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Good question. The answer is both yes and no.

Was Hitler a Christian? on The Straight Dope

You are reproducing and oft-repeated myth, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists

I was told the same thing all the way back in high school, so don't think I am condemning the error: I did it too!

I have used other layouts like DVORAK, btw...doesn't seem to really speed you up: when I did more computer work I would type at hundreds of WPM too, but I found that once sufficiently acquired, DVORAK vs. QWERTY hardly mattered, and some studies (as indicated by that article) suggest QWERTY's ascendancy was a product of selection vs. competing standards, and is perhaps faster than than the likes of its most often indicating better (DVORAK) BECAUSE OF the space between oft-used keys (because of alternation between the two hands: DVORAK favors the right).

Laser of that class are scary. Even the stronger laser pointers on the market have enough power to irrevocably damage your eyes. All the more because you won't feel any pain.

Just trolling =) There's a line of thinking that says that the US sentiment was very much against war at the time but that the president would ignore this or attempt to manipulate the public, and would need a decisive attack from which no retaliation could be given until the US war effort was well under way. It's fairly well explained here that this isn't really true, US polls showed that the people were happy to go to war with Japan and Germany, so I don't really think the motive the conspirators are claiming is realistic.

Hitler... a Christian? Really? The same guy who said he intended "to stamp out Christianity root and branch."? I suggest looking at sources besides blatantly anti-christian, pro-atheism sites such as "nobeliefs.com". For example, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1699/was-hitler-a-christian or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler Stalin exploited religion. How about that... exploitation to further his goals. This does nothing to disprove what I claimed. The same with Mao. They were mass murderers who did not ascribe to any religion. If Mao had been a follower of a religion, I imagine you would pin that on his religion. Lastly, my original point still stands undisputed. The OP made the claim that Christianity has killed hundreds of millions of people, and then failed to back up those numbers. I got him started by listing about 150,019 deaths. I am waiting for citations for the remaining 99+ million.

But weakly observing it can have value. It would be possible, for instance, to determine whether there is a cat in the box at the moment (perhaps by weighing the box and comparing the finding with a predetermined minimum-weight-of-cat value). This is important because a cat that is not observed in any way may or may not be in any particular place. Anyone who has ever lived with a cat knows this. People who have never been owned by a cat may be incapable of understanding this, and probably should not look for a career as a quantum mechanic.

But that explanation might be too subtle for classical physicists (who likely do not much like cats, ever since Schrödinger soured them on the cute little beasties). So for them the dilemma can be stated in a more gross fashion: how can you even know whether a cat in the box is a part of the device you are trying to build unless you at least look at whether a box is or is not present? It would seem that some degree of weak observation is indeed necessary if anything is to be done.

The underlying problem is of course that quantum mechanics sits in the intersection of physics and semantics. It is not only the case that classical physics is unable to handle what is happening at the quantum level. It is also the case that as a product of this Universe, the human brain is basically incapable of understanding quantum level events. There's something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear... and never will be. So sayeth the Copenhagen convention.

I don't expect anyone on Slashdot to accept this on face value. But I do have a citation: check this out. One of the more obvious implications is that if you do not have a sense of humor, then becoming a quantum mechanic is not a good career choice for you.

Uhm... what?
Tesla's ideas and theories for 'broadcast' power were nothing like reality.

Quite so. From London, even.

These things tend not to be quite so frivolous when you look into them.

Straight Dope Boards suggests that there was a design issue that the gas can manufacturer knew about, that would result in an explosion. A slight redesign would have meant that the 4 year old would have survived.

That one, it turns out, is even less of an island, and mostly not even visible: the "great Pacific garbage patch" is not really a macroscopic phenomenon, but rather an area of the Pacific Ocean with higher than normal concentrations of plastic particles, mostly suspended beneath the surface. The larger pieces are broken down by wave action fairly quickly, so it's not a giant mass of floating milk jugs or anything like that.

apparently 54% of Americans are below average intelligence.
fascinating...


OK, so if we parse this correctly, it more likely means 54% of Americans are dumber than a box of rocks.

More links:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/06/motorcycles-pol/
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/11/autos/hy-throttle11
http://ecomodder.com/blog/motorcycles-scooters-great-environment-wrong/
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2852/whats-better-for-the-environment-a-scooter-or-a-car

Getting rapidly bored with this, but I *am* amused that your main thrust is to switch to annecdote and call a calculation of the efficiencies of the actual generation to wheels (a fair comparision against a gas car), funny math..

Great, so you admit your percentages were purely annecedotal. Thanks. I guess we can go w/ the actual studies.
But. Tell ya what. You can have your 75% efficiency instead of 60% (by ignoring the various losses) if I can have my 35% GDI engine efficiency and 53% efficiency for the new wave of engines.

Each electric car doubles the household's draw as it charges.
Everyone comes home from work, they plug their cars in. Guess what. The grid as currently designed can't handle it.

Yes, *if* the electric cars *and* houses are designed to return power, then it would help stabilise a *smart* grid.
That's not the case here and now.

My math was for our existing US power supply. Not some dream land of 100% renewable. (note, not green. renewable is not necessarily environmentally friendly - but then I was already generously specifying nuclear and hydro as 100% renewable)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3000/followup-why-dont-we-ditch-nukes-em-and-em-coal
I encourage reading something like this

If some areas have a bit higher percentage of renewable, big deal? Still national average is not. And given the current anti-nuclear climate, we'll have a hard time replacing NG and coal any time soon.

For cold climates and batteries. Don't forget heating, I'd brought it up once before. Also electric cars are less efficient at AC in warm climates, since the usual design is battery->second electric motor->compressor. Once again, more steps means more losses. The engine is already creating mechanical energy for the compressor in a standard car.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists
"Baloney, say the authors of the article you enclose, S.J. Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis. They point out that (1) the research demonstrating the superiority of the Dvorak keyboard is sparse and methodologically suspect; (2) a sizable body of work suggests that in fact the Dvorak offers little practical advantage over the QWERTY; (3) at least one study indicates that placing commonly used keys far apart, as with the QWERTY, actually speeds typing, since you frequently alternate hands; and (4) the QWERTY keyboard did not become a standard overnight but beat out several competing keyboards over a period of years. Thus it may be fairly said to represent the considered choice of the marketplace. It saddens me to know I helped to perpetuate the myth of Dvorak superiority, but I will sleep better at night knowing I have rectified matters at last."

Totally agree on spreading the keys apart. Easier on the fingers.
Kinda like in gaming where if you repeatedly press keys in almost the same location, repeatedly, you start getting RSI.

Hey, if you're going to misquote things, why stop there? Why not just use the quote:

has also granted the Department the authority to seize private facilities

It's all meant to be used only "during a crisis or emergency". "to obtain, to the maximum extent practicable, the survivability of NS/EP [national security and emergency preparedness] communications under all circumstances".

I honestly don't see why this Executive Order was even necessary, considering the law can already commandeer vehicles in cases of reasonable necessity. If there is a crisis, it is your civic duty to assist if the authorities request it. How would communications equipment be any different?

In 2011, Congress considered similar provisions in cybersecurity legislation, which would have allowed the government to disconnect communications traffic in times of national security. Following public protest, congress abandoned the proposal.

Basically, it sounds like the Prez got sick of yet another issue that seemed to get stuck in congress, so he went ahead and passed it anyways.

This probably cites the same things as the wikipedia articles, but this was also covered in the Straight Dope.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2992/did-the-middle-ages-not-really-happen

The US tried to separate all aspects of Political leadership from Religion because you end up with the policies such as you had in England where a Lord had the right to bang a newly wed wife before the Husband

O RLY?.

or steal your property in the name of religion.

In the name of religion? Srsly? Citation please that it was "in the name of religion" rather than "in the name of I have more people with swords or guns than you do"?

I believe you would lose your penny. link one, link two

According to The Straight Dope, 84 men flew across the Atlantic before Lindbergh. What Lindbergh accomplished was to fly non-stop from New York to Paris. The fact that he flew solo was not a factor in winning the Orteig Prize.

Also worth reading:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2469/how-can-a-corporation-be-legally-considered-a-person

http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/157829.shtml

The irony of someone stealing a bible is not lost on me, either.

It's not (necessarily) stealing, all depends on the mindset you're in when you're taking it

Really? 99%?

Could you cite that?

Thanks.

I don't know if it actually works out to 99%, but in general, road wear rises with the 4th power of axle weight, so trucks account for the lion's share of wear and tear on roads:
http://www.pavementinteractive.org/article/equivalent-single-axle-load/

On the other hand, 99% might not be that far off:

Roads are usually designed assuming that a single axle on a big truck carries a maximum of 18,000 pounds. Compared to a typical car carrying 2,000 pounds per axle, a fully loaded truck stresses the road surface 6,561 times as much.
  http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2974/why-cant-they-make-highways-last-forever

But(t) less effective

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-264412.html

Solar cells wear out you know...
And they are hardly energy neutral to create.

But I suspect we will need all of the above.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3000/followup-why-dont-we-ditch-nukes-em-and-em-coal

None. The "Tech Love Boat" exists solely as a tax and immigration dodge, and its founders are proud of it. May real pirates raid this libertarian haven

Under international maritime law, all nations have a duty to combat piracy. "Piracy is of note in international law as it is commonly held to represent the earliest invocation of the concept of universal jurisdiction. The crime of piracy is considered a breach of jus cogens, a conventional peremptory international norm that states must uphold. Those committing thefts on the high seas, inhibiting trade, and endangering maritime communication are considered by sovereign states to be hostis humani generis (enemies of humanity)" Wikipedia

The bottom line is that it isn't in the interests of the United States to have pirates operating off the U.S. coast, even if they only target vessels of other nations.

When a crime occurs on the "Love Boat", who will settle that crime?

It is exactly the same legal situation as a crime on a cruise ship. The passengers are subject to the legal sysem of their flag nation, and of others that exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction. The U.S. Constitution gives the federal courts jurisdiction over maritime matters, so it is up to the courts to rule on which particular crimes are worthy of extraterritorial jurisdiction. See In international waters, are you beyond the reach of the law?

It's not TOTALLY bogus.

The drive-on-left rule dates back to ancient times with the first real roads. It became a custom to make passing easier in travel, which was later invoked as law by the Romans and then the Pope. The modern use stems largely from the British colonization and the crown's ruling in 1773 requiring travel on the left. It is said that this was due to the ability of a horseback rider to hold the reins with the left hand and greet or defend themselves with a sword from oncoming travelers with the right.

The drive-on-right rule is actually quite a bit newer, in that it comes from huge horse teams being driven on common roads in the US. The driver of these teams would sit on the rear-left horse, and wanted to keep right so that he could see oncoming vehicles clearly and avoid the wheels of their carriage. Personally, I think it is largely from wanting to be different from and break away from the English rules, especially given the time frame of the English ruling and the revolutionary war.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/634/why-do-the-british-drive-on-the-left

Non-trivial? Seriously, it can't be more than a pittance; they just speak loudly in certain areas.

I wish you were right, but I'm not making that up. It's right around half, see this column for some more detail. I would say 45-50% can be classified as nontrivial.

For those not in the know, this already happened many, many years ago:

One of the best-documented accounts of a prehistoric meal comes at the end of Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe (1990), by Alaska zoology professor Dale Guthrie. After successfully unearthing and preserving "Blue Babe," a 36,000-year-old steppe bison found near Fairbanks in 1979, Guthrie's team celebrates by simmering some leftover flesh from Babe's neck "in a pot of stock and vegetables." The author reports that "the meat was well aged but still a little tough, and it gave the stew a strong Pleistocene aroma." Now, I'm all for scientific esprit de corps, and I'm not by nature an incurious sort, but I'll say right now I don't see the appeal. Let's keep it simple: frozen meat from tundra = specimen; frozen meat from freezer = dinner. Study the mammoths and eat the burgers, and anyone who craves that great prehistoric taste can wash 'em down with Tab.

Maybe they left it over 10.000 years ago because it wasn't the best meat?

See also this clip from QI on tortoise extinction by too-hungry explorers.

For those not in the know, this already happened many, many years ago:

One of the best-documented accounts of a prehistoric meal comes at the end of Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe (1990), by Alaska zoology professor Dale Guthrie. After successfully unearthing and preserving "Blue Babe," a 36,000-year-old steppe bison found near Fairbanks in 1979, Guthrie's team celebrates by simmering some leftover flesh from Babe's neck "in a pot of stock and vegetables." The author reports that "the meat was well aged but still a little tough, and it gave the stew a strong Pleistocene aroma." Now, I'm all for scientific esprit de corps, and I'm not by nature an incurious sort, but I'll say right now I don't see the appeal. Let's keep it simple: frozen meat from tundra = specimen; frozen meat from freezer = dinner. Study the mammoths and eat the burgers, and anyone who craves that great prehistoric taste can wash 'em down with Tab.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2747/does-giving-sweets-to-kids-produce-a-sugar-rush

There are a couple of other tests they don't mention, but it's pretty well established that sugar doesn't make kids hyper. The excitement from having something sweet and tasty might do that, but even that seem to be pretty psychosomatic on the parents' part.

Also, isn't there some correlation between cooking on aluminum and Alzheimer's disease?

Long story short: people with Alzheimer's tend to have higher concentrations of Al in their CSF, but it is unknown and unlikely that this is causal rather than coincidental. There is also the issue that science is unsure how ingested (or inhaled) Al would migrate to the cerebrospinal (sp?) fluid.

Since there is little friction in space what is there from stopping us from reaching an appreciable fraction of the speed of light? I was reading that we might attain lightspeed in about 1 year at 1G acceleration rate which only adds a couple of years to the trip..

Using force = mass * acceleration, energy = force * distance, distance = 1/2 * acceleration * time^2, and e=mc^2:
to accelerate a 1000kg payload at 1g (9.8m/s^2) for 1 year:
Energy to do so: 4.8 x 10^19 J
Equivalent mass of that energy: 532kg. That's also assuming Newtonian physics (no relativity), and not counting the fact that you have to account for the mass of the fuel. Let me know when we can produce 216kg of antimatter and then "burn" it in a controlled manner that directly corresponds to thrust.

If you use an energy density of 50,000 Wh/kg (very aggressive estimate of high-end energy density in current/near-future rocket tech), you're talking about needing over 2 billion metric tons of fuel (and don't forget you have to accelerate all that fuel too which now means you're no longer talking about a 1000kg payload.

I would first launch a volley of asteroids towards the planet to clear a path, then the equipment, and then follow in their wake.

We almost got the value of PI changed: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/805/did-a-state-legislature-once-pass-a-law-saying-pi-equals-3

Uhhhmmmm - whoa now. Maybe someone has attempted to claim that Christianity has/had no mass murderers. I have not.

"Kill them all, let God sort them out."

I don't think there is any quote that is more famous, uttered by any religious fanatic. Christianity has a long, long list of atrocities to it's "credit". Hitler, however, has not been demonstrated to have been "Christian". The man manipulated the Church, the churches, the clergy, and the faithful, that much is provable fact. When he couldn't manipulate them, he intimidated them. That is more provable fact. But, as for Hitler's own personal beliefs about God? You ain't got them. He didn't write anything down that suggests that he believed in any Creator, or that he thought that he might one day be held accountable by that Creator.

All of his actions, regarding the Jews, suggests that he believed Neitsche's myths about mankind coming into this world from another dimension or something, in waves. And, the Jews were actually subhumans who came onto this planet long after the Aryans had settled the world. His ACTIONS speak much louder than the few words he uttered in lip service to the church.

What you can find, if you search for it, is the fact that Hitler and his cronies were perfectly willing to use the religious beliefs of the common man for their own ends.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1699/was-hitler-a-christian
"National Socialism [Nazism] and Christianity are irreconcilable"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler's_religious_views
According to the controversial collection of transcripts edited by Martin Bormann, titled Hitler's Table Talk, as well as the testimony of some intimates, Hitler had privately negative views of Christianity.

http://nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm

For me to claim that Hitler had nothing to do with Christianity, or that he didn't use Christian beliefs to help justify his actions would be utterly foolish - so I make no such claim. But, without his autobiography, in which he explains his true beliefs, it is just as foolish to claim that he was a believer. As I said already, his actions speak louder than the little bit of lip service he gave to Christianity.

17 suicides per million persons is low for any country regardless of age or sex. That is 0.00085%. The problem is people see nominal values and ignore statistics. In a population larger enough you will find deaths due all sorts of causes. By comparison US male dentists have 2.0% rate. Now the work at factories at Foxconn is hard; the hours are long. That does not mean there is a true problem unless you can find numbers that suggest otherwise.

Re:I can't remember my husband's passwords

And vice versa. He's a number guy, I'm a language person.

I can't help but be reminded of the Phantom Tollbooth's Mathemagician's letter to King Azaz and the difficulties they had communicating. I read the book maybe ten years ago and I still find parts of it relevant in day-to-day conversation.

the exceptions that prove the rule

Ok, pet peave of mine. That's a terrible phrase, and Cecil will tell you why. Basically it boils down to this example: If you see a no U-Turn sign that means that everywhere you do NOT see explicitly prohibiting you from making U-turns, U-turns are legal/OK. The exception proves the counter-rule.

/Pedant

This is a must read. It's a perfect example of a "market solution".

Well, my friend, that was a joke (did you read the comic?) but like any good joke it had some relation to truth. I guess that may be the only way it was like a good joke.

The last time the USA had a civil war, we killed off two percent of our total population. And that was before the advent of air power or modern artillery or air-cooled man-portable machine guns.

If it's up to me, I'm agin it. I'd like to believe we learned our lesson last time around.

Pertinent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-369691.html

>> eat the mammoth

Well, according to this summary of the numbers, your claim is wrong for both busses and trains, but with more efficient cars, or in places with lightly-loaded busses, the bus may be beaten by the car. That's a surprise to me, I wouldn't have guessed they are that close.

a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)

I take issue with your next-to-last example. In English, w is only a vowel when it occurs as part of a diphthong, e.g. "bow" or "lawn". In the word "yaw", y is a consonant and w is a vowel: but in the word "way", w is a consonant and y is a vowel. "Cwm" is merely a borrowing from Welsh which has nothing to do with any general rule of English spelling.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2845/why-arent-porn-actors-charged-with-prostitution

The key quote FTA:
But in 1988 his conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court, which cited precedent establishing that "for [an act] to constitute 'prostitution,' the genitals, buttocks, or female breast, of either the prostitute or the customer must come in contact with some part of the body of the other for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of the customer or of the prostitute" [emphasis added]. The court found that the "payment of acting fees was the only payment involved in the instant case. . . . There is no evidence that [Freeman] paid the acting fees for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification, his own or the actors'." Thus, no prostitution.

and in 1986 no less (back when "chalkboard" still had some meaning): http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/540/why-is-the-sound-of-fingernails-scraping-a-blackboard-so-annoying

That makes no sense.

Quick google turns up http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260966

Ah, the 21st Century version of Chicago dibs chairs. I like it.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2019/why-do-telephone-keypads-count-from-the-top-down-while-calculators-count-from-the-bottom-up

The story begins back in pre-calculator days, when there were cash registers. We're not talking cash registers that scan, but mechanical things where you actually had to push the keys hard to punch numbers. The cash registers were designed with 0 at the bottom, and the numbers going up. Why did cash registers choose this organization? I was unable to find any clear answer. These were the days before customer surveys and mass marketing opinion polls. The people who designed cash registers evidently just thought it was the obvious approach--lowest numbers at the bottom, highest numbers at the top.

In fact, the earliest cash registers had multiple keys. You didn't enter 7 and 9 and 5 for $7.95; there was a separate column of keys for each decimal place. Think of a matrix, with the bottom row of 0's, next a row of 1's, then a row of 2's, going up. The right hand column would represent single units (cents), the next column for tens, then hundreds, etc. So, to enter $7.95, you'd actually enter 700, then 90, then 5.

When calculators made their appearance, they copied the cash register format. In fact, some of the earliest mechanical calculators (ah, how my wife loved her Friden!) had multiple columns, like the cash register. The earliest calculators had keypads that were ten rows high and generally 8 or 9 columns across.

When hand-held and electronic calculators made their appearance, they copied the keypad arrangement of the existing calculators--0 at the bottom, 1-2-3 in the next row, 4-5-6 in the next row, and 7-8-9 in the top row, from left to right. So, basically, they evolved from the cash register.

The Touch-Tone phone emerged in the early 1960s. Before that, there were rotary dials, with the numbers starting at 1 at the top right and then running counterclockwise around the dial to 8-9-0 across the bottom. Why would "0" be on the bottom? Probably because the dialing mechanism was pulse, not tone. Since they couldn't do zero pulses for 0, they did ten pulses, and hence put the 0 at the end. (Thanks to Radu Serban for this suggestion.)

There seem to be three reasons that the Touch-Tone phone keypad was designed as it was:

(1) Tradition. People were used to dialing with 1-2-3 on top, and it seemed reasonable to keep it that way.

(2) AT&T (the only phone company at the time) did some research that concluded there were fewer dialing errors with the 1-2-3 on top (possibly related to the traditional rotary dial layout).

(3) Phone numbers years ago used alphabetic prefixes for the exchange (BUtterfield 8, etc.). In the days of rotary dials, no doubt it seemed logical to put the letters in alphabetical order, and to associate them with numbers in numerical order. The number 1 was set aside for "flag" functions, so ABC went with 2, DEF with 3, and so on. When Touch-Tone phones came in, keeping the alphabet in alphabetical order meant putting 1-2-3 at the top.

So there we have it. Basically, calculator keypad design evolved from cash registers, while telephone keypad design evolved from the rotary dial. Tradition has kept them that way ever since.

Looking at your list:

Good: 95, 98, XP, 7
Bad: ME, Vista

This doesn't seem to support the 'skip every other version' idea that you're suggesting.

We could also add 3.1 to the good list, leaving more than twice as many good versions than bad!

We could even put ME on the good list, as it didn't suck for most users. The lack of useful command line tools (SFC, etc.) is what made it suck for techs -- otherwise, it was just a mediocre 98se upgrade. It was more stable than 98, and it had better USB support. It wasn't as bad as people think.

Vista? Yeah, it sucked. Though once I added an extra gb of ram and the installed the latest service pack, my wife's vista laptop went from being a near-useless pile-of-garbage, ignored for her netbook, to her main computer.

On Windows 8, we won't really know if it's good or bad until we can use it. The point, of course, is that there isn't a need to skip every other version. That pattern just doesn't seem to exist.

Mind you they have had very few virus(virii ?) there

'Viruses' is the correct plural form in English. Virii is completely wrong no matter how you look at it. 'Virus' is wrong, but knowing the original it makes sense, and it's the plural in Swedish to give one example.

For entertaining and well-written information on correct and incorrect latin plurals, see http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis.