"too many copies" ... "having too few"

This kind of organisation usually has a backup somewhere, they just have to find it. Its usually backed up on a post-it note somewhere. Maybe they should ask all of us to look for it, on the sides of our monitors.

Its called humor, its just the mod failed to read the main title said "biggest ever built by earthlings"

As in implying other non-earthlings also build spacecraft and some maybe bigger objects, which is in itself a funny concept. I was then building on that in the way scifi films react to aliens. So it was on topic and it was simply a joke. But it seems the mod and commenter prefer to enjoy putting people down. (Once a comment is put down it usually stays down due to Priming but I wouldn't stretch you mind to comprehend that).

All humor is like a Turing Test for humans. That mod and feder failed.

"NASA is terrible with arbitrary deadlines"

I think I should just politely point out, surely you're missing the main part of the news? ... I mean, you can't think NASA's deadline accountancy errors are the biggest part of this potentially huge news event?

For example, from the main summary:
"The international space station is by far the largest spacecraft ever built by earthlings"

I mean come on, hold the front page or what, call the joint chiefs now! ... there are spacecraft bigger than we make up there!?! ... UMMM??!! .... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! [inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale] AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! cool or what!!?!

I didn't miss the 3.5% comment. That doesn't change the fact news organizations are big and so bias perceptions of what is seen as big news events. Its a fact news organizations can spread the news wide as they have many readers so each bit of news they release gets to become high profile news far more often and so is seen as a "news event". When blogs release news, most of that they say is simply drowned out and ignored as its readership is so much smaller than global media organizations.

If you still don't believe this then try this simple experiment. Setup a blog and start selling a product. Add up the number of units you sell in 1 week. Now get a national news organization to show your exact same product on its front page news. From the moment its shown in the news, compare how many units you sell during your following week, after your so called 15 minutes of fame. Its a no brainier that the national news coverage would vastly have far greater impact than your blog, yet nothing other than the means of delivery of the news about the product has changed.

Due to the shear size and power of news organizations they cannot help biasing the perception of what is seen as important news, but more than even that, they bias what is seen as a news event. They make it important news by showing that news. So its no wonder they appear to feature prominently in what is perceived as news events.

"hear some news snippet on the radio and want to post a comment"

Also this research wouldn't be able to detect if any news breaks first as a blog and then gets picked up by news organizations. The news organizations can spread the news wide as they have many readers, but the initial seed of news can still come from Blogs.

For example, I was watching in real time the night news broke of Michael Jackson had died. It was very evident the TV people were using the Internet news as their main source of initial information. The first mention he died came from the TMZ blog who were then quoted by TV people about the unconfirmed death, and then as soon as the LA Times web site joined TMZ in publishing he had (maybe) died (as yet unconfirmed), then suddenly all TV companies all jumped at the same time onto the bandwagon very evidently desperate not to be left behind in breaking the news.

My one concern with this Cornell research is that news organizations will try to manipulate it into implying they and only they feed news and so they ultimately control that news and so people are spreading copyright news. That relentless control freak Rupert Murdoch is determined to force news into a payed for service and will bias and twist any news he can in his favor. News papers are driven by shared information on the Internet as much as they are driving the news.

"very open to interpretation"

But then the question becomes interpretation or exploitation? ... (exploitation as in the opportunity to exploit events for marketing and PR reasons, to imply they are doing things to help when they are just exploiting events for future profits).

Scientists are not the only people interpreting the results and often not the most vocal people most people get to hear. For example sales people in corporations have agendas they wish to push behind any PR opportunity that comes along. So what is seen as 'the truth' (tm) is constantly manipulated by them, ultimately for their own gain.

"wait for the first service pack"

Yes but what other "features" would be in that service pack?
(1) Clouds reformatted into Microsoft friendly format to show advertising for new products.
(2) Rains on Google offices 24/7
(3) Strong winds blows everyone toward huge advertising signs they cannot ignore.
(4) DRM infested sunshine we have to buy from Microsoft.
(5) Thunder storms raining chairs on Linux offices.
(6) Snow flakes spy on us all and then tell Microsoft what we like.
(7) Apple offices found 6 weeks later under mountain of huge hail stones.
(8) Profit.

I was wondering, if we run a Java x86 PC emulator that is emulating an Amiga that is emulating a Spectrum, is it still faster than a real Spectrum or do we need to optimise it a bit?

"I bet they tested it on superintelligent rats."

If they were that superintelligent, wouldn't they prefer to test it on their less intelligent human scientist subjects?.

Pinky: Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?

Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!

"You're glib. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."

BadAnalogyGuy, judging from your other posts on this thread, you sound like you've probably got more drugs in you than Amy Wine-warehouse on a "I've just forgot the world getting high day" (Its a national holiday in Amsterdam), so I guess you were probably there when they opened Bethlem as a hospital in the 13th century. ;)

(Bethlem as in i.e. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital)

(See humor and a relevant educational history lesson all in one neatly packaged post ;)

"bigger genome.... bigger mammals! that's it. The woolly mammoth was big because his dna was big! guess size does matter."

Sounds like you are insecure about your shrunken genome!

Meanwhile back in reality, here's some statistics ...
http://www.genomesize.com/statistics.php

"I blame it on increased use of design patterns and better tools for refactoring"

So its taken us 65 million years to become more optimal?!.

Still it helps explains politicians, they must be running an earlier version?

So if its taken us 65 million years, then I can't wait for Windows 6502009 !

(My old programmer brain just threw an interrupt when I wrote down the numbers 6502 ... ahh ... memories ... maybe it means Windows will be so optimal by then, that it'll run on a 6502!).

"how on earth could they ever buy things just because they can"

What like spending money on an IT project to setup a web site to monitor money spent on IT projects?

Maybe they could create another IT project to monitor spending on IT projects that monitor IT projects?

"Why not just forbid government tracking without just cause or other "intelligence" activities using government mandated ID's"

ArcherB: What planet are you from, only on Earth all governments makes the laws and so they choose what they consider legal to do.

"Replace Bin Laden with any wanted criminal and the point doesn't change."

I refer you back to my point above. The governments game the system as they make the rules, so they can (and do) game it in their favor, for their own gain and for the gain of the ones who are loyal to them staying in power. After all the end goal of power over others is to mandate how others live and so they personally gain from that position of power.

Also just look at the expenses scams in the UK government if you don't believe how they manipulate rules for their own gain.

Even this ID card move isn't to drop the ID cards. They are just boiling the frog more carefully now. They are still bring in the ID cards. After all, why bring them in at all if its just voluntary?. That's because it won't end up being voluntary. Information is power and the people in governments go into politics because they want to gain power over people. Knowledge is power. More Knowledge is more power. Its no wonder then that power seekers climbing up the power hierarchy in governments see ID Cards as a solution for them, as they want ever more power over people, to force people to live how they wish people to live. Still don't believe me? ... Then just consider what power is for. At a fundamental level, the very fact that someone seeks power means they wish to gain the power to control and choose how others live their lives and then they personally gain something from having that power over others.

"UK.gov ineptitude when it comes to anything IT"

Its a shame their deviousness isn't as inept as their technical knowledge, but then they are more interested in manipulation and power games than they are in specific details of technology.

They are still bring in ID cards. This move isn't stopping the cards. But now they are bring them in more slower over a long time scale, at first voluntary. Its bring them in by exploiting feature creep. It starts off as its voluntary for this and its voluntary for that. Then it becomes it helps this and it helps that. Then it becomes its important to this and its important to that. Then it becomes its required for this and its required for that. Then finally it becomes its mandatory for this and its mandatory for that and then eventually you can't do anything without the ID cards. Then finally they get what they aimed to do all along.

They know ID cards are very unpopular and so now they are starting to tread more carefully. They know their ever present power grabbing nature is very unpopular, (in this case power grabbing via information grabbing on people for their own gain (after all, information is power)) and so they are now treading more carefully.

So now they are just boiling the frog more carefully. Yet now many people are initially fooled into believing its not going to happen. Exactly what the control freaks want, as it means over time they will now face less resistance to them bring them in more slowly.