Really, that was her job?

...and gravity, it is a model that fits our observations.

A modern $200 video card has more raw processing power than any supercomputer built before 2000.

The number of entry points into programming that are available on the internet is staggering to someone like me who learned basic on a Apple II. The only "problem" these days is picking the entry point. Minecraft is a great pick for a child but not if the kid isn't interested.

What points? He called the GP a liar because he hasn't got a fucking clue what he talking about.

Why is that a bad thing? If I am going to be judged by an algorithm, don't you think I should know what the parameters are? How can I ever rectify a problem parameter if I don't know what it is?

There will always be cheats, you can't eliminate them all you can do is minimise their damage. There comes a point when the efforts to catch cheats outweighs the benefits, the system itself suffers as the rules and parameters expand in an attempt to catch every last petty cheat. The US health system(s) are a prime example, both private and public systems spend an inordinate amount of resources on lawyers and accounts that do nothing except look for ways to deny coverage / payment. It ends up costing the honest players up to 10X what it does in comparable countries such as Australia, but it still hasn't eliminated cheats.

It's very odd behaviour - people bitch and moan about YT ads or the thought of paying a nominal amount to remove them. How many of these same people have paid a couple of grand for a flat screen TV that broadcasts unavoidable ads for 1/4 of the time it's on?

Good pick up.

There was also the theory that explained the Moon's density by proposing it was like honeycomb inside, only a handful of people thought either of those theories made any sense.

Yep, oxygen build up was a disaster for the cyanobacteria that created it and had reigned Earth for 3+ billion years. On the plus side the free oxygen enabled collagen to form, which is the substance that holds single cells together in multi-cellular organisms. We call that transition "The Cambrian explosion". The collision we are talking about occurred 3.5 billions years before the Cambrian explosion.

Never heard of Shad Moss but the "value" is in what he says to his fans off-show. If he tells his fans something like - "Forensics is a fascinating science. CSI is a TV drama that takes the boring bits out of police work and adds a bit of hi tech magic." - then more power to him.

I grew up in the 60's, loved star trek and I dream of Genie. The "adult" backdrop was the Moon race, portrayed as scientific but driven by the fear sputnik induced in the pentagon. Virtually every boy in my school wanted to be an astronaut even though we knew there was no such thing as an Aussie astronaut at the time.

Humans are inspired by human stories, "magic" is just a plot device. To enjoy fiction such as Dr Who or CSI you have to "suspend belief", often that is not possible if you are expert in a specific kind of "magic"; eg "infinite zoom" which was ok in the 80's has now become a bad cliché because the general population are more familiar with pixilation. The problem starts when popular actors/storytellers start conflating their fiction with reality to drum up business (eg: Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code).

If the storyteller offers details about the magic it's important to me that the details are correct (eg: Big Bang Theory), a few correct details makes the magic much harder to reject. For example has Dr Who ever explained how the magic wand (sonic screwdriver) works? Do we need an explanation to enjoy the show?

Fracking and disposal wells are very similar, they both involve pumping liquid deep underground. I've heard it said that water pumped into faults can lubricate the interface between the "boulder" and the mountain, I believe there have been experiments on minor faults in CA to examine that theory that tension can be relived in the fault by pumping water into it.

The theory is that faults are similar to large glaciers where melt water has been shown to lubricate the interface between a glacier and the bedrock, accelerating the flow of the glacier and speeding up the calving of icebergs. This phenomena has long been a concern by climate scientists looking at east Antarctica. There is a difference between horizontal/vertical, ice/rock, but it seems to me that the mathematically chaotic behaviour of the crust means pumping water into deep wells is something we should should avoid if possible.

I've been a "science based greenie" since the 70's. It doesn't matter to me if you call it a fracking operation or a disposal well, the unpredictability and risks associated with pumping (often polluted) water deep underground is the core issue for both types of well.

Must be good, it has ubiquitous hardware support. ;)

If an obsession does not "fuck up your life", it's just a hobby.