obvioustroll

> All the CO2 currently sequestered in fossil fuels used to be part of our atmosphere.

That's an interesting assertion. I'm not a biologist, but I suspect quite a lot of the carbon in hydrocarbons was locked into other carbon compounds before being taken up by plants and animals.

Consider: the carbonaceous compounds in the shells of mollusks do not come from C02 but from other disolved carbon compounds in the water.

You could just as easily argue that all the carbon in limestone used to be in the atmosphere.

> I think it's easy: jobs as scientists in the U.S. suck relative to other jobs.

Hmmm... I'm making 6 figures as an engineer. I really doubt my brother the heavy equipment operator can say the same.

You might want to review the history of industrial pollution in the US - and remember that it was all the miraculous promises of science that brought us TMI, Love Canal, mercury poisoning in fish, smog and everything else.

To the average person, it seems obvious to them that "scientists" are why companies can strip away entire mountains, it was "scientists" that killed all the eagles with DDT, and, above all, it's "scientists" who assure us that "ingredient X" give us cancer, or high blood pressure, or whatever, and then, 10 years later its "scientists" who then turn around and hail "ingredient X" as the a panacea that will ensure you live a long and healthy life.

Now, you and I both know that's not how science works - but that's certainly how it's perceived.

I think you need to take another look at the connection between western intellectuals and communism. They defended it and, for decades, denied the abuses and murders committed in the Soviet Union and in communist China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

That's all true - but we frequently pretend that it isn't. How often do we read or see someone push themselves forward as the Voice of Dispassionate Truth, when the reality they are as much a "true believer" as any other partisan?

How often to we entrust the role of Gatekeeper to someone only to discover they've been using their position to engage in insider trading?

As long as we allow people to put themselves forth as harbingers of Truth, nothing will change.

Heh. Back when alternate email protocols were still common, it was my job to help support the "smtp gateway" product for a large corporation. I got to the point where I could forge emails by typing in SMTP by hand.

This worked very well the day I played a prank on my boss - the boss had sent out an email forged to appear it came from a co-worker that was supposed to be funny but hurt the co-worker's feelings badly. Co-worker wanted revenge, so I created a "letter of resignation" that appeared to come from the boss and that appeared to have been sent to every member of our company - but was really only sent to the boss himself.

Co-worker later told me he saw the boss running from office to office trying to do "damage control" before he realized no one else had actually gotten the email.

In other words, once again we are told that men are responsible for women's problems.

Isn't that true of everything that comes from scribd?

What, again? I remember thinking of this ~35 years ago, when I was 9.

What the heck is that? Is it an old Halloween "easter egg"?

Thanks. I didn't hear about them till June; hopefully the scopes will show up soon.

I did say "emulate" not "replicate".

? The Celestron Firstscope has a tripod mount? Not as far as I know. Does it replace the altitude screw on the side?

If you're referring to the Galileoscope, yeah, I know that.

"Duplicate" was a poor choice of words, I'm trying to say that the point of the scope is to give kids the same experience that Galileo had.

I mean, yes, they opted for a modern achromatic lens - they also chose plastic instead of wood - but that doesn't change the basic point of the scope.

That's not the point - the point of this scope is to emulate the scope Galileo had.

Anyway, the problem with tiny little reflecting scopes is that you need a table to set them up on. When you're out in a dark field looking at the stars, there's rarely a table handy.

Errr.. the whole point of this scope is to duplicate the optics that Galileo himself had to deal with. A web cam would be sort of self-defeating.

In any case, cheap cameras give very poor results, but if you want to try one you can always do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9khTIkwNmW8

Has anyone received theirs yet? I ordered two to give away as prizes for my club's big annual star party - but I'm more than a little worried they won't arrive in time.

I'm a comcast customer who uses opendns, and I could not reproduce this behavior.

I've gotten two jobs that way. My first job out of school, and 7 years later when I was laid off. Most of my jobs, however, have come through personal contacts with other engineers.

Because the amount of attention he received made people think it was a scam?

Isn't the EFF just guessing at what Apple found "objectionable"? I mean, Apple doesn't usually tell you....

Monopoly power - PayPal has no direct competition.

Indirectly, yes, I think that was a problem - by buying PayPal and closing their own payment service ("BillPoint"?) they ensured PayPal never had to worry about competition again.

If the devs aren't hitting their targets, that's a problem. If they are hitting their targets, but you think they are capable of more then make the schedule more aggressive.

However, I should point out that thinking for a living is a little different than many other modes of employment - just because they aren't typing doesn't mean they aren't working.

Is that such a bad thing? The larger the pay differential, the more likely the jobs will be sent overseas.