Not the Manhattan project, but Chicago Pile-1 (first criticality December 2, 1942) - the first controlled nuclear reaction, as opposed to the first nuclear bomb.
As you may imagine, they couldn't find anybody to stand next to the first Manhattan test with an axe; not even a grad student. Which didn't matter, since (as you may further imagine) the bomb had no control rods.
So, tell them it was a one-time pad, supply the appropriate decryption key so that it decrypts to "Nothing illegal going on here, nope!", and everybody's happy.
It doesn't always work that way, though. A couple of thousand years before Neptune was discovered, there was a similar problem. At that point, science figured that all orbits were circular - it was simple, it was clean, but the problem was, it didn't quite fit the observations. So the answer was epicycles: the planets still moved in circular orbits, but there were smaller loops tacked on, to make everything come out right.
It fit the data reasonably well, but let's face it - it was kind of silly. Okay, obviously it looks silly based on what we know now, but even objectively - epicycles are ridiculous. The solution, of course, was a much bigger change to the underlying model: what if orbits are elliptical, not circular?
Maybe dark matter is like Neptune, but maybe it's like the epicycles. Either it'll lead us to a momentous discovery, or we'll realize the flaw in the underlying theory - and later we'll look back and wonder what the hell we were thinking. We won't know until one of those two happens.
I work at the research reactor at Reed College, which isn't blurred on Google Maps. Incidentally, we were mentioned by that ABC story, which was (for the record) totally ridiculous. Pure FUD, with the "uncertainty" no doubt referring to the fact that they clearly had no idea what they were talking about. We got a copy of the segment, and we show it at reactor parties for a laugh.:)
If you voted them in so that they would impeach Bush, I have to tell you that you voted mistakenly. That was never a plan proposed by any serious candidate, for the simple reason that they don't want to look like idiots. I disagree with the administration at least as much as you do, believe me. But impeachment isn't a good solution. You impeach Bush, you get Cheney in office. You impeach Cheney next, you get whoever he appointed as his VP. The impeachment process was designed to work that way: it's not supposed to be used just because you disagree with the other party's politics, however violent that disagreement may be. You had your chance to throw him out for political reasons, in 2004. You didn't, so you're gonna have to wait another two years, and a Democrat-controlled Congress is your best shot at making it work, so if I were you I'd get behind them.
In theory, that works beautifully. In practice, look at what's happened now that we no longer have to pay for the CD manufacturing process. Yes, there's been some improvement, but the situation is far from what anybody would call ideal.
Granted, it's not a perfect analogy, but you see what I'm getting at. I'll be among the first to rejoice, if everything goes as you predict. But I'm not confident that it will.
Slashdot Mirror
And the Slashdotting will no doubt result in a similarly positive jump in pageviews. Complete success!
Not the Manhattan project, but Chicago Pile-1 (first criticality December 2, 1942) - the first controlled nuclear reaction, as opposed to the first nuclear bomb. As you may imagine, they couldn't find anybody to stand next to the first Manhattan test with an axe; not even a grad student. Which didn't matter, since (as you may further imagine) the bomb had no control rods.
So, tell them it was a one-time pad, supply the appropriate decryption key so that it decrypts to "Nothing illegal going on here, nope!", and everybody's happy.
Congratulations! You have discovered the primary distinction between a democratic country and a privately-owned website. Have a cookie.
In the Ocean of Subculture, just off the coast of Digg and Fark? That's us.
It doesn't always work that way, though. A couple of thousand years before Neptune was discovered, there was a similar problem. At that point, science figured that all orbits were circular - it was simple, it was clean, but the problem was, it didn't quite fit the observations. So the answer was epicycles: the planets still moved in circular orbits, but there were smaller loops tacked on, to make everything come out right.
It fit the data reasonably well, but let's face it - it was kind of silly. Okay, obviously it looks silly based on what we know now, but even objectively - epicycles are ridiculous. The solution, of course, was a much bigger change to the underlying model: what if orbits are elliptical, not circular?
Maybe dark matter is like Neptune, but maybe it's like the epicycles. Either it'll lead us to a momentous discovery, or we'll realize the flaw in the underlying theory - and later we'll look back and wonder what the hell we were thinking. We won't know until one of those two happens.
I bet Foley would support this, if he were still in office. He sure does love his "sexually explicit pages", after all.
I work at the research reactor at Reed College, which isn't blurred on Google Maps. Incidentally, we were mentioned by that ABC story, which was (for the record) totally ridiculous. Pure FUD, with the "uncertainty" no doubt referring to the fact that they clearly had no idea what they were talking about. We got a copy of the segment, and we show it at reactor parties for a laugh. :)
If you voted them in so that they would impeach Bush, I have to tell you that you voted mistakenly. That was never a plan proposed by any serious candidate, for the simple reason that they don't want to look like idiots. I disagree with the administration at least as much as you do, believe me. But impeachment isn't a good solution. You impeach Bush, you get Cheney in office. You impeach Cheney next, you get whoever he appointed as his VP. The impeachment process was designed to work that way: it's not supposed to be used just because you disagree with the other party's politics, however violent that disagreement may be. You had your chance to throw him out for political reasons, in 2004. You didn't, so you're gonna have to wait another two years, and a Democrat-controlled Congress is your best shot at making it work, so if I were you I'd get behind them.
In theory, that works beautifully. In practice, look at what's happened now that we no longer have to pay for the CD manufacturing process. Yes, there's been some improvement, but the situation is far from what anybody would call ideal. Granted, it's not a perfect analogy, but you see what I'm getting at. I'll be among the first to rejoice, if everything goes as you predict. But I'm not confident that it will.
... but will they run Linux?
I coded three softs in the time it took you to write that.