Gobbles, my roommates cat, had a seizure Thursday night/Friday morning. She got home around 2:30am and found him on the couch seizing. She yelled for me and I came out of my bed and saw he was in a full blown seizure. His eyes were blown, his tongue was out, his body was convulsing and he was making a grunting noise. I called the local 24 hour emergency vet down the street and brought him in. They gave him Valium and that stopped it. They worked up an inventory of shit they wanted to do to watch him over night. It totaled around $1400 including $50 to take his fucking blood pressure. We laughed at them and they redid it without the tests and it still cost about $400. They thought it might have been related to his diabetes, but his blood sugar was fine.
Christine picked him up in the morning and brought him to the local vet and they checked him out. She called later in the day and said when they tried taking him off the Valium, he began to seize again. She went in to talk to the vet about it. I tired doing some research online about it and could only come up with trying to get him on phenobarbital instead of running a shit load of really expensive tests on him. I'll called her while she was talking to the vet and she said she'd call me back. A little while later she texted me that they put him to sleep.
Gobbles was one of the coolest fucking cats ever. You could do ANYTHING to him and he didn't care. Christine was even able to put in in one of those cat shirts/sweaters and he didn't care. He just loved the attention.
No religion and an end to war: how thinkers see the future
Alok Jha, science correspondent Monday January 1, 2007 The Guardian
People's fascination for religion and superstition will disappear within a few decades as television and the internet make it easier to get information, and scientists get closer to discovering a final theory of everything, leading thinkers argue today.
The web magazine Edge (www.edge.org) asked more than 150 scientists and intellectuals: "What are you optimistic about?" Answers included hope for an extended human life span, a bright future for autistic children, and an end to violent conflicts around the world.
Philosopher Daniel Denett believes that within 25 years religion will command little of the awe it seems to instil today. The spread of information through the internet and mobile phones will "gently, irresistibly, undermine the mindsets requisite for religious fanaticism and intolerance".
Biologist Richard Dawkins said that physicists would give religion another problem: a theory of everything that would complete Albert Einstein's dream of unifying the fundamental laws of physics. "This final scientific enlightenment will deal an overdue death blow to religion and other juvenile superstitions."
Part of that final theory will be formulated by scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator at Cern in Geneva, which is to be switched on this year. It will smash protons together to help scientists understand what makes up the most fundamental bits of the universe.
Steven Pinker, a psychologist at Harvard University, highlighted the decline of violence: "Most people, sickened by the bloody history of the 20th century, find this claim incredible. Yet, as far as I know, every systematic attempt to document the prevalence of violence over centuries and millennia (and, for that matter, the past 50 years), particularly in the west, has shown the overall trend is downward."
John Horgan, of the Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, was optimistic "that one day war - large-scale, organised group violence - will end once and for all".
This will also be the year that we get to grips with our genomes. George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, believes we will learn "so much more about ourselves and how we interact with our environment and fellow humans".
Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist at Cambridge University, focused on autistic children, saying their outlook had never been better. "There is a remarkably good fit between the autistic mind and the digital age," he said. "Many develop an intuitive understanding of computers, in the same way other children develop an intuitive understanding of people."
Leo Chalupa, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Davis, predicted that, by the middle of this century, it would not be uncommon for people to lead active lives well beyond the age of 100. He added: "We will be able to regenerate parts of the brain that have been worn out. So better start thinking what you'll be doing with all those extra years." http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1980978,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool By Declan McCullagh, and Anne Broache, CNET News.com Published on ZDNet News: December 1, 2006, 2:20 PM PT
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.
The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.
The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone.
Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.
While the Genovese crime family prosecution appears to be the first time a remote-eavesdropping mechanism has been used in a criminal case, the technique has been discussed in security circles for years.
The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."
Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."
Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)
"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which is not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said. Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones, he added.( Read more... )
Miller Brewing Company's workers are preparing to strike as the company is attempting to force them to roll back their health care, pensions, and annual raise.
Till this is over... no scab beer.
Miller employees authorize STRIKE!
Clerical staff and shipping and receiving employees of Miller Brewing Co. on Tuesday night "overwhelmingly" authorized a strike if a new labor agreement can't be reached.
The workers are represented by the Office & Professional Employees International Union Local 35. The union didn't release the vote tally, but stated that nearly all of the 120 employees in the bargaining unit favored the strike authorization.
A prior contract expired in April. A series of short-term contract extensions have been enacted since then, the most recent of which expires on Wednesday.
A series of contract proposals, which have included a proposed pension freeze, minimal annual pay raises and increased employee contributions for health care insurance, have been deemed unacceptable by the employees' bargaining committee.
"We just can't afford it," said Judy Burnick, Local 35 business manager.
The majority of the employees in the bargaining unit are women who have been employed at Miller for more than 20 years, Burnick said.
Jan Wilson, the union's chief steward and a Miller employee for 29 years, said the proposed pension freeze is the main issue among the union members.
Linda Lokken, an accounts receivable clerk who has worked at Miller for 31 years, has to work nearly 10 more years before becoming eligible to retire, making the pension issue a top concern for her and a main reason she favored authorizing the union to call a strike if negotiations don't progress.
"It seems like the company is telling us that they don't want an older work force," said Lokken, who attended a meeting conducted by the union at a hall at 633 S. Hawley Road Tuesday night.
"After all the time I've given to the company, it's pretty sad," she said.
Miller management has declined to comment on the specifics of the negotiations but has repeatedly stated that it is working toward an agreement that will be satisfactory to both parties and "ensure the long-term success" of the company.
Miller management and the union met with a federal mediator on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, but the meetings failed to lead to a new agreement.
Union leaders stated that they planned to inform the mediator of the results of the vote.Miller Brewing Company's workers are preparing to strike as the company is attempting to force them to roll back their health care, pensions, and annual raise.
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Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs POSTED: 7:56 p.m. EDT, September 12, 2006 Adjust font size: Decrease fontDecrease font Enlarge fontEnlarge font
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.
The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.
"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."
The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.
Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.
On another subject, Wynne said he expects to choose a new contractor for the next generation aerial refueling tankers by next summer. He said a draft request for bids will be put out next month, and there are two qualified bidders: the Boeing Co. and a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the majority owner of European jet maker Airbus SAS.
The contract is expected to be worth at least $20 billion (€15.75 billion).
Chicago, Illinois-based Boeing lost the tanker deal in 2004 amid revelations that it had hired a top Air Force acquisitions official who had given the company preferential treatment.
Wynne also said the Air Force, which is already chopping 40,000 active duty, civilian and reserves jobs, is now struggling to find new ways to slash about $1.8 billion (€1.4 billion) from its budget to cover costs from the latest round of base closings.
He said he can't cut more people, and it would not be wise to take funding from military programs that are needed to protect the country. But he said he also incurs resistance when he tries to save money on operations and maintenance by retiring aging aircraft.
"We're finding out that those are, unfortunately, prized possessions of some congressional districts," said Wynne, adding that the Air Force will have to "take some appetite suppressant pills." He said he has asked employees to look for efficiencies in their offices.
The base closings initially were expected to create savings by reducing Air Force infrastructure by 24 percent.
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