Thanks for pointing out mistakes in his explanation. This allows other readers to see his statement in another light. But why "mod him to oblivion"? He offers a remarkable story. Why should others not be able to judge for themselves (taking into account your own comment)?

Making the parent's remark even more to the point.

More to the point, how can the researchers assess which female rats are "babes" and which ones are fuglies.

Easy enough. The "pretty ones" are being fucked more than the ugly ones.

How would this be an easy way to get random numbers? Why not just sample an analog noise source? Admittedly, I wasn't even aware of this apparent need for random numbers and the difficulty of getting them.

You are completely correct in that. There is indeed a difference between knowledge (data) and reasoning. However, chances are that if you haven't got a clue whatsoever about numbers and orders of magnitude, that you won't reason very much either.

Most of the time when I read something related to physics, I like to do a rough calculation in my head to see if what is stated seems logical to me. Like how high the ocean level will rise when so many tons of ice melts on Antarctica, what efficiency can be reached with some new kind of solar cell (and whether this is spectacular or not), how long it would take an airliner to fly around the world, etc.

Strange enough, the hardware (pavement) turned my firmware into software, and it took a long time to recover.

... whenever I try to pull one out, I risk a heap dump.

Fortunately your book collection is in the bathroom.

Short answer: because people like books.

Books are (at least in my opinion) easier to browse and go everywhere. Also it is faster to reach for a book than to boot some reader, find a file etc... whereas a book is just sitting on the shelf. Obviously this only works for stuff you have read before (and remembered more or less where it was).

You have a point that it makes little sense not to get all books from a library, but sometimes people just want to have something.

For those who don't know the reference.

Good thinking! And then we burn the diamonds, and the problem is solved completely!

... persisted in their urge to create a black hole, be it in space or in the economy.

Why would everybody "in charge" have gotten there by kissing ass? My previous boss managed 5 teams (of 1 to 3 persons, I was a one-man team), none of which he would have been able to replace because he didn't know the technical details of any team's work. But he was a great boss, great manager and did exactly what he needed to do, i.e. from all management decisions filter out the things any of his people needed to do, tell them and follow-up. And give them the resources.

Without these "glorified secretaries", most companies would collapse.

Seriously, they're people. You make it sound like you're some exotic zoo keeper and you need to know what to do when they present their glowing red ass.

To be honest, judging from some of the comments here, that is an idea programmers seem to want to promote themselves, because they are more special and gifted than normal human beings.

I'm not trolling here. Just scroll up and you'll see.

Reports are generally useful if many people work on something together. It may all be in your mind, and you may know what you are doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone knows about it, or that in a year you won't have forgotten stuff that is obvious today. Some paperwork is useful, even for the Greatest on Earth. Not all of it is control and waste of time. If "I-do-my-job" is so high on your list, apparently, why can't you accept that reporting is also a part of your job, and asking you to report is part of your boss's job?

Who says the term "piracy" can't have two meanings? If the rest of the world is ok with calling this form of copyright infringement "piracy", even though no physical is stolen, then that is what it means.

Besides -and this is not addressed at somersault- it is beyond me why this type of topic always leads to semantic discussions. I, for one, whould not be shouting off the roofs that I am reaping the fruits of another's labor, against his will, whether this is called theft, piracy, copyright onfringement or whatever. I do it, like everybody, but at least I don't try to make it ok with Newspeak.