Scientists may perhaps have a better understanding of phenomena that are impacting the world on a huge scale right now than those that occurred many millions of years ago...

What "science is settled"?

While I agree this particular issue is no reason to hate on systemd in particular, there are many legitimate reasons to prefer other approaches over the systemd mess.

And without the early adopters (which in some/many cases are governments, but now are increasingly just the ultra-rich), who do you think will pay for technology to be advanced?

^^ This.

The other thing that most of this negative commentary doesn't take into account is that Bezos' insane wealth isn't liquid. He can't just decide tomorrow that he wants however many billion dollars in cash to distribute to the needy people of the world. It doesn't work like that.

It would be nice if people suggested actionable solutions instead of just yelling angry things about rich people. It gets old.

Oh, I agree if we're talking about Party members. But the post to which I replied was talking about CEOs that have become wealthy from the stock they hold in their company.

You must be one of those people that doesn't understand where this kind of immense wealth comes from.

Hint: It's only tangentially related to what they pay their employees. It has more to do with what investors (especially in the stock market) think the company's shares are worth on any particular day.

What?

Let's say for the sake of argument you're right: Fahrenheit is "more precise" and some people prefer it because it is inherently better for that reason. I think it's then reasonable to assume that there would be demand for Fahrenheit-based temperature measurement/control devices around the world, because it's "more precise" and people prefer integers. But there isn't. Maybe the rest of the world just isn't as "precise" as us Americans.

I have an alternative theory: People that say they prefer Fahrenheit because it is "more precise" are actually just trying to convince themselves that they prefer it for a reason other than just being familiar with it. But the simple truth is that they prefer it just because they grew up with it.

Nope, I've just heard the "more precise" argument enough times to know what it actually means when someone says it. Preferring something because you are familiar with it is fine; but the "more precise" argument in this case is self-deceit at best. Yes, all temperature scales are arbitrary, so it doesn't really matter in the end. It's just disappointing that so many Americans try to delude themselves into thinking that Fahrenheit is better for any reason other than familiarity.

But yeah, I agree 100% about the bad programming.

We were doing well there for a while, but you missed my point again.

Please see the original statement to which I replied:

The implication here is that Fahrenheit is better for weather-related purposes because of its smaller gradation in integer values. (Why make this statement other than to suggest that it's better for this reason?)

You're missing the important detail here that I'm talking about integer-value measurements. So tell me the weather-related [or really any] application where you're measuring in integer values where one degree Fahrenheit makes a meaningful difference.

There isn't one. Because if one degree matters, you're recording fractions of a degree in your data anyway. No one measures things where one degree Fahrenheit actually matters in integer values of degrees Fahrenheit.

I have a Fluke 54 thermometer sitting on my desk. If I set it to read Fahrenheit it reads in tenths of a degree----because if you're doing something where precision matters, you're not recording the data in integers.

I'm not arguing against precision being important. I'm arguing that Fahrenheit is not in any way superior just because its values packed closely together on the temperature scale.

My argument here is that it is ridiculous to think that Fahrenheit is somehow a better unit of measure because it's "more precise" in a way that doesn't matter at all (specifically, that it has smaller temperature differences between subsequent integer values than Celsius does---something that matters in exactly zero actual real-world applications). At best, Fahrenheit is equally as useful as Celsius. At worst, it's a PITA because nearly the entire rest of the world uses Celsuis and we have to convert to be compatible.

Sorry if I didn't spell that out clearly enough originally.

The problem here is that one [integer] degree Fahrenheit never makes a difference with anything. The vast majority of thermometers aren't even accurate to one degree Fahrenheit, so 69 vs 70 degrees is a meaningless difference in the real world (and in any application where that level of precision really matters, you'd be using real numbers rather than integers anyway). Should you measure your morning coffee in mols because it is a smaller unit than ounces?

Is that precision meaningful to you when you're getting dressed in the morning?

I'm impressed if you can tell the difference between 68F and 69F by feel.

So you don't see any issue with the implied legitimacy of Beijing's claims to Taiwan if Taiwan were to accept the PRC's offers?

It's exactly the kind of soft-power game China has been playing for years, and you're buying into it like so many other people that don't actually follow it all very closely.

The PRC actively prevents Taiwan from interacting with the international community, in a number of ways. This is not an instance of "two crybabies on the playground", as you say below. This is an instance of one kid preventing another from playing with anyone else, and then being offended when the bullied kid doesn't want to take an icecream from them. The bully is the one in the wrong, not the one being bullied.

The "central government" of one country is refusing to allow the government of another country to acquire the vaccine. Pretty evil, right?

But it's okay, I get it. Everybody's gotta make money somehow. Here's your 50 cents.

Found the wumao troll!

You were perhaps expecting better behavior from the Chinese government? Seems unlikely.