Exactly eight years ago, HTTPS was uncommon, COVID-19 never existed, the 2014 Winter Olympics were under way, and ... SoylentNews was born!
What a ride it's been! As the word changed and swirled about us, SoylentNews has persevered through it all. I thank all the members of the community who have been with us since the beginning and welcome those who only recently joined us!
A special thanks go out to all those volunteers who got the site off the ground and set up a solid foundation upon which this site could be built. Thanks, too, to all who have contributed to the site. Doing coding, writing journal entries, moderating and writing comments, maintaining the support services upon which the site depends. I know of no other site that has the sense of community that I see established here. Thanks to you ALL!
Recent Site Activity:
Funds:
At last check, we have raised $818.64 of our $3,500.00 goal for the first half of the year (2022-01-01 through 2022-06-30). That amounts to 23.3% of out goal for the period! We have all-volunteer staffing at SoylentNews which means that every subscription to the site coes entirely to funding site operations (web hosting, accountant, taxes, business fees, etc.). Please accept a great big thank-you to everyone who has supported our site!
Folding@Home:
The SoylentNews Folding@Home team is still ranked in the top 400 teams in the world!!. Together, we have made contributions in understanding and finding cures for Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, cancer, and COVID-19!
At last check, (2022-02-16 23:32:58 UTC) we stood at 3,263,775,924 points having completed 176,784 work units -- Many Many thanks to all who contributed to the team's efforts!
Super Bowl Party:
It has become a tradition and last Sunday was no exception. SoylentNews hosted its fourth annual Super Bowl party on IRC. I struggled with getting an old laptop set up and running. (I had last used it for last year's party.) This involved installing Ubuntu 18.04 (and then upgrading to 20.04). Then, with able assistance from chromas we got the permissions set up on the channel. All told, we had about a dozen logged into the channel. Had some good chats and good cheer. Was well-worth the effort.
Lastly: Buck Feta! ;)
Related Stories
Greetings Soylentils! And welcome to SoylentNews!
We are here to deliver the best community-sourced news, catered for all manner of nerd! Because this is a grassroots based platform, the content feeds are powered by readers like you. Our main objective is to highlight news stories on the web that are of importance to everyone, but especially nerds. In addition, SoylentNews will strive to go beyond simple news-aggregation, with some core principles:
- Providing a soapbox for experts to discuss their profession and solicit questions from a curious audience.
- Allowing the community to comment, without any mandatory registration.
- Staying mindful of the community's needs and wants while avoiding changes to satisfy an overarching corporate agenda.
We want to make this your source for news about technology, art, and science. We are the new kid on the block and are adapting quickly to satisfy our community's needs, as we look forward to exceeding your expectations and pushing boundaries like never before. Lastly, there will be no changes in format without a general consensus from the community. Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the ride!
~Dopefish
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:11AM (22 children)
Picture Snoopy sitting on his doghouse with a typewriter.
"It was a dark and stormy night . . . "
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:12AM
I mention Snoopy, and the QOTD pops up "Life is like a 10 speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. -- C. Schultz"
Schultz is trying to communicate with us! MOAR META!!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Funny) by fliptop on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:47AM
My grandfather always told a cyclical story that began w/ that line. I'll include it below, just for chits and chiggles. (Note, he was from the Susquehanna region of Pennsylvania, feel free to substitute your own river below):
Ah good times, good times. Congratulations SN on 8 great years and many more!
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @08:03AM (19 children)
I just love when Runaway has his sock-puppets mod him +1 Funny, because it is just so obvious.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @08:16AM (2 children)
Oh great, idiots are developing a Runaway Derangement Syndrome.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @08:45AM (1 child)
You use idiots in the plural. It isn't clear that multiple people suffer from RDS. It is clear that one individual and a dozen or more socks suffer from the malady, but there is little evidence that other people are involved.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by foundling on Thursday February 17 2022, @09:06AM
Or, perhaps, the converse? Since the sole poster, often, is Runaway.
(Score: 5, Touché) by janrinok on Thursday February 17 2022, @09:36AM (15 children)
I just love it when people accuse Runaway of using sock-puppets when I can assure you he is not. They haven't got a shred of evidence, but they cannot believe somebody else might say something humorous. We are watching him like a hawk - he is not using sock puppets.
You, sir, are displaying signs of paranoia.
Now, to the purpose of this story - Many Happy Returns Soylent News and many thanks to each and everyone of our community!
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @09:56AM (3 children)
I think it's another Ari sock. https://soylentnews.org/~foundling/ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by foundling on Friday February 18 2022, @01:57AM (2 children)
That explains the sudden mod-bombing. Thanks for thinking that! Now, could you undo it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @03:38AM (1 child)
Other than the above every one of your posts was an off-topic attack on your crush. You sound like a gay republican. Why don't you just come out of the closet and admit your kink? People have been attracted to weirder things than old sailors.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @05:53AM
You have issues, dude! And more mod-bombing? I am banned from commenting after half a dozen posts? What the Fuck is going on in this place? Mandelorians take care of foundlings. Well, not worth my time. Bye.
Signed, foundling
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @10:08AM (2 children)
https://centerofthewest.org/2018/12/27/ultraviolet-vision-avian-bird-world/ [centerofthewest.org]
Don't pee in the sock drawer?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 17 2022, @05:48PM (1 child)
Surely they wold glow a bright ultraviolet?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @09:21PM
Maybe, and maybe not. One article about human tetrachromes suggest that other colors are affected. So, it's not just an additional color at the top of the spectrum for them. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/331169-human-tetrachromacy-is-real-heres-what-we-know [extremetech.com]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 17 2022, @06:01PM (4 children)
Not really... From your perspective remembering to turn the VPN on and actually stopping the activity would look the same.
(Not trying to imply anything should change just pointing out the flaw in your logic)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @12:59AM
Only in respect of posting truly anon comments. I'm pretty sure the staff can see who modded whom, which is one of the main complaints about sock-puppetting, and requires that you be logged in.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @03:47AM (1 child)
There have been enough false Ari sightings, especially by janrinok, that no one believes them any more. Right, Ari!
(Not hard to detect: when you post AC, and someone accuses you of being Ari, it is pretty obvious that they are wrong, if you are not Ari. In fact, it is also obvious to Ari, if he still reads comments. )
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 20 2022, @02:27AM
Hi Ari.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Friday February 18 2022, @08:28AM
Unless the person using the VPNs is doing something so basically wrong in the way that they use VPNs that they are achieving nothing in the majority of cases. And, believe me, Aristarchus is doing it really, really badly! It is not our job, nor in our interests, to educate him.
If he accepts that we have no wish to know who aristarchus is in the real world and re-evaluates his strategy then he might do a little better. I have told him this on numerous occasions - but he just doesn't think about the replies he receives.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @06:02AM
Seriously, the not-sockpuppetry that Runaway is doing is destroying SoylentNews. Just today alone I have seen four (4) long time solylentils walking away. We have had sequential front page articles languishing for half days with no comments. And the comments that eventually show up are rarely on topic. And do not even get me started on the journals, a cesspool of a hive of scum and villainy. Khallow's latest formenting war between American and the Ukraine over trucks is just typical. Something serious needs to be done. Banning aristarchus was a solution to what was not the problem. Time to rethink, SN. Time to reboot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 20 2022, @10:27AM (1 child)
OMG! The Runaway socks are now upmodding janrinok! Will the madness never end?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday February 20 2022, @12:00PM
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:17AM (3 children)
COVID-19 existed but hadn't yet moved from its animal reservoir to the Wuhan lab and then out the window.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:30AM
They weren't too worried about it back then because if it ever got out, all the stable geniuses of the world knew that it would disappear just like magic, like a hurricane heading towards Alabama.
(Score: -1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @10:50AM (1 child)
Credible citations needed. There is zero actual evidence that COVID-19 ever existed in an animal reservoir. A genetically engineered virus needs no animal reservoir. None of the potential animal reservoirs offered by the Chinese government have panned out. Pangolins? Seriously?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @01:03PM
They never offered up lab animals [nih.gov] as a potential reservoir did they? Lab escape wouldn't rule out zoonosis.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:26AM (13 children)
Don't you mean the Stupid Bowl? Or are we a bunch of bullied nerds cheering for the jocks while they rub eachother's asses and fuck our girlfriends? We shall NOT be humiliated.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:29AM
*brandishes Glamdring replica*
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:38AM (6 children)
Hi from not-Yankland.
No one cares about your holy war over sports no one else plays.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:00AM (5 children)
There is a certain charm to as you get to watch gargantuan humans slam into each other and then every couple of seconds or so break, so they can show more commercials. It's like as if it was made for people with short attention spans or TV. What other sport is there where four quarters takes over three hours to play? The only thing worse is probably cricket, a game nobody understands but at least they are all fancy about it with tea breaks and such things.
Still if I do fancy watching gargantuan people fight it out I prefer boxing or Sumo. But are a lot more interesting imo.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 17 2022, @12:46PM (2 children)
I second sumo. The best is when one wrestler will flip the other off the doho and onto the spectators in the expensive seats right next to the ring. It's like watching a walrus pirouette in the air and land with a splash of blubber.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 17 2022, @05:52PM (1 child)
There are two female sumo wrestlers. They are stuck wrestling each other, since it is considered unseemly for male sumo wrestlers to touch them that way.
I saw them on a documentary once.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @06:54AM
Funny story that. Women's sumo is technically still banned in Japan despite being a fully recognized sport by the World Games and a recognized federation by the IOC. After a documentary on women's sumo (it may even have been the one you watched) became popular, there has been a large increase in the number of girls doing sumo. It isn't uncommon for them to make up almost half of the students at the training centers that will allow them.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Freeman on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:36PM (1 child)
Goooaaall!! Goal, goal, goal, goal gooaalll!!! You have now summed up every commentator's response to someone scoring a goal in Soccer (Football for people not from the USA).
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @08:46PM
I believe it is not uncommon to call it soccer in Wales and perhaps Scotland, at least.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:54AM
But my girlfriend is not Giselle Bündchen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:57AM (1 child)
Don't be lying to us. You never had a girlfriend for the jocks to fuck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:10AM
It was an unrequited love that the jocks plowed.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @06:28AM
And here I thought #SuperbOwl would be full of fellow ornithological enthusiasts.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 17 2022, @12:48PM
I read blue-hair Millennials like that sort of thing.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:32AM (5 children)
Some are no longer able to contribute, having been censored. Hard to celebrate, under such circumstances.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:40AM
On second thought, seems like they are still present. False alarm.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Thursday February 17 2022, @12:25PM (3 children)
They are categorically not being censored. They can express their opinion in the same way that any AC can. We allowed aristarchus the ability to do that.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @09:16PM (2 children)
You are thinking of Ethanol_Fuelled, who's anti-semitic ranting you "allow", janrinok. And since you do "allow" it, you are legally liable, and complicit. What are you going to do about it?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 18 2022, @04:44AM
Are you referring to Eth's rantings on IRC? We are not responsible for what anybody says on IRC and he is frequently .kicked of the channel - as well you know.
Or perhaps you mean his rantings on here? Do you mean the person posting as AC that you believe might be Ethanol Fueled? How do you know it is? And, just to squash your argument, we together as a community and also as individual members of staff moderate him down. It is not that the staff allow him, but that 'you' also allow him. Use your mod points please.
We get the exact same number of moderation points as you do. So no member of staff can do any more moderation than any other community member. I frequently run out of mod points. Only one person can invoke 'God Mode' on this site - and it is certainly not me. It is something that is very rarely done and never in isolation based on a single person's decision.
Furthermore, we are not "legally liable and complicit". Where on earth did you dig that little piece of fantasy law up from? Citation please.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 18 2022, @08:10AM
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @02:52AM
...it was a mistake
#blame
(grin)
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:18AM (3 children)
does just one penis make you gay? asking for a friend
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:39AM
Yes. And no, no one will respect you in the morning.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:56AM (1 child)
Depends:
- Are you female? Then no
- Is it yours? Then no
- Is it made of Silicone? Then no
- Did you make contact with it? If not, then maybe, but probably not
- Are you Trans? Not sure if someone who identifies as a woman can be called ‘Gay’ if they like penis. Please check with the woke crowd (who will likely tell you it’s all a social construct and you should just identify as ‘you’)
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @08:01AM
Tough to do, when you are an Anonymous Coward, with a dick in your mouth.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Mykl on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:44AM (6 children)
I moved over to SN during the Buck Feta days of the Green Site. I've had a peek back there a few times over the years - things have not improved. The comments section is pretty much worthless and contains about as much intelligent insight as Reddit.
Let's not pretend that we don't have idiots and trolls here - we do. But I'm prepared to sift through that for the stuff that's worthwhile here.
Well done on making 8 years SN!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @04:08AM
A perfect illustration of the law of diminishing returns (large grin)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sgleysti on Thursday February 17 2022, @05:34AM
Fuck beta.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Thursday February 17 2022, @05:34AM
Here, let me help...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 17 2022, @12:51PM
Wow, I had almost forgotten Slashdot existed. At Soylent we are like those Cuban gentlemen who sit out on the street corner playing dominoes.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @02:29PM
I still have the green site in my rss. Some stories are good. The comment system is just broken.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 18 2022, @07:21PM
... things have not improved.
What made you think they would? I was looking for a better site before the buck feta idiocy caused S/N to appear. WAY too many idiots over there who think watching Star Wars makes you a nerd, or in any way technically proficient.
Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @05:30AM (1 child)
As long as the invidious Runaway1956 remains, this site is broken. He has lied, and falsified information, to get a fellow soylentil banned. Unfortunately, our admins are too gullible, and sympathetic to right-wing politics, to realize they have been had. We need to ban Runaway, to make SoylentNews free again. Just saying.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 17 2022, @12:52PM
In the Asterix comics there's a little white dog named Ideefix. This AC reminds me of him.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @05:57AM (11 children)
I was here at the beginning, I will be here at the end. Forces of censorship have no place at SoylentNews. But, happy birthday, and Buck Feta. Felt good, while we were a force for good.
aristarchus
The real-aristarchus. Just ask janrinok to check my hash! Told ya!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @06:14AM (3 children)
Shit! Ari gets modded -1 Troll, even when it's not Ari, 'cause he's posting AC? Where does the down-mod go, in such a case? And why was he banned on the testimony of a known liar, in the first place?
That was quick. I thought FatPhil was slipping, because of the fat, you know.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @06:16AM (2 children)
This is not going to end well for the admin of SN. They have made a serious mistake, and have been fooled by an Arkansas Man. Time to fess up, recant, and get back on the libertarian straight an narrow. Ban Runaway, immediately.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday February 17 2022, @10:11PM (1 child)
These two things don't go together as well as you might think
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @10:27PM
It's almost as if the angry poo flinger is wildly flinging poo in all directions, trying to get it to stick to something.
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Thursday February 17 2022, @03:29PM (5 children)
Actions have Consequences
Opportunities were provided to change behavior; they were not only ignored, but increased (witness the parent comment).
The user can still post as an AC (Anonymous Coward), again witness the parent comment.
Commenting as a regular user could be restored. As the saying goes "when you find yourself at the bottom of a hole, stop digging!
That seems to be good advice at this point -- I recommend trying it.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @07:40PM (4 children)
Marty, you are the reasonable ed, how do you know that the AC claiming to be aristarchus is actually the real aristarchus?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 17 2022, @10:35PM
Nobody else could possibly be so annoying, except for khallow, and he couldn't possibly be so stupid. Therefore: Aristarchus.
(Score: 4, Touché) by janrinok on Friday February 18 2022, @06:13AM (2 children)
If you can't work it out for yourself you surely don't expect us to explain it to you, do you? The majority of the community seem to have it sussed.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 20 2022, @10:30AM (1 child)
He was talking to martyb, old man.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday February 20 2022, @12:03PM
Oh the wit! The quick incisive response! I am surely fatally wounded by that blow.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 18 2022, @07:24PM
I was here at the beginning
Prove it, liar. What's your UID? Probably higher than my now unused /. ID. Why else did you post AC?
Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Vocal Minority on Thursday February 17 2022, @06:00AM
happy birfday to you
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Thursday February 17 2022, @10:54AM
Here is wishing the entire Soylent community a very happy birthday. May there be many many more to come ... We look forward to more stories, greater community participation and better discourse on the varied topics !! All the best
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 17 2022, @12:57PM (1 child)
We should make this the annual IRC party, "Buck Feta's Birthday." We could make it a simultaneous film party where all over the world we watch the same geek classics at the same time, like War Games or Tron or the original Star Wars (or not, I realize that one's a painful subject).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 17 2022, @01:10PM
"For every year, on this day, we use a step-down DC converter on a block of Greek cheese..."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bart9h on Thursday February 17 2022, @01:18PM
That's all I have to say.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 18 2022, @01:18AM
it was all clean and shiny until the monkey went up my hiney.
(Score: -1, Troll) by TheRealAristarchus on Saturday February 19 2022, @07:22AM (1 child)
Trump Atlantic is back in business! How long do you think my new account will last?
(Not that I am, actually, the real aristarchus, or anything. All bets for entertainment purposes only. All transactions final. If you do not pay, we may have to cancel your knees, at least.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 19 2022, @06:55PM
Looks like the winning answer is, oh, wait, no time stamp on censorship! Well, much less than 24 hours. No Real Aristarchoi allowed on SoylentNews! Fuck Beta, and to hell with free speech! Defend the alt-right! Hail janrinok!