According to James Clapper, "Even more than terrorism, the threat of cyberattack is the biggest peril currently facing the United States". If Cybersecurity is a major threat to the US, you would think that some agency in the government would be interested in making it easy to report security flaws and not prosecute people for reporting security flaws. "And I said to myself, what a F&$#ed up world."

Hi, A friend of mine was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, Stage 4, and he spent the next 6 months lecturing his sons (grades 5 and 8) and getting them to promise to be good. I hated to watch him do it because it put a tremendous extra burden on them. One year later, I would have to say the sons are not being "good." The burden of living up to Dad's expectations was overwhelming, I think. I lost my father the summer after 6th grade. I remember him telling me I could do anything I wanted, after he listened to me sing, "I am Woman, hear me Roar," probably slightly off key, and telling him I wanted to be a rock star. You won't be there in person in the future, but you are there now. Love her every day as if there is no tomorrow, thinking about today's concerns. Respond to her questions today. She's not ready for the future now, but trust that you've given her enough by who you are and she will be when she gets there.

Of course, you can always read the Last Lecture, and do what that tells you to do.


-A geeky scientist Mom

I had a phonne that did this; very helpful on campus where, due to instruments/equipment, whatever, you can't cell a cellular signal in many buildings, including the med school, but you can easily get wifi. Now my kid is in college, I signed him up for Republic because hey, he's nearly always around wifi and he can afford the monthly fees.

If the kid does not want play dates, I would not force them. Find a way to make time with the kid happy and learning or exploring his world - if this occurs at the specialist's, great, if it occurs at a museum where the kid is essentially alone looking at exhibits or just with you, great. Sometimes kids like individual sports such as swimming. Childhood is short! good luck. But, I'm not autistic and no expert, just a Mom.

Sounds easy, but there are more bacterial cells in your body than eukaryotic (human) cells by a factor of 10, and unlike the human cells that all have the same DNA, the bacteria are different. By the way, if you want to know what various types of bacteria are in your personal stool, you can go to American Gut and pay someone $99 to analyze your shit. The answer, however, will be fairly general, because no one's sequenced all the different bacteria there.

My phone (Z998) is running Android 4.1.2 through AT&T and there is no option to upgrade to the fixed version. I am switching to Chrome and Firefox for use as web browsers but otherwise looks like I'm stuck.

Helicopter parenting does not produce nerds. Nerds are people who love something so much they learn all about it and are totally engrossed by it (defnition by Wil Wheaton at some convention). Parents can push you, but they can't push you into true nerd-dom. My personal corollary: to be a true nerd, there has to be a large element of inutility in the subject. Klingon translator does not land you jobs. I'm a little bit of a weather nerd; the weather in Montgomery County on December 20th was high 35, low of 19, sunset at 4:48. I wouldn't want them walking home in the dark, without winter jackets, and unable to describe which way home was. Assuming the kids had jackets on and it was daylight, and they knew the route, somebody needs to take a chill pill.

Just as not only one person thought of 3D printing a gun, lots of groups have had the idea to 3D print the output of medical imaging (e.g. http://depts.washington.edu/uw... and http://digm.drexel.edu/portfol...). One company has even gotten FDA medical device approval (http://3dprint.com/18577/materialise-heartprint-class-1/) and one man printed his tumor before and after chemotherapy (http://3dprint.com/14359/3d-printed-cancer-tumors-2/).

So my point is, this is /.-worthy news?

No, more important that using language to make tools is using language to get other people to gape at you while you use tools. How many times have I heard, "Honey, can you pass me that screwdriver/nail/hammer/allen wrench/Manly Item so you will know how Manly I am"?

The answer is to hunt down, arrest, and prosecute the people who perform terrorist acts, whether they are doing it for the glory of Islam or because they hate all police officers, or because they think all black youth are criminals, or because they think Israel the state should not exist, or because they were following terrorist orders from superiors. Sometimes terrorists do have a point, but nobody including would-be terrorists has the right to use terrorism to make their point.

The fact that it is trivially easy to break a law is not, actually, a defense. The fact that you believe a law to be wrong does give you the right to break the law and turn yourself in and argue the law is wrong in court. It does not give you the moral authority to argue that it is right to break the law and just get away with it for free. Would Ghandi be a freedom fighter if he stole salt and didn't go to jail for it? Another option is to run for office or support those running for office to change the law. Stealing and patting yourself on the back is still stealing.

Copyright infringement is theft because it denies a copyright owner the ability to sell the product for which they have the copyright and thus they lose money. If I sell a knock-off Louis Vuitton bag that looks like a real one to Madame A, I am depriving Louis Vuitton the right to sell a real bag to Madame A. This is copyright infringement; you lose money and I go to jail. If I give away a knock-off Louis Vuitton bag to Madame A, I am still depriving Louis Vuitton the ability to sell the bag. I suffer monetary loss from your actions. Copyright infringement with no physical handbag is completely equivalent - except worse, because at least the knock-off Louis Vuitton bags are lower quality than the real deal and for digital copyright infringement, the copy is as good as the original. Many have posted on this issue: it is the settled law of the land.