http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-evidence-supports-officers-account-of-shooting-in-ferguson/2014/10/22/cf38c7b4-5964-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.html

One of these days, you will come to realize that, when it comes to incidents such as this, I actually DO know what I am talking about...

I predicted this outcome months ago...

Michale

tinyurl.com/ofwzuy2

Yea... No threat of voter fraud whatsoever.... :^/

Michale

My only experience is with software, not hardware. I wouldn't know where to begin. When I had a similar problem with a hard drive, I took it to a professional (fairly cheap), sorry.

Did you use a local company??

Do you recall who??

Michale

OK, this is from memory...

"We blast off this hell hole and nuke the site from orbit.. It's the only way to be sure..."
"Might I remind everyone that this site has a substantial monetary value."
"They can bill me!!"

:D

Michale

...no credit from any sci-fi fans for quoting both HGTTG and Aliens in the same column? I'm disappointed!

:-)

-CW

I know you're kidding, but...

one of the scariest books I ever read was by a science fiction author, Frank Herbert (of Dune fame), called "The White Plague." It was written back in the 1980s, but very accurately warns of the perils of recombinant DNA studies and how easy they were for some mad scientist to misuse. The plague in name was released in response to terrorism (an IRA attack which happened to kill the scientist's wife and kids), and killed only females. Women almost go extinct, across the planet (the virus is highly contagious). The scientist releases it himself, by booking an extensive tour around the world on airplanes, and stopping off in every city to walk across the airport parking lot and feed some birds.

It's one of the scariest doomsday scenario books I've ever read, and I recommend it to those who enjoy such things. Remember, this was written over 30 years ago, and is still frighteningly possible. With 1980s technology, no less.

Michale [17] -

See: SARS. Happened under Bush. Airborne. Calls for travel bans were rather frantic by some politicians (Republicans included). Bush held firm, listened to the scientists, and didn't panic. It wasn't a big political issue, in the end.

Now, what lesson can we draw from this, kiddies?

dsws [20] -

You know what I hope? I hope those guys that dug up the 1918 flu virus have developed an effective vaccine for it. I'd hate for that one to get loose again.

Some bright spark decided to do research on the 1918 strain. They went up to Alaska and dug up bodies from people who died of it and had been buried in the permafrost (nature's freezer). They did indeed get live cultures from the lungs of one of the bodies, so they now have this bug in some lab somewhere. Like I said, I hope the FIRST thing they did with it was to develop a vaccine...

For more info, in case anyone's interested, here's a column I did on this a while back:

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2009/05/25/memorial-day-for-flu-victims/

Michale [24] -

My only experience is with software, not hardware. I wouldn't know where to begin. When I had a similar problem with a hard drive, I took it to a professional (fairly cheap), sorry.

dsws [125] -

Yeah, good point. Unless, of course, one of the Earth's "extinction events" were bio/virus based.

But the devastation of Native Americans by smallpox and other diseases was mind-blowing in scale. Estimates today are that 90 percent of the population died. To make matters worse, when a whole village died and there were only one or two survivors, they would move inland to another tribe, and thus infect them. Even Europe's Black Death was only 33%, not 90-95%. Those are pretty severe and genocidal numbers.

-CW

I was actually in the room when Crist declared himself a Democrat. Happened at the national convention in 2012 (OK, it was a BIG room, but still...).

He signed over to becoming a Democrat in the White House, immediately after the second inauguration.

Just a historical footnote...

As for the Republican, boy what a mess at the debate, eh? Heh.

Michale [2] -

Quarantine Texas! "It's the only way to be sure" (Ellen Ripley, same movie)

Michale [3] -

Now, you know I stuck that in there just for you... bonus points if you can quote the line Ripley said just before "It's the only way to be sure." A bit extreme, even for Texas....

Heh.

Michale [11] -

So, by inference, you're saying that Republicans are screaming "panic!" only because they know it'll help them politically, right?

Here's a quote for you from a Republican operative:

But the Times story ended with an odd fillip: “In reality, Republicans are not planning a legislative response, at least for now, Republican leadership aides said Monday. They merely want their voices heard.”

from:

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/21/gop%E2%80%99s_travel_ban_insanity_why_their_latest_ebola_farce_is_so_absurd/

In essence: a travel ban isn't important to actually pass immediately in Congress, it is merely an issue we're campaigning on because we think it'll help us. There's simply no other way to read that statement.

OK, gotta take a break. More comment responses in a bit.

-CW

Do you mean something like this??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-eSATA-SATA-to-USB-3-0-2-0-External-Bridge-Adapter-Converter-non-powered-/251678358028?pt=US_USB_Cables_Hubs_Adapters&hash=item3a9932fa0c

Michale

Thanks for your reply.

Everybody in the US (and Canada) needs to take a deep breath and do something useful. Which for most people is don't panic.

I think the cases in the US are a good wake-up call for all healthcare providers on this continent- across the board, at every level - in terms of being properly prepared for handling infectious diseases effectively.

If the HDD is a SATA drive you can look around for a USB 2.0 non powered adapter. I had to do data recovery from an old SATA drive (complete with clicking heads) using the non powered adapter cable. Using the non-powered adapter changes the way in which the drive heads engage at start-up.

I also used Ghost to do a straight transfer, bad sectors and all, to a new drive before I attempted any data repairs work as the old drive was very fragile.

I used a Startec product ( sorry don't remember the model number for the adapter). The non powered adapter trick won't always work if the drive is totally toast, but it is worth a shot, the guy who taught me the trick uses it to resurrect NAS drive arrays that have started to implode...FWIW

Or at least the most important evolution for emerging diseases specifically. I thought about mentioning monitoring of human-compatible pathogens in non-human animals, but the paragraph had gone on long enough already.

Yea, that's what I was afraid of.. :(

Thanx

Michale

Has anyone used a commercial Data Retrieval service that's inexpensive?? I know I can GOOGLE for DR Services, but I am looking more for personal recommendations..

I've never had to do data retrieval but out of college I worked in a clean room sputtering hard drive platters. If you take the drive apart, you probably would want to do so in a clean room environment. At least a class 10,000. I worked in class 10 & class 100 clean rooms when sputtering disks. The class number is the number of particles greater than a micron per square foot. A typical room has about 400,000 particles per square foot. Once contaminated by normal air, those platters would likely give lots of errors even if you could get the heads to read them again. The precision between head and disk is pretty extreme in a modern drive. That is why the pro's get so much money for hard drive data recovery. It's been quite a few years, but when I was doing it, laptop platters were made of glass and very delicate.

Overall, I'm optimistic. Ebola will not become endemic in North America. Ebola vaccines will probably be developed for mass inoculation in regions where the disease is endemic, but the time line to full implementation might well be a decade or more. Until then, better public health systems in Africa will have to be the stopgap. I'm optimistic, not panglossian. A lot more Africans are going to die from this outbreak.

Everybody in the US (and Canada) needs to take a deep breath and do something useful. Which for most people is don't panic.

"prospective monitoring of potential threats, so that vaccines can be developed against the most deadly possible strains that might mutate from existing viruses, before they even appear."

Interesting approach, but most of the evolution is happening in species reservoirs outside the human genome. We notice it when the pathogens jump the species barrier, although jumps don't necessarily indicate genetic changes - changes in human behaviors can cause jumps by allowing or increasing exposure to a potential pathogen. How many species can we expect to monitor....and understand well enough that the monitoring allows us to predict something?

Medicine has been, and will probably always be, "tombstone research." Big advances are stimulated by big disasters. Medicine is in an arms race with evolution, and evolution gets to make the first move most of the time.

I have a customer who came into my shop with a damaged hard drive.. In frustration she slammed her laptop closed and the laptop wouldn't boot up after that.

I pulled the HD and put it on a USB external connector. HD spins up, but there is a lot of clicking, like the heads are flipping back and forth but it wasn't recognized at all...

The girl was in tears as there are very important personal pictures of their new baby on the HD with no other backup...

They can't afford hundreds of dollars for data retrieval. Are there any other options?? I am somewhat wary about tackling the job myself, but am willing to do so as a last resort... At one time I have bought a platter removal tool, but can't recall if it was for a 3.5" drive or a 2.5".

Has anyone used a commercial Data Retrieval service that's inexpensive?? I know I can GOOGLE for DR Services, but I am looking more for personal recommendations..

Thanx in advance and please excuse the off-topic-ness of the post...

Thanx in advance for any help..

Michale

http://tinyurl.com/mfkql7b

"Kum bay ya, my Lord, kum bay ya;
Kum bay ya, my Lord, kum bay ya;
Kum bay ya, my Lord, kum bay ya,
O Lord, kum bay ya."

:D

Michale

Simple... The administration has a POLITICAL reason to make sure no one panics... See Comment #11

That, coupled with the fact that this particular administration is well-known for lying thru it's teeth when politics are in play, is a pretty sure indication that things are worse than the government wants us to believe..

Michale

Now, that's the kind of optimism I'd like to see more of around here!

But, while things are a lot LESS serious than the MSM portrays, things are a lot more serious than the administration would have us believe...

How so?

According to him, the government is predicting that this current outbreak will explode in the coming weeks and that anyone even remotely associated with medical issues are going to be inundated...

This guy is a professional, not a crackpot and not prone to wild flights of fancy....

Adding his story to others I am hearing thru back channels, things are definitely more serious than the administration is telling us...

I am not ready to crack the seals on my fallout shelter and move the armory... :D

But it is..... interesting...

But then again, like Dustin Hoffman in OUTBREAK, I have this morbid desire to face the end of the world..

I think the wife and I will watch THE STAND tonight.. :D

Michale

You got jokes.. :D

Hopefully, circumstances won't prove that your suggestion is EXACTLY what should have been done.. :^/

Regardless, if we had a GOP Administration, ya'all would be screaming to high heaven about travel bans and border closings...

:D

Like I said.. Predictable.. :D

Michale

So true, Michael.

While governments must not succumb to panic, they cannot ignore that airline traffic across the planet is completely linked! A resolute passenger can travel from A (Africa) to point B (USA) via a generous mesh of potential connections C-Z and false papers. Said passenger can Swiftly compare hundreds of travel sites at once! So, as an immediate first step, pull the plug on Kayak!!!!!! Even though their ads are the best thing on TV...especially the one with the adjunct professor of Chinese history ....and the one where the guy loses all his fingers.

But, that modest proposal, while a good first step in the right direction, is, in fact completely insufficient. Even without electronic devices, it would possible, if difficult, to find an affordable travel package, with meals and lodging (better than vending machines and lobby chairs) that would get an enterprising Ebola incubator anywhere on Earth in less than 21 days, the critical incubation period.

This is not a time for modest proposals. No this crisis demands one Kardashian of a proposal. Here it is: a ban on Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Steamships.

I'm not proposing some form of world isolationism, merely that we get used to traveling internationally very slowly. Foot, bicycle, rickshaw, wind and oar powered vessels (2 knots, tops, strictly enforced). It worked for the Roman Empire. It can work for us. Think of the jobs that will be created...rickshaw drivers, oarspeople, the makers of sturdy shoes and horse drawn carts. The makers of horses, which come to think of it are other horses, so I'll rephrase that as horse breeders. Inns will sprout up like mushrooms!

I'm not saying this will be easy, or necessarily permanent, but it will be colorful. Plus you'll really get a chance to see the countryside, meet the people, eat the food, and sample the local diarrhea remedies (Pepto in Mexico tastes like licorice).

Of course, "panic" is a misnomer.. No one should "panic"...

But, while things are a lot LESS serious than the MSM portrays, things are a lot more serious than the administration would have us believe...

Michale

http://www.vox.com/2014/10/13/6959087/ebola-outbreak-virus-mutated-airborne

I read the article in your link which led me to the interview with Dr. Peter Jarhling, the cited leading US scientist.

You should have a look at it. He's telling you not to panic and that, which a change in the transmission of the virus is possible, it is ... how did he put it ... "highly unlikely"!

Let me know when it's OK to panic??? :D

Michale

The only reason that Democrats are screaming DON'T PANIC is because it's DEMOCRATS who will get the blame for the panic..

If Republicans were to be the victims of the PANIC message, Democrats would be stoking the fear-mongering to high heaven...

Of course, the converse is true.. Republicans would be harping the DON'T PANIC message then...

The methods and reactions are so predictable...

Michale

Yea??

So???

Michale

http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/

Once again, seeing the world as they WISH it to be, rather than how it really is..

Michale

$466,642 studying why obese girls have a tough time getting dates.

$2,075,611 to encourage senior citizen to join choirs.

And this is the same agency that is claiming that because their funding is cut, they couldn't study Ebola???

Sheeya right..

They fact is, it was never a priority because no one thought it would ever come over here...

Michale

There is plenty of blame to go around... :D

Michale

“Claims that CDC and NIH have not had enough funding to do Ebola research are nonsense,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.

Kessler gave the Democratic allegations that Republican budgets were at fault for the poor Ebola response four “Pinocchios,” and called them “absurd.”

I'm just sayin'.... :D

Michale

:D .. just :D

Michale

On the OTHER hand, we have a Dallas nurse who contacted the CDC about symptoms and was STILL cleared to take a flight on a public aircraft **WHILE SYMPTOMATIC**!!!

So, yea.. A travel ban is moronic..

But not as moronic as sending infected people on public transportation....

That's more than moronic. That's deadly!

Michale

Wait a minute... You can't give Crist a MIDOTW award!!

He's a Republican..

Oh no, wait.. He's a Democrat now....

Or is he an Independent???

Wait.. Maybe he is just a moron politician.. Not sure...

:D

Michale