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Avi Loeb And Aliens: The Right And Wrong of Science Funding. (Also Bing Image Search Brings up Porno When you Search for him)

Avi Loeb he prolific Harvard astrophysicist, dances on the edge of cosmic controversy. His research...

What Is And Is Not Plagiarism In Scientific Papers? Neri Oxman And Claudine Gay Did Nothing Seriously Wrong. A Basic Guide To Citation.

The online discourse of our time has come to the issue of plagiarism. Now Claudine Gay and Neri...

Asteroid 2007 FT3 Will Not Hit Us, And Other Predictions For 2024. Suppose It Did Hit Us.

In the past I have predicted certain things at the start of certain years.  This is a selection...

UPDATE: Claudine Gay Not Fired By Harvard. Claudine Gay Did Not Plagiarize. Weeks Later Resigns Due To Ongoing Pressure.

Christopher F Rufo has accused the president of Harvard of plagiarism in an effort so clumsy that...

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Hontas FarmerRSS Feed of this column.

Currently I am an adjunct professor at the College of DuPage. My research focuses on astrophysics from massive star formation to astroparticle physics. Born and raised in Chicagoland I have lived... Read More »

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The Sciences occur in actual colleges with codes of discipline, more importantly a "college" of people known in each field keeps the peace and diffuses most situations  remotely similar to  #Gamergate.  
Lazy literal translations are no excuse for insensitivity. Bakla may translate as gay and the Philippine culture may respect transwomen in a different manner than we do in the US but the US and EU media ought not call Jennifer Laude,  Jeffery or He even if that is the literal translation of the words! Bakla translates as transwoman not gay man when applied to someone like Jennifer Laude. 
Many in the media have rather carelessly, or even maliciously, used headlines such as.  
The Nobel Committee has asked that the gents who won for blue LED's immediately surrender their awards to Stephen Hawking.  Just Kidding, but the confirmation of Hawking radiation by the work of Jeff Steinhauer is of an order of importance so stupendous that if such a line flashed across the newswires I'd want to believe it!  So what's the big deal about Hawking radiation anyway? 
After 24 hours of using Windows 10, as a tablet user, it is an incremental improvement on Windows 8.1.  The biggest improvement is that my Pro 3's WiFi now works without issues. Right now Windows 10 is not a HUGE revolutionary jump that would merit skipping a whole major version number.  That said Microsoft had at least two good reasons for that, one of marketing and one which is technical.  For non touch users or those who follow the myth that every other Windows release will suck (without even giving them a try) Windows 10 will be the tolerable touchable Windows. 
The real reasons to skip the name Windows 9 are legacy code and marketing.
I own a brand new Surface Pro 3, and if  all the good touch features of Windows 8 are removed to make Windows 10 placate non-touchscreen users, I and others are going to be very disappointed.  Many websites are reporting that the new Windows 10 "kills the start screen" and more or less abandons all the good touchable features of Windows 8.  As one who's used windows since XP tablet PC edition, through Vista and 7 on touch screens the start menu sucks on a touch screen.  So here are the main questions a long time touch, and user of Surface Pro and Surface Pro 3 has for MS. 

Will Windows 10 that I have the keyboard attached and a mouse and in that mode it makes some sense to have the start menu?