Friday, April 30, 2004
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Monday, April 19, 2004
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Shock Absorbing Sorbothane - Science Gifts - Edmund Scientifics
Shock Absorbing Sorbothane - Science Gifts - Edmund Scientifics:
"Absorbs up to 94.7% of impact energy, then reforms to its original shape. Sold in a 12' x 12' x 1/8' sheet. Sorbothane is a 'solid' that behaves like a 'liquid' by absorbing shock in all directions. For use by scientists, designers and experimenters."Too many cookies on this site. Don't go back.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Pharyngula: Never let it be said that Intelligent Design creationists are intelligent or creative
Pharyngula: Never let it be said that Intelligent Design creationists are intelligent or creativeI stopped reading Pharyngula at the bottom of this page.
BartCop's most recent rants
BartCop's most recent rants
Bush's
Guard service: What the record shows
Excerpt:
In May 1973, Bush's two superior officers
in Houston wrote that they could not perform
his annual evaluation, because he had "not
been observed at this unit" during the preceding
12 months. The two officers,
one of them a friend of Bush and both now dead, wrote that
they believed Bush had been fulfilling
his commitment at the Alabama unit.
You watch - with the help of the major media, Bush will skate
away from this, too.
Worst of all, the men and women who are dying in Iraq will forgive
him.
The rich boy who bought his way to safety and then deserted his
post during wartime,
will still have the respect of the troops but nobody can
explain why.Even the families of the dead will vote for the deserter, and
they still hate Clinton even tho
Clinton never sent a man into battle who didn't come home safely.
I understand partisanship,
but why do families sacrifice their sons with a smile and then
still vote for this giggling little snot?
The Wage Slave Journal
The Wage Slave Journal: "Has nobody suggested to Cleland that he might have lost because the electronic voting machines were 'fixed'? A statistician using all the polling data from just before the election as well as exit polling could probably easily demonstrate that the odds of the kind of 'swing' happening from the percentages published by the polls pre-election to those shown in the final election were far more 'amazing' than the so-called upset. In DNA testing, if the odds of a blood sample being another person's and not the defendant's are in the range of 1 chance in 99, you can be as sure as is possible in a court case that the guy's guilty. In the same way, if the chance of there being the kind of swing as in this case happening are in the range of 9-1 or higher, you can be as sure as it's possible to be that the voting machines were fixed, almost certainly by the Republican owners of the company that built and handled the machines. Why is Cleland not checking into this???? He should begin with the Johns Hopkins and Stanford scientists who are the experts on such electronic voting machines and then ask statisticians to check out the statistical chances of such an election result happening in the face of the pre- and post-polling data. He'd have an extremely strong case in any court of fraud at the polls."
The Wage Slave Journal
The Wage Slave Journal: "Why isn't anyone looking into the fact that the GOP stole the Senate election in Georgia? You just don't have a 12 point turnaround in a couple of days! They rigged it."
The Wage Slave Journal
The Wage Slave Journal
07/03/2003: A bitter American hero
If you haven't yet fully realized the depths to which Republicans can sink, read this Washington Post profile of former Georgia Senator Max Cleland.
Cleland was a surprise loser in the 2002 elections. He was beaten by Saxby Chambliss, who ran a campaign ad that used images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to accuse Cleland of failing to lead on the issue of homeland security.
The twist? As a young man, Cleland volunteered for service in Vietnam, where he lost two legs and his right hand. Chambliss took a student deferment.
Here's the whole story.
Not long after the September 11 attacks, it was Democrats -- not President Bush -- who proposed creating a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. The White House initially opposed the idea, worried that the head of the department would be accountable to Congress (as all cabinet members are), while the recently appointed homeland security "adviser" was not. The administration, through Tom Ridge, even threatened to veto the bill creating the department.
But it became clear very quickly that this was a political loser for the Bush administration, so it did a 180 and decided to support creating a homeland security cabinet post.
What followed was perhaps one of the most cunning and effective political maneuvers in American history, and it cost Max Cleland his Senate seat.
The White House didn't simply express support for the Democratic proposal. Instead it created its own proposal, very similar in terms of what departments would join the new agency, but different in one important respect: Bush's bill stripped many civil service protections from employees of the new agency.
Democrats, of course, opposed Bush's attempt to eliminate the hard-won protections for federal workers, largely because of the public employee unions' traditional support for the Democratic party. Congressional Republicans called vote after vote on the issue, forcing Democrats to vote against Bush's proposal even though they had originally come up with the idea. Bush won that battle, and in the final votes, most Democrats supported creating the new department.
But when election season rolled around, Republicans had a powerful new argument custom made for campaign ads. The Chambliss ad, for example, trumpeted that "since July, Max Cleland voted against President Bush's vital homeland security efforts 11 times!"
Max Cleland had helped to write the original legislation proposing a new Department of Homeland Security.
But Democrats lost the issue. No one remembered that it was their idea. President Bush looked strong on homeland security despite originally opposing the idea (and underfunding homeland security needs, something that continues to this day).
Cleland is teaching a class at American University. He seems to enjoy it, constantly joking with his students. He's engaged to be married. But he's still bitter about his loss, especially the infamous ad.
He should be bitter. We all should be. Republicans play in the gutter. They say and do whatever it takes to win, without a thought about honesty, decency, or honor.
UnrealisticExpectations - Yep, still got 'em...
UnrealisticExpectations - Yep, still got 'em...: "I'll start off this entry by saying that I voted for George W. Bush in the last election. I was pleased at the time he won because I really didn't like the idea of Al Gore as president. I admired the way he handled the 9/11 crisis (if only in the immediate time afterwards) and I agreed with him that Saddam Hussein had to go.
What I didn't agree with was his decision to either use a) lies or b) faulty intelligence to declare war on the Hussein regime. Either is a dereliction of his oath of office. One is outright grounds for impeachment in my opinion.
"
What I didn't agree with was his decision to either use a) lies or b) faulty intelligence to declare war on the Hussein regime. Either is a dereliction of his oath of office. One is outright grounds for impeachment in my opinion.
"
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Purple frog delights scientists
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Purple frog delights scientists: "'It is an important discovery because it tells us something about the early evolution of advanced frogs that we would not know otherwise because there are no fossil records from this lineage,' says Franky Bossuyt, of Free University of Brussels, Belgium.
Geological pathways
Bossuyt and colleague S D Biju, of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Kerala, say N. sahyandrensis is related to a family of frogs in the Seychelles called Sooglossidae.
DNA analysis suggests the common ancestor of the animals lived 130 million years ago, when the planet's landmasses were joined together into a giant supercontinent called Gondwana."
Geological pathways
Bossuyt and colleague S D Biju, of the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Kerala, say N. sahyandrensis is related to a family of frogs in the Seychelles called Sooglossidae.
DNA analysis suggests the common ancestor of the animals lived 130 million years ago, when the planet's landmasses were joined together into a giant supercontinent called Gondwana."
Scientist discovers Midas touch - www.smh.com.au
Scientist discovers Midas touch - www.smh.com.au: "Gold nuggets may really be the work of bacteria that can grow the precious metal in much the same that way marine organisms build coral reefs.
That is the theory of a Canberra scientist who has detected DNA bonded to tiny gold flakes.
Frank Reith, a geo-ecologist and doctoral researcher at the Co-operative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, also has evidence that tiny organisms can dissolve gold from soil.
Mr Reith discovered that strange formations on the surface of gold flakes were covered in a thin film.
Tests revealed the film contained DNA, confirming that it was the result of bacterial action.
'We have seen biofilms growing on the gold flakes,' he explained yesterday. 'Cells were bound to the gold.'
It had long been suspected that many organisms, including plants, could dissolve microscopic particles of gold from soil and rock.
To test this hypothesis, Mr Reith placed samples of soil collected from a NSW gold mine in water and added miniscule amounts of the metal. Subsequent tests revealed the water contained up to three parts per million of dissolved gold.
But when the experiment was repeated using soil that had been sterilised against bacteria and fungi, there was 'little or no dissolved gold'."
That is the theory of a Canberra scientist who has detected DNA bonded to tiny gold flakes.
Frank Reith, a geo-ecologist and doctoral researcher at the Co-operative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration, also has evidence that tiny organisms can dissolve gold from soil.
Mr Reith discovered that strange formations on the surface of gold flakes were covered in a thin film.
Tests revealed the film contained DNA, confirming that it was the result of bacterial action.
'We have seen biofilms growing on the gold flakes,' he explained yesterday. 'Cells were bound to the gold.'
It had long been suspected that many organisms, including plants, could dissolve microscopic particles of gold from soil and rock.
To test this hypothesis, Mr Reith placed samples of soil collected from a NSW gold mine in water and added miniscule amounts of the metal. Subsequent tests revealed the water contained up to three parts per million of dissolved gold.
But when the experiment was repeated using soil that had been sterilised against bacteria and fungi, there was 'little or no dissolved gold'."
Laureates say Bush is twisting science - SpecialsScience - www.smh.com.au
Laureates say Bush is twisting science - SpecialsScience - www.smh.com.au: "More than 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, have issued a statement asserting the Bush Administration has systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weapons.
The sweeping accusations were discussed in a conference call on Wednesday organised by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent organisation that focuses on technical issues and has often stood at odds with Administration policy. The organisation also issued a 38-page report detailing its accusations.
The documents accuse the Administration of repeatedly censoring and suppressing its own scientists' reports, stacking advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbanding government panels that provide unwanted advice, and refusing to seek independent scientific expertise in some cases.
'Other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in such practices, but not so systematically nor on so wide a front,' the statement from the scientists said."
The sweeping accusations were discussed in a conference call on Wednesday organised by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent organisation that focuses on technical issues and has often stood at odds with Administration policy. The organisation also issued a 38-page report detailing its accusations.
The documents accuse the Administration of repeatedly censoring and suppressing its own scientists' reports, stacking advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbanding government panels that provide unwanted advice, and refusing to seek independent scientific expertise in some cases.
'Other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in such practices, but not so systematically nor on so wide a front,' the statement from the scientists said."
Fossil find fills evolution gap - www.smh.com.au
Fossil find fills evolution gap - www.smh.com.au: "Mr Fargher's fossil may be the oldest vertebrate ever found, a missing link between the shapeless cellular life that oozed across the seabed and the eventual emergence of the animal kingdom.
Along its back runs a stiffening rod, the critical differentiation between multicellular blobs and what ultimately became man."
Along its back runs a stiffening rod, the critical differentiation between multicellular blobs and what ultimately became man."
Census of Marine Life Portal
Census of Marine Life Portal Again I am amazed; there are so many good things on the web.
Elusive African Apes: Giant Chimps or New Species?
Elusive African Apes: Giant Chimps or New Species?: "'Giant chimpanzees occasionally occur here and there in the central and eastern subspecies, but evidence so far indicates that Karl [Ammann] may have a population of giants in his area,' said Groves. 'Presumably their giantism is relevant to their ground nesting behavior.'"
CNN.com - Seeking answers to big 'mystery ape' - Aug. 9, 2003
CNN.com - Seeking answers to big 'mystery ape' - Aug. 9, 2003: "'It doesn't look much like a gorilla, it doesn't look like a chimpanzee,' said primatologist Shelly Williams, who captured a bit of video of the female mystery ape with a baby.
Pictures of the rare ape are scarce. Wildlife photographer Karl Amman, who was first to spot the mysterious mammals a few years ago, said the animal has feet that are about two inches bigger than the average gorilla and is more flat-faced than other apes. Its behavior also sets it apart from other apes, researchers say."
Pictures of the rare ape are scarce. Wildlife photographer Karl Amman, who was first to spot the mysterious mammals a few years ago, said the animal has feet that are about two inches bigger than the average gorilla and is more flat-faced than other apes. Its behavior also sets it apart from other apes, researchers say."
Gross AnatomyThere’s a med student who is regularly writing about his experiences in med school at Gross Anatomy.
Pharyngula Archives
Pharyngula Archives: "Developmental plasticity means that a single genome contains the potential to generate multiple morphologies."
RealityChecker.org
RealityChecker.org:
"Ernie the Attorney and the crew at ACS have been discussing whether the lawyers who filed the frivolous lawsuit against Al Franken should be disciplined. It would certainly be justified, but I don't expect to see it in my lifetime, partly because, as Carolyn Elefant of MyShingle points out, the disciplinary process is consistently biased in favor of corporate firms like Hogan and Hartson, the firm that represented Fox. Small law firms and solos--the type that more frequently represent ordinary Americans--don't get a fair shake. There appears to be widespread agreement on both the left and the right that the legal disciplinary process is broken. As ethicalESQ notes, The pro-consumer group HALT has some ideas about reforming legal discipline."
The Secular Web - infidels.org
The Secular Web - infidels.org:
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if, somehow, so-called Scientific Creationism should come to dominate professional biology, anthropology, paleontology, and geology? It would be an unmitigated disaster, a nightmare, not because a particular hypothesis, unattractive to many of us, would have gained the upper hand, but rather because it would denote a major step backwards in terms of scientific method. Indeed, it would mean the covert or overt control of science by dogma. This much is clear to anyone who is familiar with the axe-grinding character of Creationism's arguments, its laughably badly hidden agenda, and its completely deductive 'methodology.' If we are to take seriously William Lane Craig's ubiquitous rhetorical appeals to consensus (a logical fallacy, last time I looked), we face an analogous situation today in the guild of supposedly critical New Testament scholarship."
Skeptical Notion
Skeptical Notion
"What I find most amusing, once the anger and rage over the misuse of critical resources fades, is that this case will likely do exactly opposite of what Ashcroft intends. By ordering the tapes online, then trying the case in Pittsburgh (where the tapes were ordered from), Ashcroft hopes to use a more conservative 'community standard' (the bar for prosecution here) to crack down on anyone he wants, anywhere in the US.
If anything, Ashcroft is going to drive the last nail into the 'community standards' coffin, by demonstrating how bloody stupid it is for the 'community standards' of one tiny suburb to somehow affect the ability of people in LA or New York or my tiny suburb to order whatever porn they want off the internet.
Too bad Ashcroft will be long gone from office by the time this is dealt with, because I'm pretty sure the ultimate outcome would serve him right."
baltimoresun.com - Administration wages war on pornography
baltimoresun.com - Administration wages war on pornography
This is an exceptionally well written and to my perception well balanced article.
"WASHINGTON - Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other 'computer forensic specialists' like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn.
In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains.
"
This is an exceptionally well written and to my perception well balanced article.
Skeptical Notion
Skeptical NotionA blog about politics, news, science and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Tangled Up in Boobs - What's Bob Dylan doing in a Victoria's Secret ad? By Seth Stevenson
Tangled Up in Boobs - What's Bob Dylan doing in a Victoria's Secret ad? By Seth Stevenson:
Posted Monday, April 12, 2004, at 9:39 AM PT
"
Posted Monday, April 12, 2004, at 9:39 AM PT
"
Monday, April 12, 2004
Science
Science:
" This series discusses various facets of the Intelligent Design (ID) movement. Intelligent Design is a modern rendering of Paley's Watchmaker argument, and has become the newest favorite pseudo-scientific attack on mainstream evolutionary theory and science in general. These are single A-size sheets (printed on front and back) and are suitable for distribution at science or ID events."
Environmental Science Under Siege: A Report to the Democratic Caucus of the Committee on Science
Environmental Science Under Siege: A Report to the Democratic Caucus of the Committee on Science:
"TO: Members, Democratic Caucus
Committee on Science
FROM: George E. Brown, Jr.
Ranking Democratic Member
During the 104th Congress, the Committee on Science launched a major initiative directed at the basic integrity of the science community. Three major hearings, entitled 'Scientific Integrity and the Public Trust,' were convened by the Energy and Environment Subcommittee to showcase allegations that science had been distorted to promote an environmentalist agenda. The hearings focused on alleged abuses in the science on stratospheric ozone depletion, global climate change, and the health risks posed by dioxin.
This series of hearings did not occur in a vacuum. The new Republican Congress promised as part of its 'Contract with America' to fundamentally change the way environmental regulations would be promulgated. With a new majority, dominated by what has been characterized as an inexperienced and ideological freshman class, the Republicans launched an attack on the basic methods by which environmental regulations could be established. In fact, this attack spread to encompass almost all forms of regulation-including those designed to insure public health, protect the environment, and guarantee workplace safety.
This radical effort in the House went too far, even for a Republican-dominated Senate, and regulatory reform legislation died in the 104th Congress. However, the two most prominent qualities of the effort to pass this legislation in the House were (1) the shameless use of industry lobbyists to draft the legislation and staff Committee mark-ups, and (2) the widespread reliance on anecdotal stories, usually apocryphal, of the stupid consequences of regulations or the weak scientific basis for regulation. Again and again, like a mantra, we heard calls for 'sound science' from Members who had little or no experience of what science does and how it progresses."
Chris C Mooney
Chris C Mooney: "On the Origins of 'Sound Science'
Ever since doing my Washington Post piece, I've been trying to figure out how, when, and why conservatives and the business community started using this strategic phrase. The task is made very difficult by the fact that 'sound science'--like all good PR terms--is something a person might innocently say without realizing they're using somebody else's talking point (kind of like calling the estate tax the 'death tax').
But though it's probably impossible to find the very first 'strategic' use of the phrase, I've found some new evidence suggesting when it became a watchword for the right. As this 1996 report from the late Rep. George Brown, the former Democratic minority leader of the House Science Committee, shows, the answer seems to be during the 104th Congress. The context was the Gingrich gang's push for so-called 'regulatory reform.' As Brown's report explains:"
Pharyngula: When women ask what's on my mind, I cannot resist
Pharyngula: When women ask what's on my mind, I cannot resist: " 20: George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
Stupid, venal puppet to a gang of stupid, power-crazy nutcases."
Stupid, venal puppet to a gang of stupid, power-crazy nutcases."
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Wicks, Robert, "Friedrich Nietzsche", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
Wicks, Robert, "Friedrich Nietzsche", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
Introduction
Introduction
* Intro to the Evolution Controversy
* History of the Debate Between Science and Religion - Index
* The History of Creationism
* Science and Divine Intervention/Action
* A Classification of Theories of Divine Action
* Darwin's Discovery: Design without Designer
* Evolutionary Biology and Theology
* Evolutionary Biology and Theology - Index
* Other Resources on the Creation/Evolution Controversy
* Intro to the Evolution Controversy
* History of the Debate Between Science and Religion - Index
* The History of Creationism
* Science and Divine Intervention/Action
* A Classification of Theories of Divine Action
* Darwin's Discovery: Design without Designer
* Evolutionary Biology and Theology
* Evolutionary Biology and Theology - Index
* Other Resources on the Creation/Evolution Controversy
Dissecting the Disclaimer
Dissecting the Disclaimer: "'Biological evolution is the best scientific explanation we have for the enormous range of observations about the living world.'"
Wells' "Correction"
Wells' "Correction": "About 18 months ago, I read Jonathan Wells' book 'Icons of Evolution' and discovered that Wells had claimed that a 1996 LIFE magazine article on human embryos was written by 'Brown University Biologist Kenneth Miller.' Well, it wasn't. Turns out that LIFE has a staff writer who is also named 'Kenneth Miller.' I've got a very common first and last name, and this kind of thing happens all the time."
A Law by Any other Name?
A Law by Any other Name?: "As you scroll down the page you will first see a link to the Law itself. Then you will see a link for the Bill as presented to the President, then links to help implement the bill, then remarks by the First Lady, and only then a link to the 'Conference Committee Report.' After Santorum's language was deleted from the bill, he was able to insert a watered-down version of his language in the explanatory report of the conference committee. Here is where the language about evolution is located, right on page 703. However, a committee report, even when it is accepted by the Congress, is not a bill. It was not sent to the President's desk for signature, and it is not part of Public Law 107-110. Case closed. Committee reports simply do not have the force of law. The new Education Act simply does not require the teaching of 'Intelligent Design.'
The fact that the anti-evolutionists misrepresented both the content of the Education Bill and the language in the new Education Act is at once distressing and instructive. It is indeed sad to see how people who claim only to be interested in the truth are willing to mislead the public, but it also sets a standard of inaccuracy by which the people of Ohio may judge the reliability of their scientific claims as well. "
The fact that the anti-evolutionists misrepresented both the content of the Education Bill and the language in the new Education Act is at once distressing and instructive. It is indeed sad to see how people who claim only to be interested in the truth are willing to mislead the public, but it also sets a standard of inaccuracy by which the people of Ohio may judge the reliability of their scientific claims as well. "
Kenneth R. Miller - Home Page
Kenneth R. Miller - Home PageMy research involves problems of structure and function in biological membranes. Principal research tools are a variety of techniques associated with electron microscopy.
The Flagellum Unspun
The Flagellum UnspunThe hallmark of the intelligent design movement, however, is that it purports to rise above the level of personal skepticism. It claims to have found a reason why evolution could not have produced a structure like the bacterial flagellum, a reason based on sound, solid scientific evidence.
Why does the intelligent design movement regard the flagellum as unevolvable? Because it is said to possesses a quality known as "irreducible complexity." Irreducibly complex structures, we are told, could not have been produced by evolution, or, for that matter, by any natural process. They do exist, however, and therefore they must have been produced by something. That something could only be an outside intelligent agency operating beyond the laws of nature – an intelligent designer. That, simply stated, is the core of the new argument from design, and the intellectual basis of the intelligent design movement.
The great irony of the flagellum's increasing acceptance as an icon of anti-evolution is that fact that research had demolished its status as an example of irreducible complexity almost at the very moment it was first proclaimed. The purpose of this article is to explore the arguments by which the flagellum's notoriety has been achieved, and to review the research developments that have now undermined they very foundations of those arguments.
Why does the intelligent design movement regard the flagellum as unevolvable? Because it is said to possesses a quality known as "irreducible complexity." Irreducibly complex structures, we are told, could not have been produced by evolution, or, for that matter, by any natural process. They do exist, however, and therefore they must have been produced by something. That something could only be an outside intelligent agency operating beyond the laws of nature – an intelligent designer. That, simply stated, is the core of the new argument from design, and the intellectual basis of the intelligent design movement.
The great irony of the flagellum's increasing acceptance as an icon of anti-evolution is that fact that research had demolished its status as an example of irreducible complexity almost at the very moment it was first proclaimed. The purpose of this article is to explore the arguments by which the flagellum's notoriety has been achieved, and to review the research developments that have now undermined they very foundations of those arguments.
The Panda's Thumb: That a priori muddle
The Panda's Thumb: That a priori muddle: "The Panda's Thumb is dedicated to explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims of the anti-evolution movement, and defending the integrity of science and science education in America and around the world.
"
"
Motorcycle Lights
Motorcycle LightsSylvania H4 ST, $50/pr. These bulbs are available from any auto parts store as 9003 ST for cages, and as H4 ST which are heavy duty for motorcycles. You'll likely have to special order the H4 STs. I use these, I think they're fantastic. They are a huge improvement over the stock bulbs, which I consider marginal at best. Don Huntley and I both run these bulbs, and both of us lost a left side low beam at about 14,000 miles. It seems ST1300s are particularly hard on their left side headlight bulbs.
BikePoint Australia : Bike Test Page
BikePoint Australia : Bike Test Page Suzuki's new V-Strom and the fuel-injected version of Yamaha's venerable TDM900. Both bikes had been sampled by Motorcycle News at their respective launches, but they hadn't been given a thorough workout. The time was right.
Slashdot | A Movie From Before Movies Were Invented
Slashdot | A Movie From Before Movies Were Invented: "cookie etiquette (Score:1, Offtopic)
by fermion (181285) <[lowt] [at] [bigfoot.com]> on Sunday April 11, @10:51AM (#8830223)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 04, @11:52PM)
Can anyone tell me why designers set up sites to store cookies prior to delivering any data? To me this is so ignorant. I mean how many times have you been surfing for information or a product, click a link, and have a cookie request pop up. You don't know the site from Adam, you don't know if it is going to have anything useful. You have no way to decide, as no content has been delivered. You don't want to have to go and delete the cookie or change the settings. I mean after all you just want to look for a second. They don't ask you for an ID when you browse at the mall. Some shady car dealers do this, but when they do i tell them to fuck off and go somewhere else.
So, being a prudent surfer, you deny the cookie. I mean how useful can a site be if they won't even allow a page to render before setting a cookie. This is one of the first rules of usability. Before asking the user to do anything, the site must clearly establish a benefit. I mean if I accepted every cookie of every site that wanted to set it before rendering I would have hundreds of useless site cookies. Much of the time I look at the page, decide it is useless, and go on my way.
So to those of you who are currently in the middle of this modern client/server design, why do require a token even before the user has a chance to establish the identify of the website."
by fermion (181285) <[lowt] [at] [bigfoot.com]> on Sunday April 11, @10:51AM (#8830223)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 04, @11:52PM)
Can anyone tell me why designers set up sites to store cookies prior to delivering any data? To me this is so ignorant. I mean how many times have you been surfing for information or a product, click a link, and have a cookie request pop up. You don't know the site from Adam, you don't know if it is going to have anything useful. You have no way to decide, as no content has been delivered. You don't want to have to go and delete the cookie or change the settings. I mean after all you just want to look for a second. They don't ask you for an ID when you browse at the mall. Some shady car dealers do this, but when they do i tell them to fuck off and go somewhere else.
So, being a prudent surfer, you deny the cookie. I mean how useful can a site be if they won't even allow a page to render before setting a cookie. This is one of the first rules of usability. Before asking the user to do anything, the site must clearly establish a benefit. I mean if I accepted every cookie of every site that wanted to set it before rendering I would have hundreds of useless site cookies. Much of the time I look at the page, decide it is useless, and go on my way.
So to those of you who are currently in the middle of this modern client/server design, why do require a token even before the user has a chance to establish the identify of the website."