$100 million is a small price to pay for the humongous astronomy database that will come of this effort, and the tools to manipulate such a monster database, that we don't have yet.

The chance of them being successful seems pretty small, but this is one of those endeavours where we all win big, even if they lose.

Go for it!

I think it would have been hard for him to resist the GOP clown car. Especially after Trump forced himself into the driver's seat.

In any event, I'm glad he's back.

I have met people who are educated beyond the level of their intelligence. So I think the better sound bite is: an educated idiot is still an idiot.

I think it more likely that Trump discovered "tards will be tards", figured out some ways to capitalize on that, and, since he is clearly without ethical encumbrances, is taking advantage of the Republican idjits to push his own agenda fast, far, and furiously.

He is a masterful tard manipulator. That's dangerous.

There are, and always have been, only seven planets: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These are the Wanderers, known from the times before astronomy, before science, before even written history. Redefining "planet" in any other way is a corruption of the original concept: that some visible celestial bodies wander through the sky in predictable ways.

Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus did not make the cut: they are invisible without telescopes. Earth didn't make the cut either, since this one is unique for other reasons. Moon comes before Sun since its effects are much greater: look at the tides.

And that's the truth. Blpphlt.

I'm guessing it was an unanticipated race condition. Everything works correctly, everything passes all tests, but for some extremely rare constellation of input values software module "B" is able to complete its calculations and report its results before "A" can-- which has a probability of occurrence so low that it rounds to zero-- and that screws the pooch. If the probability of this happening again approaches zero, it would be fair for NASA to say there was no error in the programming, but instead an unexpected glitch in operations that is unlikely to ever recur.

You can never test for every possible corner condition. More than that, in probably every real world situation, the longer the time since the last hard reboot, the more likely it is that the software will encounter some corner conditions. That Pluto bird has been running for quite a while.

Those do not convey as much information. "Sh*t" not only says as much as "problem" or "anomaly" would about the observed state, but also says something about the state of the observer. "Sh^t" is therefore the more concise-- and eloquent-- word.

Just because I'm paranoid, that doesn't mean the AIs with slashdot accounts are not modding me down...

Impeachment of the judge is the better route. Much less messy, and more sure to bring a favorable change.

The direction action in this case is to call for the impeachment of the FISA judge. Whether that was successful or not, it would shine a light on the cockroaches and get them to scurry for cover.

Wow. Never really thought of it that way before, but that is certainly a powerful way to express my feelings about the whole God and Country mess.

I object to any God who wants to sodomize me or anyone around me, even if only in token and not in deed. I favor the Great Rite in deed, or in token when that is more appropriate.

It seems pretty damn absurd to go to those extremes when this judge could be handled by impeachment. Push your legislators and political action groups in that direction. Any judge can be impeached if he appears to be failing to apply the laws of the land in his decisions. This guy is clearly doing so.

I doubt that it would even be necessary for the impeachment to be successful. I think just a loud enough call to take this guy out of his office and invalidate a bunch of his recent decisions would shine a bright enough spotlight on the situation to get all the cockroaches scurrying for cover.

Judges can be impeached. This judge is too compromised, whether through fiscal means or by a profoundly limited understanding of the world, to perform the duties of his in proper fashion.

Impeach the sonufabitch.