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A longer video of the set:
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Next-Generation-Complete/dp/B000RZIGVS/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1350890221&sr=1-2&keywords=tng

Ah, poperatzo, good to hear from you.

How do you expect to have "secret voting" when Mitt Romney's son holds an equity interest in a company that makes voting machines (a company which has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Romney campaign).

The vote is secret since there isn't personally identifiable information linked to the vote itself.

Do you think that everyone at the company are both Romney only voters and are unethical? If not, how would they expect to keep quiet the sort of conspiracy you posit? Surely they would expect their behavior to be under scrutiny?

Does their contract cover the whole state, and do they actually have the means to change the vote?

We've outsourced our elections.

Only the manufacture of voting machines, and do you really want the government in that business? The elections are supervised the same old way, and votes are still cast by voters.

I have absolutely zero confidence in the integrity of US elections. and not because of "voter fraud".

Voter fraud? The very idea! Rest assurred, it doesn't always work. ;) (Just because I know you've listened.)

Besides, don't worry, the the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP and the ACLU have your back, in yet another embarrassment to the United States.

Ah, poperatzo, good to hear from you.

How do you expect to have "secret voting" when Mitt Romney's son holds an equity interest in a company that makes voting machines (a company which has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Romney campaign).

The vote is secret since there isn't personally identifiable information linked to the vote itself.

Do you think that everyone at the company are both Romney only voters and are unethical? If not, how would they expect to keep quiet the sort of conspiracy you posit? Surely they would expect their behavior to be under scrutiny?

Does their contract cover the whole state, and do they actually have the means to change the vote?

We've outsourced our elections.

Only the manufacture of voting machines, and do you really want the government in that business? The elections are supervised the same old way, and votes are still cast by voters.

I have absolutely zero confidence in the integrity of US elections. and not because of "voter fraud".

Voter fraud? The very idea! Rest assurred, it doesn't always work. ;) (Just because I know you've listened.)

Besides, don't worry, the the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP and the ACLU have your back, in yet another embarrassment to the United States.

to break out the old bluetooth retro handset.

to run a massive array of Steel Stirling Engines and generate electricity to lower their dependence on the grid.

I searched Amazon for do not call and a few things came up. The $70 Call Blocker got 4/5 stars for the 22 people that bought one. The $120 discontinued TeleBouncer had a better technical functionality, and, reportedly is still available on eBay. I might try that Call Blocker (after reading each of the reviews) or investigate running Asterisk on a Raspberry Pi.

I searched Amazon for do not call and a few things came up. The $70 Call Blocker got 4/5 stars for the 22 people that bought one. The $120 discontinued TeleBouncer had a better technical functionality, and, reportedly is still available on eBay. I might try that Call Blocker (after reading each of the reviews) or investigate running Asterisk on a Raspberry Pi.

Typing on a tablet sucks unless you have a physical keyboard (which drives the price quite a bit higher)

Oh yeah, 25 bucks higher.

That's gotta hurt.

...400 genes is so much complex to be generated by luck or by mutation from nothing.

You really need to read Dawkin's "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution."
He walks you through the steps from primordial soup to humans.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Evolution/dp/0618005838

He's probably referring to buying it either used or from somewhere like Amazon where you aren't paying full retail like here.

Do you think humans have a genetic predisposition to believe in things that have no basis in science?

Perhaps this book will give you your answers.

The other day, MS's engineering team did an AMA on reddit where they answered the question of screen resolution:

Hey this is Stevie. Screen resolution is one component of perceived detail. The true measure of resolvability of a screen called Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), not Pixels. MTF is a combination of both contrast and resolution. There are over a dozen subsystems that effect this MTF number.. Most folks just focus on one number out of dozens that effect perceived detail. Without good contrast resolution decreases. Check out contrast sensitivity of the human eye graph (http://www.telescope-optics.net/images/eye_contrast.PNG) and if you want more see the links below. Basically, as resolution/DPI increases the eye has becomes less sensitive. So as a result, the amount of light in a room and the reflections off the screen have a huge effect on the contrast of the display. In fact, a small amount of reflection can greatly reduce contrast and thus the perceived resolution of the display. With the ClearType Display technology we took a 3 pronged approach to maximize that perceived resolution and optimize for battery life, weight, and thickness. First prong, Microsoft has the best pixel rendering technology in the industry (cleartype 1.0 and 2.0) .. these are exclusive and unique to Windows, it smooths text regardless of pixel count. Second, we designed a custom 10.6” high-contrast wide-angle screen LCD screen. Lastly we optically bonded the screen with the thinnest optical stack anywhere on the market.. something which is more commonly done on phones we are doing on Surface. While this is not official, our current Cleartype measurements on the amount of light reflected off the screen is around 5.5%-6.2%, the new IPad has a measurement of 9.9% mirror reflections (see the displaymate link: http://www.displaymate.com/iPad_ShootOut_1.htm). Doing a side by side with the new iPad in a consistently lit room, we have had many people see more detail on Surface RT than on the Ipad with more resolution.

Some more links to share if you want to know more (http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/MTF.html)... Also This is a great book to read if you really want to get into it: http://www.amazon.com/Contrast-Sensitivity-Effects-Quality-Monograph/dp/0819434965 or more here http://alexandria.tue.nl/extra2/9901043.pdf

So it seems that Microsoft has data that suggests that, despite the lower resolution, the Surface has greater precieved detail than the iPad. (although I find it annoying that they've muddied the waters by re-using trademarks - they've repurposed "Cleartype Display" as the MS equivalent of Apple's "Retina Display")

This guy should be getting his kids The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, which is a book from 1960s which was banned because it was considered too dangerous, which is now only available as an ebook on the intertubes (it isn't available for sale anywhere, the original publisher took it off the shelves for liability reasons, but it can still be found at various places if you google for it). Although it's quite out-of-date on some of the topics it covers, it's still my favorite lab Chemistry book in the entire World !!

And of course, this isn't a book that should be given to kids without parental supervision, there is actually a very good reason this book was taken off the shelves and no, it's not because some kid blew himself up with it, which may have happened as well (without parental supervision), it's actually much weirder than that. The book was taken off the shelves because some thirteen years old successfully replicated the experiments by Marie Curie detailed in the book.

Now that I've made my recommendation, which I didn't want to get lost in my very long diatribe, here comes my long diatribe which tries to partially answer some of his better points.

Even some of my smartest friends seem to be oddly loyal to the Committee of Ten. They are not able to imagine a universe in which my son does not take chemistry his sophomore year in high school. Seriously guys, dig deep, and you may find some powers of imagination left over from all those years of industrialized schooling and, well, schooling.

Do we really have to dig that hard to imagine a world without Chemistry education? We really don't.

I still find that most people are ignorant about Chemistry (and even Physics and Biology), not that I'm very good at any of those subjects either (I've just been fortunate enough not to be born in a country that ignored Science education), but just to give you an example, my mother doesn't have an education in Chemistry (it wasn't offered during her time, especially for her gender). Had she received a basic education in that subject when she was younger, she would have probably seen through half the medical quackery that she's getting into from the internet. Right now, she's getting convinced left and right, and there is really so much I can do to dissuade her that the people she's listening to are not legitimate medical professionals.

And yes, a Chemistry education would have helped, at least a little bit. Some of those internet quacks do rely on the language of Chemistry that they've cut and pasted from various places, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense on the whole in the context of what they're saying.

Right now, the only education on Chemistry/Physics most of our mainstream population is getting, is through TV dramas and television news. And to a father who doesn't really remember chemistry (even thought he was good at it), he may not see much harm in shows like "Numb3rs", in fact, he's probably glad that such a show (now cancelled) was trying to educate the public about Math, Physics, and even Chemistry at times, while still staying interesting to watch, but he probably didn't even notice the purposeful omissions of real science in favor of increasing the drama to keep the show interesting. Nor does he have much of an idea how misleading that show is going to be to our society, because of what they mis-portrayed on it.

And ultimately, that's the real problem here, we need the citizens in our country (the younger generation at least), to be conversant in Chemistry (and other sciences), so they can help make good personal decisions about their own health, nutrition, and environment, and make good policy decisions about our society, because on the whole that knowledge is certainly not coming from our television or our parents (barring a very few exceptions).

The Management Secrets of T. John Dick Might not change your life, but at least make you see the funny side. Or the sequel The Rise and Fall of T. John Dick. They're a bit like Dilbert in novel form, seen through the eyes of the pointy-haired boss.

The Management Secrets of T. John Dick Might not change your life, but at least make you see the funny side. Or the sequel The Rise and Fall of T. John Dick. They're a bit like Dilbert in novel form, seen through the eyes of the pointy-haired boss.

I guess we have it on your authority then that personal liberty is overrated and limited government is a horror? Yep.

Get Paid! Big business strategies for the small business person.

A real reality check on life.

If you want to get ahead the answer is easy. WORK! - Larry Winget (mentioned here.

I am not affiliated with him in anyway nor promoting him other than I am a fan. The fact is you get rich and success by working hard. Does that mean 80 hours a week forever? No. But for 2 years yes. I plan to work 60 - 80 hours a week just for a 38k a year teaching job this January. I have too to get ahead to pass all my exams and courses as well as teach at the same time for a special program. I have classes at night and the weekends which are 2 years worth of teaching classes for non education majors crammed into 9 months!

To start a business ... need I say more? To be a lawyer how many hours? In this economy you are expected to work these hours if you want to keep your job or be first to let go when the next recession hits. I am not saying it is right. I am just stating reality. To be truly excellent at what you do you need to put in serious effort. If you do that you will get ahead regardless of your career path. Same is true in IT which most slashdotters do for a living. Exchange 2013 is very different from Exchange 2003. It will take a good several months at 15 hours a week minimum on top of your sys admin job to really start to get a handle on it. If you are not willing to do it then you are incompetent.

Maxwell's equations force E=0 inside perfect conductors, which means that vacuum fluctuations with a half-wavelength longer than the separation between the plates can't exist between the plates.

By the way: If you are going to refer to Maxwell's equations, you should use caution. Because often what are referred to as "Maxwell's Equations" are actually just Maxwell's simplifications of Heaviside's and Hamilton's quaternion equations, with introductions of arbitrary "constants" to cancel out inconveniences, much like Einstein's "cosmological constant". There is a good deal of modern evidence that Maxwell's attempt to simplify things may have been wishful thinking, and that Heaviside and Hamilton had it right all along. We rely much on Maxwell, but his conclusions are assumptions. Not only are they not proven, there is significant counter-evidence. [Jane Q. Public]

Good grief. Electric fields are zero in perfect conductors. I explain this fact to freshman physics students by asking: what would happen if we tried to place an electric field across a conductor? Electrons would move opposite the field, and positive electron holes would move with the electric field, exactly enough to cancel out the original field inside the conductor. Better conductors cancel out faster, so electric fields are zero in perfect conductors.

Mentioning that this fact can be derived from Maxwell's equations is meant to be helpful, because all physics students should be familiar with the first theory that emerged in a Lorentz-invariant form. In other words, Maxwell's equations were consistent with special relativity before relativity even existed. They're the basis of all radio equipment, and the correspondence principle checks that quantum electrodynamics (one of the most accurate theories in history) is identical to Maxwell's equations for large systems. If your reaction to hearing "Maxwell's equations" is to spray chaff about quaternions, you'll be disappointed to find that core classes based on junior-level Griffiths and graduate-level Jackson are almost exclusively about Maxwell's equations.

Quaternion notation is useful when desribing 3D rotations, but it's not used in electrodynamics because vector notation is more intuitive. That doesn't stop crackpots from insisting that Maxwell's equations are wishful thinking.

Physicists use Maxwell's vector equations despite the fact that we're well aware of quaternion notation. John Baez even wrote a paper on octonians. As Baez quips, if the noncommutative quaternions are like a shunned eccentric cousin, then the nonassociative octonians are like the crazy old uncle nobody lets out of the attic.

In fact, look at p542 of Griffiths 3rd edition: "Equation 12.136 combines our previous results into a single 4-vector equation-- it represents the most elegant (and the simplest) formulation of Maxwell's equations."

Page 555 of

Maxwell's equations force E=0 inside perfect conductors, which means that vacuum fluctuations with a half-wavelength longer than the separation between the plates can't exist between the plates.

By the way: If you are going to refer to Maxwell's equations, you should use caution. Because often what are referred to as "Maxwell's Equations" are actually just Maxwell's simplifications of Heaviside's and Hamilton's quaternion equations, with introductions of arbitrary "constants" to cancel out inconveniences, much like Einstein's "cosmological constant". There is a good deal of modern evidence that Maxwell's attempt to simplify things may have been wishful thinking, and that Heaviside and Hamilton had it right all along. We rely much on Maxwell, but his conclusions are assumptions. Not only are they not proven, there is significant counter-evidence. [Jane Q. Public]

Good grief. Electric fields are zero in perfect conductors. I explain this fact to freshman physics students by asking: what would happen if we tried to place an electric field across a conductor? Electrons would move opposite the field, and positive electron holes would move with the electric field, exactly enough to cancel out the original field inside the conductor. Better conductors cancel out faster, so electric fields are zero in perfect conductors.

Mentioning that this fact can be derived from Maxwell's equations is meant to be helpful, because all physics students should be familiar with the first theory that emerged in a Lorentz-invariant form. In other words, Maxwell's equations were consistent with special relativity before relativity even existed. They're the basis of all radio equipment, and the correspondence principle checks that quantum electrodynamics (one of the most accurate theories in history) is identical to Maxwell's equations for large systems. If your reaction to hearing "Maxwell's equations" is to spray chaff about quaternions, you'll be disappointed to find that core classes based on junior-level Griffiths and graduate-level Jackson are almost exclusively about Maxwell's equations.

Quaternion notation is useful when desribing 3D rotations, but it's not used in electrodynamics because vector notation is more intuitive. That doesn't stop crackpots from insisting that Maxwell's equations are wishful thinking.

Physicists use Maxwell's vector equations despite the fact that we're well aware of quaternion notation. John Baez even wrote a paper on octonians. As Baez quips, if the noncommutative quaternions are like a shunned eccentric cousin, then the nonassociative octonians are like the crazy old uncle nobody lets out of the attic.

In fact, look at p542 of Griffiths 3rd edition: "Equation 12.136 combines our previous results into a single 4-vector equation-- it represents the most elegant (and the simplest) formulation of Maxwell's equations."

Page 555 of

Maxwell's equations force E=0 inside perfect conductors, which means that vacuum fluctuations with a half-wavelength longer than the separation between the plates can't exist between the plates.

By the way: If you are going to refer to Maxwell's equations, you should use caution. Because often what are referred to as "Maxwell's Equations" are actually just Maxwell's simplifications of Heaviside's and Hamilton's quaternion equations, with introductions of arbitrary "constants" to cancel out inconveniences, much like Einstein's "cosmological constant". There is a good deal of modern evidence that Maxwell's attempt to simplify things may have been wishful thinking, and that Heaviside and Hamilton had it right all along. We rely much on Maxwell, but his conclusions are assumptions. Not only are they not proven, there is significant counter-evidence. [Jane Q. Public]

Good grief. Electric fields are zero in perfect conductors. I explain this fact to freshman physics students by asking: what would happen if we tried to place an electric field across a conductor? Electrons would move opposite the field, and positive electron holes would move with the electric field, exactly enough to cancel out the original field inside the conductor. Better conductors cancel out faster, so electric fields are zero in perfect conductors.

Mentioning that this fact can be derived from Maxwell's equations is meant to be helpful, because all physics students should be familiar with the first theory that emerged in a Lorentz-invariant form. In other words, Maxwell's equations were consistent with special relativity before relativity even existed. They're the basis of all radio equipment, and the correspondence principle checks that quantum electrodynamics (one of the most accurate theories in history) is identical to Maxwell's equations for large systems. If your reaction to hearing "Maxwell's equations" is to spray chaff about quaternions, you'll be disappointed to find that core classes based on junior-level Griffiths and graduate-level Jackson are almost exclusively about Maxwell's equations.

Quaternion notation is useful when desribing 3D rotations, but it's not used in electrodynamics because vector notation is more intuitive. That doesn't stop crackpots from insisting that Maxwell's equations are wishful thinking.

Physicists use Maxwell's vector equations despite the fact that we're well aware of quaternion notation. John Baez even wrote a paper on octonians. As Baez quips, if the noncommutative quaternions are like a shunned eccentric cousin, then the nonassociative octonians are like the crazy old uncle nobody lets out of the attic.

In fact, look at p542 of Griffiths 3rd edition: "Equation 12.136 combines our previous results into a single 4-vector equation-- it represents the most elegant (and the simplest) formulation of Maxwell's equations."

Page 555 of

We spoke to one of the developers on the project who basically told us this difficulty was intended and let us know he'd be extremely impressed if we got it installed without his help.

Freeside is the main slum of New Vegas in 2281. Controlled by the Kings and the Van Graffs, the streets are dangerous and lack the luster of the New Vegas Strip. There is a conflict between the locals and squatters.
- Fallout: New Vegas

Yep, sounds about right.

I'd also recommend Introduction to Modern Cryptography, for those interested in the subject. I've had to use it for a class, and though cryptography is pretty complex (at least for me, anyway), this book does a great job at presenting the material.

Same concept, written by Charles Petzold in 1999:

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319

A fun board game, and excellent for teaching the basic mental skills used in queuing up a list of instructions and then having them all execute in the order that you specified.

http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-of-the-Coast-217580000WOC/dp/B0009HLSP0/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1350385716&sr=1-1&keywords=robo+rally

Some reading for mental hygiene.

I doubt you really understand what fascism is about.

Yes, but libertarians can be fascists.

That is ridiculous. Libertarianism is about reducing state power over individuals, fascisim is about increasing it. Libertarian Fascism? That is so stupid it is funny. If you honestly belive that, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of this subject. Maybe this will help.

Exactly, Assembly Language for Kids: Commodore 64 worked for me so it should work for the current generation!

(Seriously, check it out, the drawings are great!)

Let's see, there's Bangai-O Spirits:

Bangai-O Spirits

Wario Ware DIY:

Wario Ware D.I.Y.

KORG DS-10 Plus:

KORG DS-10 Plus

Let's see, there's Bangai-O Spirits:

Bangai-O Spirits

Wario Ware DIY:

Wario Ware D.I.Y.

KORG DS-10 Plus:

KORG DS-10 Plus

Let's see, there's Bangai-O Spirits:

Bangai-O Spirits

Wario Ware DIY:

Wario Ware D.I.Y.

KORG DS-10 Plus:

KORG DS-10 Plus

Uh, no. I own neither iPhone nor iPad nor iPod nor iAnything else, and detest using my boss's button-less Apple mouse (which incidentally she has set up to scroll in an inverted way---just to fuck with me, I'm pretty sure).

My daughter was 2 (well, 23 months old, to be precise) when I set up her computer. I started her off with a typical, full-sized Microsoft laser mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel. It was very confusing for her. I eventually ordered this mouse. It was a much better fit. FWIW, Amazon's reviewers overwhelmingly agree.

I'm sure she could handle a wheel-mouse now without trouble. But back then it made a big difference.

Uhhh...why would it affect your HTPC? Simply use the net and get all the shows you want WHEN you want and with less commercials to boot. I have built several HTPCs for customers and between Win 7 MC Internet TV, Hulu Basic, and YouTube they have so many shows to choose from they could watch TV from sun up to sun down and never watch all the great shows out there. And that of course isn't counting using BT to get shows, this is just the legal means.

As a nice bonus you can get an E350 barebone which since you won't have to be encoding like a DVR will work great and only costs $130 for the barebone with nice case and PSU and for those that don't want to spend the money on Win 7 HP you can just download OpenELEC which has the XBMC 10 foot UI and has a prebuilt build for AMD Fusion chips like the E350, couldn't be simpler.

So I see no reason why this should affect your HTPC, its just one more reason to just buy bare cable for the net and say screw their TV offerings. I personally haven't bothered plugging in the free converter they handed me or my capture card because with Internet TV and all the shows on the net frankly there is more TV than I have hours in the day. Lately I've been on a classic kick so I'm watching Kolchak and Night Gallery here at the shop while I work. Its nice, less commercials than I deal with on cable, and couldn't be easier to do.

Any good antennas you can suggest? Indoor or outdoor would be fine. I would prefer not to have to move it though. Multiple would also be better than having to move one.

OK, truth time: I was trying to find some ridiculously massive, hopefully homemade mess of an antenna to post for kicks, when I came across this gem: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005US5M50?tag=wppk-20 Motorized, 360 degree rotation, multiple outputs, and comes with a remote? Count me in!

...aaaaaaand upon reading the reviews, never-fuckin-mind...

Man, what did we do for ensuring we were purchasing quality goods before peer review? Oh, right - we actually made quality shit ourselves.

Any good antennas you can suggest? Indoor or outdoor would be fine. I would prefer not to have to move it though. Multiple would also be better than having to move one.

OK, truth time: I was trying to find some ridiculously massive, hopefully homemade mess of an antenna to post for kicks, when I came across this gem:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005US5M50?tag=wppk-20

Motorized, 360 degree rotation, multiple outputs, and comes with a remote?

Count me in!

Here ($20) is a great one for indoor/outdoor use. I have mine mounted indoors on the pole of my TV stand.

It's is a clone of the Antennas Direct DB2. There's also a 2-panel DB4 and a 4-panel DB8.

Here ($20) is a great one for indoor/outdoor use. I have mine mounted indoors on the pole of my TV stand.

It's is a clone of the Antennas Direct DB2. There's also a 2-panel DB4 and a 4-panel DB8.

Bullshit. You're looking at $80-$90+ for those kind of features.

Wow, you're quite the idiot, aren't you?

How about $45.50 from Amazon right now:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003JLPWAK/

I think this is what you wanted to link:

List Price Requirements

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26OKE7R7B it's 20% below any other price now. Used to be up to $9.99. Now I guess a $20 book can get 70% at $16, and an $8 paperback can be sold for $6.40 at 70%. The big trick is if you sell your book as a paperback ever, for $8, that's your base price and you need to be 20% below that--never mind that its main distribution is a $25 hardcover! So yeah.

Actually maybe you should read "Misquoting Jesus" by B. Ehrman - it is written by a blblical scholar, actually the farther back in time you go the _less_ consistent the texts of the new testament are - the exact opposite of what you would expect if they all derived from a common source - this coupled with the fact that stories similar to story of Jesus (except with Egyptian or other mediteranean gods as heros) had been floating around for years before the supposed birth of Christ and finally the lack of any historical Roman records of Christ's existence make even the statment that "Christ was a historical figure" that I hear from even many atheists and agnostic completely untenable - there is no evidence for a historical Christ

I'm not sure you understand Ehrman very well. Have you read Did Jesus Exist? If you are going to cite Bart Ehrman, a former Christian, a current professor of the New Testament, and the holder of a Masters in Divinity, why not quote the part where he's 100% certain the evidence points to there being a historical Christ. Ehrman has many doubts about Christianity, but one of them isn't whether Jesus was a historical figure.

Install Wine and run any of these fine children's games by Humongous Entertainment.

PuttPutt and Freddie Fish were childhood favorites of myself, my brother, and now my own son.

The hype and the $$$-making for Red Bull and Baumgartner might be just started. I'm surprised he made it; there was quite a bit of luck involved. There were and are many unknowns, especially wrt physiological reaction of the body. He might have suffered damage that emerges as time goes by.

One aspect of the hype that isn't scrutinized much is the claim that this was some kind of unprotected jump, man against atmosphere, etc. etc. In reality, Baumgartner was encased in a highy-engineered protective enclosure which happened to fit very closely to the outlines of his body. Other protective enclosures, such as cockpits of aircraft, happen to be much larger and more massive. What he did was still very risky (and stupid), but as usual with this kind of thing the hype gets people carried away from reality.

We also need to re-examine the value we as a society place on *risk* and *risk-takers*, as opposed to things like *wisdom*, *moderation*, *shared benefit*, and other such qualities that are so unexciting, unprofitable, and resilient to hyped media coverage. This jump was another example of the techno-frenzy ideology which has captured the planners of society, especially US society, and which is leading us down entirely the wrong path at an extremely critical point in history.

http://www.amazon.com/Too-Much-Magic-Thinking-Technology/dp/080212030X

A: Is it supposed to move?
B: Does it move?

If A & B = "yes" then no problem
If A & B = "no" then no problem
If A = "yes" & B = "no" then apply WD-40
If A = "no" & B = "yes" then apply DuctTape

A: Is it supposed to move?
B: Does it move?

If A & B = "yes" then no problem
If A & B = "no" then no problem
If A = "yes" & B = "no" then apply WD-40
If A = "no" & B = "yes" then apply DuctTape

The chain of logic I'm referring to has been documented in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and again in The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. The historical veracity of the New Testament is described in The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.

The chain of logic I'm referring to has been documented in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and again in The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. The historical veracity of the New Testament is described in The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.

The chain of logic I'm referring to has been documented in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and again in The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. The historical veracity of the New Testament is described in The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel.

"The three assumptions for home schooling are that it is inherently preferable for a parent to stay home to be there for the kids if they are needed, and that school as it is now is a negative influence the children who parents want to bring them up in a morale world. The third, and more controversial, is that 12 years of schooling is overkill. "

There is a lot more complexity to this than that, although you make some good points.

I'd rather see a "basic income" for all than paying people to be responsible parents, neighbors, or friends.
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html

Home-based and community-based education is often about reclaiming family and community from institutionalization.
http://johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
"Before you can reach a point of effectiveness in defending your own children or your principles against the assault of blind social machinery, you have to stop conspiring against yourself by attempting to negotiate with a set of abstract principles and rules which, by its nature, cannot respond. Under all its disguises, that is what institutional schooling is, an abstraction which has escaped its handlers. Nobody can reform it. First you have to realize that human values are the stuff of madness to a system; in systems-logic the schools we have are already the schools the system needs; the only way they could be much improved is to have kids eat, sleep, live, and die there."

It certainly is true that unhealthy habits may get passed from kid to kid in schools (they are probably the easiest places to buy addictive drugs, for example). There are other addictive and unhealthy things passed on too at schools, even if they may originate elsewhere:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.chefann.com/
http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html
http://www.amazon.com/War-Play-Dilemma-Childhood-Education/dp/080774638X
http://www.amazon.com/So-Sexy-Soon-Sexualized-Childhood/dp/0345505077

But public school can be seen as inherently immoral in part because it rests on a premise of unneeded violence through coercion.
http://www.educationrevolution.org/blog/educating-children-in-a-violent-world/

Contrast a "public" school with a "public" library, where many peopel throught the ages have learned a lot without someone grading them or monitoring everything they learned or forcing them to read certain books on a certain fixed schedule.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3a.htm
"One way to see the difference between schoolbooks and real books like Moby Dick is to examine different procedures which separate librarians, the custodians of real books, from schoolteachers, the custodians of schoolbooks. To begin with, libraries are usually comfortable, clean, and quiet. They are orderly places where you can actually read instead of just pretending to read.
For some reason libraries are never age-segregated, nor do they presume to segregate readers by questionable tests of ability any more than farms or forests or oceans do. The librarian doesn't tell me what to read, doesn't tell me what sequence of reading I have to follow, doesn't grade my reading. The librarian trusts me to have a worthwhile purpose of my own. I appreciate that and trust the library in return.
Some other significant differences between libraries and schools: the librarian lets me ask my own questions and helps m