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You don't have to hack anything, you don't have to think either, but some people do, and many people feel that someone attempting to prevent them from doing non-dangerous and perfectly legal things with the products they bought is wrong.

Precisely. If I felt the need to place my brand new DeWalt DC390B Circular Saw in my Panasonic NN-P794SF Genius Prestige Microwave and turn it on High for 45 minutes, I have the right to do so, goddamnit!

Wait, what was that part about non-dangerous? Shi[> NO CARRIER]

You don't have to hack anything, you don't have to think either, but some people do, and many people feel that someone attempting to prevent them from doing non-dangerous and perfectly legal things with the products they bought is wrong.

Precisely. If I felt the need to place my brand new DeWalt DC390B Circular Saw in my Panasonic NN-P794SF Genius Prestige Microwave and turn it on High for 45 minutes, I have the right to do so, goddamnit!

Wait, what was that part about non-dangerous? Shi[> NO CARRIER]

Was that Shermans were never intended to take on German Tigers/Panthers one on one. This comment is buried somewhere in his biography about WW II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Bradley . Ike was pissed off when he learned that the latest Shermans, with the latest high velocity 76 mm were not enough to crack the German panzers, which were armed with 88 mm guns.

Bradley's book http://www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Story-Modern-Library-War/dp/0375754210 is interesting, and actually reads like a management text.

nobody does listening meditations or anything

While I wish more people in our society did so, lots of us still do. For anyone interested here's a great site with some free podcasts on the topic: This is a great series by this guy, and while not affiliated with audiodharma, here is a great book on cultivating "Mindfulness".

By the way, before anyone mods me into oblivion, neither of these 2 resources teaches mediation that's necessarily from 1 particular religious background (or any religious background). So, this isn't preaching, proselytizing or anything, just trying to share some good resources for learning meditation techniques from people who teach it well.

an explanation?

Yeah, this is pretty much the Chebacca defense: say something completely incoherent and totally unrelated to the issue, which is that voting systems should avoid any preferencing of candidates, and call it an "explanation" and hope that incredibly stupid people will repeat your claim by rote, as has happened with this story.

Electronic voting systems have the ability to be less biased than paper voting systems by, for example, randomizing the candidates list for each voter, to reduce any name-ordering bias.

Too bad the purpose of electronic voting has never been to do anything other than make it easier to corrupt the electoral process.

I voted in a local election last night that used paper ballots and electronic vote counting. This seems to me to be the optimal division of labour between material and electronic systems: robust, easily recountable, and generating fast returns (the first polls were reporting less than an hour after they closed, the election was called less than two hours after.)

Now on a totally unrelated note, go buy this book and be part of the future: http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-collection-stories-people/dp/0982167121

I use a plain old MS comfort curve 2000:
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Comfort-Curve-Keyboard-B2L-00002/dp/B0009ZBRS0

Cheap, and negative slop if you want one too iirc, via flop tabs.

Dvorak too. Neo is supposed to be even better (in german, but can't imagine english is too different):
http://pebbles.schattenlauf.de/layout/index_us.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Neo

Almost 14 years ago I cut off my index finger while working at a sawmill. The finger was fused stiff so the knuckle was destroyed but the finger remains mangled, but somewhat usable.

First, get some exercise a little squishy ball or if at all possible some literal weight lifting for your hands, this can include the "hand-grips" or even a forearm weight.

Hand grips

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hand+grip

Forearm weight

http://www.amazon.com/GoFit-GF-WFB-Wrist-Forearm-Blaster/dp/B0007W2FJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1288051339&sr=8-1-spell

Second, skills training. Get a darn typing program. If you used to play billiards - go play. Relearn how to do those things that you are best at, like tying your shoes and pay attention. You are going to relearn some very basic motor skills, pay attention to the way that unfolds, or has unfolded, just being mindful of the situation will help. For example, you will learn to do things with your right hand and tend to do things the same way with your left hand or vice versa.

Third, you are going to be alright, eventually you wil be surprised that it is normal.

For me personally, I prefer the thinest lightest keyboards I can find.

Almost 14 years ago I cut off my index finger while working at a sawmill. The finger was fused stiff so the knuckle was destroyed but the finger remains mangled, but somewhat usable.

First, get some exercise a little squishy ball or if at all possible some literal weight lifting for your hands, this can include the "hand-grips" or even a forearm weight.

Hand grips

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hand+grip

Forearm weight

http://www.amazon.com/GoFit-GF-WFB-Wrist-Forearm-Blaster/dp/B0007W2FJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1288051339&sr=8-1-spell

Second, skills training. Get a darn typing program. If you used to play billiards - go play. Relearn how to do those things that you are best at, like tying your shoes and pay attention. You are going to relearn some very basic motor skills, pay attention to the way that unfolds, or has unfolded, just being mindful of the situation will help. For example, you will learn to do things with your right hand and tend to do things the same way with your left hand or vice versa.

Third, you are going to be alright, eventually you wil be surprised that it is normal.

For me personally, I prefer the thinest lightest keyboards I can find.

I took a college algebra course to refresh (I've done calc and stat). They gave this book: http://www.amazon.com/College-Algebra-Enhanced-Graphing-Utilities/dp/0136004911/

I bought this book recently to reteach myself math: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030291070/

The assigned book was total shit. It talked about math some, then ran directly to the graphing calculator. Most students failed that class. *I* failed that class and I passed Calculus 2 and Statistics and Probability in my sleep (my teacher was pissed at my test scores, because I got 4 problems wrong EVER yet I never did any homework or classwork... the material was just easy for me, I handwaved at tests and got every single problem right almost every time); I failed Calc 2 recently (5 years of NOT doing math and I took Calc2 for a refresher) so I decided, hmm, I need algebra skills. Hmm, why can't I learn algebra now?

The book I got recently to self-teach uses a different model. Instead of running directly to the graphing calculator, it... well, it does cover graphing calculators, spreadsheets, and computer graphing programs, yes. As an aside. Also it runs to Geometry and starts discussing the applications of Algebra in the study of Geometry. Also it pulls out real world problems solved algebraically. It also fully explains example problems, and incorporates a certain amount of overlap. Also, the author does some number theory coverage early, because he wants more wiggle room to explain concepts more clearly and to enter more advanced concepts.

The book I got myself teaches math. The assigned book I tried to use in the instructor-lead class teaches calculators.

What we need is GOOD textbooks. Not cheap textbooks, not expensive textbooks, not the latest edition of A FUCKING ALGEBRA TEXT discussing a subject that hasn't changed since BEFORE KNOWN CHINESE HISTORY (yeah, math has advanced... in the form of Geometry and Trigonometry and Calculus and Physics, not in the form of Algebra; and even then, not in the past 2 years). What we need is GOOD textbooks that cover the subject in the best way possible.

I took a college algebra course to refresh (I've done calc and stat). They gave this book: http://www.amazon.com/College-Algebra-Enhanced-Graphing-Utilities/dp/0136004911/

I bought this book recently to reteach myself math: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0030291070/

The assigned book was total shit. It talked about math some, then ran directly to the graphing calculator. Most students failed that class. *I* failed that class and I passed Calculus 2 and Statistics and Probability in my sleep (my teacher was pissed at my test scores, because I got 4 problems wrong EVER yet I never did any homework or classwork... the material was just easy for me, I handwaved at tests and got every single problem right almost every time); I failed Calc 2 recently (5 years of NOT doing math and I took Calc2 for a refresher) so I decided, hmm, I need algebra skills. Hmm, why can't I learn algebra now?

The book I got recently to self-teach uses a different model. Instead of running directly to the graphing calculator, it... well, it does cover graphing calculators, spreadsheets, and computer graphing programs, yes. As an aside. Also it runs to Geometry and starts discussing the applications of Algebra in the study of Geometry. Also it pulls out real world problems solved algebraically. It also fully explains example problems, and incorporates a certain amount of overlap. Also, the author does some number theory coverage early, because he wants more wiggle room to explain concepts more clearly and to enter more advanced concepts.

The book I got myself teaches math. The assigned book I tried to use in the instructor-lead class teaches calculators.

What we need is GOOD textbooks. Not cheap textbooks, not expensive textbooks, not the latest edition of A FUCKING ALGEBRA TEXT discussing a subject that hasn't changed since BEFORE KNOWN CHINESE HISTORY (yeah, math has advanced... in the form of Geometry and Trigonometry and Calculus and Physics, not in the form of Algebra; and even then, not in the past 2 years). What we need is GOOD textbooks that cover the subject in the best way possible.

I wasn't really incensed about textbooks until the bookstore tried to sell our class what looked like a marginally-more-professional version of "photocopy the whole book" (cheap paper - including the cover, pages rotated 90 degrees, that stupid plastic binding) for $90 when you can get the hardcover for $45 on Amazon.

I mean, come on.

it's a giant joke... an illusion to create jobs.

He's referencing Monster cable, such as this product, and making fun of the fact that 'audiophiles' will spend enormous amounts of money on gear that they have no solid way of proving is better.

It was this:

http://www.amazon.com/AutoExec-WM-01-Wheelmate-Steering-Wheel/dp/B000IZGIA8

This would be reasonable if the digital versions cost less than the paper. This is often not the case. (Dammit Slashdot, fix your comment system, I had to type the entire URL because for some reason I'm not allowed to paste...)

Let's look at a $7.99 paperback: (like this one)
Components making up the selling of this book are:
Retail Markup: (30-45% for B&N) (We'll go with 30 for simplicity) :$2.40
Wholesale Markup: 10%: $0.79
Author Royalties: 8-15% (Lets be generous, publishers rarely are): $1.20 (I normally hear around $0.70 per paperback, but we're being generous)
Printing: 10%: $0.79
Pre-production (editing etc): 10-15%: $1.20
Other (Marketing, lunches, power ties...): The rest.: $1.60

With an Ebook, you can cut out the wholesaler and the printing cost. Marketing is probably a lot cheaper too, since it's taken care of for you by the digital seller (amazon, itunes). No big cardboard cutouts, no phoning stores asking them to stock the book etc. Pre-production is slightly cheaper, since you don't have to worry nearly as much about absolutely perfect layout, since the ebook formats don't support it anyway. (As far as I've noticed, they don't even bother proofreading the ebook versions...)

We've cut out at least $1.50 from the costs, and probably closer to $2-3.
Unfortunately, if we just reduced the selling price by that much, the author would get screwed (they get a percentage), so authors need to think about that when negotiating. I would say reasonable royalties on ebooks are 25%. So for the author to get the same $1.20, the selling price of the ebook should be around $4.80. With the agency model, that would be $1.44 for the retailer, $1.20 for the author, and $2.16 for the publisher, which would easily take care of their associated costs.

Of course, that's not what happens. As we see, the books sell for about the same (maybe $1 less), and the publisher skims twice their normal share.

Baen, the only enlightened ebook publisher, has a guideline that they sell their e-books for around 75% of the lowest cost paper edition, capped at about $6. It's done very well for them, but it's going to take years for the dinosaurs in the rest of the publishing business to die out and be replaced by people that actually know what's going on.

This would be reasonable if the digital versions cost less than the paper. This is often not the case. (Dammit Slashdot, fix your comment system, I had to type the entire URL because for some reason I'm not allowed to paste...)

Let's look at a $7.99 paperback: (like this one)
Components making up the selling of this book are:
Retail Markup: (30-45% for B&N) (We'll go with 30 for simplicity) :$2.40
Wholesale Markup: 10%: $0.79
Author Royalties: 8-15% (Lets be generous, publishers rarely are): $1.20 (I normally hear around $0.70 per paperback, but we're being generous)
Printing: 10%: $0.79
Pre-production (editing etc): 10-15%: $1.20
Other (Marketing, lunches, power ties...): The rest.: $1.60

With an Ebook, you can cut out the wholesaler and the printing cost. Marketing is probably a lot cheaper too, since it's taken care of for you by the digital seller (amazon, itunes). No big cardboard cutouts, no phoning stores asking them to stock the book etc. Pre-production is slightly cheaper, since you don't have to worry nearly as much about absolutely perfect layout, since the ebook formats don't support it anyway. (As far as I've noticed, they don't even bother proofreading the ebook versions...)

We've cut out at least $1.50 from the costs, and probably closer to $2-3.
Unfortunately, if we just reduced the selling price by that much, the author would get screwed (they get a percentage), so authors need to think about that when negotiating. I would say reasonable royalties on ebooks are 25%. So for the author to get the same $1.20, the selling price of the ebook should be around $4.80. With the agency model, that would be $1.44 for the retailer, $1.20 for the author, and $2.16 for the publisher, which would easily take care of their associated costs.

Of course, that's not what happens. As we see, the books sell for about the same (maybe $1 less), and the publisher skims twice their normal share.

Baen, the only enlightened ebook publisher, has a guideline that they sell their e-books for around 75% of the lowest cost paper edition, capped at about $6. It's done very well for them, but it's going to take years for the dinosaurs in the rest of the publishing business to die out and be replaced by people that actually know what's going on.

There are a bunch of audio books you can still get on cassette tape, the library also seems to have a whole lot of this. It will be mostly old content.

To listen to new music, you may have to implement the 1990s version of "sync your iPod". Buy CDs, and use a cassette recorder to record the music to blank cassette tapes which are still available

Sounds like a pain... iPod sync is a lot faster and more convenient than copying to cassette.

Although there is a minor advantage, that once copied to tape, you can switch between tapes almost instantly, this is more than made up for by how much music an iPod can hold at a time, however.

The US around the world (and its mini me Israel) stand for only injustice, pain, suffering, oppression, torture, murder, evil.

Same could be said for a dozen other countries. China. North Korea. Iran. Somalia. Uganda. Etc

Americans are complicit in all their government does since they do not stop it.

That is vague. Americans in general are not for the above statements. It is the global interest and reigning plutocracy that has led us to the state of New Rome. Because of the wealth gap, money buys power, and the wealth distribution controls what really happens in America. I am not talking about middle upper class folks, I am talking about the old money families with hundreds of millions. New money not so much, but old money, they do what ever they can to really maintain the status-quo and expand their empire, and they do it through lobbyist and all the classical 'morally corrupt' things you can think of.

You may argue that my counter is vague as well, in response I provide my citation, read The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy. It summarizes our situation (the world as well) and sites hundreds of legitimate references.

Elections are coming up... if you vote for a Democrat or Republican you are guilty of all the crimes revealed in these documents (and more). Stop voting for the single party rule which just equals more of the same. If you want your vote to count, vote Libertarian, Peace and Freedom, Green, independent, etc.

I agree. Now why couldn't you be as civil in your first paragraph? The immediate soapbox flaming is a good way to get modded into oblivion.

And yet, when the dollar was a receipt on gold, it was both. It only lost this nature, when it was decoupled.

A dry read, but informative: Money Mischief-Episodes in Monetary History

-Hope

You mean like this?

I can tell it's truly News for Nerds because I can barely understand what it's saying and it drops causal references to advanced mathematics--the stuff I only wish I'd had the fortitude to study in college.

You more than likely did study this in college. This involves linear algebra, specifically the inversion of matrices and/or solving linear system. Ax=b, where A is an mxn matrix, and x and b are nx1 and mx1 vectors respectively. What we'd like to do is solve for x using x=A^-1 b, where A^-1 is an inverse matrix of some kind. But getting the inverse is a notoriously difficult problem.

In fact, a large reason digital computers were invented at all was so that "large" matrices could be inverted. And by large, I mean 12x12 matrices (keep in mind this was the 1950s). Computer games, mp3 players, spreadsheets and the internet are all quite incidental byproducts of humanities quest to invert ever larger matrices, in less time. Though just about any half way sophisticated piece of software will invert a matrix at some point.

The reason for this is as follows: When human beings want to solve any difficult problem, they approximate it with a linear model and solve the associated linear system. Hence the ability to solve linear systems quickly and accurately is of fundamental importance. This goes double in the modern world as we increasingly rely on the ability of computers to handle ever larger linear system--that is, to invert ever larger matrices.

The biggest problem with matrices, say nxn matrices, is that the time taken for solving them by Gauss elimination goes up as 0(n^3). So while your desktop could probably invert a 1000x1000 matrix in a few seconds, it would take a year invert a million x million matrix, and would take around a million years to invert a billion x billion matrix. (Not that it could store either in memory). While Gauss elimination is a pretty poor algorithm efficiency-wise, this issues are unavoidable for general matrices.

However, most matrices we actually want to invert in practice are "sparse" or "diagonally dominant". The first property means that most of the elements are zero. So in a billion x billion matrix, instead of storing 10^18 numbers, you'd only have to store a few billion. Diagonally dominant means that largest entries are along the diagonal. Both of these mean you can take a lot of--often hueristic--shortcuts in your inversion algorithims to cut down on time.

These researchers claim O(s*log(s)^2) complexity for such systems. I suspect there are probably a lot of O(s^2*log(s)) system or the like anyway, but even still this is a nice improvement. I doubt it's as big a breakthrough--I suspect this is hyped anyway--but if it is an improvement you can kind of compare this to something like the Fast Fourier Transform speedup. Again, I doubt it's that large of an improvement.

I'll finish by mentioning that this all falls under the umbrella of Linear Algebra, which is an absolutely essential skill of higher mathematics, and computational mathematics. Any geeks who prides themselves on their mathematical ability, but doesn't know their linear algebra (linear systems, the four fundamental subspaces, eigenvectors/values, rotation/transformation matrices, etc) shouldn't be holding their skills in such high regard. If you don't know your LA, or have forgotten, one of the best places to start is to watch Gilbert Strang's online lecture series provided by MIT. These lectures are indispensable to anyone working with linear systems. After this, those who need in depth analysis of matrix algorithms should turn to something like "Matrix Algorithms" by G. W. Stewart which goes into more detail and shows the more canonical algorithms. A little knowledge of linear algebra goes a long way in mathematics.

...Or failing all that, you could just open up MATLAB... or Octave. I recommend the educational route first though.

William Gibson wrote about this in "Idoru" published in 1997 "Idoru" William Gibson The story is about an idoru, or idol singer named Rei Toei a holographic construction who becomes engaged to Rez, one half of a superstar rock group Lo/Rez

However, we DO know that Media Matters Inc. IS funded by a single man with an angenda to control the world cash flows, known as George Soros who recently directly donated a million with a specific agenda [CITATION [indyposted.com]].

So? It makes it worse that he's open about it, instead of doing it in secrecy like the Kochs? And Media Matters is NOTHING like the tea party.

[CITATION NEEDED]. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars under the Bush administration cost around $200 billion, but the Obama administration recently granted $390 billion for the same wars (NOT including the stimulus and health care bills) [CITATION [wikipedia.org]].

Oh, you fucking tool. $200 billion under Bush? That figure was an estimate in 2003, and it was *laughed at* because everyone knew it was extremely lowball. Here's the first citation... written by a Nobel prize-winning economist: Three-Trillion-Dollar-War-Conflict wherein the estimated total cost is 3-5 Trillion... and Stiglitz has subsequently published that they underestimated some of the costs, especially the cost of caring for the disabled vets returning home (to the tune of an additional 400 billion), and that the revised estimate is 4-7 Trillion dollars.

If there is anyone misinformed here, it is you. Because you disregard costs other than budgetary, which any economist knows is invalid.

One of the schools is in West Virginia(cant remember the name), I know a recent graduate. From what he says they are not going anywhere any time soon. And as for the books, it sounds like what you are describing are The Gingery Books there are 7 of them that when you go through them all you have a modern machine shop at the end.

There's a book, published December 2007, that actually reports on it with several studies and research. Apparently has a very good appendix and list of notes on the research documenting it. Rated 4 stars at Amazon, with some good reviews of it.

So, there's your FACTS.

Norman Spinrad's 1987 novel Little Heroes also had virtual pop stars. Not a great novel, by any means, but he beat Gibson to it by 9 years.

The idea isn't that new at all.

This was forever ago, but "BINKY" was a similar concept. It had a full band, though. http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Rocks-BINKY-Brown-Chapter/dp/0316115436

but there's still a good amount of XP systems floating about.

They're not just "still floating about", they're still sold as new. See this ASUS Eee Box, a very small form factor desktop PC. Comes with Windows XP Home Edition.

And they even write novels where it's a central point to the plot...

Is the Air underpowered? Of course. But you find me an 11" form factor laptop that doesn't look like a giant brick and has a 2ghz+ i7. Not even the Dell Alienware M11x offers more than a 1.06ghz i7 or 1.3ghz Core 2.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-TimelineX-AS1830T-68U118-11-6-Inch-Display/dp/B0042X8W0Q/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1287636352&sr=8-5

The Acer 1830 has an i7-680UM. It's not 2GHz base clock (it's 1.46GHz) but it does turbo to 2.53GHz. The reality is that you can't put a full-power Intel CPU in an 11.6" notebook today.

However, it's disappointing that Apple put a Penryn in the MacBook Air. Even a ULV i5 would run circles around the Core 2. The graphics argument is bogus, too - the i5 is an integrated CPU/northbridge (MCM), so it would in fact have fewer parts on the board. I think that most of the people who would buy an ultra-portable notebook would rather have a faster CPU and a slower GPU, since you're not going to do any sort of serious gaming on a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo (and the Intel graphics are fine for desktop acceleration, HD video, and older games).

The real argument against this MacBook Air, though, is Zacata/Ontario and Sandy Bridge.

AMD Zacate will deliver similar CPU performance (compared with ULV Penryn - less IPC but higher clocks) with better GPU performance (Radeon 5400 class), using fewer chips and less power at a lower price. It arrives sometime early next year.

Sandy Bridge on the other hand will deliver similar GPU performance and vastly superior CPU performance with less power. It's probably going to be more expensive than Core 2, though. It also arrives early next year, although it's unclear when the ULV variants will ship.

The bottom line is that AMD and Intel are both working on major new architectures that are ideal for this application. Zacate/Ontario is all-new, and Sandy Bridge is Intel's biggest architecture change since Core 2. Launching at this point with a 2-year-old Intel platform just doesn't seem like the right timing.

Of course, they'll sell a bunch of them. Core 2 is still no slouch and the NVIDIA 320M graphics are the best integrated you can get right now. But if you can at all wait, do. Sandy Bridge and Zacate/Ontario are not the minor refreshes that we normally see from AMD/Intel, and they aren't years away - we're talking 4 months or less for Zacate/Ontario and 9 months or less for ULV Sandy Bridge.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dwireless-phones&field-keywords=android&x=0&y=0

A bunch of phones are on that list and under $50.

They only seem to go at that price with a service plan, and the iphone4 is free on service plans here in australia.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dwireless-phones&field-keywords=android&x=0&y=0

A bunch of phones are on that list and under $50.

When I got my phone, my wife got hers (Droid Eris) for free. There were a bunch of other promotions like buy a Droid X and get any other phone for free etc... It's stuff like this that inflates the numbers. My wife probably wouldn't have gotten an Android based phone and she doesn't download apps in the marketplace or anything like that. So I don't think developers are benefiting from these low-end android phones.

http://www.magnatune.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Indie-Music-CDs/b?ie=UTF8&node=266023

http://www.itunes.com/indiespotlight

that took all of 30 seconds

Also known as retail prices.
Amazon - $215

Excellent read.

...Except for the fact that NES consoles are still being made, just not by Nintendo.

Take this for instance http://www.amazon.com/Retron-Genesis-Triple-System-Nintendo-Entertainment/dp/B003O3EFY2/ref=pd_sbs_t_4 it is a third-party NES, third-party SNES and third-party Sega Genesis (MegaDrive outside of the US). Or the "FC Mobile" a third-party portable NES ( http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Portable-System-White-Nintendo-DS/dp/B0027ESBCG/ref=pd_sim_sbs_vg_2 ).

The NES is not dead because it is still being produced. It might not have the Nintendo name, it might not have the "toaster" design, it might not have identical controllers, but it still is a NES.

...Except for the fact that NES consoles are still being made, just not by Nintendo.

Take this for instance http://www.amazon.com/Retron-Genesis-Triple-System-Nintendo-Entertainment/dp/B003O3EFY2/ref=pd_sbs_t_4 it is a third-party NES, third-party SNES and third-party Sega Genesis (MegaDrive outside of the US). Or the "FC Mobile" a third-party portable NES ( http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Portable-System-White-Nintendo-DS/dp/B0027ESBCG/ref=pd_sim_sbs_vg_2 ).

The NES is not dead because it is still being produced. It might not have the Nintendo name, it might not have the "toaster" design, it might not have identical controllers, but it still is a NES.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Germs-Bad-Survival-Bacterial/dp/0809016427/ref=sr_1_1

The only people I ever hear calling him "messiah" are right-wingers.

Oh? What, then, do you think of when you read fluff like this?

"I am going to try to be so persuasive, so that those of you who are still wavering...will suddenly come to the conclusion -- a light beam will shine through -- will light you up -- and you will experience an epiphany -- I have to vote for Barack!" -- Barack Obama, Lebanon, New Hampshire, January 7, 2008.

If you want to indoctrinate your children into the Cult of Obama, you might start with "Son of Promise, Child of Hope" (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

They sound pretty ridiculous and juvenile when they do it.

Maybe so, but only because they're rank amateurs, compared to the fanbois that do it all the time.

Just FYI.

Yeah. FYI.

"But government interference, shortsighted regulators, and indifferent corporate leaders each played a role in the demise of a program that could have lessened US.dependence on Middle East oil."

I take exception with most of this statement from to the Journal. I have a strong suspicion that the first two had very little to do with the decision. According to this capsule history of Chrysler, "Between 1973 and 1974, Chrysler's auto production plummets by 26 percent," due to poor sales of the full-size cars they had invested in (including the turbine car) in the face of the 1970's oil shock. Methinks the Journel doth protest too much about "government interference" when most of the blame lies squarely with the management of Chrysler who, together with the rest of the industry during the day, made crappy decisions on which cars to back. They really didn't have much choice but to scale back on their experimental programs as they were hemorrhaging money. I know it's politically beneficial to the right to bash the government with these sorts of unfounded statements, but it's historically inaccurate. But then, anyone who actually sees Murdoch's Journal as a source of unbiased journalism these days is really a bit of a moron.

If you really want to understand the mind of the auto companies in that day, read The Reckoning by David Halberstam, which gives an insightful view of how auto companies were run in the fifties and sixties and how their bad management led to the supremecy of the foreign car in the US and how it almost led to the demise of the domestic auto industry in the seventies.

At least for me... I first read something about him, in my freshman year in college, in the book Caos, by James Gleick http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140092501/jamesgleick. To this day I remember him with the utmost consideration. I hope he had a happy life. I'll never forget his work... He was one of the great scientists of our time.

The relevant citation would be Theodore Jennings's work, particularly The Man Jesus Loved.

Free markets are the *BEST* way to bring people out of poverty, and arguably have done more than any amount of aid donated by first-world countries.

http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Economics-Undressing-Dismal-Science/dp/0393324869

Educate yourself.

Then there are books like Experimental Methods in RF Design that are selling for a huge amount of money used because, I think, Amazon has the new one listed misspelled.

The used book market can be really weird.

Then there are books like Experimental Methods in RF Design that are selling for a huge amount of money used because, I think, Amazon has the new one listed misspelled.

The used book market can be really weird.

Then there are books like Experimental Methods in RF Design that are selling for a huge amount of money used because, I think, Amazon has the new one listed misspelled.

The used book market can be really weird.

The summary is scaremongering; the article is more in depth and interesting. Basically it says that researchers need money in order to, you know, actually research Because they need money they need to receive grants. In order to get grants, they need their grant approved. In order to get approval, their research needs to show "promise". In order to increase the amount of "promise" in their research, they need to have flashy results.

Certainly the Slashdot Summary is misleading and hyped, but that's SOP. However, the article still is a bit more damning. Not only does 'inflating' the results of studies help the academic publishing / funding treadmill, but the same mechanism inflates the 'value' of medications and medical interventions.

That is a huge problem, especially in the US where the trend for Medicare / Medicaid (the country's largest insurers) is to mindlessly pay for 'new and better' as well as the general desire for new and shiny things that go 'ping'. New drugs that are really not much better than old ones (but much more profitable). New procedures that aren't much better than old ones (but much more profitable), new machines that aren't much better than old ones (but now that you've paid off the last one, can we sell you version 2 with tint control?). So this sort of sloppy science isn't just a problem in at the chalkboard. It's a problem in the wallet and in fact, a problem that risks people's lives.

Just one example: Bone marrow transplant for Breast Cancer. Heavily touted. Heavily advertised. Lawsuits again insurers that wouldn't pay for it even though much of the early research was clearly substandard and the benefits marginal. But it hit people at their heartstrings - dying women - and there was a huge push for it. Later research showed no benefit for a procedure that really put patients through an awful several months (worse than the cancer).

It has become a perfect storm in which the complexity of human biology, the poor training of medical researchers (MD / PhD programs basically create physicians with weak clinical skills and researchers with weak research skills), the enormous financial and academic stakes of the research and everyone's interest in 'getting better' or simply staying alive have created (at least in the US and I suspect to a certain degree in other first world countries) an expensive and poorly controlled industry that yields marginal patient benefits and incurs enormous costs - both financial, social, moral and physical.

I'm reading this book and I find it a really eye-opener. Frightening too.

I got hooked after reading the introduction, which tells the tale of William Banting. Unknown to me, he basically did what I had done a few years ago and got me 40 pounds thinner.

Read this book.

Why did anybody think this was a good idea in the first place?

It's like having a pop-up book, or one of those Griffin & Sabine books where the pages have envelopes with letters inside you can pull out and read. They're great for a novelty, like Avatar, and everybody will want to take a look if it's marketed correctly, but when it comes down to it, my meat and potatoes novel is easier when printed on cheap newsprint. I already have to wear glasses to read, and that's annoying enough.

-FL