I'm sorry but if switching to Tau requires you relearn calculus you have bigger problems then switching to Tau

Personally the argument for Tau has nothing to do with trig. Zero. Pi in Trig is harmless, it's once you start using Pi for everything else that it becomes ugly and clearly the wrong constant. Read "The Tau Manifesto", it goes over all the place that Pi is not as good as Tau.

For the area you're forgetting your calculus. Area calculations are basically summation equations and those always have a 0.5 in there. Table 3 of "The Tau Manifesto" shows several other such equations.This is a minor point that becomes a big deal. By lacking consistency across math what should be obvious and beautiful similarities become lost and hard to see.

Those other calculations are not any more difficult then they were before. Changing to Tau here is again a net benefit for mathematics.

I know changing from Pi to Tau seems silly but it's not at all about radius vs diameter for calculating the circumference, It's about everything else that uses Pi. When equations that use Pi are compared to other similar equations that use other constants they are always off by a factor of 2 in some way. Tau fixes that in all cases I am aware of (If you know any it does not please post them). "The Tau Manifesto" link goes over this in detail. Tau is simply a more fundamental constant then PI.

Yes. The idea of a mathematical notation that has been around for generations being replaced with something that makes more sense is something I would consider "News for nerds". While the idea has been spoken about before on slashdot and thus Tau it self is not news, Today being a day to promote it is news.

I don't think that matters at this point. Right now he needs to convince us, The geeks who play with the details. Once that is done the geeks will tell everyone something simple and dumb "Look mom. Sugar is just really bad for you ok? It causes diabetes. Cut back on it.". At that point people will listen and spread the word.

Personally I saw this video over a year ago and have enjoyed watching it spread to people the way it has. I expect it will be a long process and that normal people will start talking about this a lot in the coming years. With both the corporate fighting and the average Joe's refusal to give up on sugar it should be a long, fun battle.

this is the beginning of the end of nuclear power in japan. maybe the usa. probably europe

I doubt that, and I have numbers to back me up Majority Americans Say Nuclear Power Plants Safe Americans are fear mongers and still think nuclear power is safe after the incident. Since Japan loves futuristic tech and had no problems with it before the incident I doubt the fear will stick as much as you think it will. What is your basis for such a high level of fear?

I agree and think that would be a fair compromise. A hacked PS3 can't go on the PSN. They should not freeze or kill your account just tell you can't do X with your console.

This reminds me of a real issue that would make sense for Sony to try and protect it self from. Online players hacking their consoles to give them an unfair advantage in online games. I have a friend who is an avid PC and Xbox gamer. He has told me that while players on Xbox are more annoying it's a far more fair playing field since fewer people cheat.

If you are referring to the Jains they have been discussed elsewhere in this thread. The conclusion was that most of them depend on milk for their diet. While not meat it's close enough to prove that humans need animals for food.

Interesting group. I think they are as close as any group can get but they still drink milk. I'm not sure what's in milk exactly but I would think it's closer to meat then to soy milk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_vegetarianism

This might surprise you but I agree with you on just about all points. Some people can do it and if you can, I'm happy for you. The people that bother me are the militant vegans who claim that if you can't do it's YOUR fault and that not eating animals solves all your health issues.

Personally I've been waiting for lab meat ever since I found out where meat comes from as a kid. I don't want to kill some other creature to eat but not doing so not reasonable until lab meat is a reality.

I have a friend who has grown up on this diet. He eats eggs and drinks milk. I've talked to him about vegans vs vegetarians and he agrees that people can't be healthy on a vegan diet. An interesting note is that he also thinks how important dairy is to this diet may be why cows are considered sacred in India.

True and I should have been clearer on this. Part of my point is that any vegitarian must have some animal product if they want to be healthy. Maintaining animals you don't plan to eat is not much easier then maintaining animals you do plan to eat. Clearly synthetic eggs would be similar to lab grown meat. But I also think that synthetic meat is similar to the kind of synthetic milk you would need to support a healthy vegitarian diet.

Name one. I could be wrong about this but I bet any society that you have in mind does have a source of meat or at least animal product. In some they are hunters so the meat is rare, in others they have fish or eggs in their diet. Like I said the American diet has WAY to much meat in it but a diet with no meat at all is not something I think most people can live on.

I do. http://voraciouseats.com/2010/11/19/a-vegan-no-more/ It's long and anecdotal but worth a read. The general gist of it is that she was a vegan for many years but get horribly sick because no matter what she tried she could not put together a diet that did not leave her in a state of malnutrition. Once she (very very reluctantly) started eating meat again she was back to healthy in no time.

As a species we have eaten meat for too long. Yes, Americans eat far to much meat and some people might be able to do with out it but to say that it's possible for everyone to do with out it is wrong.

An important point in that link is that she clams to have contacted other vegan bloggers and they said in private that they cheat and have meat on occasion to keep healthy. To me this is a sign that while many people brag about having not eaten meat in X years most of them are likely lying to preserve their hard earned and (in their social circles) highly respected vegan status. They put so much effort in to something they believed in only to have it thrown back in their face as impossible must be a horrible experience that they refuse to come to terms with.

Parent is most valuable post here. If parent is accurate either 1) this project and results are total bullshit or 2) This experiment will end up being mentioned in high school chemistry text books in about a decade because it was the first clue that we royally fucked up nuclear bonding energy calculations or something else really fundamental. I'm guessing 1 but hoping for 2.