hudathun

The Mediocrity Principle applied to civilisations would suggest we're not the 'special' first one here. We thought we were special in lots of ways that we've since had to abandon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle

Best ban everything that can be misused by terrorists... cars, knives, encrypted messaging.

Good point about the public involvement. The public and the news systems are part of the problem.

I've lost count of how many 'battery breakthrough' articles I've come across, but they seem to pass the newsworthy test.

Looking good is, sadly, better rewarded than doing good in many areas of life. It's doubly sad that this affects our body of scientific knowledge. Even claims that are reproduced can suffer from funding bias and confirmation bias. The truth hopefully comes out in the end, but I'm sad for the harm that's caused in the interim.

I had the same same thing with the much less erudite Stranger in a Strange Land. Re-read it 20 years later and was disappointed. On the positive side, I should consider how much I've moved forward in that time :) or sideways :-S

Regarding taking aspirin when you get chest pains, I believe the current advice is to chew an aspirin (300mg) as it is more quickly absorbed via the lining of the mouth.

So, turtles all the way then ...