Apartment found - yay!

[silveradept]

Last piece of puzzle has clicked into place, as I was approved for an apartment that will be right across from where the workplace will eventually be, when the new workplace is built. At the very latest, by Tuesday, I will be starting work and moving in. Sounds like it'll be a busy, busy day.

To save my own sanity, you guys get linked on, so I don't have to go through a horrendous backscroll. Brace yourselves.

Artificial heart device assists child to regenerate natural tissue. Take enough strain off it, I suppose, and nature does what she will. Neat-o.

Things continue to degenerate while supposedly being clarified. Again, apparently even linking to "objectionable content", even if the content should shift on you, could get you ToSsed from LJ.

U.K. is dumbing down the tests, apparently taking an example from America on how to run an education system. First link has the answers, and here's a sample test, in PDF format. I assume the reading audience is smart enough to know why nobody should take American public education as an example.

bradhicks comments on two years after Katrina rolled through, saying that it's really too early to call on how much and how well things are going, why it seems to be that Republicans have "bathroom problems", the illusion of showing both sides of an issue, and what happens when someone hasn't broken the law, but is someone most people consider to be icky.

Police provoking demonstrators into rioters to arrest them later? Baaaad juju, people. Really bad juju. That's not a road you want to walk.

Anyway, that's the half-update. There's still more in my back-burner, but I'm out of time, as usual. See you all tomorrow.

Comments

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

YAY :D

And expect a large housewarming package a week after you give me your address :D

*hugs* glad things are falling into place and you can now actually LIVE there :D

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I request pictures after you're all moved in.

[przxqgl.livejournal.com]

you may or may not have noticed my rather abrupt departure from LJ, specifically because of the lack of concrete rule-making: basically i wasn't sure when LJ was going to decide that what i was posting was against the rules, so i jumped ship while i could. from what i understand, things have been only getting worse since my departure, which wasn't that long ago. my syndicated feed is at przxqglfeed, but it's down currently because of something which is SEP, so i can't do anything but wait for it to come back up.

anyway, you should give me a call or something. moe and i are going on vacation for a week starting sunday, but i'm around pretty much all the time until then.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

What do you post that LJ wouldn't like? I'm adding your feed, as I occasionally wandered over to your LJ.

[przxqgl.livejournal.com]

well, there's all of this stuff to start out with...

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

yeah, but that's not child pr0n. I thought the only way political stuff was going to get removed was if you're making threats to the president?

[przxqgl.livejournal.com]

oh, that's in there...

like i said, it was just a matter of time.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I do remember reading that happening. Still though, someone would have to have a lot of time on their hands to go back and report that,and LJ would be stupid if they didn't realize you were posting it in reaction to the article...but I guess I see your reasoning in jumping ship before they boot you off.

[silveradept]

I'll give it some thought, certainly. Maybe later today (Friday), depending on how things work out for me.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I just read the article about the heart, and that's amazing! I wonder if the technology will start to be used for all patients awaiting heart transplants or if there's a similar device for adults? If there is, and they start using it more, I bet it saves a lot more lives!

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Berlin hearts are pretty widely used these days, IIRC. They're a little box you carry around with you that pumps blood and basically a smaller version of a mechanical heart used in adults as well (although newer artificial and implantable hearts are available to adults these days). They do save lives. Lots of them. Most people with heart disease will probably need a transplant, I'd say that given the history of the use of mechanical hearts, this was a very rare exception to the rule, most probably because the damage to the heart muscle wasn't severe (as would be in the case of a heart attack or even a myocardial infarction).

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

ah, so it's still impossible for most hearts to recover the way hers did even if they use a berlin heart?

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Yep. Plus most cardiovascular disease is related to smoking or obesity and that's plaque buildup in the heart and lots of prolonged damage. It sounds like in this case it was an infection which cleared when the heart muscle got a chance to rest. No matter how much rest you get, there's no good mechanism by which you can clear out 30+ years of hardened cholesterol glued to the inside of an artery. (Idly, if you ever want a good impetus to never smoke or to eat healthier watch a surgical team removing deposits from a patient's heart... it's really gross, second only to having to work with blood from morbidly obese patients where you get chunks of greenish-yellow fat that settle to the top if you leave it for more than a few seconds.)

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

As for the test: I do vaguely remember my GCSE Physics test being harder, but it is P1 (kinda like a midterm test in 9th grade) so it's not that bad. Ours was more blue-book though rather than multiple choice, they probably have a bluebook section and this is just the starter section. Remember: you or I would be starting at question 17 and working to 40 so it's not that easy (unless you want to cap your physics grade at a C). The Times is somewhat misreporting, I think. What seems to be the case is that they're adding a "if you're not that bright, here are some more confidence booster questions" section. There's still plenty of questions at the top to differentiate the A from the A* candidates. They're also making the exam a little easier on the graders since they can Scantron multiple choice (imagine having to grade hundreds of messily-written exams from across the country). They're a long way from science education in the US. (I think a number of those questions are about as hard as you'd get on the SAT Physics exam and maybe even the AP physics exam... which just goes to show.)

[silveradept]

So it's not the slide into oblivion that everyone wants to say it is, it's just making less work for the graders and putting a few more things in so that even the lower end of the scale feels that they're going to do okay?