hcetSJ - Slashdot User

Submission + - Motorcycle accident results in bionic bottom. (telegraph.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Noishe on Saturday November 14, 2009 @04:11PM

Noishe writes: A man involved in a motorcycle accident in the UK has been given an alternative to the dreaded colostomy bag. He now carries around a remote control to activate his "bionic bottom" made out of muscles taken from above his knee. The muscles were wrapped around his sphincter and then attached to electrodes that are controlled by a remote control he now carries in his pocket.

Submission + - Scientists say Chemicals Turning Boys into Girls

Submitted by pickens on Saturday November 14, 2009 @10:49AM

pickens writes: Denmark has unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, sunscreen lotion and moisturizing cream with a picture emerging of ubiquitous chemical contamination driving down sperm counts and feminizing male children all over the developed world. Research at Rotterdam's Erasmus University found that boys whose mothers were exposed to PCBs and dioxins were more likely to play with dolls and tea sets and dress up in female clothes. "The amounts that two-year-olds absorb from the [preservative] parabens propylparaben and butylparaben can constitute a risk for oestrogen-like disruptions of the endocrine system," says the report. "This contribution originates predominantly from cosmetic products such as oil-based creams, moisturizing creams, lotions and sunscreen." The contamination may also offer a clue to a mysterious shift in the sex of babies. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls: it is thought to be nature's way of making up for the fact that men were more likely to be killed hunting or in conflict. But the proportion of females is rising, so much so that some 250,000 babies who statistically should have been boys have ended up as girls in Japan and the United States alone. "Both the public and wildlife are inadequately protected from harm, as regulation is based on looking at exposure to each substance in isolation, and yet it is now proven beyond doubt that hormone disrupting chemicals can act together to cause effects even when each by itself would not," says Gwynne Lyons, director of Chem Trust.

Submission + - Caffeinated Alcoholic Drinks May Be Illegal (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymusing on Saturday November 14, 2009 @05:50AM

Anonymusing writes: The FDA has announced an investigation into the "safety and legality" of alcoholic beverages with caffeine in them. As the Wall Street Journal notes, two major beer companies (MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch) stopped produce caffeinated alcoholic drinks last year after reports of increased negative effects compared to caffeine-free alcohol. CNN notes that, according to FDA rules, "food additives require premarket approval based on data demonstrating safety submitted to the agency" — and caffeine is a food additive. The targeted beverage makers have 30 days to respond.

Comment Re:You can't do what you want to do (Score 5, Funny) 180

by hcetSJ on Thursday October 15, 2009 @06:37PM (#29764209) Attached to: Affordably Aggregating ISP Connections?

a fucking book on how routing works

Now there's a fetish you'll only run across on Slashdot.

Comment The worst news . . . (Score 4, Funny) 156

by hcetSJ on Friday May 29, 2009 @05:00PM (#28144525) Attached to: Voting Drops 83 Percent In All-Digital Election

was that those 7,300 votes were all cast by the same person.

Comment Addictive design (Score 1) 308

by hcetSJ on Thursday May 28, 2009 @06:00AM (#28121373) Attached to: Understanding Addiction-Based Game Design

Are there specific elements of the design that can be pulled out, distilled, and used at will to give a game drug-like properties? Is it wrong to do so?

Might as well be asking:

Are there specific compounds in cigarettes that can be used to make them addictive? Is it wrong to do so?

The fact of the matter is that cigarette companies (and computer game companies) have no one to answer to but their customers and share holders, and both will be happiest when they produce the most addictive product possible. 'Right' or 'wrong' is irrelevant to them, only 'legal' and 'illegal,' so if we want to prevent the creation of addictive games, our only recourse is legislation.

Further reading: Supercapitalism by Robert Reich

Comment Re:obvious but worth saying (Score 1) 82

by hcetSJ on Saturday March 07, 2009 @07:57AM (#27103891) Attached to: NASA's Kepler Telescope Launched Successfully

This is true, but the "uninhabitable zone" would be much greater. Astronomically greater, I think is the appropriate way of stating it.

Comment "e": The Story of A Number (Score 2, Interesting) 630

by hcetSJ on Sunday February 08, 2009 @06:00PM (#26777131) Attached to: Mathematics Reading List For High School Students?

by Eli Maor. ISBN: 0691141347 I read this book the summer before taking calculus, and I learned the core concepts of calculus from it (limit, derivative, integral, fundamental theorem). I still had to learn the specifics in class, but having that conceptual foundation made everything easier. The book is full of interesting historical tidbits. For instance, did you know that the inventor/discoverer of the logarithm was excommunicated from the Catholic Church? I don't remember the circumstances now--I suppose Google could help, but I know it's in this book.

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