January 29, 2013 at 18:45We are Geeks: The Best Scientific Petitions on the White House Project “We Are the People”
- Transfer
The Obama administration does not support the explosion of planets ( as Zelenyikot already wrote about ). Arranged a day off for federal civil servants on Christmas Eve. He will not impeach President Obama or distribute defense assets in favor of NASA.
Nevertheless, the White House will share its signature recipe for home-made beer - it is not classified. And they shared it . All that was needed to do this was just to ask and 12,240 people did this by participating in the White House petition program “We are the People” .
Launched in September 2011, the petition filing system allows users to create petitions about everything that comes to their mind (it is obvious that the petitions on the site are still being moderated). Further, after receiving the initial 150 signatures, the petitions are published on the site. And if during the next 30 days the petition scored enough signatures, the White House will formally respond to it.
But there is one problem: the petition system has become too popular. The initial limit of 5,000 signatures was too easy to dial and in October 2011 it was raised five-fold to 25,000. But on January 15, 2013 the White House again raises the lower limit to 100,000 , so that only the most popular ideas can rise in the ranking. Now there is already a petitionto cancel this decision ( at the time of writing the translation there were 6732 signatures ), there is still someone to ask the administration to stop all this “circus” with the project ( at the time of writing the translation there were 1000 signatures ), another asks the White House to treat petitions more seriously (signatures: 37000+. To which the answer was received: We are listening to you. Seriously. ).
Since September 2011 , about 10 million signatures have been put under more than 141,000 created petitions. Over the past two months of 2011, 73,000 new petitions were created and 2.4 million people registered in the system.
As of January 24, more than 285 petitions await signatures. And the most popular petition today is a request for recognition of discriminatory actions by the Westborough Baptist Church and its inclusion in the “List of Hate Groups” (signatures: 325000+). Most petitions are submitted with requests for forms of taxation, control of firearms, or even a complete ban on firearms, and there are also many for pardoning prisoners. But among all this multitude of incoming petitions, there are those related to science and technology.
For example, a petition requesting the administration to consider the construction of the Death Star, which was signed by 34,435 people and received a well-known answer - the official "No" in the Jedi spirit.
The following are other petitions we have collected on science-related topics. And of course including the White House home-made beer recipe. Because there is one more thing that we love in our editorial department ( Wired Science ) as well as science - it's beer.
Ale for the chef: recipes for honey ale and honey porter. ( pdf )
White House Inside: Brewing.
Extraterrestrial Highway 375. Nevada.
Signatures on the petition: ~ 1860.
( Roswell incident , Zone 51 , emits a signal Spaceball aliens with abnormal interest in anal anatomy).
The main trend among applicants: a request for transparency of information on contacts with aliens . The January 1 petition suggests that such information will usher in the “Golden Age of Peace, Prosperity, Health and Abundance for All People [and Not People] on Earth.”
The White House has already answered a similar request. "The fact is that we do not have reliable evidence of the presence of extraterrestrial life forms, here on Earth."
“Why all these secrets and secrets? Already 2013, we already know everything. It is time to unite. We are all united, ”says one of the last petitions, but not a word about the information confirming this knowledge of the applicant. ( original )
Believe me, people. We, with the same impatience, like you, want to know - are we alone in this vast universe? But so far there is no evidence.
Petition Signatures: ~ 7200.
“Few things could inspire people on Earth so much as the view of an Enterprise under construction in space,” we read in a petition filed on December 22 from buildtheenterprise.org . The petition also claims that technology is currently starting the construction of an Enterprise-like first-generation starship, and the author modestly advises the White House to delegate NASA feasibility and design studies on this issue. Despite the fact that it will take about 20 years, the result could be amazing trips, and we hope to be able to avoid the Tribbles ( asexual, cute puffies, breeding with great speed, flooding a spaceship - approx. Translator) .
Note: The petition was withdrawn from consideration after the fact of signature cheating by the required date was revealed. The screen of the petition can be seen here .
Petition Signatures: ~ 1100.
If the creators of this petition insist on their own, then the population of snowy people will be recognized as representatives of the local fauna and will be protected by law. Laws prohibit hunting for them, trapping or slaughtering these hairy monkey-like creatures, who secretly hide from scientists who are trying hard to verify their existence.
Except, of course, one veterinarian, a specialist in researching DNA, who claims to have taken a sample and has already carried out an analysis of the DNA sequence of the hatch.
Signature of the petition: ~ 60200.
Free access to articles on scientific research conducted on taxpayers' money is required, as stated in a petition filed in May 2012. “The requested research results on the money of taxpayers should be posted on the Internet in a form convenient for reading or processing, thereby ensuring accessibility for patients and guardians, students and their teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs and other taxpayers who pay for it,” it said petitions.
Although this petition gained the required number of signatures back in June, there was no official response from the White House.
More recently, disputes have raged between scholars and magazine publishers over open access and have reached their peak of fame withdeath online activist Schwartz Aaron , a champion of open access to information. In September 2010, Schwartz used the network of the Massachusetts Polytechnic to download and freely publish millions of journal articles that were in the public domain. After he was caught, Schwartz “fell under the wheels” of the investigation vehicle and threats, as many believe, the cruelty of court decisions is disproportionate to the consequences of his crime.
By the way, there is also a petition for the removal of the district attorney Carmen Ortiz - accused of an aggressive investigation into the case of Aaron Schwartz (petition signatures: 43000+).
Petition Signatures: ~ 2300.
In six words: Nuclear. Rocket ship. B. Others. Worlds. Now.
“This is not a new technology,” the January 3 petition says . “Physics and technology make this possible.”
Petition Signatures: ~ 8700.
“Everything I was taught about evolution and embryology, the Big Bang theory is all a lie from the depths of hell,” said Congressman Paul Brown (R-GA) in October. And he continued: “The great amount of scientific data that I collected as a scientist [at Brown’s doctorate] actually shows that the Earth is really young. I don’t believe that the Earth is more than 9000 years old. ” ( specially translated his speech, see above - note of a translator)
The petition filed on January 18 suggests that Brown’s religious preferences have an influence on the decisions he makes as a member of the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
In fact: Brown is a member of the congressional committee that oversees civilian research at institutions such as NASA, NOAA, NSF, and USGS. In 1958, Congress created the predecessor of the committee — the House and Science and Astronautics Committee of the House of Representatives — after the Soviets launched Sputnik-1. One of the committee’s first decisions was the creation of NASA. Over the years, the scope of the committee's fields has expanded to include ecology, alternative energy sources, meteorology, and atomic research programs.
Petition Signatures: ~ 35400.
The British Imperial Metric System, in which everything is measured in feet, miles, pounds, gallons, etc. - too chaotic and confusing, according to the filed petition in December . “We [the US] still strongly adhere to the use of an inaccurate Imperial System, despite the fact that any other country we have to interact with uses the Metric,” the petition says.
But in the Metric system, where measurements in units such as kilogram, meter, liter, are also not without problems. And the main thing here is that a standard kilogram is not always so standard as it should be.
And you can consider the adoption of the Potrzebi system or measure in the Saganand Troubles .
Petition Signatures: ~ 11,200.
The idea of minting one platinum coin with a face value of 1 trillion dollars is “no more absurd than playing Political Football , and the economy is in danger,” the petition of January 3 says .
At Wired Science, we decided to approach this proposal from an arithmetic point of view and calculated the cost of a platinum coin with the size of a silver dollar - it came out to $ 1200. And although this is not the face value considered in the petition, a platinum coin of 1 trillion dollars would be much larger and would not fit into the bank and certainly in your wallet: the weight is almost 43 million pounds at measuring 80 feet in diameter and 6 feet in thickness.
Petition Signatures: ~ 5600.
A petition sent by the Anonymous group hacktivist on January 7 asks the White House to decriminalize massive attacks on servers sending websites offline. DDoS attacks were carried out on a number of sites, including government sites in the United States and Britain . It is explained that DDoS is not so much an attack as the Internet equivalent of a protest (sedentary protest or Occupy capture). “Instead of a group of people standing outside the building and taking over the territory, the way they use their computers is to capture the website in order to slow down (or stop) the operation of a website for a short time,” the petition says.
Petition Signatures: ~ 5700.
The first daylight saving time conceived by Benjamin Franklin is still a bone of contention. "Every year the spring" forward one hour "is clear and obvious loss of performance: Clock Set, missed meetings, angry, confused, tired people, the stress for the parents ...," - says this petition is dated 12 January.
Guys, we don’t know what you have there for weird hours, but there are more convincing arguments for and against the switch. Regardless of which camp you belong to, one thing is clear: this damned confusion due to the fact that some states translate hours into daylight saving time, in others they do not, in some countries they translate, in some they don’t.
And the last shooter translation will not solve the problem.
So, sort it out there.
Nevertheless, the White House will share its signature recipe for home-made beer - it is not classified. And they shared it . All that was needed to do this was just to ask and 12,240 people did this by participating in the White House petition program “We are the People” .
Launched in September 2011, the petition filing system allows users to create petitions about everything that comes to their mind (it is obvious that the petitions on the site are still being moderated). Further, after receiving the initial 150 signatures, the petitions are published on the site. And if during the next 30 days the petition scored enough signatures, the White House will formally respond to it.
But there is one problem: the petition system has become too popular. The initial limit of 5,000 signatures was too easy to dial and in October 2011 it was raised five-fold to 25,000. But on January 15, 2013 the White House again raises the lower limit to 100,000 , so that only the most popular ideas can rise in the ranking. Now there is already a petitionto cancel this decision ( at the time of writing the translation there were 6732 signatures ), there is still someone to ask the administration to stop all this “circus” with the project ( at the time of writing the translation there were 1000 signatures ), another asks the White House to treat petitions more seriously (signatures: 37000+. To which the answer was received: We are listening to you. Seriously. ).
Since September 2011 , about 10 million signatures have been put under more than 141,000 created petitions. Over the past two months of 2011, 73,000 new petitions were created and 2.4 million people registered in the system.
As of January 24, more than 285 petitions await signatures. And the most popular petition today is a request for recognition of discriminatory actions by the Westborough Baptist Church and its inclusion in the “List of Hate Groups” (signatures: 325000+). Most petitions are submitted with requests for forms of taxation, control of firearms, or even a complete ban on firearms, and there are also many for pardoning prisoners. But among all this multitude of incoming petitions, there are those related to science and technology.
For example, a petition requesting the administration to consider the construction of the Death Star, which was signed by 34,435 people and received a well-known answer - the official "No" in the Jedi spirit.
The following are other petitions we have collected on science-related topics. And of course including the White House home-made beer recipe. Because there is one more thing that we love in our editorial department ( Wired Science ) as well as science - it's beer.
Homemade White House Beer
Ale for the chef: recipes for honey ale and honey porter. ( pdf )
White House Inside: Brewing.
Show us aliens
Extraterrestrial Highway 375. Nevada.
Signatures on the petition: ~ 1860.
( Roswell incident , Zone 51 , emits a signal Spaceball aliens with abnormal interest in anal anatomy).
The main trend among applicants: a request for transparency of information on contacts with aliens . The January 1 petition suggests that such information will usher in the “Golden Age of Peace, Prosperity, Health and Abundance for All People [and Not People] on Earth.”
The White House has already answered a similar request. "The fact is that we do not have reliable evidence of the presence of extraterrestrial life forms, here on Earth."
“Why all these secrets and secrets? Already 2013, we already know everything. It is time to unite. We are all united, ”says one of the last petitions, but not a word about the information confirming this knowledge of the applicant. ( original )
Believe me, people. We, with the same impatience, like you, want to know - are we alone in this vast universe? But so far there is no evidence.
Well, be patient.
Patience. Learning you must!
Patience. Learning you must!
First generation spaceship
Petition Signatures: ~ 7200.
“Few things could inspire people on Earth so much as the view of an Enterprise under construction in space,” we read in a petition filed on December 22 from buildtheenterprise.org . The petition also claims that technology is currently starting the construction of an Enterprise-like first-generation starship, and the author modestly advises the White House to delegate NASA feasibility and design studies on this issue. Despite the fact that it will take about 20 years, the result could be amazing trips, and we hope to be able to avoid the Tribbles ( asexual, cute puffies, breeding with great speed, flooding a spaceship - approx. Translator) .
Note: The petition was withdrawn from consideration after the fact of signature cheating by the required date was revealed. The screen of the petition can be seen here .
Protect Bigfoot!
Petition Signatures: ~ 1100.
If the creators of this petition insist on their own, then the population of snowy people will be recognized as representatives of the local fauna and will be protected by law. Laws prohibit hunting for them, trapping or slaughtering these hairy monkey-like creatures, who secretly hide from scientists who are trying hard to verify their existence.
Except, of course, one veterinarian, a specialist in researching DNA, who claims to have taken a sample and has already carried out an analysis of the DNA sequence of the hatch.
Public Publishing
Signature of the petition: ~ 60200.
Free access to articles on scientific research conducted on taxpayers' money is required, as stated in a petition filed in May 2012. “The requested research results on the money of taxpayers should be posted on the Internet in a form convenient for reading or processing, thereby ensuring accessibility for patients and guardians, students and their teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs and other taxpayers who pay for it,” it said petitions.
Although this petition gained the required number of signatures back in June, there was no official response from the White House.
More recently, disputes have raged between scholars and magazine publishers over open access and have reached their peak of fame withdeath online activist Schwartz Aaron , a champion of open access to information. In September 2010, Schwartz used the network of the Massachusetts Polytechnic to download and freely publish millions of journal articles that were in the public domain. After he was caught, Schwartz “fell under the wheels” of the investigation vehicle and threats, as many believe, the cruelty of court decisions is disproportionate to the consequences of his crime.
By the way, there is also a petition for the removal of the district attorney Carmen Ortiz - accused of an aggressive investigation into the case of Aaron Schwartz (petition signatures: 43000+).
Design a fusion space rocket
Petition Signatures: ~ 2300.
In six words: Nuclear. Rocket ship. B. Others. Worlds. Now.
“This is not a new technology,” the January 3 petition says . “Physics and technology make this possible.”
Remove Congressman Paul Brown from US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
Paul Brown Speech Translation
The word of God is true. I came to explain this. Everything that I was taught about evolution and embryology, the Big Bang theory - all this is a lie from the depths of hell. And this lie is trying to keep me and all the other people who have been taught this from realizing that they need a Savior. Look, that lot of scientific data that I collected as a scientist actually shows that the Earth is really young. I do not believe that the Earth is more than 9000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days, as we know ( note: a speech was made in a Baptist church) This is what the Bible says. And here I came to know that this is the real “Guide from the manufacturer”, as I call it. She teaches us how to use our lives, to behave in the family, in the church. She also teaches how to conduct public policy and social behavior. And this is the reason why I, your representative in Congress, am guided by the Bible, voting in Washington and will not stop doing this.
Petition Signatures: ~ 8700.
“Everything I was taught about evolution and embryology, the Big Bang theory is all a lie from the depths of hell,” said Congressman Paul Brown (R-GA) in October. And he continued: “The great amount of scientific data that I collected as a scientist [at Brown’s doctorate] actually shows that the Earth is really young. I don’t believe that the Earth is more than 9000 years old. ” ( specially translated his speech, see above - note of a translator)
The petition filed on January 18 suggests that Brown’s religious preferences have an influence on the decisions he makes as a member of the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
In fact: Brown is a member of the congressional committee that oversees civilian research at institutions such as NASA, NOAA, NSF, and USGS. In 1958, Congress created the predecessor of the committee — the House and Science and Astronautics Committee of the House of Representatives — after the Soviets launched Sputnik-1. One of the committee’s first decisions was the creation of NASA. Over the years, the scope of the committee's fields has expanded to include ecology, alternative energy sources, meteorology, and atomic research programs.
Get rid of pounds
Petition Signatures: ~ 35400.
The British Imperial Metric System, in which everything is measured in feet, miles, pounds, gallons, etc. - too chaotic and confusing, according to the filed petition in December . “We [the US] still strongly adhere to the use of an inaccurate Imperial System, despite the fact that any other country we have to interact with uses the Metric,” the petition says.
But in the Metric system, where measurements in units such as kilogram, meter, liter, are also not without problems. And the main thing here is that a standard kilogram is not always so standard as it should be.
And you can consider the adoption of the Potrzebi system or measure in the Saganand Troubles .
Make a 1 trillion dollar coin
Petition Signatures: ~ 11,200.
The idea of minting one platinum coin with a face value of 1 trillion dollars is “no more absurd than playing Political Football , and the economy is in danger,” the petition of January 3 says .
At Wired Science, we decided to approach this proposal from an arithmetic point of view and calculated the cost of a platinum coin with the size of a silver dollar - it came out to $ 1200. And although this is not the face value considered in the petition, a platinum coin of 1 trillion dollars would be much larger and would not fit into the bank and certainly in your wallet: the weight is almost 43 million pounds at measuring 80 feet in diameter and 6 feet in thickness.
Make DDoS Attack a Legal Protest
Petition Signatures: ~ 5600.
A petition sent by the Anonymous group hacktivist on January 7 asks the White House to decriminalize massive attacks on servers sending websites offline. DDoS attacks were carried out on a number of sites, including government sites in the United States and Britain . It is explained that DDoS is not so much an attack as the Internet equivalent of a protest (sedentary protest or Occupy capture). “Instead of a group of people standing outside the building and taking over the territory, the way they use their computers is to capture the website in order to slow down (or stop) the operation of a website for a short time,” the petition says.
Remove Daylight Saving Time
Petition Signatures: ~ 5700.
The first daylight saving time conceived by Benjamin Franklin is still a bone of contention. "Every year the spring" forward one hour "is clear and obvious loss of performance: Clock Set, missed meetings, angry, confused, tired people, the stress for the parents ...," - says this petition is dated 12 January.
Guys, we don’t know what you have there for weird hours, but there are more convincing arguments for and against the switch. Regardless of which camp you belong to, one thing is clear: this damned confusion due to the fact that some states translate hours into daylight saving time, in others they do not, in some countries they translate, in some they don’t.
And the last shooter translation will not solve the problem.
So, sort it out there.