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I want to see how it does on reviews of the Steering Wheel Desk http://www.amazon.com/Wheelmate-Laptop-Steering-Wheel-Desk/dp/B000IZGIA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311732433&sr=8-1

http://patapata.sourceforge.net/WhyEducationalTechnologyHasFailedSchools.html

This essay could be considered supporting Alan Kay's suggestion that
"the computer revolution hasn't happened yet".
http://squeakland.org/school/HTML/essays/face_to_face.html

Why Educational Technology Has Failed Schools
by Paul D. Fernhout
January, 2007

Educational technology has been a big success at homes, in libraries, in
museums, and in business.

Let's say you have an interest in, say, Aardvarks. At home and want to
know the weight of a typical aardvark right now? Google it:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=aardvark+weight
Want to buy one? :-) Try Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Safari-Aardvark/dp/B000H6H4VK
Want to sell one you no longer need? Try ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Aardvark-Direct-Pro-Q10-PCI-Audio-Interface-w-CubaseLE_W0QQitemZ270076288454QQihZ017QQcategoryZ64446QQcmdZViewItem
Want to collaborate with others on making one better? Try sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/aardvark
Want a 3D simulation written by an aardvark?
http://flyawaysimulation.com/article746.html
Want to make your own educational simulation about aardvarks? Try one of
the tools linked here:
http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html
An endless variety of information related to just one arbitrary topic,
easily accessible using Google or another search engine.

At the library, want to find a good book on, say, Zebras? Use an online
library catalog system:
http://leopac.nypl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&aspect=basic&npp=10&ipp=20&ri=&index=GW&term=zebras

Want to make a museum kiosk showing protein folding in action in 3D? Write
a simulation with Python:
https://simtk.org/search/?type_of_search=soft&words=&topics=18+307

Does your business need to know more about "quality control" to prevent
customer complaints? Lots of online resources:
http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=quality+control
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_control

So, at home, library, museum, or business, technology is delivering the
goods (physical or digital) and making these places all a lot better.

With all that technological success in other areas, why are schools still
considered a problem area, see:
"To fix US schools, [bipartisan] panel says, start over"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1215/p01s01-ussc.html
Or in other words, why has technology failed in compulsory schools?
Clearly something is wrong here -- technology is helping make these other
places more productive and more flexible -- but in schools, there is not
much change, despite a huge expenditure in technology and training.

Ultimately, educational technology's greatest value is in supporting
"learning on d

It includes reviews by anyone who has never used the product. Example, this Zenith watch. I won't debate the hilarity of the reviews, but no doubt they are fake.

I think the "undecidability" factor comes into play in any machine learning problem. For example, which email is spam and which isn't? But significant strides have been made to solve that problem and I don't see why online review system is any different.

We wanted to let you know that we've updated our Kindle app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The big change is that you can now use the Kindle app to read over 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines including the Economist, as well as share favorite passages from your reading via Facebook and Twitter. In order to comply with recent policy changes by Apple, we've also removed the "Kindle Store" link from within the app that opened Safari and took you to the Kindle Store. You can still shop as you always have - just open Safari and go to www.amazon.com/kindlestore. If you want, you can bookmark that URL. Your Kindle books will be delivered automatically to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, just as before.

So there were exactly two changes made: one link deleted & "over 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines" + other stuff added. Evil Apple.

Interesting, but what what about when two different groups make up 10% each in an unshakeable belief?

It does remind me of a story I heard on NPR once called Nature's Secret: Why Honey Bees Are Better Politicians Than Humans, which was discussing information from the book Honeybee Democracy .

Polymorphic and metamorphic malware has been around for years. They're probably seeing a rise in detections simply because of the popularity of a certain malware generation tool or something. You can read about polymorphic and metamorphic malware in a book written by a guy from Symantec that was published in 2005: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Computer-Virus-Research-Defense/dp/0321304543

Try reading Predictably Irrational - it's about behavioural economics, and describes lots of very interesting experiments on things like cheating, evaluating options, how social norms affect behaviour and so on. Very interesting read if you're interested in either psychology or economics.

Most of the "desirable" content on Amazon streaming is still pay-per-show. Prime lets you stream only the "lowest" end of the catalog for free. On the Amazon Prime about page, they link to steaming movies and TV shows. On those first pages, only Monty Python is available for free. Netflix's streaming-only plan is only $17 dollars more per year than Amazon Prime, but Netflix's catalog dwarfs Amazon's.

That said, it would be great if Amazon could offer itself as a viable competitor to Netflix. Like other's have mentioned, it seems more in the Studio's hands than anyone else's...

Most of the "desirable" content on Amazon streaming is still pay-per-show. Prime lets you stream only the "lowest" end of the catalog for free. On the Amazon Prime about page, they link to steaming movies and TV shows. On those first pages, only Monty Python is available for free. Netflix's streaming-only plan is only $17 dollars more per year than Amazon Prime, but Netflix's catalog dwarfs Amazon's.

That said, it would be great if Amazon could offer itself as a viable competitor to Netflix. Like other's have mentioned, it seems more in the Studio's hands than anyone else's...

Most of the "desirable" content on Amazon streaming is still pay-per-show. Prime lets you stream only the "lowest" end of the catalog for free. On the Amazon Prime about page, they link to steaming movies and TV shows. On those first pages, only Monty Python is available for free. Netflix's streaming-only plan is only $17 dollars more per year than Amazon Prime, but Netflix's catalog dwarfs Amazon's.

That said, it would be great if Amazon could offer itself as a viable competitor to Netflix. Like other's have mentioned, it seems more in the Studio's hands than anyone else's...

I have a MythTV setup in my basement (I'm still wondering when I'm going actually sit down and watch 50+ hours of A-Team and Greatest American Hero) and I totally agree with you.

Get one of these, they have one for less than $50 bucks.

Use the money you saved on buying a new Windows computer and send it to the Mono project.

And both our points proven in 3...2...1...

I have a Sansa clip, but it wouldn't be so great for ABX testing, I prefer my computer for that.

I think I have an OK output chain, I use my computer optical (I have tested and have no Aliasing issues at 48KHz/44.1KHz) out to my Denon Receiver and while cheap I like my Panasonic canal phones for a critical listening test. They seem the best of 5 different headphones of various designs I have here:
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-RP-HJE300-Portable-Headphones-Carrying/dp/B000OKH74S/ref=pd_sim_e_1

But in my case I wouldn't blame equipment, just hearing. I am over 40 and running a hearing frequency test. I top out around 15KHz.

So I am going to miss the subtle high harmonics that would likely be trashed by lossy encoders, or nuances in a symbol crash. I have to rely on artifacts in lower range.

But my comments are aimed at the people who claim to easily hear the difference. Clearly they have (or think they have) the equipment and the hearing to easily detect these differences. Yet these are the same people who all refuse to participate. It is almost like they don't want their bubble bursted.

My participation is useless, but I tried for the heck of it. All I can discern is the low anchor in each set. Everything else pretty much sounds like reference to me.

I'd be curious to see how it appears from any of those with golden gear/ears would deign to bother trying it.

If you want kid friendly, I'd suggest you look more towards Marvel's Cartoon DVD releases. (Hope you don't mind Amazon links!)
Next Avengers is a fairly cute one where the children of the old Avengers take up their parent's mantels:
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Avengers-Heroes-Tomorrow/dp/B001B1878E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311615656&sr=8-1

Thor: Tales of Asgard is a sort-of prequel to the movie Thor, where all the principal cast is much younger:
http://www.amazon.com/Thor-Tales-Asgard-Matthew-Wolf/dp/B004PHE9FQ/ref=pd_cp_mov_4

They have a bunch of other DVD releases too, but they're not all as kid friendly. For instance, in Hulk vs Wolverine, there's swearing, dismemberment, and blood. I would recommend renting (Netflix?) and screening first at any rate. It's hard to gauge what a five year old is read for without knowing him/her.

If you want kid friendly, I'd suggest you look more towards Marvel's Cartoon DVD releases. (Hope you don't mind Amazon links!)
Next Avengers is a fairly cute one where the children of the old Avengers take up their parent's mantels:
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Avengers-Heroes-Tomorrow/dp/B001B1878E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311615656&sr=8-1

Thor: Tales of Asgard is a sort-of prequel to the movie Thor, where all the principal cast is much younger:
http://www.amazon.com/Thor-Tales-Asgard-Matthew-Wolf/dp/B004PHE9FQ/ref=pd_cp_mov_4

They have a bunch of other DVD releases too, but they're not all as kid friendly. For instance, in Hulk vs Wolverine, there's swearing, dismemberment, and blood. I would recommend renting (Netflix?) and screening first at any rate. It's hard to gauge what a five year old is read for without knowing him/her.

I highly recommend "Comrade J" by Pete Earley. http://www.amazon.com/Comrade-J-Pete-Earley/dp/B002BWQ5PY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311602623&sr=8-1
This book talks about the genesis of the SVR from the KGB. It also talks about how the whole concept of "nuclear winter" was invented by those agencies and fed to gullible westerners including Carl Sagan who steadfastly refused to believe it when NASA scientists debunked the whole thing. It also talks about what a colossal disaster the UN Oil for Food program was, who was duped, who profited from it, and more importantly who was pulling the strings. Bottom line is that foreign intelligence services don't need to do anything directly. There are plenty of idealists willing to do their dirty work.

Microsoft spends millions of $$$ a year on usability studies so it must be the correct thing to do.

Microsoft had a record-breaking quarter even with Windows sales down a percent or two.

The closer its products are to the end user the more successful they have become.

MS Office is the classic example.

"The Ribbon" sells spectacularly well retail boxed from Amazon. Five of the top 25 Bestsellers in Software at 10 PM ET Saturday.

Windows 7 has three slots in the top 25.

Impresive in an environment where the OEM system bundle is king.

Windows Home Server 2011 (at $52) is 23rd --- and that. I will admit, surprised me.

So I am going to go out on a limb and say that money spent on usability studies is money well spent.

You probably can't do this in a studio, but I got a Power monitor. Literally paid for itself in the first week. It is hot as shit this year in VA , however my electric bill is only about $200, down from $300 last year. I adjusted the settings based on the meter. And guess what, the A/C works better at these new settings. For your studio, you can get a Kill-a-Watt and see which of your computers is drawing the most juice. You have those nice cool summers in Seattle, so buy a window fan to get some that nice cool air and adjust your computer power settings for summer. You will save lots of $.

I prefer to just wear this. Plus it makes the theater manager uncomfortable!

You really believe you need 4wd? Unless you are a forester you are kidding your self. I have a BMW 540i and when driving on regular paved roads have never had a problem. If you get lots of snow they make these tire amendments that do wonders for traction, I have pushed a pile of snow that was coming over my hood with these on. Also I have taken that 540i into places where I probably shouldn't have, specifically down some of the logging roads and unimproved roads in norther Minnesota. Basically a nice one of these roads compacted dirt with not too many ruts and free of trees with a trunk larger than 1 inch in diameter. Bad ones have lots ruts, are washed out, have lots of trees in them and here it would have been nice to have a high clearance vehicle. I do own a vehicle with 4wd and I have only needed 4wd about 3 times, once when hunting and the low area was completely a swamp with tons of deep loose mud that was torn up by the logging truck, and twice last winter when I needed to get out of my drive way and there was a pile of hard packed snow at the end of the drive way from the plow.

Author is Paul Foerster. The institute used the entire series for the other courses, except for Geometry. Strangely, they used a geometry book from a different series. When I got back to school in the fall, the Algebra I book I had there was from the same series, and I went on to use the same Geometry book the next year. I thought it was pretty good, but the Algebra book from that series was nowhere near as good as the Foerster book.

http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Grades-9-11-Mcdougal-Littell/dp/0395977274/ref=pd_sim_b_55

Author is Paul Foerster. The institute used the entire series for the other courses, except for Geometry. Strangely, they used a geometry book from a different series. When I got back to school in the fall, the Algebra I book I had there was from the same series, and I went on to use the same Geometry book the next year. I thought it was pretty good, but the Algebra book from that series was nowhere near as good as the Foerster book.

http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Grades-9-11-Mcdougal-Littell/dp/0395977274/ref=pd_sim_b_55

it's a slashdot-incubated fantasy of those who either can't or won't think for themselves. It ought to be clear to the meanest of intelligences that Apple

Here, I bought you a gift.

Or you could just go the cheapest route and just get Harddrives. Sure they're a little more clunky but if your already spending thousands of dollars on storage space offsite physical storage space shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Or just a simple hardware keylogger like these. A large percentage of government workers are complete morons and will think that by simply booting from their government issue "safe" livedisc that they are indeed protected without checking out the hardware they are using first.

There's also "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by Conn Iggulden & Hal Iggulden.
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn-Iggulden/dp/0061243582

This book was in the news a couple of years ago.

The article didn't cover Amazon SimpleDB (http://aws.amazon.com/simpledb/). SimpleDB is part of Amazon AWS, so it's cloud-only. However, if you're planning to deploy on AWS anyway, it makes for a formidable option.

Any positive for resale value is completely nullified by the fact that standard accessories are outrageously priced... Want a wall-charger? $30. Charge/sync cord wear out?

http://www.amazon.com/Wall-Charger-Apple-iPod-Nano/dp/B000F7JYJQ/

$2.68

http://www.amazon.com/White-Cable-iPhone-Touch-Classic/dp/B002CCUWKM/

$1.12

Earphones fell apart? $30.

So now you require "special" earphones for the iPhone?

Hell, let's assume you get an iPad and want a keyboard: $70. Bluetooth keyboards for a real computer don't even cost that much.

The iPad can use any BT keyboard.....

Any positive for resale value is completely nullified by the fact that standard accessories are outrageously priced... Want a wall-charger? $30. Charge/sync cord wear out?

http://www.amazon.com/Wall-Charger-Apple-iPod-Nano/dp/B000F7JYJQ/

$2.68

http://www.amazon.com/White-Cable-iPhone-Touch-Classic/dp/B002CCUWKM/

$1.12

Earphones fell apart? $30.

So now you require "special" earphones for the iPhone?

Hell, let's assume you get an iPad and want a keyboard: $70. Bluetooth keyboards for a real computer don't even cost that much.

The iPad can use any BT keyboard.....

I had no problem pairing Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 ($42 USD) and their Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 5000 ($39 USD) with an HP Laptop with Bluetooth built in and a desktop both running Windows 7 and also with Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04 using the default Bluetooth stacks in both OSes using a Bluetooth Class 1 (1 mW = 100-meter distance) dongle ($15 - 30 USD).

I use the keyboard which is always on sitting under my coffee table to occasionally type into XBMC Media Center running on Ubuntu 11.04 and my wife user the mouse with her laptop. The Bluetooth keyboard and the class 1 dongle work so well that I can type into the media center box from 20-feet and two rooms away with 4 walls in between. I also occasionally link my Motorola Bluetooth S9 headphones to listen to the audio in my desktop or laptop and haven't tried it yet with Ubuntu 11.04 and XBMC.

Biggest hurdle in Linux was learning to install the bluez-utils packages so that I can use the bluez- scripts to pair the devices since the straight Bluetooth hcitool connect commands wouldn't successfully pair the devices even though they would discover the devices, interrogate them, and go into discover mode on the dongle and start the pair mode. Just use bluez-* scripts to pair your Bluetooth and it works like a charm.

Buy good hardware from Microsoft or Logitech and use good OSes like Windows 7 or Linux with bluez Bluetooth stack and scripts to get your stuff working and you'll have universal Bluetooth hardware that won't become obsolete or be tied down to proprietary wireless standards and drivers from vendor who will abandon you on the next OS release (e.g. Logitech).

I had no problem pairing Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 ($42 USD) and their Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 5000 ($39 USD) with an HP Laptop with Bluetooth built in and a desktop both running Windows 7 and also with Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04 using the default Bluetooth stacks in both OSes using a Bluetooth Class 1 (1 mW = 100-meter distance) dongle ($15 - 30 USD).

I use the keyboard which is always on sitting under my coffee table to occasionally type into XBMC Media Center running on Ubuntu 11.04 and my wife user the mouse with her laptop. The Bluetooth keyboard and the class 1 dongle work so well that I can type into the media center box from 20-feet and two rooms away with 4 walls in between. I also occasionally link my Motorola Bluetooth S9 headphones to listen to the audio in my desktop or laptop and haven't tried it yet with Ubuntu 11.04 and XBMC.

Biggest hurdle in Linux was learning to install the bluez-utils packages so that I can use the bluez- scripts to pair the devices since the straight Bluetooth hcitool connect commands wouldn't successfully pair the devices even though they would discover the devices, interrogate them, and go into discover mode on the dongle and start the pair mode. Just use bluez-* scripts to pair your Bluetooth and it works like a charm.

Buy good hardware from Microsoft or Logitech and use good OSes like Windows 7 or Linux with bluez Bluetooth stack and scripts to get your stuff working and you'll have universal Bluetooth hardware that won't become obsolete or be tied down to proprietary wireless standards and drivers from vendor who will abandon you on the next OS release (e.g. Logitech).

I had no problem pairing Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 ($42 USD) and their Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Mouse 5000 ($39 USD) with an HP Laptop with Bluetooth built in and a desktop both running Windows 7 and also with Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04 using the default Bluetooth stacks in both OSes using a Bluetooth Class 1 (1 mW = 100-meter distance) dongle ($15 - 30 USD).

I use the keyboard which is always on sitting under my coffee table to occasionally type into XBMC Media Center running on Ubuntu 11.04 and my wife user the mouse with her laptop. The Bluetooth keyboard and the class 1 dongle work so well that I can type into the media center box from 20-feet and two rooms away with 4 walls in between. I also occasionally link my Motorola Bluetooth S9 headphones to listen to the audio in my desktop or laptop and haven't tried it yet with Ubuntu 11.04 and XBMC.

Biggest hurdle in Linux was learning to install the bluez-utils packages so that I can use the bluez- scripts to pair the devices since the straight Bluetooth hcitool connect commands wouldn't successfully pair the devices even though they would discover the devices, interrogate them, and go into discover mode on the dongle and start the pair mode. Just use bluez-* scripts to pair your Bluetooth and it works like a charm.

Buy good hardware from Microsoft or Logitech and use good OSes like Windows 7 or Linux with bluez Bluetooth stack and scripts to get your stuff working and you'll have universal Bluetooth hardware that won't become obsolete or be tied down to proprietary wireless standards and drivers from vendor who will abandon you on the next OS release (e.g. Logitech).

I'd post a link to Amazon..... but I'd rather you buy a copy from your local independent bookshop :-)

I wouldn't, so here is a link to buy it on Amazon.

It's been years since anything as good as Thief came out, and I'm only talking about FPSes.
For me, 'good' in terms of FPS tends towards a good narrative, and intelligent enemy AI in addition to the basics like controls/gameplay.
Games like Deus Ex, No one lives forever, Thief and Assassin's Creed. In recent years, maybe Fallout:New Vegas, which I haven't played. How about some variation of genre? Where are the swashbuckling steampunk FPSes where you go around in airships shooting at your enemies with rayguns and rescuing damsels in distress? Or alternate history FPSes starring ...civil war zombies?

It requires a big budget, but attention paid to script and dialogue as well as graphics; something well within the means of EA and other big publishers. I'm quite sure such games will be well received too.Yet they're content to keep dishing out sequel after sequel to WW2 shooters.

http://www.amazon.com/UM-710S-Powered-Swivel-Screen-Display/dp/B002RMPASG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311172395&sr=8-1

Not quite what I would want but its a start in the right direction, give me a 17 inch capacitive touchscreen that can be plugged into a USB port. What IPad? (yes I know the IPad would be smaller than a laptop plus that display but its the functionality of the touchscreen I want, not the small package of an IPad).

"Unleashing the Killer App", 1998. You may go now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/087584801X?ie=UTF8&tag=larrydownes-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=087584801X

Try doing a little reading first: http://www.amazon.com/Who-Really-Cares-Compasionate-Conservatism/dp/0465008216

How were they overpriced? They sold at the same exact price any other brick and mortar book store sold new books at - the price stamped on the back by the publisher. You want used books - go to the Strand.

A little example:

When the Borders near me was going out of business, they had progressive sales (as those places do). Book prices dropped by 10%, 15%, and eventually 30-40% (though the 40% was pretty much for one item in the store which someone else had already bought, honestly)

At the 30% price range, I went in and bought a copy of Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks, and I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett. See the Amazon links there? At Amazon, the books are always at least 30% off. If you're not on Amazon Prime, you can still get free shipping if you buy at least $25 worth of stuff (which ends up being two hardcovers or three or four paperbacks).

That's how Borders was overpriced; their books weren't significantly more expensive than brick and mortar stores, but they weren't competing with brick and mortar stores - they were competing with Amazon. And compared to their competition, they were overpriced.

The only place they won was on time to delivery, but honestly people who buy books tend to be the patient sort.

How were they overpriced? They sold at the same exact price any other brick and mortar book store sold new books at - the price stamped on the back by the publisher. You want used books - go to the Strand.

A little example:

When the Borders near me was going out of business, they had progressive sales (as those places do). Book prices dropped by 10%, 15%, and eventually 30-40% (though the 40% was pretty much for one item in the store which someone else had already bought, honestly)

At the 30% price range, I went in and bought a copy of Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks, and I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett. See the Amazon links there? At Amazon, the books are always at least 30% off. If you're not on Amazon Prime, you can still get free shipping if you buy at least $25 worth of stuff (which ends up being two hardcovers or three or four paperbacks).

That's how Borders was overpriced; their books weren't significantly more expensive than brick and mortar stores, but they weren't competing with brick and mortar stores - they were competing with Amazon. And compared to their competition, they were overpriced.

The only place they won was on time to delivery, but honestly people who buy books tend to be the patient sort.

For what it's worth, I've bought kindle books (Wakker on prospect theory, for instance) that inlines math using images, so it is definitely possible. Of course, that sucks as much as math-as-images always does, so YMMV. Diagrams that are simple enough to not require color and small enough to comfortably fit on the screen are legible just fine. Also note that when you're buying a book for your kindle, you're also buying it for your nice, big, clear computer screen. Some material might be more legible using the different Kindle for $OS implementations.

Anyway, you are right in that mobi on kindle is a pretty poor format for mathematical content, but if it is done well it is at least workable.

PS: When I buy a DRM'd book, I do so with the explicit knowledge that I can back it up and strip the encryption off of it whenever necessary. I can see this argument in principle, but in practice the problem only exists if you can't be arsed to fix it.

Or to put it more simply, the three-races idea can be neatly disposed of with one word: "India."

I read a book that sheds some light on this... this one. Basically, a long time ago, there were people from Africa that couldn't exactly be classified as "black" in the way that we are familiar today. These people migrated to and from Africa at differing points in history and to different places. The further they migrated, the more separated they were from the original people from Africa. The closer they settled, the more they tended to retain the features of the original people due to increased exposure to one another. This can probably explain how Indians are dark, yet many have straight hair like Orientals (some coarse and wavy), and how Greeks have bronze skin with typically curly or wavy hair.

Putting Neanderthals in the mix (not discussed in the book), can probably explain the emergence of Caucasian people in Europe (and possibly Orientals in Asia) due to the fact that mating with a different species is likely to produce some immediately apparent mutation such as low pigmentation (As a side note supporting this theory, given the effects of the sun's rays, light pigmentation isn't likely to be something that would evolve naturally over time). Inter-mating between these people outside of Africa could be responsible for the many variations that we have seen emerge in Europe and Asia. Meanwhile, Africans who have never left the continent, could have simply continued to evolve within the same conditions.

This makes an interesting point apparent to me. One race of people may have "superior" genes, but their evolution could be stunted by not changing their environment for thousands of years. Likewise, other races of people may have "inferior" genes, but have learned to evolve in a more variable and challenging environment. However, all of this is moot in the present given the technology that we have today that enables us to fly halfway across the world within hours to meet and mate with people with varying genetic stock; and also the technology which enables us to learn anything that anyone else in the world can learn. The only thing separating us now is the existence of affluence and freedom of association, since nowadays, this is what basically allows people of differing races to interact with each other, especially in North America and Europe. This also means that it is not conducive to human evolution to separate each other by race just because one group thinks they are better than the other.

Two excerpts from a review:

In his introduction, "Engineering and the Truth Fairies," Hogan describes the ideal view of science, but points out that even scientists will accept findings in fields other than their own without skepticism. He states: "I used to say . . . that science was the only area of human activity in which it actually matters whether or not what one believes is true. . . . Today, I reserve that aphorism for engineering" (p. 9).
He makes the point that since engineering deals directly with reality, it is a useful gauge to the truth of scientific theories.

In his afterword, "Gothic Cathedrals and the Stars," he notes that many of the most important findings in science over the past several centuries were actually made by outsiders, from Leonardo da Vinci (who was trained as a painter) to Albert Einstein (who was working as a patent clerk when he made many of his most important findings). He observes: "While most research today depends ultimately on government funding . . . history shows that bureaucratic stifling and an inherent commitment to linear thinking makes officially inaugurated programs the least productive in terms of true creativity" (p. 466).
It is a scathing analysis of modern science, but one that is not undeserved.

Maybe he has in mind a different categorization: One data centre for each of the "common use cases" at http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#common-use-cases

Why would one amazon/s3 be enough for everybody else :-)

Stephan

Amusingly, the "wild west" is mostly a Hollywood fabrication anyway. I guess that's a good indicator of how reliable the MPAA's claims are.

Relevant reading: The Not So Wild, Wild West.

Good points all around. I suspect that Netflix will do just fine and continue to gain subscribers and revenue. I just took another look and didn't see anything I'm dying to watch, but a lot of movies would be good for killing time. I suppose that might be worth $8. As for the DVDs, I would much prefer to just pay $3 to watch something I really want to watch when I want to watch it. High plains drifter comes to mind. They have that on Amazon for $3:
http://www.amazon.com/High-Plains-Drifter/dp/B000IDCJK8/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1310753289&sr=1-1

the courts have blocked nearly all lawsuits pertaining to government misdeeds on the grounds that they might compromise national security.

That's actually one of the Supreme Court's precepts - that, despite all logic or argument, if a decision were to threaten the continuity of the State, that decision is wrong.

Anti-American if you ask me.

Napolitano's Constitutional Chaos has a section on this. Click on the used section for some $4-shipped offerings.

Yeah... Nothing new here. Psychologists have understood confirmation bias for decades --if only the unwashed masses had this insight and could turn off Fox News (or Air America?) long enough to consider their own biases. God, what I wouldn't do to get one semester of critical thinking added to the K-12 educational curriculum.

Like Michael Shermer points out in his recent book, giving mental priority to our first impressions and previous experience was critical to our survival back when we were swinging from the trees. Today it's more likely to lead us into making bad political and personal choices.

I've long come to suspect the "experiment" was a politically motivated fake to demonstrate fascist tendencies in humans. It doesn't ring true, nor has it ever been backed up by other experiments. Prison guard abuse is real, but the conclusions of the study are much too broad.

Check out the book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher Browning. Apologies for Godwinning this thread, but it is necessary.

Given that some of us on here are happy to live in caves, Zimbardo's book Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It as well as the now famous Stanford Shyness Clinic might also be of interest.

From Amazon FAQ on sales tax:

"Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are subject to tax."

I presume these are the states in which Amazon has warehouses (or offices), and which have a sales tax.

Yes. They still offer the associate program to residents of other states, and they would like to be able to offer the service again to Californians.

Otherwise why have this site?