Victoria was waiting with the rest of the team in the hallway outside the gym while the announcer was hyping up the crowd. She adjusted her uniform one last unnecessary time and took a deep breath as the voice over the loudspeaker continued.

The basketball team trotted by on their way to the locker room for halftime and Derek paused in front of her, “Hey V, keep ‘em fired up for us!”

“We’ll try not to make the second half too boring by comparison Derek.” Victoria gave him an impish smile, “But you’re good competition if you score another twenty four points.”

“I’ll take that as a challenge then.”

“DEREK quit flirting and get your ASS in here!” The coach was leaning out of the locker room.

“Yeah Coach.” He turned and winked at Victoria, “I’ll see you after the game K?”

“Now put your hands together and raise your voices for our very own three time State Champion cheer team Torrent!” As usual the applause was deafening as they ran out to center court, immediately breaking into the new routine they had been working on.

She concentrated on moving through the steps, making sure to line herself up with the springboard then without warning broke into the climax. The triple back handspring to springboard was easy, but the slow backflip to land on Ashley and Jamie’s shoulders wouldn’t have been possible without Grace behind to steady her if she needed it.

The roar of the crowd increased even louder, but the routine wasn’t done yet. “Now V!” With Grace’s shout, Victoria stepped off the shoulders of the other two girls and bounced lightly from the ground into the cupped hands of Grace and Carrie who flung her high into the air. She timed the landing as her body spun through the air.

“Shit she’s too high!” Carrie’s voice barely reached Grace over the roar of the crowd.

“Don’t second guess yourself, just catch her damn it!” The spiraling body of their friend came to land between them for a perfect basket catch but the sweat on Carrie’s hands broke their forearm clasp. Victoria slammed into the floor with a resounding crash and the entire gym fell silent.

“Vicky are you OK? Fuck I’m so sorry.” Carrie was on her knees next to where a stunned Victoria lay still trying to get her eyes to focus.

“Don’t call me Vicky damn it, I hate that name.” She tried to rise and pain shot down her neck and back, “Damn that hurts, I think I sprained my back or something.” Paramedics were approaching and waving the rest of the team back.
“Do you have any pain?” The rather good looking EMT who was checking her vision asked. Victoria tried to nod and agony exploded along her spine. Unconsciousness took her by surprise.

“Get me a stretcher and a spine pad RIGHT NOW!” The other two emergency personnel ran back to the ambulance and in short order Victoria’s limp form was loaded onto the stretcher and carefully carried out of the gym.

“Oh God, oh God what did we do?” Carrie was borderline hysterical.

“It’s OK Carrie, she’s taken falls before. I’m sure it’s just a concussion or something. It’s not our fault, we did our best to catch her.” Grace put her arm around Carrie’s shoulders, “Besides she had the presence of mind to bitch at you for calling her Vicky. She can’t be that bad off.”

The room was clean and sterile, just the way it was supposed to be. Behind a tidy desk sat a young man in a lab coat that had obviously been ironed that morning. His pen, pointer, screwdriver, pliers and pencil were standing straight up in the pocket protector nestled in the left breast pocket. Even the grimace on his face seemed like it had been scribed using precise instruments. By contrast the middle aged balding man standing in front of the desk yelling at him was anything but organized. His argument was the only concise part of his bearing.

“Listen to me Eugene, this type of affliction has many legitimately accepted treatments. There is no need to resort to risky, untested procedures! I’ve told you before that I don’t give a shit about whatever grants you’ve gotten from the Department of Defense or anyone else; this is a hospital, not an experimental robotics lab!” His face was red the way it always was when he was going on a tirade.

Looking straight into the older man’s enraged face Eugene responded calmly, “Fredrick, I thought you believed in actually healing people. All the treatments that we know of right now might save her life but she’d be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life even in the best case scenario with conventional medicine.” The thought of confining such a young and active person to such a life was unthinkable to him, “She’s only eighteen for chrissakes, I’ve just solved the hardware issues and the new OS is performing far beyond our expectations. This could revolutionize the treatment for Meningeal Lymphomatosis and you know it. Look, all I’m asking is that we present the option to her.”

Fredrick stopped pacing, “I don’t mind if you present the option, just as long as you are crystal clear about the risk.”

“Right back at you; it is my firm belief that modern cancer treatment is at least as risky as what I’m proposing if not moreso and has far less benefit. Especially at her age.”

“You’ve never tested this on anything larger than a rat!” He lost his cool again, “There’s no way they’ll be interested. I think you’re risking your medical license with this and I know you are in danger of losing the respect of your peers.” Grabbing a clipboard with a sheaf of scribbled notes from a chair he turned and stalked from the room.

“I’m only risking their respect and my license if it doesn’t work you old relic.” Eugene pushed his glasses more firmly onto the bridge of his nose. “And I know this will work. The funding I’ve recently gotten from The Institute for Scientific Cancer Research combined with my DOD funding was enough for me to build a test model.” He smiled to himself, “She’s going to make me famous, and I’m going to save her life.”

Victoria had always hated hospital gowns. They felt like they could fall off at any moment and she always got so damn cold. The fact that she had to wear the huge solid polymer brace that kept her entire upper body immobilized was adding insult to injury. She felt like a dog wearing one of those cone things. Snapping her gum irritably she waited for the two doctors to come back and give her a prognosis.

Trying to glance at her mom who was anxiously tapping her foot she sighed and had to settle for rolling her eyes because of the damn brace. “Mom would you knock it off? You’re making me nervous.”

“What on earth could be taking them so long? I mean it was just a stress fracture in your neck right? This is why we had men on our cheer team when I was in high school; girls just aren’t strong enough to catch you when you are coming down from that high basket toss. I hope this doesn’t make you miss the finals; you’ve worked so hard – “ she trailed off as there was a knock at the door and the older of the two doctors returned.

Without preamble, he walked around to where he could look Victoria in the eye, “Miss Scott, I have some bad news for you.” Victoria knew it as bad now, her heart started to pound. “I like to be frank when it comes to things like this, I apologize if it seems like I’m not being tactful. You have a rare form of bone cancer and it is in a rare location. The stress fracture in your upper thoracic vertebra was a result of the bone being weakened by the cancerous cells. It is only a matter of time before your spine becomes so brittle it will no longer support the weight of your body.”

He paused and his tone became lighter, “Thankfully you are young and that expands our treatment options. It also significantly raises the likelihood of your survival, especially since we caught it so early. Unfortunately the state of deterioration of your spine leads me to believe you will be restricted to a wheelchair but you should be able to retain the majority of your mobility.”

“What do you mean cancer? Vicky doesn’t even smoke! You don’t smoke do you sweetheart? Of course not. How could she have cancer?”

“Ma’am, if you want to come with me into the other room I can go over some initial treatment information with you. Your husband has arrived and is waiting in the next room.” He turned and gave a sympathetic glance in Victoria’s direction, then walked out with her mother.

Tears leaked out of the corners of Victoria’s eyes and she took a deep breath to keep herself from bursting into tears. “Oh God, this has to be a joke. I can’t believe this is happening to me. Restricted to a wheelchair at eighteen? My life is fucking over.” She tried to put her face in her hands but due to the restriction of her brace she had to settle for wiping her eyes. Without so much as a knock the door opened again and this time admitted the second, younger doctor.

“Before you let your parents make any decisions for you I want you to look at this.” He was had a laptop in one hand and a pet carrier in the other. “I’ve been working on this project for seven years now and I have finally perfected it to the point where it’s ready for a human trial.”

She blinked away tears and looked at him. “What on Earth are you talking about?”

“Sorry, my name is Eugene and I work in the Prosthetics and Neuroscience departments here at the hospital.” He set the pet carrier down on a table across from her, “I know that might seem like a strange combination but it’ll be clear once you see what I have in this.”

Eugene opened the carrier and Victoria suppressed a cringe before it caused her neck to spasm inside her brace. Inside was a large white rat; all along its spine was a mass of metal and brightly colored wiring protruding from the skin in an unhealthy looking tangle. One of its legs was missing and replaced by a jointed metal limb with a blunt rubber “foot” that it employed with apparent ease despite the macabre appearance it had.

“Ohmygod what is THAT?” Oblivious to her disgust, Eugene continued.

“This is Megan. She was a lost cause a few short months ago after the rack her cage was on collapsed, crushing her spine and severing her left front leg. With the technology I have been developing she is now able to function more or less normally although the function of her limb and flexibility of her spine is limited. The human-sized prototype I have created has approximately a hundred times the mobility that this smaller version does.”

“Wait you want to put one of THOSE in ME?” She pointed a shaky finger at the mangled looking mess that comprised the spine of the rat. “I think I’d rather be in a wheelchair.”

“Of course not, the human model is a work of art. Poor Megan was just my test subject; with the funding I was able to secure recently I have been able to create a perfect and beautiful finished product.” He set the laptop down and his face became sober.

“What they aren’t telling you is there is no guarantee with the chemo. In fact your condition is by far the most advanced we’ve seen especially for someone so young.” The zeal he had displayed while showing off his creation was replaced with grim determination. “That’s why Dr. Fredrick wanted to talk to your parents separately. They didn’t think you could handle how dire the situation really is. In fact we aren’t even sure that the cancer hasn’t invaded your other bone tissue.”

He walked forward and took her hands, “I’m going to be honest with you right now; even if chemo was completely successful your odds of survival are still pretty grim. That said, your chances with my spinal replacement aren’t much better.” He shrugged, “I just thought you might want to know that you could be a part of something bigger. You know, that you might be able to further medical science instead of just walking down the same boring old road.”

Releasing her hands he opened the laptop and turned it so she could see what was on it; a rotating three-dimensional image of a rather complex steel and rubber spinal column. “Take this and read my research notes. Someone who scored as high on the SAT’s as you did shouldn’t have a problem understanding most of what’s on here. My personal cell is on this card; call me if you have any questions.” Eugene handed her a business card with a phone number written on the back in a small tidy script, picked up the pet carrier and walked toward the door.

“Hey! How do you know about my SAT’s?” Victoria had recovered enough from the shock of what he was suggesting to be indignant about the invasion of her privacy.

Eugene paused with his hand on the door handle, “Because I was on the alumnus board that voted to approve your full ride to MIT last week. It would honestly be criminal to waste a mind as brilliant as yours Miss Scott.” With that he walked out the door and closed it behind him.

Awkwardly juggling the laptop to a position where she could read it with the brace on Victoria looked at the summary notes and had to admit it was pretty intriguing stuff. The idea that electrodes could be hooked up directly to nerves wasn’t a new one; what was revolutionary was that he had managed to isolate nerve function by frequency.

Victoria scrolled through the document, noting in passing that it seemed to have a custom OS she hadn’t ever seen before. It was very simple to operate though and within a couple of minutes she was scrolling through the technical specs with ease. By touching the screen she opened a short video titled ‘Neurosynth Wavelength Interaction’ and a complex molecule rotate in 3D on the screen. Eugene’s voice was narrating in the same intense tone he had been using before.

“Different commands actually have varied pulse lengths; this anomaly allows my technology to interpret nerve messages with relative speed and ease. Not only that but it means complex connections are now irrelevant. The connective fluid between the flesh and the machine will transmit the signal through the skin. Preliminary testing shows it to be effective and to have little or no physical therapy time.

“Larger nerve function could be problematic as the amount of memory needed to operate even the most basic muscle or body function is astronomical; however our test subject has been able to adapt. My future recommendation is to integrate the AI directly into the brain stem, allowing unused biological memory to compensate. This would help to eliminate bulky and expensive hardware.”

Looking back at the initial graphic of the prosthetic, Victoria found there were several more CG images showing the prosthetic, how it could look integrated with a person and the neuro-connective fluid. The finished concept was a smooth interlocking series of polished steel plates with black rubber spacers. Not unlike a normal spine, except for the obvious fact that it was all above the surface of the skin.

The last graphic was an actual picture of the prepared modular spine. All of its connections and interlocking parts polished and gleaming under bright halogen lighting as it was laying submerged in a tank of some sort of fluid surrounded by an array of computer screens, each with different unintelligible output.

Victoria found herself wondering what life in a wheelchair would be like. No more cheer team. No more early morning runs in the wooded trails behind her parent’s house that she loved so much. No more volleyball. She would never be able to swim again, she’d be lucky to even be able to dress herself. “No way, I think I’d rather die. If there’s a chance I can stay out of a wheelchair I’m taking it.”

1. This is the four-minute “super preview” for The Amazing Spider-Man.
2. I kind of half-heartedly object to making reboots of films that were made not just during my lifetime, but during my actual post-college adult years. It hits my “frivolous” button.
3. Seriously, Spidey. What is it with you and keeping your damn mask on?
4. I hope they intend to do some more work in post with the CGI, because it still looks all fake in some shots in the preview.
5. The fact that they had to make a “super-preview” concerns me. It makes me feel like the movie is going to suck, and they’re trying to convince me otherwise.
6. Denis Leary! Yes, I know everyone but me hates him because he’s a hack who steals jokes. I don’t care. No Cure for Cancer was funny.
7. Okay, fucking seriously. They jizzed CGI all over the rest of the movie, but they couldn’t slap some CGI expressions on the mask? The mask has expressions in the comic and no one complains. They have to take it off so the dude playing Parker can get enough face-time?

A person’s choice of Internet browser is pretty personal. Some folks fire up Internet Explorer every time they want to surf the web because that’s what was installed on their computer when they took it out of the box. Other people only ever use Internet Explorer to navigate to the download section of a different browser’s website.

Web Browser Extensions

List of Internet Explorer extensions on Wikipedia
FireFox Add-Ons
Browser Extensions in the Chrome Webstore
Safari Extensions
Opera Add-Ons

I belong to the second group. Internet Explorer is used solely for downloading a better web browser, in my opinion, and my current favorite browser is Google’s Chrome. I used to be a hardcore FireFox advocate, but the last few iterations have been slow, bloated, and crashtacular in my experience.

“But wait,” you say. “What’s this ‘Chrome’ you speak of? FireFox? What now?”

Okay, back to basics, then. A web browser is a program on your computer that you use to access the Internet. There are several different browsers to chose from. If you use a PC, it came installed with Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s proprietary web browser. If you use a Mac, you got Safari. Those aren’t your only two choices, though. There’s the aforementioned FireFox and Chrome, Opera, and a couple dozen more. The three most popular web browsers are Internet Explorer, FireFox, and Chrome.

Pick your favorite browser and give it a work-out. Get comfortable using it. Then ask yourself, “What more could this browser be doing for me?” That’s where browser extensions come in.

Browser extensions are additional bits of code that you can add to your browser to make them do more and/or better things. They’re super-easy to install – generally it’s a one-click process. Depending on your browser or the extension you picked, you may have to close and reopen your browser, too. Something that simple can add a wealth of new features and solve a ton of Internet annoyances – for free!

Let’s take a look at some of the features you can add to your browser:

• AdBlock Plus is a personal favorite of mine. With this extension, available for Chrome and FireFox, you can stop all those heinously annoying web ads. It’s stunning how much one simple extension can improve your Internet experience. Of course, it’s worth bearing in mind that some of your favorite sites may be counting on their ad revenue to keep their site up and running. No worries – AdBlock comes with a feature that allows you to enable ads for sites you love and want to support.
• Facebook Purity, compatible with most major browsers, is another fantastic extension. It acts as a spam-blocker on Facebook, and allows you to almost completely customize your Facebook experience. You can do everything from filter out specific kinds of annoying updates, like game updates, to remove the Timeline view, and more.
• Greasemonkey is a FireFox must-have. This one doesn’t do much in and of itself, but it does allow you to install and run hundreds of very powerful programs, called userscripts, on FireFox, which can do anything from add already-familiar extensions to FireFox, to adding enhanced features to browser-based Internet games, to stripping garbage out of Tumblr, to tweaking Google+, to adding productivity tools to your browser… The options are limitless with Greasemonkey.
• Web of Trust adds ratings to your search results to let you know if the website you’re about to visit is safe or not.
• PriceBlink is the Internet shopper’s best friend for Chrome, IE, FireFox and Safari. As you shop online, it will alert you where to go to purchase a product for the best price.
• YouTube Options is Chrome-only, but it’s handy enough to make a person think hard about switching to Chrome. This extension lets you tweak your settings so videos don’t auto-play on page load, strips ads and those annoying pop-up notes people are compelled to stick all over their videos, lets you pre-load flash videos, and more.

This list doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the tweaks you can make and features you can add to your browser. There are extensions that help you manage your social media accounts, automatically shorten URLs, fix websites so they work better, add productivity features like organizers and to-do lists to your browsers, send web articles automatically to your Kindle or eReader of choice for later reading, keep you safer while you browse, anonymize your browsing, safeguard your passwords, and a thousand other things.

It’s not all puppies and rainbows in the world of browser extensions, though.

Along with all those awesome new features and tricks, it’s easy to accidentally install a malicious userscript or extension. It’s also easy to overload your browser with extensions, bloating it and slowing it down. Extensions can also conflict with each other, causing websites to work improperly or not at all.

Malicious extensions generally don’t last long in official extension repositories like FireFox’s Add-Ons or the Chrome webstore, but it pays to be cautious and check the user reviews before installing a new extension. It also pays to keep a weather eye on your browser’s performance, to see if it begins to slow down or crash more after an extension has been added. This could be a sign that you’re running too many extensions, or that one of them is conflicting with another. At that point, you may need to uninstall them one at a time until you find the extension that’s causing the problems, or weed out a few you don’t use as often. I’ve also had to remove extensions after discovering that they were conflicting with a website itself, causing it to work improperly. With a little care and a dose of good sense, though, finding extensions that make your Internet life easier is simple.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there and try on some new browser add-ons!

Via think-progress:

NBC’s David Gregory, host for Meet The Press, is headlining a conference for a major Republican advocacy group. The problem? It violates the journalism code of ethics: 

• Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
• Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
• Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.

Read the rest at ThinkProgress.

image via joeparrie

“Science can tell you how to clone a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Humanities can tell you why this might be a bad idea.”