No, it's fairly well understood now. It's called a cytokine storm which is basically a positive feedback system for people with good immune systems. The immune system gets 'too good' and kills the patient.
Currently difficult to treat. Potentially it could get much more amenable to treatment although it would likely need sophisticated biopharmaceuticals and as such, would be ill suited to treat a pandemic. .
Settle down dude. Don't you think that if this was viable then the CDC (or it's equivalent in other countries) would wrap themselves around it? You cannot use the greedy Big Pharma excuse for everything you know. Sometimes difficult is just that.
I've been brought to understand that people with large stocks of supplies have been required to register their stockpiles with the government so they can be drawn on by the general community if something were to happen. In other words, yes, you have two years worth of rations stockpiled, yes something happens and then the government comes in and confiscates it for the general good. Usually so that the joint chiefs, the congress, the senate and the executive branch are not inconvenienced while the useless eaters starve to death.
????
Speaking of Middle Earth - where the Hell do you live?
Instead of the silly and largely useless fake antiviral treatments, shave your beard*, stock up on N95 masks and get a whole bunch of soap.
Wash you hands, take lots of showers, wash your clothes and stay in your basement. You'll be fine.
* N95 masks work well except for persons with facial hair. You need full face hoods if you want to keep the whiskers. Those are expensive and very uncomfortable (I've tried them). Shave it off, it'll grow back.
2% die, but 4% barely live thru ICU support, 8% need less than ICU but major hospital, 16% need hospital, etc. etc. A 2% fatality rate in an epidemic disease would be far more crippling than you think
This. Our medical system is not designed to have a significant amount of the population needing medical help. Figure, in a city of 100,000 there are perhaps 1500 hospital beds (1.5% of the population, that's generous but not unheard of in the US). Most hospitals run 80% full, so you have a couple hundred open beds on any given day. Add another 2% of the population, a pretty small number for a pandemic and you've swamped the system right there. Critical care is even worse, in the given mythical town there are perhaps 100 ICU beds. Smaller towns will get clobbered fast and most large cities can run up to 95 - 105% capacity most days (especially the ER).
For the past decade most hospitals have drilled this sort of scenario - most places can handle it with enough backup from the outside (mostly FEMA and military). If the problem was widespread, like a real pandemic, you're toast.
Should mention that MOST human bacterial pneumonia is resistant to penicillin. Not a bad choice if it's the only thing you've got. Be sure to stock on the vet grade erythromycin and TMP/SMX (Bactrim, sulfa).
Don't waste your time on Tamiflu - not very effective.
I'm sick of these NSA stories. They're doing their job. I'm pretty sure terrorists and spies used credit cards so it is probably important for the President and other national security personnel to know what they are buying.
What? You want Slashdot to put up another Apple story? This is refreshing (and all tingly scary like).
Man, that's got to be the most boring job on the planet. Watching the insides of butt cheeks for weeks until you open the wallet, stuff the bill in the pop machine and then watching the inside of the machine for another week. Maybe a tiny glimpse of the hot bank teller for a sec until - back in the box.
And this is important, how? Are you harboring thoughts of overthrowing the regime?
While I think the NSA has totally blown it's wad and the current effort at security-through-haystack-searching will turn out to be a failure on multiple levels, being part of the statistical noise is likely the best way of being ignored. Jumping up and doing something different is likely to get the magnetometer ramped up on your little spot of Paradise.
The last great US flu epidemic only killed so many because of the crude state of medicine at the time and uneven sanitation in large U.S. cities. Even a virulent flu would be unlikely to rack up such a death toll in a first world nation.
That's correct. Instead of a 3-5% mortality rate they're expecting a 2% (TFA) rate.
And why is that? I would be more comforted in the head of the NSA was overlooking a sea of cubes. That would mean that they have some reason to try to increase efficiency, to economize, to avoid wasting money and acting like giant imbeciles.
Hell, if he was spending on hookers and blow I could give him some wiggle room.
But Star Trek, come on. He doesn't even have photon torpedoes. How lame is that?
Yes. However, your greasy fingerprint on the phone can't be stolen remotely from the other side of the planet like the biometric one can.
That said, it's not terribly useful to steal the identifier string stored on the phone since it won't allow you to reconstruct the print any more than a MD5 checksum will permit you to reconstruct the file it is from. What it would do, though, is allow a third party to steal the checksum and then use it with other biometric devices to identify when that same user has come in contact with a different device under the third-party's control. I can't think of a good scenario right now, where that's likely to be an issue. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that systems won't evolve in the future that could make it a problem.
There are ALWAYS downsides to security issues. It's how security consultants make money.
But unless Apple opens up the internals of how it processes and stores the data, I don't think it will have any generic utility. It's NOT a fingerprint copier. It uses (presumably) unique biometric information to create a (presumably) unique electronic signal to allow access to a device. You can (presumably) erase / clear the memory so the information is no where else, thus bypassing another problem with biometrics - you can't easily change your fingerprints.
I'm not sure it will work well, I've used a number of fingerprint scanners before ranging from the frankly stupid (on a number of laptops) to pretty good implementations on spendy locks. Presumably Apple will Do It Right(TM), but who knows?
Slashdot Mirror
No, it's fairly well understood now. It's called a cytokine storm which is basically a positive feedback system for people with good immune systems. The immune system gets 'too good' and kills the patient.
Currently difficult to treat. Potentially it could get much more amenable to treatment although it would likely need sophisticated biopharmaceuticals and as such, would be ill suited to treat a pandemic.
.
Settle down dude. Don't you think that if this was viable then the CDC (or it's equivalent in other countries) would wrap themselves around it? You cannot use the greedy Big Pharma excuse for everything you know. Sometimes difficult is just that.
I've been brought to understand that people with large stocks of supplies have been required to register their stockpiles with the government so they can be drawn on by the general community if something were to happen. In other words, yes, you have two years worth of rations stockpiled, yes something happens and then the government comes in and confiscates it for the general good. Usually so that the joint chiefs, the congress, the senate and the executive branch are not inconvenienced while the useless eaters starve to death.
????
Speaking of Middle Earth - where the Hell do you live?
Instead of the silly and largely useless fake antiviral treatments, shave your beard*, stock up on N95 masks and get a whole bunch of soap.
Wash you hands, take lots of showers, wash your clothes and stay in your basement. You'll be fine.
* N95 masks work well except for persons with facial hair. You need full face hoods if you want to keep the whiskers. Those are expensive and very uncomfortable (I've tried them). Shave it off, it'll grow back.
2% die, but 4% barely live thru ICU support, 8% need less than ICU but major hospital, 16% need hospital, etc. etc. A 2% fatality rate in an epidemic disease would be far more crippling than you think
This. Our medical system is not designed to have a significant amount of the population needing medical help. Figure, in a city of 100,000 there are perhaps 1500 hospital beds (1.5% of the population, that's generous but not unheard of in the US). Most hospitals run 80% full, so you have a couple hundred open beds on any given day. Add another 2% of the population, a pretty small number for a pandemic and you've swamped the system right there. Critical care is even worse, in the given mythical town there are perhaps 100 ICU beds. Smaller towns will get clobbered fast and most large cities can run up to 95 - 105% capacity most days (especially the ER).
For the past decade most hospitals have drilled this sort of scenario - most places can handle it with enough backup from the outside (mostly FEMA and military). If the problem was widespread, like a real pandemic, you're toast.
Should mention that MOST human bacterial pneumonia is resistant to penicillin. Not a bad choice if it's the only thing you've got. Be sure to stock on the vet grade erythromycin and TMP/SMX (Bactrim, sulfa).
Don't waste your time on Tamiflu - not very effective.
Oh, and wash your hands.
Figured that out all by yourself, didja?
Note to self: do NOT be visiting the US during a pandemic of any kind.
Note to AC: Pandemics are a poor time to visit anything but the insides of your bellybutton.
I'm sick of these NSA stories. They're doing their job. I'm pretty sure terrorists and spies used credit cards so it is probably important for the President and other national security personnel to know what they are buying.
What? You want Slashdot to put up another Apple story? This is refreshing (and all tingly scary like).
You guys are confusing the NSA and the FBI.
They're on a different mail stop.
Man, that's got to be the most boring job on the planet. Watching the insides of butt cheeks for weeks until you open the wallet, stuff the bill in the pop machine and then watching the inside of the machine for another week. Maybe a tiny glimpse of the hot bank teller for a sec until - back in the box.
Please stop making sense. It's disturbing to the rest of us.
Well, sucks to be you then.
And this is important, how? Are you harboring thoughts of overthrowing the regime?
While I think the NSA has totally blown it's wad and the current effort at security-through-haystack-searching will turn out to be a failure on multiple levels, being part of the statistical noise is likely the best way of being ignored. Jumping up and doing something different is likely to get the magnetometer ramped up on your little spot of Paradise.
Ack! My head asplode. I tried to read more of the TFA --
[REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]
(I'd go further except I think I'm going to hit the lameness filter soon.)
What I find scary is the TFA:
"The first priority of DOD support in the event of a PI is [REDACTED]".
OK guys, just what exactly are you up to?
The last great US flu epidemic only killed so many because of the crude state of medicine at the time and uneven sanitation in large U.S. cities. Even a virulent flu would be unlikely to rack up such a death toll in a first world nation.
That's correct. Instead of a 3-5% mortality rate they're expecting a 2% (TFA) rate.
Progress as promised!
And why is that? I would be more comforted in the head of the NSA was overlooking a sea of cubes. That would mean that they have some reason to try to increase efficiency, to economize, to avoid wasting money and acting like giant imbeciles.
Hell, if he was spending on hookers and blow I could give him some wiggle room.
But Star Trek, come on. He doesn't even have photon torpedoes. How lame is that?
We ALL wear red shirts.
I'll bet they don't levitate, like the ones in the 'picture'.
Now that's tech.
That headline fills me with unease. Sounds vaguely improper.
Maybe I'm just getting old but in my days, children were simply never verbed. It isn't polite.
Sure, raising your body's pH to 12 (Clorox level) would prevent cancer.
And a lot of other things.
If you're that paranoid, don't use a cell phone. Madre de Dios folks, cell phones ARE NOT SECURE. They never will be.
Yes. However, your greasy fingerprint on the phone can't be stolen remotely from the other side of the planet like the biometric one can.
That said, it's not terribly useful to steal the identifier string stored on the phone since it won't allow you to reconstruct the print any more than a MD5 checksum will permit you to reconstruct the file it is from. What it would do, though, is allow a third party to steal the checksum and then use it with other biometric devices to identify when that same user has come in contact with a different device under the third-party's control. I can't think of a good scenario right now, where that's likely to be an issue. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that systems won't evolve in the future that could make it a problem.
There are ALWAYS downsides to security issues. It's how security consultants make money.
But unless Apple opens up the internals of how it processes and stores the data, I don't think it will have any generic utility. It's NOT a fingerprint copier. It uses (presumably) unique biometric information to create a (presumably) unique electronic signal to allow access to a device. You can (presumably) erase / clear the memory so the information is no where else, thus bypassing another problem with biometrics - you can't easily change your fingerprints.
I'm not sure it will work well, I've used a number of fingerprint scanners before ranging from the frankly stupid (on a number of laptops) to pretty good implementations on spendy locks. Presumably Apple will Do It Right(TM), but who knows?
What filters?