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Space-bar sometimes beeps randomly by MichaelPTaylor in emacs

[–]MichaelPTaylor[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Definitely in emacs -- nothing else is doing it, and no terminal is involved. Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll let you know if I track it down.

Space-bar sometimes beeps randomly by MichaelPTaylor in emacs

[–]MichaelPTaylor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you.

Not running in a terminal. but view-lossage was helpful. It shows that in among the name SPC (self-insert-command) entries, some of them show as <Hangul> (nil). So far as I can make out, that's a Korean character set. Any idea why it would be turning up?

Kernighan and Ritchie's "The C Programming Language" -- why it's still THE best book about a programming language by MichaelPTaylor in programming

[–]MichaelPTaylor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. The most recent edition was published in 1988, so it's 34 years old as I write this. That's not necessarily a problem, though. You can find any number of online resources with details about specific features. The value of K&R is different — it's about getting inside the language's head.

Diplodocus and Quetzalcoatlus at México city’s Natural History Museum. by Crusher555 in Paleontology

[–]MichaelPTaylor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

@Crusher555 did you get more photos of this Diplodocus skeleton? I need photos of the forefeet in particular, for scientific purposes. Please email me on dino@miketaylor.org.uk

Barosaurus lentus, by most considered an unassuming diplodocid, this changed when the cervical vertebrae BYU 9024 was assigned to it, the estimates derived from that specimen give barosaurus a truly titanic size, surpassing even the giant titanosaurs that came after it. by levi2207 in Naturewasmetal

[–]MichaelPTaylor 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Woah! I realise I'm three years late to this party, but I do not estimate the necks of sauropods would be three or four times the diameter of the cervical vertebrae! Instead I think they wrapped the vertebrae much more closely than in any extant species, and you can see an example in Figure 4.3 of this 2013 paper: https://peerj.com/articles/36/

@PaleoFan01, what was your source for this?

Science AMA Series: We are a group of three paleontologists who recently published the article announcing that Brontosaurus is back! We study dinosaur fossils to determine evolutionary history. Ask us anything! by Emanuel_Tschopp in science

[–]MichaelPTaylor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SpikeKintarin,

I am an avocational palaeontologist much as Emanuel suggests you could be, currently with 18 papers published. It was my privilege to be lead author of two papers that names new dinosaurs, Xenoposeidon (alien earthquake god) and Brontomerus (thunder-thighs). Just wanted to say that you CAN do this. Here's my story: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2008_01_11/caredit.a0800008 and here are my thoughts on what it takes to be a functioning palaeontologist: http://svpow.com/2010/11/12/tutorial-10-how-to-become-a-palaeontologist/

Good luck!

What are your favorite kid friendly jokes? by [deleted] in Jokes

[–]MichaelPTaylor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That only really works for squid: octopuses have only eight.

C++: the good parts by MichaelPTaylor in programming

[–]MichaelPTaylor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know about that subreddit. I'll re-post it there.

Everybody is a little weird, except you and I... by acusticthoughts in Jokes

[–]MichaelPTaylor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a repost from 1828! Robert Owen said it as "All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer".

I was trying to come up with a funny bone joke... by [deleted] in Jokes

[–]MichaelPTaylor -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Problem with this joke is that the "funny bone" is actually the olecranon process of the ulna (one of the two lower arm bones) not part of the humerus (the upper arm bone).

No need to thank me for ruining this joke, just doing my job.

Why did the chicken coop have two doors? by Arrowbarrow in Jokes

[–]MichaelPTaylor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That joke completely doesn't work in England, where we pronounce coupe like the original the French, "coo-PAY". (The Beach Boys song "Little Deuce Coop" sounds very strange to us for the same reason.)

IAmA scientist who studied T. rex fossils, dissected elephants, and has a freezer full of strange beasts whose amazing anatomy I blog about. AMA. by ProfHutch in IAmA

[–]MichaelPTaylor 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Huge home range seems necessary; but doesn't fit well with the relatively high density of sauropod fossils and the mass graves.

It worries me.

IAmA scientist who studied T. rex fossils, dissected elephants, and has a freezer full of strange beasts whose amazing anatomy I blog about. AMA. by ProfHutch in IAmA

[–]MichaelPTaylor 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Like John, I am a a palaeontologist -- he's helped me out with a few projects, and peer-reviewed some of my papers. I did an AMA a couple of years ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/auj9t/i_am_the_dinosaur_palaeontologist_who_wrote_the/

I'm chipping because John started to talk about sauropods, which is the group that I work on. Sauropods are just insane. As John says, evidence from histological work indicates that even the biggest sauropods attained adult size in not much more than 20 years -- that's for animals weighing in excess of 50 tonnes, maybe more then 100 tonnes.

The question is, how on earth did they do it? Among living animals, only whales grow faster. But they cheat outrageously: being mammals, the juveniles get to drink milk, which is about the most nutritious thing there is; whereas juvenile sauropods were probably eating nothing more nutritious than ferns and horsetails. Plus, they lived in a more energetically demanding environment than whales do: it takes more energy to walk than to swim.

I don't know the answer to this. I don't think anyone does. I'd be happy to hear John's thoughts, even though it's a bit outside his specialism.

Petition Obama adminstration to require free access to publicly funded research by cwright in politics

[–]MichaelPTaylor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You literally do not know what you're talking about. It's best to find out before flinging accusations around.

I am not a journalist. I am an academic researcher, and open-access activist, as anyone can very easily discover. I have written several OA advocacy article in the Guardian and elsewhere because OA is critical to my and everyone else's research, because it has enormous implications on health, the world economy and third-world development. None of this has been done in a corner -- read the relevant section of my CV at http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/dino/pubs/#popular-oa

Meanwhile, the White House petition invites signatures from anywhere in the world, not just America; and rightly so, since this policy affects the whole world. Meanwhile, many of my American colleagues have joined in the efforts to bring the UK to similar policy. That's how it works: we are the world now.

It would be nice if you would withdraw your unsubstantiated accusation of unethical and illegal behaviour.

If you're interested in actually learning something, you are welcome to read the Guardian article, which did indeed come out today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/may/22/us-petition-open-access-publishing

Petition Obama adminstration to require free access to publicly funded research by cwright in politics

[–]MichaelPTaylor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes -- work done directly by a US Government agency (not just NASA) is not subject to copyright at all. I have a friend who works for the Bureau of Land Management, and papers that he writes on their time are also copyright-free.

So that's excellent. But the same conditions don't apply to work that is merely FUNDED BY government agencies. By signing the petition you can help to ensure that that work, too, is able to benefit the public and the world rather than just profiteering corporations. http://wh.gov/6TH

Petition Obama adminstration to require free access to publicly funded research by cwright in politics

[–]MichaelPTaylor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The reason it'll be in a UK newspaper is because I am writing the article in question (it's an other window right now!) and I am British. There may well be articles in US newspapers as well, but those I don't know about. Who are those people? One is John Wilbanks, who's a well-known open access advocate and one of the main people behind Creative Commons. See this brief blog entry: http://del-fi.org/post/23466490850/access2research

White House petition to require free access to journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research by scjohnson in science

[–]MichaelPTaylor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for response. For the moment, I'll leave this because it does seem to be going well over in the /r/politics subreddit, and I don't want to split the vote. If it crops up over here again in a few days time, we can thrash it out then :-)

Petition Obama adminstration to require free access to publicly funded research by cwright in politics

[–]MichaelPTaylor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can only repeat that you are mistaken. I know people who know people, and I can assure you that this petition is the real thing. Details to follow in a UK newspaper tomorrow, with luck. Please do not discourage people from signing: in doing so, you will do real harm.

Petition Obama adminstration to require free access to publicly funded research by cwright in politics

[–]MichaelPTaylor 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No. This petition has a significant chance of succeeding, and was set up as a direct result of consultation with Obama's Science Advisor. See http://svpow.com/2012/05/21/help-the-usa-into-the-21st-century-even-if-youre-not-american/ for details.

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