Ok, I read a bit about it, and it’s actually B cells that would have to be transformed.
Or another way would be, to let the immune system fight the fight outside of the body, in a petri dish. And then inject the now trained cells again.

The increase in slums will come at an increase in people, and no matter how green they are; more people is less green.

All the existing antibiotics attack various mechanisms of bacteria. Even though the cellular critters can evolve around these attacks, it generally requires more resources to do so: extra thick cell walls, extra toxin pumps, etc. While any one work-around won't be a major stumbling block for the critter, It seems to me that fairly low doses of many antibiotics would attack enough mechanisms of the critter to slow down its reproduction enough for the human body's defenses to have an edge on it.

It's just like WW2: you bomb their train tracks, bridges, ports, power plants, etc. such that the total result slows them down even though no one attack stops them. It seems the current crop of antibiotics try to be a single magic key, which is unrealistic in the long run.

And even more interesting was the estimate of 5.4 million sold to collectors. I don't understand the point of collecting a stamp when there are 46 million others just like it? It's the same notion of collecting all the state quarters I suppose.

I would call him a douchebag, except for the fact that it would be an insult to douchebags.

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Which one?

I just ran it doing a poor man's manual verification (i.e. go to www.browserchoice.eu and refresh it 40 times and see what happens) and it looked pretty freaking random to me. More often than not, IE was somewhere in the middle, as were all the others.

Some people have been complaining that, given the algorithm, IE would end up in the last position about 50% of the time. While 40 hits is not enough to give any real valid statistical data, IE was in the last position 3 times and the first position 6 times. They should be in either first or last position 40% of the time for a truly random function, and about 64% for the flawed function, but in my short test they were only in either position a little over 20% of the time. I'd be very surprised to see that low of a result if the function is biased toward them 64% of the time.

In other words, I call bullshit, and I want you to prove their function is not adequate, and I want real-world verification that what you say is true.

Yeah, I know I'm asking a lot, but it's no more than what all these people talking out their asses are demanding from Microsoft. In fact, it's a lot more realistic - generally in western society the burden of proof is on the accuser. So prove that what they use is not adequate, because it looks good enough to me.

This is the internet. We're allowed to say "shit".

I agree with your point, but not with your analogy.

Auto manufacturers do have explicit policies against you re-wiring your car. Doing so will certainly void your warranty. Also, many auto manufacturers actively design their cars specifically to prevent modification and repair by unauthorized persons. You may be able to change the oil in your expensive European luxury car, but if you want the light on the dashboard that says it's time for an oil change to go out, you'll need to either visit the dealer, or reverse-engineer the computer the dealer uses to reset those lights. In addition, the various computers in the car communicate using proprietary protocols, so if you want to integrate a computer of your own into your car, you'll have to reverse-engineer those protocols.

It sucks when auto manufacturers do it, it sucks when printer manufacturers do it, and it sucks when Apple does it. One of the things I look for in a car is a healthy aftermarket and a knowledgeable community of owners who work on their own cars. I don't want to have to take my car to the dealer for a problem I could solve myself, and likewise I don't want to have to ask Steve Jobs' permission to run a little app on my phone. I want my stuff to be my stuff, and if the manufacturer wants to lock me out of my own stuff, then I'll find another manufacturer to give my money to.

(Note: I am still in highschool, but I spent 6 weeks living on the cmu campus and taking courses there. I had the same computer access as a regular student, and brought my own Linux netbook.)

Carnegie Mellon fully supports Linux (in fact, a large percent of university-operated desktops run Red Hat), though the documentation for this support is a little lacking in a few areas. For example, they have a fairly complicated printing setup requiring special software in both Windows and Mac (technically not needed in Mac, but advisable). Since this system is using cups (iirc), no extra software (beyond the obvious) is required in Linux. However, finding the ip and such for the print server really required some digging, eventually taking me to user-provided documentation hosted by the School of Computer Science.

Overall, there is absolutely no problem with running Linux at cmu. However, non tech-savvy users may find themselves needing to seek help. Getting that help should hardly be a problem, considering they types of people who go there.

Of course, individual classes may have software requirements. However, you should just be able to use the public terminals all over campus for this. (I had to do this every now and then on lab reports since OpenOffice doesn't support y-error bars).

On the other hand, some EWS workstations like the ones in Everitt here (also UIUC) comprise solely of Red Hat machines. Plus, there are a lot of directions for enabling printers, installing software, etc. Although it's not officially supported, it seems to be accepted.

Well, in addition to the Chinese HTR-10, which they are now selling around the third world in mass production, South Africa is gearing up production- if the third world can do it, I don't see why we can't.

Credit Card numbers are useless to even the DHS, if they are acquired under false pretenses.

A long time ago I read a book called "Hacksaw", about a long-time felon that had, at that time, held the record for the most prison/custody escapes.

The first thing he did when he escaped was to head to the nearest cemetery. He then began looking for headstones that had a birth date near to that of his own (but NOT the exact same), AND had a death date less then a year more recent then the birth date on the stone. In short, he looked for the gravestones of children that died shortly after birth. He wrote these names down, then did a little library research to determine if the child had died in same locale (newspaper obituaries). If they did, he discarded the name and researched the next.

What he was trying to do was find a child that had died in area DIFFERENT then where it had been born. He had figured out that unless BOTH the birth certificate and death certificate were on file in the same recording office, he could then apply for a new birth certificate in that child's name with almost zero chance of the recording office realizing the name was that of a dead child. Since the child was dead, and at such a young age, the chances the child had been issued a SS# were next to nil.

At this point he could apply for a birth certificate in that child's name, a VALID SS#, and from that point he had a new identity that was not stolen. It was now HIS, and it worked like a charm every single time he used this method. I see no reason to think that he could not start creating a decent credit profile with a clean record.

I have no idea how this would work these days (he was doing it back in the 70's), what with all the new-fangled techy stuff, but it goes to show that where there is a will, there is a way.

Security Theatre, indeed.

The only way this could be better is if it were the Apple II environment. A belated triumph of Woz over Jobs.

There are at least four factors at work in determining the happiness of an individual - neurological chemistry, experience, intelligence, and wisdom. Wisdom and intelligence don't necessarily go together - Bernie Madoff is a great example of this. He's a very smart guy, but he has caused a lot of suffering to himself and others. You can even study the roots of suffering as an intellectual exercise, but if you can't apply what you've learned to your own life as you're living it, it isn't going to make you happy. Consistently applying such principles in action is wisdom.

Sounds like he could use some private investors who are willing to take big risks to get big rewards.

If the local real estate market makes building profitable enough, he should be able to make it worth their while. If local homebuilders are defaulting on loans, though, the market may not be ready for new homes to be built at this time. It sounds to me like the banks are watching their backs for now. That's understandable, given what has happened to real estate over the past year. However, there are always people looking for ways to make money from investments, and if your friend has the numbers to back up his proposals, he should be able to convince someone to buy in.