Sorry that I missed this message in the chatter in this discussion. Considering what you have been through you are probably one of the toughest people I've ever met online. I'm very impressed at your ability to bounce back from all that so quickly, I hope things start getting better for you.

I can also tell you that from some of the research I have been proximal to over the past decade or so, we could probably reach a point of an eye implant (something equivalent to what the Cochlear implant does for the ear) within the next couple years. Unfortunately that kind of work mostly only gets done when the US government wants to fund it, and NIH funding is atrocious right now. Maybe some of your friends from the retinal super-center (I'm trying hard not to think of Walmart when I see the phrase "super-center") can recruit some American researchers to go up there and they can tap into the scientific research money that various Canadian government agencies are willing and able to dole out.

Maybe that could be your campaign promise - "bringing the best American medical research to Canada so we can benefit first" - if you do decide to run. It wouldn't be the first scientific coup for Canada; IIRC back in 2008 Stephen Hawking accepted a post at Waterloo University.

It should be. But history (e.g. the "only sell through registered dealers" laws) says it won't be. It'll be in favor of whoever pays the most bribes to the right officials.

That's already the case in the US (and as I recall, we discussed it here a few years back). US law for some time has required that new auto tires contain an RFID tag. Granted, those can't be read at a distance, but they can be read by sensors under the roadway or in poles next to the street.

It's hard to believe that the purpose of this can be anything but tracking. Yeah, such tags might have other uses, but would any of those uses have resulted in laws mandating the tags?

Well, maybe, and maybe not.

I recall a couple years ago, when I was traveling south on a street in a nearby town, but when I glanced at the GPS gadget, it showed me about a block north of where I was -- and headed north. Traffic was light, so I looked at it frequently, to see what it did, and it showed me continuing north, until my actual location was nearly a mile south of what it showed. Then it decided I'd made a U-turn, and was proceeding south at a rather high speed. Finally, the little You-Are-Here icon reached my actual position, and slowed down to match me. A bit later, I checked its records of that trip, and it showed a max speed somewhat over 250 mph.

So if the police had access to that data, I'd have got a ticket for going about 8 times the legal speed limit. I sorta suspect that most judges would laugh and toss it out. But if it'd been only twice the speed limit, I'd probably have had a large fine to pay.

And note that the position was credible, though it was roughly a mile off. A couple of months ago, however, I noticed that, while my bearing and speed seemed accurate, my GPS position was roughly 100 miles SE of my actual position, which put me maybe 10 or 20 miles east of Cape Cod, driving along in the ocean. It stayed that way for at least 15 minutes, and then suddenly popped over to a local street a few blocks from my actual position.

I've also seen it showing my position as being in north-central Canada, and somewhere in Nevada, when I was actually in the Boston metro area.

So if the police are tracking our GPS position and speed, we have no defense. Yes, maybe the judges will dismiss the tickets that are obviously so badly wrong. But if they're only off by a few miles or mph, we'll all be getting completely bogus tickets that we'll have to pay.

Of course, they may still dismiss them for people who "look right" and "talk right", as they do with claimed drug offenses. ;-)

We are in a War on Faith, because Faith justifies anything and ISIS takes it to extremes. But in the end they are just a bigger version of Christian-dominated school boards that mess with the teaching of Evolution, or Mormon sponsors of anti-gay-marriage measures, or my Hebrew school teacher, an adult who slapped me as a 12-year-old for some unremembered offense against his faith.

Hm. The covenant of Noah is about two paragraphs before this part (King James Version) which is used for various justifications of slavery and discrimination against all sorts of people because they are said to bear the Curse of Ham. If folks wanted to use the Bible to justify anything ISIS says is justified by God's words in the Koran, they could easily do so.

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

... sounds like the GOP in the US.

Yeah, I know that slashdot's overwhelming conservative majority will mod this comment down into oblivion in retaliation, but that doesn't make it untrue.

As I've said before, the democrats promise to improve things and - either through incompetence or evil - end up screwing me instead. The GOP campaigns on promising to screw me.

For now, I'll take the fantasy. I like to think that I could keep a job here in this country.

The whole apk bit I find generally ... amusing. I almost never see a post from the actual apk user, pretty much they are always AC posts claiming to be him. Granted, accounts on slashdot aren't goo for establishing identity anyways but seeing an AC claim to be someone is something I find humorous.

That said the AC/apk posts directed at you are certainly meaner than the typical AC/apk posts here.

You just keep repeating your memes, as if they mean something...

... as you have of the sources you just attempted to make fun of. This means I am at least as qualified as you to say that your source sucks.

Hey, maybe your way really IS more fun!

It could well be an American thing. Frankly I would expect that if anyone from any other country (sans perhaps Afghanistan or Somalia) saw ads for American politicians and knew what they actually stand for, they would go running far, far, away from this site.

On a different note, slashdot won't let me add you to my friends list yet. I see you put me on yours but the option does not exist for me to reciprocate. It doesn't seem to be a case of having too many friends, as I can get to that for other users, so I presume it is because your new account is so new?

We saw a project like this (at least) a couple years ago. Someone did something like this previously, when data plans were generally expensive but unlimited SMS was easily available.

The National Institutes of Health are one of (or perhaps the, depending on whom you ask) largest funding sources for research from the federal government. I know many people who have reviewed grant applications there, and they would be rather astonished to see

Because at NIH indeed you are placed on a grant review board because of your techical knowledge of the matter. On top of that, the applications are all supported by citations in technical (and peer-reviewed) papers.

As best I understand funding at DOE and NSF works much the same way; your odds of getting funded are astronomically better if you have good primary literature to support the experiment you propose. Now, if your funding plans revolve around convincing your favorite congress-critter to write in a line (or a full bill) to get you some money, that might work too but it generally isn't the most reliable way to establish a career path.