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Comment Re: Mosaic (Score 1) 85

I saw an interesting example of mosaicism in a medical journal. An infant was born with half male genitals, half female genitals. The most obvious explanation was that he/she was born of two embryos, one male, the other female, that combined at an early stage (but not too early) and formed a mosaic individual, with patches of male and female cells. Mosaicism actually is pretty common in biology. Sometimes you get patches of skin that vary between 2 colors. The later the embryo recombines, the bigger the patches are.

That has nothing to do with recombining of the embryo (don't know about the story You mention, there it can be an explanation, I am talking about the 2 color story, e.g. a cow or a dog, and mosaicism in general), the different patches exist because of mutations in one embryo. These mutated cells will divide just as the not mutated ones. And the sooner these mutations occur, the bigger the patches will be. And You don't need a stem cell or organ transplant to get mosaicism, You get it in the woomb.

Comment Re:Surely this can't continue forever? (Score 1) 296

Hopefully, some of the other parties will realise that people don't want to be monitored,

The big problem is that many people feel safe when there is monitoring going on and they want it that way. At least that way terrorism becomes impossible (please tell me it is so), and someone should think of the children as well, this monitoring garantuees their safety (please tell me it is so). And as they themselves have nothing to hide, they ask people who do make a fuss about it why they are making such a fuss about it. These people must have things they want to hide. OK, it is important that these data remain private, but when almost 400.000 people have gotten a thorough security training, security just CAN'T be bad, can it? "They" will most certainly know what they are doing, right?

Intel

Intel Threatens To Revoke AMD's x86 License 476

theraindog writes "AMD's former manufacturing division opened for business last week as GlobalFoundries, but the spin-off may run afoul of AMD's 2001 cross-licensing agreement with Intel. Indeed, Intel has formally accused AMD of violating the agreement, and threatened to terminate the company's licenses in 60 days if a resolution is not found. Intel contends that GlobalFoundries is not a subsidiary of AMD, and thus is not covered by the licensing agreement. AMD has fired back, insisting that it has done nothing wrong, and that Intel's threat constitutes a violation of the deal. At stake is not only AMD's ability to build processors that use Intel's x86 technology, but also Intel's ability to use AMD's x86-64 tech in its CPUs."

Comment Re:Yes they are... (Score 1) 763

That depends on the pill in question. Blood pressure meds, sure. Less so Viagra and birth control drugs.

IAAMD and I am sorry but You are completely wrong here. People don't care about blood pressure pills because they don't feel the negative effects of not taking them. If they weren't being paid for by insurance companies, many people would probably not buy them. Pills like Viagra on the other hand are immensely popular, even though nobody will admit taking them. And they are much more expensive then most blood pressure control pills. Fortunately I got a good offer the other day in my mailbox, much cheaper then normal. And that's good because I think that after my, also very cheap, penis enlargement I will need the double dose.

Networking

USPS Server Meltdown 238

m2pc writes "The US Postal Service is experiencing major server issues for its shipping API web services. After spending about an hour debugging my own eCommerce software for a client, I found the problem was with the USPS shipping servers being unavailable. Further research showed that message boards for OS Commerce and other e-Commerce packages are filling with posts from angry users who are experiencing crashing Web store applications and frustrated customers. Developers are scrambling to find interim solutions, from hard-coding fixed price shipping, to 'rolling their own' shipping calculation APIs based on the USPS Fixed Rate Zone Tables, to disabling the USPS option altogether. One user reported yesterday that a call to USPS yielded the response 'we expect it to be down all day.' As of 9:20 AM PST the service is still unavailable."
Image

Anathem Screenshot-sm 356

Max Tardiveau writes "I just finished reading Neal Stephenson's latest novel, Anathem. I was awaiting it with some anticipation because I absolutely loved Stephenson's best-known novels: Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon. One of Stephenson's non-fiction pieces, called In the beginning was the command line, simply wowed me when I read it. The man can write. A few years ago, I got really excited when I heard that he was writing a whole cycle of novels (the Baroque cycle). But I read the first book of the cycle — Quicksilver — and I was somewhat disappointed, so I skipped the rest of the cycle. I realize that many people enjoyed these novels, but I was hoping that Stephenson would get back his old style and inspiration. So, when Anathem was announced, I was full of anticipation — was this going to be the one? Would he find his mark again?" Keep reading for Max's impressions of Anathem
Role Playing (Games)

Blizzard Sued By South Carolina Inmate 239

Benjamin Duranske writes "Jonathan Lee Riches, an inmate in South Carolina famous for filing long, handwritten, rambling screeds against celebrities, politicians, and even buildings, has filed a third-party motion in Federal Court in Arizona in the MDY v. Blizzard botting case claiming that Blizzard's World of Warcraft 'caused Riches mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs. Riches was addicted to video games and lost touch with reality because of defendants. This caused Riches to commit fraud to buy defendants video games. Riches chose World of Warcraft over working a legit job, Riches mind became a living video game.'"
Communications

Handling Caller ID Spoofing? 556

An anonymous reader writes "A nice little old lady I know has had her number spoofed by some car warranty scammers. They're calling hundreds of potential victims per day pretending to use her phone number, and the angry ones call her back; some of them have even left death threats. She's terrified. Some well-intending anti-telemarketing folks have posted her address on the 'net as well. How can we figure out where these scammer bastards are, and what's the state of the current legislation to prevent caller ID spoofing? I called the FBI in Boston (near where she lives) and they said they can't help. She's called her phone company, but they said they can't help either. She's had the same number for over 50 years and doesn't want to change it." If the Feds can't or won't handle it, what's the best approach here?

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