Namely, this was in the page for Desiree Washington, the woman that Mike Tyson was convicted of raping.

In the section about the rape accusation, trial and conviction of Mike Tyson, I added information about a previous false allegation made by Ms. Washington against a high school friend.

Someone reverted my change with a cryptic comment about "BLP". I saw it a few days later and re-created my change. Again, my change was reverted with more comments about "BLP".

This was several years ago so I don't remember exactly what was said back and forth but the gist of it is that the other party thought that there was something in the wikipedia rules about the "Biographies of Living Persons" that prevented me from including the information about the false rape allegations Desiree Washington made in the past. I challenged the person to show specifically where BLP precluded me from including this information, they could not so I restored my change.

Apparently this other editor had wikipedia political connections because I received a "Warning" for making my edits. I was willing to be banned over this because for me it's about the principle of the thing. If wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, I was going to make sure that this factual information was included. Hell, I can generate throw-away email addresses and wikipedia accounts. I'm not sure who resolved this but what happened in the end was that Desiree Washington's page went away and the information about the false rape allegations in her past were included on Mike Tyson's page.

After this, I stopped editing articles. I realized that situations like this are precisely why wikipedia isn't considered an authoritative source in the academic sense. People with more knowledge about a subject and with the supporting documentation can lose edit wars if the ignoramus on the other side has the political clout to have them blocked.

LK

If they qualify as sentient, then yes.

Where are the peer reviewed papers and corroborating research?

Enlightened idea? No, this is just foolishness.

You forgot the possibilities of malicious wounding, attempted murder, and murder. Chimpanzees are incredibly strong and often violent

String [] things = {"computers", "electronics", "roads", "bridges", "space flight", "aeronautics", "new materials", "solar energy", "improved batteries" };
for (this : things){
System.out.println("why oh why are scientists wasting time on " + this + "? one step at at time, for now figure out how to cure cancer before worrying about the big picture. you must unzip your pants before worrying about how much piss comes out");
}

Does that answer it for you?

No, it is still not even wrong, but we are closer to knowing if it could be right or wrong. This is not strong evidence, let alone proof, of string theory. This just gives it a way to be more compatible with relativity. The problem is that it could be just a good approximation of something else.

Dawkins is concerned only with enriching himself, hence his assholery.

You don't convince people that you're right by being an asshole.

You can prompt people to question their beliefs by asking the right questions.

Be friendly, be personable, don't be an asshole.

Be Penn Gillette, don't be Dawkins.

Evangelical Atheists are just as annoying as Jehovah's witnesses.

LK

How to dispose of nuclear waste in 8 steps:

1. Gather and crush material to be disposed.
2. Mix with material to create a ceramic base.
3. Create 1' diameter by 10' long ceramic cylinders from the base material.
4. Add a 1/2" coating of plastic.
5. Drill a 30,000 foot deep hole in the subducting Pacific plate off the Washington coast.
6. Insert 1,000 or so cylinders, followed by enough concrete to backfill the hole to 10,0000 feel
7. Backfill the last 10,000 feet with material from the initial drilling
8. Repeat

All the details are simply engineering.

Slashdot screens and/or modifies some tags. You may also want to check your posting settings under /my/preferences or click the "settings" gear. You can change your posting mode. And, somewhere there is a list of the "allowed" tags.

Yes, I am actually an American. The scary part is that I was born in Alabama and raised in Florida. I truly am an anomaly. Of course, I haver

HTML tags, give them a try.

Um, no. That would be Britain. The U.S. is supposed to be secular country populated many people who claim to be christians.

Aww, is the little whiner so upset because someone is being forced to pay restitution for his crimes? What's the matter, did you participate in some of these crimes and now are afraid or guilty? If you feel so bad for the douche in the article, why don't you help him pay the cost?

In both this crime and the crimes I mentioned, the crime was only committed for one minute.

Whether the crime is committed for a year, a day, an hour, a minute, or a second, the crime is still committed.