@Ann I think I remember saying this should be done in private, and the mod can simply decline to have the private chat. You've had your one chance to respond to the mod mail, and I dunno if you used it, but that's all you get. Many even use that chance to swear at the mod(s) that wrote the message.
@Rob Thanks! I was wondering about the actual method though, I mean the molecular details. Because that really is absurdly fast for anything based on PCR. So they must have come up with something new (or new to me) and clever.
@CodyGray You'd think so wouldn't you? Sadly, I'd actually prefer "borg" ones. Occasionally we do get accused of being part of some grand conspiracy which is exciting.
@MadScientist If you have some link or paper to share explaining how that would work, I'd love to see it! I haven't worked in a lab in 20 years, but I've never left the field and still work in genomics, so a super fast PCR-equivalent sounds like something I should be aware of!
> ID NOW uses isothermal technology, proprietary enzymes and constant temperature control to achieve the fastest available RNA amplification. This proven molecular system greatly reduces the time for results, allowing healthcare providers to make patient care decisions sooner.
> Real-time detection of PCR products is enabled by the inclusion of a fluorescent reporter molecule in each reaction well that yields increased fluorescence with an increasing amount of product DNA.
Yeah, it's a thing called LAMP and it is really clever! They just monitor the pH change, so if you've had successful amplification, so an increase in the DNA concentration, you have a corresponding decrease in pH since it's getting acidic.
> “All you need is a test tube containing the primers, a pipette, a hotplate and a pot of water,” he says. A single test would cost about $1 — not counting labour.
A friend of mine forgot to close a centrifuge once in university, and then turned it on. Tore itself apart. And it wasn't exactly cheap, one of the big powerful centrifuges...
@terdon We had a building in our university that had a giant hole in the brick from someone doing that with a centrifuge. It spun itself right off the desk and through the brick and concrete wall.
In Lelystad, it was with a machine that had no longer be used and was restored to working order to increase capacity. Turns out they didn't do it right.
In a world full of humans, screw-up will be common.
I wouldn't like to be in the vicinity of the Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly of a centrifuge. On a related note, there is ongoing research into using big flywheels for energy storage, but they can be rather dangerous if things go wrong.
That isn't quite as fast, but the commercial tests are probably heavily optimized for speed. And I can imagine that there is much more potential for this optimization in an isothermal method
@CodyGray I've been in the room once when the axis of a small (50ml Falcon size) centrifuge broke. Made a hell of a noise, but stayed contained entirely within the centrifuge
@CodyGray They should be able to detect and shut down, though that obviously isn't good for the centrifuge, and those mechanisms aren't exactly reliable
Has there ever been a feature request to make it easy to see that someone's a mod when they aren't on a site they moderate? Eg, put a hollow or grey diamond after their name? It would be kinda useful, IMHO, especially on MSE, to know that someone's perspective is informed by their experience of being a mod somewhere on the network.
I did search for related questions on MSE a few weeks ago, but didn't find anything concrete, although I did find stuff on a related concept: making it clear that a post was made by someone when they were a mod.
@MadScientist Oh, ok. The related thing I mentioned (making it clear that a post was made by someone when they were a mod) would be more useful. But I imagine the software changes to make that happen would be huge. Whereas my suggestion ought to be relatively easy to implement.
@terdon That makes no sense, but if I get a reply from a mod on X.SE where my question relates to site X, Y and Z, then it does make sense to show that the user is a mod there
I've long thought that anyone who is a mod somewhere on the network should be a mod on MSE. It was my understanding, in fact, that that would be precisely how it worked when the Great Meta Schism was announced. But then it apparently didn't work out that way.
@M.A.R. HOw does it make no sense? Having rep for a meta site, as we do on MSE, makes absolutely no sense. However, using network-wide rep is very sensible since that is a good indication of how active you are on the network.
@terdon What about privileges? I'm not emotionally attached to this new place so just because I have some rep on another site I might do stupid things here
@Mast I'd be for that, but I never got anywhere with my arguments for that (it would also require significant effort in improving mod tools to do that)
I still can't imagine how it would have broken anything, and I think people would have made it work without a second thought if it had been that way since the beginning.
@M.A.R. You have to be this tall to have unpopular opinions...
@M.A.R. Good. You should not be emotionally attached to a site whose only purpose is to act as the network-wide meta. Privilege is essentially dependent on how well you know a site. In this case, the "site" is the entire network. So privileges could be a function of your network rep (excluding association bonus) for example.
couple of things - maybe its cause there's a few of us but meta moderation is sensitive. A lot of stuff that starts elsewhere flows down to us. Also, the problem with global rep for meta is well... SO's an outlier
@Mast with a new user I'm willing to be helpful and direct the user to various help and Q&As - that user has over 100K flair, they don't need my assistance.
@Aibobot meh, divide all SO rep by 10. Or don't. I mean, who cares? It's just a question of privileges. Cap us all at 30k. Point is, MSE is the only meta site with its own rep and that results in a core group of users who get to control what stays open and close new discussions as dupes of things that were discussed a decade ago.
We cannot have proper discussions cause folks are afraid to post for fear of losing their privileges, we have the meta clique effect, the whole thing becomes a bit of a mess and largely for the single reason that we have MSE rep. Something that should never have happened from the beginning.
Also, MSE rep results in the really weird situation where you sometimes end up having people deciding on network-wide policies, who don't actually use the network. Just MSE!
@JohnDvorak exactly. Or, +1k for every site you have 1k on. Or something. There are loads of cool tricks you can do to ensure that MSE rep is a representation of your activity on the broader network. It just shouldn't be a representation of your activity on MSE.
@Aibobot I'd rather not. That kinda defeats the whole idea of community moderated. I mean, yes, I'd like a bit more staff participation, but it should primarily be run by community members if at all possible.
The main objective is to have MSE as a network-wide meta. And that is just immediately defeated when you have MSE-specific rep since folks feel "this is my site". MSE shouldn't be a site. It should be a meta site.
@JohnDvorak If we want the company to use MSE to talk to us, we kind of have to make it easy. You can't really expect the new graphics design hire for example to have to participate in order to earn the privilege of communicating with us.
> This edit does not make the post even a little bit easier to read, easier to find, more accurate or more accessible. Changes are either completely superfluous or actively harm readability.
@AnnZen I was one of the users who rejected your edit. The reason is because you only changed one word per the markdown (which as I type this David has posted, thanks David)
It seems the changes you made to the link itself didn't actually change the link, it was the same text as before. The difference is the rendered question title. That won't update without the markdown being re-rendered, which would happen with any ol' question bump.
All the same, I don't think the question needs edited for that reason alone.
Yeah, that wasn't really clear. Reviewers can't see that. And if you ask me, it's not important enough to suggest an edit. Thousands of such links on Meta.SE alone are outdated in this way.
@AnnZen Nope! The 300 rep is essentially just a sign that you, in general, have a decent idea of how the network works. The more sites your account is a part of, the more valuable, because that's more sites that your account can flag spam on.
I'm not the person who would be able to grant you privs though.
