Live data from Hacker News

Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

theguardian.com

81–90 of 96 posts

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, if you have science in the name, no science is generally involved: Political Science, Computer Science, Exercise Science...

Computer science at least in my experience of it, definitely involves lots of science. I can't speak for the others.

The quote is of Hal Abelson and one of his lectures at MIT disagrees with you [1]. The introduction is amusing and opens with Computer Science has nothing to do with Computers and little to do with Science. It's really a poorly named field. I believe it's a bit tongue in cheek and not defining science entirely by "uses the scientific method".

[0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hal_Abelson

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op3QLzMgSY

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#82
post #16

i remember watching ww II battle documentaries, and they would be talking about a battle, say battle of the budge. and I would be like 'wait a second, that stock video footage was a corsair shooting a drone. then it hit me that almost all of the video shown on these things is just for aesthetics / effect and not actual footage from the topic in question. then it hit me, the news was actually doing the same thing! lik…

Not entirely unrelated, there once was a time when the way to get news information was to be right there, at the source. Now, the way to get news information is to have it delivered electronically directly to the newsroom. It can then be passed back to a reporter standing outside the building from which that news originated, who has no idea what's going on, to be fed the lines to say over an earpiece and repeat them back into camera. This is what happens.

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#83
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the equivalent of tech's hacker baddie wearing sunglasses and a hoodie in a dark room with menacing green letters on the monitor.

Why waste time on finding a perfect colour scheme, when you can simply put sunglasses on? Same with shampooing, put on a hoodie. That's a true hacker mentality.

It certainly explains why we so often see the same inappropriate language or pattern applied to every other problem.

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#84

The best part is the photo credit: >> The woman said to resemble pilot Amelia Earhart is seen sitting on the dock in the centre of the picture. Photograph: Reuters So Reuters is falsely taking credit for a photo when they didn't know its origin. Journalistic integrity is long dead.

I assume most of this story was written up by Reuters, picked up by the Guardian and regurgitated:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-amelia-earhart-idUSKBN...

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#85
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also went full on Jesus some years back. They're firmly in the blue collar reality TV camp now, its mostly truck drivers, pawn shops, and surprisingly, blacksmiths. Sorta like how the Sci Fi channel was all about pro wrestling, fantasy, action movies, pretty much anything but science fiction. When I was a little kid (a long time ago) the snarky wisdom was if a country had "democratic" in its name, it wasn't. The…

Syfy recently started broadcasting excellent programming: The Expanse, KillJoys, DarkMatter...etc.

I'm reluctant to trust the brand...

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which way - interested - does it involve science or what is your definition of science?

Not OP, but maths, maths again, and still more maths. Type systems, algorithm proof, complexity, boolean logic... And if we go into CS applications: games are maths, bioinformatics is maths, accounting is maths, ... Or in the implementation: electronics, semi-conductors physic, eletrical engineering, ...

I wouldn't think math is science. Otherwise, the acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) would be awfully redundant. And yeah, I'd say CS is closer to math than science, except maybe when you look at things like manufacturing processes and such, which is more of an engineering or materials science track.

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#87

There's no particular mystery. Navigation in those days was rudimentary - not good enough to fly long distances across the Pacific and try to hit a tiny island at the limit of your fuel. She missed the island, ran out of fuel, and crashed into the Pacific. I saw a documentary on her long ago, and she was known to be sloppy in navigation, careless in handling the airplane, arrogant in dealing with her navigator, and w…

Lindbergh, on the other hand, was extremely careful and meticulous. He knew exactly where the risks were, and minimized them as much as possible. His only mistake was not taking some amphetamines along (he fell asleep and nearly crashed).

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#88
post #16

i remember watching ww II battle documentaries, and they would be talking about a battle, say battle of the budge. and I would be like 'wait a second, that stock video footage was a corsair shooting a drone. then it hit me that almost all of the video shown on these things is just for aesthetics / effect and not actual footage from the topic in question. then it hit me, the news was actually doing the same thing! lik…

Not entirely unrelated, there once was a time when the way to get news information was to be right there, at the source. Now, the way to get news information is to have it delivered electronically directly to the newsroom. It can then be passed back to a reporter standing outside the building from which that news originated, who has no idea what's going on, to be fed the lines to say over an earpiece and repeat them…

That's been going on since the invention of the telegraph.

PS: Those reporters aren't actually standing in front of the building, either.

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#89
post #36

I wonder if History Channel will update their website with this information? It seems like if they actually give a damn about history, they should.

spoiler alert: They have not given a damn about history in a looong time.

It was never about giving a damn about history. It was about turning a cheap source of content into a channel when cable service providers were looking for new channels to air.

Re: Blogger discredits claim Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by Japan

#90
post #4

I thought the History Channel was already widely considered non-factual. Aren't half the documentaries about space aliens? "Source": http://www.cracked.com/funny-5720-the-history-channel/

And the rest are mostly about Hitler, Hitlers dog, Hitlers secretary, Hitlers lunch.

The History Channel's Hitler obession happened because the last WWII vets were dying off so the History Channel rushed to interview them, putting out a bunch of WWII documentaries
Post reply on HN