Mysterious MilkyWay Warp Finally Explained?

* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us Space.com is reporting that scientists think that a collision between mysterious 'dark matter' and two of the Milky Way's nearby neighbors may be causing our galaxy to warp 'like a vinyl record left out in the hot Sun.' From the article: 'The warp is most clearly visible in a thin disk of hydrogen gas that extends across the entire 200,000-light-year diameter of the Milky Way. Viewed sideways, one half of the hydrogen disk appears to stick up above our galaxy's plane of stars and gas, while the other half dips below the plane for a bit and then rises upward again farther away from the galaxy's center.'"

Comments

h2 o?

[rebootconrad]

Now if only we could get that hydrogen disk into some fuel cells...

Re:h2 o?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> Viewed sideways, one half of the hydrogen disk appears to stick up
> above our galaxy's plane of stars and gas, while the other half
> dips below the plane for a bit and then rises upward again farther
> away from the galaxy's center.

First we're a pretty, spiral galaxy. Queen of the galaxies. Then we're an ugly, bar-spiral. Or maybe one of those cloud, obese sombrero thingies. Now our disk is warped, too? As the center of God's universe, we keep gettin' uglier and uglier!

Thanks, Yaweh! I want a newer, better, more powerful God next time.

Re:h2 o?

[An ominous Cow art]

>Thanks, Yaweh! I want a newer, better, more powerful God next time. I'm not sure where this comes from, but I believe it can help you. GOD'S TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT QUESTIONNAIRE God would like to thank you for your belief and patronage. In order to better serve your needs, He asks that you take a few moments to answer the following questions. Please keep in mind that your responses will be kept completely confidential, and that you need not disclose your name or address unless you prefer a direct response to comments or suggestions. 1. How did you find out about your Deity? ___ Newspaper ___ Bible ___ Torah ___ Book of Mormon ___ Koran ___ Divine inspiration ___ Dead Sea Scrolls ___ My mama done tol' me ___ Near-death experience ___ Near-life experience ___ National Public Radio ___ Tabloid ___ Burning shrubbery ___ Other (specify): _____________ 2. Which model Deity did you acquire? ___ Yahweh ___ Father, Son & Holy Ghost [Trinity Pak] ___ Jehovah ___ Jesus ___ Krishna ___ Zeus and entourage [Olympus Pak] ___ Odin and entourage [Valhalla Pak] ___ Allah ___ Satan ___ Gaia/Mother Earth/Mother Nature ___ God 1.0a (hairy thunderer) ___ God 1.0b (cosmic muffin) ___ None of the above; I was taken in by a false god 3. Did your God come to you undamaged, with all parts in good working order and with no obvious breakage or missing attributes? ___ Yes ___ No If no, please describe the problems you initially encountered here. Please indicate all that apply: ___ Not eternal ___ Finite in space/Does not occupy or inhabit the entire cosmos ___ Not omniscient ___ Not omnipotent ___ Not infinitely plastic (incapable of being all things to all creations) ___ Permits sex outside of marriage ___ Prohibits sex outside of marriage ___ Makes mistakes (Geraldo Rivera, Jesse Helms) ___ Makes or permits bad things to happen to good people ___ When beseeched, doesn't stay beseeched ___ Requires burnt offerings ___ Requires virgin sacrifices ___ Plays dice with the universe 4. What factors were relevant in your decision to acquire a Deity? Please check all that apply. ___ Indoctrinated by parents ___ Needed a reason to live ___ Indoctrinated by society ___ Needed focus in whom to despise ___ Imaginary friend grew up ___ Wanted to know Jesus in the Biblical sense ___ Graduated from the tooth fairy ___ Hate to think for myself ___ Wanted to meet girls/boys ___ Fear of death ___ Wanted to piss off parents ___ Needed a day away from work ___ Desperate need for certainty ___ Like organ music ___ Need to feel morally superior ___ Thought Jerry Falwell was cool ___ My shrubbery caught fire and told me to do it 5. Have you ever worshipped a Deity before? If so, which false god were you fooled by? Please check all that apply. ___ Mick Jagger ___ Rajanish ___ Baal ___ The almighty dollar ___ Bill Gates ___ Left-wing liberalism ___ The radical right ___ Ra ___ Beelzebub ___ Barney T.B.P.D. ___ The Great Spirit ___ The Great Pumpkin ___ The sun ___ Elvis ___ Cindy Crawford ___ The moon ___ TV news ___ Burning shrubbery ___ Other: ________________ 6. Are you currently using any other source of inspiration in addition to God? Please check all that apply. __ Tarot __ Lottery __ Astrology __ Television __ Fortune cookies __ Ann Landers __ Psychic Friends Network __ Dianetics __ Palmistry __ Playboy and/or Playgirl __ Self-help books __ Sex, drugs, rock and roll __ Biorhythms __ Alcohol __ Bill Clinton __ Tea leaves __ EST __ CompuServe __ Mantras __ Jimmy Swaggert __ Crystals (not including Crystal Gayle) __ Human sacrifice __ Pyramids __ Wandering in a desert __ Burning shrubbery __ Barney T.B.P.D. __ Barney Fife Other:___________ 7. God employs a limited degree of divine intervention to preserve the balanced level of felt presence and blind faith. Which would you prefer (circle one)? a. More divine intervention b. Less divine intervention c. Current level of divine intervention is just right d. Don't know...what's divine intervention? 8. God also attempts to maintain a balanced level of disasters and miracles. Please rate on

Re:h2 o?

[An ominous Cow art]

Crap, crap, crap! Forgot to switch to Plain Old Text. I'm an idiot.

And when I try to post it using plain text, Slashdot complains about an insufficient number of characters per line. Grr... Sorry guys, it was very funny.

Re:h2 o?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Don't worry about it; it's all over the Internet.

[URL="http://cronus.com/god/"]Here's the lucky choice from Google[/URL]

Re:h2 o?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Darn, I forgot to press Preview, too. a href! a href! Not BBCode URL tag...

Try again on this backward, un-editable BBS. (Slashdot, not this site.)

Don't Eat The Brown Acid

[Doomedsnowball]

And I always thought it was something in my eye!

Mod Story -1 Spam

[Anonymous Coward]

* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us Space.com is reporting that scientists think that a collision between mysterious 'dark matter' and two of the Milky Way's nearby neighbors may be causing our galaxy to warp 'like a vinyl record left out in the hot Sun.'

Wow. A Slashdotter, a Slashdot "author" AND a space website conspiring to spam us...*sigh*

Re:Mod Story -1 Spam

[lantenon]

I can't believe I didn't notice that until now. I've been reading through all of these comments, figuring that maybe, just maybe, there is still a shred of accountability in the Slashdot.org editors, and **Beatles-Beatles was submitting all his stories directly to Scuttlemonkey or something (which would explain the posting history.) But then, the submission isn't quoted, leading me to believe SM wrote it ... and now it's including the phrase "vinyl record". I gotta say this is lending a whole lot of credibility to the belief that SM and BB are in cahoots to raise his pagerank.

related article

[User 956]

There was a related article in November-- with evidence pointing towards a massive black hole at the center of the LMC. (The Milky Way's closest neighbor)

Re:related article

[eclectic4]

"vidence pointing towards a massive black hole at the center of the LMC. (The Milky Way's closest neighbor)"

Um, evidence is pointing towards that being the case in most if not all Galaxies, even our own Milky Way. That article alone was over 5 years old.

Re:related article

[linzeal]

The LMC is not the center of our galaxy it lies above the galactic plane.

Re:related article

[khallow]

Nobody was implying that. So you don't have to worry.

hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps this is because the two-thirds of the people on Earth are fat. This could result in the part of the galaxy that Earth is located in to be weighed down which is warping the entire Milky Way.

'McDonalds: Changing the world -- literally'

Re:hmm

[creepynut]

Clearly, you meant to say 'McDonalds: Changing the galaxy -- literally'.

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's more likely that warp drive is tearing holes in space. Warp drive speed limit, NOW!

Re:hmm

[amitola]

Uh, the article you linked says that two thirds of American adults are fat, not two thirds of the people on Earth. That is a very different statement.

Re:hmm

[the real darkskye]

The OP is obviously a merkin and isn't aware of the rest of the world.

Re:hmm

[DeathFromSomewhere]

America != The entire world.

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally have observed this phenomenon. Like when I leave a Milky Way on the dashboard of my car on a hot summer day. Talk about warped!

Re:hmm

[halltk1983]

my $america = $world #better?

Poppycock.

[User 956]

The warp is most clearly visible in a thin disk of hydrogen gas that extends across the entire 200,000-light-year diameter of the Milky Way.

Thin Disk? Next thing science will be telling us is that the sun doesn't revolve around the earth, and the earth is round.

missing info

[amazon10x]

The article fails to say (or perhaps I missed it?) how severe the warp is nor how fast the warping is happening currently. Furthermore, it doesn't say when this warping was first recorded.

Re:missing info

[maggard]

Ignoring the dubious submitter of the story...

The Milky Way is b-i-g. The warping is not happening on a scale we'd see in our lifetimes. Indeed it likely started when the Earth was still a rock with scum problem. It'll continue long past the date the Earth is a rock with a dust problem.

Don't panic.

While dark matter (& energy), galactic distortions, and giant black holes are interesting cosmologically (and further our understanding of the universe) there's no need to start digging a hole in the back yard and buying space/time-warp-b-gone merchandise from the back of magazines.

Re:missing info

[ozmanjusri]

Indeed it likely started when the Earth was still a rock with scum problem.

That'd be the triaassic era, right?

Heh

[Fifty Points]

Am I the only one who read that as Mysterious MilkyWay Wrap Finally Explained?

How do we know our own shape?

[bronney]

I've always wondered, how do we know our own galaxy's shape? From our point of view. do we just look 360, more stars there, less stars here, therefore we're on the rim side of the galaxy?

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[ackthpt]

I've always wondered, how do we know our own galaxy's shape? From our point of view. do we just look 360, more stars there, less stars here, therefore we're on the rim side of the galaxy?

In clearer areas, like high elevation or low humidity, and away from light pollution, you can practically see it with the naked eye.

But beyond that I'm sure they've whipped together a few models with super computers to demonstrate it.

Besides, our galaxy isn't warped, it's Bent!

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[quokkapox]

Stellar parallax. Picture Homer Simpson watching a donut slowly rotating in front of his mouth.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[bronney]

But I wasn't talking about the disk. I was talking about "our own galaxy's shape". How do we know that's what it'll look like from outside if we've never been outside.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[StikyPad]

Pretty much.. all you're missing is distance calculations.

The Milky Way actually looks like a blurry band across the sky. The stars are too dense to make out with the naked eye, so we just see a bright "stripe." It's clearly visible anywhere near the equator or farther south, depending on the time of the year. I happen to live on an island 13 degrees north of the equator, and the view on a cloudless night is truely jaw dropping. Alternatively, you can also go to a local planetarium. If you live near Washington, D.C., I'd recommend the Air & Space museum, but I'm sure a little Googling would turn up some others. Believe it or not, it's a pretty cool place to take a date too. There's just something indescribable about (almost) pure darkness with an infinite number of tiny points of light.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[bronney]

Ah so that's why I don't have a girlfriend!

Btw would I be able to see that band in Toronto, Canada; or Hong Kong? Thanks.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Anonymous Coward]

the galaxy's general "flat" shape is visible from the milky way being a thin line in the sky. finding out our location in the milky way is a more interesting proposition. due to the obscuring clouds of interstellar matter, we do not see the milky way being brighter on one side or the other, so it appears to be equally bright on both sides. the first indication of us being located toward the rim was the fact that the globular clusters that we observe are mostly on one side of us. when we discovered methods for measuring distances (based on the relationship between the length of a period of a type of star called the "cepheid variable" and its brightness) [first established by astronomer Leavitt], we could measure their distance from us and create a three dimensional map of the globular clusters' location in the sky. using this method, it was determined that the globular clusters are distributed with spherical symmetry about a point in the plane of the milky way (a point which was, as it happens, quite far from our own solar system). by observing that globular clusters are symmetrically distributed around the centers of other spiral galaxies (most notably the andromeda galaxy), we make the inference that our globular clusters' distribution is also centered on the center of our galaxy - and thus we determine our position relative to the center of the milky way.

well, at least that's how it went down at the beginning of the 20th century. a decade or two later when radio telescopy was developed, we were able to observe these things in a more direct fashion. but it is interesting to follow the historical development of our own location in the galaxy. :)

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[StikyPad]

Technically you can always see part of it, it's just which part you see, and the quality of your viewing location. The farther north you are, the closer toward the horizon it will be. Unfortunately, when objects are near the horizon, the light has to pass through more of the atmosphere to reach your eyes. When you factor in light pollution, it could make the galaxy essentially unviewable. Hong Kong would naturally put the galaxy "higher" in the sky, making for better (or more dramatic anyway) viewing.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[klparrot]

Btw would I be able to see that band in Toronto, Canada; or Hong Kong? Thanks.

I've never noticed it in any city, but if I'm out in the country (an hour northeast of Toronto) on a clear night I can see the Milky Way. As a rule, if you can't see the glow of the city on the horizon, it's probably dark enough that the band of stars will be apparent if the sky is clear.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[bronney]

Thanks. Next time I go back, I'll definitely give this a try and might also take some spectacular photos too :)

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[0racle]

Combination of educated guesses and indirect evidence. Well, and hoping that we're not the ugliest galaxy around.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[barakn]

The plane of the Milky Way and the Celestial Equator do not coincide, so the Milky Way appears to the north and to the south of the Celestial Equator. Thus the Milky Way is visible from the North Pole on a clear night. Perhaps you're confusing it with the Magellanic Clouds.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thay searched in Google Galaxy :)

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Breakfast Pants]

This doesn't sound right. The plane of the milky way doesn't coincide with the earths orbital plane (and therefore rotational plane) at all.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[niktemadur]

From our point of view. do we just look 360, more stars there, less stars here, therefore we're on the rim side of the galaxy?

If it was up to visible light only, you'd be right; in fact, I believe it was William Herschel, co-discoverer of Uranus, who first attempted in the late 1700's to make a diagram of the galaxy, based exclusively on visible-light observing. As it turned out, the Milky Way seemed to have a "powder puff" shape and the sun was near the center!

However, for the better part of the last century we've been using infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, radio, etc. If you point and shoot a picture with an infrared telescope in the direction of the Saggitarius constellation, the "loudest" source of x-rays in the night sky, the image you get is that of a central galactic bulge and a symmetrical disc that cuts across the bulge and extends outwards both left and right. This image is consistent with all observations of other spiral galaxies.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Tango42]

The centre of the galaxy is in the southern celestial hemisphere, so the futher south you are the close to the centre you can look. The band of stars is denser when you're looking towards the centre, rather than away from it, and that is why it's more dramatic in the south.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[ceoyoyo]

You can see the centre of the Milky Way from the northern hemisphere (I grew up at about 55 deg north), but only during the summer.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Tango42]

Yes, but it's nowhere near as dramatic as in the south (or so I'm told - I've never been south of about 2deg south of the equator and while I was there I didn't do much observing).

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[ceoyoyo]

I've heard that too. One of these days I'll have to go and see. Observers from the north may tend to make their comparisons between the view from large cities (there are lots of places in North America and Europe where you simply can't find really dark skies) and relatively dark locations in the southern hemisphere. Growing up in the middle of nowhere (six hundred km from the nearest city over 25,000 people and 100 km from the nearest city over 10,000) the Milky Way was definitely spectacular.

Of course, the southern hemisphere has the Magellanic clouds and more bright stars than we do as well. I'm hoping to do my post doc in Australia so maybe I'll get to find out.

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Tango42]

I live reasonably far from any light polution and have got some pretty good views of the milky way, but I'd still like to see the Clouds, as you say, and also M31 is in the south, isn't it? Definitely worth spending a couple of years in the Australian bush...

Re:How do we know our own shape?

[Tango42]

I lie... M31 is in the north... I should pay more attention...

Stating the obvious...

[Anonymous Coward]

ScuttleMonkey and astriskastriskastriskastrisk Beatles Beatles Beatles need to go go go go!

I'll say it for the under 30 crowd

[ackthpt]

'like a vinyl record left out in the hot Sun.'

What's a vinyl record?

;-)

Re:I'll say it for the under 30 crowd

[dgatwood]

Ob. Futurama reference:

That must be an old pronunciation of compact disc. You know, kind of like you're always saying ask instead of axe?

Re:I'll say it for the under 30 crowd

[ozmanjusri]

What's a vinyl record?

If you were English, you'd be saying "What's a hot sun?"

Re:I'll say it for the under 30 crowd

[HermanAB]

What is a Sun? Some newfangled PDP11?

Re:I'll say it for the under 30 crowd

[Burb]

Dear Roy Castle.

I have a black phonographic disk with a hole in it. Is this a record?

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[MrPerfekt]

Here, here. I second and third and fourth this.

Taco doesn't read the site and SM abuses the crap out of the system.

Digg is looking better all the time.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not forget the Hexus guy.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Anonymous Coward]

Must be the Beatles guy posting on another account.

Yeah, we're just a bunch of plebians here. We're not allowed to express our opinion.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Sinryc]

I never said that. Also, no. I'm actually not a huge fan of the beatles. More of a Floyd fan. :-)

Hey, you guys have a right to complaina nd I have my right to tell yall to shut the fuck up. :-)

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[zerocool^]

Digg is looking better all the time.

Now, hold on... I'm not suggesting that we jump ship.

All I'm asking for is Journalistic integrity.

I know digg exists. I deliberately come back to slashdot. The reason? I'm not here for the articles. I'm here for the discussion. I can get the information anywhere. I am at slashdot because I want to know what others think. There are some very smart and very connected people on Slashdot, and I value their opinion. I also find out about alternatives or other theories or random_x piece of software I didn't know existed from the comments. I consider it a great day when I see someone say "Well, if you like X, you'll love Y". That to me is slashdot's strength. And I try to contribute positively where I can.

All I am asking for is for the Admins to have a little integrity. Whatever happened to honesty? Whatever happened to shaking a man's hand, looking him in the eye, and telling the truth? I'm that kind of guy... so are many of my fellow Slashdot readers. And I have an almost irrational belief in the fundamental "goodness" of mankind.

If I had to nail down the problems of Slashdot these days, it's very simple:

1.) They don't hold their admins to the same level of integrity to which their readers hold themselves.
2.) They irrationally refuse to believe people like me exist; they refuse to believe that the strength of Slashdot is in the content provided by the readers.

But, one at a time. Let's get 1 working first, and then I think 2 will fall into place.

~Will

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[TubeSteak]

But, this thread will be bitchslapped, and I'll probably lose my (Meta)mod privs. Oh well. Maybe some day we'll get an honest answer out of the admins.

My mod privs dissappeared a while ago and I'm still waiting for my Meta-Mod privs to dissappear. I don't think they will though, as nobody watches the watchers of the watchers.

Other than that, I agree with everything you said.

This reminds me of another flare-up on /. recently about someone called "Roland Piquepaille"

Basically, he's been submitting since 2002 and has had similar complaints dog him ever since.

I'll pull two comments from the thread and then go my merry way:
comment #1 Monday January 02, 2005

I recently had a long email conversation about this with Taco. He basically isn't interested in feedback, which seems very not in the spirit of open source to me. He also said that /. doesn't track who is submitting what and doesn't care about a submitter's positive or negative track record because it would be hard to keep track of such things. If only there were a way of automating the process...

a reply to comment #1

I guess you have noticed the censorship of this thread by someone with unlimited mod points.... Previously, this was just a curiosity to me, but with the censorship on top, I've become fairly irritated by this...

I hope we don't get hit by one of the infinite mod-point-squad

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[zerocool^]

see my comment here in this thread.

I'm not asking much. I don't even know if Taco knows this is going on. All I want is integrity.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[zerocool^]

Yeah, I've seen those about Roland.

The fact is, shameless as he is, Roland is actually a real journalist, who writes for "real" journalistic sources (quotation marks denote wired). And he's been a slashdot member for a long time.

So I let him slide. Plus all his greenlights aren't from the same ModMin.

**Beatles has accomplished in THREE MONTHS what Roland accomplished in THREE YEARS. And without ever once pretending like he gave a fuck about technology.

~Will

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[roman_mir]

My sentiments exactly. UID 125474, about 20 articles submitted over the 5 years, one was strangely approved long long time ago.

Article summary in Limerick form

[melvin xavier]

There might a crash in the stars
Whose damage leaves oddly-shaped scars
Astronomists patter,
"It might be dark matter
That's making the warp so bizarre!"

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[speeDDemon (nw)]

I totally agree. Slashdot seems to have degraded in quality substantially since I started reading it. How about we all recommend our other favourite websites so as to atleast offer something new on here!..

The above poster recommend Digg ?? got a link ?

I find that any story of interest appears on BluesNews.com way earlier than slashdot these days even though it is primarily aimed at games and gaming!

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Scroll through the digg comments and the fact that 99% of the people commenting cannot spell simple words or don't know which word to use(their/there/they're) really makes you miss the comments of /.... I've stopped trying to read the digg comments, due to the fact that half of the comments are one word "lol" or "cool" and 25% of them are "me too" and all of them have spelling errors. And Digg has a spellcheck!

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Cattywampus]

Oh, great.

You've gone and mentioned your UID.

Now all the old farts with the five-digit-or-less UIDs are going to come out of the woodwork.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Wind_Walker]

No, we never will get a straight answer out of the Admins. Why? Because they no longer answer to us. They answer to their Corporate Overlords (tm).

I gave up on Slashdot providing reliable information a long time ago. Now I come to skim the headlines and check out the trolls.

And if you don't like blues news

[zegebbers]

check out blue's clues http://www.nickjr.co.uk/shows/blues/index.aspx

Why the world is so screwed up

[raider_red]

I guess we should have known. The whole friggin' galaxy is warped.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[zerocool^]

Right. And I am not even whining about my submissions. They were rejected, someone submitted them with a better headline, so-and-so wants to give a UFIA to submitter's mom, whatever, I don't care.

All I was pointing out was that the fact that 800,000 people have signed up since me, and that I've been here 5 years; the fact that I've been contributing positively (I had 50 karma long long long before karma went to the bill-and-ted system), the fact that enough people respect my opinion that I have over 130 fans (of which I'm very proud and greatful; see my journal on making fans friends), the fact that I still have my complete A-Z archive of Geeks in Space, and that I listened to it from the very first one - I think all these things entitle me to at least ask these questions.

Blowing me off doesn't really make me feel like I mean anything to this community, that my contributions don't matter, and I'll be honest, Jamie... it stings a little.

~Will

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:At it again...

[node 3]

Wow, how about that... **Beatles-Beatles and ScuttleMonkey at it again. What a team! Coincidence? I don't think so...

No, I'm pretty sure he and his monkey got nothing to hide.

Vinyl tracks

[suso]

causing our galaxy to warp 'like a vinyl record left out in the hot Sun.'

Now that's what I call an extended LP.

Re:Vinyl tracks

[AndroidCat]

Warped is no big deal. I worry if the Milky Way has the Sony "protection" rootkit.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Anonymous Coward]

Wired is crap these days. All that I see out of Roland on his blog is just resummarizations of articles out of magazines and other websites. Up until recently, he was comitting plagarism by not mentioning his sources.

There is also the question of the French TDA company that Roland appeared to have some relation with while he was touting their devices and offering demo units to people who paid for them. People who put money down for them never got their TDA and the company just vanished.

If you have a hot Sun...

[buck_wild]

then it's time to give Facilities a call. It's too hot in the Data Center!

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[abertoll]

Oh "like a vinyl record" ha ha I get it.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[eyepeepackets]

Hey, I resemble that remark.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[StikyPad]

YOUR READERS ARE NOT DUMB. IF THEY READ SLASHDOT REGULARLY, THEY'RE NOT STUPID.

The only thing that prevents me from inserting a relevant joke at this point is that the sheer number of possibilities prevents my brain from choosing one. I finally know what it's like to be a lion trying to pick out a zebra in a herd, except in this case there are no slow or weak ones that stand out.

Re:At it again...

[Dun Malg]

Wow, how about that... **Beatles-Beatles and ScuttleMonkey at it again. What a team! Coincidence? I don't think so...

No, I'm pretty sure he and his monkey got nothing to hide.

C'mon, everybody's got something to hide, except....

oh.

Re:At it again...

[MLopat]

Ok, tell me what I'm missing here. The guy has a tribute site to George Harrison, with no advertising, including no google ads. The page itself has a Google PageRank of 5, so that's not such a big deal. And when I was on it, it said I was the only current visitor? So what's the big deal?

Re:At it again...

[abertoll]

Two of those stories were submitted anonymously.

THAT'S what I don't get!

[Overly Critical Guy]

It's one thing if he was posted evenly amongst the other editors. Okay, fine, they're all getting scammed by him.

But, with the exception of a CmdrTaco article, every other submission from this guy is posted by ScuttleMonkey. Why is that? It's proof they just don't care anymore at this site.

This crap is why people are flocking to Digg.com. Even though the discussions there suck because of no threading (yet), it's not really different from here, and when people are scamming the front page, everyone gangs together and undiggs it to remove it!

Re:THAT'S what I don't get!

[macshit]

This crap is why people are flocking to Digg.com. Even though the discussions there suck because of no threading (yet), it's not really different from here, and when people are scamming the front page, everyone gangs together and undiggs it to remove it!

Um, it is different from here because the comments on digg are a cesspool of uninformed, uninteresting, crap, and digg readers appear to be a pretty dim lot. Slashdot's comments are infinitely better.

Since I (like the majority of readers, apparently) read for the comments, not for the articles, digg is hardly an attractive alternative; indeed, there seems little to distinguish it from the other 7 bazillion lame web-forums out there.

Re:THAT'S what I don't get!

[Cat_Byte]

comments on digg are a cesspool of uninformed, uninteresting, crap, and digg readers appear to be a pretty dim lot.

I feel that way about slashdot right now. All the way down to this point is nothing but off-topic whining. Scroll up...see how many comments there are about even so much as a galaxy.

Re:THAT'S what I don't get!

[pmc]

Slightly sceptical of this, I thought I'd check slashdot.org via google:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Beatles-Beatle s+writes%22+site:slashdot.org&hl=en&lr=&start=10&s a=N - "Beatles-Beatles writes"

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Beatles- Beatles+writes%22+site%3Aslashdot.org+scuttlemonke y&meta= - as above but with ScuttleMonkey in the page

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Beatles- Beatles+writes%22+site%3Aslashdot.org+-scuttlemonk ey&meta= - as first but without ScuttleMonkey in the page.

First - 126 hits: Second 125 hits: Third - 1 hit. Things that make you go "hmmmmmm....."

Re:THAT'S what I don't get!

[Anonymous Coward]

In other words, digg is better than /. just because you can mod the OPs down.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Rob Bos]

*shakes his cane*

young'in.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[quokkapox]

When did this bullshit start anyway? Or has it just been a slow decline. I don't remember hearing any of this back in 1999.

It would be nice if the slashdot management would engage in a little give and take to keep the community here satisfied and (as zerocool mentioned) maintain some journalistic integrity. Why NOT strive for that, other than pure laziness?

Digg is not a substitute for slashdot. You can actually learn by reading the comments here.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[zerocool^]

The only thing that prevents me from inserting a relevant joke at this point is that the sheer number of possibilities prevents my brain from choosing one.

Slashdotters: Please write your own joke and submit it to

Slashdot "Readership IQ" Jokes
c/o OSTG
46939 Bayside Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538 ...

Seriously. Most of the people who read slashdot aren't morans.

~W

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[abertoll]

I admin, I haven't been paying enough attention to know what all the fuss is about, but I've tried to submit 3 stories total, and even I got one through. It's possible something is going on, but it's not obvious to me at least...

Have the stories been particularly bad?

Re:At it again...

[Chris Bradshaw]

Your kidding right? Look again...

http://science.slashdot.org/~*%20*%20Beatles-Beatl es

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[zerocool^]

Click on the link to his userpage (the ~/* * Beatles-Beatles link), and click on the links he's submitted.

For starters, they all start with "Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us [insert real news source here] has found a new [treatment for cancer | robot arm | galaxy | fad diet].

They're all posted by ScuttleMonkey.

And they all prominantly link to his webpage, which has nothing to do with him-as-a-person (there's no bio) or technology-in-general.

~W

Re:At it again...

[abertoll]

I see... but for some reason I'm getting "An anonymous reader writes" on those stories.

Mysterious MilkyWay Warp Finally Explained

[l33tlamer]

First order effects caused by: Alcohol Second order effects caused by: Concussion from First Order parameters Third order effects: Too small (aka annoying and hard) to evaluate experimentally

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[UserGoogol]

You make some good points, but I think you make some assumptions.

You said you've only submitted ten or fifteen articles to Slashdot in your entire lifetime. To contrast, I wouldn't be surprised if Beatles Beatles submits at least fifteen articles every week. (He makes money off of it, so it's worth it for him to spend a couple hours every week trolling the Internet for stories.) If that is the case, his success in getting articles submitted would be perfectly sensible.

That said, the fact that the person who posts his articles is consistantly ScuttleMonkey is intensely suspicious. It is possible that there are other reasons, but we are right to be suspicious.

That said, I'm not sure if we are right to care. It's not a big deal. Beatles beatles's articles are generally neat little links.

The sole function of editors at Slashdot is to prevent stuff like Goatse from getting posted. In the years I've been here (less than yours, admittingly) editors have never done anything vaguely editorial. All they do is look in the editor's queue, and post whatever catches their eye. They do not edit the posts for grammar, or check if the article has been posted before, or check if the article is true or not. They are not journalists, they are merely a rudimentary filter. Thus, until Beatles Beatles posts Goatse, ScuttleMonkey is performing his job perfectly.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[abertoll]

That is mighty suspicious. I noticed some of the stories now say " An anonymous reader writes"

Digg is NOT looking better all the time.

[Dystopian Rebel]

Digg was designed by some talented people, but Digg is inhabited by incorrigible dunderheads whose comments are digital bumfodder.

The strength of Slashdot is its discussions. If you think that TFA is crap, I entreat you to peruse the One-Eyed Cat With No Nose article on Digg.

The rumours of Slashdot's death are greatly exaggerated and largely promoted by members of the Digg crowd, with the occasional assistance from Slashdotters who insist on presenting us their own damnably clever variations on the themes of Beowulf, Soviet Russia, and the welcoming of Overlords.

This is not to say that a wave of Dubya-level imbecility on the part of certain Tacos and Cowboys could ~not~ destroy Slashdot. But we're hardly there yet.

Or, in Digg-speak, "OMG U R 2 cluless LMAO!!!!"

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[bmgoau]

I second the parent

Slashcode

[quokkapox]

I just realized that the software that supposedly runs this site is supposedly open source. Have any of you old farts (or younger ones) reviewed the code? How is bitchslapping implemented? How is moderator access revocation implemented?

Re:Slashcode

[The Amazing Fish Boy]

How would we know what software the site is ACTUALLY running, anyway?

Re:At it again...

[Overly Critical Guy]

There's a bigger question--why are you subscribed to this place? Is this spam really worth your money?

Complain to the Advertisers?

[TubeSteak]

I'd rather have TrollKore and the GNAA back in full force than sloppy editing.

ASCII art & subtle comment trolls were far more amusing than bad /. articles and editors who don't correct the submitter's spelling.

Only solution is to complain to Slashdot's advertisers.

Tell 'em something like

"your advert appeared above this [poorly spelled, factually incorrect, un/misinformed, badly researched, any of the above] story. While you may have little to do with the content of the site, it does reflect on your company and its products. Please ask OSDN to consider aiming for a higher standard of editing."

I know it's like going over your boss' head and complaining. But ScuttleMonkey & Co. don't really seem to care.

Re:Complain to the Advertisers?

[fuyu-no-neko]

"your advert appeared above this [poorly spelled, factually incorrect, un/misinformed, badly researched, any of the above] story. While you may have little to do with the content of the site, it does reflect on your company and its products. Please ask OSDN to consider aiming for a higher standard of editing."

You have the formatting wrong. For the advertiser to believe that you're a /. reader, it should look something like this:

The /. story your advert appeared above was
_ poorly spelled
_ factually incorrect
_ un/misinformed
_ badly researched

While you may have little to do with the content of the site, it does reflect on your
_ company
_ products
_ services

Please ask OSDN to consider aiming for
_ a higher standard of editing
_ more advertising perks
_ CowboyNeal

Editor

[TubeSteak]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor

Executive editor
The top editor sometimes has the title executive editor or editor-in-chief (the former is replacing the latter in the language). This person is generally responsible for the content of the publication. The exception is that newspapers that are large enough usually have a separate editor for the editorials and opinion pages.

The executive editor sets the publication standards for performance, and is responsible for assuring the highest standards of ethical conduct in the process of gathering and presenting information, as well as for motivating and developing the staff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_editing

The copy editor is also expected to ensure the text flows well, that it makes sense and is fair and accurate, and that it will cause no legal problems for the publisher. Newspaper copy editors are sometimes responsible for choosing which wire copy the newspaper will use, and for re-writing it according to their house style.

In many cases, a copy editor will be the only person other than the author to read an entire text before publication. Newspaper editors often regard their copy editors as their newspaper's last line of defense.

All emphasis is mine.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[pomo monster]

The minute Digg gets a threaded comment system remotely as usable as this one, it's goodbye Slashdot.

Blitz abstract

[mattr]

Here's the abstract for the presentation by Leo Blitz on the warp. Anyone who was at the AAS, knows someone who does or understands dark matter professionally, how about telling us if this tablecloth fluttering mentioned by Blitz in TFA might be useful as a test of dark matter? Abstract follows.

AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 40 Galactic Structure with WIMPS, STARS and Gas
Oral, Monday, 10:00-11:30am, January 9, 2006, Salon 1

[40.05] The Shape of the HI Warp in the Outer Milky Way Disk
E.S. Levine, L. Blitz, C. Heiles (UC Berkeley), M. Weinberg (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Although the warping of the disk of the Milky Way has been known since 1957, our work represents the first time the Milky Way warp has been quantitatively described and we find it to be both elegant and surprising. We examine the outer Galactic HI disk for deviations from the b=0 plane by constructing maps of disk surface density, mean height, and thickness. We find that the Galactic warp is well described by a vertical offset plus two Fourier modes of frequency 1 and 2, all of which grow with Galactocentric radius. The global warp demonstrates approximately an order of magnitude more power in each mode with azimuthal wavenumber m=0,1, and 2 than in any higher frequency mode; thus three and only three modes are necessary to describe the large-scale behavior of the warp. The power in the m=0 and m=2 modes grows starting from around 15 kpc; the m=1 mode is the most powerful everywhere in the outer disk. We outline six observational conclusions regarding the warp that any potential theoretical mechanism must satisfy. We will also show a movie that demonstrates the evolution of the three modes with time.

ESL and LB are supported by NSF grant AST 02-28963. CH is supported by NSF grant AST 04-06987.

Really an explanation?

[Jugalator]

I guess one *could* call it "explained", although involving this "mysterious dark matter" is much like explaning how the Sun can shine as "we now know the Sun get fueled by some mysterious nuclear process".

This explanation only highlights our problems with dark matter even more, and things get especially funny if it's later discovered if it didn't exist. Then watch a number of theories fall apart during a night.

Re:Really an explanation?

[Markus Registrada]

And, of course, there's no such thing as "hydrogen gas" in the interstellar medium. Essentially all of it is ionized to some degree, and ionizations of one per 10,000 neutral atoms causes it to behave with dynamics fundamentally differently from neutral gas.

As a result, all this material (which collectively outmasses the stars sprinkled here and about) responds to other familiar but enormously stronger forces in addition to gravitation. Therefore, any model relying solely on gravitation will depend on such fantastical constructs as "dark matter" to match observations.

We see similar effects reported as apparent anomalies in galactic rotation, based on measurements of motion of interstellar "gas". To expect the motion of stars in a galaxy to match the motion of the plasma between them is to assume that no electromagnetic forces are in play. This is a popular assumption among astrophysicists, who as a rule never studied any real plasma dynamics in school (although they may have studied MHD, which doesn't apply), but the evidence suggests otherwise.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Jebediah21]

I'm jumping ship. Slashdot is a good time waster, but a bit redundant IMO (anything major I'll hear about, anything that interests me I can go elsewhere to read about, like Digg). It's shit like this that keeps on happening over and over with no care taken. I have better things to do with my time.

Re:You would be surprised.

[pookemon]

If the base of your triangle is so small after 6 months, why not wait a whole year! (yes I am kidding)

Roast Geif, Zan Roast Geif

[umbrellasd]

Well, I think most of the mod+insightful posts on this thread are interesting but also mod-off topic as far as the post itself, which was reasonably interesting. It's not often someone tells you that you are spinning around on a giant floppy frisbee that is whizzing through the Universe at a million miles an hour.

I think the implied objection is that you feel this fellow is profiting from net traffic that is the result of a special relationship with ScuttleMonkey. If the articles that are posted are topical and of interest, and certainly there are many postings on the topic of cosmological and astronomical facts, I think you have not much leg to stand on.

If the articles were irrelevant tripe, that is a different matter. You threw out your own judgement about the relevancy or the derivativeness of this fellow's particular postings, but choosing posted topics is not really a democratic process: you are not given the power to mod the topics, but you can mod the resulting discussion.

Which means you are trying to do what you have not the power to do and you are doing it by posting off-topic comments which is actually more objectionable according to the "rules" than anything. If I were you, I would be happy that you received enough community support for your opinion that you were modded up despite being off topic, :-).

Perhaps for amusement, you could try writing your own article about the inequities of Slashdot topic selection and then submit it for consideration as a posted topic. That would be a hoot. Imagine if they actually posted. Hard to argue about integrity in that case.

Anyway, cheerio. I understand your beef. But this is how far you get bitching at the establishment, even a good spirited open-source friendly one: 0 meters. Although, if the galaxy warps enough there could be some error in that measurement and you might actually make some progress in a billion years!

I hate to say it, but I don't see your conclusion.

[YesIAmAScript]

What conclusion am I to draw?

That /. plays favorites?

That wouldn't surprise me one bit. You know, the world isn't fair. Does it guarantee somewhere in the slashdot charter that slashdot will be fair about approving submissions?

Or are you accusing that perhaps someone at /. is taking money to greenlight articles?

If so, just come out and say it.

Personally I think it's a stretch, I just don't hold slashdot in high enough esteem that it would be worth paying to get articles like this on it (unlike crappy "comparo" articles).

The truth about * *Beatles-Beatles

[dorkygeek]

Looks like ScuttleMoney^H^Hkey still doesn't get it, as well as other Slashdotters. So, let me repost this for the thousandst time.

Interesting thing is, ScuttleMonkey seems to use some standard template for * *Beatles-Beatles submissions, since ALL of them start by: "* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us...".

So, let me repost some earlier post of mine:

Ok, let's have a look at his george-harrison.info website. Aha, maybe the links at the bottom of the page? Yes, I see: http://george-harrison.info/reciprocal-links.html.

Sooo, what may be on that page? Quoting:

Our reciprocal links page. These links are useful for website promotion, link trades, and generating traffic to your site. There are many sites with useful products, services, programs, business opportunities, information, and free stuff.

All reciprocal links have been manually screened before getting on this page. Webmasters that post links on this page, also promote this Links Page on their site too. If you want to add your link and become a member of this reciprocal links page, just click on the top link for details. It's free to join.

Looking at the link list (just a small excerpt):

Guaranteed Dropship Wholesalers business directory source

Good Vibrations for Singles - Free Dating, Love, Romance, and Friendship

Collection Agency - Williams, Cohen & Gray

Trade Links - Link Swap Page

Personals Dating Affiliate Program - Instant Sign-Up

ProfitsRup2U For Successful Internet Marketing

Trade links page - reciprocal links page

What do we learn? * * Beatles-Beatles is an ugly link spammer who uses Slashdot to increase the PageRank of his own site, on which he hosts a link farm.

HTH!

Re:The truth about * *Beatles-Beatles

[Z0mb1eman]

What do we learn? * * Beatles-Beatles is an ugly link spammer who uses Slashdot to increase the PageRank of his own site, on which he hosts a link farm.

SO WHAT???

Every time a story by him gets posted, cue the predictable, righteous, and frankly a bit hysteric posts from all kinds of people frothing at the mouth because of the huge injustice that was just done (to them personally, you'd think).

Oh no, Beatles-beatles got another story posted. Oh, no, they all start with the same few words by the editor!! Oh No, they're all approved by the same editor!! OH NO, he has a link to his site under his name!!! OH NO, HIS SITE HAS OTHER LINKS ON IT!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!! WOE IS US!!

Again, tell me exactly WHY I should care he's doing this. BFD - he puts in the effort to find and submit interesting articles. If he makes some money from it, more power to him (and honestly, get a grip on yourselves... how much money CAN he pull from this? $5 a month? $10? Is it coming out of your pocket?) Slashdot exists only because of user content - both the articles and the comments. UNOBTRUSIVELY promoting one's site in return for the content they provide seems fair enough. So many people - including myself - have their site URL in their profile and sig, and no one seems to care much about that. The only promotion I have problems with are the blatant slashvertisments (bob@somecompany tells us that SomeCompany has just released product X).

If you don't like it, start looking for interesting stuff and submit so many articles that beatles-beatles' stuff won't make it through. Stop posting your inane troll post - we get it, and WE DON'T CARE.

HTH.

Baloney

[quokkapox]

i suggest you look more into this matter, many things like the red shift are dependant to a degree on this, and its more voodoo than science (still.)

Boy, this thread is a trip. Parent's math is bunkum and your assertation which I directly quote above is also incorrect. Redshift has NOTHING to do with parallax measurements of distance, which can be calculated to many significant digits. Voodoo indeed. Don't believe everything you read on the internet that's modded +5, Informative...

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Anonymous Coward]

Rofl.. "The Thread"

Oracle.. Unbreakable.. Slashdot Troll..

Man I haven't bothered to login to post since. Any website that finds it necessary to blacklist someone for modding a single post as interesting when it was indeed interesting should fail miserably. Not that my perfect Karma was that important to me, but its still retarded that ./ makes a system of 'credibility by community vote' yet the ./ admin clearly have no credibility.

Digg gets better every day =)

It won't matter much longer

[core plexus]

This related story about a massive cluster of Red Supergiants will make this, and all other space stories, moot.

Also, global warming will be a thing of small concern.

Maybe they can explain this

[Anonymous Coward]

Why if you are a right handed male your left nut hangs lower and if you are a left handed male your right nut hangs lower? This theory has not been explored for the ambidexterous (possibly they hang evenly or there is a third one. Not sure if this theory holds true for ovaries as well.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Tim C]

Now you come to mention it, the thing that most struck a chord with me about this thread is that the guy signed up in about 1999.

When the hell did I sign up then? Have I really been reading slashdot for 8 years or more?!

I think your all nuts

[todd10k]

This beatles guy submits new, relevant content to slashdot on a regular basis. i never see him flame, bait, or otherwise demean anyone, and yet, you guys still pretend like he's the antichrist. Get a grip. he is not doing any harm by having his name linked to his personal merchandise site. i mean, come on, do you not think that he deserves a little user traffic for submitting relevant content? wait a second. why am i even posting this. the editors decide what goes up here, your opinion's are invalid on this subject. he submits relevant content, thus, he gets his article posted. end of.

Re:I think your all nuts

[Anonymous Coward]

http://slashdot.org/~*%20*%20Beatles-Beatles

*Friday September 23, @05:35PM 1
*Sunday October 02, @06:03PM 1
*Tuesday October 11, @03:07PM 1
*Wednesday October 19, @03:42PM 1
*Tuesday October 25, @07:48PM 3, Insightful
*Sunday November 06, @05:47PM 2
*Monday November 28, @10:00PM -1, Troll
*Thursday December 08, @07:36PM -1, Troll

Re:I think your all nuts

[Chris Bradshaw]

Wooosh.....!

the sound of the point(flying at a very low speed), right over your head

Re:At it again...

[plaxion]

"The real question is this: What the hell do the beatles and science have in common?"

Umm... as I recall, they sang 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds'... though it's still debated whether what they were singing about falls under the field of astronomy or that of chemistry. ;)

Re:At it again...

[barakn]

Go to your preferences page (this link may or may not work) and turn off ScuttleMonkey. And then stop bitching.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Wheely]

I'm trying not to think of it

What's most appalling about * * Beatles-Beatles...

[Anonymous Coward]

He has more accepted submissions for stories in the past three months than comments. Moreover most of his comments are links to other pages or just single sentences plain designed to attract moderation. I mean really, who bolds parts of sentences like that in their comments?

Some say he's not a bad guy. Not knowing I can't say.

What I can say is this - he may be a nice troll, but he's still a troll.

I just realised though

[tod_miller]

Despite how much I hate perl, I can go to slashcode and add rel="nofollow" MYSELF, but, the political/apathetic nature of slashdot will mean this will never get folded in.

cowboyneal, add a rel="nofollow" to ALL, EACH and EVERY link on slashdot please. Google doesn't browse at +5 and doesn't have a friends list.

How can an IT techie geeky site be so behind the times.

What makes me laugh is this site is an artificial mecca because the only reason we come here is to find out what everyone else is reading, not necessarily to read it ourselves, we see older news, but this has a critical mass of people using it that it is more informative as a twat-o-sphere-omometer.

Slashdot is digging it's own grave if it has become a site to find out what the blunt edge are reading.

Hey here is another thing cowboyneal, yes we are all impressed with your CAPTCHA, why not have it ONLY if posting as an AC, so I never have to enter it because my first preview ALSO LOGS ME IN YOU DUMB SHIT!

This is so painfully bad, it is like a deperate no life developer forcing his pitiful efforts in front of us for praise. But he screwed it up, he put it on the wrong page, and he has shown his utter INCOMPETENCE for development and design and usability. Dork!

Look what I did mommy! Mommy, why don't you and daddy like me?! Mommy come back!

please type the word in this image: smooth
random letters - if you are visually impaired, please email us at pater@slashdot.org

Somebody remind me why we need Dark Matter?

[mark-t]

I mean, I understand it's to make observations fit the theory, but what theory, exactly?

Why can't there just be no dark matter at all?

To be honest, the whole idea of it and how it just "has" to be there to make observations fit the theory just reminds me of how convinced scientists were of the existence of aether before the Michelson-Morly experiment in the late 19th century.

Re:Somebody remind me why we need Dark Matter?

[kf6auf]

Basically, we look at a galaxy and see how fast parts of it are spinning. From there, we can calculate the acceleration due to gravity on different parts of (a=v^2/r) and set this equal to the gravitational acceleration (a=GM/r^2) to find the total mass inside of whichever part we are looking at (mass outside has no net gravitational effect).

Once we have gravitationall calculated the mass distribution, we can look at normal images of the galaxy, note that we can only see 5% of that amount of mass, and declare the remaining 95% of the mass to be dark matter because we can't see it.

The current most plausible idea is that there is some other substance out there we can't see, but there are other theories involving different laws of physics, we're just not happy enough with any theory yet to abandon the others. The goal is always to make the physics fit the observations; once the observation was that the speed of light is constant, scientists concluded that there was no ether, even if they didn't understand why until 25 years later. We're just guessing that there is something we cannot see, like the way the neutrino was discovered.

Re:Somebody remind me why we need Dark Matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, I understand it's to make observations fit the theory, but what theory, exactly?

General relativity.

Why can't there just be no dark matter at all?

We see stuff behaving gravitationally differently than what our theory of gravity predicts. There's two ways to explain it: our theory of gravity is wrong, or there's unseen stuff producing extra gravity. The latter proposal can account for observations, but the former one never has despite many efforts.

An old post of mine on the subject.

To be honest, the whole idea of it and how it just "has" to be there to make observations fit the theory just reminds me of how convinced scientists were of the existence of aether before the Michelson-Morly experiment in the late 19th century.

ALL physical theories are proposed to make observations fit the theory. That's the whole point of theoretical physics. It's silly to compare dark matter to the aether; the aether was rejected because it didn't have any observable consequences. Dark matter has plenty — that's why it's needed.

Re:Somebody remind me why we need Dark Matter?

[mark-t]

aether was rejected because it didn't have any observable consequences

Untrue.

Aether was rejected because the now famous Michelson-Morley experiment failed.

That is, it failed to detect what should have been detectable as the speed through which the Earth travels through the aether medium. The effective speed they got for it was 0, regardless of the direction that the earth is travelling around the sun, which reasoning dictates is impossible unless it simply does not exist.

This shocked the entire scientific community at the time, as there was no prior observable basis to assume that the premise (that is, the waves require a medium through which to propogate) had been faulty.

Re:Somebody remind me why we need Dark Matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aether was rejected because the now famous Michelson-Morley experiment failed.

Not quite. After the Michelson-Morley null result, the Lorentz Ether Theory was proposed in order to save the aether concept, which was fully compatible with the M-M experiment. In fact, it is experimentally indistinguishable from Einstein's theory of special relativity. The former was rejected in terms of the latter because in LET, the aether had no observable consequences; in order to make aether compatible with M-M, it turned out that the modifications necessary made the aether altogether unobservable. (Also, it has not proven possible to extend LET to general relativity or quantum mechanics, but LET was rejected on philosophical grounds before those theories.)

Further Research Shows

[Timberwolf0122]

The additional mass and friction with dark matter is not only causing the milkway to warp like a record in the sun but also results in the milkyway playing at 45 speed unlike other LP class galaxies that naturaly travel at 78.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Tim C]

My mod privs dissappeared a while ago and I'm still waiting for my Meta-Mod privs to dissappear. I don't think they will though, as nobody watches the watchers of the watchers.

I lost mod- and meta-mod privs (literally) years ago. A while later, I realised that my meta-mod privs had returned; as far as I know, I still don't have my mod-privs back. I guess I *could* have missed the points, but as I tend to browse the site a couple of times a day every day it seems unlikely...

I think the trick is to not take this site too seriously. We rant and rave about adverts and uncaring big business, all the while being advertised at in obvious and not so obvious ways by a business that while not very big, certainly doesn't give any impression of caring.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[philovivero]

With the disclaimer that I work at Digg, what makes you think Digg lacks what Slashdot gives you? At first I lamented the fact that Digg, although cool for its front-page articles, has really crappy comments.

But lately, when I go to a Dugg story with a lot of comments, and read at +1, I get a couple of nice gems.

Plus, Digg gives me a lot more variety. As a many-year Slashdot reader, I'm actually starting to di-- uh, like the website.

Again, I know it's kinda hard to swallow since I'm supposed to be all biased and stuff, but I swear I'm not. It took me several weeks of using Digg before I finally decided I could actually eat my own dogfood.

Tension buckle

[HermanAB]

Bah, humbug! That is what happens when the Intelligent Designer doesn't tension the wheel spokes properly...

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[quokkapox]

I don't even know where to begin with this crap, and it's not worth my time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecube. Actually don't do that, it will make you worse.

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[Tim C]

a spectroscope breaks the star light through a prism and displays black lines going through one of the colors

No, a spectroscope breaks light down into its spectrum - the discrete frequencies* that make it up. The black lines are there because those frequencies are missing. For example, if you took a pure red light source and put its light through a spectroscope, you'd have a narrow line at the appropriate frequency, and black everywhere else. The lines themselves have nothing to do with redshift (or blueshift), and aren't "put there" by the spectroscope.

(* discrete here meaning to within the tolerance of the device, we can't measure arbitrarily narrow frequencies so it'll always be a (thin) range)

You measure the speed of the source of light by comparing the observed pattern of lines with the expected one. If the lines are shifted higher in frequency (towards the blue end), the source is moving towards you; if they're shifted lower in frequency (towards the red), it's moving away from you.

That presupposes that you know what the spectrum is supposed to look like, of course.

well, if light can be attracted by gravity, obviously the speed of light is not a constant

That's not obvious at all. A sattelite orbiting the earth at a constant altitude is travelling at a constant speed, yet is constantly attracted by gravity. I am currently travelling at a constant speed (zero, wrt the Earth) yet am attracted by gravity. Similarly, light being bent around a massive object is attracted by gravity, yet travels at a constant speed.

Now, perhaps it's "obvious" that light being "sucked in" by a black hole speeds up as it approaches, but that's not the case either. It also doesn't stop when it hits it - it's absorbed, and is no longer light.

we still do not fully understand the nature of light, although many people think they do. (many people say "light travels at 186 miles per second." and it seems noone knows the end to that statement to actually make it scientific. "light travels at 186 miles per second IN A VACUUM."

It's true that we don't completely understand the nature of light, but we're not as clueless about it as you seem to think. We've been observing it and experimenting with it for hundreds of years, and we have a pretty good handle on how it behaves.

Also, assuming that your "many people" refers to the general public rather than the physics community in general, well then I hate to break it to you but most people are utterly clueless about science. For example, while you correctly point out that c is the speed of light in a vacuum, you yourself get it wrong - it 186000 miles per second.

we do not know that throughout space that the speed of light has remained a constant

No, we don't. Equally, we don't know for sure that the laws of physics are the same everywhere, or that they'll be the same tomorrow as they are today. You have to start with a working set of assumptions, though, and so far we don't have much evidence to suggest that we're wrong. If we find some, great - we'll have to change our theories to cope, and lots of interesting work will be generated. If we don't, great - we can get on with newer, just as interesting stuff. Science is win-win like that; even if your theory proves to be wrong, you've contributed to the greater understanding.

even evolutionist professors acknowledge that

What do you mean by "evolutionist professors"? (The phrase rings an alarm bell at the back of my mind...)

8.4 -> 10.6 is what, 25% error margin? seems a bit far off from an exact science to me

The Hubble constant is not well understood and is very hard to measure, hence the error margin. That is the way of things, however - initial estimates tend to be out, but over time as the problem is better understood and theories are developed, they get closer.

How can you -estimate- a constant, since that number is one of the multipliers in your equation, if even one num

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Mr. Flibble]

The minute Digg gets a threaded comment system remotely as usable as this one, it's goodbye Slashdot.

Agreed. And check out my UID. I am a long time slashdot user - and it has been my homepage ever since I registered.

You had me until...

[The New Andy]

YOUR READERS ARE NOT DUMB. IF THEY READ SLASHDOT REGULARLY, THEY'RE NOT STUPID.

You had me until there.

(lameness neutraliser operate, nothing to see here. writing this padding stuff is much harder than it looks, but you shouldn't be looking here anyway)

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[dair]

young'in.

Get the hell off my lawn!

#include

[Jesus_666]

It's a precursor to the Compact Disc, but it was abandoned because it was "inferior" to the CD. In reality the content providers axed it becauce the players didn't support DRM.

Re:At it again...

[dbolger]

Take it easy, take it easy. The deeper you troll the higher you fly. In google pagerank, that is ;)

BTW, I dont fully understand how search engine indexing works, but wouldn't everybody in this thread constantly mentioning "Beatles" and referencing their songs (even while complaining about Scuttlemonkey and spamming) increase the relevance that google attaches to this guy's link in relation to the Beatles, and rise his page up through the ranks?

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[Floody]

I believe you have misunderstood me, because of my own obscurity. I understand that the entire concept behind the spectroscope(which is what we read a 'redshift' off of), is based on the assumption that light acts much like sound (we still do not fully understand light). It goes like this. The doppler effect says that, if you are sitting in your car at a red light, and there is a huge 18 wheeler doing 75 in front and to the left of you, about to go through the green light, you will hear the sound from the 18 wheeler at a higher pitch frequency when it is coming towards you (since it is compressing the sound waves), and at a lower frequency when it has past you and it is moving away(since it is refracting the sound waves). now, the theory is, that possibly light does the same thing. a spectroscope breaks the star light through a prism and displays black lines going through one of the colors (black lines shifted through the red area = the star is moving away or black lines shifted to the blue area = the star is moving closer to us). this is not documented to be true, since we still do not fully understand the nature of light, although many people think they do. (many people say "light travels at 186 miles per second." and it seems noone knows the end to that statement to actually make it scientific. "light travels at 186 miles per second IN A VACUUM.". Noone knows exactly what light is, nor do they know that it always travels at the same speed throughout all time, space, and matter. think about the theories regarding black holes, that light can be attracted by gravity-- well, if light can be attracted by gravity, obviously the speed of light is not a constant. In 1999 Dr. Hau at Harvard slowed light down to 38 MPH, in 2000 Dallas Morning News (2/28/2000) said that some folks there slowed it down to 1MPH, then in 2001 nytimes had an article that said that scientists completely stopped light, held it in place, and then sent it out on its way.

Yeah, ok, pure psuedo-science.

(probably just a typo, but you don't really think light travels at 186 miles per second, do you?)

The acoustic doppler effect you labor on about is a simplistic model that may help the layperson grossly visualize concepts like em redshift, but it should not be assumed that a remotely similar process is at work when considering topics like stellar spectroscope shift. Audible sound represents a compression wave which propogates through a medium; electromagnetic energy does not. It can interact with matter, but it exists as a separate entity and is not a mechanical process. While field equations share some fundamental aspects with wave mechanics, this does not make them the same thing. Mathematically, there are many instances in nature where similar functions and constants are "re-used"; and generally one can simply attribute such similarities to thermodynamics (i.e. if stars were naturally square, this would violate the laws of thermodynamics).

While inter-stellar distance calculations based on stellar spectroscopy are certainly capable of being inaccurate for a number of reasons, the science behind these is based on a number of core principals wherein the speed of light is largely irrelevant for determining that the model fits (in one form or another):

1. Spectroscopy: A well studied, deterministic science with which one is capable of determining elemental components based on electromagnetic frequency distribution. The spectroscopic fingerprint is "hard"; e.g. there exist no in-between spectroscopic gradients between two elements, any more than there exist magic elements "in-between" those identified on a periodic table.

2. Red-shift occurs when an emitting object is receeding from the reference frame of an observer. This has been demonstrated experimentally and is reproducible.

3. Intersteller objects which are known to be receeding via parallax measurement exhibit redshift. Their spectroscopy

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[pkphilip]

Hi there Rob! been a while. You doing ok?

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[m50d]

Dumb question: everyone says that, so why doesn't digg just run slashcode?

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Black Parrot]

> When did this bullshit start anyway?

When they sold themselves to a corporate pwner, back in the .goldrush

Vinyl?

[qmaqdk]

What is this vinyl you talk about?

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[pjotrb123]

ScuttleMonkey and Beatles-Beatles are friends

Worse yet: I believe they are the same person.
I think he simply accepts his own submissions.
He's trying to lay low/cut back, but can't resist.

Re:At it again...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Your kidding right?"
My kidding what?

Oh you mean `You are kidding right?` or to abbreviate `You're kidding right?`

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Alberic]

What surprises me the most is this :

• You can be read if your posts were "good" (Karma validation)
• You can moderate if your views on moderation is coherent with the community (metamoderation validation)

But, as far as I'm able to guess there is no such validation for higher ranks of administration. Why is that readers are subjject to so much redundant checks whie the one with the most powers are left unattended ?

Who whatches the watcher ?

Re:At it again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Republican Morality: Mass murder good. Loving a person Evil. What sick fucks.

You misspelled Democrat. After all, they didn't want to do anything about the mass murderer Hussein and I have no clue what you mean by loving a person is evil unless you're pro-gay.

Re:At it again...

[Cat_Byte]

What or whom is 'right' and why are you kidding them or it?

Oh you mean 'You're kidding, right?'.

Re:At it again...

[jdavidb]

THANK YOU for reminding me I could do that!

I've been irritatedly reading through this thread trying to think what I could do, knowing posting wouldn't accomplish anything productive. But that will. It's the obviously solution, but it hadn't occurred to me. Thank you for reminding me it was an option.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to be as bad as Slashdot, if not worse, when it comes to ignoring the community. How long have people hollered for threaded comments? How long have you left the security holes unfixed? When a story gets submitted that shows the auto-digg feature, you delete the story instead of fixing the problem.

The problem with the moderating is that hardly anybody does it. If I browse Digg at +1, there are hardly any comments, and a lot of worthwhile comments remain stuck at 0 forever. Plus the mod options are pretty damn stupid - not just for the comments, but for the stories as well. Where's the "Report" option for "Has nothing to do with technology, get this crap away from Digg"?

*shakes his cane*

[tgd]

you're the young'in

Re:At it again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh you mean "What or who is 'right' and why are you kidding them or it?"

aa1a@yahoo.com

[Anonymous Coward]

let carl know how you feel, folks.

Domain ID:D1324846-LRMS
Domain Name:GEORGE-HARRISON.INFO
Created On:30-Nov-2001 18:17:45 UTC
Last Updated On:03-Feb-2005 23:03:12 UTC
Expiration Date:30-Nov-2005 18:17:45 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Go Daddy Software Inc (R171-LRMS)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:C1532849-LRMS
Registrant Name:carl fogle
Registrant Organization:web graphic design
Registrant Street1:4120 manhattan ave
Registrant City:brooklyn
Registrant State/Province:ny
Registrant Postal Code:11224
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.7189967672
Registrant Email:aa1a@yahoo.com
Admin ID:C1532851-LRMS
Admin Name:carl fogle
Admin Organization:web graphic design
Admin Street1:4120 manhattan ave
Admin City:brooklyn
Admin State/Province:ny
Admin Postal Code:11224
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.7189967672
Admin Email:aa1a@yahoo.com
Billing ID:C1532852-LRMS
Billing Name:carl fogle
Billing Organization:web graphic design
Billing Street1:4120 manhattan ave
Billing City:brooklyn
Billing State/Province:ny
Billing Postal Code:11224
Billing Country:US
Billing Phone:+1.7189967672
Billing Email:aa1a@yahoo.com
Tech ID:C1532850-LRMS
Tech Name:carl fogle
Tech Organization:web graphic design
Tech Street1:4120 manhattan ave
Tech City:brooklyn
Tech State/Province:ny
Tech Postal Code:11224
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.7189967672
Tech Email:aa1a@yahoo.com
Name Server:NS1.NETFIRMS.COM
Name Server:NS2.NETFIRMS.COM

Re:At it again...

[jdavidb]

Wow! The think I immediately noticed, on my next visit to slashdot, was that ScuttleMonkey is doing nearly all of the work! Turning off his stories results in a page that looks like it's full of dupes ... but they are not dupes, they are just the few stories from yesterday that were posted by anybody besides ScuttleMonkey.

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[FireFury03]

A sattelite orbiting the earth at a constant altitude is travelling at a constant speed, yet is constantly attracted by gravity. I am currently travelling at a constant speed (zero, wrt the Earth) yet am attracted by gravity. Similarly, light being bent around a massive object is attracted by gravity, yet travels at a constant speed.

These are fairly specific instances though - an orbitting body only orbits at a constant speed if it's orbit is perfectly circular. Take a look at comets as an example, which have very eliptical orbits around the sun. Comets travel at relatively slow speeds for most of their orbit but are going very fast as they pass close by the sun. In your other example, you are travelling at a constant speed (zero) because the ground is producing a force opposing gravity - take away the ground and you'll accellerate.

Light is a rather strange beast - normal matter changes speed when energy is applied to it whereas light changes wave length (shorter wavelengths are higher energies).

Some clarification for the grandparent: light travels at 186[000] miles per second IN A VACUUM.

My understanding is then when you're not in a vacuum, light still travels at 3x10^8m/s in the spaces between the matter but whenever it hits some matter it gets absorbed and then re-emitted which takes some time. This means that during the times when the light isn't travelling at c it isn't light.

The Hubble constant is not well understood and is very hard to measure, hence the error margin.

Didn't someone determine that the Hubble constant is infact not a constant? Can't really remember but I have a vague idea that I'd read something about it.

Uh....what?

[jav1231]

So...a mysterious warp that we can't explain may be explained by something ELSE we can't explain!? Guess the only thing constant is change. Hey, today it's a tree tomorrow it's a dog!

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[jc42]

8.4 -> 10.6 is what, 25% error margin? seems a bit far off from an exact science to me

The Hubble constant is not well understood and is very hard to measure, hence the error margin.

Um, the topic is the shape of our galaxy. The Hubble Constant is utterly irrelevant to this topic. The very fact that it appeared here is a sign of total cluelessness.

It's true that the galaxy's size and shape was mostly determined by measuring distances and relative motions of various things within the galaxy. But these motions are unrelated to the universal expansion that the Hubble Constant is a measure of. The galaxy isn't itself expanding.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Luyseyal]

Agreed. And check out my UID. I am a long time slashdot user - and it has been my homepage ever since I registered.

ditto
-l

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Nimey]

I'd take you more seriously if your sig didn't spam for "free" shit.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Nimey]

Unfortunately, most of them can't spell.

PS: That's "morons".

Did anyone.....

[slashname3]

Did anyone get the license plate of that galaxy that hit us?

Where is the insurance company when you need them?

They killed Kenny, the bastards!

Milky Way Warp

[Ranger]

Sounds like the name of a new candy bar.

Subliminal messages?

[CrimsonScythe]

* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us Space.com is reporting that scientists think that a collision between mysterious 'dark matter' and two of the Milky Way's nearby neighbors may be causing our galaxy to warp 'like a vinyl record left out in the hot Sun.'

Oh, let me guess... That wouldn't happen to be a Beatles record, now would it?

Answers

[Anonymous Coward]

Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!

Conspiracy theories again run rampant as users accuse Slashdot Editors of being in cahoots with scam artists. Sounds like just a normal day at the office for me. Except that I've decided to say a few words on Slashdot article selection process and users who try to abuse it. Read on for my rant.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/10/144024 0&tid=124

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[pmc]

I remember the "Post of Doom" - a post that complained about something or other which was immediately modded to oblivion by an editor (Michael). The post was then remoderated back up to +5, down to -1 and so on until the post had several hundred moderations. Not to mention all the posts (hundreds in the end) that supported the post and were asking "WTF?" getting modded down, and up, and down. There must have been thousands of mods on that thread that day - IIRC I don't think I've ever had mod points since then.

Nearly 4 years ago I was surprised to find. It was not too long after this that the editors, in an effort to improve clarity in the site, removed from public display the actual number of moderations that a post received.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=26315&cid=2850 660&pid=2850660&threshold=-1&mode=nested&commentso rt=0&op=Change - The thread of doom

Final Moderation Totals: Offtopic=377, Flamebait=4, Troll=27, Redundant=5, Insightful=98, Interesting=205, Informative=49, Funny=12, Overrated=11, Underrated=63, Total=851.

If you think it's warranted report him to google!!

[gd23ka]

I just looked over his site http://www.george-harrison.info/ and it looks legitimate and not like a link farm. Just to be sure I went and looked at the site in the google cache, but it still looked okay to me. However there is a lot of upset here (and if you ask me: yes, there is definitely something fishy going on with ScuttleMonkey posting such a slew of * * Beatles-Beatles submissions) Maybe I am missing something here and in case he's guilty, this is where you report him: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html To their credit Google takes these reports seriously and investigates them.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[slavemowgli]

Wow, you broke Taco - he just posted a rant^H^H^H^Heditorial about this. :)

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Cerberus7]

My UID isn't all that low, but what the heck...

I had to walk 20 miles in the snow, up-hill both ways, and naked just to read Slashdot! And get a hair-cut, you hippies!

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[mpeg4codec]

Quiet down old man.

whoops

[Anonymous Coward]

Posted the above rant before I saw CmdrTaco's article on this topic. Feel free to mod my comment off-topic.

The real question is...

[m0rphm0nkey]

Q: What the hell do the beatles and science have in common? A: Entymology. m

blame dark matter!

[Jasper__unique_dammi]

Wasnt there a story a couple of months ago about dark matter not existing? I am not sure whether i believe that, though it sounded plausible.
(The article was about that the classical approximation just wasnt good enough, the mass came out correct without dark matter with general relativity.)

But when some mass is missing in the estimates, it seems like that mysterious "dark matter" of which we know _nothing_ is blamed, just stuff some of that where your missing mass.
Here a quote from when you click through darkmatter:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/da rk_matter_sidebar_010105.html

"By measuring these mysterious effects of gravity, researchers determine how much "extra" gravity is present, and hence how much extra mass, or dark matter, must exist."

Thank you for making my point space.com (i know maybe not the most scientific source, but gravity really is the only way to measure "dark matter" currently)

By the way dark energy isnt so vague, i am convinced that that exists.
also how did they simulate the dark matter?

Re:blame dark matter!

[Anonymous Coward]

(The article was about that the classical approximation just wasnt good enough, the mass came out correct without dark matter with general relativity.)

That work has been heavily criticized. Personally, I think it is kind of nonsensical. General relativity has been ignored for a reason: its effects are just too small to matter on galactic scales.

My remarks from that story on the evidence for dark matter.

Re:At it again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a clue bitchwipe:

1. A man can love a man
2. A woman can love a woman
3. Anyone opposed to these facts deserves to die

Forward to clue 2:

1. The CIA put Saddam in power
2. Then they bitch up a storm when he refuses to be their puppet
3. They declare war simply because their oil stocks are at stake
4. We go there multiple times since 1991 and STILL haven't solved the problem

All the money spent since 1991 on war, could have been put into weaning ourselves from fossil fuels. Kill the oil industry and the problem in the middle east will go away.

Simple enough terms for you dickface?

Pull your head out of Cheney's asshole every once in a while and breathe in the fumes of reality. Fucking neocons all need to be lined up and shot. Today would be a good day to start.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Shakrai]

I lost mod- and meta-mod privs (literally) years ago. A while later, I realised that my meta-mod privs had returned; as far as I know, I still don't have my mod-privs back. I guess I *could* have missed the points, but as I tend to browse the site a couple of times a day every day it seems unlikely...

Actually, in CmdrTaco's defense, I think that's how Slashcode works. If you browse the site "a couple of times a day" it might consider you too busy to receive mod points. Somewhere in the FAQ it mentions that you won't get mod points if you spend all day reloading the front page -- and you won't get them if you only read it every six months.

When I go on a posting binge (as often happens when a story comes up about an issue I care about) I can easily reach 30 or 40 comments in a day. After that it seems that I don't receive mod points for awhile.

Today when I logged in I had five mod points waiting for me -- I hadn't posted in awhile and only read the site a few times over the last week or so because I've been busy.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Morrigu]

Speaking as a low-5-digit ID, the whole ScuttleMonkey + BeatlesBeatles shit makes me want to get the (fixed) slashcode that runs Plastic and make a Slashdot2. Moderated submission queues + writeups (no need for editors), karma systems that work, etc. Not like Plastic doesn't have its issues, and some days I'm surprised that Slashdot actually works at all, but I don't even read stories anymore. Just comments starting at +2.

Children! Bah!

[nelsonrn]

Kids these days! Ya gotta keep 'em in their place.
-russ

Earth

[towsonu2003]

Perhaps this is because the two-thirds of the people on Earth are fat. This could result in the part of the galaxy that Earth is located in to be weighed down which is warping the entire Milky Way.

Now they started calling US the Earth..

This could result in the part of the Earth that the US is located in to be weighed down which is warping the entire System.

Five digits? Bah!

[evilandi]

Five digits? Bah! Newcommers.

(-1 offtopic me now, please)

I have a quick question for this story...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this explain the stock out of $35 telescopes at Wal-Mart's world-wide?

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[sgtrock]

I just went to my Preferences page and unchecked Scuttle Monkey as Author. That's the first time that I've ever taken that step. One way to avoid BB, though. :)

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[FatMacDaddy]

Get over it. I have a high user ID because I browsed here forever before getting one. And you know what? I've submitted only a few topics and have been surprised that some were so readily accepted. I think the way the article is submitted has far less to do with it than the nature of the referenced article itself. If it's an interesting topic that fits with the general focus of Slashdot topics, I don't care who submits it. (Maybe because I almost never bother to check out their own sites or links anyway.)

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

The minute Digg gets a threaded comment system remotely as usable as this one, it's goodbye Slashdot.

I doubt it. The volitile nature of Digg means that truely insightful discussion may become lost amid the torrent of new stories filtering up through to the front page. I very much doubt threads on par with the bets slashdot discussions will ever bee seen on Digg.

That said, **Beatles Beatles is the definitive argument against the editor system.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[saintlupus]

Don't even bother emailing Rob Malda. His responses are usually sarcastic and jerky.

Just to throw in my own two cents, the one time that I emailed Malda about a bug in the site, he was very responsive and courteous.

I think he's a perfectly nice person, and a reasonably talented geek, just not much of a journalist. Then again, I don't think he wanted to be one. It just sort of happened.

--saint

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Mr. Flibble]

Too bad slashdot is no longer what it once was. I only come around here for the excellent comments now, not the stories themselves.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[kbahey]

Fred

I have been a long timer too (1999 I think).

First it was Roland Piquepaille pushing articles to his primidi site, then it was Carl Bialik from the WSJ pushing articles from the WSJ, and now it is ** Beatles Beatles linking to his George Harrison site.

I am bothered by Slashdot favoritism as well, but more so by the lack of any mechanism of feedback and the deaf ears it falls on. Any site would have a forum/topic for comments from users.

When I commented on this last October, I lost mod privileges, which used to be every few weeks for the last few years.

Today, CmdrTaco posted something on the topic, which I have yet to read. Not expecting any break throughs though.

This site is about a) the vast readership, b) the superior threading/threshold and c) the comments.

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[StikyPad]

We was referring to Moran. We can't all be Morans, he meant.

link to picture

[elgatozorbas]

here

Huh, Linus did indeed say what the -1 post says

[Phil Urich]

I mean, okay, in theory it's off-topic to talk about something that isn't the article; but where else on Slashdot would one talk about Slashdot? All that really exists here is random articles and people commenting about them (yeah, yeah, there's diaries, but that's hardly where most of the talking goes on, and saying that people can complain there is like saying they can protest anywhere they want as long as it's in a designated protest area).

Take a wider view here. Slashdot has alot to say about Linux, really, all the time, and arguably Linus is the most important single person in that area. So mentioning something that he says about Slashdot itself is almost more on topic than a story could even be!

For the record, the page where he describes /. as a "big public wanking session" is here, interesting at least as context and certainly as far as seeing what The Big Guy In Open Source has to say about, well, what everyone is talking about in this thread.

Of course, go ahead and ignore what I say, since I guess (finally re-checking the RSS feed) that I was too late in writing this, and that there already is http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/10/144024 0&from=rss>a better story in which to post this stuff, but I figured I should post here since I was replying to the parent anyways. And screw it if it's off topic, he does reference an interesting post by Linus, and personally I'm quite okay with "off-topic" if it also means "nonetheless very interesting"! (But I have to say, CmdrTaco's post is somewhat convincing).

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just a though...

So, the shift tells us if an object (light source) is moving towards or away from us. Did not an Einstein prediction also involve light being bent by a heavy body and bent more the heavier the body? If this is true and the theory that there are large bodies of mass "out there" that we can't see is true... if gravitation always attract... Would it not be possible for light to be bent in such a way that the observed vector of an object differs from the real one and the red-shift theory remains valid? What if dark matter is scattered in a non unifom way... Wouldn't that make our picture misleading?

Re:**Beatles (thread to be bitchslapped in 3..2..)

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you still come here? It's because you're addicted. You have multiple accounts and getting them modded up is a rush. Trolling is a high art for you, as is misinformation, half-truths and outright lying. You have no life so you come here and bitch about /. and the editors/users/moderators.

What else is new?

Re:specifics on my subpar meat propaganda, please.

[ceoyoyo]

Light is a rather strange beast - normal matter changes speed when energy is applied to it whereas light changes wave length (shorter wavelengths are higher energies).

Well, that's because light isn't matter, normal or abnormal.

Knowing How to Stack Them

[bigpicture]

This clearly is the result of the CD age, back in the LP age everyone knew you don't stack em flat, you store them on their edge to prevent warping. Just set the milky way on its edge and the warp will go away.