Interesting Links for 17-6-2011

[andrewducker]

• Some answers to just about any bike forum post I’ve ever read (applies elsewhere too)
  (tags: cycling advice)
• Android Public Service Announcement: Stop Using Task Killer Apps – NOW
  (tags: android mobile_phones)
• UK welfare fraud is at 0.8%. Remind me why it's a big deal?
  (tags: welfare fraud uk)
• Scientists record and replay memories in rats.
  (tags: memory technology cybernetics TheFuture)
• A new process for cement that is carbon-negative (unlike most cement, which produces oodles of CO2)
  (tags: cement technology construction cartoon)
• An amazing dance pose. Damned impressive.
  (tags: dance art photos)
• More details on the Apple Patent for passing info through infra-red signals. Has some fascinating uses.
  (tags: apple patents mobile)
• Edinburgh is in the middle of nowhere. Click. Then zoom out. And again. And again...
  (tags: edinburgh google maps funny)
• Heart With No Beat Offers Hope Of New Lease On Life
  (tags: health heart technology)
• Duke Nukem Forever Castrates the Male Ideal
  (tags: dukenukem funny feminism)
• Republican New York Senator Comes Out For Gay Marriage With Awesome Quote. More like this please.
  (tags: usa lgbt politics marriage)
• Kinect for Windows SDK released. Shame about the license.
  (tags: kinect microsoft sdk)
• Rob Zombie Has Made an advert for laundry detergent. It looks exactly how you'd think it would.
  (tags: RobZombie advert horror)
• Apple to ban iPhone gig filming
  (tags: apple iphone censorship music concerts EpicFail HopefullyUntrue)
• Alex Salmond’s silence on banking is “elephant in room” for Scottish independence
  (tags: banking scotland independence)
• New Statesman interview Alan Moore: "I've disproved the existence of death"
  (tags: alanmoore writing books)
• Reduced solar output will not cause a little ice age.
  (tags: solar sun climate)
• Woman tries to hire hitman via Facebook. About as successful as you'd expect.
  (tags: EpicFail facebook crime)
• MP demands government rethink on Digital Economy Act
  (tags: internet uk politics)

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Much of that article on reduced solar output not causing a little ice age is statements from Michael 'Hockey Stick' Mann. He is one of the more controversial exponents of AGW partially because he makes very definite statements like these. The original NASA article quite reasonably observed a past correlation between a Maunder Minimum and lower temperatures but (again quite reasonably) did not express any view on causation.

For those of us who consider ourselves environmentalists but who also remain sceptics of anyone saying that correlation = causation when discussing anything as super-complicated as long-term global climate trends, Michael Mann's views have to be taken with as much of a pinch of salt as the more rabid deniers on the other side of the argument.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

My love for the Rob Zombie ad knows no bounds.

[andrewducker]

Thank you for linking to it yesterday!

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I can't figure out why all the Gawker commentators are saying it sucks.

Like, what else would you expect from a Rob Zombie ad? It's certainly more interesting than the usual "It got the grass stains out" ad with the happy mother of five pretending laundry is fun.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

of course repressive governments / misbehaving law enforcement agencies would have absolutely NO interest in the Apple iPhone fiming blocking technology....

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

I use an andriod task killer app because it's the only way to stop some apps from fetching data when in the background. Facebook particularly. This is a problem becuase there is a monthly cap.

Welfare fraud is a big deal because the Murdoch press says it's a big deal, and if it wasn't people might notice some far bigger issues, like large companies dodging large amounts of tax. And besides, hating on people on benefits is good for business, or something.

[andrewducker]

Open the Facebook app.

Press "Menu"

Select "Settings"

Set "Refresh Interval" to "Never".

Ta-dah!

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

I had done that. I am now trying also setting Notifications to "Inactive".

Here's a thought though: On the system menu, under Settings | applications, you get "Battery Use". I also like to see "Network use"

[andrewducker]

I'd love to see that as well. It would make it vastly easier to tell what was using my network connection.

Not that I actually use it much - I don't think I've ever gone over the 500MB limit I have.

Limit?

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Wot's a limit?

Just don't ask wot I pays and pays and pays....

Re: Limit?

[andrewducker]

I think I pay around £30-£35/month. Including phone insurance of £5.

Re: Limit?

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I was going to say - surely you have home contents insurance? I know mine covers my phone, it might be worth checking and save that £5 a month?

Re: Limit?

[andrewducker]

Would contents insurance cover me leaving my phone on a bus?

Re: Limit?

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I've no idea - but it's worth giving them a quick call and asking. I did ring mine to find out if my telly was covered when I dropped an antler on it (it wasn't)

Re: Limit?

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I pay £18 basic (a flexi-allowance for calls/texts) + extra £5 a month for unlimited data. I'd never even consider a capped-data plan - too dangerous!

Re: Limit?

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

insurance? I have 2 backup phones. If I stuff the nice one I'll just suck it up, go back to the previous one and save up... Outright theft is covered on my home contents.

Re: Limit?

[andrewducker]

Certainly at the time I got my phone I couldn't afford to replace it (not at £400-ish). Paying £5/month to make sure that if I lost it I'd have a replacement has so far worked out well (not, admittedly, with the current one, but I managed to leave the previous one on a bus).

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

UK welfare fraud is at 0.8%. Remind me why it's a big deal?

Salience.

People on low pay observe people in their neighbourhood ripping off the benefit system, and feel resentment. Which is fair enough in itself: their taxes are indeed going to fund these cheats. The much bigger drains on the public purse, from bad government procurement to tax evasion to errors in the benefit system itself, are much less visible, even if they should rationally be a much greater concern to aggrieved taxpayers.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

Bike frames made overseas can be super cool. Bike frames made in the USA can be super cool.

What about bike frames made in Canada or Mexico?

(Being silly, but at one point Britney Spears was ridiculed for calling Canada "overseas".)

[andrewducker]

Canada and Mexico _are_ both overseas - the Atlantic is definitely between me and them, I checked on Google Maps!

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

The solution to welfare fraud is to pay everyone in the country a guaranteed minimum income.

I don't know the UK system, but in Canada the marginal tax rate on going from welfare to employment is sometimes over 100% thanks to clawbacks.

[andrewducker]

I agree!

Theoretically the new welfare system that's coming in over here will prevent a system where earning more means you have less, but I'm going to wait and see the details...

[sttatus-quo.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting story about the mechanical heart. Aside from cardiac filling during diastole the body seems to *like* pulsatile flow. The other bit that nobody mentioned is that the problem of external power source and long term anticoagulation- which are both big vulnerabilities with VAD patients now- have yet to be cracked. I will say that having watched them go from huge machines that confined patients to the hospital to more portable models consisting of a system controller the size of a hand with a vest for batteries- its been good to see people go home and resume their lives to the extent that they can.

Until about a year ago, LVADs were only used as bridge-to-transplant. The complications, when they happen, are awful. Bleeding in a patient that cannot be taken off anticoagulants. Stroke. Infection- as long as the drive line exits the body that is always a site for infection. Plus, sometimes the parts just wear out which means that the pump has to be replaced.

Currently we're using HeartMateII and also a research pump called Heartware (which is what the pump in the article reminds me of). I'll be watching the future of BiVads and hoping that we come up with a way to repair rather than replace hearts.

[andrewducker]

Do you have anything more on the body liking pulsatile flow?

How long do the artificial hearts tend to last?

[sttatus-quo.livejournal.com]

There may be published work on it. I'll have to look. I'm speaking from anecdotal evidence we see in our patient population of long-term device use. There isn't a wide body of evidence on it since destination VADs are relatively new. There may be an age/disease state/other body factor we haven't noticed yet component as well.

HeartMate II is estimated to last 5-10 years. I'm sure some of that depends on the flow rate needed because the higher the RPMs the faster the wear on the device. Heartware is still investigational at this point in the US so no claims can be made.

The power source is still an issue. As long as there is an external drive line the risk of infection remains large. First person to come up with an internal and rechargable power source for either an LVAD or BiVAD wins.

The devices are very limiting. Weekly labwork, biweekly office visits, caregiver to do the dressing changes (patients cannot do this by themselves and maintain a sterile field) are all factors that affect the lifestyle. Although I suppose it may be better than living a bed-and-chair existence.

Let me check and see if I can find references for the pulsatile flow issue. Do you have access to Medscape or Medline?

[andrewducker]

I'll have to ask Julie if she has access to either of those via the university.

And thanks for the info, I find this all fascinating!

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Bike thing -- well yes, but often people ask those questions because they don't know what they want because they don't know enough about the options. So not reaaaally that helpful really.

Also, 'Being shuttled up a downhill run' -- what does that even mean?

[alextfish.livejournal.com]

I assumed it meant "you want to cycle this fun route that starts at the top of a hill and ends at the end of it, but you don't want to cycle up the hill first, so you get someone to drive you&your bike up to the top of the hill".