I had tried to create a user id for myself on wikipedia, in order to update an article I was reading, and was immediately banned, along with my IP. I was quite angry because there was no warning - and I complained. A response came quite quickly, politely informing me that the name I chose violated some pattern matcher for inappropriate names. I was still annoyed, but after they released the IP block I created an appropriate account and put a "watch" on the article I had wanted to update.
Over the following weeks, this relatively low-profile article was vandalized several times; each time it was corrected but also represented a vulnerability to people reading the page. One attack, in particular, deliberately reversed the sense of several health and safety tips, making cautions into recommendations and recommendations into cautions.
And for most of them it's true. Others appear to have a ton of junk in their DNA that doesn't code for anything. Heck, that's the most interesting part of this - the really interesting question is "do they activate reserve DNA in a directed fashion" - i.e., are the heat-tolerant genes activated by heat, the drought-tolerant genes activated by drought or are they activated by the normal process of random variation of individuals?
There are a lot of glitches like that. I can remember watching the series as a kid, and noticing that the producers couldn't tell the difference between a communicator, a tricorder and a phaser, and that they couldn't remember the difference between photon torpedos and ship's phasers, either.
Notice that nations like Russia and China don't have religious fundamentalists participating in organized attacks against science and scientific discovery.
The arrogance and ignorance in that statement are stunning. Please read up on, oh, who's behind the separatist movement in Chechnya, as far as I know American fundamentalists haven't blown up subway stations or killed hundreds of hostages.
Fact: PETA enables, excuses, and protects the people who make death threats and burn down homes. And people like you try to pretend that because most PETA members haven't personally engaged in such acts, PETA isn't responsible for them.
That's no different from saying that America isn't responsible for the situation in Iraq, because most Americans aren't soldiers.
If you go back to the previous thread on the subject, they wanted to call the new class of objects "Plutons" - but this was shouted down by geologists, who use the term to refer to a type of volcanic rock.
Informally, they are now referring to Pluto-class objects as "BOOCs" - as in "8 planets and a Bunch Of Other Crap.
At least in this case, they weren't using the term incorrectly for the most part. They actually had it right.
No. We've known for decades that the "planet" Pluto was far smaller than any other planet and made of fundamentally different stuff. And through all that time, astronomers let it go because every time one of them mentioned that Pluto wasn't really a planet he was shouted down by the public. Now that we know there are dozens of bodies just like Pluto - and some even larger - what little scientific accuracy there was in calling Pluto a planet is completely lost.
Face it, the astronomers weren't going to come out of this looking good no matter what:
1. They develop a definition of "planet" that includes Pluto and, by association, dozens of other bodies. Effect: The public freaks out about "those crazy scientists". (For proof, just read the previous article on this subject here at/.)
2. They develop a definition of "planet" that excludes dozens of small bodies and, by association, Pluto. Effect: The public freaks out about "those crazy scientists". (For proof, read this thread).
3. They develop an entirely new set of definitions using brand new words that no one's ever heard of before. Effect: The public freaks out about "those crazy scientists" who are trying to complicate a "perfectly simple situation".
And, of course, there's the fact that any one who gets upset over this really has far too much free time on their hands.
That's a good point; there could be a lot of nickel & iron there, in relatively pure form and, I suppose, such meteors could have non-trivial amounts of other metals - but not enough to make it worth hauling it back to earth.
Consider an incredibly expensive metal. Titanium, for example. Someone discovers a huge amount of titanium on the moon and spends billions to go and get it. What happens to the price of titanium when they begin selling it on Earth?
We would have to find some way to make space travel as cheap as today's cargo ships to make it worthwhile to haul raw materials back to Earth.
Your point doesn't stand - the moon mineral composition is fundamentally different from Earth's for the straight forward reason that it was made up of materials from Earth's outer layers - it lacks the heavy elements that concentrate in the Earth's core.
Okay. With this attitude you've got, I'm going to guess that you aren't even out of school yet.
Here's a hint: you aren't going to hold down a job very long by telling your users that they're stupid simply because you don't like the idea of following user interface guidelines.
Who cares if Java programs don't look the same on different OSs? Are you one of those people who say everything has to look like Windows XP?
Oh. My. Have you ever even used more than one operating system? Are you vaguely aware that OS X has a different user interface model from Gnome or KDE or, *gasp*, Windows? Do you have any awareness at all of how disruptive it is for an end user when one application puts it's menu bar in the "wrong" place or doesn't use the "right" keyboard short cuts?
You know, for someone who's off on a standards rant, you sure have little understanding of what actually goes into making something cross-platform compatible.
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It has nothing to do with our society. On the other hand, it has everything to do with our species.
I had tried to create a user id for myself on wikipedia, in order to update an article I was reading, and was immediately banned, along with my IP. I was quite angry because there was no warning - and I complained. A response came quite quickly, politely informing me that the name I chose violated some pattern matcher for inappropriate names. I was still annoyed, but after they released the IP block I created an appropriate account and put a "watch" on the article I had wanted to update.
Over the following weeks, this relatively low-profile article was vandalized several times; each time it was corrected but also represented a vulnerability to people reading the page. One attack, in particular, deliberately reversed the sense of several health and safety tips, making cautions into recommendations and recommendations into cautions.
because they are simpler creatures?
And for most of them it's true. Others appear to have a ton of junk in their DNA that doesn't code for anything. Heck, that's the most interesting part of this - the really interesting question is "do they activate reserve DNA in a directed fashion" - i.e., are the heat-tolerant genes activated by heat, the drought-tolerant genes activated by drought or are they activated by the normal process of random variation of individuals?
The air temp might be -40 while the water temp is higher...
Apparently the government's response was that they've looked into his complaints repeatedly and never found anything wrong.
So, the alternatives are (a) he's wrong but obsessed or (b) the cover up is pretty big.
For his sake, I hope it's (b), but for the sake of our sailors, I hope not.
Most electric companies have rebate and subsidy programs for energy efficient lighting and appliances.
Or, are you just whining because a price drop of 80% in the past 10 years isn't good enough for you?
You do realize there's a difference between an actor and the character he plays, right?
You're right! Curse my limited imagination!
Next up: We discover that Spock was behind the grassy knoll at Khitomer Massacre!
Kirk saves the day by reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance?
Nope. I'm not kidding.
There are a lot of glitches like that. I can remember watching the series as a kid, and noticing that the producers couldn't tell the difference between a communicator, a tricorder and a phaser, and that they couldn't remember the difference between photon torpedos and ship's phasers, either.
That scene wasn't in TOS.
Picard was French and British. Kirk was American. What did you expect?
Notice that nations like Russia and China don't have religious fundamentalists participating in organized attacks against science and scientific discovery.
The arrogance and ignorance in that statement are stunning. Please read up on, oh, who's behind the separatist movement in Chechnya, as far as I know American fundamentalists haven't blown up subway stations or killed hundreds of hostages.
Fact: PETA enables, excuses, and protects the people who make death threats and burn down homes. And people like you try to pretend that because most PETA members haven't personally engaged in such acts, PETA isn't responsible for them.
That's no different from saying that America isn't responsible for the situation in Iraq, because most Americans aren't soldiers.
So, you'd rather believe lies than accept the idea that science makes mistakes?
Interesting.
If you go back to the previous thread on the subject, they wanted to call the new class of objects "Plutons" - but this was shouted down by geologists, who use the term to refer to a type of volcanic rock.
Informally, they are now referring to Pluto-class objects as "BOOCs" - as in "8 planets and a Bunch Of Other Crap.
At least in this case, they weren't using the term incorrectly for the most part. They actually had it right.
/.)
No. We've known for decades that the "planet" Pluto was far smaller than any other planet and made of fundamentally different stuff. And through all that time, astronomers let it go because every time one of them mentioned that Pluto wasn't really a planet he was shouted down by the public. Now that we know there are dozens of bodies just like Pluto - and some even larger - what little scientific accuracy there was in calling Pluto a planet is completely lost.
Face it, the astronomers weren't going to come out of this looking good no matter what:
1. They develop a definition of "planet" that includes Pluto and, by association, dozens of other bodies. Effect: The public freaks out about "those crazy scientists". (For proof, just read the previous article on this subject here at
2. They develop a definition of "planet" that excludes dozens of small bodies and, by association, Pluto. Effect: The public freaks out about "those crazy scientists". (For proof, read this thread).
3. They develop an entirely new set of definitions using brand new words that no one's ever heard of before. Effect: The public freaks out about "those crazy scientists" who are trying to complicate a "perfectly simple situation".
And, of course, there's the fact that any one who gets upset over this really has far too much free time on their hands.
Yeah, stupid scientists! What are they thinking, demanding logical consistency from scientific terminology?
Turn down your moderation levels - I wasn't replying to you at all, I was replying to the guy who was calling you names.
In other words, don't yell at me for defending you!
That's a good point; there could be a lot of nickel & iron there, in relatively pure form and, I suppose, such meteors could have non-trivial amounts of other metals - but not enough to make it worth hauling it back to earth.
Consider an incredibly expensive metal. Titanium, for example. Someone discovers a huge amount of titanium on the moon and spends billions to go and get it. What happens to the price of titanium when they begin selling it on Earth?
We would have to find some way to make space travel as cheap as today's cargo ships to make it worthwhile to haul raw materials back to Earth.
Your point doesn't stand - the moon mineral composition is fundamentally different from Earth's for the straight forward reason that it was made up of materials from Earth's outer layers - it lacks the heavy elements that concentrate in the Earth's core.
Okay. With this attitude you've got, I'm going to guess that you aren't even out of school yet.
Here's a hint: you aren't going to hold down a job very long by telling your users that they're stupid simply because you don't like the idea of following user interface guidelines.
Who cares if Java programs don't look the same on different OSs? Are you one of those people who say everything has to look like Windows XP?
Oh. My. Have you ever even used more than one operating system? Are you vaguely aware that OS X has a different user interface model from Gnome or KDE or, *gasp*, Windows? Do you have any awareness at all of how disruptive it is for an end user when one application puts it's menu bar in the "wrong" place or doesn't use the "right" keyboard short cuts?
You know, for someone who's off on a standards rant, you sure have little understanding of what actually goes into making something cross-platform compatible.
but that fact was pretty thoroughly buried in the avalanche of "OS X is worse than Windows" news reports.
"I'm not saying you're fat - I'm saying I just caught Stephen Hawking trying to measure your event horizon!"