Is the OP suggesting that one or more politicans may have lied? That's unprecedented! I supposed next he'd have us believe that beer drinkers belch or that the whole notion of royalty is sadly dated and rather silly. ;-P

I have an assignment for both of you C-sprang-from-itself guys. Get a chicken egg from the source I specify. Write the letter 'U' on it. Hatch it. It will be a hen, because I have mad skills like that. Name the hen 'C'. When that hen is old enough to lay eggs, introduce it to a rooster and give them some privacy in whatever setting chickens find romantic. I don't know what that might be, but I think it's safe to assume it will be a space free of foxes and cats. That hen is your source. Wait for it to lay the egg from which it hatched, the one on which you already wrote 'U', you know, back before it hatched. Document your method and the results. When you manage that, get back to me with your data, sans semantic BS.

In 1969 Dennis Ritchie started to create the C programming language for use with UNIX. He couldn't have created the OS on the computer on which he began creating C in C because he hadn't created it yet. If he created it on a UNIX machine, then he created C on an OS written in assembly language.

...who said you couldn't write an OS in C#, or that you couldn't write one without C? Obviously C wasn't used to build the OS that C was built on. And if that someone said they couldn't do it was their reason for doing it, quick, someone tell them that there isn't an OS written in COBOL and that they can't paint your house with a toothbrush. And no, if I say I think it's a waste of your time to paint a house with a toothbrush, it isn't because it's a Microsoft toothbrush or Microsoft paint or that you're painting a Microsoft house, it's because it's a frickin' toothbrush. By the way, I love how the FAQ link takes you to a page that tells you they moved the FAQ instead of just taking you there. It reminds me of all those links wannabe web designers did in the style If you'd like to read about Obvious Anchor Target click here.

You have to opt in for Google to get any information beyond your IP address, they are in charge of many of the communication channels you use if you choose to use those they control and they effectively control much of the information that you receive through them. How does any of that make them remarkably different from News Corp., Microsoft, Verizon or the like?

Google's naming policy strikes me as a non-issue. It won't prevent anyone from publishing indirectly, by way of an out-of-area friend, which is safer option anyway if you're posting about a government that wishes to silence you. It seems to me that worst case, it creates an opening for Google's competitors. Last I checked there were still many of those. Were it a government decision it'd be a different matter.

Have you seen the show? You're giving more credit than is due in suggesting any intent to teach or learn anything at all, let alone science. 500 bored, unfocused child volunteers as an analogue for an experienced, disciplined military unit? It's entertainment, not science. The goal is never really to prove or to disprove anything, it's to destroy stuff. The *cough* science *cough* is there to provide an excuse for destroying it. That's why when a few ounces of some common household substance doesn't blow something up you find them substituting 400 pounds of high explosive before show's end.

First, get a million dollars... If you can get the user to download and open your attachment it doesn't matter which platform is involved, you've got them.

<snip> It turns it out it's not much of an indicator of anything. Since first hearing about the study, I embarked on a study of my own, starting with guitarists, and then extending to just about everyone I met or saw. </snip>

The trouble with your study, and theirs, isn't with the size of the finger but the size of the sample. I'd love to see the results of yours get press though. There would be something oddly satisfying about a headline which read Study Finds No Particular Correlation Between Finger Sizes and Skill Sets. More satisfying, though, would be one that read Study Finds Researchers and Reporters Unduly Influenced by Statistical Anomalies. And neither would be a good name for a band.