My one comment is: how the heck does that guy in the upper left image get off his bike?

Spoon

I'm a scientist. I'm all about studying how things work. I don't do pie in the sky, I do the exact opposite.

The difference between ID proponents and children is that you can reason with children. ID proponents (and let's be honest and call them biblical creationists, cos I know for sure you don't think Earth sits on the back of a giant turtle) complain about 'lack of evidence' and bleat about the 'dogmatic atheism of evolutionists', and it is simply impossible to have a reasoned discussion with them. Facts and evidence mean nothing. Hundreds of years of accumulated evidence and scientific consensus are ignored. Why would I champion these people as sckeptics? Unlike true skeptics, they ignore the facts.

Reason and rational thought are in serious trouble in this country. America is being dumbed down by ideology and I make no bones about blaming asshats like Ben Stein, ID/creationists and climate change doubters.

Spoon.

There are many examples of spontaneous complexity in nature- next time it snows, look at a snowflake up close. Look at any crystal for that matter. Or consider the many complex molecules that spontaneously assemble if the physico-chemical conditions are right.

You parrot creationist (whoops, I mean ID) arguments that are largely based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (that all systems always tend to move towards greater disorder / entropy). If you're really curious about how complexity arises naturally without the intercession of a higher power (and I suspect you're not), there are a number of excellent books out there, starting with Christian De Duve's "Vital Dust".

Seriously, Cory, I am disappointed. First, the videographer behaves like a jerk- if he wants to play the moral superiority card, he should politely approach the officer... this feels more like a video mugging. Second, he inflames the situation with his behaviour, aggressively following her and pestering her. Third, who walks around getting uppity over a temporarily blocked hydrant? The whole video is annoying and beneath the standards of this site. If it wasn't for the stupid "it's cos of the terrorists" bit, there wouldn't be anything here worth looking at.

This has got to be the dumbest idea for a kids book ever. It's right up there with those joke kids book titles that circulated a while back- like "Daddy Drinks Because You Cry" and "Elmo Experiments".

Talk about sending the wrong message.

Huh. An electric air compressor on the floor of the bathroom, beside the tub. Wonder why the idea didn't take?

Well, it's a beetle. Then again, so are most things.

What a grandstanding prick.

As a teacher, I have had to deal with bullying on a daily basis, and I find this so-called 'overture to discussion' cynical. The game is all about turning a major problem into a game. There is no heuristic value to it. I can't see any value to it at all.

I am suspicious of Clint Hocking's motives. The time for his proposed discussion was BEFORE the game got produced, not during the publicity / marketing stage.

Sorry, furious.

Here is an interesting stat: the atmosphere only ever contains enough water for about two weeks' worth of rain. If surface evaporation were to stop tomorrow, there would be no more rain after two weeks.

Up until I heard that stat, I figured the atmosphere had huge amounts of water, but really, depending on where you are, it only contains 1-4% water vapour.

Is it just me or are there a ton of news items about water these days?

LI MOM, I think the concern is that we are only just beginning to understand how widespread a problem this is. I really don't believe bullshit conspiracy theories- I've worked with people at all levels on this issue (EPA, state agencies, public works) and they are dedicated, hardworking people... the only thing I can fault them for is occasionally having too much faith that existing regulations adequately protect people.

Example: during the 1993 Milwaukee outbreak that led to 403,000 people getting sick and 100-150 deaths, the water supply was repeated tested. Not once during the outbreak did the water supply violate EPA standards- which led to some initial resistance to the notion that the water supply was responsible. We now know that the causative agent was Cryptosporidium, and that existing testing facilities were not equipped to detect them. Since 1993, we now understand that Crypto is almost universally present in our water supply- it's one of the reasons people buy home filtration systems.

What really worries me is that we may be heading for another Milwaukee- a slower, more insidious kind of mass poisoning, one that doesn't pop up on the regulatory radar until it's too late.

Excellent posts by #8 BARDFINN, #14 MADSCI and #20 ARTEMIA.

I would only add that Water Security is probably going to be the hottest issue in the coming decade. The concept covers much more than 'security' in the post-911 sense; it includes a variety of broad principles such as:
- protection of the entire watershed/basin (the area of land that receives the precipitation that will feed the water source), including the regulation of land-use
- protection of well heads and groundwater
- in some cases, barring access to especially sensitive areas
- encouraging the conservation of water, enacting legislation if neccessary

I can't think of a single issue that is more vital and yet so completely neglected... it's crazy that an article like this should come as a surprise. Environmental scientists have known about aquatic pollution with synthetic estrogenic substances since the 1980s, and we've been measuring detectable levels of pharmaceuticals (prozac, viagra, etc) in sewage effluent and fish since the late 90s. I'm relieved the word is finally starting to get out.

U eated my morron frend.

Wasn't there something in Quebec a few years back, something about a couple wanting to name their newborn 'Spatule' (the French for 'spatula')? The Government said no.

I suppose you can call a kid whatever you want, regardless of what's on their birth cert. I have a friend named Roland, everyone calls him Kelly. He has a daughter named Kelli, everyone calls her Sarah.

I dunno, I think it looks kind of goofy. Plus the Tim Horton's colour scheme makes him look like a source of coffee to me. I keep wanting to give it my order, yeah, that'll be two double doubles and a donut please.

He looks way more like the friendly little guy from Short Circuit than ED209.

Community stations like this always seem to have at least one or two folks like this guy. At the station I volunteered at, there was this one DJ who would criticize the other volunteers, threaten to "cancel their shows", and generally try to manage the place. When he later got voted down for a program director job, he flew into a fit of rage, passed out, and then threatened to kill himself/us. He was eventually asked to stay away from the station, but unfortunately, we didn't change the locks immediately, and a number of CDs disappeared shortly after his dismissal. Some of the gear got messed with as well.

#27, were you treating people around you like they were 'provincial' and ignorant? Were you behaving as if local custom had to bend to your worldview rather than the other way round? I've lived and worked in the maritimes for almost eight years and I can assure you that they are friendly and open and sensible. They come across as self-deprecating but there is a fierce core of pride that you offend at your own peril. You may want to think back about how you were behaving, because in my near-decade of experience, maritimers do NOT go about insulting strangers. It's anathema to them.

And I have to laugh about Vancouver being the most open-minded Canadian city. I know a few Asian-Canadians and First Nations folk who might disagree.

If it looks like dough, acts like dough...

...and starts just downstream of a pizza place...

It's astonishing what you find down there. I've visited a lot of sewage treatment plants for work-related reasons and the most revolting thing I've seen is an endless two-foot diamater sausage of human hair that is produced during the initial removal of solids like hair, condoms, etc. prior to primary treatment.

This doesn't look like hair, but I thought I'd share.

Two thoughts. First, I am curious- is it the mere presence of a EULA, or its wording, that is upsetting?

Second, if a company can say that an EULA takes effect as soon as I break a plastic seal on a product that I have bought, than I don't see why Cory can't attach an EULA to his emails, that takes effect as soon as the email is read.

Someone at some point is going to have to explain the whole EULA thing to me, as IAdefinitelyNAL.

The Xmas brigade is out in force on this thread.

My soul is not so fragile that it can't endure a little creepy fun, thanks very much. I've checked out the photos, and at worst they were silly.

Posts like #7 and #13- now that's what really creeps me out.

@#22 Awesome post. A great example of what should be going on: people using experience and jugement to weed out potential problems, rather than stupid checklists.

Holy smokes, we're turning into a nation of squealers. I think some of the blame goes to America's Most Wanted and McGruff for getting the general public addicted to providing tips to LE. Who needs cops when we all spy on each other?

Man, getting old is awesome. A part of me has always wanted to do that: drive in and out of a car wash at top speed! How badass is that.

I would love to see the police report and followup on this one.

My experience of US border guards has been almost universally positive. As a Canadian taking an academic position in New York, I needed a TN Visa. At the border, I was photographed, printed, signed a form- the whole process took 10 minutes. As always the staff were courteous, asking about my research, etc. I've only ever been stopped twice: once because I had fireworks in the back seat (oops), and another time at Logan Airport because I had a swiss army knife in my carry-on (major oops). Both times I was treated courteously but firmly and allowed to proceed minus the offending items.

Weirdly, I have more problems at the Canadian border, where I am sometimes treated suspiciously. We Canadians can sometimes be a bit smug about our 'tolerance' and multiculturalism, but in many ways the process in the US is more accomodating. Heck, if you're importing goods, you can even fill out the requisite forms in the language of your choice: Thai, Arabic, Chinese, you name it. Try doing that at a Canadian crossing.

Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that I am a professional, employed, legal, english-speaking caucasian...

Here's hoping all scientific journals end up going this route. It's ridiculous how hard it can be to access the ostensibly 'public' information in these journals. I've recently completed a meta-analysis in my field (biology) and despite having access to the subscriptions of four major research libraries, I've had to omit data from 6 major studies, simply because I could not access them without incurring major costs (in one case over $45 for access to a single article).

As a Canadian, I'd like to see the Canadian National Research Council set the example by making their journals freely accessible online (I understand the need to charge a nominal sum for printed matter), but I'm not holding my breath.

Hee hee.

For the record, the animal with the longest penis relative to its size is the barnacle. But I'm ducks have very nice penises too.

I've also used Flash for conversion to vector, but I don't use it if I want an exact vector version of the original image. It often yields super stylized results, which are quite pleasing for some (but not all) applications. I'll give this a whirl- thanks for the tip.

@savage_lucy

I think @Gobo was suggesting that Rita Skeeter would be aware of 'rumours' surrounding Dumbledore's sexual orientation, and that her comments about a "more than polite relationship"- which I didn't catch on to at all when I read the book- would in fact be an attempt to besmirch both Harry and Dumbledore. Such a relationship would of course be frowned upon among Muggles and Wizards alike.

As for Grindenwald- at no point does Rowling suggest that he was gay too. She merely says that young Dumbledore was drawn to him, leaving us to speculate about what went down, uh, I mean, what actually happened between them.

@V(irtual)D(espot)

Not sure what all of this has to do with taking artistic chances. She never mentioned his sexuality in the books because it was completely irrelevant to the plot. The books are about Harry, not the hot teen years of young Dumbledore.

Rowling has simply stated that she conceived the character as gay, which is pretty much good enough for me.

What flabbergasts me is this: Radiohead make their files avaiable online, in a format and at a bitrate that should accomodate most users. They ask people to pay what they think is a fair price for X years of work and expertise, and people grumble about paying $5?

I am all for fighting the copyright vultures etc, and I download all the time- but I am really worried that many of us have forgotten what a 'fair price' is. Many of us held the moral high ground by saying we would support the artists directly if we could. But now, given the opportunity, we complain about paying $5 (!), and justify bypassing Radiohead's site and downloading via torrents by complaining about bitrate. Maybe we really do expect to get everything for free- maybe we really are the pirates the copyright vultures say we are?

Halifax (in Nova Scotia, Canada) went through an exercise maybe 5 years ago where they combed through all of the municipal laws and bylaws that had ever been passed, and discarded the ones that were no longer relevant, or were unenforced (or unlikely to need enforcing?). For instance, the city had laws banning the grazing of livestock on the Commons, a well-used public green area smack in the middle of downtown. There were also quaint laws against ringing doorbells after dinner.

I thought it was a great idea, but I have no idea whether the exercise ended up being worthwhile. If any Haligonians are out there, I'd love to find out.