'My aorta was dilating all through that period,' said Golesworthy. 'When you've got the scalpel of Damocles hanging over your sternum, it motivates you into making things happen and so they do...to me it seemed like a ridiculously obvious solution. The only way to do this was with CAD and RP. It shouldn't have taken an engineer to realise that, but it did.'
The trouble with it years back was was that it had the potential to be very good while you were out and about and had access to some sort of mobile computing device.
But it was a bit before people had the hardware to really use the site. Sitting behind a beige box really sucked the fun out of it.
Potentially it could be very good now that smart phones and tablets are very common. We have the hardware now to create the interface that Douglas Adams envisaged.
It is quite a deep wide ranging site from what I remember. It could be great fun with the right people designing the site. Hard to see how it would work financially unless you could get some support from places and events and people included in the guide.
It would be a bit more subtle than raw adverts in your face and spoiling the experience.
your personal cms is just another thing to check who really needs another site to load?
Facebook does let you keep track of your friends around the world and allows you to get involved or not as you please. That's pretty much the use of Facebook.
Oh and it keeps me updated with the latest stories on slashdot.
I really don't understand the monetary value of Facebook or perhaps I am too good at ignoring adverts. I guess it doesn't really matter if anyone takes notice of the ads as long as companies believe they are getting something by throwing money at Facebook.
tablets are nice for media players basic web browsing and hacking the hell out of it:)
The battery life is pretty good 7 hours of video or 42 hours of music on mine. I can hook it up to an amp and stream from my nas using wifi. I can use it for documentation without switching between displays.
It's not as useful as my netbook really but handy to read a book before I drop off to sleep. Netbook is pretty lousy for that.
a seven inch screen is big enough there is usb host but most retailers won't stock the cable.
I think for a first tablet you shouldn't pay too much and find one which is easy to hack with a community round it.
i've played round with the iPod touch it feels great but the screens too small for me and I don't really want to take a sledge hammer to the walled garden.
The galaxy tab is too much money even thou its very nice.
Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001
9.--(1) A person who dishonestly, whether within or outside the State, operates or causes to be operated a computer within the State with the intention of making a gain for himself or herself or another, or of causing loss to another, is guilty of an offence.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both.
I had a laptop brought to me because a friend thought her husband how she was divorcing had done something to it. I found a keylogger installed, working and password protected after some googling i found a way round the password and got access to the encripted logs which had credit card info passwords to email and other accounts.From what i could tell it looked like it had been running for nearly 2 years. It was a free version but the paid version could email an account with the days log files. It could also be set to uninstall on a particular date.
Now the irish law says for gain (not financial gain just to someones advantage) and he had used emails she had written in his divorce petition pretty much incriminating himself and in violition of this law.
Now obviously I performed this investigation with her consent in fact at her request. that consent can be withdrawn at any time is obvious. for example if somebody consents to sex with you once, it doesn't mean consent is given forever, and that if consent is withdrawn and you persist then its rape, married or not.
The idea that marriage means complete openness is crazy, there is always some things held back and when a marriage is on the rocks more so on both sides. I guess divorce is a thorny issue at this time of year because often there is a lets get christmas over and start divorce proceedings in the new year. When you lose respect for your partner and their privacy your marriage is all but over and you can not assume you have your partners consent just because your technically still married.
A wife isn't a possession and you do not have a right to do as you please with her. obviously this works both ways. That you might present credentials to convince someone that you are acting on behalf of your wife does not mean you are not presenting these fraudulently and it seems obvious that its without her consent when it is used against her.
Easyshare camera's are a range of camera's with a wide range of specifications. I don't think you can write off all models of easyshare camera's.
The easyshare is just a feature that allows you to upload pictures straight from the camera probably related to the patent in question. Since the camera is just a mass storage device to a pc easyshare is just a piece of software and unrelated to the camera hardware as such.
My camera has been pretty good so far it's not excellent, but for a point and shoot i'm happy with it. So saying I wouldn't buy Kodak goods after this little episode. I don't like patent trolls.
Of course we are animals but you are really the one making a distinction between the human animal and the rest of the animal kingdom. Many animals eat other animals and will even eat animals of their own species.
Of course we generally don't eat our own species but it happens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571 and the people eaten were the friends and relatives of the people doing the eating the alternative was to die. I wonder if you were in the same circumstances would you remain vegan?
Your slavery comments are interesting but slavery goes back thousands of years and is not colour based Africans and Arabs were selling slaves long before western Europeans came to Africa.
Slavery has never really gone away it is just presented differently.
"Would you agree it would always be unethical to kill another human we didnt know to take his or her organ/s? I think most would."
What if that person was on death row for some horrible crimes could we take his organs then? A mass murderer giving life to others seems almost karmic.
Death isn't a terrible thing once it's happened it's over done. The only problem with death is when and how. we don't want to be in drawn out pain and most of us don't want it now.
Since I had a heart attack there is a 50% chance of dying in the next 6 to 8 years, I don't aim for that to occur and year 1 is the worst thats 25% the stats are scary 30 out of 100 die when they have a first heart attack of the 70 left 17-18 will die within the year. Death gets very real when your trying to drag yourself to an A&E department when you have a coronary artery 97% blocked. that was the 2nd time i got close. Fear is the worst thing about dying but it does finish once you are dead and so does the pain and suffering. Let me just say it took some adjustment for me to get used to the idea of having a reduced life expectancy.
To take molly for example if I didn't choose to bring her inside feed her keep her warm, then she would probably be dead already or suffering. She doesn't seem to be in pain so her quality of life seems reasonable and compared to the average chicken she has got it made.
But if she was suffering it would be best if i killed her rather than her be in pain.
I don't think I know what I would do in a violent situation, I know, because sometimes somebody has to do something and I know I have done what needed to be done on several occasions.
I'm not going to stop eating meat but that doesn't mean I don't care about the well being of animals, any animals including the human animal. I guess you see a happy pig and think about its death and how it will be killed, me I see a happy pig and the pig is happy enough and death tends to be a short lived surprise. Most animals live in the now they don't think about tomorrow or yesterday.
I've got chickens too, one of them a Bantam is in a bit of a bad way being the smallest she has been bullied by some of the other bigger birds. I've moved her out so she has a chance to rest and recuperate it is unfortunate but that is the way with chickens they can be pretty horrible to their compatriots.
There is very much a quality of life for all animals, including humans and you must admit there are animals living in better conditions than humans.
You obviously look after your chickens but why can't you give similar credit to farmers obviously standards of care vary from excellent to very poor indeed.
There is a cycle of life and there is compromise, there has to be. I guess in some ways I'm very different from you. I don't kill all my own meat and fish but I do some. It is important to me not to cause needless suffering which is why I will make a death as quick and pain free as possible. You see I think if you are going to eat meat then you should be prepared to kill it and butcher it too. It's more respectful and you appreciate the cost more.
It is good to have strong beliefs, but I really think you should concentrate more on the worst abusers such as smithfield. I don't know if you are a parent but what would you sacrifice for your children. If an animal which was bred and engineered to provide a life saving organ which your child needed would you refuse it and let your child die?
To be honest if my child needed an organ and my body could give it , I would and if an animal could provide the needed organ i'd use that animal organ first.
I find it hard to comprehend why you think it is so bad for these pigs to be used in this manner.
Given the choice between the life of a pig and the life of say one of your children which would you choose?
I've no problem with you choosing to minimise your own effect on animals, and there are alternatives to animal products in a lot of cases but you need to be realistic. Before I became diabetic I used to give blood regularly up to 3 pints a year usually. That blood was used to help save lives and I really didn't have a problem with giving up part of me in order to save lives and yes if there are any organs fit to be used when I die then let them be used too. I've also chosen to be used in the past to test new drug treatments for HIV so I have no issues with pigs being used too.
The pigs are cultivated and only exist because of their potential usefulness for transplants. For a pig they actually have a better life than most animals possibly a better quality of life than many people around the world today. You really have to compromise at some level because logically the only way to avoid having a negative effect on the world is not to live at all. However it is probably better to make a positive impact on the world as far as it is possible.
I'm not wanting to force you to consume animal products that is as daft as forcing me to drive a suv so i use more fuel but surely you can see that living at all is a compromise and that if you want to help pigs then try helping some of the animals that are intensively factory farmed. Google Smithfield and i think you will see that the pigs being raised for transplant are living in a comparative paradise.
I inject twice a day into the sides of my stomach usually if i struggle to find a good spot on one side then the other side is usually pain free.
I'm a type II and it sucks but I really wouldn't want to be a type I, people seem to think its pretty easy living with diabetes and also don't see how it effects our quality and length of life. Which would make it easier to choose a needle in the nuts in order to live a normal life. Would prefer not to have to do that but if it made diabetes go away even for a few months at a time it might be worth it.
Interesting idea, but then wouldn't this show up in pre diabetics an over production of insulin would be detectable before the beta cells began to fail? If too much insulin was produced then wouldn't there be abnormally low blood sugar counts?
However I think i'm right in thinking that when someone is diagnosed as type 2 they are not producing enough insulin to maintain healthy levels.
"On October 19, 2007, Taubes appeared on Larry King Live to discuss his book. Although Taubes has no formal training in nutrition or medicine, his book was praised as "raising interesting and valuable points" by Dr. Andrew Weil, a believer of alternative medicine, while Dr. Mehmet Oz and trainer Jillian Michaels who appeared on the same program disagreed with Taubes on many questions"
I would agree with some of his stand carbs are pretty much as bad as sugars for diabetics and they seem to be out of proportion for diabetics if not the general population. But i'm no doctor but i think the more green stuff in your diet the better you will be for it.
I doubt if it would actually require multiple injections on a daily basis that is if it needed repeating regularly.
A controlled insulin release would lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, blindness, amputations, nerve damage erectile dysfunction and randomly dying in your sleep. plus minor advantages such as better energy levels and a less reactive digestive system. Plus the cost of maintaining healthy insulin levels would probably be cheaper since your body is now producing the needed insulin and plus the added bonus of a longer healthy life where you might actually see retirement and your grand children.
Type 2 diabetics tend to not produce enough insulin and historically would eventually need insulin shots which makes me think if it was successful it would be used for type 2's at some point. On the positive side there are other options such as byetta for type 2 diabetics which may preserve the beta cells and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Of course there are increased risks of other body functions failing one drug Avandia was recently banned in Europe because of increased risk of heart disease, at the time of the ban there was around 100,000 people being proscribed Avandia in the UK alone. I believe its still available in the USA since it had been approved by the FDA but it's use is now discouraged.
Modern treatment for type 1 diabetics is to wear an insulin pump which constantly monitors and adjusts the insulin feed. Injecting isn't the big deal its control, getting the dosage right. It's not that difficult to find injection sites which are pain free.
I hope now you can see that being injected in the balls isn't that big a deal if the procedure leads to a normal insulin response. One of the problems with diabetes is that the damage of bad control isn't immediately visible and maintaining good control is very hard.
It would be nice if insulin shots actually solved the problem of type 1 diabetes but it doesn't it just slows the rate of damage such that you might get a normal length life but there are type 1 diabetics who die before reaching 30 even doing the right things.
Do you decide on what you do based on your own moral compass or because you know you will be caught? With an all seeing God you will be caught every time. I don't think it makes you a good person if you choose one act over the alternative due to the fear of burning in hell for eternity.
For 2 i don't think it matters how god does his accounting if you knew would it change what you do? Fear of punishment doesn't make you a better person.
So really if there was a god, revealing themselves might make people stick to his rules but it wouldn't make better people.
Which really is where Marcus hits the point straight on if we have free will then it is our own choices which make us good or bad people (if we don't have free will then why punish us for doing things we had no choice in).
So if there is a god, then if he is just he will let us go to heaven and if he isn't just then we should willingly go to hell. So in this life we should try to do the best we can because if we don't what is the point of even being born.
Ok so maybe there is no point but we can at least make the effort to change the world in a positive way. I want to die feeling like I made a difference with my life, I don't care to make it into history books or my contributions to be remembered by other people but the world is a little better for me being born anyway. I certainly hope that my positive contributions out weigh the negative ones I have made.
Thanks for posting that, I have never heard that before, I came to the same conclusion many years ago and try to be a fair and decent person.
Last year I had a heart attack and as I was in the ambulance with the sirens and blue lights going I knew I might well die. I wasn't really afraid of dying but I did feel it was too soon I wanted to see the kids grown up, married and with children of their own.
I also am a huge fan of morphine, it doesn't so much stop pain as take away the fear of death. It gives you the calm to accept what will be will be. You don't fear for your own fate but feel for your loved ones and the upset they feel for you being so close to death. I also remember the priest coming round to see me and he asked me religion? I said not yet. I really don't feel like it is time for me.
The first year after my heart attack was tough, the statistics are frightening 30% of people who have a first heart attack die before reaching a hospital of the 70% left 50% will die within 6 to 8 years and in the first year you have a 25% chance of dying in the following years it drops to about 3% everybody has a chance of dying but its about 1.5% so now although my chances are raised I don't feel like its that much higher. Year one was depressing I was constantly thinking about my health and didn't feel like I had a future.
Now I just want to get back on track and find a job and live a happy life doing something with somebody I love. I'm really grateful for my medical treatment and thanks to the irish health service I was treated for free and pay a nominal amount for my meds. Just hope there is someone who will take me on doing something.
"With her under anesthesia, they just took this small piece of her tumor, without her knowing, and they put it in a dish and sent it down the hall to George Guy, who was the head of tissue culture research at Hopkins," said Skloot. "He had been trying to grow human cells for decades, and it had never worked. And hers just took off."
"We know, mechanically, that the cells stay alive because they have this enzyme in them that rebuilds the ends of their chromosomes, so the cells just never get old, they don't die," Skloot said. "But why her cells did that when all the other cells didn't is still a little bit of a mystery."
. "To tick off all the way HeLa cells have been used, we would be sitting here for weeks," Skloot told Axelrod. "Hundreds and thousands of studies. They were used to help test the polio vaccine so that it could be approved for use in people. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Hers were the first cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They've been used to create some of our basic cancer drugs, like tomaxiphin.
"When you look at this in the context of the family story, you know, at 25 years after her death, not only were her cells still alive, but there were enough of them that if you could pile them all on a scale, they'd weigh 50 million metric tons," Skloot said. "That's 150 Empire State Buildings. You know, it's just inconceivable that that could even be true, and it was."
That's quite something but there's a darker side to this
"Is there any way to calculate how much money has been made off of Henrietta Lacks' cells?" Axelrod asked.
"No. They were the first cells ever commercialized, and that was in the 1950s," said Skloot. "You know, you can buy online HeLa cells or products made from HeLa cells for anywhere from about $200 to about $10,000 a vial."
"But it's an incalculable amount of money?" Axelrod asked.
"Yeah," said Skloot.
And consider this: The family of the woman whose cells changed medical history . . . can't afford health insurance.
Henrietta's middle child, Sonny, is $100,000 in debt after bypass surgery.
Henrietta died eight months after the cells were taken and buried in an unmarked grave and it is undeniable that there is a huge industry that has been built on her cells so why shouldn't there be some recognition of her contribution to medical science and perhaps at least some medical coverage for her immediate family?
How many of us wouldn't be here without the medical developments that have come from the testing on her cells? it just doesn't feel right that there has been nothing given back to her family. Legally perhaps nothing is owed but morally surely the family should get something.
The interesting part of where some works stand is the copyright law where the copying occurred, Since in some area's copyright may have expired where in others it still stands. The grey area in the USA is when copyright renewal may or may not have occurred which could effect the copyright status in the USA.
If the copyright is still valid where you live then you should respect the copyright status in your country and not download it or face the consequences which sadly means suing the same people who are some of the authors biggest fans.
In one case linked the magazine story later became the first half of a later novel. I assume the novel is clearly not in the public domain even if the first half is. Surely if you got to read the first half you would want to go further and read the second half, if it was any good, which would result in the copyright holder getting some money for this novel?
You are being ridiculous in no way are burning a persons business and a dos attack in any way comparable. I struggle to even see the economic damage caused to Sony and the like from this sort of attack. Online music sales are made on Amazon and iTunes not really on the corporate sites of record companies.
I don't even see what a DOS attack demonstrates other than the ability to control a botnet or that there might be a few thousand (at most) people prepared to demonstrate on line.
If a Dos attack was to be in any way effective then the online retailers would have to be attacked until they withdrew for example Sony's products from their sites and even then it is unlikely to have that much effect on Sony. Even Sony's root kit didn't do that much damage to their sales or removing the other OS from PS3's.
Multi million dollar fines and forcing a free country to change its laws are outlandish but realistically not enough people care to be able to make a difference.
you might find this interesting http://vision.1828-dictionary.com/_files/Noah_Webster_1858.pdf its not the full dictionary but the preface in which Noah websters successful campaign to extend copyright is mentioned and advertisement is spelt with an s
This book,written in 1845 recording cases argued in English courts, uses realise, which suggests British usage going back at least 165 years Noah Webster had realize in his first edition of his dictionary in 1828.
It's beyond reason to think that realise is a recent British invention and far more likely that realize originates in the USA and as its in the 1828 Webster dictionary it is certainly Webster that formally wrote it with a z. Going by Websters self admitted changes in spelling he probably did this word too. The examples commonly quoted are mentioned in the preface of the dictionary.
The best I can find is a English adoption of the French original dates back to 1605 - 1615. So earlier examples of realise / realize should exist.
Realise is the correct spelling in the Queens English (as I originally asserted) and is recorded as being in use in her courts in 1843, when the case recorded came to court.
Realise derives from the French réaliser, which wasn't spelled with a z. It entered the English language in the early 17th century and meant "to bring into existence". If we want to get rid of the changes realise has undergone, realize must be considered incorrect and the meaning 'to understand' is also wrong as realise didn't have that meaning in those early days.
you are confusing a variation in British spelling with the variation between British and American English. The -ize ending is a variant of British English spelling preferred by the Oxford University Press (and I believe until recent years by The Times). Hence it appears as the first choice in the OALD mentioned in an earlier post. The whole issue is summarised in Wikipedia under "Oxford Spelling".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling (for further reading) note Oxford university press English is different to British English.
Slowly, edition by edition, Webster changed the spelling of words, making them "Americanized." He chose s over c in words like defense, he changed the re to er in words like center, and he dropped one of the Ls in traveler. At first he kept the u in words like colour or favour but dropped it in later editions. He also changed "tongue" to "tung," an innovation that never caught on. Scudder 1881, pp, 245-252.
As a consequence of English being exported by the British Empire in most parts of the world British spelling is commonly used. It would be interesting to see which spelling Noah Webster originally used in his first edition.
Maybe you do not realize that realise is the correct spelling in the Queens English unlike the bastardised version used in the United States of America. American English spelling was the invention of Noah Webster. Coincidentally, "Politician Daniel Webster was Noah Webster's cousin. As a senator, Daniel sponsored Noah's proposed copyright bill. The first major statutory revision of U.S. copyright law, the 1831 Act was a result of intensive lobbying by Noah Webster and his agents in Congress."
So it seems that Noah Webster, is responsible for the corruption of the English Language, American Copyright and was one of the first to be corrupting American Government changing from for the people by the people to for the lobbied interests of American business.
Perhaps it is time to push back against the influence of Noah Webster in American society since clearly he has been a negative influence for the last 200 years or so.
Without Noah Webster would the United States, indeed the World have been a better place? Would the RIAA be in existence and protesting journals freedom to write about subjects which run counter to the RIAA's interests.
did you read the wikipedia article? you pay for the card you pay to get money of the card and pay even more if the card breaks. the company running the card have both sold users information and taken money from users bank accounts. As a travel pass its good just for avoiding queuing for tickets. As a replacement for cash not so good.
Slashdot Mirror
You missed this quote
'My aorta was dilating all through that period,' said Golesworthy. 'When you've got the scalpel of Damocles hanging over your sternum, it motivates you into making things happen and so they do...to me it seemed like a ridiculously obvious solution. The only way to do this was with CAD and RP. It shouldn't have taken an engineer to realise that, but it did.'
Read more: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/analysis/uk-engineer-develops-own-life-saving-implant/1006877.article#ixzz1CE3SD5am
That's really putting your life on the line, you don't see bravery like that very often.
I also quite like the code which took the quote and links back to the original article with a standard copy and paste
The trouble with it years back was was that it had the potential to be very good while you were out and about and had access to some sort of mobile computing device.
But it was a bit before people had the hardware to really use the site. Sitting behind a beige box really sucked the fun out of it.
Potentially it could be very good now that smart phones and tablets are very common. We have the hardware now to create the interface that Douglas Adams envisaged.
It is quite a deep wide ranging site from what I remember. It could be great fun with the right people designing the site. Hard to see how it would work financially unless you could get some support from places and events and people included in the guide.
It would be a bit more subtle than raw adverts in your face and spoiling the experience.
requires android 2.2 and flash 10.1
maybe gordon might help
http://paulirish.com/work/gordon/demos/
If you use facebook yahoo can get your contacts out into a csv file and then import them into google contacts.
that could be useful.
your personal cms is just another thing to check who really needs another site to load?
Facebook does let you keep track of your friends around the world and allows you to get involved or not as you please. That's pretty much the use of Facebook.
Oh and it keeps me updated with the latest stories on slashdot.
I really don't understand the monetary value of Facebook or perhaps I am too good at ignoring adverts.
I guess it doesn't really matter if anyone takes notice of the ads as long as companies believe they are getting something by throwing money at Facebook.
tablets are nice for media players basic web browsing and hacking the hell out of it :)
The battery life is pretty good 7 hours of video or 42 hours of music on mine. I can hook it up to an amp and stream from my nas using wifi. I can use it for documentation without switching between displays.
It's not as useful as my netbook really but handy to read a book before I drop off to sleep. Netbook is pretty lousy for that.
a seven inch screen is big enough there is usb host but most retailers won't stock the cable.
I think for a first tablet you shouldn't pay too much and find one which is easy to hack with a community round it.
i've played round with the iPod touch it feels great but the screens too small for me and I don't really want to take a sledge hammer to the walled garden.
The galaxy tab is too much money even thou its very nice.
cheap hacking fun , love it :)
In Ireland it could be,
Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001
9.--(1) A person who dishonestly, whether within or outside the State, operates or causes to be operated a computer within the State with the intention of making a gain for himself or herself or another, or of causing loss to another, is guilty of an offence.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both.
I had a laptop brought to me because a friend thought her husband how she was divorcing had done something to it. I found a keylogger installed, working and password protected after some googling i found a way round the password and got access to the encripted logs which had credit card info passwords to email and other accounts.From what i could tell it looked like it had been running for nearly 2 years. It was a free version but the paid version could email an account with the days log files. It could also be set to uninstall on a particular date.
Now the irish law says for gain (not financial gain just to someones advantage) and he had used emails she had written in his divorce petition pretty much incriminating himself and in violition of this law.
Now obviously I performed this investigation with her consent in fact at her request.
that consent can be withdrawn at any time is obvious. for example if somebody consents to sex with you once, it doesn't mean consent is given forever, and that if consent is withdrawn and you persist then its rape, married or not.
The idea that marriage means complete openness is crazy, there is always some things held back and when a marriage is on the rocks more so on both sides. I guess divorce is a thorny issue at this time of year because often there is a lets get christmas over and start divorce proceedings in the new year. When you lose respect for your partner and their privacy your marriage is all but over and you can not assume you have your partners consent just because your technically still married.
A wife isn't a possession and you do not have a right to do as you please with her. obviously this works both ways. That you might present credentials to convince someone that you are acting on behalf of your wife does not mean you are not presenting these fraudulently and it seems obvious that its without her consent when it is used against her.
Easyshare camera's are a range of camera's with a wide range of specifications. I don't think you can write off all models of easyshare camera's.
The easyshare is just a feature that allows you to upload pictures straight from the camera probably related to the patent in question. Since the camera is just a mass storage device to a pc easyshare is just a piece of software and unrelated to the camera hardware as such.
My camera has been pretty good so far it's not excellent, but for a point and shoot i'm happy with it. So saying I wouldn't buy Kodak goods after this little episode. I don't like patent trolls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqliklVgNWE little video of my bullied bantam enjoying an evening by the fire.
Of course we are animals but you are really the one making a distinction between the human animal and the rest of the animal kingdom. Many animals eat other animals and will even eat animals of their own species.
Of course we generally don't eat our own species but it happens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571 and the people eaten were the friends and relatives of the people doing the eating the alternative was to die. I wonder if you were in the same circumstances would you remain vegan?
This is an interesting story
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/five-reasons-henrietta-lacks-most-important-woman-medical-history
She has been farmed to an amazing extent. Would it be better to stop.
Your slavery comments are interesting but slavery goes back thousands of years and is not colour based Africans and Arabs were selling slaves long before western Europeans came to Africa.
Slavery has never really gone away it is just presented differently.
"Would you agree it would always be unethical to kill another human we didnt know to take his or her organ/s? I think most would."
What if that person was on death row for some horrible crimes could we take his organs then? A mass murderer giving life to others seems almost karmic.
Death isn't a terrible thing once it's happened it's over done. The only problem with death is when and how.
we don't want to be in drawn out pain and most of us don't want it now.
Since I had a heart attack there is a 50% chance of dying in the next 6 to 8 years, I don't aim for that to occur and year 1 is the worst thats 25% the stats are scary 30 out of 100 die when they have a first heart attack of the 70 left 17-18 will die within the year. Death gets very real when your trying to drag yourself to an A&E department when you have a coronary artery 97% blocked. that was the 2nd time i got close. Fear is the worst thing about dying but it does finish once you are dead and so does the pain and suffering. Let me just say it took some adjustment for me to get used to the idea of having a reduced life expectancy.
To take molly for example if I didn't choose to bring her inside feed her keep her warm, then she would probably be dead already or suffering. She doesn't seem to be in pain so her quality of life seems reasonable and compared to the average chicken she has got it made.
But if she was suffering it would be best if i killed her rather than her be in pain.
I don't think I know what I would do in a violent situation, I know, because sometimes somebody has to do something and I know I have done what needed to be done on several occasions.
I'm not going to stop eating meat but that doesn't mean I don't care about the well being of animals, any animals including the human animal.
I guess you see a happy pig and think about its death and how it will be killed, me I see a happy pig and the pig is happy enough and death tends to be a short lived surprise. Most animals live in the now they don't think about tomorrow or yesterday.
I've got chickens too,
one of them a Bantam is in a bit of a bad way being the smallest she has been bullied by some of the other bigger birds. I've moved her out so she has a chance to rest and recuperate it is unfortunate but that is the way with chickens they can be pretty horrible to their compatriots.
There is very much a quality of life for all animals, including humans and you must admit there are animals living in better conditions than humans.
You obviously look after your chickens but why can't you give similar credit to farmers obviously standards of care vary from excellent to very poor indeed.
There is a cycle of life and there is compromise, there has to be. I guess in some ways I'm very different from you. I don't kill all my own meat and fish but I do some. It is important to me not to cause needless suffering which is why I will make a death as quick and pain free as possible. You see I think if you are going to eat meat then you should be prepared to kill it and butcher it too. It's more respectful and you appreciate the cost more.
It is good to have strong beliefs, but I really think you should concentrate more on the worst abusers such as smithfield. I don't know if you are a parent but what would you sacrifice for your children. If an animal which was bred and engineered to provide a life saving organ which your child needed would you refuse it and let your child die?
To be honest if my child needed an organ and my body could give it , I would and if an animal could provide the needed organ i'd use that animal organ first.
I find it hard to comprehend why you think it is so bad for these pigs to be used in this manner.
Given the choice between the life of a pig and the life of say one of your children which would you choose?
I've no problem with you choosing to minimise your own effect on animals, and there are alternatives to animal products in a lot of cases but you need to be realistic. Before I became diabetic I used to give blood regularly up to 3 pints a year usually. That blood was used to help save lives and I really didn't have a problem with giving up part of me in order to save lives and yes if there are any organs fit to be used when I die then let them be used too. I've also chosen to be used in the past to test new drug treatments for HIV so I have no issues with pigs being used too.
The pigs are cultivated and only exist because of their potential usefulness for transplants. For a pig they actually have a better life than most animals possibly a better quality of life than many people around the world today. You really have to compromise at some level because logically the only way to avoid having a negative effect on the world is not to live at all. However it is probably better to make a positive impact on the world as far as it is possible.
I'm not wanting to force you to consume animal products that is as daft as forcing me to drive a suv so i use more fuel but surely you can see that living at all is a compromise and that if you want to help pigs then try helping some of the animals that are intensively factory farmed. Google Smithfield and i think you will see that the pigs being raised for transplant are living in a comparative paradise.
I inject twice a day into the sides of my stomach usually if i struggle to find a good spot on one side then the other side is usually pain free.
I'm a type II and it sucks but I really wouldn't want to be a type I, people seem to think its pretty easy living with diabetes and also don't see how it effects our quality and length of life. Which would make it easier to choose a needle in the nuts in order to live a normal life. Would prefer not to have to do that but if it made diabetes go away even for a few months at a time it might be worth it.
Interesting idea, but then wouldn't this show up in pre diabetics an over production of insulin would be detectable before the beta cells began to fail? If too much insulin was produced then wouldn't there be abnormally low blood sugar counts?
However I think i'm right in thinking that when someone is diagnosed as type 2 they are not producing enough insulin to maintain healthy levels.
btw this page seems interesting
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14046621.php
I'd like to see your statement backed up somewhere
taubes may have some interesting idea's but he has no medical training
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Taubes
"On October 19, 2007, Taubes appeared on Larry King Live to discuss his book. Although Taubes has no formal training in nutrition or medicine, his book was praised as "raising interesting and valuable points" by Dr. Andrew Weil, a believer of alternative medicine, while Dr. Mehmet Oz and trainer Jillian Michaels who appeared on the same program disagreed with Taubes on many questions"
I would agree with some of his stand carbs are pretty much as bad as sugars for diabetics and they seem to be out of proportion for diabetics if not the general population. But i'm no doctor but i think the more green stuff in your diet the better you will be for it.
I doubt if it would actually require multiple injections on a daily basis that is if it needed repeating regularly.
A controlled insulin release would lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, blindness, amputations, nerve damage erectile dysfunction and randomly dying in your sleep. plus minor advantages such as better energy levels and a less reactive digestive system. Plus the cost of maintaining healthy insulin levels would probably be cheaper since your body is now producing the needed insulin and plus the added bonus of a longer healthy life where you might actually see retirement and your grand children.
Type 2 diabetics tend to not produce enough insulin and historically would eventually need insulin shots which makes me think if it was successful it would be used for type 2's at some point. On the positive side there are other options such as byetta for type 2 diabetics which may preserve the beta cells and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Of course there are increased risks of other body functions failing one drug Avandia was recently banned in Europe because of increased risk of heart disease, at the time of the ban there was around 100,000 people being proscribed Avandia in the UK alone. I believe its still available in the USA since it had been approved by the FDA but it's use is now discouraged.
Modern treatment for type 1 diabetics is to wear an insulin pump which constantly monitors and adjusts the insulin feed. Injecting isn't the big deal its control, getting the dosage right. It's not that difficult to find injection sites which are pain free.
I hope now you can see that being injected in the balls isn't that big a deal if the procedure leads to a normal insulin response. One of the problems with diabetes is that the damage of bad control isn't immediately visible and maintaining good control is very hard.
It would be nice if insulin shots actually solved the problem of type 1 diabetes but it doesn't it just slows the rate of damage such that you might get a normal length life but there are type 1 diabetics who die before reaching 30 even doing the right things.
would a slashdot poll be an example of prior art?
Or even who wants to be a millionaire ask the audience.
The only positive about software patents such as this. Is as an example to show European politicians why we don't want software patents in Europe.
3) definitely 3) do the best you can.
Do you decide on what you do based on your own moral compass or because you know you will be caught? With an all seeing God you will be caught every time. I don't think it makes you a good person if you choose one act over the alternative due to the fear of burning in hell for eternity.
For 2 i don't think it matters how god does his accounting if you knew would it change what you do? Fear of punishment doesn't make you a better person.
So really if there was a god, revealing themselves might make people stick to his rules but it wouldn't make better people.
Which really is where Marcus hits the point straight on if we have free will then it is our own choices which make us good or bad people (if we don't have free will then why punish us for doing things we had no choice in).
So if there is a god, then if he is just he will let us go to heaven and if he isn't just then we should willingly go to hell. So in this life we should try to do the best we can because if we don't what is the point of even being born.
Ok so maybe there is no point but we can at least make the effort to change the world in a positive way. I want to die feeling like I made a difference with my life, I don't care to make it into history books or my contributions to be remembered by other people but the world is a little better for me being born anyway.
I certainly hope that my positive contributions out weigh the negative ones I have made.
Thanks for posting that, I have never heard that before, I came to the same conclusion many years ago and try to be a fair and decent person.
Last year I had a heart attack and as I was in the ambulance with the sirens and blue lights going I knew I might well die. I wasn't really afraid of dying but I did feel it was too soon I wanted to see the kids grown up, married and with children of their own.
I also am a huge fan of morphine, it doesn't so much stop pain as take away the fear of death. It gives you the calm to accept what will be will be. You don't fear for your own fate but feel for your loved ones and the upset they feel for you being so close to death. I also remember the priest coming round to see me and he asked me religion? I said not yet. I really don't feel like it is time for me.
The first year after my heart attack was tough, the statistics are frightening 30% of people who have a first heart attack die before reaching a hospital of the 70% left 50% will die within 6 to 8 years and in the first year you have a 25% chance of dying in the following years it drops to about 3% everybody has a chance of dying but its about 1.5% so now although my chances are raised I don't feel like its that much higher.
Year one was depressing I was constantly thinking about my health and didn't feel like I had a future.
Now I just want to get back on track and find a job and live a happy life doing something with somebody I love. I'm really grateful for my medical treatment and thanks to the irish health service I was treated for free and pay a nominal amount for my meds. Just hope there is someone who will take me on doing something.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/sunday/main6300824.shtml
There are some interesting bits in that link.
"With her under anesthesia, they just took this small piece of her tumor, without her knowing, and they put it in a dish and sent it down the hall to George Guy, who was the head of tissue culture research at Hopkins," said Skloot. "He had been trying to grow human cells for decades, and it had never worked. And hers just took off."
"We know, mechanically, that the cells stay alive because they have this enzyme in them that rebuilds the ends of their chromosomes, so the cells just never get old, they don't die," Skloot said. "But why her cells did that when all the other cells didn't is still a little bit of a mystery."
.
"To tick off all the way HeLa cells have been used, we would be sitting here for weeks," Skloot told Axelrod. "Hundreds and thousands of studies. They were used to help test the polio vaccine so that it could be approved for use in people. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Hers were the first cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They've been used to create some of our basic cancer drugs, like tomaxiphin.
"When you look at this in the context of the family story, you know, at 25 years after her death, not only were her cells still alive, but there were enough of them that if you could pile them all on a scale, they'd weigh 50 million metric tons," Skloot said. "That's 150 Empire State Buildings. You know, it's just inconceivable that that could even be true, and it was."
That's quite something but there's a darker side to this
"Is there any way to calculate how much money has been made off of Henrietta Lacks' cells?" Axelrod asked.
"No. They were the first cells ever commercialized, and that was in the 1950s," said Skloot. "You know, you can buy online HeLa cells or products made from HeLa cells for anywhere from about $200 to about $10,000 a vial."
"But it's an incalculable amount of money?" Axelrod asked.
"Yeah," said Skloot.
And consider this: The family of the woman whose cells changed medical history . . . can't afford health insurance.
Henrietta's middle child, Sonny, is $100,000 in debt after bypass surgery.
Henrietta died eight months after the cells were taken and buried in an unmarked grave and it is undeniable that there is a huge industry that has been built on her cells so why shouldn't there be some recognition of her contribution to medical science and perhaps at least some medical coverage for her immediate family?
How many of us wouldn't be here without the medical developments that have come from the testing on her cells?
it just doesn't feel right that there has been nothing given back to her family. Legally perhaps nothing is owed but morally surely the family should get something.
The interesting part of where some works stand is the copyright law where the copying occurred, Since in some area's copyright may have expired where in others it still stands. The grey area in the USA is when copyright renewal may or may not have occurred which could effect the copyright status in the USA.
If the copyright is still valid where you live then you should respect the copyright status in your country and not download it or face the consequences which sadly means suing the same people who are some of the authors biggest fans.
In one case linked the magazine story later became the first half of a later novel. I assume the novel is clearly not in the public domain even if the first half is. Surely if you got to read the first half you would want to go further and read the second half, if it was any good, which would result in the copyright holder getting some money for this novel?
You are being ridiculous in no way are burning a persons business and a dos attack in any way comparable. I struggle to even see the economic damage caused to Sony and the like from this sort of attack. Online music sales are made on Amazon and iTunes not really on the corporate sites of record companies.
I don't even see what a DOS attack demonstrates other than the ability to control a botnet or that there might be a few thousand (at most) people prepared to demonstrate on line.
If a Dos attack was to be in any way effective then the online retailers would have to be attacked until they withdrew for example Sony's products from their sites and even then it is unlikely to have that much effect on Sony. Even Sony's root kit didn't do that much damage to their sales or removing the other OS from PS3's.
Multi million dollar fines and forcing a free country to change its laws are outlandish but realistically not enough people care to be able to make a difference.
you might find this interesting
http://vision.1828-dictionary.com/_files/Noah_Webster_1858.pdf
its not the full dictionary but the preface in which Noah websters successful campaign to extend copyright is mentioned and advertisement is spelt with an s
http://books.google.com/books?id=OGwDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA506&sig=ecr5vIhKBAiFaMZTdZvoi2MjGCU&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
This book ,written in 1845 recording cases argued in English courts, uses realise, which suggests British usage going back at least 165 years Noah Webster had realize in his first edition of his dictionary in 1828.
It's beyond reason to think that realise is a recent British invention and far more likely that realize originates in the USA and as its in the 1828 Webster dictionary it is certainly Webster that formally wrote it with a z. Going by Websters self admitted changes in spelling he probably did this word too. The examples commonly quoted are mentioned in the preface of the dictionary.
The best I can find is a English adoption of the French original dates back to 1605 - 1615. So earlier examples of realise / realize should exist.
Realise is the correct spelling in the Queens English (as I originally asserted) and is recorded as being in use in her courts in 1843, when the case recorded came to court.
To be fair he was pretty keen on Android and Windows Mobile 7. He had a windows mobile 7 phone before they got released to the general public.
I would be surprised if he actually pays for all of the devices he tweets about.
http://www.englishforums.com/English/ToRealiseToRealize/zvgdq/post.htm
Realise derives from the French réaliser, which wasn't spelled with a z. It entered the English language in the early 17th century and meant "to bring into existence". If we want to get rid of the changes realise has undergone, realize must be considered incorrect and the meaning 'to understand' is also wrong as realise didn't have that meaning in those early days.
you are confusing a variation in British spelling with the variation between British and American English. The -ize ending is a variant of British English spelling preferred by the Oxford University Press (and I believe until recent years by The Times). Hence it appears as the first choice in the OALD mentioned in an earlier post. The whole issue is summarised in Wikipedia under "Oxford Spelling".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling (for further reading) note Oxford university press English is different to British English.
Slowly, edition by edition, Webster changed the spelling of words, making them "Americanized." He chose s over c in words like defense, he changed the re to er in words like center, and he dropped one of the Ls in traveler. At first he kept the u in words like colour or favour but dropped it in later editions. He also changed "tongue" to "tung," an innovation that never caught on. Scudder 1881, pp, 245-252.
As a consequence of English being exported by the British Empire in most parts of the world British spelling is commonly used. It would be interesting to see which spelling Noah Webster originally used in his first edition.
Maybe you do not realize that realise is the correct spelling in the Queens English unlike the bastardised version used in the United States of America. American English spelling was the invention of Noah Webster. Coincidentally, "Politician Daniel Webster was Noah Webster's cousin. As a senator, Daniel sponsored Noah's proposed copyright bill. The first major statutory revision of U.S. copyright law, the 1831 Act was a result of intensive lobbying by Noah Webster and his agents in Congress."
So it seems that Noah Webster, is responsible for the corruption of the English Language, American Copyright and was one of the first to be corrupting American Government changing from for the people by the people to for the lobbied interests of American business.
Perhaps it is time to push back against the influence of Noah Webster in American society since clearly he has been a negative influence for the last 200 years or so.
Without Noah Webster would the United States, indeed the World have been a better place? Would the RIAA be in existence and protesting journals freedom to write about subjects which run counter to the RIAA's interests.
did you read the wikipedia article? you pay for the card you pay to get money of the card and pay even more if the card breaks. the company running the card have both sold users information and taken money from users bank accounts. As a travel pass its good just for avoiding queuing for tickets. As a replacement for cash not so good.