You can find more information for most of the authors represented here at the Factoids page.
 

Messages posted at FACTS all have a limited life expectancy. After a couple of days, the thread to which a message belongs will usually be buried on the second page of the message board and, after a week or two if the board is really active, it'll disappear forever off the end of the board into cyberspace oblivion. For most of the messages this is a fitting end - for they were not intended as something more significant than a casual conversation. But it is a pity to lose the few truly special messages in such a way. It is further quite useful to have an archive of discussions or comments which come up repeatedly as new people enter the fray at FACTS.

"The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them." (Sir William Bragg)
 
 

This archive was created to store messages someone on the message board found interesting for one reason or another and which someone else agreed was worthy of archival. This archive has changed somewhat since Marino (a long ago and longtime FACTS regular) conceived of it. It is no longer his personal repository but is an archive dedicated to messages that the general regular membership of FACTS finds meritable. The only hard and fast rules are that a post be nominated by a regular member of FACTS (see the factoid page for a definition of "regular" member) and 2nd by someone else (regular member or lurker). Nominated and seconded posts are usually archived within 24 hours depending on how busy the volunteer admins here are. Originally Marino arranged this archive by author since to him is was a small window on the character of the participants at facts. Since it has gotten so large and encompasses many different issues it was rearranged in January of 2002 to be sorted by topic or content.