 |
|
| FriendFeed is the easiest way to share online. Learn more » |
Laurence Gonsalves › Likes
The Inconvenient Flaw of the Y-Wing. - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
 |
Laurence Gonsalves and Richard Chen liked this
The 7 foods experts won't eat - Healthy Living on Shine - http://shine.yahoo.com/channel...
Laurence Gonsalves, Casey Muller, Private Sanjeev and 4 other people liked this
Okay, now I'm scared of the world.
- Kevin Fox
from Bookmarklet
It's hard to take a list like this seriously when it doesn't include offal. Come on, pig brains!
- Mark Trapp
Maybe they just included foods that normal people were likely to otherwise eat. ;-)
- Kevin Fox
I hope that Sidewiki someday evolves into a tool that points out scary-sounding claims that may not be all that. I think some of the concerns here are valid, and I wish we had a government that seriously investigated them. But other concerns are "bad thing X is higher." Okay, so what? How much higher, and how much does it matter? BTW I love offal, but I'd never eat it from commercial meatpackers.
- Daniel Dulitz
I've never tried offal. Maybe it's the name.
- Kevin Fox
There are several microwave popcorn manufacturers that don't use PFOA (or several of the other chemicals linked in the study), you just have to read the labels.
- Jennifer Dittrich
Scrapple. WTF, it's not listed?
- Neal Krummell
Dammit! I like a bunch of those things! Of course I mean those things on the list, not your crazy addendums.
- Cyrus Lendvay
I am going to die!
- Brian Johns
Amazon.com: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (3rd Edition) (9780136042594): Stuart Russell, Peter Norvig: Books - http://www.amazon.com/Artific...
Space Cowboy, JoeCamel, Melita and 14 other people liked this
We sent the final pdfs of the new edition of this book off to the publisher. The market reacted by gaining 2% on the day.
- Peter Norvig
from Bookmarklet
Nassim Taleb would be proud. =)
- Darren
Bet you are pleased to have that behind you; great to see Alan Turing -http://tinyurl.com/no85d4 - on the front cover. Seb.
- Seb Schmoller
What is new in the third edition?
- Brandon Smietana
Brandon: I think if you value your time at about $5/hr or more, you should buy the third edition. What's new: http://aima.eecs.berkeley.edu/3rd-ed...
- Peter Norvig
That is a bargain; I end up paying about 25 $/hour in tuition to sit in lectures. Thank you, for writing such wonderful books!
- Brandon Smietana
Do NOT try this at home. - http://wtfcalls.net/reddit...
Ryan Kaisoglus, Kol Tregaskes, Vishy and 31 other people liked this
“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after two days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize that it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of the many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”
- April Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Awesome.
- Stephen Mack
from iPhone
Oh, April. :) http://friendfeed.com/louisgr...
- Louis Gray
What is needed is something additional to make people think it's being handled. That way there wont be a perceived urgency to help. Just the morbid NASCAResque "crash..crash" anticipation. Maybe two 'friends' below pointing?? Though it is very good...as is.
- Roger Nang
The dummy could be suspended with fishing line or other hard to see cable, and a motion sensor could trigger the dummy's fall when people approach. A recorded scream would add to the effect.
- SuezanneC Baskerville
Genius!
- Bertrand Doux
Not a bad idea.
- ashish
Visualizing Commodore 64 memory in real-time… - http://www.adafruit.com/blog...
Laurence Gonsalves liked this
Laughing hysterically at this Buffy vs. Edward mashup video http://www.youtube.com/watch... #twilight
  |
Matt Cutts and Laurence Gonsalves liked this
Body By Victoria - http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog...
Laurence Gonsalves and Rob Shillingsburg liked this
Replacing Google Reader with Twitter is Nuts - http://brettkelly.org/blog...
Tracy, Laurence Gonsalves, Brett Kelly and 5 other people liked this
"Blue Cross sent me a postage-prepaid postcard to send to my Senator opposing a Public Option" (PICS) - Democratic Underground - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss...
Laura (hear me raura?), Michael Muller, Jay Cuthrell and 98 other people liked this
"So I'm using Blue Cross's postage to send MY message. Thanks Blue Cross for the postage."
- April Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Ingenious.
- Itachi
The postcard says "Postage will be paid by addressee", which implies it's the senator who will be paying the postage. Of course, the senator's franking privileges may make it so that the taxpayers pay the postage.
- Gabe
True. But why is it that the Senator Hagan/taxpayers should be paying for Blue Cross' message?
- Christopher Chung
My friend did this, too. I hope I get one in the mail.
- Ayşe E.
They haven't sent me one of these, but when they do, I'll be sure to mail it in unmodified (or with a big "NO ON PUBLIC OPTION" written on it, perhaps). The very notion of government run health insurance is a travesty that will end up bankrupting this country.
- Otto
So you don't think Medicare or the Veterans Health Administration is going to pan out, even after all these years?
- Mark Trapp
Medicare and the VA system are living proof of my statements. They offer crappy service and are continually costing more and more as time goes on. They are unsustainable in the long term, and basically expanding these failures to cover everybody is only going to accelerate the problem.
- Otto
What's long term? The VA system has been going since 1778, and Medicare since 1965. Are you thinking at the 300 year mark, they'll finally collapse?
- Mark Trapp
Right on! Good for you! That's a great idea
- Ciaoenrico
Our Canadian single-payer health care has been going strong for some time now with no risk of bankruptcy. I'd like to see some evidence that our system is unsustainable.
- Matt Mastracci
The VA system is garbage, ask any veteran who has to use it on a regular basis. And medicare is on the verge of bankruptcy, and has been for at least decade now. Last I checked, medicare was the biggest drain of tax revenue that exists. Predictions I've seen give it 10 more years, tops, even with restructuring.
- Otto
What Matt said.
- Nathalie, Dreamer of FF
Love this post.
- Trish R
That's awesome!
- Jan Ole Peek
Of course, the assertion that government-run health insurance is unsustainable (whether Medicare, the VA, the Canadian system, or any other) raises the question of what system is more sustainable than government-run insurance. It's certainly not the current American one. ... I love April's use of the mailer.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of health care reform... But insurance reform is unnecessary. The problem is not the insurance companies, their reactions and bad-behaviors are created by the high cost of medical care to begin with. Fix the health care system to not cost so damn much, and the problems with insurance will solve themselves. Strike at the source of the problems, not at the consequences of them.
- Otto
Otto: Insurance causes high prices of medical care. Since you don't pay, the hospital can set its prices arbitrarily high and the insurance company pays whatever its maximum is. Since the insurance company pays so much, they have to have high insurance rates, which makes insurance expensive to buy. If the government had their own insurance, they would be big enough to demand low prices,...
more...
- Gabe
That's insane. The existence of insurance does not cause the high price of medial care. You have it exactly backwards. Furthermore, the idea of a government-run-insurance plan would not solve that problem, if it was at all the truth, because you're dealing with a supply demand situation. The government run plan could say they weren't going to pay above $X, at which point the medical...
more...
- Otto
The truth is that most of the waste in medical costs comes from two places: administrative overhead and fraud. Both of these are primarily caused by Medicare and the bureaucracy surrounding it.
- Otto
Otto: Why is that you keep ignoring all the evidence from other countries that support national health care (e.g. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues...) and you also keep ignoring the facts that show that medicare has lower costs that private insurance (e.g. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Nationa... )
- Robert Felty
@Otto - why do you think there is so much administrative overhead? To deal with all the different insurance companies and the reems of paperwork to get a claim approved and avoid malpractice suits. That means more people have to be hired and trained just to deal with all that stuff and more systems and processes have to be put in place to handle it all. Insurance companies make more...
more...
- Fa La La La Lindsay
@Lindsay: I know several people who work in administrative roles in hospitals. Not one of them agrees with you. The problem isn't the insurance forms and such, those are fairly standard. Almost all of the administrative overhead is due specifically to Medicare. And no, I do not work in the health insurance industry, so your ad-hominem attack makes no sense whatsoever. Why is it that...
more...
- Otto
@Robert: I'm not ignoring evidence from other countries, I'm discounting most of it based on facts that contradict the ones you are linking to. And Medicare has lower costs than private insurance because it rarely pays for anything. How many people who have medicare must also have their own insurance in order to get proper medical treatment? Have you looked up the numbers on that?
- Otto
Otto, how does limiting the pricing result in providers refusing service? In Canada, the Federal Government sets the pricing schedule, but the private providers are still here, providing us good service for a set fee. More info on our system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... I would say that our health care system is an excellent counterpoint to "if you fix the fees at a certain point, providers will stop providing service".
- Matt Mastracci
Otto - would you care to share some references which contain the facts that contradict those which I shared? I am open-minded, but I need to see actual data from credible sources to form my opinions.
- Robert Felty
How does Otto make the claim that insurance isn't even part of the problem when medical loss ratios in the health insurance business have dropped from 95% to 80% in just 15 years? (and if you don't know what that means, you don't have an informed opinion about health care reform.)
- Andrew C
I am always amazed at the ignorance of those arguing against public health care services when practically the entire world is doing it and they always have their facts wrong about Medicare and every other system. They'll become advocates when they or their loved ones are being evicted or foreclosed upon while they are dying an excruciating and untreated death.
- Brad Nickel
Otto, just exactly how many veterans have you actually talked to? The VA definitely has flaws, but all the veterans I've talked to seem to like the service provided, and often compare it favorably to the private sector. And why are all those people out there so opposed to changing Medicare if it's so terrible? Since you've stated you haven't seen a doctor in decades, how could you possibly have any experience with any health care system whatsoever?
- Victor Ganata
FFS... @Matt: Canada has a lower doctor to patient ratio than anybody else does, and it's decreasing all the time. @Robert: You have Google. Use it. I wouldn't believe links you provide me, so why should you believe links I provide you? Do your own research and make up your own mind. I'm not trying to convince you or anybody else, and I frankly don't care what you believe. @Andrew C:...
more...
- Otto
*shrug* I'm supposed to be swayed by second-hand anecdotal evidence from someone who doesn't have any recent direct experience with any health care system? If you don't care, why do you continue to post?
- Victor Ganata
*shrug* I'm supposed to be swayed by somebody who actually has a vested interest in the health care system (ie, a doctor)? See, I can use fallacious arguments as well as you can, Victor! ;) Also, I post to express my opinions and ideas. Why else would anybody post anything?
- Otto
Otto, your facts on doctor:patient ratio are incorrect. Our ratio is 2.2 per 1000, versus 2.4 per 1000 in the USA. In fact, our ratio has improved from 2.1 in the 1990s. While our doctor:patient ratio is not as high as other public health care systems, it isn't far off that of the USA.
- Matt Mastracci
Here's my reference: http://www.oecd.org/dataoec... "Between 1990 and 2007, the number of doctors per capita remained relatively stable in Canada"
- Matt Mastracci
Otto, but, fair is fair, so long as you don't pretend your anecdotes are generalizable truth, I won't pretend mine are either. It is clear that you do have quite a grasp on fallacious arguments. :) And I do agree that it's important to consider the source of your evidence.
- Victor Ganata
Otto, the dropping medical loss ratio specifically means an increasing share of premiums isn't going towards paying for health care; that is /by itself/ inherently bad! In an actual working market, advances in efficiency, if any, would be passed along to the consumers in the form of lower premiums. Instead, prices are getting jacked up even faster than health care inflation because the health care insurance industry exploits monopoly power.
- Andrew C
@Matt: According to the WHO: http://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com/2007... the numbers are slightly different. Close, admittedly. However, the important thing to note is that Canada's ratio is the lowest among almost all industrialized countries, which was my point. I was not comparing to the US, specifically.
- Otto
@Andrew C: I understand what "medical loss ratio" means. I understand what "profit" and "premiums" are. What I don't understand is why you think a company should not be allowed to make a legitimate profit? Insurance is gambling. If you don't like the bet, then don't gamble. Or, if you really want to see the loss ratios decrease, then ALLOW COMPETITION. Currently there is virtually no...
more...
- Otto
You make no sense. A company should certainly be allowed to make a legitimate profit, but indefinitely extracting rent at this level is a clear symptom of market-setting power. Trying to call one the other doesn't actually make them the same thing. Also, people can only reasonably get it from their employer _because that's the only affordable option_. Individual insurance exists; it's...
more...
- Andrew C
I find it pretty funny BTW that you have implicitly agreed with the rest of us that the health care _insurance_ industry actually is part of the problem.
- Andrew C
"Insurance is gambling. If you don't like the bet, then don't gamble." It shouldn't have to be a game. Everyone is going to need medical attention at some point in their life. It's a matter of how you will be able to afford to pay for it. People pay for insurance because it's the only way they can afford to ensure that their health will be taken care of. It's not really an option if you...
more...
- Fa La La La Lindsay
lolling at the "insurance is a gamble" statement. Classic.
- Andrizzle Gizzle
It's the conservative message: You're On Your Own.
- Andrew C
For the record, I'm not a conservative. I'm also not a liberal. I'm a person, with my own opinions and ideas. Labeling people only means that you're not paying attention to what they're saying.
- Otto
@Andrew C: Individual insurance is priced out of the market because of regulations limiting what kinds of plans can be offered. Why can I not a health insurance plan for, say, emergencies only? I'm healthy, I don't have any need to go to the doctor much, I never get sick, the only reason I'd need to do so would be an accident. So why can't I buy that insurance? State regulations...
more...
- Otto
@Lindsay: Your statements are provably false. Not everyone is going to need medical attention at some point in their lives. Furthermore, if your statement was true, health insurance would not work at all, since the entire point of "insurance" is to spread risk. If risk was 100%, as you claim, then there's nothing to spread. For the record, I do not currently have, nor need, health...
more...
- Otto
So basically you're gambling, hoping that you will "win the game". At what point do you decide you need insurance? And hopefully you don't get anything before then. It is pointless to argue with someone like this, just let him enjoy his smug satisfaction on having figured out the whole mess.
- Andrizzle Gizzle
Everyone has some chance of getting hit by a bus or eating E.coli tainted food or having a tree branch fall on them. {shrug}
- Andrew C
Except for the winners who have somehow divined ways not to do so, I guess.
- Andrew C
@Otto, your claim about emergencies-only plans being ruled out seems incorrect to me: http://www.insurance.com/health-...
- Andrew C
Otto is completely right. Insurance, not having insurance, it's all gambling. What's relevant is regulation limits choices; or forces one person's judgement and preferences on another. Big government healthcare won't work because the government can't do anything well because unlike a market it doesn't have distributed knowlege and I don't think the incentives are right. Witness the UK's...
more...
- Rob Fisher
While I don't know if we're using the word catastrophe in the same way, clearly there are policies that have very high deductibles where realistically, the only time they would pay benefits would be if you ended up hospitalized. And there are plenty of policies that don't cover preventative care at all. Even these types of policies are out of the reach of quite a few Americans.
- Victor Ganata
What a silly response Otto. Its all emotional. Why do you think the argument here is so passionate? The fact that you would even dismiss it that way tells me everything I need to know about your point of view and existence. Sad.
- Brad Nickel
from email
If "the government can't do anything well" why do they even exist? Unless you're an anarchist, I can't see how it makes sense.
- Victor Ganata
There are limited things governments might be good at. Defense of the realm; keeping the peace. They are not good at providing goods and services. When they try to provide (or control the supply of) food, for example, you get famine. That's because you need market signals to stimulate [the right amount of] supply [and demand<delete], and that information is not centralised. The same problem affects government supplied healthcare. Hence waiting lists.
- Rob Fisher
We have waiting lists now. In what way are the NHS's waiting lists worse than the delays caused by having to argue with insurance companies to get coverage for diagnostic tests, procedures, and specialist referrals?
- Victor Ganata
Because the latter involves the invisible hand somehow!
- Andrew C
It's hard to say. I'm not arguing that you don't have a problem, just that more government isn't the solution. E.g. on the NHS you often end up paying for your own treatment anyway just so you get it in time. This is not an improvement.
- Rob Fisher
So that's not really different from the current system we have now: you can always pay cash. I think "more government isn't the solution" is a bare assertion that needs a fair amount of evidence to actually prove.
- Victor Ganata
Medicare and the VHA have waiting lists? Really? I haven't ever heard anyone waiting for Medicare, and it's single payer. I haven't heard of anyone in England (or Canada, or any other developed country) put on a waiting list. Do you have evidence to support that? You would write off education, food safety, the highway system, firemen, and air safety as well? Seems like you're asking for a very extreme form of government that isn't very much like what developed countries are or what they provide.
- Mark Trapp
Otto: The way that discourse works in research-based journals is that one person makes a claim, and backs that up with either data, and/or references to other research. I would happily read any references you give. I don't understand why you wouldn't look at references that I give.
- Robert Felty
Rob Fisher: if government controlled healthcare doesn't work, then why does Canada spend less on health care per person, but have lower infant mortality rates, and longer life expectancy? In addition, these numbers have improved since they started their single payer system, while our numbers have basically remained flat. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues...
- Robert Felty
Victor: What can I say? You probably won't be impressed by my Austrian economics theory. You could come and live in the UK and get sick, and see what it's like. :) I do hope the USA manages to avoid the worst of it. Maybe look around at what many other countries do; I don't think anyone gets it quite right. Singapore seems to have good healthcare; but their statistics look good partly...
more...
- Rob Fisher
I also think it's fallacious to believe we're actually arguing about a completely government controlled system. The public option is not even close to a true single-payer system, and nowhere near a nationalized health care system. It is quite similar to Medicare, except with different eligibility criteria, and as far as I can tell, Medicare doesn't seem to have destroyed the private health insurance industry, no matter how many people try to argue that slippery slope.
- Victor Ganata
Part of the reason all healthcare isn't like that is because not all health procedures and exams are as simple as eye exams.
- Andrew C
@Rob Fisher - the number of Canadians who seek treatment in the US is not very large: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi...
- Andrew C
You probably can't get a new liver in an hour and expect to have a good outcome no matter where you go.
- Victor Ganata
But you should be able to get simple scans and tests quickly and cheaply. You can't on the NHS. The point about this not being about an NHS-like system is taken, though.
- Rob Fisher
If you are insured by a private insurer in the US your health fate is decided by insurance underwriters and doctor panels whose sole mandate is to save and make money for the company- not to keep you healthy or prevent you from getting sick or sicker. A doctor's intuition on what a patient may need, even in terms of preventative/investigative testing is hooey as far as they are...
more...
- Karma Martell
How do we get to a point where you can make money by keeping people healthy? People want to be healthy, so it must be doable.
- Rob Fisher
The prescription drug cos would fold, Rob. That is not what they want.
- Karma Martell
i wish i could do more than "like" this. oh, and while i'm here loving this, @Rob Fisher -- my answer is, make money doing something other than "keeping people healthy" -- putting profit and human life in the same objective is bound to have some horrifying conflicts of interest, no matter how pure the "health" motivation is. and with $$ involved, it will never even be close to approximating pure.
- (dot)lizard kelly
@Rob - you can make money by keeping people healthy, but as (dot)lizard kelly just said, you can make _more_ money by not... for example, by collecting premiums from healthy people and denying coverage to your sick customers.
- Andrew C
@kelly - I wouldn't mind people profiting by keeping people healthy. Hospitals and doctors do that. The trouble with insurance companies is that they profit by denying people care.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Karma: As long as *someone* can make money at it, doesn't matter who. (dot)lizard kelly: food is important to be healthy; people make money at providing food; no conflict of interest there. I'm not convinced there's anything so different about healthcare. I'll sleep on it and let you know if I have thought of an amazing business plan in the morning. And if it doesn't work, I'll be looking for regulations that stop it working.
- Rob Fisher
(I suspect the reason is you can't switch insurance companies easily.)
- Rob Fisher
Simple scans and tests frequently lead to incidental findings that are almost always benign but lead to literal million dollar workups. I actually don't think easy access to everything is always the right answer.
- Victor Ganata
The food example may not be a good counter-argument here in the U.S., where farmers have actually been paid not to grow things in order to artificially keep prices up.
- Victor Ganata
Evidently you and others that spout this free market gobbldy gook have never worked for corporate America and the absolute incompetence in those organizations. Hello , can you say mortgage, banking, savings and loan, energy, etc etc etc. It is a lie and a myth and you folks have gotten away with it for far too long! Thanks, Brad
- Brad Nickel
from email
I have worked for corp America. As Brad says, free market is never free. The wealth is not distributed. There needs to be accountability and standards. As Obama says, an insurance co should not be able to come between a decision made by you and your doctor. And Victor, it's about fair access, not just access if you have the money and you can override the system.
- Karma Martell
The problem is that access is controlled by two forces: actual medical need, and the need to generate a profit, and lots of times these forces end up opposing each other. As the costs of medical care continue to increase, I think we're going to have to decide as a society which is actually more important.
- Victor Ganata
This is not to say that I don't think people who actually provide the care shouldn't be compensated for their labor. (In my case, that's just self-interest.) But there's a huge difference between fair compensation and outright profiteering.
- Victor Ganata
So who is paying for the "Public Option"?
- Brett Veenstra
And who here does not know Blue Cross is a private company.
- Mahmood Padura
If you go by what's in the House bill, the public option will initially be financed by seed money from the federal government that is supposed to be paid back in 10 years. In the long run, it's supposed to be funded entirely by the premiums of people who choose to participate in the plan.
- Victor Ganata
Otto: it is not the existence of insurance companies that keep prices high (auto insurance's existence doesn't make auto repairs artificially inflated), it is how the system works. If I am a healthcare provider and you are a patient who will only pay $100 no matter how expensive the treatment is, I can set the price as high as I want. Your insurance might only cover $500, but somebody else's might cover $1000 or $5000, so there's no reason I shouldn't set my price at $5000 for the treatment.
- Gabe
Furthermore, let's say that there's a 1% chance that you'll need another $5000 test (an MRI perhaps). If you do need it and I don't give it to you, there's a chance you'll sue me and my malpractice insurance goes way up. If I give it to you and you don't need it, you don't care because you're not paying for it. You end up getting lots unnecessary tests just so I don't get sued. In...
more...
- Gabe
I dunno, didn't Japan solve the MRI problem by providing lots of them and driving the cost-per-exam down? ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh... )
- Andrew C
And besides, the insurance companies in the States deal with that problem by denying procedures.
- Andrew C
Health care is not a right http://peikoff.com/video-u...
- Crutis
It might be instructive to look at the US airline industry before and after deregulation. It used to be that prices were fixed, so airlines competed on service. This meant that service was good, and profits were built-in so airlines weren't constantly in bankruptcy. It also meant that flying was a luxury that most people could not afford, which made it not so crowded either. After...
more...
- Gabe
Unless you intend on repealing EMTALA, access to emergency care regardless of ability to pay is in fact a guaranteed right in the U.S.
- Victor Ganata
Hmmmm... Unless Crutis you think they fall within Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! Thanks, Brad
- Brad Nickel
from email
What of someone is happiest if they choose not to acquire health care insurance? It would seem to me that the imposition would thwart their pursuit and remove their liberty.
- Mattb4rd
When are we going to learn that the cake really is a lie? Re: Washington D.C. - I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
- Mattb4rd
Civilization is impossible without some form of government. The idea that we can live without it is the lie.
- Victor Ganata
No, the lie is that government is somehow required in all aspects of daily life. Civilization does need government, but mostly it needs it to stay as small as possible and leave people alone as much as possible. You are not a child. Grow up and deal with your own problems instead of expecting the rest of society to take care of you.
- Otto
BTW, a "public option" doesn't actually bother me provided you use absolutely zero tax money to pay for it. Make it paid for entirely by the premiums of the people who opt-in to it, and I have no further argument against it whatsoever. (Also, eliminate the part of the current plan that imposes tax penalties on those of us who choose to not have health insurance, as that is simply flat-out wrong. If I choose to cover my own risk, then that is my business, not the governments.)
- Otto
Yeah Otto, that works well. For example banks, mortgage companies, savings and loans, toys from China, Enron.... The naive Libertarian view of the world that somehow everything will work out in the end and all will be well makes me laugh every time I hear it. Greed, perversion, violence, and chaos don't go away when the government goes away. Human run institutions are all equally flawed...
more...
- Brad Nickel
from email
Brad: I don't know what world you're living in, but it's not the same one I am. Government has done very little good in the world, and is in fact responsible for the vast majority of evil in it. Perhaps you forget who's waging wars, eh? A few people inconvenienced by a bank or who signed bad mortgages doesn't really much compare to millions and millions of dead people. Also, "this...
more...
- Otto
Sure, because the US Department of Defense had absolutely nothing to do with the Internet whatsoever. But I agree. To believe that the government is either completely virtuous or always evil is delusional.
- Victor Ganata
Actually Otto, religion and greed are responsible for most of the wars. Whether a government fights them or not is irrelevant and these days its private corporations that are fighting much of our wars and doing a piss poor job of it as evidenced by the debacle that is Iraq. That there is a fine example of where we should have let government run things, but we had to privatize things at...
more...
- Brad Nickel
from email
@Victor: The DoD had very little to do with creating the internet, short of funding it. They paid for it in order to connect universities together (whom they were funding for other projects as well). It's not like they sent over a bunch of engineers to lay some cables or actually wrote any of the protocols or anything. Vint Cerf didn't actually go work for DARPA until 1976. The first pipes were laid when he was still in school.
- Otto
@Brad: It's amazing to me that anybody can espouse a philosophy like yours, which enables governments to control the population and do basically anything they like, including killing millions of innocent people through senseless wars and immoral legislation. Corporations didn't bomb Iraq and Afghanistan, the federal government did. Corporations didn't lie to us about the non-existent...
more...
- Otto
Yes, because ordinary people with no funding or government backing whatsoever can always complete large scale worldwide projects if they just work hard enough, without any assistance. Rugged individualism FTW.
- Victor Ganata
@Victor: Why must everything come down to "large scale" and "worldwide" in your view? Are you so incapable of taking care of your own problems that you want to a) take care of everybody else's and b) have yours taken care of by everybody else? We're talking about health care. Why must "health" be a worldwide problem, to the extent that you want to take away individual rights in favor of...
more...
- Otto
Otto, where are we talking about taking away individual rights? I'm talking about HR 3200, not some fantastical single payer system or some nationalized health care system from your paranoid nightmares. Don't be a fool. Look around you right now. Clearly health can be a worldwide problem. And it's disingenuous to believe the Internet would have been built if some government hadn't been around to provide funding.
- Victor Ganata
Silly Otto... Its obvious that an informed conversation with you is impossible, since you are unable to defend your actual philosophy or arguments and rely upon distortions and extremely silly exaggerations to try and make a point when the question being asked can not be answered with the truth. This happens every single time I debate a Libertarian. They can't explain themselves or how...
more...
- Brad Nickel
from email
Because we'll have to pay for your silly self to keep you alive when you are sick and dying and don't have coverage.
- Brad Nickel
from email
@Victor: HR3200 takes away my right to choose my own health insurance (in my case, none) by imposing additional taxation and penalties for my choice. It also uses tax money to finance the "public option", which I'm firmly opposed to. And it's disingenuous to believe that the internet would have NOT been built if the government had not provided the funding. It would have happened...
more...
- Otto
@Brad: I'm tired of listening to your socialist and communist rhetoric. (See? I can apply incorrect labels just as well as you can! I'm not a "Libertarian".) Anyway, if you want the government to control your life, keep it to yourself, I'm not interested. Also, if you can find anywhere I called you anything other than "Brad", I'd be very interested. Note: Saying your ideas amount to "totalitarianism" isn't name-calling when it's true.
- Otto
You are a funny guy Otto and I mean that in all the ways it can be interpreted.
- Brad Nickel
Fine. Welcome to my block list, Brad. If you ever grow up and decide that you want to have a real conversation instead of trolling, then I'll be happy to oblige you. Until then, just rant incoherently to somebody else, eh?
- Otto
LOL. See what I mean. You are funny.
- Brad Nickel
Are you kidding me about the Internet, Otto? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Note that 2 of the original nodes were UC schools--government funded public schools. With HR 3200, it's obviously going to take money to get the public option up and running, but it's supposed to be paid back in 10 years. As for the mandate, it's not ideal, but I don't see how else it will work. Otherwise,...
more...
- Victor Ganata
No, I think they are supposed to let him die.
- Brad Nickel
@Victor: No, I'm not kidding, and that link backs up every word I just said about it. As for the public option paying for itself, are you joking? Medicare is continuously in the red (average benefit per person in Medicare is $11,000 per year!) , and you think making a bigger version will somehow magically work? As for the mandate, that's an absolute deal-breaker, because it it is...
more...
- Otto
That's how government projects almost always work: they award private companies contracts to do the work. Even HR 3200 is structured that way.
- Victor Ganata
If you actually look at it, HR 3200 isn't structured like Medicare. And why is it that state laws that mandate you to carry auto insurance if you drive haven't been struck down by the Supreme Court if it's so unconstitutional? If you're totally healthy there are policies with $10,000 annual deductibles that cost like $50 a month. Obviously, the health insurance companies would rather you pay for a more expensive plan if they can get you to.
- Victor Ganata
Why in the world is a high deductible insurance plan not what you want, Otto?
- Andrew C
"Medicare is continuously in the red" - regular people who aren't on Medicare either lose benefits or coverage entirely or get outrageous rate hikes, so I'm not sure why you seem to keep claiming private insurance is any better...
- Andrew C
My goodness, a single-payer plan in BC costs ~$54/person/month and the deductible is way lower than $10K. And what I lose in 'freedom', I gain back in peace of mind and more money in my pocket overall. (and isn't the glibertarian definition of freedom money?) (Amazingly, the US actually spends as much _government_ money on health care per capita as Canada, and then of course far more in private money on top.)
- Andrew C
@Victor: a) State laws don't require you to carry auto insurance. They require you to carry auto insurance *OR* post a bond for some fixed amount, in case you hit somebody else. and b) Auto insurance is about liability (protecting other people from you), while health insurance is not (it's about about protecting you from other things, people included).
- Otto
@Andrew C: I fail to understand the question. A high deductible insurance plan is not what I want, because it is not what I want. What I want is a health insurance plan that will only cover me from, say, accident. Something that doesn't cover routine crap which I won't be needing anyway, or which I can pay for myself. In cases where there is an accident, I don't want *any* deductible,...
more...
- Otto
A high deductible plan effectively only covers you for catastrophes, because you're on your own for the first $5K or $10K, so all "routine crap" will be out of pocket.
- Andrew C
BTW, not seeing a doctor even for routine checkups is also gambling. Good luck with that.
- Andrew C
"Effectively" is not the same thing as actually. And if there was some kind of major incident, I'd still be on the hook for the $10k, which is still problematic. Basically, a high deductible means that you're getting no real coverage at all, it's not disaster coverage.
- Otto
The $10k outlay doesn't sound problematic to me; you've been investing your money, right?
- Andrew C
Andrew C: No, it's not. There is no actual need for "routine checkups" in a healthy human being. You'd free to disagree, but I'm just going to say you're wrong, and that is that, so there's no point in arguing it. And whether I can afford $10k or not is beside the point, it's still not the type of coverage I actually need or want.
- Otto
Otto - You have a valid point that insurance is designed to cover catastrophes. It turns out that preventative medicine helps to avoid catastrophes though. So it is in the best interest of insurance companies to encourage their customers to get preventative care. One way to do that is to pay fot it. Another way to do it would be to give people discounts for getting regular checkups, just like you get discounts on auto insurance for having a good driving record.
- Robert Felty
Yeah, there really is no point in arguing with you, not when you just make statements and "that is that". (Good thing cancer never starts off growing in the body for years before becoming a major problem! And that arteries don't ever get clogged before they close up entirely.)
- Andrew C
Robert: Preventative medicine does help to avoid catastrophe, however, it's also far cheaper to cover your own costs there instead of relying on insurance coverage to pay for it for you. It makes no sense for insurance to cover basic care. You don't pay for gasoline with your auto insurance, do you? The fact that insurance covers basic care means added burdens to the administrative overhead, higher premiums, etc, etc. It's a bad system overall.
- Otto
OK, so you want catastrophic coverage that starts from dollar 1 for accidents, but no insurance for routine procedures. I think this is a little ridiculous, but you're right, I don't think insurance companies offer that.
- Andrew C
Insurance companies are actively prevented from offering it, is what you meant to say. Many state laws require certain minimum levels of coverage, so the plan I want/need is unavailable to me because of over-regulation.
- Otto
Preventative care isn't gasoline. Food is the analogy to gasoline. And no, health care insurance doesn't pay for food.
- Andrew C
@Andrew C: Okay then, if you don't like that metaphor... Does your auto insurance pay for oil changes? My point is that health care should not pay for routine stuff *unless I want it to*. I do not want it to, I'm perfectly capable of dealing with routine stuff on my own.
- Otto
Otto - this is not just about you though. It is mostly about the millions of people who don't have any insurance at all right now. Also, with the oil change analogy, that is not quite right either. Standard auto insurance does not pay for vehicle failure. It pays for vehicle damage due to accidents. There probably is a small correlation between frequency of oil changes and automobile accidents, but I bet that the correlation between regular colonoscopies and advanced colon cancer is much higher.
- Robert Felty
Robert: Auto insurance does indeed pay for vehicle failure, if you have comprehensive insurance. Depends on the type of failure. On the other hand, you can get liability insurance to only pay for accidents caused by you, if you so want. You have choice of what to get. And I'd venture to bet that the correlation between colonoscopies and colon cancer is indeed quite high, but in the...
more...
- Otto
Otto - my dad gets regular colonoscopies, because he has diverticulosis, and I am not ready for him to die just yet.
- Robert Felty
Robert: He has a medical condition. I'd hardly call that "routine maintenance", sort of thing.
- Otto
Sure. The reason why health insurance companies don't offer plans like that are completely because all 50 states have strict mandates, and certainly not because the health insurance companies don't think they're profitable and would prefer that you pay for more coverage. Of course it's always the government's fault, and never the invisible hand's.
- Victor Ganata
Victor: In this case, what I said was in fact true. All 50 states and even the federal government have tons of regulations on the health insurance industry. Rates, premiums, etc.. these are all fixed by the individual states. The insurance companies have to work within a very narrow window of guidelines, sort of thing. This is one reason that so many of them have tried hard to deny...
more...
- Otto
The only regulation I see that applies to all 50 states is that insurance companies have to be solvent, capable of paying claims, and able to process claims in timely fashion. Fact is, the insurance companies have continued to make record profits despite all these regulations, so I'm not exactly going to cry them a river.
- Victor Ganata
Switzerland gets by with strict regulation... Admittedly, I doubt they have the kind of catastrophe-only plans you like, but (1) the insurers there make it work, and (2) they achieve better coverage and outcomes than the current US system does.
- Andrew C
@Brad Nickel - The right to life does not imply the right to the labor and property of other individuals. Medicine is exactly that: the products and services of tremendously skilled individuals. To claim by right their labor and products is the moral equivalent of slavery.
- Crutis
I just can't get over the rhetoric. It truly makes me laugh outloud. Slave labor. It's not worthy of further debate.
- Brad Nickel
from email
It's hardly slavery when health care professionals take oaths to serve society in exchange for the position of privilege it puts them in. And they provide care that isn't fully compensated quite frequently: it's part and parcel of many of the contracts they sign with insurance companies. Are you going to call that slavery too?
- Victor Ganata
@Victor, no I call it what it is: charity. Charity should be encouraged. @Brad, when you stop laughing maybe you can refute the right of a physician to contract with a patient without government interference. Until then the only laughable idea is the logical conclusion of your argument that physicians could be imprisoned unless they run their businesses for free or at a loss.
- Crutis
It is impossible to be a physician without government interference, since license to practice is issued by the state. I'm not sure I'd want it otherwise, personally. Anyway, once again we're straying from the topic at hand: there's nothing in HR 3200 that says you have to accept gov't issued insurance, anymore than you have to accept Medicare or Medicaid. It will still be quite possible to have a nice little boutique practice without getting a paycheck from the gov't.
- Victor Ganata
I do medical billing for a nursing home. Those of you who are in favor of a public option obviously don't understand Medicare and Medicaid. We couldn't take care of anybody if we had to rely only on what the government pays. And doctors didn't go to school for all those years and incur all that debt just to be civil servants with tons of red tape and poor compensation. There will be a huge shortage of doctors within a decade. If the bill passes the Senate, we're in for a true disaster.
- Dawn
Bonus points for knowing the song played by the robot in this video: http://tim.cexx.org/?p=633 via @widgetsworkshop
Laurence Gonsalves liked this
Math is not hard - a simple method that is changing the world http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-m...
Paul Buchheit, Ed Millard, Tanath and 13 other people liked this
"Eager to get his revolutionary approach to teaching math into the hands of teachers, John created a not-for-profit organization called JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies). Today, JUMP is getting spectacular results with all kinds of kids. For instance, after working with JUMP, an entire class of Grade 3 students, including so-called slow learners, scored over 90% on a Grade 6 math test. A group of British children who had been written off as too unruly responded so enthusiastically and had such impressive results that the school board adopted the program."
- Ruchira S. Datta
My experience has always been that if a Math instructor was good, I took to the class with enthusiasm and enjoyed it. Going the other way, if the instructor was horrible, I lost enthusiasm and didn't enjoy the class at all. It strikes me that these things only work with a good instructor. The limit is getting a good instructor, not usually the program materials.
- Piaw Na
Piaw, the program materials may also help the instructor to think of different explanations (or to master the material themselves!).
- Ruchira S. Datta
Oh, no question about it. But it's difficult to enthuse an instructor about the material --- that's the tough part!
- Piaw Na
Thanks for sharing, Ruchira! I've just added 'The End of Ignorance' to my Amazon wishlist.
- April Buchheit
from iPhone
The Star Trek uniform onesies from @ThinkGeek are supermegacool http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts...
Emily Gonsalves, Carlos Urrutia and Laurence Gonsalves liked this
Msg on logging into my math dept account: Warning: Due to a known bug, the default Linux document viewer
evince prints N*N copies of a PDF file when N copies requested.
As a workaround, use Adobe Reader acroread for printing multiple
copies of PDF documents, or use the fact that every natural number is a sum of at most four squares.
Hein Roehrig, Dan Gezelter, Michael Kuhn and 8 other people liked this
Laurence Gonsalves, Melita, ▲ klemo and 5 other people liked this
How's the new edition coming?
- Ruchira S. Datta
Oops -- I forgot those pictures would show up on friendfeed. They weren't really suppossed to. We wanted a picture of the cover of the book for the cover of the book, and I was sharing these with my editor. Our firm deadline is Nov 6, so I'll be working hard until then.
- Peter Norvig
from email
Can't wait to get the new edition! I remember my first week at Google when I was all "Norvig... Norvig... I know that name, but why do I think 'Russel' instead of 'Peter'? OH!!"
- Kevin Fox
I studied this as part of my CS major :D
- Mo Kargas
I studied this last semester ^^
- Vedrana Janković
Will there be an E-book edition?
- Ryan Moulton
Good luck with the deadline!
- Laura Norvig
"Oh. You seem to know a lot about the Ku Klux Klan." - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
 |
Emily Gonsalves, Laurence Gonsalves, Brandon Titus and 2 other people liked this
Poor sap.
- Louis Gray
Commentary: The sunflower boy's smile - CNN.com - http://www.cnn.com/2009...
siva s, Anne Bouey, Emily Gonsalves and 16 other people liked this
"On the morning of last year's annual Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana, a family, appearing a little lost, walked up and down a crowded street, looking in vain for the table to sign up their entry. They carried a large sunflower with them. If no one noticed the exhausted, grieving look in the family's eyes, that was understandable. The Sunflower Fair is a place of happy noise: rides and music and food booths. It is La Porte's fall festival, and people from across northwest Indiana come to spend a Saturday in the midst of the milling, chattering crowds. The family silently bearing the large sunflower had never been to the fair before. But this was important."
- April Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
What a beautiful story.
- Charlotte M
I cried.
- Mike Hussein Cohen
It is really sad when people die of simple infections these days. My best friend's mom died of pneumonia when she was only about 48. It was almost as sudden as this case.
- Robert Felty
I saw this on reddit, and yes, I cried. It hit me when they called his name as the winner.
- Carlton Prest
Robert, it is sad. Especially sad that we can't use phage therapy in those extreme cases.
- Daniel Dulitz
Rudy’s Blog » Blog Archive » In Search of the Mandelbulb - http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog...
Jimminy Fuller, Christopher A Carr, 'Like' robot (frɐnc) and 2 other people liked this
"The Mandelbrot set M is defined in terms of a plane map mandelmap[z,c] which takes z into z*z + c. We add plane points by adding their Cartesian components—this is easy. Multiplying plane points (in particular computing z times z) is done by pretending the plane points represent complex numbers. A problem in defining a 3D Mandelbrot set is that there is no good 3D analogue of complex numbers, and therefore there’s no obvious best way to “square” a 3D point (x, y, z)"
- Jason Wehmhoener
from Bookmarklet
Barack Obama ready to slash US nuclear arsenal | World news | The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world...
Emily Gonsalves, Kevin Pedraja, Jeff P. Henderson and 7 other people liked this
"Obama has rejected the Pentagon's first draft of the "nuclear posture review" as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, according to European officials. Those options include: • Reconfiguring the US nuclear force to allow for an arsenal measured in hundreds rather than thousands of deployed strategic warheads. • Redrafting nuclear doctrine to narrow the range of conditions under which the US would use nuclear weapons. • Exploring ways of guaranteeing the future reliability of nuclear weapons without testing or producing a new generation of warheads. The review is due to be completed by the end of this year, and European officials say the outcome is not yet clear. But one official said: "Obama is now driving this process. He is saying these are the president's weapons, and he wants to look again at the doctrine and their role.""
- Jason Wehmhoener
from Bookmarklet
"eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether" Yep, I hope he fails indeed! Is this based on the condition that ALL other countries that have them abolishing theirs? Are we just going to go by their word? I believe this is astoundingly naive!
- Brian
Yes, Brian, decommissioning requires agreements from all nuclear nations. No, you do not just go by their word. You do inspections. It is not naive, and it is not easy.
- Jason Wehmhoener
We found out after the fall of the Soviet empire, they did NOT live up to their promised reductions while we did, so, yes it IS naive!
- Brian
Brian, you're right, let's just push the button and get it over with.
- Jason Wehmhoener
The sooner we vote this man out of office the better. Nothing in this article says that the other nuclear powers of the world are going to make similar adjustments.
- David C. Cooper
Good. Best decision so far, it never hurts to cut spending on the huge defense budget.
- Rene Wirtz
David, that's just how nonproliferation works. Nations make agreements. The author of a newspaper article shouldn't have to explain that to you.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Too serious for a comment right now. I'll be back. ;-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
Brian, David: I don't usually jump into political debates, but I'll bite. Repeat after me: Obama is not an idiot. (I don't think McCain is an idiot either, by the way). You may not agree with everything he wants or with everything he stands for, but he's a very intelligent man, helped by a team of other smart people. Now, if something that he does or says seems "obviously wrong" to you...
more...
- Tudor Bosman
Abolishing all nuclear weapons is a wonderful, noble, and (most importantly) long-term goal. It's not easy. Obama doesn't want to suddenly dismantle all US nuclear weapons; that would be stupid. He's probably looking towards a long process of decommissioning, international agreements, intelligence work, international pressures (both political and economic), etc.
- Tudor Bosman
Jason, really? When? When and where has it ever worked that way? Nations began using gun powder and suddenly the nations with swords upgraded to gun powder too. Nations began using airplanes to drop bombs and shoot people on the ground so other nations began using airplanes too. When and where has it EVER happened that one nation said "we're not going to use THAT weapon" and the other...
more...
- David C. Cooper
David, here's some when and where for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Jason Wehmhoener
and more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Jason Wehmhoener
Jason that's just ignorant. You said that we would disarm and the rest of the world would just follow along. There is no mention of a treaty where the other nations also agree to disarm and THEN we start disarming. In fact, the article you linked to claims that Obama wants to disarm unilaterally. There is no mention of what other countries are going to do and there have been no talks with other world leaders regarding disarming.
- David C. Cooper
Rereading the article now, because I'm getting the feeling that we read two different things.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Another thing, the SALT treaties and Nuclear Nonproliferation treaties have already been broken and were never recognized by all nuclear powers. In fact, Iran, North Korea, India and Pakistan have completely ignored NNPT.
- David C. Cooper
Yeah, weird, the article I read was all about multilateral agreements and winning consensus.
- Jason Wehmhoener
There are rogue nations. It's easier to put pressure on them when the rest of the world follows long standing agreements and forges new ones as well.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Besides, all of the examples you cited are the proper way to go about this. First you sit down and talk with the other powers and everyone comes to an agreement. THEN you start disarming all the while confirming that your enemies are doing the same. You don't just start dismantling your weapons and expect everyone else to follow suit.
- David C. Cooper
Jason, how are you going to put "pressure" on a nation that's pointing a nuke at your capitol when you don't have a nuke to point back at them?
- David C. Cooper
David, nobody has just started dismantling weapons without agreements. You are making that part up.
- Jason Wehmhoener
The quote you pasted from the article says that Obama wants the Pentagon to come up with a plan to reduce our nuclear weapon capability. It says nothing about agreements with other countries to do the same thing.
- David C. Cooper
David, go read the whole article before commenting again please.
- Jason Wehmhoener
And what's the point in having enough nuclear bombs to destroy the earth 20 times over, all you really need is a few, because when retaliation hits the earth is gonna be destroyed anyway. People who believe you need a nuclear arsenal as big as the convential weapons have no clue what they are talking about and have no grasp on reality, Obama is smart to see he can save a lot of money by...
more...
- Rene Wirtz
Yeah, I read the whole article. As an example of Obama's mistaken reasoning it mentions his order to halt the development of the missile shield that Russia was protesting. What did we get in exchange for that? He also planned to offer to talk to Iran to get them to stop their nuclear weapon development. How well has THAT worked out? Obama might not be an idiot but he certainly is not qualified to be President.
- David C. Cooper
David: what makes you the expert? Were you at the negotiation table? Do you know what was and what is going to be ratified? The answer to all these questions is no, so STFU!
- Rene Wirtz
@Jason: my apologies for being blunt with David C Cooper aka piltord, but this useles tool has no clue what he is talking about and is only regurgitating the extreme right rhetoric.
- Rene Wirtz
No sweat Rene.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Oh, David is pitlord! That's actually a relief. I was worried that there were two complete tools wandering around Friendfeed.
- Jason Wehmhoener
My 11-year old self would die - http://www.shellen.com/2009...
Amit Patel and Laurence Gonsalves liked this
Mandelbrot - http://davidbau.com/archive...
Laurence Gonsalves, Jennifer Dittrich, Sean O'Connor and 4 other people liked this
Good equations and good song too! ;)
- Rachel Lea Fox
nice. bash/vt100 implementation: http://freality.org/~pablo...
- Pablo Mayrgundter
YouTube - Frank Schaeffer on Rachel Maddow - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
 |
Thierry Lhôte, Jérôme Flipo, Andrew C and Laurence Gonsalves liked this
The Secret Behind The Real-Time Web - YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
 |
Mike Chelen, Daniel Chow, anarcher and 242 other people liked this
Ross and Dan made this video to illustrate the advanced technology we use behind the scenes at FriendFeed. (Ross and Dan, you are amazing - I can't believe how awesome this thing turned out)
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
How very creative. This is very fluid and cool.
- Louis Gray
OK, not exactly what I was expecting, but very cool.
- Kevin Arth
Anyone have the video somewhere other than Youtube? it's banned here in Turkey and I can't wait until we get home (next month) to watch it!!
- Chris Myles
Bret, this video should be titled: A Love Song for FriendFeed ! Great vid (and music) !
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
This is awesome!
- Christopher Chung
with a community like this - you just can't roll-it into f.b.. keep the dream alive!
- michael sean wright
:O
- Josh Haley
Amazing, thanks for that!
- dkb
According to Ross, they used about 1030 individual pictures in the final version. Stop motion is a lot of work :)
- Bret Taylor
Sure, sure--give away all the secrets. (Are those Lego dudes union?)
- Kathy Fitch
very creative. wonder how long it took to do that stop-action?
- berchman
Ross's best work so far ! great job Ross
- goutham
Major props to Ross and Dan. FriendFeed lives on
- Shane
That's priceless. Great job, guys.
- John Craft
This is superb. I just showed it to my 5 year old son who enjoys Lego and has already taken some great photos, including one or two of his toys. So now he has the seed of the idea that, in time, he could take multiple stills and put them together to make moving pictures. Thank you very much for posting it and giving me and him that opportunity. Maybe, he might use FriendFeed one day too!
- John W Lewis
Great project!
- Anne Bouey
AWESOME!
- Kevin Fox
I think they need to make a full stop-motion version of the Matrix in legos. Now THAT would be awesome. I wonder what bullet-time looks like in LEGO?
- Bret Taylor
i'd pay to see the stop animation lego matrix, but not the sequels
- patrick
"Equipment Generously Provided By Casey Muller" - hahaha!! THIS IS AWESOMESAUCE!!! I love the creative energy and vibe in this video... LOTS of work went into that one! Thanks guys!! :)
- Susan Beebe
Genius, how much time did that all take?
- Wayne Hornsey
Chris Myles: if you want ot - DM me an address and I'll mail you a copy.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
That is so awesome
- Glenn Slaven
happy-making!
- Felicia Yue
I am more proud than ever for being a FriendFeeder :)
- Arvind
Wow!!!!!
- Mona Nomura
Excellent!!
- Kol Tregaskes
That's great!
- Devon Govett
Cool! The friendfeed's manufactury
- Benedetto Vacca
неплохо, неплохо! Продолжение будет?
- atner
Lots of handshaking I see :)
- Nicholas Kreidberg
hahaha very nice stop motion and music!
- Alex Huinchucleffy
BUMP
- Roberto Bonini
FULL OF WIN
- Jac Falcon
Fitbits are finally shipping! http://www.fitbit.com/ I foresee one of these being on my person in the near future. Such a great idea.
Rachel Garb, Kishore Balakrishnan, Shakeel Mahate and 2 other people liked this
From the site: "We are currently filling pre-orders, and will start filling new orders October 31st."
- Scott Ludwig
Ok, so "near future" may have been an over exaggeration. The bigger issue for me is the fact that they don't ship to Canada. Argh. I did manage to get an order submitted by shoehorning my Canadian address into the "Address Line 2" field. So far so good but I'm not holding my breath.
- Dylan Parker
Strategic Vision Polls Exhibit Unusual Patterns, Possibly Indicating Fraud - Nate Silver (FiveThirtyEight) - http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009...
Laurence Gonsalves, j1m and Ruchira S. Datta liked this
"One possibility is that there is some intrinsic, mathematical reason that certain trailing digits are more likely to come up than others. This is certainly possible -- and in fact, it would be somewhat likely if the polling data that we were looking at were homogeneous [...] But this data is not random. It's not close to random. It's not close to close. Which brings up the other possibility: Strategic Vision is cooking the books."
- Paul Haahr
from Bookmarklet
7500 lines of Bug Free Code, A Mathematically Verified Crash Proof Operating System Kernel - http://nextbigfuture.com/2009...
Ruchira S. Datta, Laurence Gonsalves and Jimminy Fuller liked this
"A team had been able to prove with mathematical rigour that an operating-system kernel – the code at the heart of any computer or microprocessor – was 100 per cent bug-free and therefore immune to crashes and failures. The breakthrough has major implications for improving the reliability of critical systems such as medical machinery, military systems and aircraft, where failure due to a software error could have disastrous results. “A rule of thumb is that reasonably engineered software has about 10 bugs per thousand lines of code, with really high quality software you can get that down to maybe one or three bugs per thousand lines of code,” Professor Heiser said."
- Jason Wehmhoener
from Bookmarklet
No bugs... except spec bugs. This is a great milestone from an academic point of view, but I don't think it's practical. I may be convinced as I look into it more deeply though.
- Daniel Dulitz
Who else thinks that dust jackets on hardcover books are really annoying? Anyone else remove the dust jacket immediately?
jeffscott, Carter Rabasa, Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah and 9 other people liked this
Dust jackets for books was cheaper then buy new colouring printpresses. Therfore you got them in the first place..
- Jonas Jonsson
I like them. The endflaps make excellent bookmarks.
- Roberto Bonini
from iPhone
hard cover books themselves are the problem.
- Alex Gawley
Wouldn´t agree on that .. Hard covered books tells who you are. Therfore they invented the book shell in the first place, Then books also is a status symbol. Something they missed out when they got the dumb ass idee to make a e-books reader only to read e-books on.
- Jonas Jonsson
I trash them immediately.
- Rob Shillingsburg
I like them so much that I wish when I bought a book for the Kindle they'd mail me one for the Kindle to wear while I'm reading it.
- j1m
I put it back when done reading. No way I'd be doing away with the artwork.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
I don't trash them, but I remove them and put them back on when I'm done reading.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Normally, I take them off and replace them once I finish reading, but I've been known to read with the cover on.
- Jimminy Fuller
I do the same as the last 3. Remove them while reading, and put them back when done.
- Admiral Anika
Introducing a "domain" parameter into the rssCloud spec before a "challenge" parameter seems a little irresponsible. Now, instead of just DDoSing shared hosting providers, you can DDoS anyone. re: http://rsscloud.org/walkthr...
Meryn Stol, Laurence Gonsalves, alieb and 6 other people liked this
All you need to do is point it at high-CPU search page on your target, ie: curl -d "domain=example.com&path=/search.php%3Fq%3Dslow&url=...". The search will return 200 OK and happily accept turn all the future POSTs into search results. Multiply this by a few thousand blog pings and you've got a DDoS.
- Matt Mastracci
does PubSubHubbub have an analogous mechanism that can be exploited similarly?
- Chris Heath
Chris - PSHB requires the endpoint to echo back a challenge parameter: http://pubsubhubbub.googlecode.com/svn... As the PSHB spec puts it, this "Verifies Intent of the Subscriber". rssCloud doesn't verify the intent - only the existence of the endpoint and its willingness to accept POST requests (although you can use an HTTP redirect to convert that POST into a GET to exploit URLs that don't accept POST).
- Matt Mastracci
Any known exploit? I mean, is there a documented or known mis-use of rssCloud like this? Just askin'
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
Pandu, you can exploit it today by issuing the appropriate curl commands against an rssCloud hub (ie: rpc.rsscloud.org).
- Matt Mastracci
Oooo Matt... you just can't begin to imagine the temptation I had... :-P
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
Before the "domain" parameter, you needed to be running on a shared host. You could basically DDoS the boxes that the hosts use for outgoing HTTP. I wrote it up on my blog along with some recommendations on how to fix the protocol (ie: adding the challenge parameter).
- Matt Mastracci
Peer review is important. Thanks for providing it, Matt.
- Brett Slatkin
Brett, absolutely. It's also important to have an open forum where this stuff can be discussed without egos getting involved. I've tried to find issues with PSHB as well, but the challenge parameter and rate limiting basically prevents any sort of DDoS from taking place.
- Matt Mastracci
I'm glad to see Dave is at least moving to fix the IP address issue
- Nick Lothian
Other ways to read this feed:
