Slashdot Mirror

Television has any number of tropes.

One of them is the idea that human nature doesn't change over time. You get the same basic plotlines in pro wrestling, daytime soap operas, evening emo teenybopper soaps (buffy, angel, etc), scifi series... the only difference is the trappings of the medium.

Of course, the same has been said about literature. People argue about the number of basic plots, but the theory - that if you look long enough, you'll find something that you are repeating "close enough". The same is also true in music, especially since the nonmusical fools involved in US judicial decisions and copyright law have made decisions that make the number of possible melodies extremely limited (and most of those mathematical possibilities also happen to be atonal shit that would make a Yoko Ono concert sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in comparison).

You want to attack Star Trek for "not focusing on" the technology? TV shows sell themselves on the actors, pure and simple. Without characters, you don't have story, and at best you get rotten shit like Star Wars Episode 1.

Bullshit. The expression is ALWAYS what has been important. After all, are only 7 basic literary plots. Are you saying we should only ever have 7 novels, as all others are derivative in some way or another from the 7?

Go to http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2469/how-can-a-corporation-be-legally-considered-a-person and do a find on "court reporter"

They had a control group who got a placebo instead of the real vaccine, and compared the infection rates of both. Both groups were drawn from the same demographics. So no need to interview partners, compensate for riskier behavior due to being "protected", etc.

The Straight Dope Aids odds

From there on out, statistically speaking, things deteriorate pretty fast. If your partner is HIV-positive, your chances of getting AIDS after one night are 1 in 5,000 with a condom, 1 in 500 without. Have sex with an HIV-positive partner 500 times using condoms and your chances escalate to 1 in 11. Skip the gift wrap and they're 2 in 3.

Because there is not a 100% chance of getting aids from unprotected sex, and that the numbers are quite close (a difference of 20)... I have to question the numbers. Everyone who had unprotected sex (From either the placebo or vaccine group) had a 1 in 500 dice roll of not getting aids from one encounter.

See what I'm getting at? How do we know that the aids infected people wern't just part of the standard of deviation?

I know that it will damage my eyesite if I read on it for a prolonged period, even with larger zoomed text.

[citation needed]

(Here *is* a semi-citation http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1107/will-sitting-too-close-to-the-tv-reading-with-bad-light-etc-ruin-your-eyes, but it too doesn't say that there's definitive proof.)

Hey now, don't be hatin' on the blue people. It's not right to harass them for being from Kentucky and being blue...

In case you don't know who I'm referring to, links regarding the blue Fugates and their disorder follow: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kyperry3/Blue_Fugates_Troublesome_Creek.html http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1272/is-there-really-a-race-of-blue-people http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methemoglobinemia

Exactly. Iowa's early primary ensures that any canidate trying to raise more money has to take the pledge to support ethanol as a biofuel. If they point out how wastefull and pointless it's been, they'll have a weak showing there, and their campaign contributions will take a hit. Plus no congressman with eyes on the presidency would be willing to vote against corn for the same reasons.

Ethanol subsidies have been a huge waste, the money is all going to ADM, which is the last company we should be giving it to.

That wiki page also has some interesting stats on the taxes. "every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30." And we're STILL dependant on oil. It's not even that they take corporate welfare, I'd be mad enough just based off how lousy an investment that is.

While they're at it they should vote to make PI equal to three

Already been tried.

In 1897 someone in Indiana attempted to legally define pi as 4 (not 3!) (among other values).

In some ways I can sympathise with having laws about approximating pi - you could state in a legal framework, for example, that when calculating taxes based on the area of a circular plot, use 3 * r^2

It failed because we the people threw a royal hissy fit.

It failed for the same reason that all similar laws will fail: Congress does not have the power to repeal the laws of Botany or Chemistry. They can try, but the Universe laughs at their hubris. They may as well legislate the value of pi.

Except, of course, that Hitler was a Catholic. He was baptized, served as an altar boy. His early poilitical campaigns were run as a crusade against the "godless movement." He wrote in Mien Kampf, ""I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work." He was quoted in 1941, "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."

Campaigning against the "godless movement" was how Hitler got his political start, do you really want to follow his example?

For someone who was supposedly an ardent Catholic, he certainly has a funny way of showing it! IMHO, the reality is while he was certianly raised Catholic, by the time he was a young man Hitler didn't practice any recognizable form of mainstream Christiany. He would of course use and pervert any institution if he thought it would help him achieve his goals. In the first half of the 20th Century Germany was a predominantly Christian country, with Roman Catholic as one of the major denominations. Therefore, it's no surprise that as a politician he would at least claim to be a Christian and Catholic.

Oh and by the way Claus Von Stauffenberg was stated that he was motivated by his Catholic beliefs as well. Does that make what he tried to do morally suspect too?

Except, of course, that Hitler was a Catholic. He was baptized, served as an altar boy. His early poilitical campaigns were run as a crusade against the "godless movement." He wrote in Mien Kampf, ""I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work." He was quoted in 1941, "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."

Campaigning against the "godless movement" was how Hitler got his political start, do you really want to follow his example?

Perhaps you don't consider this "reasonable", but I suspect instead you don't read The Straight Dope enough if at all.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1044/what-causes-piss-shiver

A quick google indicates that bears are not color blind, what in the world would make you think that carnivores were generally color blind? http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlife_news.view_article&articles_id=136 And according to the straight dope even dogs are not completely color blind. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/366/are-cats-and-dogs-really-color-blind-how-do-they-know

Aphid babies. Because aphids are born pregnant (it's called telescopic pregnancy) so your generation time is *truly* short. 'course bacteria have a generation time of about 20 minutes, but I dunno if that counts, since the offspring aren't babies in any meaningful sense of the term.
The other plus of aphid babies is they pack to higher density than kittens unless you use a hydraulic compactor or something. (And if you do that, you have to make sure you don't have any snakes or stormtroopers in your compactor every time you run it, which is a drag.)

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1139/did-medieval-lords-have-right-of-the-first-night-with-the-local-brides

That notice was for the physical card itself, not the number: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/141/why-does-my-old-social-security-card-say-it-cant-be-used-as-id

This is why aphids exhibit telescopic pregnancy, where the females are born already pregnant. Within a population, earlier child-bearing tends to increase reproductive success.

There are reproductive strategies that rely on a few children raised carefully (humans, elephants) and reproductive strategies that rely on millions of children with no attempt at raising (salmon, trees.) Both are successful in some niches. But what I'm saying is that within any single population, it's likely that short reproductive cycles will tend to be highly competitive.

Get the straight dope about beef.

"Funny? Sure. True? Yes and no."

So it looks like everyone is right on this one. :)

Just a little nerd trivia. "A rich man entering heaven is as a camel going through the eye of a needle"

It is possible that this reference was to the smaller gate of a city referred to as a 'needle gate' that was used at night when the larger gate was closed. In order for a camel to pass through the needle gate it had to be stripped of all it's cargo. Thus, it is possible that the reference of a camel going through the eye of a needle is just another way of saying: "You can't take it with ya!"

According to the British TV series 'QI' this has no factual basis. The links below go into a bit more detail.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1560/whats-the-meaning-of-jesus-teaching-about-the-camel-going-through-the-eye-of-a-needle
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1559/more-on-camels-passing-through-the-eyes-of-needles

As mentioned by the previous post the attitude of many Christians towards the poor is completely baffling given the text of the bible. Unfortunately the bible is so vague and open to poor translation/interpretation that people will take anything they can find and twist it to fit their attitude. Which in many cases seems to be "I have lots of money because god has rewarded me for being a good person". If Jesus existed I think he would be pretty disgusted by the attitude of some of these "Christians".
In case it is in doubt I am an atheist.

Just a little nerd trivia. "A rich man entering heaven is as a camel going through the eye of a needle"

It is possible that this reference was to the smaller gate of a city referred to as a 'needle gate' that was used at night when the larger gate was closed. In order for a camel to pass through the needle gate it had to be stripped of all it's cargo. Thus, it is possible that the reference of a camel going through the eye of a needle is just another way of saying: "You can't take it with ya!"

According to the British TV series 'QI' this has no factual basis. The links below go into a bit more detail.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1560/whats-the-meaning-of-jesus-teaching-about-the-camel-going-through-the-eye-of-a-needle
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1559/more-on-camels-passing-through-the-eyes-of-needles

As mentioned by the previous post the attitude of many Christians towards the poor is completely baffling given the text of the bible. Unfortunately the bible is so vague and open to poor translation/interpretation that people will take anything they can find and twist it to fit their attitude. Which in many cases seems to be "I have lots of money because god has rewarded me for being a good person". If Jesus existed I think he would be pretty disgusted by the attitude of some of these "Christians".
In case it is in doubt I am an atheist.

... that's bollocks. Not that I'm taking QI as the arbiter of whether something is bollocks or not. Discussion here (do a search for "Camel") and as discussed in the show.

Also The Straight Dope.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists

Scroll down beyond the answer and read the commentary. Particularly,

(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.

From the top of a building is an awfully short distance. Bullets can indeed slow to terminal velocity given enough air to travel through, IE shooting a gun straight up.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1199/can-a-bullet-fired-into-the-air-kill-someone-when-it-comes-down

Something like that is possible. At low speeds the engine can even run while taking air in from the sides. Been done already [1]

The deflectors have to be a extremely reliable - a malfunctioning deflector is likely to do far more damage than a bird.

This is because many jet engines are already designed to be able to take a hit from a chicken sized bird[1] - http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1134/is-a-chicken-gun-used-to-test-jet-engines

So your deflector has to pose less risk than that. Or it'll cost more lives than it'll save.

Anyway, it's technically viable, not sure whether it's commercially viable for commercial passenger jets.

[1] See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOD#Engine_and_airframe_designs_which_avoid_FOD

[2] The problem I guess is when both engines suck in half a flock each ;).

From the smartest human on the planet:
How do porcupines mate?
You asked. But don't feel bad, you're not the first.

I don't see why people are afraid that Apple will fight the Pre iPod spoof. It just means that they have more people using iTunes, and likely buying stuff from them. These are people like me who have very little interest in iPods/iPhones but are eager to get their hands on a newer, better palm phone.
Flipside: These could be people who have iPods but want a Pre instead of an iPhone and don't want to give up all the stuff they already bought or collected into iTunes, or just don't want to learn a new way to sync the music. But even in this case, Apple can still anticipate continued iTunes revenue, so no reason to fight the Pre.
I just hope that iTunes is not the only method for syncing music to the device, and that media syncing on the new WebOS is much, MUCH faster than it was on older devices. It was always better to just take out the SD card and move the files directly.

Actually, it isn't to slow down the typist, it's to prevent commonly used pairs from being too close together (which arguably speeds typing anyway since each hand can hit one key in the pair). Most of the anti-QWERTY and pro-DVORAK stuff is FUD, pure and simple, made up by Dvorak to sell his design. See the "mea culpa" here: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists

The actual distortion is similar to the ripples of light you see on the bottom of a swimming pool due to ripples in the surface of the water. So, instead of even lighting across the bottom of the pool, you see a pattern of light and dark areas.

I'll admit up front that my knowledge of astronomy is severely limited, so please excuse in advance what may be a stupid question. But could this distortion be part of the reason why the night sky is dark rather than filled with light from the infinite amount of stars that exist?

The Straight Dope tackled this question a few years ago here, with the response that "there just aren't enough stars in the observable universe to fill up the night sky," but I'm wondering if this discovery changes things at all.

It's short for "I emphasize the finality of the preceding sentence by drawing attention to the period", and it's a complete sentence. The long form is too much effort to read and type so normal people use the abbreviation.

"hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!" (from: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1489/why-do-people-say-hear-hear)

Indeed, it appears too many people have too many long toes that, defying all normal laws of physics, appear to extend through the entire internet! Offense here, offense there, no more exclamations of fuck and damn, self-censorship and, ultimately, a bland, offenseless society which will take offense at the slightest of bumps in the bland.

It all could improve with a little understanding (http://ted.com/ for your weekly dose of understanding).

B.

(It may, of course, be to your advantage to show them ID -- if they're looking for John Smith and you can show your name is Richard Roe, you can be about your business that much sooner.)

Of course, since cops are allowed to lie to you, you don't have a reliable way of knowing who they're actually looking for, do you?

No, the parent to your post got it right. It's not what you signed, it's the act of doing the signing that matters. A more detailed explanation can be found here.

Newspapers pay out the ass to create content

That's where they're going wrong. They pay out the ass for AP subscriptions, and don't actually add any value to what they print. A newspaper should, you know, provide news. Most of them don't do anything of the sort, everything is "soft" journalism and scare-mongering, and people are tired of it.

If the newspapers would create a product people want (a number blogs seem to be doing so, such as "The Straight Dope") they could easily support themselves via advertising. Hell, a paper that could get local readers could make a killing in advertising for local businesses. The problem is that the "new model" isn't what they're used to, so they keep doing things the same way. The guy with the pickup hauling hay will put the guy hauling hay with a horse and a cart out of business in no time.

Basically, his idea was to create a giant Tesla coil that would transmit electricity, which would make the ground resonate and carry the electricity as far as the resonation would go. He even claimed to make 200 incandescent light bulbs glow from 26 miles away, but it's unverified obviously.

His principles for thinking that this would work is that a moderate sized Tesla coil can make a fluorescent bulb light up remotely, though it's limited to a few feet.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/934/whats-up-with-broadcast-power

I hadn't heard of this (never saw Braveheart) so I looked it up.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1139/did-medieval-lords-have-right-of-the-first-night-with-the-local-brides

P.S. I basically agree with your points. I just thing this ius primae noctis thing is on shaky ground as history.

if they provide a pre-paid return envelope i have the satisfaction of putting everything they sent me in that envelope, along w/ a few rusty washers (to add weight), and maybe a sunday paper glossy ad or two (more weight, and thickness) and sending it back to them on their dime.

Don't bother. Business reply envelopes that are clearly not used for their intended purposes are discarded by the Post Office as waste. So now all you've done is annoy your local letter carrier and increase the burden on the postal service. And guess what happens to postage rates when you incur extra work for the postal service without any extra payment?

The only problem is the damn legal system currently punishes men way out of proportion. I've even heard of men required to pay child support for children that were not theirs (they'd paid for a couple years and THEN found out the ex had been lying-- so do a quick paternity test when your wife asks for a divorce and save yourself some grief).

The court has to represent the best interests of the child. While it may seem unjust that a non-parent has to pay child support, the alternative would be for the child to suffer for the sins of the mother.

There is a good discussion of the subject here.

I'm pretty sure that this information is false. Let me see...yeah, here we go:

Groundbreaking research in bicycle dynamics was published in 1970 by David Jones. He mounted counter-rotating gyroscopes on bikes to counteract the gyroscopic effect of the wheels. The resulting bikes were quite rideable. So why do bikes stay up?

The answer is: trail. Trail is the difference between where the bike's front wheel contacts the ground and where the steering axis (drawn through the fork of the front wheel) meets the ground. Well-designed bicycles have negative trail--that is, the wheel contacts the ground behind where the steering axis meets the ground. When you tilt, the trail causes the wheel to turn, thus converting the tilting motion into a turning motion, etc., as per my original report. The acid test done by Dr. Jones is in creating bikes with positive trail. Even professional cyclists can't ride those very far.

For sufficiently large values of 2. ;)

I'm not making this up.

Yes, you are.

-Mike

At least Indiana came to it's senses before legislating the value of pi.

I forgot about the flatworms. Came out about the time I started a psych major and I remember it being reported seriously.

When I read the summary, for some reason I immediately thought of the dearly departed Roland Piquepaille. It's a cool-sounding idea, easy to convert from "science" to "media", and utterly impractical for the putative use. The research was done with a military antenna array so massive that people were afraid it would destroy the ionosphere, so there's no chance of seeing a new band on your car radio (and an excellent chance that it will never be more than a scientific curiosity). But "Twisted Radio Beams" -- that's a headline that the public can sink their teeth into.

So I immediately thought of Roland, and realized just how much I miss his gee-whiz almost-scientific submissions. I'm going to tag this article "ohnoitsroland" (and my own invention, "pigpile") in his honor.

Strangely enough, "The Straight Dope" on December 26, 2008, was about satellite collisions and tracking efforts.

Generally speaking you have more handling and fuel performance issues with having too *little* air in the tires. 27% of cars, according to the US DOT, have at least one underinflated tire.

http://www.dot.gov/affairs/nhtsa4601.htm

So what's the problem? Well, as you say, you get a harsher ride from an overinflated tire, but you get far many more problems with underinflation, which is probably far more common. Some of those problems include poor braking, slow steering, poor handling/road grip, and worse fuel economy... worse than can be made up by funky new regenerative shocks.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/225/could-we-conserve-gasoline-by-putting-more-air-in-our-tires

I know lots of people made fun of Barack Obama during the Presidential campaign for his plea to check the tire pressures, but the reality is that drivers the world over could save millions of gallons of oil annually by simply keeping tires inflated properly. In cold climates this also means double checking the pressures when the outside temperature drops by 10 degrees.

Better to pump up the tires than not.

You joke, I know, but aphids are born pregnant. Although there's no sex involved, so your statement stands.

The Straight Dope covered this a while back: Why do telephone keypads count from the top down, while calculators count from the bottom up?

Your response demonstrates the need for instruction from an early age.

The problem, as mentioned above, is that the teachers aren't going to know enough to teach the material.

I'm old enough to remember adults complaining about the new math.

umm, the ponzi guy was an INVESTOR in the scheme. A scammee not a scammer.

I know of at least 3 bankers who have committed suicide recently, mostly from those banks whose funds have tanked. It's almost like the twenties.

There's an interesting post about that, which also points out that there wasn't a lot of bankers who committed suicide after the crash in 1929. Looks like that's a bit of an urban legend.