John Cuthber

But the fault lies with you, not the software. it's still doing what you told it to.

Thank you for taking the time to frame your argument so convincingly. I'm sure that you will have changed everyone's mind on this matter.

For what it's worth, I already wrote the user guide. Now all we need is the spec.

Well, since we are currently writing the specification for the piece of software we launched in August...

Just for the record, of it was a short o, it would be pronounced like the o in "top". Every day is a nerd day!

An isolated sphere about a thousand km in diameter (which is, indeed outside our current capability) would do- but the problem still remains that, because "space" is conductive, you still need to supply power to maintain the voltage. The moon is pretty close to 100µF http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/111582/capacitance-between-earth-and-moon but we need it for other things.

Because evolution can't drive down the incidence of conditions -like cancer- that generally only affect you after you are old enough t have raised children. "Is there an environmental reason? In other words, are the chemicals created by industry and spilled into the environment causing an increase in cancer rates?" Generally, no. we have cleaner air and water and less mouldy food than our forbears could have hoped for. We also actually test synthetic chemicals to see if they are carcinogenic before we mass produce them. So many or most carcinogens in the environment are natural- sunlight is a big one- or long standing ones like soot. Occasionally we screw up on this- diesel smoke is possibly an example. The very fine particles produced by modern, fuel efficient, engines can penetrate deeply into the lungs and they might be more of a problem than larger particle sizes. The other significant factor that has changed is that more of us are fat; and being fat increases the risk of cancer. Do you include food among "chemicals created by industry and spilled into the environment"? However the simple answer is that, if our modern environment was killing us to a greater extent than in the past, by any mechanism we would have shorter lifespans; we don't.

Actually, no software has bugs- the computer does exactly what you tell it to. The problem is that you are running the wrong software for the job you want to do. It's a specification problem.

"First off, he claimed that the thousands of peer reviewed papers regarding climate change were "pop science"," Well, the first thing to do is ask how he define "pop science". Because, according to Wiki, it's "Popular science (also pop-science or popsci) is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. " and that pretty much excludes peer review. So you friend is simply factually wrong. Then there's the perennial issue of people describing the scientists and their work as "amounting to a conspiracy of like-minded, politically influenced dittoheads out to fool us." where they never quite explain why anyone would bother. Apart from anything else, you don't get much kudos in science for supporting the status quo- you get the big bucks for overturning it. So, perhaps your friend can explain why all these scientists are devotedly working towards not getting fame and money. And, not that it's a vital part of the discussion in my opinion, "He further argued that peer review is unrelated to the scientific method " Well, the scientific method is based on trying to show that you are wrong- you can never prove a scientific theory- you can only try to disprove it. Peer review is a simple way of letting someone else- who is knowledgeable, but independent- have a first go at refuting the work before anyone goes to the trouble of printing it.

Not really. "space" is conductive

Can you get code that checks the date of a post before you reply to it?

The world doesn't mind what you believe, but there's still no deliberately added oxygen. Why would Theodore know better than the manufacturer? Why would the manufacturer go to the trouble of paying for the QC needed to make sure the stuff was safet to breathe wnhen it's much easier to put a label on it saying you shouldn't breather it And, perhaps most importantly, why bother to come here for advice if you don't accept it?

It won't dissolve in anything without being destroyed. Did you enjoy that?

I think lightning is a very inconvenient way to get electricity.

Space is conductive.

Something like this might help you http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings But "reputation" is a bit of a nebulous concept.

Well, feel free to answer on his behalf about who makes the decisions? As I said "Who else would make that decision?" Because, if it's not the people, then it's not democracy. And we know that the Republican party (and other Right wing parties) sometimes do what big business wants, rather than what the people want. So...

If it's a computer readable database and in the UK then, unless those people whose data are in there gave written permission in advance, the database owners are forbidden from providing that data to you under the Data Protection Act. I imagine that similar legislation exists elsewhere.

Well, what you said was " The government has a never ending list of people they insist are entitled to the earnings of people who work. " And I asked who those people were. And you didn't answer. So, here's another chance Who are these people that the government generates who they say are "entitled"? More importantly, perhaps, if the government was voted in, and the people's representatives decided that these people were entitled and you live in some sort of democracy then how do you escape from the idea that, in fact, they are entitled? Who else would make that decision? Oh! I see now- it's you. How could I have missed that? You, and you alone, have the God-like ability to say who is entitled to what. Well, why don't you stand for election?

Really? Who? If I'm employed by the government to do things they were voted in to do- like maintain the water pressure- am I not "entitled" to be paid for that? OR do you somehow think that you are "entitled" to get that service without paying for it?

https://xkcd.com/1179/

From Milikan's experiment. Where are you getting anything else? He needed a microscope to see the oil drops which suggests they are pretty small- perhaps 1 to 10 microns. (one of the errors in the measurement is due to the drops being small enough that air isn't a fluid, it's a bunch of moving lumps) With a density of about 1 gram per ml and a volume of something of the order of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a ml . your "estimate" of a milligram or so looks to be about 7 orders of magnitude out. But even that's not the only problem. If the Xray source or whatever is producing enough ions to put a thousand electrons on a bigger oil drop in a reasonable period of time then, over the course of the experiment it's likely to add lots more. The number wouldn't be anything near constant so you wouldn't be able to make measurements.. Once again, I see you are choosing to argue that everyone is wrong, rather than actually checking. It's a habit you should get out of.

Win: Win.

Neutron stars are not typically thought of as "small" so they may be a little off- topic but neutrons have been seen to fall under gravity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultracold_neutrons#Observation_of_the_gravitational_interactions_of_the_neutron

Essentially, Waitforufo seems to be making his decision about voting, not on today's candidates, but on some weird historical mish-mash of Jim Crow and the 1970's version f trade unionism that leads him to think that Obama is the racist, rather than Trump. Should he be allowed to vote,, or is he too deluded for that?