MetaFilter

Little known factoid: One of the best predictors of arthroscopic surgical skill is amount of time spent playing and skill at first person shooters. So you don't want the old distinguished surgeon who has been practicing surgery for 25 years, you want the Red Bull'd up twenty something resident who plays twelve hour CoD marathons.
posted to MetaFilter by Justinian at 12:30 AM on April 15, 2013

From: How NASA's Nuclear Rockets Will Take Us Way Beyond Mars

That's 4GW of power, equal to the total production capacity of Chernobyl—enough to power 3 million homes—generated in less than a quarter of an hour.

I think Gizmodo should stick to reviewing phones.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:03 AM on April 15, 2013

So Obama has to keep them prisoner because the military can't afford the money to not lock them up? C'mon now. We're not that dumb.
posted to MetaFilter by ryanrs at 11:08 PM on April 14, 2013

Gitmo needs to be shut down, though I suppose I'm preaching to the choir. There's no need for it. Everyone deserves the right to a fair trial, even if they're not U.S. citizens. This is sad.
posted to MetaFilter by Malice at 10:47 PM on April 14, 2013

I was watching a really interesting documentary on My Lai earlier today. When the Americans first landed in Vietnam, they were playing with the kids and handing out candy and playing games. The first impression that some villagers had was that our soldiers were very likable. After a few months in the jungle, sustaining heavy casualties from mines and snipers - they could not see the enemy - the men of Charlie Company sort of lost their minds, burning everything and killing any man, woman or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by phaedon at 10:43 PM on April 14, 2013

This is what we voted for, folks.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 10:33 PM on April 14, 2013

Meanwhile - not in Spain:

At the meeting yesterday, Federal Reserve staff argued that the documents relating to widespread legal violations are the “trade secrets” of mortgage servicing companies. In addition, staff from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) argued that these documents should be withheld from Members of Congress because producing them could be interpreted as a waiver of their authority to prevent disclosure to the public of confidential... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rough ashlar at 5:25 PM on April 14, 2013

Hey Spamandkimchi, did the class talk about the influence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

My own interpretation of the housing crises casts those sorts of institutions as market distorting subsidies for top-heavy financial excess that is simultaneously environmentally unsound and acts as bread and circuses, but I've never heard a qualified economist talking about them.
posted to MetaFilter by tychotesla at 11:24 AM on April 14, 2013

Thank you for this. I took a housing finance class last summer and basically never recovered from the realization that building houses has so very very very little to do with actually housing people. The class was taught by Roberto Quercia, an alumnus of my program and a bonafide expert on the U.S. mortgage crisis. It was a red pill/blue pill universe-reorganizer and to see the Spanish version is just %$#&!
posted to MetaFilter by spamandkimchi at 10:28 AM on April 14, 2013

"While the error is regretted, it should be noted that the coin is an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation."

God, what a crock of shit. This is the kind of thing the saying about insult to injury was coined (so to speak) for.
posted to MetaFilter by BibiRose at 9:11 AM on April 13, 2013

I saw someone say on Twitter, and I think they're right, that this story could have been incredible had it been classic Who, and had the luxury of stretching out over 4-6 episodes.

&

Four twenty-minute parts of this would have been the best thing I've seen in NuWho in years, possibly ever.

Exactly what I was thinking. If this were 4 20 minute episodes (or 2 45 minute ones), with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Saxon Kane at 8:04 PM on April 14, 2013

If I didn't know better, I'd think this whole "controversy" was an elaborate plot for the golf media elite to get me (and other casual fans like me) to sympathize with Tiger Woods again.
posted to MetaFilter by MCMikeNamara at 11:05 AM on April 14, 2013

Both positions are arguably correct, but this has become a way bigger story than it deserves to be. There's only outrage because it involves Woods. Calling this cheating is a huge stretch.
posted to MetaFilter by davebush at 10:48 AM on April 14, 2013

High stakes evaluations for teachers with little support are one of the reasons I don't teach anymore; DCPS burned me out. I'm not at all surprised this happened and, while I absolutely don't think it's okay, I also recognize that it's easy to underestimate how people, even well-meaning people, will react in unbelievably stressful situations, especially when the issue is not only your own job but the well-being of the actual school and funding for the students.

Unless... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 2:03 PM on April 14, 2013

The Salon article does a great job explaining how despite repeated studies, there is no evidence that electrosensitivity actually exists. It's nice there happens to be this place in West Viriginia where these unfortunate people can move to and be happy. But "electrosensitivity" is increasingly being cited as a reason to stop deployment of important infrastructure: cell phone towers, city-wide WiFi, smart electrical meters. Superstitious thinking is particularly dangerous in combination... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Nelson at 7:59 AM on April 13, 2013

that cat seemed 2/3rd resigned to its death. and I'm not making abuse claims, but why bathe a kitty? As an ex said with disgust and I say with pride, cats are self-cleaning machines.

Cat's can get things on them that it would be unhealthy for them to ingest.

Like, say, a large amount of heavy equipment grease, an example I am choosing totally and completely at random, and not at all because of any personal experience with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 7:44 AM on April 13, 2013

(Offered as a soothing balm following the trauma of the underwater cat video, which I will not click ever. If it's half as bad as it sounds, it's very bad indeed.)


For people who might fear this is a kitty water-boarding video, a description.

It is a cat, sitting in a tub, sort of hunched over in neck-deep (to a cat sitting down) water. No one is holding onto the kitty, and she or he mows without completely... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by winna at 7:22 AM on April 13, 2013

It's funny because the cat is miserable. Hopefully next Metafilter will show me pictures of parents laughing when their children are getting a vaccination. That'd be great entertainment.
posted to MetaFilter by Nelson at 7:20 AM on April 13, 2013

a reaction (?) video from the cat's owner about accusations of kitty abuse.

If you're trying to convince people you aren't abusing your cat, I would suggest you don't shove your thumb in its ear and scratch the inside of its ear so hard its head shakes and it has involuntary contractions of its feet, and it bats its paw at you to get you to stop. He asked, "does that look like an unhappy face to you?" Yes sir, it looks unhappy.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by charlie don't surf at 6:39 AM on April 13, 2013

We assume she is probably finding other food sources, like friendly neighbours.

Yikes. How big are these cats ... or how small are their neighbours?
posted to MetaFilter by ZenMasterThis at 10:26 AM on April 13, 2013

Ok, so a pirated game is just a copy with some DRM circumvented. The actual game code itself is untouched, whatever bugs there are are the bugs it shipped with. So in reality this PSA's argument is "don't pirate or you won't get our patches pushed from the update server for the buggy piece of shit we rushed out the door."
posted to MetaFilter by jason_steakums at 1:26 PM on April 13, 2013

I love that kid. He should be in EVERY GAME.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:53 PM on April 13, 2013

Sad thing is, the game in the video looks about a thousand times more fun than what Nintendo has been churning out lately.
posted to MetaFilter by Sys Rq at 12:24 PM on April 13, 2013

The premise of the video seems to be "If we convince people they are having a terrible acid flashback, they won't pirate software"
posted to MetaFilter by lumpenprole at 12:15 PM on April 13, 2013

"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jaduncan at 12:16 PM on April 13, 2013

The culture that is Washington - "Some officials suggested that transparency 'could threaten national security...' "

also btw on the new commanding heights...

The problem with Promontory
Promontory is proof positive, then, of just how lucrative the revolving-door business can be. The company is full of lavishly-paid former regulators, hiring themselves out at $1,500 an hour to banks desperate for advice on how to navigate... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 10:32 AM on April 13, 2013

[...] he had the satisfaction of a happy marriage that lasted from 1948 until his wife's death in 2009.

And he talks about their wedding anniversary on September 11, 2001 in the Archive of American Television interview (above).
posted to MetaFilter by ericb at 2:05 PM on April 12, 2013

"It’s as if somebody had a patent on the X-ray images of the pelvic region of a human being," says Weaver. "You could administer the test, but you wouldn’t be able to inform the patient about that region. It’s crazy."This is basically the crux of it all. The line of patentability needs to be drawn somewhere. Saying "gene patents" is such a broad thing that it's hard to know what exactly is being patented. Using the X-ray analogy, here's one way to portray the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Llama-Lime at 5:04 PM on April 12, 2013

It terrifies me that ordinary folk can be caught between such forces for violence, destruction, and death.

When I talk to people my age from Lebanon and Bosnia this is what they always mention. "One day you're going to work as usual, the next day bombs are falling. It happens quicker than you can imagine." I really believe that - that civilization is a thin veneer.

Syria looks more and more like the Civil War in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by three blind mice at 12:04 AM on April 13, 2013

Almost 20 years ago, I showed up bleary eyed for an early morning broadcast at KTLA TV in Los Angeles, and had the unexpected pleasure of spending the morning with the wonderfully gentle madness that was Jonathan Winters. It was the most delightful couple of hours I've ever spent in show business; he kept dropping into a Russian accent and referring to me as 'the balalaika player' when I was sitting at the piano.

Rest in peace, sir.

.
posted to MetaFilter by pianoboy at 8:14 PM on April 12, 2013

Robin was doing mime jokes in his standup at the time, and that line was canned.
Jonathan never delivered a canned joke. Not even once.

It's kind of popular right now to rag on Robin Williams, but he's a genius too. When you're improvising, you go where your brain takes you, you can't afford to second guess yourself. It's very in-the-moment comedy.

Every time I've seen Williams and Winters performing together I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 7:53 PM on April 12, 2013

Jonathan Winters was several geniuses boisterously sharing the same cranium.

.
posted to MetaFilter by BitterOldPunk at 4:59 PM on April 12, 2013

Memo to self: Be more like Jonathan Winters, less like Margaret Thatcher.
posted to MetaFilter by LastOfHisKind at 4:27 PM on April 12, 2013

Sure, but the assumption that testing will automatically be cheaper when unencumbered by patents isn't a given when we know that in-house testing labs routinely over-charge and over-test captive patients because the doctors and hospitals have financial incentive to order these tests.

The assumption that competition will lower prices isn't a given, so let's not allow competition. Got it.
posted to MetaFilter by crayz at 7:30 PM on April 12, 2013

I'm not even sure where to start...something like 20% of the human genome is under patent and to imply gene patents have not impacted clinical genetic testing is disingenuous and disregards government studies confirming patents affect access and innovation. Athena holds patents on numerous genes and some of those genes are only available through panels costing thousands of dollars often with no reduction in price if the familial mutation is already known and full sequencing is not needed. Even... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beaning at 5:52 PM on April 12, 2013

Anti-Myriad ruling: investment in biotech dries up; government-funded basic research continues, but without patent protection commercialization withers.

This is really far-fetched. As you are fond of pointing out, the question presented in this case is whether genes are patentable. Since patents on human genes are not a major product of current biotech investment, preventing the patenting of human genes shouldn't have major effects on who continues... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grouse at 4:36 PM on April 12, 2013

People don't infringe those patents just by existing, either, and it's no more represents ownership over people's bodies than a patent on a method of treating a disease by administering a certain drug is ("you're telling me what I can and can't do to my own body, therefore you're claiming to own my body!").

That's your opinion. I think that barring people from examining their own genome sequence without a license is abhorrent.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grouse at 4:01 PM on April 12, 2013

Katha Pollit on February 14:

Blood-spattered floors. Cat feces. Broken equipment. A 15-year-old giving anesthesia. Two women dead, countless more maimed and injured. Third-trimester fetuses delivered alive whose spines were then severed by the doctor. This was the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia. This is what illegal abortion looks like.

If this story isn't being covered enough, it's not that feminist writers... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by emjaybee at 12:44 PM on April 12, 2013

My family has some stuff that my mother inherited from her grandfather, I think. Nothing like this, just random household furniture and the like. Nobody living knows for sure where he got it. Maybe he stole it. Should we not sell it?

Does anybody allege that some specific person stole these specific objects at some specific time in some specific manner? Does anybody offer any detailed history at all? Do they have any evidence whatsoever beyond "My ancestors (or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Hizonner at 6:52 PM on April 12, 2013

The Associated Press is not transmitting images of the objects because the Hopi have long kept the items out of public view and consider it sacrilegious for any images of the objects to appear.

Oh please. What nonsense.

If you are willing to call out Christians for believing fairy tales you need to extend your convictions to other groups too.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Keith Talent at 6:00 PM on April 12, 2013

The real motivation is that some doctors and hospitals want a cut of the action. Instead of sending samples to Myriad for testing, they want to perform (and charge for!) the test themselves.

Whoa whoa whoa, you're telling me my local private-practice doctor wants to be able to test if I'm at risk for cancer based on published, open scientific data and charge me for that service, rather than shipping my samples off to a multi-billion dollar company that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by crayz at 3:42 PM on April 12, 2013

I think one could reasonably say that the company owns the temporary right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing into the United States that particular isolated DNA molecule.

Myriad claims not only "isolated molecules" but also analysis of the gene, whether it is isolated or not. If you sequence someone's genome and look to at whether a patient's BRCA1 sequence differs from the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grouse at 3:41 PM on April 12, 2013

cDNA can already be trivially produced for an arbitrary sequence through well known processes. Practically speaking, it's a commodity now. If you want a particular cDNA sequence you order it from a supplier and they send it to you. You could make it yourself if you're macho, have the equipment, and value money more than your own time.

That's right. It seems like a researcher can't easily use standard biochemical protocols (like using a generically... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 3:23 PM on April 12, 2013

One of the major specific frustrations I have with the Myriad patents is that they purport to extend to every 15-base (A/T/C/G) subsequence of both BRCA1 and BRCA2. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are each thousands of bases long. Some of these subsequences, then, actually exist in other genes and other regions of the genome. A paper that scanned Chromosome I for these 15mers found, indeed, more than 340,000 hits.
posted to MetaFilter by en forme de poire at 3:15 PM on April 12, 2013

cDNA can already be trivially produced for an arbitrary sequence through well known processes. Practically speaking, it's a commodity now. If you want a particular cDNA sequence you order it from a supplier and they send it to you. You could make it yourself if you're macho, have the equipment, and value money more than your own time.

Myriad isn't driving technology here, they're rent-seeking in a market that's already passed them by because any number of other companies... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Humanzee at 3:06 PM on April 12, 2013

It's not actually about people owning their bodies or personal liberty because of course the patents don't cover the genes in people's bodies

If one company has a monopoly on the protocols used to detect and describe that gene, perhaps one could reasonably say that said company owns that gene in all people, for the purposes of doing something — anything — useful with that knowledge, like, say, diagnosing a disease.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 2:41 PM on April 12, 2013

There's a story, perhaps apocryphal, that he had a special room in his house where he could just go and be crazy - like create dozens of new characters or just scream and let off steam. One of the fastest minds I've ever seen. A brilliant, influential man and one who I will sorely miss - but his was the face that launched a thousand comedians. His influence is going to live on in comedy for centuries.
posted to MetaFilter by Joey Michaels at 2:46 PM on April 12, 2013

Okay, since this seems to be the standing obituary post, I'm going to dump out the video links I was compiling here:

Jonathan Winters improvises with a pen and pencil set
Jonathan Winters & Robin Williams on David Letterman - Part 2
Clips & plaque presentation in 2011
Jonathan Winters, as Willis Mumford, roasts Johnny Carson
Jonathan Winters, as Miss Maude Frickert, roasts Ronald... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:28 PM on April 12, 2013

You'd think that the existence of the gene itself would be implicit proof of prior art.
posted to MetaFilter by mullingitover at 1:27 PM on April 12, 2013

Note that the import process for a new region takes an extremely long time. Start it running, and then go do something else. Even on my tricked-out wünderPC, it took about 15 minutes of the game just sitting there, apparently not doing anything. What it's actually doing is generating full-size maps for the whole region; in the case of Eaton, it's generating 64 of them, and that takes a good long while.

If you use SC4 Mapper (a standalone fan-made... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by General Tonic at 9:08 AM on April 11, 2013