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Comment Re:Stop Pumping up OIL!!! (Score 2) 495

No. Most Norwegian military bases are located in the outer parts of nowhere, and regular soldier pay is worse than lousy (military service being semi-compulsory for men, still). Even if there are restaurants nearby, it's unlikely they could serve most of the soldiers stationed there, and if they could, most of the soldiers wouldn't be able to pay.

Also, the food tends to suck anyway, so a day of vegetables shouldn't make matters much worse.

Comment Re: I don't even know what you're talking about (Score 2) 82

In any modern browser: mark a word or phrase, right click it, choose 'search in Google|Bing' in the context menu. Even if you type 400 WPM, you just wasted several times as much time on your stupid comments than you would on doing 'research'. Not only are you a proud idiot, you're also a time waster.

Earth

Scientists Says Jellyfish Are Taking Over the Oceans 274

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Karla Cripps reports at CNN that a combination of overfishing, warming water, low oxygen and pollution are creating perfect conditions for jellyfish to multiply. "The jellyfish seem to be the ones that are flourishing in this while everything else is suffering," says Australian jellyfish researcher Lisa-ann Gershwin. In 2000, a bloom of sea tomato jellyfish in Australia was so enormous — it stretched for more than 1,000 miles from north to south — that it was even visible from space. While most blooms are not quite that big, Gershwin's survey of research on jellyfish from the last few decades indicate that populations are most likely on the rise, and that this boom is taking place in an ocean that is faced with overfishing, acid rain, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and climate change, among other problems. This past summer, southern Europe experienced one of its worst jellyfish infestations ever. Experts there have been reporting a steady increase in the number of jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea for years. With more than 2,000 species of jellyfish swimming through the world's waters, most stings are completely harmless, some will leave you in excruciating pain, then there are the killers. There are several species of big box jellyfish that have caused many deaths — these include chironex fleckeri in Australia, known as the "most lethal jellyfish in the world whose sting can kill in three minutes. "Just the lightest brush — you don't even feel it — and then, whammo, you're in more pain than you ever could have imagined, and you are struggling to breathe and you can't move your limbs and you can't stop vomiting and your blood pressure just keeps going up and up," says Gershwin. "It is really surprising how many places they occur around the world — places you would never expect: Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida, Wales, New Caledonia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India ... as well as Australia.""

Comment Re:Scientists == Always Right (Score 1) 197

You've got a good point about negative results, but I don't think I agree with the rest.

There's nothing wrong with peer review as such, but the current research climate doesn't help it at all. In many countries, research grants are tied to "measurable, objective results", e.g. articles published, preferably in highly-ranked journals. And so researchers want to publish as much as possible, in as highly-ranked journals as they can get into. (Leading to an explosion in research, so no one really has the time to follow all the research in their own field, or even doing thorough peer review.) Journals are ranked among other things from how often they are cited. Negative results aren't often cited. Replicated tests are only cited in systematic reviews. Setting aside money for replication would be a good idea, but journals shouldn't need to fear for their ranking for publishing less glamorous articles either (or rather: ranking shouldn't be taken seriously). Most importantly, publishing shouldn't be so strongly encouraged. Far too much is published already, and much of it just isn't very good.

As for online publishing: that has been the norm the last decade, and is absolutely dominant now. Comment areas? Like Slashdot? God forbid.

Comment Re:Simple (Score 1) 189

What we need is a 'google' of science/medical studies. Unfortunately our government's archaic and purposefully not updated methods of publication mean that if you want to get a digital copy... you have to contribute the labor to re-digitalization. Of course, you can get a digital copy... for a small additional processing fee. -_-

LOL, +5 "insightful" is the new +5, ignorant.

Comment Re:I don't care (Score 1) 532

Thanks.

However, that's 1850s dollars converted to today's, whereas today's dollar is decoupled from the price of gold, so the conversion isn't necessarily that straight forward. I found this newspaper clip from 1974, stating the price of picks, shovels and gold pans were $100 each. That's about five ounces of gold, so outrageously expensive, but still less than half a pound.

The problem is, of course, that even at the height of the California gold rush, there wasn't nearly enough gold to go around to that many people, to make a hammer worth a pound of gold. Hardly anyone had that much. A few people got crazy rich, but if you divide annual gold output by available rough estimates of the number of miners, you obtain average annual earnings of less than $600 per year in 1852. With 19.39 dollars an ounce, that's just short of two hammers for a year's labour. That's not to say it never happened (and demanding a price is not the same as getting it), but if it did, it probably wasn't a fair market valuation.

Comment Re:I don't care (Score 0) 532

I didn't write [citation needed], and I was fairly clear about why I needed further convincing. But by now I'm convinced that you're an uneducated fool and a bullshitter, as you clearly have no idea what a source is and what it's good for. No one with as much as a bachelor's degree at a semi-reputable institution would claim that "posted historical documents at Independence Mine State Park" is good enough as reference for any sort of degree, or that "where" or "when" is in any sense more useful than a proper citation when discussing historical matters.

Businesses

Apple Now the World's Most Valuable Brand, Knocks Off Coca-Cola 208

cagraham writes "According to consultancy firm Interbrand's latest 'Best Global Brands' report, Apple is now the world's most valuable brand, with an estimated worth of $98.4 billion. Since Interbrand began issuing the report in 2001, Coca-Cola has previously always claimed the top spot, but fell to third place this year, behind both Apple and Google. Tech companies now make up six of the top ten brands, but only 12 of the top 200. The report comes a week after Apple reported record sales numbers, moving 9 million iPhone 5s and 5Cs during their opening weekend."

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