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Science Technology

For Those Long Coding Sessions: The Food Patch 389

Posted by timothy from the ask-your-doctor-if-it's-right-for-you dept.
rtphokie writes "The U.S. Army has created a Transdermal Nutrient Delivery System which works similarly to to nicotine or birth control patches but delivers vitamins and other micronutrients. It was developed to help "warfighters sustain their physical and mental performance" during high intensity conflict. Is this what ./'ers need during those long coding sessions."
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For Those Long Coding Sessions: The Food Patch More

For Those Long Coding Sessions: The Food Patch

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  • ok, sign me up to be a dotslasher (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It might be good for slashdotters too. :-)

  • What flavors? (Score:5, Funny)

    by tinrobot ( 314936 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:36AM (#5061001)
    I'd really like tandoori chicken with mint sauce, please. Oh yeah, my arm has no taste buds. Dang.

    • Re:What flavors? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kethinov ( 636034 )
      Who cares about flavors? Hell I'd give up eating in exchange for no more hunger any day! Sign me up for some of that stuff! Hmm.. I wonder if you don't have to eat you no longer have to go to the bathroom? Interesting thought. I could code for over a week straight without ever leaving the computer but to sleep! Hahahaha what will they think of next?

      • Re:What flavors? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Jeremy Erwin ( 2054 )
        I imagine that water is still neccesary, and of course, urination is still neccesary to remove excess amine groups associated with protein breakdown. So, the ultimate merging of machine and man is still far off.

    • Re:What flavors? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11, 2003 @02:18AM (#5061328)
      Slashdotters can code?

  • No vits, please (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:37AM (#5061007) Journal
    I don't need no stinking vitamins

    I just want a caffeine patch. - Well, maybe a junk food patch. I can see this.

    • hell with food, MORE DRUGS (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Big news in Canada is the two US pilots who killed the canadian soldiers were hopped up on crank.
      Government issued crank which they couldnt refuse to take.

      There was an article in a British paper before this accident which explained how the pilots were doped when they went up, doped when they came down and the doped so they could go to sleep, so its not like this was a big secret.

      Coming from the taliban-like leader on the War on Drugs, this was just too freakin ironic.

      Of course, Zoloft, Xanthax, Prozac, Lithium and other popular happy pills which are regularly consumed by a third of americans are considered to be a normal way of life in the Excited States, while lighting a doob will get you an invitation to be Bubba's prison bitch.

      • There's a reason why some drugs are legal. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Decimal ( 154606 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @07:13AM (#5061838) Homepage Journal
        Of course, Zoloft, Xanthax, Prozac, Lithium and other popular happy pills which are regularly consumed by a third of americans are considered to be a normal way of life

        What you say is more true than you know. When I started taking Prozac, my life turned around. My life became normal again. So yes, a lot of people probably shouldn't be taking the drugs they do. But a lot of other people should. Please don't associate scientifically tested and proven useful medical drugs with common street drugs. Anybody who scoffs at the use of medications such as SSRIs and thinks of them as nothing more than "happy pills" probably hasn't been or known someone in their life who has suffered from and been diagnosed with major depression.

        Before you jump on the what-about...-train, I'll admit that drugs like marijuana do have ligitimate medical uses. However, recent research has isolated the elements of the plant that work for pain relief from the other elements, such as those that cause the "high" that can permanently damage the brain's pleasure receptors after frequent use. If that first element can be administered seperately in a refined form, say in a pill, shot or nasal spray, it can be safely taken. Heck, even a patch (strangely, sounds almost on-topic). That is the difference between street drugs and prescription drugs.

        Now if advocates put half the energy into fighting the medical industry as they did getting their pet stoner-drug legalized, these prescriptions would be cheap enough for anyone (who needs them) to afford. But prescription drugs make a nice scapegoat (mischaracterise, scream "me too!") for anyone who is cranky that they can't get their daily high.

        • Re:There's a reason why some drugs are legal. (Score:4, Informative)

          by Snafoo ( 38566 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @06:02PM (#5064073) Homepage
          However, recent research has isolated the elements of the plant that work for pain relief from the other elements, such as those that cause the "high" that can permanently damage the brain's pleasure receptors after frequent use.

          Wow, there's nothing like slashdot for unsupported claims about scientific 'fact'.

          Please refer to
          http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/healthmyths .htm l
          for more info on this and other myths.
    • I just want a caffeine patch. - Well, maybe a junk food patch. I can see this.

      Look, I'm a Brit, and if there's one thing we British know, it's how to conquer a planet and rule it for two centuries without really trying. These patches are a bad idea. The British Army marches on fried sausages, fried bacon, black pudding, fried bread, fried tomatoes, fried eggs and Earl Grey tea. The French Army, who also did a fairly good job of conquering things, marched on croissants, black coffee and Gitanes.

      Do you really think the American Empire will survive if you make your troops use patches instead of real food? Whoever invented these should be court-martialled.

  • I suppose it makes sense... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ironica ( 124657 ) <pixel@boondocRASPk.org minus berry> on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:40AM (#5061020) Journal
    Clinical studies show that, while only about 20% (less now, I'm thinking) of Americans are addicted to cigarettes, 100% are addicted to food.

    Hopefully, this patch will help people with a food abuse problem to combat it and overcome it. In moderation, food is a good and healthy thing, but as with so many things, there is such a thing as too much.

    I wonder how long it's going to take them to come up with the Sleep patch? Now that's an addiction I'd like to kick...

  • be careful, you are slashdotting an .mil server (Score:5, Funny)

    by havaloc ( 50551 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:42AM (#5061027) Homepage
    Not sure if it would be a wise idea to slashdot a military server these days. You might be considered a terrorist.

  • No. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kaosrain ( 543532 ) <root AT kaosrain DOT com> on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:43AM (#5061029) Homepage
    Is this what ./'ers need during those long coding sessions.

    This may have been said jokingly, but it definately isn't what we need. Not only do TNDS' not give you a delicious taste in your mouth, they don't tell your body that you are full either. If we want fatter geeks, this is the way to go. Otherwise, I'll just stick to my perishable food.
    • That's all we need now to have neverending LAN games...

      • Re:Jolt patches... (Score:5, Informative)

        by kaosrain ( 543532 ) <root AT kaosrain DOT com> on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:52AM (#5061070) Homepage
        Actually, you could use nicotine patches. Nicotine is a stimulant, and when you first start using the patches, you can really tell. When I first started using patches to quit smoking, I was racing around and away much later than usual, but always full of energy. I stopped taking them abruptly one day, and I crashed, just like what happens after any other stimulant binge.
    • I definitely wouldn't want to be a soldier once they figure these things out. After all, if the soldiers could get nutrition from a patch, why feed them at all? Or at least that's what their thinking will be.
      • It's probably cheaper to give them a bowl of ramen and a cup of coffee than to buy a patch or two to replace a meal. Think of it from military standpoint. Spend $10 million on food and $10 million on tanks, or spend $500,000 on ramen and $19,500,000 on tanks. Generals always go for the cool toys.
        • Three words: morale, protein, and carbohydrates.

          I imagine these things are more like mineral/vitamin supplements. They'll streamline the process of meeting the soldiers' trace element needs. They'll also (once perfected) allow the army to produce much simpler main meals, since they won't need to go out of their way to include things like vegetables and other hard-to-preserve or difficult-to-obtain menu items.

          Think about it: instead of having to put together a complete breakfast for your troops, you can just feed them a generic mass of proteins and sugars, and slap a patch on them to take care of the vitamin and mineral requirements. Much faster, cheaper, and field-portable.

          Not a food replacement, though.

    • Healthy food is counter productive. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Does any body else find that healthy food is counter productive when it comes to your programming?

      A couple years ago we opened an office that is 3 blocks from my home so now instead of grabbing some fatty restaurant food I go home and eat real food.

      I find that most home made foods (e.g. Fettuccini Alfredo made with pasta, cream, garlic, parmessean etc and not just from an instant package) tend to slow me down in the afternoon. My body seems to take longer to digest the real food. OTOH junk food seems to be converted to energy in only a few minutes.

    • Re:No. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )
      I don't know, if you use one of these, and remove all the food from your dwelling, it might help.
      I know a guy who lost 150 pounds by just taking the refridgerator out of his computer room.

      it is one thing to to grab something quick to eat, usually not healthy. Having to go out in the middle of a game of everquest is quit another.

      • Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)

        by Eric_Cartman_South_P ( 594330 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @02:39AM (#5061372)
        I know a guy who lost 150 pounds by just taking the refridgerator out of his computer room.

        Moving a 150 pound refrigerator from the computer room and back into the kitchen from where it came does NOT constitute weight loss.

      • You can also try moving to a different country. I've been in Japan for four months, and I've lost 25 pounds so far. My clothes are loose and ill-fitting lately. Rice and fish all the time, coupled with those long, long walks through the train stations for connecting trains really help.

        • Re:No. (Score:3, Interesting)

          by macshit ( 157376 )
          You've got to be kidding... Japan is chock full of extremely fattening food (an average bowl of ramen, I think contains approximately 1 billion calories, and enough salt to supply south america for a decade), and unlike, e.g., U.S. fast food, it tastes really good. This is a dangerous, dangerous combination. Morever, health club memberships are way more expensive in Japan... Gah, I'm getting fat just writing this...
    • If we want fatter geeks, this is the way to go. Otherwise, I'll just stick to my perishable food.

      Er, I don't believe this patch delivers quite the fat fontent of a large supreme pizza... If anything it'd be a great way to slim the geeks down.
  • Future warfighters may spend substantial amounts of time encapsulated in protective garments ...with limited access to normal meals.
    Foolish Army...Everyone knows the answer to this is alien-tech suits filled with multi-purpose gelatin. [baen.com]
  • Going to the refridgerator for food was my only excersize! Just encourage me to be lazier and get fatter! Thanks alot!

  • The logical extension (Score:3, Funny)

    by Qwaniton ( 166432 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:46AM (#5061044)
    "This processor might activate a microelectrical mechanical system that transmits the micronutrients -- either through skin pores or pumped directly into blood capillaries."

    I am warfighter of Borg.
    You will be assimilated.
    Resistance is futile.

  • Why should I apply patches to myself? There's no Windows inside... Oh wait...

  • Insulin patch - good pharmecutical uses (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sean Clifford ( 322444 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:48AM (#5061050) Journal
    Glad to see some sci-fi turning real-world. Kinda freaky too; guess I know how my grandparents felt about landing on the moon and TV.

    Anyway, it's nice to see this kind of technology being developed out of the military budget instead of another variation on the bullet, bomb, etc. It has a lot of potential and I imagine it's not long before we see folks using pharmecutical patches soon - probably tailored for their specific needs/doses.

    It would be pretty nice if I could take ALL of my daily meds via a single patch rather than gulp down 10+ "easy-to-swallow if you're a horse" caplets.

    Good show, GI Joe.

    • guess I know how my grandparents felt about landing on the moon and TV.

      Your grandparents landed on the moon?? ...and TV??

      This I find implausible.

    • Just some random thoughts here: my sister is "type I" diabetic, ie the kind you get a child (total failure of the pancreas), not the kind that fat people get. Nobody knows why people get type I diabetes - it is usually not inherited genetically.

      I've never heard anything about an insulin patch, but it's an interesting idea. She has tried the insulin pump (yes, invented by the Segway guy). It didn't work for her because she's into sports, and the pump has to be connected all the time. A couple shots a day is actually less painful (can you imagine that?)

      Anyway, more power to these guys if they can come up with a solution for painless insulin delivery. The market is huge, and if they can work out the issues with accurate metering/timing, this would almost certianly replace the needle. Perhaps they could perforate the patches in such a way that you can tear them apart into a smaller section that meters out the right dose of fast vs slow-acting insulin....

      PS some interesting things are being invented for blood sugar testing, but none have hit the market yet. Watches with lasers in them, implants, etc... If you're into medical tech, this is a pretty hot field.
  • I know I'm not the only one who still buys them...
  • Sensors would first take readings on a warfighter's metabolism, then send information about the soldier's nutritional needs to a microchip processor. This processor might activate a microelectrical mechanical system that transmits the micronutrients -- either through skin pores or pumped directly into blood capillaries.

    I think the Borg icon (currently used for Microsoft stuff) is more appropriate for this particular article.

    --naked [slashdot.org]

  • but it's a well-known fact that anyone who reads /. is too busy refreshing to do any coding ;)

  • Beer (Score:4, Funny)

    by evilroot ( 156363 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:54AM (#5061075)
    Forget food. I want one that pumps BEER straight into my veins!

  • what about oral stimulation ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HealYourChurchWebSit ( 615198 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:56AM (#5061080) Homepage


    I'm sorry, but when I'm wading through breakpoints, I want something cruncy. When I'm hacking out a killer regular expression, something sweet. While I'm sure the patch is nice and chewy, there's nothing like an ice cold Jolt Cola at about 1a.m. when you've finally inherited and overloaded your native hash object to recursively enumerate its own members.

    Point is, some of the fun of eating while coding isn't just the stinking vitamins, more full tummy for that matter. So while I see it as an effective way to feed someone who'd rather starve than gag on MRE's in the middle of a minefield, I'll stick to my pretzels and mint-conditioned coffe thank you very much.

  • I wonder what is (Score:3, Interesting)

    by doubtless ( 267357 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @12:58AM (#5061083) Homepage
    the implications of this to long endurance sports, such as 24 hr LeMans car racing, ironman triathlon, long range cycling, and so on.

    I think currently athletes drink some sort of soups or something to get their calories... just a semi wild guess.

    • Re:I wonder what is (Score:5, Informative)

      by nochops ( 522181 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:07AM (#5061115)
      I am an avid cyclist, and I can tell you this:
      It takes more than just nutrients to get the job done. They don't say exactly what chemicals will be delivered by this system, but a cyclist would need:

      Carbohydrates, and lots of them. This is the body's main source of fuel during aerobic exercise.

      Electrolytes, to maintain the proper chemical balances in your body. This helps muscles perform at peak efficiency and staves off cramps.

      Water, because buckets of it are lost from sweating. Dehydration is perhaps the easiest way to ensure a poor performance.

      IANAN (nutritionist), but I've been cycling in both recreation and competition for about 10 years, and the things mentioned above are common knowledge to most cyclists.
    • Drivers for the LeMans 24 hour races don't actually race for the full 24 hours but usually share the driving with 2 other drivers, who each drive a total of 8 hours divided into two 4 hour shifts.

  • Long Coding Sessions? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bahwi ( 43111 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:00AM (#5061088)
    "Is this what ./'ers need during those long coding sessions."

    Is that anything like the much needed Sex Patch?

    Uh, erm, not that I need it. =)
  • Well it seems you're in need of one to prevent you making mistakes through hunger! It's /.ers not ./ers. The site's called slashdot - not dotslash!
  • It's great. Almost weaned from food.. Lost 145 pounds... feel great.

    The boss figures that if we can get access to the low-sleep research as well, I'll be better than a robot.

    • If the following is any indication of their level of technical experience that I think I will pick some place else.

      From their site:

      "Our servers at dual 64-bit 1266 Mhz. Pentium III machines. With 6 Gigabytes of RAM and hardware level RAID 10 UltraWide SCSI A/V Hard Drives. These boxes dual 64-bit PCI buses, with ALL 64-bit peripherals. Additionally dual power supplies and network cards round this package out."
  • I always said to maximize a programmer's efficiency would require a full-time attending nurse, to administer IV drips that insure adequate levels of hydration, nutrients, stimulants, etc, as well as urinary catheterization. Haven't figured out how to handle the need to take a dump, although I figure that would be gradually minimized by 100% IV feeding.
  • and then the Government would know the chemical make-up of our blood at all times!
  • One might have hoped that tragic events in Afghanistan [centcom.mil] would have taught the US military that drugging your troops is a bad idea.
    • "One might have hoped that tragic events in Afghanistan [centcom.mil] would have taught the US military that drugging your troops is a bad idea."

      When someone takes vitamins, do you consider them to be taking drugs?

  • And I thought C-Rats and MRE's were bad (Score:5, Funny)

    by core plexus ( 599119 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:09AM (#5061126) Homepage
    When I was in the Army (uh-oh), we'd sometimes not eat but once a day, especially in Ranger school. And a part of that reason was because the meals were so terrible. Oh I hope you never have to eat "Pork, Processed, with Juices" or scrambled eggs and ham that are 5 years old. Now they'll be having soldiers shaving their testicles to apply a food patch. I'll pass on the 're-up', thanks.

    Personal Strap-On Aircraft for Auction on eBay [xnewswire.com]

  • Military stimulants.. just what /. coders need to crash into Canadian networks.

  • 67 posts in.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:16AM (#5061151)
    *mumbles*
    Cant be /.'d yet
    *mumbles* .mil site, should be able to handle the effect..
    *shakes monitor*
    Come on ya bitch, serve the page, serve the page!

    *frowns*
    too late! /. 1 .mil 0
  • Show: Undergrads

    Episode "Traditions"

    Location: Tekerson Tech [fictional computer college]

    Mump walks into Gimpy's dorm with some IV equipment proclaiming that the inconvenience of Gimpy's having to leave his dormitory to eat is at long last over.

    Guess ol' Gimp can ditch the awkward IV equipment now too. Cool.

  • Uhm no (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Iamthefallen ( 523816 ) <Gmail name: Iamthefallen> on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:27AM (#5061182) Homepage Journal

    What we geeks need is for those long coding sessions is: better chairs, better screens, workplace ergonomy in general, decent food, short breaks a couple times an hour and a short walk around the block or something now and then aswell as 8 hours of sleep. We do not need anything to keep us glued to our monitors.

    I know it's incredibly cool to keep up the pizza/coffee/dew image, I like all three of them too, but considering how bad a lof of geeks handle their eating and sleeping, combined with a bad workplace and little excercise... they're a burnedout zombie with bad back and wrist problems waiting to happen.

    Contrary to popular geek belief, our bodies are not made for such abuse, and no, you are not different, you too need nutrition and sleep.

    • Re:Uhm no (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bigberk ( 547360 )
      What we geeks need is for those long coding sessions is: better chairs, better screens, workplace ergonomy in general, decent food, short breaks a couple times an hour and a short walk around the block or something now and then aswell as 8 hours of sleep.

      You forgot the women. We need more women. Seriously! Women are on average smarter than men and are less likely to put up with the abusive work conditions/demands placed on technologists these days.

      What we should do is equalize the gender balance, then we'll all be treated more fairly in the workplace (read: legally force employers to be more humane). After the work day ends at 6, we can all head over to the local disco for some dancin'

      • Re:Uhm no (Score:2, Insightful)

        by DarkKnightRadick ( 268025 )
        What we should do is equalize the gender balance,

        To maintain such a gender balance, you'd have to hire some coders who are sub-par. I'd prefer to have the best. If it means more men work for me then women, so be it.
      • You forgot the women. We need more women.

        That's right! Someone else needs to make sure we get laid, since we geeks are too busy coding, forgetting to shave, and getting fat on dew/pizza.

        For the love of christ, get some cojones and go out once in a while. There's more to life. Of course it's 11:00 on Friday night, and I'm here reading slashdot, so I guess I should shut up now. :)

  • I have pizza rolls, I take them orally. They work quite well.

  • When I played Army we didn't have this cool stuff (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sean Clifford ( 322444 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:35AM (#5061206) Journal
    Man, when I played Army we didn't have this cool stuff. Sure, I got to blow shit up and that was a lot of fun. We had MREs, but that was before they started putting M&Ms and tabasco sauce in them. Patches? Hmmm, I'll hang on to 'em, but I'd rather have my freeze-dried peaches.

    Imagine you'll get pretty hungry, though.

    GI Joe: Trade you my patch for your peanut butter and crackers.

    GI Ethnic: [bitch slaps GI Joe]

  • The soldier of the furture come equipped with everything he needs to operate in a hostile environment.

    The nutrient patch Eating means downtime, and downtime means certain death (we tell them that so we can save on the scrambled egg MREs)

    The NRG patch To keep the soldier of the future alert and in the business of acting as the freeworld's finest killing machine, we have the NRG patch, a potent time release combination of caffine, cocaine, methamphetimine(sp?), and some of the best drugs every developed for narcolepsy. (If they run for 24 hours straight we can get three times the use out of them)

    The Mind patchEverything you need to keep moral high and your soldiers too, eliminate battle fatigue, reduce stress, and give them the ability to see the colors of the world with our unique combination of nicotein, lsd, pcp, thc and various other combinations of letters. ( They'll be so addicticed they will battle to get their fix)

    Recreation patch This patch features a combination of drugs recovered from Roswell, Viagra and birthcontrol to take the male and female integrated army to the next stage, no more ping pong or other games of skill. It's the oldest form of recreation known to man, all induced at appropriate times by appropriate couples with the use of this patch.(If they screw like bunnies they might just forget we sent them to hell)

    Better living through chemistry, it's not just a motto, it's a way of life!
  • Is this what ./'ers need during those long coding sessions

    Not until it also releases Dr. Pepper into the bloodstream.

    C'mon!

  • This makes nutrition neutral from religion (Score:5, Interesting)

    by joeflies ( 529536 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:48AM (#5061241)
    Seems like there are so many restrictions in so many religions in what foods that can be eaten on a given day, then using something like this makes it easy for the army to focus on the task at hand without having to worry about keeping pork/milk/dairy/penuts, etc out of a batch of rations.

    This is army food that even the Atkins diet could love!

  • But, I don't think they actually made it??? (Score:3, Informative)

    by jshare ( 6557 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @01:51AM (#5061248) Homepage
    It seems (from reading the article, madness, i know) that this is more of a "we need this" than a "we built this" kind of thing.

    What gives?

    -Jordan

  • Great, now I can finally do away with that glucose/ephedrine IV!

  • I'm confused... (Score:3, Funny)

    by AyeRoxor! ( 471669 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @02:08AM (#5061297) Journal
    "Is this what ./'ers need during those long coding sessions[?]"

    What's a dot-slasher? :-P

  • Food patch? Need sleep patch!! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @02:16AM (#5061325)
    I don't need a sticky wafer feeding me fancy "nutraceuticals". That's why they make vending machines, I imagine the pork rinds are chock full of them (not that I could ever bring myself to eat them, mind you. I'm in for the sweet rolls).

    No, what I need is a patch to feed me lots of "nutrazzzzzicals", giving me a full nights sleep while I do whatever. If that means lucid dreams overlaying normal vision, fine (I'll just be really careful who or what I look at), just give me real sleep I don't have to catch up on later.

  • The Food Patch (Score:5, Funny)

    by farnsworth ( 558449 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @02:49AM (#5061393)
    here's the actual patch:
    Index: human/nerd/coder/employed/on_the_job.h
    ========== ============
    RCS file:
    / universe/ solar_system/ earth/ mamal/ human/ nerd/ coder/ employed/ on_the_job.h,v
    retrieving revision 1.0
    diff -u -r1.0 on_the_job.h

    #include <wake_up.h>
    #include "../../common/move_to_workstation.h"
    -#include "../nutrition/check_slashdot.h"
    +#include <eat_a_bagel.h>
    #include <guzzle_coffee.h>
  • .. how about your poor stomach, being slowly but steadily digested by its own hydrochloric acid and peptides?

    DISCLAIMER: I have not read the article. It's Slashdotted already, dammit! Knowing that hilarious (and worrying) Navy incident of a warship stalling because NT4 crashed, I wonder why...
  • So when will my job start requiring this new technology so i can work without a lunch break.
  • If you want a meal replacement, gulp down a can of Boost. You can get a generic 6 pack for about 7 bucks here in Canada. They have 353 Cal, 17.6g Protein, 44g Carbs, an assload of vitamins, etc. Which seems to be better than those patches. You can drink one in a matter of seconds (that way you don't taste it), and you're good for a couple hours, I'd say. I'm a geek, and I never eat chocolate, drink caffeinated beverages or all that junk, and I still am able to code for long stretches, and, I can also still play my favorite sports. Nutrition is a good thing for your future. These drinks are equivalent to the price of a bottle of Jolt, and they do liven you up, too. Just an alternative view of this hold geekdom thing... Although this reply might be a bit late... Meh...
  • Could someone please explain to me the benefit of delivering the food as a skin patch instead of as little food pills or something. For insulin and nicotine, I can understand the need for a controlled continuous release, but why the need for such precision with food?
  • Warfighters! Another doubleplusgood word served up to us by our superduperleader and his department of the Fatherland, er, Homeland Defense!

    C'mon! Be Bush's bitch! Throw out that old, not-government-approved terminology like 'soldier' and sign up for your New and Improved English class today!

    Max

  • similarly to to nicotine or birth control patches (Score:5, Funny)

    by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @05:47AM (#5061739)
    ..."works similarly to to nicotine or birth control patches"...

    Oh yeah, there's a warehouse mixup waiting to happen.

    -- Terry

  • Fancy vitamin pill (Score:4, Informative)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Saturday January 11, 2003 @08:02AM (#5061891) Homepage Journal
    FOLKS!

    This patch is nothing but a fancy vitamin pill. It won't "feed" you any more than a vitamin pill would. RTFA!

    The only advantage this patch has is that it lasts many days - the idea being to prevent soldiers from coming down with beri-beri, scurvy, and other diseases due to lack of vitamins (which MREs are not exactly high in). If you can issue a soldier a patch every week,

    a) You can quickly determine if the soldier is using it - "INSPECTION - Pruuu-zent PATCH!" This is harder to do with a pill.
    b) You only need worry about it once a week - for guys on long range patrol this simplifies life. In combat, simple is good.

    For geeks driving a keyboard, just take your multivitamin every (virtual) morning, along with your coffee, and you will get the same effect.

  • Chicken-a-la-King anyone? (Score:3, Informative)

    by pvera ( 250260 ) <pedro.vera@gmail.com> on Saturday January 11, 2003 @10:10AM (#5062128) Homepage Journal
    I am a US Army vet, but my only exposure to field food was MREs, I never got to see the next generation MREs used now or the older C-rations. When I was in the service the MREs came in diverse enough configurations that there was something for everyone, plus of course the little black market we had running using the M&Ms as a bargain tool.

    Still, MREs had a small problem, it took time to eat them. The MRE not only gave us a certain caloric load per bag, but it also kept us busy for up to 30 minutes (some of us looked forward to getting MREs instead of a chow truck because you would be literally guaranteed 30 minutes of peace from the cadre as long as you looked busy tearing open packets of food). If you are really in a hurry and you don't eat your MREs whole then over time in a long deployment you could start suffering vitamin deficiencies, which is where a patch like that would rock.

    Of course, we know the first three patches that are going to be issued will be:

    1. Caffeine
    2. Tylenol/Motrin
    3. Go pills

    The concept sounds great, but it is just too obvious that they are looking for a clean way to deliver chemicals without needles or pills (plus the patch allows a time release).

    If any of you has never tasted an MRE and has a chance to, go ahead and try it. I have always been picky about food but I never thought I would be so damn well pleased with cold food (the warming jackets were not widely distributed to non-deployed units). Chicken-a-la-King, Beef Stew and "Ham and Omelette" where the best :-)

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