested for that on a hunch, they have NFI what you look like from a DNA sample. And here's something else: since your DNA was collected at the time of your arrest (prior to your acquittal, of course) they already know what you look like. They took your photo! When they arrested you! It's kind of a standard thing you know...
Judge your race. Hitler! DNA! JEWS! Hmmm, Hitler didn't need DNA databases and they wouldn't have made him any more efficient at genocide. Take a look at other genocidal hotspots. The perpetrators know who they're going to kill and they just go around doing it. No high tech needed, just a bunch of Chinese-made machetes.
As for "This clearly opens the door to all kinds of race- or ethnic-based stops" (from TFA), well we can do that now just by looking at a person. In any case, we're pretty much a melting pot of genes so using DNA to tell if someone is borderline-black, -euro, -jew, chinese (because it would only be needed in borderline cases. Otherwise we could just use our eyes and built in super-accurate race-sensors) is likely to turn up some very interesting combinations.
Diagnose disease. OK, they can but not nearly as well as the Discovery Channel would have you believe. Here's how the database would work: gov't samples your DNA (cheek cells are commonly used), runs a fingerprint analysis on about 10 spots and electronically stores the results. If they're to be kept (and according to TFA, they're not) the original sample would have to be frozen in liquid N2. Storage and retrieval of results is cheap. Storage and retrieval of samples is expensive. So the likelihood of insurance companies "getting" your DNA surreptitiously is minimal to say the least. They can do NOTHING with your DNA fingerprint. They need the sample of cells. Retrieval of samples is time consuming (not to mention sample consuming) and gets expensive. Freeze, thaw, freeze thaw...
Even if all other hassles were overcome, insurance companies are far more interested in your family history and current lifestyle as a predictor of health. Ultimately, everyone's going to die of something and as we eliminate starvation, catastrophic plagues and sabre-toothed tiger attacks, then the chances are we will die from something genetically related. If insurance companies could test for all these diseases (after getting a hold of the samples, because the gov't isn't going to test them for free) and remove these people as customers, there'd be no perfect people left to pay the premiums. Just me and Arnie:-)
Remember those CSI/Law and Order episodes where the judge orders the DNA samples of a suspect destroyed and everyone KNOWS they did it and we all boo and hiss that nassssty liberal judge. Well maybe a law saying all DNA samples can be kept on file might be a way of helping the cops get their man and if lots of "innocent" DNA is also kept on file, remember that it can't actually be used to do all the thing that the otherwise intelligent people on/. think it can, it isn't really "you" and it's possibly the only way a few of you will get to have your genetic material perfom a useful service.
I have one and I expect it to last no more than 3 years. By that time, the screen will be scratched to the shithouse and it won't be economical to replace the battery, especially compared to what will be out by then.
Even though I know it's essentially disposable, I had to have it and I love it.
Just wish I had more music.
iTMS. Australia. NOW PLEASE.
Re:Applies to everything, not just science...
on
Bad Science in the Press
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Not where I come from. The country report is done by people from the bush. City reporters wouldn't understand the issues, so they wouldn't ask the right questions, they'd write incomplete stories that wouldn't fly...
To address your examples specifically, not everything in the military is about rifles. Oftentime, what happens in the military can be the same sort of thing that can happen working for any other larger employer: people are concerned about pay, health care, retirement benefits, etc. If commentary is needed about, say, specialist hardware, a good reporter will ask an expert in that field.
Likewise, important stories about construction projects probably won't be about hammering nails, but may be about management issues, cost overruns, investment. Th ereporter just has to know enough to ask the right person the right questions - a bit like a lawyer really. If there are engineerng issues, then ask an engineer.
I take your point about reporters being non experts, but I think that if you look, the good ones are knowledgeable and some papers/tv stations even go so far as to hire/keep on as consultants those wo were outstanding in their field but have since retired (thinking of military experts here).
"...get help to find something more worthwhile to do with his time."
??
How much help do you need to teach you not to be an arsehole? If you haven't learned through the usual persuasive techniques by the age of 20, then a spell in the big house might be a much needed wakeup call.
If your kid calls Timbuktu, you will be invoiced for the call as per your toll call plan current at the time of the call.
That's the difference. The kid's calling on a service that the PARENT arranged to have. In this case, can a parent be liable for what a kid does by signing up for a service when they legally can't sign contracts?
But a big concern is that many artists don't actually KNOW what they're signing up for. I've talked to a lot of artists lately who thought that CC-C-SA was the best thing since three-buttoned mice, but also had this crazy notion that it somehow required Sony to pay you royalties if they pressed 10 million copies of your CD and sold it all over the world.
These people would have trouble tying their own shoelaces. They need a manager.
No problemo, there is a "no commercial use" type of Creative Commons licence available.
To quote them:"Offering your work under a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any taker, and only on certain conditions."
And specifically, you can choose as part of your licencing conditions: "Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work and derivative works based upon it but for noncommercial purposes only.
Examples: Gus publishes his photograph with a Noncommercial license. Camille incorporates a piece of Gus's image into a collage poster. Camille is not allowed to sell her collage poster without Gus's permission."
CC licencing was created (I think) to bridge the gap between the full copyright laws and the public domain. It enables people who want to have a bit of fun with something (music, writing, graphics etc)to be able to release it into the wild with some re-use provisos attached.
No-one gives a shit about Ogg playback except for people here.
Since the/.ers knew the rio had Ogg playback and were deeply grateful, they all bought one, right? They didn't? They bought an iPod?? Well, looks like no-one at all gives a shit about Ogg.
As for the other features, well they were lost in a sea of also-rans. Sorry.
And I thought it was MS charging PC makers a licence fee for every PC sold regardless of the installed OS that made MS Windows big. After all, if you have to pay for it you may as well include it...
For example, a motor insurance company looks for genetic factors that lead drivers to speed and, as a result, have accidents. The genetic factors are found, a certain combination implying a tendency to that kind of recklessness.
That'd be the Y chromosome, activated between 17 and 25 years of age.
In this corner of the world, I can cut down any branches that encroach on my land. My neighbour doesn't have to unless there's safety issues. I can drop the cutoff branches onto my neighbour's land because he still owns them.
If a neighbour's tree's roots are causing damage, I think they are required to rectify that.
Summary: Neighbour's branches -> my problem Neighbour's roots -> their problem.
I think posting pictures of someone with the statement "this person is a scab and is taking your job - it would be really bad if something happened to him at his house which is 123 Evergreen Tce" is a bit different to having a picture of someone with a descriptive caption.
Note: the website in question DID NOT do this, I was using this as an example of why a picture on a web site isn't necessarily just a picture on a website.
Oh, the Grammar Nazi says the word is "sought", not "seaked".
Slashdot Mirror
Well that was either '62 in Perth or '82 in Brisbane, both a looooong time ago. I reckon your mate was being hauled away for being annoying rather than having leprosy. And besides, what has his disease to do with anything? Was he stuck in a leper colony, or forced to wear a bell? Or was he being treated by the public health system at no cost to him for a disease that he was unfortunate enough to get. Even the US has 100 - 200 new cases per year (CDC figures). Bad things happen.
I knew the doctor responsible for treating lepers in the NT in the 90s and they were down to a handful by that stage (new cases, rather than existing cases since it is a chronic disease requiring long term treatment and follow-up). The NT is now officially leprosy-free by UN standards, but they are still seeking out (and treating) new cases via contact tracing (community screening has stopped because of the low rates of infection). Don't know what Premier Pete is doing in Queensland though. Not much, I expect...
Those who live in thirld world conditions in this country do so by choice. I have seen shitloads of money pass through the hands of those living in "third world conditions". The only mismanagement is their own. Here's a hint, if you get a big royalty cheque from the mines, try not to blow it on a new Tojo and green cans. Every year.
Love it :-)
I would like to suggest an addition to the APC:
"Nerd porn threads appear in the Mac forums. Some lunatic (usually from Japan) with too much time and money on his hands disassembles the new device down to the bare, soldered components and posts pictures. Ars Technica does the same thing a week later, and uses some really technical terms in the process" .
Thankyou, parent poster.
DNA - oooohhhh scary.
In case no-one RTFA, the database is storing the DNA fingerprint as data, not the entire sample. If you don't know what that means, or if you think that DNA fingerprint data can be reverse engineered into an entire genome, please read up on it before replying.
Anyway, even if they did keep the whole thing, here's what they can't do with your DNA sample:
As for "This clearly opens the door to all kinds of race- or ethnic-based stops" (from TFA), well we can do that now just by looking at a person. In any case, we're pretty much a melting pot of genes so using DNA to tell if someone is borderline-black, -euro, -jew, chinese (because it would only be needed in borderline cases. Otherwise we could just use our eyes and built in super-accurate race-sensors) is likely to turn up some very interesting combinations.
Even if all other hassles were overcome, insurance companies are far more interested in your family history and current lifestyle as a predictor of health. Ultimately, everyone's going to die of something and as we eliminate starvation, catastrophic plagues and sabre-toothed tiger attacks, then the chances are we will die from something genetically related. If insurance companies could test for all these diseases (after getting a hold of the samples, because the gov't isn't going to test them for free) and remove these people as customers, there'd be no perfect people left to pay the premiums. Just me and Arnie
Remember those CSI/Law and Order episodes where the judge orders the DNA samples of a suspect destroyed and everyone KNOWS they did it and we all boo and hiss that nassssty liberal judge. Well maybe a law saying all DNA samples can be kept on file might be a way of helping the cops get their man and if lots of "innocent" DNA is also kept on file, remember that it can't actually be used to do all the thing that the otherwise intelligent people on /. think it can, it isn't really "you" and it's possibly the only way a few of you will get to have your genetic material perfom a useful service.
I have one and I expect it to last no more than 3 years. By that time, the screen will be scratched to the shithouse and it won't be economical to replace the battery, especially compared to what will be out by then.
Even though I know it's essentially disposable, I had to have it and I love it.
Just wish I had more music.
iTMS. Australia. NOW PLEASE.
Not where I come from. The country report is done by people from the bush. City reporters wouldn't understand the issues, so they wouldn't ask the right questions, they'd write incomplete stories that wouldn't fly...
To address your examples specifically, not everything in the military is about rifles. Oftentime, what happens in the military can be the same sort of thing that can happen working for any other larger employer: people are concerned about pay, health care, retirement benefits, etc. If commentary is needed about, say, specialist hardware, a good reporter will ask an expert in that field.
Likewise, important stories about construction projects probably won't be about hammering nails, but may be about management issues, cost overruns, investment. Th ereporter just has to know enough to ask the right person the right questions - a bit like a lawyer really. If there are engineerng issues, then ask an engineer.
I take your point about reporters being non experts, but I think that if you look, the good ones are knowledgeable and some papers/tv stations even go so far as to hire/keep on as consultants those wo were outstanding in their field but have since retired (thinking of military experts here).
"...get help to find something more worthwhile to do with his time."
??
How much help do you need to teach you not to be an arsehole? If you haven't learned through the usual persuasive techniques by the age of 20, then a spell in the big house might be a much needed wakeup call.
Because while you may end up with a superbaby, all the really crappy genes left over will make Danny DeVito.
Hasn't Hollywood taught you anything!
I wonder if William Shatner does a version of it?
Only if he used the special uni-directional amplifier cables. A snip at $10 grand/metre.
Step 1. Ban mass emailings.
We did this at work, and it cut down on a WHOLE lot of crap (Betty Smith from second floor is leaving us after tolerating this place for 10 years...).
2. Appoint key personnel as "gatekeepers" with the ability to mass email. Any mass email requests go to them.
3. Set up target mass email groups, in this case "lawyers", "secretaries", "everyone on floor 20" etc.
I know that by "abusing" you meant "throwing" but I couldn't help but think of Ballmer humping it.
Now my brain is dirty.
If your kid calls Timbuktu, you will be invoiced for the call as per your toll call plan current at the time of the call.
That's the difference. The kid's calling on a service that the PARENT arranged to have. In this case, can a parent be liable for what a kid does by signing up for a service when they legally can't sign contracts?
I'm scuttlemonkey and so is my wife!
But a big concern is that many artists don't actually KNOW what they're signing up for. I've talked to a lot of artists lately who thought that CC-C-SA was the best thing since three-buttoned mice, but also had this crazy notion that it somehow required Sony to pay you royalties if they pressed 10 million copies of your CD and sold it all over the world.
These people would have trouble tying their own shoelaces. They need a manager.
No problemo, there is a "no commercial use" type of Creative Commons licence available.
To quote them:"Offering your work under a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any taker, and only on certain conditions."
And specifically, you can choose as part of your licencing conditions: "Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work and derivative works based upon it but for noncommercial purposes only.
Examples: Gus publishes his photograph with a Noncommercial license. Camille incorporates a piece of Gus's image into a collage poster. Camille is not allowed to sell her collage poster without Gus's permission."
Linky
CC licencing was created (I think) to bridge the gap between the full copyright laws and the public domain. It enables people who want to have a bit of fun with something (music, writing, graphics etc)to be able to release it into the wild with some re-use provisos attached.No-one gives a shit about Ogg playback except for people here.
/.ers knew the rio had Ogg playback and were deeply grateful, they all bought one, right? They didn't? They bought an iPod?? Well, looks like no-one at all gives a shit about Ogg.
Since the
As for the other features, well they were lost in a sea of also-rans. Sorry.
Me, I've got a smaller collection that fits on my 40gb, but not for long. Certainly not when I figure out how to glom our collections together...
How hard could that be. I mean, it's not rocket science...
I didn't know whether to mod you up or report you :-)
/. or kudos with the FBI. Decisions, decisions...
:-)
Hmmm, karma on
Oh, expect a knock at the door sometime soon. HAND
Derryn Hinch?
Ubiquitous piracy made Microsoft Windows big
And I thought it was MS charging PC makers a licence fee for every PC sold regardless of the installed OS that made MS Windows big. After all, if you have to pay for it you may as well include it...
For example, a motor insurance company looks for genetic factors that lead drivers to speed and, as a result, have accidents. The genetic factors are found, a certain combination implying a tendency to that kind of recklessness.
That'd be the Y chromosome, activated between 17 and 25 years of age.
In this corner of the world, I can cut down any branches that encroach on my land. My neighbour doesn't have to unless there's safety issues. I can drop the cutoff branches onto my neighbour's land because he still owns them.
If a neighbour's tree's roots are causing damage, I think they are required to rectify that.
Summary:
Neighbour's branches -> my problem
Neighbour's roots -> their problem.
Neither the military, nor government agencies have been able to make major infrastructural changes in our country.
The aqueduct?
I thought Mushroom Records were the holdouts.
:-)
Sony, hey. Bastards. I want my OzTMS and I want it now. And a vPod
I think posting pictures of someone with the statement "this person is a scab and is taking your job - it would be really bad if something happened to him at his house which is 123 Evergreen Tce" is a bit different to having a picture of someone with a descriptive caption.
Note: the website in question DID NOT do this, I was using this as an example of why a picture on a web site isn't necessarily just a picture on a website.
Oh, the Grammar Nazi says the word is "sought", not "seaked".