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Betterdige's Law Of Headlines: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." Unfortunately here, as it would be great to have a
by WildUtah 13y ago
Betterdige's Law Of Headlines:
"Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
Unfortunately here, as it would be great to have a wise and effective Supreme Court.
The last time there was thought to be a chance to abolish software patents before the court, four conservative justices were against abolition and Scalia refused to join any opinion fully. (Scalia, comfortable knowing that he's the smartest, is often willing to be humble when he isn't sure and says so.) That situation is likely to repeat itself.
This is a much better article, incidentally:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/02/26/will-the-supreme-court-save-us-from-software-patents/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/02/26...
- ars 13y agoThat law may not apply here. The basis for this law is that if the reporter can answer the question with a "yes" they would simply report that. However, this can't be done with a future event. So for a future event the law doesn't apply - the reporter isn't being lazy or trying to make something out of nothing - the information is truly not available yet.
- majika 13y agoAlso, this "reporter" is the Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Law, at the Emory University School of Law. This is actually a pretty good article.
- lambda 13y agoThe writer of the headline and of the article are often not the same person; this may be a fine article which had a poor headline attached by someone else.
- waterlesscloud 13y agoHN should have a bot that deletes any comment that refers to this "law".
- PhasmaFelis 13y agoSure, right after they implement the bot that deletes any newspost to which it obviously applies.
- waterlesscloud 13y agoMention of this "law" has no place on a site whose very existence is based on the idea of discussing submitted posts. It's only used as a shallow, lazy shortcut. It doesn't add anything useful to the discussion. We'd all be better off if the people who feel compelled to post it, didn't. On the other hand, meaningful reasons why the premise of the headline is wrong are useful, and should be encouraged. For example, the post I'm referring to here would have provided just as much value without the reference to the "law".
- diminoten 13y agoHow dare you derail this conversation and try to tell us what we can and can't say on a topic. You have the power of one upvote or one downvote, and that's it.
- cle 13y agoThought-terminating clichés don't belong on HN (or anywhere, really).
- bashinator 13y agoThere was a headline over the weekend, "Have Scientists Finally Found Evidence of Gravitational Waves in the CMB?"
- GenerocUsername 13y agoWell, that settles it. Clearly, they have not.
- jasallen 13y agoAgreed. Much, much better article. Thanks for posting. Please create a new post with this link if it hasn't already been done!