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Submission + - How Nigeria Stopped Ebola

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Pamela Engel writes that Americans need only look to Nigeria to calm their fears about an Ebola outbreak in the US. Nigeria is much closer to the West Africa outbreak than the US is, yet even after Ebola entered the country in the most terrifying way possible — via a visibly sick passenger on a commercial flight — officials successfully shut down the disease and prevented widespread transmission. If there are still no new cases on October 20, the World Health Organization will officially declare the country "Ebola-free." Here's how Nigeria did it.

The first person to bring Ebola to Nigeria was Patrick Sawyer, who left a hospital in Liberia against the wishes of the medical staff and flew to Nigeria. Once Sawyer arrived, it became obvious that he was ill when he passed out in the Lagos airport, and he was taken to a hospital in the densely packed city of 20 million. Once the country's first Ebola case was confirmed, Port Health Services in Nigeria started a process called contact tracing to limit the spread of the disease and created an emergency operations center to coordinate and oversee the national response. Health officials used a variety of resources, including phone records and flight manifests, to track down nearly 900 people who might have been exposed to the virus via Sawyer or the people he infected. As soon as people developed symptoms suggestive of Ebola, they were isolated in Ebola treatment facilities. Without waiting to see whether a "suspected" case tested positive, Nigeria's contact tracing team tracked down everyone who had had contact with that patient since the onset of symptoms making a staggering 18,500 face-to-face visits. The US has many of these same procedures in place for containing Ebola, making the risk of an outbreak here very low. Contact tracing is exactly what is happening in Dallas right now; if any one of Thomas Eric Duncan's contacts shows symptoms, that person will be immediately isolated and tested. “That experience shows us that even in the case in Nigeria, when we found out later in the timeline that this patient had Ebola, that Nigeria was able to identify contacts, institute strict infection control procedures and basically bring their outbreak to a close,” says Dr. Tom Inglesby. “They did a good job in and of themselves. They worked closely with the U.S. CDC. If we can succeed in Nigeria I do believe we will stop it here.”

Submission + - Supposed Battery Breakthrough. 70% charge in 2mins, 20yr life. (ntu.edu.sg)

Submitted by chaosdivine69
chaosdivine69 writes: According to Scientists at Nanyang Technology University (NTU), they have developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only two minutes and have a 20 yr lifespan (10,000 charges). The impact of this is potentially a game changer for a lot of industries reliant on lithium ion batteries.

In the car industry for example, consumers will save huge on costs for battery replacement and manufacturers will save on material construction since they're using a nanotube structure of Titanium dioxide which is an abundant, cheap and safe material found in soil. Titanium dioxide is commonly used as a food additive or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays. It is believed that charging an electric car can be achieved in as little as 5 minutes making it comparable to filling up a gasoline based automobile.

Comment Re:Don't title your stuff "$OriginalTitleHere Uncu (Score 1) 55

by stoborrobots (#48128515) Attached to: Crowdsourced Remake "The Empire Strikes Back Uncut" Now Complete

Wright's First Law of Gender Discernment: Everyone you meet on the Internet is a man, possibly over 50, probably overweight, most certainly balding.

(Note also, Wright's Qualification to the Laws of Gender Discernment: These laws do not govern the population of the Internet in its entirety; they are only valid for the population of the Internet that you will actually meet.)

Comment Re:So what you're telling me (Score 1) 146

by stoborrobots (#48081071) Attached to: Details of iOS and Android Device Encryption

I can understand implementing screen locking without device encryption; that's the state my phone currently is in, and it provides exactly the level of protection I require at this point in time - prevents casual snooping or misuse, but does not protect against a dedicated attacker.

Under what situations would device encryption be useful without a screen lock? Your phone data can be read by anyone who gets their hands on it, since the unencrypted data is exposed to anyone who swipes right...

I can't think of any good reason that your screen lock password should be weaker than your device password...

Comment Re:How about... (Score 1) 482

by stoborrobots (#48052507) Attached to: Online Creeps Inspire a Dating App That Hides Women's Pictures

There's a finer distinction at play (which I think you might already have noticed, but are not commenting on):

Currently female users receive X undesirable messages and Y desirable messages, with X much much larger than Y.

Removing photos on a conventional dating site drops both X and Y to near-zero.

The goal is to drop X to zero, while keeping Y as near as possible to the current value.

It is theorised that this is an impossible goal as long as men are doing the messaging, because the creeps will always out-message the sensible guys. ... BUT... this app doesn't attempt to do that. It does what you're suggesting - drop the incoming message numbers for the women to zero, and force them to take the action. The men don't/can't message the women at all. The men have to prove their worthiness by providing suitable pictures and answering daily questions in an interesting manner. The women can then make the first contact.

Comment Re:Puts the hurt on StartSSL. Good on 'em! (Score 1) 67

by stoborrobots (#48025019) Attached to: CloudFlare Announces Free SSL Support For All Customers

Passport scan to get a free certificate?

I've been using StartSSL for years, for a number of certificates - all they verify for the free cert is that I can click on a link sent to the postmaster address for the relevant domain...

If you want anything other than basic class-1 certificates for a single hostname there's a cost, and a more involved process; but that process is similar regardless of who does your identity verification.

If you want free class-1 certificates, there is no additional cost, and no super-secret documentation to send around.

I have no experience with StartCom's organisation verification process. However, for domain-verified class-1 certificates for individual hosts, they offer a free, immediate, trouble-free process which involves no more than clicking a link in my email.

Submission + - California Gov Brown Vetoes Bill Requiring Warrants for Drone Surveillance (latimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Brown, a Democrat facing re-election in November, sided with law enforcement and said the legislation simply granted Californians privacy rights that went too far beyond existing guarantees. Sunday's veto comes as the small drones are becoming increasingly popular with business, hobbyists, and law enforcement.

"This bill prohibits law enforcement from using a drone without obtaining a search warrant, except in limited circumstances," the governor said in his veto message(PDF). "There are undoubtedly circumstances where a warrant is appropriate. The bill's exceptions, however, appear to be too narrow and could impose requirements beyond what is required by either the 4th Amendment or the privacy provisions in the California Constitution."

At least 10 other states require the police to get a court warrant to surveil with a drone. Those states include Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.

California's drone bill is not draconian. It includes exceptions for emergency situations, search-and-rescue efforts, traffic first responders, and inspection of wildfires. It allows other public agencies to use drones for other purposes—just not law enforcement.

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