It concerns me that neither you, nor the AC poster below who linked to a story on "notrickszone.com" (is that you?) know the difference between Sub-Saharan Africa and The Sahara Desert. These are not the same thing.

I am an American but live in Africa so I recognize I may be a bit touchy on this but I don't think that is the only reason for my frustrations here. It is wordplay like yours that falls firmly into the plausibly deniable version of deceptive messaging.

Whomever "notrickszone.com" is, it is patently deceptive to equate an 8% increase in woody plant encroachment across ALL of Sub-Saharan Africa with an 8% decrease in the size of the Sahara Desert. Sub-Saharan Africa is the entire continent south of the Sahara Desert. It includes South Africa (a country with massive cities at elevations higher than Denver, including snowfall), the Democratic Republic of Congo, a massive rainforest, Botswana a country with the largest inland delta in the world, and much, much, more. These nations and geographies share a continent with the Sahara Desert but nothing else.

Please don't lie about this anymore.

Come on l;;gmlxzssaw

I see you joshin me

Actin like... You know me

Woah dude, we just met.

So sorry to see you go. I have only been on Slashdot for about 10 years and I'm disgusted by this story too.

Whipslash, please address how the editors royally screwed up by approving this story. A simple, "We're sorry for this" would go a long way.

Spartacus

This is absolutely news for nerds. Please post stories like this one and fewer "Why Trump/Clinton are lizard people" stories.

On topic, what is the content of this 200tb proof? Is that just a text file where each character is a bit? How many libraries of congress is this proof?

Whatever the content, congrats to this team of mathematicians.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

I have mod points right now. I could easily have downvoted this. BUT there are enough people who think you are insightful to mod you up and simply modding people DOES NOT add to the conversation.

If you disagree with a comment
Post. A. Reply.

Do NOT stifle discussion just because you disagree with someone. I've modded people up who I think are horribly wrong about something but they make a good point and are adding to the discussion in a meaningful and non-toxic way so they are free to hold different opinions.

I cannot say this strongly enough. DO NOT DOWNMOD JUST BECAUSE YOU DISAGREE! We need to be free to disagree with each other and hold opinions that differ from the norm so that we can talk about this stuff. If we just downmod people we disagree with this whole site becomes an echo chamber of whatever the predominate pre-held opinion is. We should never encourage people to mod IN ANY DIRECTION (up or down) simply because of agreement or the lack thereof. Mod based on the informative nature, the insightful nature, the funny nature, etc. of the post. NOT HOW MUCH IT COMPLIES WITH YOUR WORLDVIEW!

American living in Mozambique (country to the immediate east of S.A) here.

We didn't notice at all. I had no idea this had happened until I saw this story here on slashdot.

It's funny, Mozambique is FAR less developed than our neighbors to the west (South Africa). Enough so that I routinely make trips there to purchase cheaper/better goods than can be found here and/or to relax and find some comforts that are unavailable here. Yet our internet connection is MUCH faster, more reliable, and cheaper than anything I've seen there in S.A. We have plenty of failing infrastructure but, luckily, our internet fiber is holding up.

It's hard for me to believe what I'm reading from so many commenters on this article.

Can we pause for a minute and try a different perspective on this?

Imagine a group of Thai media personalities/scientists/NGO-Creators (this appears to be what most of these "experts" are) sitting around a table with video cameras on them discussing "Look at that big 'Mississippi river' running right down that big continent. How's about we build a bunch of hydroelectric damns along that thing and generate energy for ourselves. I mean, it's just sitting there."

Now imagine ANYONE taking them seriously.

WHY THE HELL DO PEOPLE ACROSS THE ENTIRE WORLD HAVE ANY RIGHT TO BE TALKING ABOUT USING LAND WITHIN SEVERAL DIFFERENT SOVEREIGN NATIONS FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSES AS IF IT'S JUST THERE FOR THE TAKING???

Now back to the actual situation. It's breathtaking how arrogant it is to talk about the Sahara as if Europe could just go in there and use up that land because "it's just sitting there". Would the Swiss be OK with someone from Chad talking about going into the Swiss Alps and just harvesting all that snow/ice to ship back to Chad all casual like they have every right to just go use that?

Seriously???

You don't talk about using up Canada's vast Yukon wilderness for wind turbines and sending all that energy off to China and then just say "It's politically complicated". IT'S SOMEONE ELSE'S FSKING LAND YOU HALFWIT. OF COURSE YOU CAN'T JUST GO BUILD YOUR OWN DAMNED INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE YUKON AND SEND ALL BENEFITS BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY.

My GOD. Sometimes it looks like people don't realize that Africa actually has PEOPLE here who THINK, FEEL, SENSE LOSS, HAVE FAMILIES, TRADITIONS, FAITHS, HOPES, and actually wish there weren't crumudgeonly old men talking about their homelands as if it's just there for the taking as long as we bribe the local asshole who has the most guns.

For people who live with cancer, it's actually been found that's it's better to not use martial metaphors. For many cancer patients, the emotional journey is hard enough without feeling like they are "losing a battle" or "losing a fight" etc. with cancer. Even family members of those who've died with cancer often struggle with the emotions of feeling like someone "lost" or they "didn't fight hard enough". Living with cancer is not always something that has to be fought, especially brain cancer.

More on topic, Wes Craven was an artist and we will miss his art. Go well Mr. Craven.

I schooled in Network Engineering (though haven't used that education for years now) and fully agree.

Wouldn't it sound weird if a structural architect asked for keys and combination numbers to every door and lock in a building he/she designed?

Sheesh, how short ARE people in China?

Burma Shave!

I'm wasting mod points to agree here.

I have a bit of experience in this area. I live in a developing country and house cancer patients in my home. When they are terminal and the hospital cannot help anymore I help them get back to their families (often 1000+ miles away) or offer them a comfortable place to die and bring families to them (resources permitting). The biggest thing that I've found that these families need is to know and be known by their dying father/mother/etc. before the end. The "life advice" is a nice part of that but when I can encourage and facilitate a father opening up to his son or daughter about his past, his failures, his thoughts, his pain, his love, his adventures, his first kiss, his best friends in grade-school, his favorite games of soccer in school, how he met his wife (the child's mother), and any number of other stories... THESE things are what the grown child treasures. OP: I would advise making individual videos that each tell a story from your past. Talk about times you were disappointed. Talk about the humbling secrets that others cannot tell because no one else knew the story but you. If you list off your achievements it means little. Your wife and family members know those. Tell her about when you first learned about science and what joys it brought. Tell her how you felt when you started educating others and the way your heart flipped when you met your wife. Tell her how your almost dropped her when she was born because you were so emotional. Tell her that you knew so little about being a father that you put the diaper on wrong the first few times. Tell her about watching her grow and how frustrating and hard it was to be self-sacrificial for those years and how much it took out of you to do that. Tell her that she was worth so much more than the years you've been given to be self-sacrificial.

These stories and emotions will, I believe, be treasured far more than encouragement to pursue understanding differential equations, elliptic curve encryption, chemical biology, Linux kernel contributions, or any number of geeky things.

Well done for caring about how you leave your family. That is rare and you are to be commended for it. I like to tell my patients that they are not running out of time. They are running into eternity. You don't have to drag your feet in this. There will be tremendous pain and there will be devastating days and nights as your body weakens. You are running into eternity OP. I hope you run your race well.

Spartacus