"I do not have enough time... to actually verify what scientist have told me, ... So I therefor am going on faith"

I guess you can call that faith, but it's entirely different than religious faith because you *could* verify (or falsify) what the scientists are saying. And even if you don't do it yourself, others will, and will build on this work.

Neither your mother nor you nor anyone else could do that for religious beliefs. Religion is set up and religious faith is defined to make that impossible.

So your "faith" in math and science has little to do with your mother's "faith" in her religion.

This is +4 informative? Seriously?

For those who can't be bothered to read the summary, this is not about FO communications. Some guys are using the properties of fiber optics and light to figure out the temperature along a length of cable they dropped down a bore shaft to the ocean.

For some of us die-hard old bigots, "Ebola" actually conjures an image that positively rivals "Microsoft".

Each one costs a quarter million dollars to raise, so they're great for the economy. You know, like broken windows.

Plus some of them breastfeed.

"I still find unending amusement in the fact that we "know" so much based on observing distance objects"

I know, huh? Things were better back in the old days when we "knew" the cosmos without all this painstaking observation and maths and stuff.

"The best case is something solidly attached to the sea floor"
Then you should mount it to the dock, not the boat.

"If your salary is paid from the taxes of those of us who do work for money, maybe don't bite the hand that feeds you?"

He didn't bite you. He wasn't rude. He didn't call you stupid.

If his post stung, or caused you to feel stupid, perhaps deep down you feel there's another way of life that might suit you better. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to re-assess priorities and perhaps try another path. Seriously.

Do explain. Other than making you a novelty at parties, I don't see how your ride would significantly impact your life.

Or maybe he started out with a ruthless bloodlust for destroying all competitors and slowly grew up. And retired and tried to do something useful.

And figured out that his MSFT business approach was counter-productive as far as bettering the world goes.

Hey, it could happen. Maybe.

[citation needed]

They got 30% of the people to think they were texting with a child with limited language skills. I don't think that's what Alan Turing had in mind.

"This is like the military drawing up plans for kaiju attacks and zombiepocalypses.":

No, those are tongue-in-cheek thought experiments.

What we have here is scientists using empirical data to project a range of future possible outcomes. No mythical creatures involved.

"You're job is not to inject your opinion into slashdot posts."

Actually, part of the job of editors is to editorialize.

" let the next generation take care of it."
If there's one thing I love about America, it's our eternal self-assurance that there's no mess we can make that our kids won't clean up.

You see AC's commentary on the value of secrecy.