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Agreed, as a linguist working with early Indo-European languages, I'm appalled to see this recent Anatolian study being credulously passed around by laymen who are completely unaware of the longstanding debates in the field. It's like Slashdot posting an article on string theory saying that the mystery of the universe is now solved, without even mentioning that this is an alternative theory that most physicists do not hold to.

I'd encourage everyone interested in the issue to read David W. Anthony's The Horse, the Wheel and Language (Princeton University Press). It represents the mainstream on the origin of the Indo-European language family and is written in a fairly friendly tone, accessible to anyone with some basic undergraduate knowledge of history and archaeology.

it will always feel like a small step above camping.

Say what? I don't know where you've been staying, but none of what you said is true. RV parks, unless they're wilderness campgrounds, always have electric, water and sewer connections and many newer RVs have 10-12 gallon hot water tanks which a lot more hot water than my wife and I have ever used at one time.

Not something you will want to do for several years.

Says who? The longer you're on the road, the less inclination you'll be to ever go back to bricks and sticks and having your house nailed to the ground. We've been on the road for three years and found that many of our problems with traditional housing stem from a lack of convenient mobility.

Most generators will run an A/C unit on an RV just fine. If your RV has two A/C units most likely your generator is already sized for the load. The only time we've ever run ours is when we stopped at a rest area and wanted to take a nap or make lunch.

For the OP I have sections on wifi, satellite and wireless internet coverage. Right now we get high speed to our 5th wheel from the cable company, just like we did at the last two parks we've stayed in.

And as far as comfort goes, you have to learn to live in less space but the space you have is better organized. And there's someone else taking care of the yard work, cleaning the pool, grooming the golf course and stocking the bar.

Full time RV living is more comfortable and way more convenient than you might imagine. It's not a great choice if you have kids, but my friend up the street is a Unix admin for a hospital chain and he's lived in RVs for the last 10 years. You couldn't get either one of us back in a house. Traditional housing sucks in comparison.

I've tried buying "DRM free" ebooks from Amazon and could not figure out how to do it easily without a Kindle (you don't seem to ever got prompted to download a file; I assume it is all back-end device specific magic tied to your account...?)

There are desktop applications for Windows and Mac, e.g.:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/pc/download

Once this is installed and registered to your Amazon account, any purchased ebook files are automatically downloaded to a directory on your computer when the application is started, or you request a sync. From there (if DRM free) you can convert the files to some other format like epub, using a tool like Calibre:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Even if the files do have DRM, there are unofficial Calibre plugins to disinfect them seamlessly, as this l33t h4x0r site describes:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/how-to-strip-drm-from-kindle-e-books-and-others/

Thunderbolt (good idea, but currently fairly useless)

If she is doing video work she needs this:

Seagate GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt Adapter

Docks any SATA drive, gives you Thunderbolt speed in accessing the disk.

We should see even more Thunderbolt storage stuff shortly.

Being able to quickly swap out drives should be really useful for video work.

In his Mars trilogy beginning with Red Mars , Kim Stanley Robinson spent quite some time musing on suits for exploring the surface of Mars. I found it interesting that, although Mars has a very thin atmosphere compared to Earth, the presence of any atmosphere at all makes it much easier to design a flexible, comfortable suit than for the landings on the moon or spacewalks.

do such people question the desirability of having billionaires in the first place.

Have I got a book for you...

I have Apple's keyboard dock and their Digital AV Adapter. You bet your ass I would work on some iOS apps directly on my iPad if I could. My laptop and desktop are both windows. I don't own a mac. Why should I have to buy a mac just to develop apps for my tablet?

Sounds like they got the bolt cross threaded.

Just need to back out the bolt, run a thread chaser through to clean up the threads and try again.

And if NASA has an Amazon Prime membership, Amazon will have it delivered to the space station by Wednesday (if they pay the $3.99 overnight delivery fee). There may also be a small surcharge for orbital delivery.

I do not have one doubt that this one is more likely to be useful.

When I'm traveling, camping, rafting, etc. I need to bring a supply of insulin pens and keep them cool. I've been using Frio Cooling Wallets for years and they do a good job of keeping my insulin within the acceptable temperature range, even under less than ideal circumstances. They are basically an inner pouch with a gel quilted into it and an outer pouch. You soak the inner pouch in water and evaporation keeps the pouches contents cool. The cooling effect lasts for days and you can reuse them over and over. Since you don't want to stick a MP3 player in a damp pouch you'd want to put your gear in a plastic bag first. You might have to get creative with something as large as a tablet though since the largest wallet is about 8.5"x6.5" but they also make other items with the same cooling gel but wrap around your head and wrists so there are options if you use your imagination... http://www.amazon.com/FRIO-Insulin-Cooling-Wallet-Extra/dp/B0002262IA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1346475461&sr=8-6&keywords=frio

Like this?

I'm pretty sure the 360 controller has been available for Windows for quite some time and Kinect is also now available for Windows.

Is this a good gift to give to someone who really wants to be a programmer?

No. Give them this one.

this really sounds like it could be the plot to a really bad science fiction book.. oh ya that's right.
http://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133328

For those of you who can't find the review section..

Fast-thinking entrepreneur Tyler Vernon exploits the literally universal appeal of maple syrup to make a fortune, defies the Horvath, and reveals his ideas for keeping Earth safe, but intergalactic war threatens to derail his plan

It's about a section manager's time working in a Ford plant during unspecified years (though it's not hard to figure out) and how the Union was

The kind of union you describe I could support; the kind of union we actually have I can't. The UAW is (I think) one of the reasons we should have let our auto industry fail; even with companies going into the red, the UAW still demanded 100% of all their benefits ( Crash Course

Of course, these are empirical examples of only one union, and I'm sure there's a bit of bias, but in my experience it's a fairly accurate picture of labor unions in the US. They used to be good, but now they're over-powerful and corrupt.

It's about a section manager's time working in a Ford plant during unspecified years (though it's not hard to figure out) and how the Union was

The kind of union you describe I could support; the kind of union we actually have I can't. The UAW is (I think) one of the reasons we should have let our auto industry fail; even with companies going into the red, the UAW still demanded 100% of all their benefits ( Crash Course

Of course, these are empirical examples of only one union, and I'm sure there's a bit of bias, but in my experience it's a fairly accurate picture of labor unions in the US. They used to be good, but now they're over-powerful and corrupt.

They should focus on e-ink tablets instead of trying to compete with Apple. Because if you're not Apple, then you're competing with everybody else on the price tag. And low-cost Android tablets are already available for under 100$ and I don't think Amazon can beat companies like Coby on pricing.

What we need is the next step, color e-ink Kindles. I they can keep wi-fi and the Webkit browser in the new e-ink Kindles, it's a plus. It makes a very nice low-power and long battery life portable browser.

I lost 40 lbs in about a year by reducing starchy carb calories and increasing fat calories and so have a bunch of my friends. It works.

Why support a competitor when they have their own in-house "Redneck Electronic Sellers" Warehouse Deals?

My favorite part of this post: the realization that everyone uses "monopoly money" as a convenient shorthand for "stuff that looks like cash, but has no value", despite the fact that it actually -does- have value. Not its printed value, obviously, but you can buy it at Amazon, and I bet if you put yours on craigslist or had it out at a yardsale, someone would buy it. Voila! Value!

Indeed, the same value that bitcoins have. I would argue that bitcoins -don't- have the same inherent value that currency-backed-by-nations have - that would be the "you can't pay taxes with them" argument. But they do have value in exactly the same way that anything else people buy and sell has value - if someone will buy the stuff with a currency-backed-by-your-nation, there's an equivalence between them.

You might want to have them read http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006QMXYEA "The Floppy Disk Story - which describes the evolution of the FD from the user's end

Yep. Check this out, regular price $20 USD. http://www.amazon.com/Lexmark-Z615-printer-ink-jet-18K6281/dp/B0002445QO/ref=sr_1_42?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1346168662&sr=1-42 That's less than the cost of a set of cartridges, and it isn't even on sale. I've often seen printers like this on sale at local stores in the $10 range, and occasionally "free" as some sort of a promotion.

All those downsides that didn't matter before are now dominant, and the high price, low power and almost zero flexibility are fatal liabilities. ... they always will be, because it's not the job these devices were designed for.

After reading The Innovator's Dilemma I'll claim that the situation will change. Just like 8" hard drives were replaced with 5" ones, 5" ones were replaced with 3.5" ones and 3.5" will be replaced with 2.5" ones, PCs and laptops will be replaced with tablets and smartphones in the coming years.

The current situation is that old-fashioned PCs can pack so much more power so much cheaper that many more-technologically-oriented people still use one to do their daily work. However, most everyone else in the Western world have switched to laptops, as they provide enough power with a price that is not too much higher, and they provide the advantage of mobility. I ditched my home PC years ago and switched to a laptop and just had a monitor and keyboard both at home and at the office. All my data and settings moved with me without any extra set-up work.

Tablets and smartphones are even more mobile than laptops. If they'd have more power and a monitor port at a lower price, they'd be perfect for most people. Want a bigger screen or a keyboard? Just attach one.

Just as R&D efforts largely moved from home PCs to laptops some 10 years ago, they have already moved from laptops to smartphones and tablets. It's just a matter of time until they've caught up with PCs in terms of power required for most tasks and will then have an advantage in mobility that PCs cannot match.

Comparing the current generation of smartphones and tablets to the previous one and the previous on to the one before that it seems that we'll have the first tablets and smartphones replacing laptops and PCs for all office use of some people during 2013 or latest 2014.

Those 68 percent aren't Google's customers, they just happen to be running open-source software that Google wrote. It's not like Google can force any demands over them. Android isn't even where Google make their mobile money.

Like a lot of things, there are some ideas that take some getting used to, that can even seem counter-intuitive. And often our immediate emotional reactions differ from our views after a we have had time to digest some information and to think about the topic.

Aubrey de Grey on how and why life extension
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB2LfJjAI9o

Interview
http://80000hours.org/blog/42-living-to-1000-an-interview-with-aubrey-de-grey

Life extension escape velocity concept
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020187

Book "Ending Aging"
http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Aging-Rejuvenation-Breakthroughs-Lifetime/dp/0312367074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346107641&sr=8-1&keywords=aubrey+de+grey

I don't use Google for much research; I use books. The best example is The Original Constitution: What it Actually Said and Meant by Robert G. Natelson. Natelson provides very specific, non-ambiguous, strong evidence that the Constitution is the equivalent to a power of attorney and that these powers cannot be delegated, largely because doing so would override the very purpose of the Constitution. You state "way back in 1935," but this is nearly 150 after the ratification of the Constitution, so in context of what Natelson discusses, this is long after the ratifiers created the document, so the evidence is not really valid when trying to determine the intent of the ratifiers. And as far as the Supreme Court rulings go, they are also not valid as they often are in direct contradiction to what the ratifiers intended as the evidence indicates.

To argue that the Constitution, as ratified, is no longer valid is to undermine the very foundation of democracy, because at the core of the argument is the belief that the state can redefine the governing documents, the dangers of which were so well described by people such as George Orwell.

So they are far left and far right at the same time?

Fascism is inherently based in socialism .

After all, Fascism is all about the elite knowing what is best for the people - just like socialism, or many modern day progressives.

If you don't want the government to interfere with your life then why would anyone vote for more government?

As leader of an open source project

Apache POI, funded by MS .

So? Ad hominem much? Ex Concessis? Reductio ad Hitlerum? Not that I agree with the article, but c'mon, this is as stupid as the article in question.

Here, buy this book (Damer's "Attacing Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments"), read it and then try again.

I totally agree, which is why I propose to you, solely out of interest to inform you about new and exciting products, that you click on this Amazon affiliate link that links to a Christian Dubstep CD and purchase the CD. If you do, I will earn 4% of your Christian Dubstep purchase ($0.36) and will be able to feed my family if at least several thousand of you purchase this garbage. Buy today!

The trouble with crowdsourcing is that crowds can be sourced. I've been pointing this out for several years now. My "Social is bad for search, and search is bad for social" paper covers this. Some review spam is remarkably inept. My favorite, in the paper, is a set of three restaurant reviews that were clearly scraped from reviews of a car wash. Carpet cleaning reviews on Yelp tend to be amusing. The same phrases reappear in many reviews. Many reviews mention a company different than the one being reviewed. We know, of course, that over 80 million Facebook accounts are fake. Many of those fake accounts are being driven by 'bots posting fake reviews and social stats.

Social spam has been around for years, but went big-time in 2010. In Q4 2010, Google merged Google Places results into main web search. Google Places results could be easily spammed with fake reviews before that, but few people had bothered until those results boosted rankings in web search. Then the spam floodgates opened. Google was so heavily spammed that the mainstream press noticed. Google had to back off a bit on using Places results in web search to get their search quality back up.

The legacy of that debacle is that it became widely known that social spam was a safe, almost respectable SEO activity. Link farms, the previous way to spam Google, are expensive to run, and when Google detects one and blacklists it, an entire server farm suddenly becomes useless. Social spam doesn't put SEO operators at risk. The social networks even host the spam for free!

There's a potential winner in this - Amazon. Amazon knows if you actually paid money for the thing. They have identity data from credit cards. Amazon can still be spammed, but the spammer has to spend money, so the cost per spam is high.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-We-Found-Universe/dp/0307276600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345962369&sr=8-1&keywords=the+day+we+discovered+the+universe#reader_0307276600 Delightful book about how we came to figure out there was more than the milky way, and just how much more. Details the history of the instruments used, the scientists involved and the ideas that battled it out until we understood how big things were. The Hubble is in the lineage of important instruments helping us learn how big all of space is. All the way back to 13 billion years or so of it.

Uhhh...never hear of a rendition ride friend? As you can see its common enough its had books written on the subject. Once in the air that plane would never land in Sweden, they'd get an order for extradition and good little ring kissers the plane would be diverted to the nearest US military base.

The only reason Assange isn't wearing a toe tag is they want an example, they want to make sure the next Manning that has a handful of PMC/CIA/military dirty laundry won't be able to find anyone to air that laundry for fear of getting what happens to Assange, just as Manning is being tortured with straight jackets and sleep deprivation now as a lesson to those that open their big mouths. Look at the amount of cash that has been poured through Iraq and Afghanistan, its big business friend and people have been killed for a hell of a lot less.

Her copy of Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North by Peter Freuchen

I'd love to have a mini-ITX with a quad i7! I didn't even think about the possibility but here it is! http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-3770S-Bridge-Mini-ITX-Z77ITX-A-E/dp/B0089GQFII and it's even slightly cheaper than my mini with better specs. Mass transcoding just gets cheaper and cheaper.

If you're sadistic you can hand them Playing at the World.

Buy one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/SIIG-swivel-rotate-Monitor-CE-MT0M11-S1/dp/B004UBU3P2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1345780015&sr=8-6&keywords=monitor+rotate

It'll solve so many problems you won't have words for it.

Ammunition is straight-forward:

The Do-it-Yourself Gunpowder Cookbook by Don McLean http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873646754

Cast Bullets by E. H. Harrison http://www.amazon.com/Cast-Bullets-E-H-Harrison/dp/B0007ASOHO

You can turn the cases from brass stock on a lathe.

TM 31-210 Improvised Munition Handbook has instructions on reloading.

William

Ammunition is straight-forward:

The Do-it-Yourself Gunpowder Cookbook by Don McLean http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873646754

Cast Bullets by E. H. Harrison http://www.amazon.com/Cast-Bullets-E-H-Harrison/dp/B0007ASOHO

You can turn the cases from brass stock on a lathe.

TM 31-210 Improvised Munition Handbook has instructions on reloading.

William

sorry links went away new to this... http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX026-CEL-Directional-Outdoor/dp/B0028Y4BL0/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1345126337&sr=8-8&keywords=femtocell http://www.amazon.com/900-USB-Connect-Prepaid-Card/dp/B0046REQWQ/ref=sr_1_9?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1345136922&sr=1-9&keywords=mobile+broadband http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX540-Dual-Band-Booster/dp/B003U4TLL2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1345126337&sr=8-6&keywords=femtocell

sorry links went away new to this... http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX026-CEL-Directional-Outdoor/dp/B0028Y4BL0/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1345126337&sr=8-8&keywords=femtocell http://www.amazon.com/900-USB-Connect-Prepaid-Card/dp/B0046REQWQ/ref=sr_1_9?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1345136922&sr=1-9&keywords=mobile+broadband http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX540-Dual-Band-Booster/dp/B003U4TLL2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1345126337&sr=8-6&keywords=femtocell

sorry links went away new to this... http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX026-CEL-Directional-Outdoor/dp/B0028Y4BL0/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1345126337&sr=8-8&keywords=femtocell http://www.amazon.com/900-USB-Connect-Prepaid-Card/dp/B0046REQWQ/ref=sr_1_9?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1345136922&sr=1-9&keywords=mobile+broadband http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX540-Dual-Band-Booster/dp/B003U4TLL2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1345126337&sr=8-6&keywords=femtocell

It's not "muscle memory", it's procedural memory, and it really comes from the brain! There's nothing magical about playing your tune and thinking of something else, without being conscious of what your fingers do. We all do lots of things without being conscious of every minute movement required.

As I said elsewhere in this thread, you should read Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks.

It's not a procedural memory thing, it's that different parts of the brain structures are actually involved in music than simple memory. It uses a wider set of brain structures, and isn't quite as localized. There's more aspects of the brain that participate here.

In many cases, even if the person wasn't a musician, songs from their youth and other music associations still linger. So someone who is almost completely uncommunicative will perk up and respond to music, and in some cases even sing along when they can't really do much else.

I realize we on Slashdot like to think we can explain most of this stuff with our vast knowledge of such things, but I believe your explanation is a bit simplified. It doesn't even begin to cover all of the cases in which people have been able to demonstrate that, even in the face of actual structural damage to the brain (like a stroke), music still resonates with us. It's not simply that you've learned the procedure from repeated practice. It's that a whole lot more of your brain is involved than the parts that are primarily used for language.

It's actually a fascinating read, written by a neurologist, and shows a lot of cases with really interesting results. As it goes through a bunch of cases, it highlights how they are different from one another and shows a lot of the commonalities.

I believe ultimately there is some belief that language evolved from music instead of the other way around. It would seem that people for whom music plays a big part in their life get some lasting benefit from it.

But, then again, I'm not a neuroscientist either. :-P

This isn't new, and it's been well known for years.

Read the book Musicophilia. There's literally dozens of cases in which people can no longer really communicate or otherwise have some diminished mental capacity, but they respond to music by either singing or playing. That part of the brain seems intact.

Heck, this might even be one of the cases in that book. But he's a professor of neurology, and I believe that was published in 2007.

I don't believe this is a new theory, and it certainly isn't the first time someone has demonstrated this. Given how long I've known this, I'm surprised this is being touted as a first time we've confirmed this.

It would be really hard for me to recommend a single mod without knowing your playing style, some of the mods are designed for more of a "run 'n gun big battles" kinda thing, while others are made for more of an elite style "build yourself up and watch for the factions" kinda thing. Head on over to ModDB and check them out for yourself, there are dozens to choose from no matter which style you prefer.

if you are asking for my personal favs? i like Crossfire, expanded universe is fun, just be sure you download the Freelancer mod manager as it makes switching easy peasy and to answer your questions a GIANT YES to open play, you can just fuck the story and go do what you will, mine, raid, collect bounties, and as you can see from the dates on ModDB its still got plenty of modders. If you can't find your original game its a cheap 10 bucks at Amazon and if you always wanted to be let loose in a big universe to go your own way thanks to the mods you can do that and more...enjoy and maybe you'll run into me mining in one of the belts! Oh and I haven't given it a full run yet but Discovery Mod has fricking HUGE universe, 200+ ships, all flyable, 134 systems, just tons of stuff!

You can't buy naked SIMs in the US.

Sure you can.

I just finished Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco's new book , Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. The book is about specific examples of unbounded capitalism in the US and how it destroys the communities.

I found the illustrations made the book a faster read (of course it would have been shorter otherwise), but I really like the "comic" style used in each section to portray the events described in specific interviews. It was a really interesting approach that I hadn't really seen before, at least in non-fiction.

You can see what I'm describing starting on page 25 on the Amazon Look Inside area:
http://www.amazon.com/Days-Destruction-Revolt-Chris-Hedges/dp/1568586434/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1345639118&sr=8-3&keywords=joe+sacco#reader_1568586434

Anyway, I think it could be good experiment, running a line between video and pure text content, allowing for graphic depiction of things without the associated production costs.

Torx? Obscure? What decade do they think this is?

Exactly what I was thinking! I picked up one of these nice "100 piece security bit" sets from a local store for $10. Even at Amazon it's only $13 plus shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-100-Piece-Security-Bits-Storage/dp/B000O5XDOG

Product Description
100 pc. Security Bits Set Security bits set contains many of the most common tamper proof type security bit sizes, including tri-wing bits, torx bits, spanner bits, and hex bits. Security bits set contains: 1 - wing nut driver. 1 - magnetic bit holder. 1 - socket bit holder. 1 - 1/4" sq. x 1/4" hex x 1" extension. 1 - 1/4" sq. x 1/4" hex x 2" extension. 3 - clutch bits (# 1, 2 & 3). 3 - torq bits (# 6, 8 & 10). 3 - spline bits (M-5, 6 & 8). 4 - tri-wing bits (# 1, 2, 3 & 4). 4 - square recess bits (# 0, 1, 2 & 3). 4 - spanner bits (# 4, 6, 8 & 10). 6 - metric hex tamper proof bits (2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 & 6). 6 - SAE hex tamper proof bits (5/64, 3/32, 7/64, 1/8, 9/64 & 5/32). 8 - phillips bits (0, 1, 2{5} & 3). 8 - pozi drive bits (0, 1, 2{5} & 3). 9 - slotted bits (3, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7 & 8). 9 - metric hex bits (1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6 & 8). 9 - torx bits (T-8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 27, 30, 35 & 40). 9 - torx tamper proof bits (T-8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 27, 30, 35 & 40). 10 - SAE hex bits (1/16, 5/64, 3/32, 7/64, 1/8, 9/64, 5/32, 3/16, 7/32 & 1/4). Set includes plastic storage / carry case.

I'm an ordinary home user who wants to backup my really important data in case of catastrophe. Besides lots of little stuff, by far my biggest data in this category is my pictures, and when all totaled up, it comes out to about 75GB.

I've been mulling investing in a service like Crashplan, which according to their pricing would cost me $5 a month if I was month to month, or about $3 a month if I committed to 4 years (!).

Amazon Glacier could offer me backups for one cent a GB per month. So for my scenario, that'd come out to 75 cents a month.

Is it just me or is this an insanely good deal for my consumer scenario?

When will people seriously get it into their think marketer heads that although cartoons or videos may be more initially eye-catching, they have low information density and are worse at getting actual information across than plain old text?

First, density != effectiveness in human-to-human communications.

Second, text has medium density... it's more dense than a comic but less dense than a well-designed graph.

Finally, consider that your view of cartoons may not include everything the medium is capable of. Have you seen, for example, Scott McCloud's comic-book introduction to Google Chrome? Plain old text could have conveyed the same information, but it's doubtful the audience would have been as large or absorbed as much. Scott argues that cartoons can be more effective than pure text, and while I suspect he's only partially right, it is still worthwhile to try experiments like the one Polgreen is talking about.

One of the many books I've read on the subject - I believe it was O -The Intimate History of the Orgasm actually stated that in studies rape lead to a higher fertilization rate than consensual relations. I won't get into the theory of why, because it will potentially piss off feminists. I'll just say it is documented and statistically significant.

Hey, I'm all for pissing off feminists, and this book does look very entertaining and thought-provoking, but unfortunately the book does seem to have problems. Take a look at what this customer on Amazon, Christoper Ryan, had to say about it:

"[...]

But even more disturbing is the author's ignorance of very basic information concerning human sexuality. On page 1, he claims that, "the first sexual act by which two like creatures sought intimate contact expressly to give one another physical and emotional pleasure... may well not have taken place until some time in the twentieth century AD, most likely at a location in Western Europe or North America." This is simply astoundingly wrong, not to mention racist as all get-out. For this to be true, nobody in hundreds of centuries ever had sex to give each other pleasure -- no hunter gatherers (most of whom do not equate sex with reproduction), nobody in India (where the Kama Sutra was written thousands of years ago, detailing how to give and receive sexual pleasure), nobody in China (where the first known sex manuals were written even before the Kama Sutra), etc. Just silly.

[...] "

I would have quoted more of his review, but since I really don't know about Bonobos chimps, I can't confirm whether the rest of what he's saying is accurate or not, but this really does not bode well for the author of the book. If the author is that sloppy at making claims and that lazy at double-checking his facts from the very first page of his book, then I doubt he was patient enough to even pull up the primary peer-reviewed scientifically research papers he was supposedly quoting and instead may have just relied on secondary reviews of those research papers, or perhaps even worse, he may have relied on sloppy newspaper articles written by layman journalists interpreting (or misinterpreting) those initial scientific peer-reviewed papers in the first place.

It's not strange; it's evolutionary biology. The issue is discussed here http://www.amazon.com/O-The-Intimate-History-Orgasm/dp/0802142168/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_3