Before undergoing a very high risk surgical procedure my mother, a retired nurse, gave written and verbal advanced directives to her children. She did not wake up from the anesthesia. Terminating the vent had already been agreed upon so our only decision was whether or not to comply with Mom's directive. I'm an MD with extensive experience dealing with end of life decisions. It was still hard.

O! I forgot about that Snowden fellow.

In my first career as an engineer working in Oak Ridge in the 60's I did some contract work for NASA. We had a bit of tech they needed for a small part. We at the K-25 were amazed by the money NASA could toss around. Getting into the moon did not seem so easy or cheap while we were doing it. Now I'm a retired ER physician, most of the time in direct patient care but was also involved in managing an ER staffing corporation. I can say with certainty that if you left finding the solution to current "best experts in health care and economics" you'd wind up with even more money in the hands of health care brokers with precious little more health care delivered. I have not a clue how to improve health care delivery in the USA. The website issue is much ado about nothing. I'm no coder now but did some 40 years ago and was always impressed by how easily someone else could find my mistakes. Error trapping is hard.

I replied "Within the past month" because of attempting to fax a document. One of my non profit's vendors,Cisco Webex, requested a tax exempt form by fax. None of my computers even have a modem so I dug out the manual for my multifunction printer/fax/scanner but after a frustrating hour and much Googling discovered ATT Uverse didn't like my machine. Emailed Cisco and asked if they would accept a scanned email attachment but have yet to get a reply. Then borrowed my son's usb modem and tried to fax. No luck faxing Cisco but I did use a modem in the last month. I finally used one of the internet fax services. Not a clue if it got through. Guess I'll know if taxes start showing up on our bill.

Selective reading is necessary, even on Slashdot. In my brain "Bitcoin" = "Keep scrolling."

First time I've had to Google a /. term.

While it is true that no parent is so liberal that a daughter can't find some intolerable music or boyfriend, every year there are fewer new pieces of music I want to hear again.

Modern Advocacy Organizations Call it "Getting the word out."

By Mike Resnik is my most recent. 1984, Childhood's End, and Cat's Cradle were pretty much downer's when I read them.

I have two hobbies that involve more meetings than any real job ever did. Funny how I'll do for free what I'd never do for pay.

No Aussie would waste time on such a project. Wait! Was beer involved?

DVD FAB has a "Rewind" option. Must be a hold over from the VHS FAB version.

I'm old and about to die. I really don't care.

Not really knowing about cloud platforms, I needed to pick a random answer to get to the comments to get a clue. What I learned is how hard it is to close your eyes and mouse click a random poll answer.

My one and only New Year's resolution, quitting smoking, was kept. I did it New Year's Day after waking up with holes burned in my clothes and blisters on my cigarette holding fingers. Guess I could have chosen to quite imbibing but one must know his limits.