Did we get it down to 29%?

I can think of several people that I would like to volunteer for a one-way ticket to Mars. Were these volunteers self-nominated, or did Mars One accept third-party nominations?

Humph. Don't insult people you don't know. I am a Fellow of the IEEE, and have been an IEEE member for more than thirty years. (In fact, I was a member of the ACM for more than ten years.) I probably have downloaded a thousand articles from IEEExplore since it was created (my books are very well referenced, I like to think), and there's nothing I like better than using the web to research obscure technical topics on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Of course the technology to collate information into an easy-to-read list already exists. That's not the point. The issue is determining which information is collated. By telling the software tool what information you want to see, you are inherently determining what information you will not see. This limits what you can learn. How can you be exposed to new areas of interest if your RSS feeds only present you with news from fields in which you already have an interest?

Searching for something on IEEExplore is qualitatively different from getting an issue of JSSC in the mail. The purpose of the search engine is to exclude everything except what I have requested. The paper copy of JSSC, on the other hand, has its Table of Contents on the cover, and it's harder to find a wider distribution of circuit technologies listed in one spot anywhere else. Suddenly, I find myself reading an article on ferroelectric RAM, or distributed amplification, or biasing of Indium Phosphide mixers -- things I never would have realized that I would find interesting. The effect is even stronger when reading the journals Science and Nature.

When I am on the Web, I prefer to peruse sites with a wide variety of subject matter -- arXiv is fun to browse, as is Eurekalert!, although the latter has a pretty high PR content. The "Random article" link on Wikipedia is also a good source of things one doesn't know. But to stay up-to-date, it's far easier to pick up the latest paper copy of Science News on the coffee table.

Yeah, thanks for that 21st-Century update -- I'll be sure to check out RSS RSN.

The trouble with such schemes is that they assume that I know a priori what information I either want or need, and that is almost never the case. It's hard to learn new stuff when the information to which you're exposed is pre-filtered to include only the stuff you think you want to hear. (It may harden one's political beliefs, but I wouldn't consider that a good thing.)

One of the benefits of a print journal is that I get exposed to a wide variety of subject matter, including stuff I either didn't know existed, or thought I wouldn't find interesting, giving me a chance to learn new things and change my opinions.

Print publications are literally put into my hand, giving me more incentive to read them upon receipt. Web sites require an active effort on my part to go read them, which is often not done due to my habit of procrastination ("I'll take time to check that tomorrow"). Even email links to my monthly periodicals go unused, for similar reasons.

To me, it's the difference between polling- and interrupt-driven systems. The processor has to be constantly (or at least repetitively) awake to poll, while the processor can be asleep and awoken by an interrupt. The interrupt-based system is usually the lower-energy way to go.

Or the pythons to eat the tourists; either way, we win!

Maybe we can get VisitFlorida.com to promote braised Burmese Python with African Snail under glass au jus as a local delicacy. I mean, it worked for oysters. . . .

I'm hoping we can get the pythons to eat the snails.

With weather satellites in private hands, they will be used for private purposes, holding NOAA (and everyone using its weather services, i.e., everyone) hostage to a private entity. This is an incredibly bad idea.

The information has been released for public access (it contains nothing classified), but (apparently) not vetted for export control. Many, many so-called "public access" technologies cannot be exported to specific individuals and entities. For example, designs of microprocessors capable of operation at ambient temperatures above 125 C are not classified, but are a controlled technology. See item 3A001.a.2.a in the Commerce Control List.

We may agree on the utility of taking that server off-line, but it's the law, and woe betide the brave soul that ignores US export control regulations.

You're talking apples and oranges.

Classified technologies must be kept secret from everyone not authorized to see them, regardless of their nationality.

In the U.S., export-controlled technologies are technologies that may be freely distributed to anyone in the country -- and indeed, to anyone in most countries -- but not to members of certain "lists." One of the lists is for entities, and includes, "China." Such technologies may be even discussed in public forums -- stadiums, even -- as long as one is assured that no one from the restricted lists is present. Note that one does not have to physically export anything to be in violation of these laws -- discussing the wrong technology with the wrong foreign national is all that is required.

I'm not an expert in this field, but I seem to remember an exception to the rules in that anything intended for publication is permitted to be exported. That's how technical journals continued to exist. Strange, I know.

Actually, the military and licensed government spectrum is controlled by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. It informs the FCC what frequencies will be used by federal users. The FCC only regulates use of the spectrum by non-federal users.

Both must coordinate with each other, of course, and international bodies like the International Telecommunications Union.

The National Radio Quiet Zone has been there since 1958. It's not like it was just discovered yesterday. People living in this zone have always had to live without radio transmitters. Not having 802.11 is just another of the services they cannot use, like wireless garage-door openers and cell phones.

I assume these programs would be released under the GPL, or some other open-source license?

ASCII art is cool enough, but RTTY art is where it's at!

-Anon.

The reason health care workers are required to be vaccinated is that someone contracting the flu starts to shed the flu virus for some hours before other symptoms develop. By the time someone begins to feel bad, sneeze, etc. one has already been spreading the illness for hours. (One can see how a virus that behaved in this way would be evolutionarily advantaged over a virus that spread only after the patient first noticed other symptoms.)

Since the spreading mechanism is primarily via the hands touching the nose and mouth, and then touching other surfaces (like doorknobs or keyboards) that are then touched by others, most hospitals with which I am familiar have a different policy: If an employee refuses the flu vaccine, the employee is not terminated, but is required to wear a face mask at all times when at work. This breaks the spreading pathway, albeit less efficiently.

Many hospitals even provide free, voluntary, flu vaccinations to the family members of employees, to reduce the possibility that virus particles shed by, say, a sick child will not be carried by the health care worker into the hospital (for example, in hair or on clothes). This has the added benefit of reducing time away from work to take care of, e.g., a child sick with the flu.