I am an EMT and have a pager and it is not just useful it is absolutely essential.
Caveat: I live in Green Bank, WVa. The city without cell phones, wifi etc etc.
I think pagers are still pretty widespread in the emergency services. At least volunteer departments where we are on call 24/7 and not sat in a station when on duty.
First of all I should mention that I am a resident of Green Bank WV and the people mentioned in the article are known to me. Including Diane Schou.
Just wanted to say that while the cause of their symptoms can be argued about endlessly the symptoms they have are real and they can be debilitating. The whole issue is no joke to them and as was said by Charlie Meckna, "Do you think I want this?, No!"
I don't think any of them are trying to pull a fast one or indulging in attention seeking behaviour. The ones I have met are just plain folks.
Hyperbole.
In five hours I can drive to Washington DC from Green Bank (Yes I live there so I know) Two hours to I81 or 1 hour to I64. So yes it is a bit remote but not literally the middle of nowhere.
Plenty of people do come here, especially in winter as Snowshoe ski resort is ~10 miles away from us as the crow flies.
Emergency personel here in the US of A quite deliberately avoid looking for S.O.S. bracelets and similar."
Bullshit. One of the first things we're taught in EMT class is to look for them.
(D) the information is retrieved for the purpose of determining the need for, or facilitating, emergency medical response in response to a motor vehicle crash.
As an EMT who has attended a number of MVAs I don't need no black box to help me determine whether there was a significant mechanism of injury. I'm certainly not going to be spending time fannying about trying to read out the black box when I have patients who need my help right now.
I'm sufficiently well trained to determine for myself whether someone requires treatment and I don't see how information from a black box is going to "facilitate" the limited treatments I am permitted to perform as an EMT-B.
That said, if law enforcement can retrieve info like speed, accelerations etc and transmit that to the receiving facility I can see the utility.
I can't believe how little protest the remote attestation aspect has generated. From TFA: "To prove a client is healthy, the anti-malware software can quote TPM measurements to a remote verifier."
How long before that becomes "The XYZ software can attest that only trusted software components are running." Big content are going to love this capability.
Quark! Quark! Beware the quantum duck!
