Comment Re:Musk is comparing Apples to Oranges (Score 1) 487
Camrys do not cost $80k.
Comment How many expensive cars on fire? (Score 1) 487
The right question to ask how many new gasoline cars (less than 1 year old) and price tag $50-80k catch a fire. Who gives a damn about old GM pickup truck bought by illegal alien for $100 catching a fire?
Comment Re:BT (Score 1) 336
As powerful as leech.
Comment Miniature Human in Mice??? (Score 1) 59
I guess it's 4th of July, but first time I read is as "Stem Cells Used To Grow Miniature Human Live In Mice".
Comment Re:Fuck No (Score 1) 205
This just reinforces GP point - controller's error can be corrected by pilot, meaning that controller has to screw up pretty badly so that no one can correct it. Pilot errors may be harder to correct. Pilot, like captain of the ship, has ultimate responsibility for what happens to the plane, with the remote piloting this responsibility is hard to exercise.
Comment Real killer (Score 1) 155
Killer app is so easy, just replace red with green on the traffic lights.
Submission + - Sony's North American PSN Chief Leaves (gamergaia.com)
Fevron writes: "The Chief of Sony Entertainments Playstation Network has departed the company. There has been no news as to who will be replacing her as of yet but no doubt Sony will be quick to fill the role to ensure that PSN runs smoothly. Read on for more on the subject."
Submission + - Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners (npr.org)
AndyAndyAndyAndy writes: "Freddie Mac, a taxpayer-owned mortgage company, is supposed to make homeownership easier. One thing that makes owning a home more affordable is getting a cheaper mortgage.
But Freddie Mac has invested billions of dollars betting that U.S. homeowners won't be able to refinance their mortgages at today's lower rates, according to an investigation by NPR and ProPublica."
But Freddie Mac has invested billions of dollars betting that U.S. homeowners won't be able to refinance their mortgages at today's lower rates, according to an investigation by NPR and ProPublica."
Submission + - Senator Wants TSA To Conduct 'Independent' Scanner (propublica.org) 1
OverTheGeicoE writes: US Senator Susan Collins, the top Republican on the homeland security committee, plans to introduce a bill that would require a new health study of the X-ray body scanners used to screen airline passengers nationwide. If the bill becomes law, TSA would be required to choose an 'independent laboratory' to measure the radiation emitted by a scanner currently in use at an airport checkpoint and use the data to produce a peer-reviewed study, to be submitted to Congress, based on its findings. The study would also evaluate the safety mechanisms on the machine and determine 'whether there are any biological signs of cellular damage caused by the scans.' Many Slashdotters are or have been involved in science. Is this a credible experimental protocol? Is it reasonable to expect an organization accused of jeopardizing the health and safety of hundreds of millions of air travelers to pick a truly unbiased lab? Would any lab chosen deliver a critical report and risk future funding? Should the public trust a study of radiology and human health designed by a US Senator whose highest degree is a bachelor's degree in government?
What US Health Care Needs 584
Medical doctor and writer Atul Gawande gave the commencement address recently at Stanford's School of Medicine. In it he lays out very precisely and in a nonpartisan way what is wrong with the institution of medical care in the US — why it is both so expensive and so ineffective at delivering quality care uniformly across the board. "Half a century ago, medicine was neither costly nor effective. Since then, however, science has... enumerated and identified... more than 13,600 diagnoses — 13,600 different ways our bodies can fail. And for each one we've discovered beneficial remedies... But those remedies now include more than six thousand drugs and four thousand medical and surgical procedures. Our job in medicine is to make sure that all of this capability is deployed, town by town, in the right way at the right time, without harm or waste of resources, for every person alive. And we're struggling. There is no industry in the world with 13,600 different service lines to deliver. ... And then there is the frightening federal debt we will face. By 2025, we will owe more money than our economy produces. One side says war spending is the problem, the other says it's the economic bailout plan. But take both away and you've made almost no difference. Our deficit problem — far and away — is the soaring and seemingly unstoppable cost of health care. ... Like politics, all medicine is local. Medicine requires the successful function of systems — of people and of technologies. Among our most profound difficulties is making them work together. If I want to give my patients the best care possible, not only must I do a good job, but a whole collection of diverse components must somehow mesh effectively. ... This will take science. It will take art. It will take innovation. It will take ambition. And it will take humility. But the fantastic thing is: This is what you get to do."
