putsteadywere

"Our main objective is to abolish the Notability Criteria, because this is the major root cause of the aforementioned exclusion and inequality."

Woo! What a line to start on. I had a kneejerk 'heck no' response, but I buy the author's argument that the verifiability criteria and upholding the prohibition against original research can negate most of the downsides of removing notability.

I worry that it could make Wikipedia harder to search, and that pages will need to be better indexed.

What if my name is Paul Ryan, and I create a Wikipedia page for all 798 other people named Paul Ryan (http://howmanyofme.com/people/Paul_Ryan/) using whitepages.com to satisfy verifiability so that when people try and find my Wikipedia page they are greeted by a disambiguation page that would be 12 printed pages long?

In order to prevent people from using the end of notability to obfuscate, I think that Wikipedia may need to switch to a more Google-like ranked search engine.

thank you!

The more I read this the stupider it sounds.

"under almost no circumstances does is colonizing another planet the best way to adapt to a problem on earth...

...Even if an asteroid were to strike earth it would remain more habitable than mars. For example, consider the asteroid that struck the earth 66 million years ago creating the Chicxulub crater and wiping out 75% of plant and animal species on earth, including the dinosaurs. Well that disaster still left 25% of species that survived, all of whom would die instantly on the surface of Mars."

This insinuates that surviving the aftermath of a Chicxulub event is what threatens us - but it isn't the aftermath, it is the event itself.

Best quote: "Even though I am not an expert on space, physical sciences, or basically any relevant field, I can tell that this is obviously true. Maybe just it takes an economist to see through the nerd fantasies."

LOL!

Agreed. I read a lot of science fiction and I can't even think of a novel for adults where they would insinuate that something so stupid was possible.

TL;DR

"...a discredited theory spread through the local Somali community, by meetings organized by anti-vaccine groups. The activists repeatedly invited Andrew Wakefield, the founder of the modern anti-vaccine movement...

Anti-vaccine activists defend their position and their role, saying they merely provided information to parents.

“The Somalis had decided themselves that they were particularly concerned,” Wakefield said last week. “I was responding to that.” He maintained that he bears no fault for what is happening within the community. “I don’t feel responsible at all,” he said.

...activists started showing up at community health meetings and distributing pamphlets, recalled Lynn Bahta, a nurse who worked with Somali nurses to counter MMR vaccine resistance within the community. At one 2011 gathering featuring Wakefield, armed guard barred her, other public health officials and reporters from attending."

"There are so many regulations it's safer per megawatt than even wind or solar."

This surprised me! So I Googled it. Is this your source? It is Wikipedia's source. Who are the 440 people dying per trillion kWh of rooftop solar? (note: this is rooftop solar; utility solar statistics aren't included in the below source)

[0]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-d...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_accidents#Fatalities

There wasn't even a single tkWh of power produced by rooftop solar in 2012. The total solar (rooftop, commercial, and thermal) energy produced in the US in 2012 was 4,327 million kWh... or half a percent of 1 tkWh... making me think that the 'deathprint' of 440 deaths per tkWh for rooftop solar in 2012 was extrapolated by taking the number of people who slipped and fell off a roof and multiplying it by 200. My guess, based on the expression "Mortality Rate (deaths/trillionkWhr)", and the fact that less than 4.3 billion kWh of solar energy was produced in 2012 by rooftop solar (Wiki doesn't break out production by method), is that approximately two people have died in the quest for solar energy.

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_the_United_Stat...

Further - it is too soon to tell what the 'deathprint' for any given kWh of nuclear energy is. The method of production could kill someone for some time after the kWh is consumed.

Gravity based energy storage is inexpensive to construct and reliable. It is wasteful - but we're capturing an incredibly tiny proportion of the energy available from wind and solar for electricity.

[0]: http://www.powermag.com/let-gravity-store-the-energy/ [1]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/energy-storage-hi...

I'd take that to get out from under xfinity!

Relevant XKCD

Ponytail: We should go to the north beach. Someone said the south beach has a 20% higher risk of shark attacks. Cueball: Yeah, but statistically, taking three beach trips instead of two increases our odds of getting shot by a swimming dog carrying a handgun in its mouth by 50%! Beret Guy: Oh no! This is our third trip!

Reminder: A 50% increase in a tiny risk is still tiny.

[0]: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/increased_risk.png

Latency: Average 888 ms

Pass!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access

Now I know what I'm naming my next procedure.

Before I read this article, I was one of those people who was "hoping the greater spread of portable electronics will increase the ability of North Koreans to freely access information"

This article does a great job of explaining why it isn't that simple. This isn't like using a VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall.

So, AI brings massive productivity, which drops cost of living... and then what happens to the industries whose costs were reduced as part of that?

What if the impact of AI reducing costs looks like the impact of on textile industries in countries that receive mountains of donated clothes?

"The result of this harmful practice is increased dependency on foreign aid in countries like Kenya and Uganda. Local industry can't compete, so factories close down, taking priceless jobs with them. It's a huge problem."

[0] http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/spiegel-intervie... [1] http://blog.wovin.org/faq [2] https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/23/lets-kill-the-aid-industry...

Interesting idea! A hipster rococo renaissance.

This makes me a bit sadder about the fact that I averaged 55 hours a week last year.

This seems like it is exactly what a blockchain is for...

I'd use this tool. I would like to have the metrics exposed - I'd like to see my polarity, etc.

Trump: "Sorry, can't" Putin: "Yeah, Obama never would have done it either..." >.>.> CNN: US ground troops enter Syria today...

I wish people would think twice before wishing for millennials to get ass cancer...

"And for that, I'm thankful to have this clown in office."

I wonder if anyone said the same thing about emperor Nero's role in raising the profile of fire safety.

Portland Oregon's "Niketown" program

I love my local bikeshare and dock-less would be a huge improvement.

I've never noticed theft, and while there was some initial vandalism it never impacted our experience.

My local program allows us to check out 4 bikes at a time, per account. Last summer, my partner and I would check out 8 bikes and go out on the town with friends. The ability to share my bikeshare with my friends allows me to ride a lot more - it sucks to be in the mood to go for a ride and be hanging out with people who don't have bikes.

In Australia, the ratio of officers to sailors on ships has changed from:

1960s - DDG ‐ a ratio of 1 officer to 15.65 crew

1980s - FFG ‐ a ratio of 1 officer to 7.5 crew

modern - Armidale - a ratio of 1 officer to 2.5 crew

I've heard that other nation's services are seeing commensurate changes.

[0]: http://www.defence.gov.au/Whitepaper/docs/036-O'Keefe.pdf

"...at least those parts that are in their control." And there's the rub! In the article, the author notes that Ukrainian command-and-control is used in the attacks on these western services... and if they were attacking Ukrainian services, they wouldn't locate their command-and-control there.

You've identified an obvious solution and presumed that no-one is pursuing it, in dereliction of the facts.

do you have a link?