This is most certainly some sort of satanic cult plan to control the flow of ... most fun things.

So I bought one, EIGHT years ago. I no longer have it. In order to prove that I'm even eligible for the mostly-pointless $9 payment, I have to have my PS3 serial number. For the higher payment, I have to have incredibly unreasonable proof that I used OtherOS functionality.

Insane, but not unexpected. That's the way the legal system works. The lawyers will get almost all the cash, and we'll still have given Sony full price for a then-crippled console.

Thank you; that's what I meant by 'I don't understand', not some sort of half-arsed attack against the 'trusted linux developers' (whoever decides that particular subset, anyway).

Sorry, but I just don't understand what the purpose is, and it isn't stated in the thread linked -- other than a few ... (maybe) benchmarks that don't cover many real-world use cases.

My ID is hardly 'new', but this place has surely gone downhill. :(

Did anyone edit this? 'was bad vulnerability'?

Jeebus. Have some integrity.

I say let them try. Can't be any worse than the amount we've collectively spent on reality TV.

Been to r/circlejerk, lately? :)

Either way, who cares. If it hadn't taken off, they'd just end up as a bunch of weirdos talking to their multiple personalities. But it did, and the same tactic is used all the time - ever see a single dollar bill in a tip jar? Priming isn't new.

Wow, that linked article had absolutely no information in it all! Why, thank you for continuing to perpetuate quack science!

If you read the referenced Genetics article, the following statement appears:

Weight loss is also associated with AD patients, despite the fact that AD
patients consume more calories than age-matched non-AD controls (reviewed in AZIZ et al.
2008), suggesting that AD patients may have altered metabolic rates (WANG et al. 2004). Our
results suggest that metabolic rate changes could be mediated by secreted sAPP, which alters
hormonal and insulin signaling pathways.

This actually seems to suggest that AD patients with the a mutated form of the soluble APP may have more insulin, or be more responsive to existing levels; not that HFCS can induce insulin which causes AD.

To start, I /am/ a scientist (PhD, molecular biology), and I've also taught. At the moment, I'm pure research, so I've been on multiple sides of this issue.

To really address the suggestion that I as a scientist isn't doing enough to educate the public is just an outright oversimplification of the issues involved.

As I see it, there are at least three major obstacles inherent in 'educating' the public about any particular scientific topic (molecular biology, computers, you name it)

1. Education: There's a lot of work involved in getting to know underlying concepts well enough to properly transfer ideas. I can talk about western blots, ELISAs, single-nucleotide polymorphisms and the effect of multiple genetic anomalies on various types of lung cancer as relates to smoking, but unless you understand why and how those things are important, any conclusions I give you, like 'an increase in these four or five SNPs statistically leads to a higher risk of lung cancer', you either have the choice of accepting what I say on faith, or ignoring it.

2. Apathy: If you don't know, do you want to learn? Most people who ask what I do want a nice easy answer, like "cancer research". They smile, say 'ooh, that must be hard' and go about their day. Any longer than a ten word answer, and I get the classic glazed-eyes look. You can't educate a populace that doesn't care.

3. Propaganda: This is related to 1 & 2, but is mostly a side-effect of 1. I recently got into a rather heated argument with someone over whether or not second-hand smoking is bad for you (yes, it is). Despite all the first-hand knowledge, research, and peer-reviewed data I could provide, the person in question chose to rely on biased politically-motivated think-tank reports and old, outdated, dis-proven studies funded by tobacco corporations instead of listening to my data and realistically weighing the available information. You can do all the outreach you want, but if the people don't want to pay attention, they won't.

That's fine if we're talking about parachuting. But what if we can't properly define the risks?

"Sure, this could maybe, possibly, probably not cure you. But it could also cause... well, we have no idea, because it's never been evaluated in humans. Half of our pigs gained the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes, and the other half turned into Rush Limbaugh."

You'll notice I said 'legitimate'. By definition, these practices are unethical (whether or not you like it, non-FDA approved treatments such as this would be considered criminally unethical in the US) and the people who do them are not practicing legitimate science, medical or otherwise.

This is sort of related to #2, in that properly educated people don't randomly 'decide' that the available evidence is wrong and start jabbing people with dangerous treatments. If they do, we're down to #3, because they obviously know what they're doing is wrong, but the financial benefit outweighs the risk.

You sound like someone who has no idea about how medicine or science (or hell, anything) actually works, considering that your reading comprehension is basically nil.

Except that you aren't circumventing 'big pharma', because the treatment doesn't work!

Seriously, if these quack factories were actually curing people, don't you think that someone would know about it?

Of course, statistically, if you inject enough people with this crap one of them will go into remission, and you've got a 'cure' in the same way that occasionally someone blessed by a preacher will be 'cured' by god.

Saying that people have the right to scam other people sounds great, until your grandmother signs up for FreeCreditReport.com using your credit card.

I don't mean this in a harsh way, but you have no idea how clinical trials work.

Saying something works in a dog, or a horse, or a pig, or a hamster is a thousand-fold difference from testing it in humans. We can test it on ten thousand mice and show no ill effects, but doing a proper multi-stage trial on humans can take years and years of testing, evaluation and follow-up.

Why? So we don't have any more thalidomide babies. And even then, the trials aren't perfect. Remember Vioxx? That's just one example.

There's a lot of good medicine coming around the corner in the next decade, but it's based on new and largely untried technologies. I'd love to save all the people who will die before it's available (or who will suffer pain, etc), but we can't rush it. The risks are too great.