The issue really isn't the fact that the H1Bs are taking over 'native' STEM positions, it is that Disney et. al. is flat out lying about it.

Remember, the H1B program is an immigration loophole set up by the government for certain purposes (allowing non citizens to work in the US when there are no qualified citizens). It was not designed to be a welfare program for big companies. Even for 'easily replaced' employees.

Because this is a transparent attempt to rein in the EPA on the grounds of 'science'. Seems OK as a sound bite, doesn't quite work well in the ugly real world. As noted in TFA, there are two major, practical objections:

- The EPA doesn't get enough funding to do all of the studies by themselves. And there seems to be no mechanism in the proposed legislation to fix that little oversight. So it becomes an issue of perfect rather than practical. Sure, it would be best if everything were publicly funded and every bit of data published on the Internet, but it is arguably better if some 'imperfect' data is used rather than the very limited amount of data that is openly published.
- Longitudinal data, by definition, isn't 'repeatable'. You don't get to rewind the tape (if you are unfamiliar with this analogy, look up 'VCR' and similar ancient technology).

The way this bill is crafted makes it perfectly clear that good science is not the goal. Emasculating the EPA is.

Always take your medications prior to posting.

How about this scary thought: Water is really turning out to be the Universal Solvent. It is everywhere we look. That has profound implications for the possibility, no probability, of life throughout the galaxy and beyond.

It also strongly suggests that future planetary missions should be sure to stock some WD-40.

Umm, the Millennium Falcon wasn't real. It wasn't a cargo ship. It was a plot device.

I know the computer graphics were pretty good and all but Leia's hair style should have given it away.

No, the real benefit from amateur radio operations is that they are trained to work as a team. The reality is that the vast majority of the gear used in emergency communications are modern, reliable, commercial rigs that the operators could no more fix internally than you can fix your computer. They don't train to McGuyver the radios, they train to set up command and control links and practice working with interfaces with the Internet and government systems.

That way, when the shit hits the fan they can plop down in their chair and do something useful. Yes, you can get a field station running with a length of wire and a car battery and there are lots of ham radio operators who delight in that sort of thing. But organization and teamwork is the real key to effectiveness and that is why amateur radio has been embraced by governments world wide.

No, but if you're trying to work on a relay in the US and there is broadband interference it is still an issue. That said, I don't thing consumer powerline networking is going to be very widespread, thanks in no small part to the ARRL's effort.

Further, this is why you do need to 'advertise' when amateur radio is used for public safety purposes. We are still fighting a rear guard battle and anytime the public (and our wonderful legislators) see the service as beneficial it slows down the attempts to limit amateur radio's spectrum and rights.

I blame this mind set on the Avenger movies. If Scarlet Johansson can save the world in while running around in spandex underwear, your average Slashdot coder should be able to outperform a couple dozen programmers, managers and QA staff with just a six pack of Mountain Dew and a jumbo bag of Doritos.

Flights get cancelled all of the time. It's just part of the business. Flights get cancelled by computer glitches all of the time as well, yet you don't see the airlines going back to the pre-punch card tickets. Despite what some posters around here would like you to believe, computers screw up. But we still keep them.

I guess it's like a dysfunctional relationship. We're codependent.

And six engines, 4 wings and a half dozen pilots.

Belt AND suspenders!

Too bad that MRIs don't cost $10 million. More like $1 million. That is a lot but they are very, very complex devices.

And yes, people care. And yes, there is graft, greed, avarice, blackjack and hookers but it's a pretty complicated problem. So complicated that even the vaunted European social democracies (the ones with the 'free' healthcare' are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to afford everything.

Blow into a paper bag for a while and quit hyperventilating.

So if they can't see a doctor or get to a clinic, just what do you plan on putting in the little chamber? Tea? (actually might work with the xanthenes being bronchodilators). You just don't treat asthma by waving the nebulizer around.

And again. It's not just the doctor that you can't get in rural areas. It's the nurse, the anesthetist, the OR tech, the OR, the pieces parts, the blood bank, the ventilator, etc. Surgery is a whole package. It is much safer to get the patient out to an institution that does the procedure on a regular basis than to try to hack through a treatment that the staff hasn't done in a year. Not everything goes right. Sometimes you want another specialist to help when surgical misadventures arise. Until the tech gets to be something like a Weyland Med Pod, robot surgery is going to be a niche area, confined to hard to get areas or procedures that need extremely fine physical control.

But if you lived in Machu Picchu and needed heart surgery, it would be extremely unlikely that anyone would truck the machine up there. Because you also need a bypass machine. And a damned good anesthesiologist (who probably lives with the other docs in the big city) and the nurses and the dacron grafts and the special sutures and the ventilators and the vent techs and so forth and so on.

So having the smart machine doesn't help you over much. Even for battlefield medicine, I don't think surgical robots are going to prove useful for the same reasons. It's easier to just pack up everyone as a team and dump them on some handy flat piece of ground away from the front. Then drag your victim in using paramedic level persons and helicopters - things that can stand being shot at and don't need high bandwidth connections to function.

The supervision of basic providers is an excellent model but that is typically going to be just video rather than a robot. Anything with opposable thumbs can do a basic cataract - you could build a robot that would do some of the manipulations, but it's pretty automated as it is. There are going to be niches with this sort of tech, certainly we can work on changing some procedures that have remained the same for 200 years, but surgical robots are going to be just a small part of things. Hell, a 3D printer might even be more useful - a common situation in remote areas is that the docs / providers know how to do something, they just don't stock the special screw / graft / gizmo that a bigger hospital would. Even 3D printed orthotics (ie, very low tech) would be pretty useful (and I'm sure I've seen articles where they are starting on this).

If coming up with a cheap nebulizer - which costs a hospital $2.50 for the plastic bits, is the best he can do, then this isn't going to get us far. Sure, the battery powered pump costs a couple of hundred dollars retail but anyone with more than a slotted head screwdriver for a brain is going to realize that it's an aquarium pump. This is hardly the earth shattering breakthrough that TFA insinuates it to be.

The other mentioned device, a better way to extract babies from the birth canal is certainly interesting but it represents the efforts of a single clever person (not associated with the MIT lab in any way). I don't think anyone has decided that there are no more smart people amongst the 7 billion humans on the planet.

Hopefully, this isn't reflecting where MIT is going but I'm beginning towonder. They seem to be in the news for all manner of Silly Little Things associated with important sounding laboratories.

No, I'd suggest getting one before they become impossibly thin and transparent to boot. Then you'd never manage to find the thing once you set it down.