Guest Blogger Danio:
Orac has posted a directive from the Seed Overlords regarding a survey they'd like us to conduct. As my distinctiveness has been temporarily added to the collective (I'll be implanting the "sleep" command into their subroutines next week though, oh yes...) I am dutifully passing it on. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete and you can enter to win stuff at the end of it.
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Whoops! The survey has been closed already. Sorry about that. Here's a pointless poll instead.
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First, from the Seed Overlords:
You may have noticed some pretty yellow banner ads around the site this week. They're advertising a huge reader survey that we're conducting right now. Anyone (excepting Seed employees) who fills it out can enter to win an iPod and MacBook Air.
The survey takes…
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Well, gang, the voting is closed on our first Survivor event. I would never have expected such a dramatic turn-around. From out of nowhere, John Kwok surged out of fifth place in the field — I had written him off as a bad bet — to rally astonishingly by doing one simple thing: commenting. He…
So, the Blogger SAT Challenge has officially run its course, and Dave has posted the question to Cognitive Daily. I'll reproduce it below the fold, and make some general comments.
What were the results like? We had 500 people at least look at the survey question, and Dave gives the breakdown:
The…
I get:
This survey has been closed.
Thank you for your interest.
From: http://www.erdossurvey.com/sb/survey/
Next......
-DU-
Unless they changed the survey since I took it, it was infected with crap questions. What marketroid nimrod decided to put in an item like "Science is culture: Agree/Disagree"? That's content-free advertising blather whose mere proximity costs the reader brain cells.
Off topic. Episode 2 of Dawkins, 'The Genius of Charles Darwin' is online now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQUEZ-vrIZ0
Survey says: It's closed!
I'm getting the "closed" message, too. :(
Next Orac and Danio travel back in time with a Borg Sphere to prevent Zefram Cochrane from closing the survey.
♫I like to dream,
Yes, yes
Right between my sound machine...♪
Looks like I missed my chance to get my name on more junkmail and spam lists.
Get larger manness! Your scienceblog is not b1g enough. Get loooong blog now.
Posted by: Sigmund | August 12, 2008 6:03 PM
Off topic. Episode 2 of Dawkins, 'The Genius of Charles Darwin' is online now.
Thanks Siggy!
All the pointless polls to choose from, and you couldn't pick our Skeptic Cage Match?
It has PZ's name in it, even.
The arrogance of comparing yourself to starfleet's greatest captain!!! Astonishing!!!
The survey was pretty clearly mainly intended for determining advertising. A few pages worth of "which of the following do you intend to buy in the next 6 months", "do you own or rent any of the following", "what are your (expensive) hobbies", etc. There were a few pages of "what do you like/dislike about scienceblogs", "what other blogs do you read", and some yes/no questions like the weird one Blake mentioned. If you missed it, I don't think you missed much (unless you were hoping for ads more targeted to you).
Well, heck, if we have to have ads, we might as well try to get relevant ads.
~David D.G.
No kidding. There seem to be literally thousands of people out there laboring under the misconception that I have a (flaccid) penis.
I still think my poll, which asks if PZ should crash it, should be crashed. I might be biased though.
I can't believe more than a third of people voting on that poll think we've been visited by aliens.
I don't recall seeing anything in Danio's post indicating that he managed to hack the Kobayashi Maru test or prevent the Whalesong Probe from destroying the Earth.
WOW, the OC register, what a horrible conservative paper. Live in OC for 18 years, and couldn't stand to open that damn paper, maybe that's why we got the LA Times at my house growing up...
That certainly was a pointless poll. I voted him an astronut.
Zephram Cochrane? Didn't he also have a very talented pig?
Mixing the topic up a bit... where do you guys come down on this discussion?
Georgia, Abortion
@#21, don-
All of the difficulties of physically moving between stellar systems, let alone galaxies, that we face as we consider the task, will also face any other culture that can conceive the notion. The most fundamental challenge is that, in order to make a journey of such great distance possible within a reasonable time frame (I choose 'hL * 0.6' where hL is equal to the average human life span.), it is necessary to out pace light. At the very moment we realize this we also note that the energy required approaches infinity.
With all due respect to alien viewpoints and philosophies as well as notions about how knowledge is "gained," I cannot get excited about any kind of guys going to the effort to actually find access to more energy than seems to exist in the universe simply to pop over next door to engage in opaque hob nob with the least representative and interesting members or H. Sapiens sapiens. (short chuckle there; sorry). That would be Top Politicians of Top Military Nations. (Insert favorite alien/gummint conspiracy here.)
From any perspective I can muster that just seems to be a complete waste of time and trouble. Especially when it is alleged by some that this has been going on for a long time and that sometimes they crash and we keep the bodies on ice. We don't give them back to the next crew? Or don't they ask?
Because a life form capable of solving the problem of fast, long distance travel would reasonably be an older race, more accomplished in the skills in need, one would naturally consider the notion that they would also be accomplished in skills related to getting along together, planning and completing multi-generational programs, combining diverse technologies to enhance progress in the short, medium and long terms simultaneously. To be able to integrate diverse approaches on an ad hoc basis while still remaining fixed on future goals. To define some equivalence of an individual life to the greater sphere of reality without employing coercion or appeal to fear. But I'm just guessing. Anthropomorphizing, most likely, since my perspectives are limited to the ones I have learned from humans. Thing is, I would expect better judgment from these guys. And, ahh, better manners.
That's where I "come down" on the notion, but it is where I stand now. Of course, I'd have to make exception to preference should the situation so demand . . .
Ah! Evolve is beginning on History. Wow. What if they were like crocodiles?
*begin oops*
Should read: "That's not where I "come down" . . ."
*end oops*
Here's a poll that really needs some Pharynguloids to pay attention to it:
http://www.skepticfriends.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10220
And of course, I'd like for people to crash this even sillier one just because it's for my hometown, but it's not as vitally important as the first one:
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/paris-tx/TD054PUM4CROE27P6
I can't wait to see the results of that poll, so we can find out whether he's right or not.
I voted "did you say Astronaut or Astronut"
.... how is a "Survey" any different from a "Pointless Poll"? Surveys have more questions I suppose, but they still seem pretty stupid.
Odd that you would promote a survey just because it's on your host site.
I voted "astronaut or astronut" too.
Everyone go crash Escuerd's second poll. Red Alert! Creationism is leading, 51-48%. Call out the Cthulhu Army! Looks like it won't let you vote twice, so everyone's gotta do their part!
BTW, the Seed survey is up again (until the 15th, I think).