I thought these were all side effects from reading Slashdot.

And that number is likely to be higher than reality since people who aren't very sick will be unwilling to present for care and, given the poor state of public health infrastructure in that neck of the woods, population surveillance is very hard.

They will have a better idea in the upcoming months when they can screen for Ebola antibodies in the general population.

I gave my dad's K&E slide rule, used on Apollo 10 and 11 launches, to my nephew who is an engineering major in college. His friends think it's the coolest retro thing they've even seen. I'm pretty sure it's the only real professional grade aluminum slide rule they've ever seen.

I remember when I used that thing in high school and college.

I'll just water the lawn now.

Recall, if you will, Einstein's definition of insanity: repeating something time after time and expecting a different result.

Bouillabaisse!

Nah, LP's don't hurt that much if you know what you're doing. An added bonus is that you can do them with the patient sitting up.

Just a little skin prick here and we're done......

Of course, then there is the post spinal headache, but heck can't have everything.

Nah, just Photoshop and a bit of an 'S' curve.

Sounds good! Where do I sign up?

Oh. Wait.

Or maybe this guy was going to die no matter what. This sort of thing happens. While our modern infrastructure is important and we should angst about major fuckups (especially if they involve TWC and friends), even the old unbreakable Bakelite phone / POTS system screwed up from time to time.

The other thing to realize about the current 911 system (at least in the US) is that it is a fairly robust, fairly smart system. In the 'old days' when we had to make sure that paths were clear of T. Rex and raptors, it was often hard to find an address because the caller didn't know where they were. "Rock lane! No Boulder Boulevard! No, Flintstone Freeway!" No we can just look at the map.

But stuff like this is going to fail, Murphy sees to that (genuflects). If somebody actually dies because of a 911 delay, their prognosis is pretty grim anyway.

Don't be evil? That packet left the switch awhile back....

Remind me NOT to send anything to you for repair.

Life. Damned Life. And statistics.

Of course, malice and incompetence are certainly not orthogonal concepts.

Not really. It is so poorly and broadly worded such that it could be interpreted in either way. According to the Ars article, the bill's author has been rather vague about how he interprets it. But if you have a legislature and judiciary that strongly favors, say, a creationism interpretation of reality, it can certainly be bent to considering 'the other guys' has having a particular bent.

It's bad legislation (nothing new here). Not necessarily benign. Yes, Hanlon's Razor suggests incompetence but I personally feel that Occam's Razor suggests malice.

Burma Shave

If you don't want God, you're gonna burn. Death to the Philistine!

Who wins in this game?