I understand that the scientists should be concerned that their data not be misrepresented, but the blame for any panic that ensues following one of these press releases lies on the media that reports it, not the scientists.
As long as the information the Astonomers release is accurate and fully explains the likelyhood of an impact, I think they're covered. There is enough of a peer review process involved that keeps inaccurate information from being disseminated. And the scale they use to rate the impact probability seems quite satisfactory to me. (granted, I'm no astronomer)
Maybe I'm assuming too much, but media hype doesn't usually make it past my BS filter. Until I hear a report from a multiple reliable media sources, I'm unlikely to believe in wild claims of global destruction. But that's just me.
During my stint as a collegiate shotputter and hammer thrower I took creatine. I was on a fairly high dosage of the stuff for 4 years (I took summers off and cycled my dosage over the course of the year.)
I really can't say whether or not it improved my memory function or intelligence level. I got my Bachelors degree, but didn't really put much effort into getting good grades. Maybe I didn't have to try very hard to get by? I do have an exceptional memory, but I would guess that to be more genetic than from taking creatine. Even the study cited above stated the effects were only in the short term.
It did produce some pretty bad gastrointestinal effects initially, but after being on it for 3-4 weeks that pretty much goes away. It did help my performance athletically. (But it would be hard to quantify exactly how much, I was a shotputter, not a scientist;) )
Hard to comment on this without a serious study about the long term effects. But as to getting a boost from eating meat, well, the amount of creatine that occurs natually in meat is extremely low. An average dose of creatine is the equivalent of POUNDS (or kilos) of raw beef. Maybe some of you are eating that much meat, but not me.
I agree that the development process would be tainted by the influence of goverment money. However, if the software is truly open sourced, how much influence could they have over it? True, those that took the money could be influenced, but anyone could contribute.
I would go so far as to argue that the freedom from corporate and goverment influence is one of the most essential notions surrounding the development of free software. Although, if a government is willing to concede that open code is of higher quality and more secure than its closed source counterpart, then they really couldn't exert much influence on the development. The inefficiencies that would result from their meddling would be out in public for all to see.
Its an interesting concept, which definately deserves more attention.
Slashdot Mirror
I understand that the scientists should be concerned that their data not be misrepresented, but the blame for any panic that ensues following one of these press releases lies on the media that reports it, not the scientists.
As long as the information the Astonomers release is accurate and fully explains the likelyhood of an impact, I think they're covered. There is enough of a peer review process involved that keeps inaccurate information from being disseminated. And the scale they use to rate the impact probability seems quite satisfactory to me. (granted, I'm no astronomer)
Maybe I'm assuming too much, but media hype doesn't usually make it past my BS filter. Until I hear a report from a multiple reliable media sources, I'm unlikely to believe in wild claims of global destruction. But that's just me.
Traxman
During my stint as a collegiate shotputter and hammer thrower I took creatine. I was on a fairly high dosage of the stuff for 4 years (I took summers off and cycled my dosage over the course of the year.)
;) )
I really can't say whether or not it improved my memory function or intelligence level. I got my Bachelors degree, but didn't really put much effort into getting good grades. Maybe I didn't have to try very hard to get by? I do have an exceptional memory, but I would guess that to be more genetic than from taking creatine. Even the study cited above stated the effects were only in the short term.
It did produce some pretty bad gastrointestinal effects initially, but after being on it for 3-4 weeks that pretty much goes away. It did help my performance athletically. (But it would be hard to quantify exactly how much, I was a shotputter, not a scientist
Hard to comment on this without a serious study about the long term effects. But as to getting a boost from eating meat, well, the amount of creatine that occurs natually in meat is extremely low. An average dose of creatine is the equivalent of POUNDS (or kilos) of raw beef. Maybe some of you are eating that much meat, but not me.
Traxman
I agree that the development process would be tainted by the influence of goverment money. However, if the software is truly open sourced, how much influence could they have over it? True, those that took the money could be influenced, but anyone could contribute.
I would go so far as to argue that the freedom from corporate and goverment influence is one of the most essential notions surrounding the development of free software. Although, if a government is willing to concede that open code is of higher quality and more secure than its closed source counterpart, then they really couldn't exert much influence on the development. The inefficiencies that would result from their meddling would be out in public for all to see.
Its an interesting concept, which definately deserves more attention.
Traxman