There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds
getting so much resistance from behind

Monday, April 2, 2018

Linkee-poo busy busy Monday

A pioneer of the TV series with plots lines that extended for more than one episode, Steven Bochco has gone to the big production house in the sky. So it goes.

"Serious efforts to answer that question (safety of IV saline versus Ringers) only got underway within the last 10 years. The first attempt appeared in 2012. Researchers examined a database of patients who received saline or balanced solutions like lactated Ringer's during surgery, and compared complications and mortality between the groups. The findings were striking — mortality was 2.7 percent higher in those that received normal saline, and complications were more common as well."

"Chinese space authorities say Tiangong 1, the country's defunct and reportedly out-of-control space station, re-entered the Earth's atmosphere Sunday night, mostly burning up over the central South Pacific. The China Manned Space Engineering Office says online that the experimental space lab re-entered around 8:15 a.m. local time Monday." So now we can all stop having the "ZOMG, the sky is falling" news in their feeds.

"A measure signed into law in Kentucky this past week would prevent federally-certified radiologists from judging X-rays in state black lung compensation claims, leaving diagnoses of the disease mostly to physicians who typically work for coal companies." That is insane. This is the legal equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and singing loudly.

Ghost-imaging for new x-rays. Sounds a bit dubious to me. There are two parts to imaging x-rays; kVp and mAs. mAs is the amount of x-rays we generation multiplied by the time (typically in milliseconds). The first part is the energy of the beam. Now both make up your actual radiation dose (to differing degrees), and kVp can (somewhat) make up for mAs, mAs can not make up for kVp. That is, to get a good image, I could up the kVp part of the dose (to a certain extent and within a range) to create an acceptable image. kVp is how you penetrate the x-rays (depending on the material or composition you'll need a certain amount of energy to get any x-rays through the object). Now mAs you might be failure with as it relates to the amount of light (brightness and exposure time). If mAs is a little low to achieve an acceptable image, I can up the kVp a little to compensate (basically I'll increase the energy of the x-ray so more get through). But, if I don't have enough kVp, no amount of mAs will make up for it (if the beam doesn't have the energy to penetrate the mass, increasing the number of x-rays won't do anything for the image, but will over expose the patient). So, yeah, something here just isn't adding up. But I'm all for getting the x-rays with a lower dose to the patient. (Grokked from Dan)

"Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old black man shot and killed by Sacramento police earlier this month, was shot eight times, at least six in the back, an independent autopsy commissioned by Clark's family found." Yeah, so much for that "he was acting menacingly" shit.

"She was there to remember the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of Sacramento police officers. But during the vigil for Stephon Clark, she was struck by a Sacramento County Sheriff Department vehicle."

"'Yeah. Nothing says "we value independent media" like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again like members of a brainwashed cult,' said (John) Oliver. 'I guess what I’m saying here, Sinclair, is that as a news organization, I believe you make no sense.'"

"Russia-linked Twitter accounts are rallying in support of Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she drew scorn for mocking Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg's grades on Twitter… According to one website that tracks Russian propaganda on Twitter in near-real time, the hashtag #istandwithlaura saw a 2800% jump in 48 hours." Now to be fair, earlier the Russian botnets were pushing #guncontrolnow. Why would they argue both sides? "Instead, the influence operation's main goal is to sow discord and spread junk news related to divisive political topics in the US and Europe. The strategy was a key tenet of Russia's effort to sway the 2016 US election in Trump's favor." The goal is disruption and weakening the West. Conservative politics is just where they're placing their money on the fastest path to that weakened West.

"Synthetic cannabinoid, often called Spice or K2, is a man-made mixture of hundreds of chemicals that affect the same brain cell receptors as the main ingredient in marijuana. The substance is sometimes used as a spray on plant material for smoking, or sold as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled in e-cigarettes or other devices, according to the health department’s warning." Look, just do the real thing. It's not like it's hard to find.

"Mason grabbed her keys and set out for her local precinct. When she got there, she found out that her name was not on the voter roll so she was given a provisional ballot. An election worker stuck around to walk her through the form. She used her current license and her current address, St. John says… 'She had a good faith belief that she could vote,' St. John says. 'She would have never voted if she didn't know she could vote.'" Instead she was arrested for voter fraud, because she is a felon whose sentence hadn't run out. And this is why it's a provisional ballot. And this is why you can challenge a provisional ballot. But by arresting her the state government of Texas is sending a message.

"More than three months after the passage of the GOP’s tax-cut law, new surveys suggest that many people don’t think they are getting bigger paychecks, which could cut into support for Republicans in this fall’s midterm elections… A CNBC poll this week stated that just 32 percent of working adults reported having more take-home pay due to the new law, a problem for Republicans hoping to run on the measure and the health of the economy in November." But they're telling their members to talk about the tax cuts more. Because that's all they have. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

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