User: Group XVII

Re:Freeloaders = good

On: First GNOME Census Results

Your argument made me feel nostalgic for the days when using Linux meant testing software and filing bug reports. Now I use Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu) and that world is forever lost to me. I am hooked on freeloading. Everything just works and I just let it.

Re:Response

On: Climategate and the Need For Greater Scientific Openness

GP ("Fuck the blogosphere") is modded "insightful," P ("they damn well ARE accountable") is modded "flamebait." Fascinating.

why pawn to b4?

On: Online Chess With Physical Pieces On a Chessboard

I would have moved either the knight or the bishop to a6, or else sacrificed the bishop at g6. What's the best move at that point?

Re:What is the definition of 'distro'?

On: Unusual, Obscure, and Useful Linux Distros

You mean Tin Hat Linux is gentoo hardened.

Re:Reporters Without Borders hardly non-partisan

On: Reporters Without Borders Fight Web Censorship

"Somehow RSF never seems to have issues with Palestinian, Turkish and Ukrainian journalists jailed for not toeing the official line."

I searched the RSF website and came to a different conclusion.

Re:The problem with using extremophiles as models

On: Methane-Eating Bacteria May Presage ET Life

Could life in comet water fit the bill for the less hostile end of the proposed condition gradient?

Re:This is sheer speculation so far!

On: California Lake's Arsenic Hints At a Shadow Biosphere

It's well informed speculation. It seems like a methodical approach to developing a research agenda, and indeed we are told actual experiments are being conducted. I don't have any reason to doubt that. Probably more that a few people will find the topic fascinating. I'm sympathetic to your objection but it might be overstated.

Paper by Wolfe-Simon et al.

On: California Lake's Arsenic Hints At a Shadow Biosphere

Did Nature Also Choose Arsenic?

Re:Typo In Headline & Summary

On: Earliest "Writing" On 60,000-Year-Old Eggshells

?? What they are saying is that around about 60,000 years ago a tradition of engraving existed which lasted about 5,000 years.

Re:More images

On: Earliest "Writing" On 60,000-Year-Old Eggshells

There's no evidence of earlier hominids playing with even simple decoration, afaik. If we interpret these repetitive designs through what we know about epigraphy rather the study of modern written languages, the claims are less limited.

Snow Line

On: A Warming Planet Can Mean More Snow

I read recently that the snow line (in the northern hemisphere) is moving south. It's a substantial claim. It's not undisputed.

Re:Does anyone have an actual link.

On: Meteorite Contains Complex Organic Molecules

http://www.pnas.org/content/107/7/2763.abstract

Re:How bout them locust?

On: Ocean-Crossing Dragonflies Discovered

Here's a link to Lovejoy et al., Ancient Trans-Atlantic Flight Explains Locust Biogeography.