Sayonara

He's not dead yet you vulture. (After the confusion the last two Arafat threads caused about the poor chap's status I thought I should point that out )

Do you mean the Java applet? If so you will have to ask the person who wrote it.

I read that as "Perhaps we should move away from Merriam Webster definitions" and clapped.

In fact, you might say it "takes rather a lot of effort and coordination to take someone like Amazon down".

I hate that damned phrase on damned competitions. Damn them!

To be fair, the findings that indicate a pole reversal would not be cataclysmic are fairly recent, and not everyone is up to speed yet. I was a champion of the certain doom scenario myself not long back, until the area was refined by new information. However I can't see where the pole reversal -> tilt scenario comes from.

Yes, some changes can be made in seconds. A lot of mods however require that you edit code by hand in various documents, run scripts on the database etc etc. It's usually the big ones like an entirely new section which are tedious and difficult to implement, but some "simple" ones can be surprisingly demanding too. The worst ones are those which don't uninstall easily, and then go and choke forum upgrades.

The first project brief will appear tomorrow. It will involve organisational structures, resource management, technological development and social constructs.

I have no idea, but it was a wooden chemistry bench. This was nearly 10 years ago so I'm unlikely to recall what it was

Mine was during organic chemistry. "Don't let the reaction over-heat," we got told. Ah ha ha haaa. I wish I could remember the name of that acid because it ate through a boiling flask and the desk.

He didn't make an assumption about your relationship with your parents, he simply pointed towards your demonstrated behaviour towards an elder which you brought into the discussion yourself.

I was only replying to the bit I quoted.

I like the way he edited out the part that said "I know this because I am a geologist".

We would like to get some more useful discussion going, without the distractions of off-topic posts, flaming, gibberish or thread hijacking. Since this is almost impossible to do on a public forum, we put our heads together in the mods' area and came up with a new feature for SFN: Member Projects. What's Involved: Each project will be different. A topic will be set, with a short list of key objectives that need to be achieved as the goal of the project. There will be a subscription period during which time anyone interested in joining the project will be able to register their interest. This will be a bit like in the challenge threads for debates, with the key difference that no extra information will be given about the project. Once the members of the project team have been decided, a forum will be opened under "Projects" for threads relating to that specific project. Only team members will be able to post here, but everyone will be able to read the contents of the project. Each project will have different requirements and no two will be the same. Some might have a strict limit on the maximum number of participants, others might need as many members as possible. Some may have a single objective, others may have many. Time scales for completion of objectives will also vary, but we will try to ensure that each project lasts a couple of weeks at least. Important: These projects may require quite a bit of work. Think carefully about the project outline before deciding if you want to take part. If you cannot invest the time in participation or outside research (if necessary), you might find it difficult to contribute to the project. The structure of this feature is quite flexible. We'd appreciate feedback from project participants on any of the problems or areas that might be improved. See this thread for more details: Member Project Guidelines.

And oh yes, I'd like to point something out that has not occurred to me before. Evolutionary theory is simply a model of "something that happens". If one is going to pit it against god, the creation of the universe, and the meaning of all existence, then one is elevating evolution to a position of divinity that it neither requires nor deserves, which is a pretty odd thing to do for something you don't want to accept.

There is always the "if God didn't invent evolution, he must be kicking himself for letting someone else get there first" response if they get a bit too tiresome.

Well quite. Like they'd be walking around with big placards that said "we're from the future! please interrogate and dissect us, because disrupting the universe is FUN!"

The recommended course of action seems to be skip IPs and/or co-lo if possible, and pass all information to whatever electronic crime department your local police force operates. The ones I have heard about who pay up usually get another attack and demands for even more money a week later.

Gah, please use paragraphs.

Please tell me you're kidding - he used the "no visitors" argument.

Look Willowtree, we know evolution happens. It's an observable group of processes. Deciding it opposes god (who may or may not even exist) and therefore it should just go away and stop putting the burden of learning on people is a complete waste of everyone's time. What would be the point of that?

No, you can only go back about 50,000 years with radiocarbon dating. After that the amount of 14C isotope is too low to be distinguishable from background radiation. Here's how it all works.

Is "not buying the game" some sort of magical way to protect yourself and/or society from the minority of players who are adversely influenced by it?

If you can anonymously deny service to a server, you can essentially blackmail the owners into paying you to stop.