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User: Grey+Geezer

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  1. This theory gets muddied on Oldest Human Fossil Fills In 2.8-Million-Year-Old Gap In Evolution · · Score: 2

    every time "missing gap" is used to discuss/describe evolution. We will never find all relevant fossils. Most intermediate iterations were never fossilized in the first place. The "fossil record" can never be complete. All we can do with the infinitesimally small percentage of fossils we do discover is use them to confirm, or refute, the theory of evolution as it currently exists, and, perhaps, revise the theory as required to account for new discoveries and observations. Science!

  2. Re:And still on NASA Ames Reproduces the Building Blocks of Life In Laboratory · · Score: 1

    Well...yes...and also maybe it's so far away that, at the speed of light, its electromagnetic calling card hasn't reached us yet...or isn't strong enough...or we aren't looking at the right spot in the sky...the odds of our detecting a signal are incredibly long.

  3. Heinlein said that on 'The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress' Coming To the Big Screen · · Score: 2

    the book was an homage to non-commissioned officers. The movie pretty much misses that aspect of the story.

  4. "The clowns in this story weren't ignorant, they were just assholes."

    In my experience though, people are often both.

  5. Re:Quick, make up something dark on Astronomers Find an Old-Looking Galaxy In the Early Universe · · Score: 1

    "let there be light"--Azimov

  6. Re: Are we looking through the center... on Astronomers Find an Old-Looking Galaxy In the Early Universe · · Score: 2

    Naw...distance is probably determined by red shifted light spectrum... so unless there is a huge, mass of some kind, something grossly larger than anything theorized to date, out there....hmmm

  7. Re:Questionable on Jon Stewart Leaving 'The Daily Show' · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nonsense. The guest interviews were certainly not scripted. His quick wit, knowledge of current events, historical expertise, and the courteous manner in which he made his disagreements (with his guests) are not easily replaced. So much more than "delivery" must be considered when selecting his replacement.

  8. Re:We don't on How Do We Know the Timeline of the Universe? · · Score: 1

    You are correct only by stating the obvious fact that we don't/can't know...but the math, and the theory both suggest that a spaceless/timeless condition existed before the initial event. The trick we all play on ourselves when we visualize "an empty void" is just a reflection of our inability to see in our mind's eye what a spaceless/timeless condition "looks" like. But an empty void is most certainly a mental cheat and not what current theory suggests was there "before".

  9. Re:We don't on How Do We Know the Timeline of the Universe? · · Score: 1

    And somehow that's not a big bang?

    No...before the "Big Bang" there was no void. Before the "Big Bang" there was no time. I know it's hard for us to visualize, but that's what the theory describes.

  10. Because we have demonstrated, time and again, that on UHD Spec Stomps on Current Blu-ray Spec, But Will Consumers Notice? · · Score: 1

    we will buy anything. Every time we come close to market saturation in the latest Video display resolution and the accompanying disc/digital library, they come out with something new...that we all just have to own. I once worked in R&D for a global consumer electronics company...this has all been planned out, decades in advance because...suckers!

  11. "The Force" turned out to be on Disney Turned Down George Lucas's Star Wars Scripts · · Score: 1

    little bugs in the blood. What absolute dreck. JJ will need to try really hard to do worse than that...

  12. It's official. They voted. on US Senate Set To Vote On Whether Climate Change Is a Hoax · · Score: 1

    Global Climate Change is not a hoax. Whew, glad that's settled.

  13. So...besides the electricity...what on Enzymes Make Electricity From Jet Fuel Without Ignition · · Score: 1

    exactly is the byproduct? Is the kerosene completely consumed? If not, what does it change into, and is it usable, or does it become a deadly poison? I read the article but missed that part.

  14. Re:Everyone should just say "interesting" on NASA Study: Ocean Abyss Has Not Warmed · · Score: 1

    You clearly do not understand the scientific method. The more you whine about being picked on, the more you demonstrate your ignorance about the scientific process. I'll just state again that Science does not take "sides". You either understand that statement or you don't...

  15. Re:Everyone should just say "interesting" on NASA Study: Ocean Abyss Has Not Warmed · · Score: 1

    No...My point is that science is not on any "side" Your ignorance is showing.

  16. Re:Everyone should just say "interesting" on NASA Study: Ocean Abyss Has Not Warmed · · Score: 1

    And the last thing either side is going to display is a touch of humility. Useful though that might be.

    Well...just how often do scientists need to say "the scientific method compels us to observe, collect and analyze data, and revise our theories when those observations and data require us to do so"? Revising theories, refining our understanding, and being intellectually, is not humility. It's part of the scientific process. The deniers have other motivations.

  17. Re:Right... on Past Measurements May Have Missed Massive Ocean Warming · · Score: 1

    No, I saw that memo. Last winter's polar vortex caused lake ice to return to levels not seen in decades.

  18. Re:Right... on Past Measurements May Have Missed Massive Ocean Warming · · Score: 1

    No...my point was that there has never been a cell observed mutating into cancer after exposure to smoke. The same level of "proof" that climate change deniers seem to be demanding. Reasonable people accept the link in spite of the lack of such proof.

  19. Right... on Past Measurements May Have Missed Massive Ocean Warming · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and there is no conclusive proof that cigarette smoking causes lung disease. No, really, there has never been an observation of a cell mutating after exposure to a puff of smoke. The evidence is only statistical. And yet... reasonable people can accept that the odds are that smoking is unhealthy, in spite of the lack of "hard" scientific proof. Proof of the kind that Climate Change Deniers seem to be demanding. Arctic ice that is 60% thinner than it was when our first nuclear sub crossed under it in the 60s, Old photos of curling (that obscure shuffle board type sport) on fjords that haven't frozen over in decades, the no longer needed fleet of ice breakers on our Great Lakes, fauna found further and further north every year, tree rings, ice cores, historical records...all prove...nothing...but still, reasonable people can conclude that there is a link between our draining of the carbon sinks, and greenhouse warming. It's really not a stretch is it?

  20. Re:LEDs on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 1

    Well, I just went through this..at Lowe's. There are CFL's whose packaging specifically states they can be dimmed, and CFL's whose packaging makes no such claim. Ditto with the Dimmer switch's packaging...

  21. Re:LEDs on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 1

    Not all dimmer switches are rated for CFL bulbs either. It seems that you need to pay attention to the packaging when purchasing both the bulbs and the switches. Some old dimmers will need to be replaced if CFL bulbs are to be dimmed.

  22. Nonsense..saying science can't give "ultimate" on How Our Botched Understanding of "Science" Ruins Everything · · Score: 1

    answers is nonsense. We don't know, can't know, what answers science will provide, nor can we know ahead of time which questions it will answer. Just because science has not advanced to, will never advance to, the point where everything has been explained, we are not excused from pursuing knowledge within the scientific method. Religion is faith...organized in a dogmatic and doctrinal system, and to some extent, is required to exist outside of rational, honest, intellectual argument . Science is, in part, changing your mind when observation and experiment dictate that you were wrong. I am not aware of any religionist who has express a willingness to change their mind about the existence of supernatural forces causing stuff to happen. Nonsense

  23. Re:Excuse me?...excuse me?... on How Our Botched Understanding of "Science" Ruins Everything · · Score: 1

    What does God need with a Starship?

  24. Re:It's getting hotter still! on Extent of Antarctic Sea Ice Reaches Record Levels · · Score: 1

    True...Einstein's theories state that all mass distorts space/time.

  25. Bad title..Manufacturing is on US Rust Belt Manufacturing Rebounds Via Fracking Boom · · Score: 1

    NOT rebounding because of the fracking boom. Only a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs lost to globalization are being replaced by the fracking industry.