Cap'n Refsmmat

So I've just read all of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World). The series is something absurd, like 2600 pages, but (mostly) interesting. Neal Stephenson doesn't write stories; he invents an entire universe, including all the details, and then chooses bits of it to write down. Usually too many bits, given the length of the series and the complexity of the plot, but it's usually fun reading. I also read Feynman, the graphic novel by Jim Ottaviani, which was a fun biographical portrait of Richard Feynman. As a graphic novel, it's certainly no in-depth biography, but you get a feel for the curious character of Feynman.

One of Oliver Sacks's books discusses what happens when people who have difficulty understanding language watch Reagan give a speech -- they depend on body language to grasp the words, and end up in hysterics, because the Reagans's body language was so fake. http://adoredbyhordes.blogspot.com/2008/06/dr.html So apparently it can be difficult to lie to people with brain damage.

This is only a symptom in roughly 10% of Tourette's cases; generally, Tourette's syndrome is characterized by physical and verbal tics which are not necessarily obscene or inappropriate. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474442205010124

I joined this site when I was age 12. (Not grade 12, but 12 years old.) It is an excellent place to ask questions and learn. I hope you enjoy it.

I spent some time trying to find an addon or extension that would add this feature (since it seems like it would be popularly requested), but I can't seem to find one. There's just not an option to view all posts in a single topic, for some reason. I'll do a bit of digging.

It might be, yes. I'll think about how to do that when we upgrade to the newest version of the forum software and adjust our style and layout.

I think My Content may limit itself to threads started in the last year, even if you've posted in them more recently. I don't know that I can change this easily, unfortunately.

Seems to me that adding deliberate misspellings to your code is a great way to slow down people trying to crack it.

What is "the IP feature" that worked? The IP.Mobile skin? I haven't made any changes to themes lately, so I'm not sure what would cause a change.

Hmm. What sorts of science/math history discussions do you envision us having?

Could you elaborate?

Hm. We intentionally restricted their use so that other members cannot use modnotes, meaning that quoted modnotes won't work. I don't think there's a way to keep the restriction in place while allowing them to appear in quotes.

There are the forum rules, and section 3 is fairly accurate. We usually warn members, then give a short suspension, then permanently ban.

needimprovement has been banned for returning from suspension only to continue plagiarizing posts. Old habits die hard.

I couldn't figure out how to do this the last time I checked. I'll do some searching and see what I can find.

needimprovement has been suspended for a week for repeatedly plagiarizing posts from other forums, and for plagiarizing SFN members' posts while posting on other sites, despite being warned previously.

Hm. By default, the "My Content" search is limited to threads from the last year; it looks like it counts from thread start date, rather than last post date. I'll file a bug -- surely it should search the threads active in the last year, regardless of when they were posted. Bug report: http://community.invisionpower.com/tracker/issue-26835-my-content-limits-by-thread-start-date-not-last-post-date/

Currently reading Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved, by Frans de Waal and others. It's really an excellent read for people interested in morality and how it might have evolved. It starts with an essay by de Waal, who is a leading primate researcher, continues with four essay responses criticizing and expanding upon de Waal's points, and finally ends with a response by de Waal. I'm about halfway through, and while it's pretty philosophical at times, it's interesting and it makes you look at morality in a different way.

Technical reasons. The system can't actually track whether you've read each of the items on the list, so it knocks them out in one go instead.

Unfortunately not. Fortunately the list of notifications stays, even if they're read.

Real men weave baskets in space.

You probably subscribed to the thread. ("Watch Topic" button at the top of each page.)

We post suspensions in the Announcements forum, but I don't think many people keep up-to-date on that. I'll see if I can get banned members to appear different from regular members, like they used to.

cabinintheforest has been banned for persistent profile message spamming. Many of the messages were abusive and had to be deleted.

There's the +/- thing by each and every post.