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Comment Re:Response to the "problems." (Score 1) 215

As sibling poster pointed out, the concept of "getting rid of bad doctors" is simplistic. For reference, see the Institute of Medicine Report To Err is Human. One salient quote from the report brief:

One of the report's main conclusions is that the majority of medical errors do not result from individual recklessness or the actions of a particular group--this is not a "bad apple" problem. More commonly, errors are caused by faulty systems, processes, and conditions that lead people to make mistakes or fail to prevent them.

In your example above with the wrong dosing, don't forget that there is a chain of people that that dose goes through -- e.g. the pharmacist, the nurse, etc...It is their jobs as well to question medication. In fact, nurses will state that if a wrong medication is given, then they are liable for it, even if the doctor ordered it (this is anecdotal, I do not know exact policies and procedures around this). Of course, people will argue that if nurses question a doctor they will never win. And while this argument is appealing to our preconceived notions of power structures and roles, the reality is different and there are procedures to escalate issues such as this. Again, this is to underscore that medical errors are mostly due multiple failures in the system or deficiencies in the system itself. Let's face it -- to expect perfection from one person (a doctor, a priest, the president, you name it) is unreasonable at best and irrational at worst.

Comment Re:Bad decision (Score 1) 284

You're missing two things. One, people who use the internet are already exposed to all sorts of voices and opinions. Using this medium can only increase the strength with which the church's message reaches them, compared to not using it.

Two, you're singling out religion for no reason. Whenever people group around an idea, you will see a tendency to toe the party line. It can be a political party, a philosophy, a sports team, a lifestyle, a music genre, a franchise... Very high profile groups, such as political parties, have always had their own channels (eg newspapers that support their political views), but on the internet, every group can have its own fora, from Linux users to Twilight fans.

Comment Re:Who cares? (Score 1) 353

As someone who actually has a G1, I can assure you that the required data plan is only $25 a month. The difference is only $10 a month, which means that if the tmobile subsidy was 270, it would be cheaper to get the contract, not factoring inflation.

Granted, the difference only exists if you are not getting the unlimited minutes plan. $50 a month for unlimited talk means no price difference between contract and not contract. If you use your phone an hour a day, it would be stupid not to get the unlimited plan. If you aren't using the unlimited plan, its a little silly to put any money into your phone in the first place. Head over to walmart and get straight talk - 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30 mb of data, $30 a month, no contract (ie you pay, then you get the month).

Books

The Tell-All Campus Tour 34

theodp writes "Want to check out colleges without the bother of having to read about them? Well, my YouTube-loving friend, the NY Times reports that old-school elephantine dead-tree college guidebooks may be a thing of the past thanks to startup unigo.com, which has launched a free, gigantic, student-generated web-based guide to North American colleges that's laden with photos, Flip-shot videos and reviews (OK, you may have to do some reading)."
The Courts

EU Encouraging Standardized DRM, Licensing 153

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The European Commission is trying to encourage a standard licensing and DRM scheme for all of Europe, as well as 'cooperation procedures' and 'codes of conduct' for ISPs, copyright holders, and customers. No legislation has been proposed yet, but the 'cooperation procedures' sound like a push for an EU version of the DMCA Takedown Notices, which are already routinely sent to people outside the US. While simplified licensing might be nice, it's interesting that they don't appear to understand the inherent tension between standardization, interoperability and DRM — break once, copy everywhere."
Music

Submission + - SPAM: Man claims Apple Nano iPod caught fire in pants 1

alphadogg writes: An Atlanta man says his iPod Nano caught fire in his pants. The nearly two year-old iPod caught fire in the pocket of Danny Williams at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where he is employed, according to Williams' mother, Elaine. The flames lasted 15 seconds and fire reached up to his chest, she said in a telephone interview. [spam URL stripped]
Republicans

Journal SPAM: I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs 10

Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."

And she also accused Britain of "dismantling" the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon.

Education

Olin College — Re-Engineering Engineering 181

theodp writes "In its College Issue, the NYT Magazine profiles tuition-free Olin College, which is building a different breed of engineer, stressing creativity, teamwork, and entrepreneurship — and, in no small part, courage. But questions remain as to whether the industry is ready for the freethinking products of Olin, and vice versa. Few of the class of 2006 are going on to grad study in engineering or jobs in the field."
Linux Business

Michael Meeks On ODF and OOXML 184

biscuitfever11 writes "ZDNet has up a great interview with Michael Meeks, the distinguished Novell engineer, who's currently deeply involved in open document format and OpenOffice.org. In the interview, Meeks takes Microsoft to task on its alternative format OOXML and argues that Microsoft should adopt ODF — but says that realistically they never will. He also mentions his favorite example to explain the benefits of open source software to a nontechnical person: the flexibility of open source would have allowed us to free ourselves from Clippy, the world's most despised paperclip, by changing a single line of code."
Education

MIT's SAT Math Error 280

theodp writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that for years now, MIT wasn't properly calculating the average freshmen SAT scores (reg.) used to determine U.S. News & World Report's influential annual rankings. In response to an inquiry made by The Tech regarding the school's recent drop in the rankings, MIT revealed that in past years it had excluded the test scores of foreign students as well as those who fared better on the ACT than the SAT, both violations of the U.S. News rules. MIT's reported first-quartile SAT verbal and math scores for the 2006 incoming class totaled 1380, a drop of 50 points from 2005."

New Version of Gmail Being Tested 227

Keith writes "Gmail was launched on April 1, 2004, and has revolutionized the way many of us use email. The interface has remained largely untouched since it launched, but get ready, it's soon to undergo a change in what they describe as a 'New Version'. Only a select few people have access to use the new interface — mainly employees and trusted people outside the company called 'Trusted Testers'. From the ZDNet blog entry: 'Google lets every-day users who are fluent in both English and another language translate small snippets of English text into the language of their choice. This is how they can offer services in several languages without spending a dime on professional translators. Unfortunately, exposing sensitive information in this manner makes it hard to keep a secret. One of my readers, who wishes to remain anonymous, stumbled across an interesting snippet of text (which I confirmed exists) spilling the beans on a new version of Gmail that is either currently being tested, or about to be released to testing in short order.'"
The Internet

Intel Releases Mashups for the Masses 180

News_and_info writes "Intel has released an online tool called Mash Maker with the intent of allowing anyone to create mashups. They offer some training on how to use it, but the tool is fairly easy to use out of the gate. I see it more as a rudimentary semantic browser. From the article: 'Mashups have still not really penetrated the mainstream. My mother is not using mashup sites, and she is definitely not creating them. Even if there was a mashup out there that did exactly what she wanted, the chances are that she wouldn't know it existed, and would be confused by it if she tried to use it ... With Mash Maker, mashups are part of the normal browsing experience. As you browse the web, the Mash Maker toolbar displays buttons representing mashups that Mash Maker thinks you might want to apply to your current page.'"

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