It's the one-way mirror in the room where the test is being administered.

I've been through a polygraph for something *very* serious. Some of our crypto just went "*poof*", and everyone was quite concerned. Understandably, so, too! Crypto is *not* supposed to just go "*poof*".

We were all asked if we wanted to take a polygraph, and I gladly volunteered, since it really did just vanish. (We later determined that the tape in question had been included in the daily destruction by mistake.) But even volunteering for it, a polygraph is a scary thing if you know nothing about it.

So I did my research. And yes, those websites were all visited and read, in detail. During the test, I tried some of the techniques that were taught, and sure enough, they work! You can make that machine sing "Bad Romance" as good as Lady Gaga. I thought it was kinda fun, actually?

But see, the machine was just to butter you up. If you were up to no good, the machine would make you nervous, even if you DO know how to manipulate it. And in the end, it doesn't matter.

There's a one-way mirror, and behind that mirror is a team of 3-4 people who are all very good at reading human beings. And they have thermographic cameras that measure your facial temperature to help them in reading those who are good at controlling their body language.

At the end of the day, a polygraph is just a tool that makes someone's job that much easier. It's just one tool in a chest of many, because no single tool alone is enough to get to the truth of the matter.

My own investigation was with NIS, who are very good at what they do, and very professional. They were after the truth, not a conviction. So I have no complaints about how *I* was treated. But if someone is looking for a victim, then having this information just might save your life.

We already have HOV lanes, so why not just make those "AOV" lanes, for Autonomously Operated Vehicles?

1. Access would be strictly controlled. You can't get in unless our vehicle is AOV capable.

2. You pull into an entry lane and wait for the system to negotiate with your vehicle. Once the a connection is established, it takes control.

3. The system calculates when to start accelerating, and adjusts the existing traffic flow to create a gap for your vehicle. The vehicle starts moving and travels down the entry lane to merge with flowing traffic, which never stops, and only slows down a little bit.

4. Your vehicle stays in the flow until you reach destination proximity, and you get a choice between a rest area parking lot, or resuming manual control to drive on normal roads. If you're asleep or not paying attention, it simply parks your car in the rest area.

"i prefer the prieces of nuclear power..."

Ask the people of Fukushima how they feel about those low-low prices.

But Germany gets so much more sun than the US! We can't compete with that?!

(I wish I were kidding...)

...that investment bankers and stockbrokers are a form of infectious disease?

Hmmm. Then perhaps I should ammend my observations to...

"Government contractors are not subject to FOIA requests, unless they come from another contractor with sufficient financial resources and existing contracts, who can cause significant financial pain to the government, should the government ignore the request out of hand."

Regarding the massive shift of systems and services, including surveillance, to private contractors? A friend of mine with inside knowledge of the intelligence services pointed out something very important...

Government agencies are subject to the Freedom of Information Act and congressional oversight committees.

Private companies are not.

They also pointed out that even if a certain bit of information is in the possession of a government agency, if it was collected and/or held by a private contractor, that is often used as an excuse to not fulfill a FIFA request.

It probably wasn't MRSA.

1. You're still alive.
2. You still have your leg.
3. The infection didn't advance past the Sharpie.

MRSA, also known as the "flesh-eating bacteria" doesn't give up so easily.

I've had several infections in my shins, and they're a bitch to get rid of, because I have Compartment Syndrome, and poor circulation in that area. The doc has to nuke the bugs with high doses for a full two weeks, which means my guts get wiped out too.

Ugh!

Check out the Mail Online article at the end.

Full-head coverage sunblock masks seem to be a very big thing in China, getting more and more popular every year.

I can't wait until they figure out how much more awesome those masks will be when they start decorating them like a Luchador.

Going to the beach will become quite an adventure!

How much you wanna bet, there was some union worker who's been in the job for 20 years, and saw this coming? They saw it coming and said, "Rather than send them to the scrap yard, we're just gonna squirrel these babies away in this warehouse here," and rolled all those giant hunks of metal into storage in counties all over NY. I bet they got wrapped up, too.

Gonna be a lot of nostalgic voters this election.

Gotta burn off all those giant sodas somehow...

"We're changing the standards so you can't sue us immediately after the disaster. But if you get cancer 30 years down the line, we and our money will be long gone and no longer giving a darn in Pattaya Beach, Thailand."

Wow!

Those sure are some really useful and interesting email addresses and phone numbers!

Thanks, Salt Lake Tribune!

No, that would be like dividing by zero.