Again. It's like a plague.

I'm running two versions of FireFox right now (the current 38.0.1 release and 40.0a2 nightly) Combined, both are using less than 700mb. I've had Nightly open for a little over a day, and the current release for about 6 days.

Free Candy

Every time I see this, I mentally replace the word "good" with the word "true".

This is Slashdot. By long tradition, we present first the ego of the autodidact and the arrogance of the Trekkie. As for tenacity, the Slashdot user is unrivaled -- holding fast to the belief that their thoughts opinions are infallible.

That would be correct. Though to be fair, it's really only been this way since ~1997.

That's a bit nebulous, isn't it? It doesn't matter if you believe talent to be in-born (which I do not) or earned (which I do). Either way, that argument can be applied to every skillful activity.

Re-read my post. You'll quickly discover that I agree with that completely.

That seems unlikely. It turns out that educated parents are more likely to be crazy anti-vaxxers.

As for homeopathy, a chemistry class isn't going to explain what homeopathy is or why it's nonsense. You'll find most people think it means 'natural'. Not that it matters. Avoiding the stuff is tricky. These days, homeopathic remedies go out of their way to avoid being identified as homeopathic. Worse, non-homeopathic things are being clearly labeled as homeopathic (like some zinc products) further confusing the issue for people who at least try to stay informed. (I put more blame on the pharmacy for allowing that on the shelves in the first place than I do homeopaths.)

A little knowledge of chemistry isn't going to help them identify and avoid the stuff. A health class would be far better suited for that.

Why does this come up in every discussion?

Programming is not special. It does not require a "special mind" or other magical in-born trait. Whatever cognitive skills you believe are requisite are shared by many other subjects. Nor is programming a particularly difficult skill to acquire -- children can, and often do, teach themselves. Odds are good that you taught yourself sometime around the age of 10, +/- a year or two.

"Oh, but only a few can be truly great", someone is bound to say in one form or another. Then we'd better not waste resources teaching children to write, as only a few will have the skill of Hemingway. Nor should we teach them arithmetic, as so few are capable of becoming great mathematicians.

The ability to write computer programs should not be such a large part of your identity. It's like seeing smug posts from folks who can drive a vehicle with a manual transmission -- a skill that took me an hour to learn, and a week to master. That does not make me special. Being able to write computer programs doesn't make me special. They're both simple skills anyone can learn.

Fuck you.

That may sound crude, but it's the only rational response.

It took him years, but he's finally made it half-way through Atlas Shrugged.

Indeed. I didn't expect much, but that's surprising few.

I guess he figured that televangelism was easier and far more profitable than astrophysics.

It's too far, and too hard to hit. Send him to the Sun.

f=ma

It wasn't a study, it was a publicity stunt.

That rabbit-hole goes far deeper:.

It was really the Anti-anti-Christian-witch-hunters who set it up to make it look like the Creationists set it up just to make it look like the anti-Christian witch hunters set it up so that they'd blame the anti-Christian witch-hunters.

Follow the money...