Comment Read the title wrong... (Score 1) 193
... I was kind of wondering why the hell terrorists needed VIM on an *IED*
Comment Re:With or without permission? (Score 2, Informative) 176
It would be completely illegal without informed consent. They would have had to go to their Internal Review Board (IRB) and get approval and would be required to follow federal guidelines. This is a highly regulated part of medical privacy and IRBs do not screw around with the rules because the institutional consequences are massive. They range from massive lawsuits to federal crimes. The scientists doing the SNP arrays would also be forbidden from knowing any patient information. Only the doctors involved with patient treatment would know any identifying information.
Now one of the interesting caveats to this is that the doctors involved with the patient's care are privy to the results of the SNP array. Presumably they would be told "Patient X Y and Z have mutations correlated with early onset Alzheimers and Huntington's Disease. They would be obligated to tell their patients and begin any appropriate care. My guess is that is why they decided to study patients around 65 years old. Any genetic predispositions would already have manifest themselves. I am curious if it was done to avoid any ethical concerns with "diagnoses" arising from the study.
Comment NO NO NO... not gene sequenced (Score 2, Informative) 176
This is not the same as sequencing their genomes. This will not provide a full sequence of each person's genome. It will look for specific mutations that have already been identified and tell us who has certain point mutations.
Think of it as the difference between having the full text of the file in the case of sequencing and having a count of the number of times the writer wrote "teh" instead of "the"
This is not to say that this study is without merit but it is not gene sequencing or genomic sequencing.
For more information on SNP arrays wikipedia is helpful and if you really want details you can talk to Affymetrix (I bet these are the arrays they will use).
Comment Re:Right to Free Speech != Right to Defame (Score 2, Interesting) 363
I think we in the US did learn from Britain's mistakes. It's called the First Amendment and was written by some then-until-very-recently British subjects who were learning from mistakes made.
Comment Re:Cirtics say... (uhh exactly) (Score 1) 246
The "critics" seem to know that customers are where businesses get their $$ from. Who knew?
Comment I can't even access my own work... (Score 2, Informative) 223
...in peer reviewed journals. That is unless someone pays a fat subscription fee on my behalf.
Woman Admits Sending $400K To Nigerian Scammer
857
svnt writes "Janella Spears wiped out her husband's retirement account, remortgaged their paid-for house, and took out a lien against the family car in an attempt to cash in on the deal. A undercover officer involved with the investigation called it the worst example of the scam he's ever seen. Thoughtfully, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim."
Comment Re:It ISN'T a requirement. (Score 0) 567
The answer to all of your "follow up examples" is this: they shouldn't
"Why on earth should engineering majors study optics, when so few will work with optics?"
They shouldn't be precluded from engineering for being bad at optics. If they need to learn it in the future they can... or someone who is good at optics will do it.
"Why should a computer science major study operating systems, when scant few of them will actually work on an operating system?"
They absolutely shouldn't "study operating systems" unless they are working on some kind of operating system science. What they should do is be proficient at using a computer enough so that they can analyze their data. Perhaps more computer savvy for physicists and less so for cell biologists.
"Why should English majors study poetry, when so few will become poets?"
Your one good example. Studying poetry would actually benefit someone writing prose if only to allow their prose to be more poetic. However, a lack of poetry knowledge shouldn't preclude you from being a writer.
"Why should Business majors study economics, when so few will actually become economists?"
Once again... knowledge of economics probably can help businessmen. Although you should remember that Bill Gates never finished college and most likely never took Economics and that didn't stop him from being the most successful businessman on the face of the earth. Steve Jobs is also a dropout, as well as Michael Dell, Paul Allen, Ralph Lauren, David Geffen, Larry Ellison, and Andrew Carnegie to name a few. No one told them that they couldn't be businessmen because they didn't take Econ 101.
'Why should a home owner buy fire detectors, when so few will have their house burn down?"
This has nothing to do with organic chemistry and medical school. This is akin to saying how could someone be a doctor without taking organic chemistry when people always look both ways before crossing the street. Its a good idea to have smoke detectors but not having them doesn't prevent you from living without burning to death in your home.
"Why should people buy the Journal, when it publishes such stupid crap?"
Who knows?
EV71 Outbreak In China Sparks Fears For Olympics 199
OMNIpotusCOM writes "CNN is reporting an outbreak of Enterovirus 71 (or EV71), that has affected more than 3700 children and killed over 20, is creating concern for the visitors and athletes expected for the Beijing Olympics in August. The virus can cause 'poliolike paralysis,' according to the article."
Psychologists Don't Know Math 566
stupefaction writes "The New York Times reports that an economist has exposed a mathematical fallacy at the heart of the experimental backing for the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance. The mistake is the same one that mathematicians both amateur and professional have made over the Monty Hall problem. From the article: "Like Monty Hall's choice of which door to open to reveal a goat, the monkey's choice of red over blue discloses information that changes the odds." The reporter John Tierney invites readers to comment on the goats-and-car paradox as well as on three other probabilistic brain-teasers."
The DIY Tank 334
Will Foster, a Kettering University student, has built his own half sized Panzer tank. It took Will 2 years and around $10,000 to build his mini-tank and he says the process has been "a lot of trial and error...I'd buy a $200 part that didn't work, then go to a $300 part that didn't work before finding a $50 part that did." The tank is about as big as a small car, and can reach speeds of around 20 mph with its three-cylinder diesel engine. It runs on treads, has a cannon powered by compressed air from a scuba tank and parks wherever the hell it wants.
Google Honors Veterans Day, Finally 693
theodp writes "It took nearly a decade, but Google has done a turnabout and is honoring Veterans Day with a special holiday design for its famous logo. Users who log onto Google's home page are greeted with three World War I-era helmets capping the letters 'o' and 'e' in Google's name. The decoration is a marked departure for the company, which has come under fire from veterans' groups for ignoring American holidays such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day since Google's inception in 1999."
Submission + - 3...2...1... Economy Space Travel!
webax writes: ""The 68-foot (21-meter) booster rocket called Falcon 1 lifted off at 9:10 p.m. EDT (0110 GMT Wednesday) from Omelek Island on a U.S. military missile test range at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and successfully arrived in space minutes later." Article SpaceX.com "
DNA-rainbow, A New Vision of Human Chromosomes 161
An anonymous reader writes "Two scientists have rendered amazing pictures using datafiles from the human genome project. They assigned different colors to the DNA and rendered images showing interesting patterns and strange structures of our chromosomes. It might be a groundbreaking new idea for displaying and maybe better understanding our genes. With its fascinating pictures it is a beautiful mix of science and art."
Vista Family Discount Keys Found Not Compatible 394
acousticiris writes "Many (if not all) users who took advantage of Microsoft's Vista Family Discount have been issued invalid installation keys and cannot install Windows Vista Home Premium. Microsoft says, 'There is no expected time period for a fix at this time.' According to the article, the keys are valid for something, just not Windows Vista. Perhaps it's just too simple to issue these folks new keys and send them on their way."
