Seems like a bunch of AlphaSmarts or equivalent would work pretty well -- they seem to be available for about $50 used. I learned to type on something very much like that in elementary school, though I have no idea what brand they were, just that they were red and had some simple typing games. They worked very well: I'm a pretty fast tough typist as a result.

You're not thinking about this the right way. Currently $13m is being spent annually on very expensive treatments for a very small number of people. Imagine if some of that money were instead spent on prevention, which according to TFA only costs a few hundred dollars per case if it's caught before it becomes severe. That means more money for treating more common ailments, not less.

Literally no one in recorded history has ever been killed by a meteorite. California has had a grand total of nine fatal shark attacks since 1926, so you're pretty safe on that count, too. You might still be right that tapeworms aren't that serious a problem, but you're way off base in your comparisons.

And just because it's not all volunteers doesn't mean anyone is getting rich off of it. I work for a small nonprofit, about fifteen employees total, and our combined compensation, including our president, is less than Brian Gallagher's. The president's salary is about twice what mine is as a developer.

Just to nitpick, lens flare has nothing to do with film vs. digital sensors: it's entirely due to the optics.

You're a little off (as is TFA): in type 1 diabetes, the beta cells are actually killed off by the immune system. That also means that transplanting in new beta cells is only half of the solution, even if they're genetically identical to the person's original beta cells, because you also need to stop the immune system from attacking the new cells. In TFA, the mice had suppressed immune systems, but current immunosuppression drugs are pretty nasty, and cause a lot of other problems, worse than the original disease in all but the most severe cases.

Yep, those are both excellent (well, if you skip The Last Battle...). While we're talking about great children's fantasy series, I'll also add The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.

Also, pretty much anything by Bruce Coville; he has both fantasy and SF. There's the "My Teacher is an Alien" series, the Unicorn Chronicles, "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher", and lots of others.

That article says that the recovered genome is "remarkably similar to that of the present-day bacterium". Note that it does not say "identical". It also says, "The changes in the genome will be studied one by one to see how each affects the microbe’s virulence." So there have definitely been changes, and the jury is still out on whether they are significant.

Yes, he contracted septicaemic plague, the blood-borne form of Yersinia pestis. That doesn't mean he contracted "the Black Death". The Black Death was almost certainly caused by a variant of Y. pestis which is no longer around (microorganisms tend to change a bit over the course of a few centuries). It's also the name of a specific pandemic of plague, and while there were other smaller outbreaks in the following centuries, they weren't generally referred to by that name. One human case of a disease that is now treatable with antibiotics and easy to contain does not make for a pandemic.

Give him a break: it's impressive enough that he managed to cram in 512 MB, given that the 6502 can only address 64 kB of memory. And he even got Flash to run on it! Quite astounding for a 30-year-old CPU.

Still probably better than taking the risk of forfeiting my $5,500 insulin pump. The warranty is pretty good, but I'm not sure it covers acts of idiot federal employees.

I guess you never flew before 2001. The old system was private security, and they did a much better job of it: just as safe (don't tell me that the TSA is any better at preventing people from bringing things like box cutters on, because they aren't), with much less hassle.

Unfortunately, they're not proof against x-rays, either, and I've also been warned against going through a backscatter x-ray scanner with it. If they really forced me to go through one, I would try to get them to do a manual inspection of just the pump, but if they refuse to do that then there aren't any options left aside from not getting on the plane.

Once you enter the security line, is it possible to just leave and not get on your flight if they refuse to do a manual search? Or are you at their complete mercy? I've never had a problem getting one with my own pump, but this story makes me nervous.

In any case, I really hope she sues them and wins.

P.S. This is probably a good time to mention Rand Paul's End the TSA petition and bill. I'm not usually a big fan of him, but this is one thing I can get behind.

How were you storing those prints? They survive best if you protect them from heat and light, and ideally acids and oxygen as well.