Its not like it is the end of the world

This link at arXiv is interesting and also very apropos for me. It is about how often a scientist makes a mistake in a published work. Now, I never make mistekes [sic]. I just goofed up an equation on gravity and I should have known better but I was thinking about something else at the time. That is the sad thing, we can't be perfect, and so I accept that I can make mistakes when I start something. They are talking about the statistical aspects of technical works and it seems a high figure to have 1 in 10,000 to have error. That is in an environment of peer review and copy editors too. How many pairs of eyes does it take to be absolutely sure that something is correct? IDK

The problem with the mistakes they are talking about has to do with destroying the Earth and so there is a higher standard of surety that must be applied to that endeavor than to me making a posting mistake on my blog. I have considered the issues at LHC and I don't find their methods to be really scary, however I don't have all their facts at my disposal as it is not my job. It is possible that someone who studies this more closely than I might find a problem there and that is one of the reasons I listen to others, but ultimately form my own opinion.

Separate note, as soon as I typed "apropos" I realized I needed to remember to use that shell command again as it was interesting. I should probably read something on writing style too as my rhetoric is for shit. I use I all the time and if my memory serves, that is considered bad style in presenting information. A blog is certainly a personal thing and so it should be done in first person, but let's see what wiki has to say about style and presentation and then see where that leads.

After a little thought about this, it seems that it could be likened to my argument about selecting a path that does not enter a zone of indifference, where the outcome is not known, there must be a very good reason to walk on the edge of a cliff. It isn't the appropriate time to consider how unstable the ground is, when you are already on the cliff.

"apropos" or "man apropos" will tell you about how it is used and it is useful for anybody. "apropos -e od" is what was on my mind and it said "od (1) - dump files in octal and other formats" which means there is a "man(1)" page for it and you can do "man od" and get more information.