I had ChatGPT analyze this post and determine if it adequately described how a study like this would be received within the larger scientific community. This was its response:

The Slashdot post titled "Milky Way May Escape Fated Collision With Andromeda Galaxy" briefly mentions the new research suggesting that the Milky Way might avoid colliding with Andromeda, a possibility previously thought unlikely. However, it does not adequately emphasize the preliminary nature of these findings or the fact that this hypothesis challenges a long-standing consensus. The post could mislead readers into thinking this new idea is more established than it is. It lacks context about the need for further validation and the early stage of consensus-building in the scientific community.

Just thought I'd mention that since this is a pretty common flaw in reporting on scientific papers...

to be a Debian user. You know who really is an open source champion? The FOSS community

I'm on RedHat's side here. And I'm a open source purist, by and large. The FOSS community is perfectly capable of producing a robust operating system without the assistance of Red Hat or any other for-profit entity.

If you want to run a free operating system, run one that was produced by the FOSS model. If you need enterprise support or binary compatibility with RHEL, then give Red Hat some money.

It's kind of incredible the extent to which some people will bend the facts in order to blame a problem on DEI... This was hubris by the CEO, plain and simple. He was repeatedly warned internally and externally that the sub wasn't safe. His team didn't fail to bring this to his attention. He refused to concern himself with safety.

"Move fast and break things" is Zuckerberg/Facebook, not Musk/Tesla. Though, certainly, one could argue it applies to Tesla, too.

I was going to play with it, but definitely not going to use a web page that requires a specific browser. #nope

If you built it to a spec and it didnâ(TM)t compile existing rust code, then youâ(TM)d have a very nice piece of software that nobody would use

This is right. It's unequivocally a biased headline. This has been raging debate within the FOSS community for years and years. Not sure why slashdot feels the need to weigh in on one side of that debate when reporting on a Debian vote.

I happen to agree with the headline (and with the result of the vote). I think all FOSS advocates hate binary blobs and we wish they'd go away, but to the great majority of users, when you run an installer with 100% free software and your wifi card doesn't work, they assume that there's something wrong with Debian. And then they go and run the Ubuntu or Mint installer (or worse, Windows) and--it works!

I think we need to find more effective ways to raise awareness of the detriments of binary blobs. Because primary effect of the strategy that Debian had been pursuing prior to this vote was to scare off novice users. RMS and others will say that even suggesting that users run proprietary software is morally wrong. I think you can more effectively bring new users over to the FOSS camp by giving them software that works--only using binary blobs when absolutely necessary. And then educating users on why they're bad. And then you could say something like, "the next time you're in the market for a laptop, check this web page for models that are fully compatible with free software."

Greed isn't quite it. BTC has value because of speculation and limited supply. The reason BTC has value isn't what makes it bad, though. It's bad because it enables rampant criminality and because it uses an enormous amount of energy at time when we need to be reducing our energy footprint. If it were to replace traditional currencies, it would also take away one of the Fed's most potent tools--monetary policy.

Definitely not a fluke--there are certainly reasons that BTC has increased in value. But something increasing in value is not the same as something being good. In fact, considering what we know about BTC's illegal uses, it's entirely possible that illegal activity is largely responsible for the rise--that and market speculation which is problematic for other reasons.

I keep hearing people cite valuation as reason that bitcoin is good. Good for what? As a get-rich-quick-scheme?

real utility for cryptocurrency, I have yet to see it. As far as I can tell, people are drawn to it for two reasons: 1) to increase their personal wealth by "investing" in it, and 2) money laundering.

Unlike the author, however, I don't, see any reason to think it will collapse on its own. It's propped up by kleptocrats like the Russian oligarchs and other corrupt petrostate leaders. If you want cryptocurrency to go away (and you do), you need to go after the kleptocrats. The world needs to stand up to petrostate corruption. Let those guys run free and you end up with Vladimir Putin--and bitcoin. And that's not even considering the environmental impact which of course is terrible. It's such a gratuitous waste to vent so much carbon into the atmosphere for something with zero utility--worse than zero, really, considering the criminal activity.

It doesn't follow, however, that because cryptocurrency is useless that blockchain is also. Blockchain can be deployed in a huge number of ways; currency just happens to be its first application--and a lousy one. It is still an open question whether any of blockchain's other applications will succeed or whether they will be beneficial to society, but those questions are entirely unrelated to cryptocurrency. I think blockchain probably will prove to be useful in other areas, but it will take several years to reach critical mass.

While working as official White House employees, no less...

There is only one reason people like cryptocurrency: the values have been going up. It has no other positive attributes that I'm aware of.

It's the new subprime mortgage. It's good because OMG LOOK AT THE LINE GRAPH!

How to say you don't understand macroeconomics without saying you don't understand macroeconomics

TRUTH is based on the FOSS social networking software Mastodon which is licensed under AGPLv3. Will be interesting to see if Trump complies with the GPL or if he'll force Mastodon to sue.

Adds new meaning to "copy left." <rim shot> ... I'll show myself out