I also prefer a whitelist to a blacklist. The problem with it, though, is that when you come to a broken website which is calling scripts from a dozen different domains, and you don't know which ones provide functionality and which ones are for tracking. In those cases, when I'm in a hurry, I usually "temporarily allow all" the domains at once (except those which I've already blocked of course)but even then, activating certain domains will then make other domains appear on the list, which I also have to activate and reload the site again. It is a hassle and potentially confusing to new users (or anybody who borrows my computer).

I don't think the OP was suggesting we give up on dynamic websites; they said that websites should *fall back* to plain html/css with minimum loss of functionality. If your website defaults to a blank page with Javascript turned off, then yes that is bad design.

So what you're saying is, rich people don't want to live anywhere Republicans are in charge? Makes sense to me.

The AC does have a point: "creationism" (and "intelligent design") are potentially ambiguous terms to people who aren't engaged in the evolution debate. To us here (I assume), both terms refer to anti-evolution philosophies. To others, the terms may simply suggest that the universe was "created" and "intelligently designed" by a Creator, a belief which is in no way incompatible with evolution or science in general. It just feeds the false dichotomy of "religion vs science".

And they could host maker events and maker classes too. "Hey kids! Come this Saturday and learn how to build a robot!" How does that not bring in business?

If it's just a link to a website the way tiles normally work? And if the links go to reputable websites? I don't have a problem with Firefox asking Amazon for some money to put them on the front page.
On the other hand, the tiles could be more like banner ads, flashy spammy things, controlled by a 3rd-party network where Mozilla doesn't have much control over what shows up there. That would suck.

The anti-evolution party wants to destroy public education anyway; they want your kids to be educated by corporations. They're glad you're getting the point.

This is what I'm wondering: the IOC depends on the goodwill of a watching public: there are people who never watch any type of sporting event except for the Olympics, because they feel like they should, partly because it's tradition, because everyone else is talking about it. If it's too difficult to watch for an increasing number of people, does the Olympics start losing its importance?

Or maybe that's all FUD on my part, I don't know.

...if it lets advertisers know how much ads piss me off.

You don't have to take the AP test to take the corresponding AP class. (And usually the AP classes are free, while the AP tests are definitely not.)

NoScript lets you selectively enable scripts from different domains. And that's the thing: it would be very easy for a website to bypass adblockers, if it simply hosted its own ads under its own domain. It's when websites rely on ad networks for ads and scripts and the like that makes ad-blocking feasible.

In my physics classes I use the rubber-sheet analogy to discuss electric fields as well as gravitational fields: it offers an alternative to the notion that the Earth is directly pulling on each of us individually or a positive charge is directly pushing on another positive charge, even when they're not touching. If you place a bowling ball in the middle of the rubber sheet (or blanket, which is what I use in class) and then roll a tennis ball by it, it's obvious that the bowling ball is not reaching out and pulling on the tennis ball, but the attraction of the two is a two-step process: the bowling ball distorts the sheet, and then the tennis ball reacts to that distortion.

The field description of forces works the same way: the Earth first creates its gravitational field (whether there's anything there to feel it or not), which is a distortion in spacetime, and then our bodies react to that field by feeling a force. The electric field can also be thought of in a similar way: a distortion of spacetime that causes positive charges to feel a force in one direction, and negative charges in the opposite direction.

These results, while interesting, don't ruin the analogy for that purpose.

If that were necessary, then the company would have simply thrown some crappy placeholder website and called it Pinterest. So it wouldn't have made much difference.

I hate lyrics sites, as they're often not accurate, and the sites themselves are rather skeevy. I really don't understand why bands (or their labels) don't post lyrics to their own sites?
Or even better, put the lyrics in the MP3 files themselves, when they're sold! iTunes has a spot for lyrics, and it's ridiculous that I have to fill in that box myself, even when I purchase a song from the iTunes store (or anywhere else, for that matter).

It's not just about prestige, it's about cash. The NIH (etc) should offer grants for reproducing results, not just coming up with new ones.

Then again, it would help if the NIH offered more grant money, period. The sequester is killing American science.