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Gould's book has been pretty thoroughly debunked. In fact, there were numerous instances where he out and out lied about the data.

Don't be offended by Slashdot. Be offended by Duke University. That's where the quoted text was from. There are other reasons to be offended by some members of the Slashdot crowd in the same realm.

    If you read the story, women are mentioned also. It doesn't appear to be a male biased article. Most likely it wasn't heavily researched for the sake of gender bias, but more of a reflection of works that the author recognized from a big list.

    There were a lot of books published, and they couldn't possibly mention them all.

You can buy it for a good deal less than a politician, so I'm not sure you want to read it all that badly:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0316769509/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

You could get IMAX films on VHS.

without power. How do you charge your cell phones in that situation

1. Use your car's battery with a car charger made for your cell.
2. Use your charger with a Car Jump-Starter /w Built-In Air Compressor, Inverter & DC out.
3. Use a Hand Crank Flashlight, Radio & Cell Charger

without power. How do you charge your cell phones in that situation

1. Use your car's battery with a car charger made for your cell.
2. Use your charger with a Car Jump-Starter /w Built-In Air Compressor, Inverter & DC out.
3. Use a Hand Crank Flashlight, Radio & Cell Charger

Bunk. Utter bunk. This whole like of research was abandoned in the 1950s because it became evident that the "Boskop" skull was simply an unusual individual, possibly suffering from hydrocephalus (a condition where too much spinal fluid is produced, causing cranial overpressure and often an enlarged head).

The cranial volume of the skull is within the range of variation of the living human population. The volume is estimated at about 1800 ml, which is right in the distribution for male skulls.

And, in any event, it's been well established that there is no correlation between brain volume and apparent intelligence among modern humans (anyone alive 10,000 years ago is firmly in this category). For a detailed history of this quackery and hogwash, see Stephen Jay Gould's The Missmeasure of Man.

Didn't anyone bother to Google "boskop"?

Doctorow is a pundit first, and a story-writer, oh, somewhere around seventh or eighth. Bill O'Reilly writes novels, too. But nobody reads them because they want to sit down with a good mystery, they read them because they are a fan of the pundit's punditry and buy up everything associated with his "brand."

OKC Middle East Connection

Saddam's purported 'hatred of radical Islam' didn't stop him from adding "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Great" to the Iraqi flag post-1991.

Enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Put a small heater in the traffic signal that turns on below 0C (32F).

Or better yet, wire the heater to one of these and have someone drive around and turn them on when it snows. Either way, if the municipalities don't solve the problem, they will get sued. How much does that cost?

Ooh, or maybe one of these

Put a small heater in the traffic signal that turns on below 0C (32F).

Or better yet, wire the heater to one of these and have someone drive around and turn them on when it snows. Either way, if the municipalities don't solve the problem, they will get sued. How much does that cost?

Ooh, or maybe one of these

Put a small heater in the traffic signal that turns on below 0C (32F).

Or better yet, wire the heater to one of these and have someone drive around and turn them on when it snows.

Either way, if the municipalities don't solve the problem, they will get sued. How much does that cost?

-- I hate sitting in those cramped seats listening to the little kids crying behind me --

Let me introduce you to the best travelling companion I have ever had: noise-cancelling headphones. Most - all? - brands and models come with attachments to plug into airline sockets too (though I wouldn't be surprised if US airlines have different sockets to stop people doing that; but even without anything playing through them, headphones like these help a LOT).

... because they already do it. Amazon already collects sales tax for products sold by third-party merchants on their site. So, they already have the infrastructure in place to assess and collect sales tax for merchants located virtually anywhere.

This is simply about keeping a competitive advantage they have over brick-and-mortar stores. Sure, you could say it's not moral for them to avoid paying their fair share, but you could also say it's immoral for them to NOT find ways to maximize profit for their shareholders (which might include you, depending on your retirement plan!).

This is a subsidiary point in support of a larger point, but Stephenson doesn't explicitly state the larger point because he knows the reader should be able to pick it up. I teach English 101 and 102 at the University of Arizona and use "Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out" in both classes, and it works pretty well at sorting those who can read for slightly sophisticated content for main point and those who can't.

By Neal Stephenson, whoever-in-the-hell that is.

I assume this is a troll, but I'll bite: see Amazon's author page or this hilarious /. interview.

" I also think it's cute that they feel amazon has a moral right to pay more taxes in this 'time of hardship'."

I think it's cute that the NY Times forgets Amazon is online, they don't rely on local people, and could just as easily move overseas as it could to another state to save that billion dollars in taxes. I'm sure there's plenty of states that would welcome Amazon and the 15,000+ jobs it brings with tax-exempt status.

Please California, chase away all of your big businesses! Midwestern states would welcome the jobs.

If online taxes were required I'd just purchase more from eBay and chinese vendors. Is that what California wants? People are going to buy wherever it's cheaper, whether it's down the street, online or overseas.

When I was 12, I taught myself AppleScript from this Wrox book: Beginning AppleScript .
This is a great language because it's so much like English. You can guess a command and get it right.
Also, that was a good book because it teaches you something and then lets you test and explore it using examples. And the book is still a great referecne.
AppleScrpt is a good, easy way to become familiar with programming concepts. And it's got built-in tools for user interface work, so that part is easy.
Also, there's a lot of good help on the Web for AppleScript.

Good luck! -Nathan

Game programming with Blitz Max was the way we went. There is actually a book called Game Programming for Teens that gives you some lesson structure.

BlitzMax also has a C++ SDK, so you can graduate to that at some point. But as a recovering C++ developer myself I can't understand why you'd want to do the poor kid that.

This website seems to agree with you:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200285450

Python is multiplatform and is free. There are quite a few free tools and libraries available. It is a 'real' language that is at the same time suitable for youngsters to learn on. With the huge Python ecosystem that exists you can have them cranking out code in a text editor, an interpreter or a full blown IDE. (A wide number of them in fact). Python also makes for a nice bridge to C as it pretty easy to integrate the two. If you feel competent, you could probably just hit the Python docs and work your way through them. If you'd like a little help and have material already prepared for teaching younger people how to program with Python, there are resources out there.
 
I recommend Hello World! which uses Python. (You can read my full review of it here.)
 
If you don't want to buy a book, then you may want to look at Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python 2nd ed. I haven't read it myself yet, and a quick glance showed it to have some rough edges, but one can't be too picky at that price. It is available to download or read online.

They are in the ebook publishing business with the Amazon Digital Test Platform: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin

You can have your book published directly to Kindle and get better royalties than many other publishers would give you.

At least they're cheaper than buying a real book though. Oh wait.

I see the book my wife gave me for Christmas is cheaper as an ebook: $9.99 vs $15.47. $9.99 doesn't seem like a bad price out of hand, although $6.99 or $0.01 would be even better :)

Now, I realize that's a sample size of one. I'd be interested from Kindle readers whether the books you actually buy tend to be cheaper than the hardcopies?

At least they're cheaper than buying a real book though. Oh wait.

I see the book my wife gave me for Christmas is cheaper as an ebook: $9.99 vs $15.47. $9.99 doesn't seem like a bad price out of hand, although $6.99 or $0.01 would be even better :)

Now, I realize that's a sample size of one. I'd be interested from Kindle readers whether the books you actually buy tend to be cheaper than the hardcopies?

The vast majority of bacteria are either harmless or beneficial to their human host. Only a very small number of bacteria are pathogenic, and most of the time your body does a great job keeping those out. Here's a great book for bacteria spotters, amateur and pro, which tells you how to find bacteria without a microscope.

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=3864
http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Bacteria-Comstock-Book/dp/0801488540

Of course there is an English translation. This is a SF classic after all... Actually, the book has even its own Wikipedia page (if we can use it as a measure of merit)

See also: "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness" by Douglas J. Lisle
and Alan Goldhamer:
    http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
"""
A wake-up call to even the most health conscious people, The Pleasure Trap boldy challenges conventional wisdom about sickness and unhappiness in today's contemporary culture, and offers groundbreaking solutions for achieving change. Authors Douglas Lisel, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer, D.C., provide a fascinating new perspective on how modern life can turn so many smart, savvy people into the unwitting saboteurs of their own well-being.
    Inspired by stunning original research, comprehensive clinical studies, and their successes with thousands of patients, the authors construct a new paradigm for the psychology of health, offering fresh hope for anyone stuck in a self-destructive rut. Integrating principals of evolutionary biology with trailblazing, proactive strategies for wellness, they argue that people who are chronically overweight, sick and ailing, or junk food junkies aren't that way because they're lazy, undisciplined, or stuck with bad genes. The authors reveal that most are victims of a dilemma that harkens back to our prehistoric past-"the Pleasure Trap."
    Drs. Lisle and Goldhamer then call upon their clinical experience, scientific investigations, and a recent revoution of understanding in human motivational psychology to provide you with solutions for the challenges of keeping on a healthful course-and how to make the most of your life.
"""

More here:
  http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

Basically, it is about progressive desensitization. In terms of food, fasting for a time can sometimes help reset our sense of what is a good amount of stimulation (the subtle taste of a carrot, the nuanced taste of other natural foods) and what is too much (too salty, too fatty, etc.).

The name of the science fiction book in Russian would translate as something like "Predating things of the times". I don't think, an English translation is available (yet?), although plenty of their other books have already been translated.

(Benevolent) secret police investigate strange goings-on in a leisurely resort town. They discover a very simple to make device is capable of giving a very strong pleasure — endlessly (until the user is interrupted, or the body starves and dies, or — on very rare occasions — the user's own will prevails). The town's attitudes toward the device and its users, as well as similar (but not as all-encompassing) devices are examined...

The name of the science fiction book in Russian would translate as something like "Predating things of the times". I don't think, an English translation is available (yet?), although plenty of their other books have already been translated.

(Benevolent) secret police investigate strange goings-on in a leisurely resort town. They discover a very simple to make device is capable of giving a very strong pleasure — endlessly (until the user is interrupted, or the body starves and dies, or — on very rare occasions — the user's own will prevails). The town's attitudes toward the device and its users, as well as similar (but not as all-encompassing) devices are examined...

We don't know who you are. Not yet. But don't be surprised to wake up some day, half human, half possum. This is the fate of those who cross us.

Isn't any mmorpg out there capable of offering a stats-based or skill-based character with no classification system?

As I typically do for topics about MMO's and designs, I point people to the excellent and very interesting (and still relavent) book: Designing Virtual Worlds by Richard Bartle. He goes over class vs skill based systems and what happens with them. Their drawbacks and benefits and how, basically, it doesn't matter what you call it, you end up at the same thing anyways. And the topic at hand isn't about classes or skills, it's about "roles". Which is usually associated with classes such as Warrior/Paladin are tanks and Clerics/Druids are healers and skills like Shield and Plate are for tanking and Holy/Light/Nature magic are for healing, etc. (however a game might label them).

Truth is, there are plenty of role-less RPG's out there. They're called Action RPGs like Diablo or X-Men Legends/Ultimate Allinace on consoles. If you take away roles, that's pretty much what you're left with to design a fun yet flavorful game where a "tank", "DPS" or "healer" isn't needed but character A doesn't feel entirely like character B.

The argument of whether to do classes or skills is moot because you end up with the same thing, but creating a fully skills based game takes a lot more time for developers to manage and balance. Or you end up with a game that just because, every character has every ability and little flavor except how someone choose to play their character... at which point they will play them as the typical Healer, Tank or DPS role.

Yes you can talk about buffers/debuffers but those are simply rolled into the "healer" paradigm.

Games like WoW has been trying to hybridize all classes, even if they fill said roles. Tanks are doing more damage and might have buff or debuff capabilities. DPS have buff and debuff abilities or possibly even healing or tanking abilities (at least for a limited time or amount).

Either way, it's sort of one of those topics that come up every once in a while but always just goes in circles of "we need something different!" but no one can come up with anything that's truly different that's still fun. They just find new ways of "hiding" the actual class design in some other system. Or if they get ride of roles, they just create an Action RPG, which could just as much be an MMO as anything else.

Very much so. Michael Pollan's book "Botany of Desire" is about the way four plants' usefulness has been a great advantage to the plant. Not just deliciousness (apples and potatoes) but also attractiveness (tulips) and, uh... cannabis.

Very good read.

http://www.amazon.com/Botany-Desire-Plants-Eye-View-World/dp/0375501290#reader_0375501290

I don't know any law in the US that states that it is illegal to be homosexual.

Well, technically it isn't illegal to be a pedophile either, but your life options would be severely restricted in comparison to a heterosexual citizen.

I do believe there are many religions who frown upon homosexuality.

Depends on the religion, culture and historical period. Anal sex, whether between a man and woman, or man and man, is considered unclean in Buddhism, but actual homosexual love isn't. Strict Islam is pretty much against homosexuality, but historically Islam was quite liberal and homosexuals were open and accepted in the past. There is a Muslim gay bar in Amsterdam so obviously there is a cultural dimension in addition to the religious one. There are accounts of European explorers who were shocked to see openly gay men on the streets of Middle Eastern towns when being gay was a crime punished by death in much of Europe:

Elsewhere in Islamic culture, however, the evidence is strikingly contradictory. Popular attitudes were more accepting than in Christendom, and European visitors were repeatedly shocked by the relaxed tolerance of Arabs, Turks, and Persians, who seemed to find nothing unnatural in love between men and boys. Behind this important cultural difference lies a vein of romanticism that runs deep through medieval Arab treatises on love. For Islamic writers, emotional intoxication might spring not just from the love of women, as with the troubadours, but also from the love of males. Homosexuality & Civilization By Louis Crompton

The death sentence in European nations was logically derived from the Bible:

If a man lie with mankind as he lieth with awoman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20: 13, reinforcing the earlier prohibition in 18:22). From this dire injunction, which applies to male homosexuals only, stem all later Western laws prescribing the death penalty for sodomy. Canon Law

. . . and this related product is hard to beat: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0014BYKVO/ref=dp_otherviews_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&img=1

. . . and to think that we used to complain about chicks putting on make-up at traffic lights . . .

Gotta love one of the product images that the site shows: http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B000IZGIA8/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0

combined with this product, what's the problem?

A long time ago when I was learning lisp, I worked through an interesting book by Heinrich Taube called Notes from the Metalevel. A very enlightening and interesting work for people interested in both music theory and computer science.

Kurt - I checked out your website and I'm intrigued. Where did you buy yours? I'm noting the Amazon price (and user comments here) -

http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-N900-Unlocked-Computer-Touchscreen/dp/B002OB49SW

What do you pay for an unlimited voice/unlimited roaming/unlimited data plan (normal business months for me can hit +4k minutes and 256 kB data)?

Descriptions mention a front-facing webcam in addition to the backside camera - have you tried this for (free) skype video (maybe from a WiFi spot)?

TIA -

Replying to myself, here's a thread buried in the Amazon reviews for the N900 that seems to have mixed experiences of people getting various tricks to work. It sounds, based on that, like T-Mobile is just being somewhat lax about checking what phones are allowed to connect to the $10 plan, so I'm not sure I'd count on it as a long-term or generally available solution for cheap-data smartphones.

There's also Stephen Baxter's Titan. The ending is uplifting, and gives the reader hope for the (distant) future of humanity.

Read "The Quiet War" by Paul McAuley Fascinating SF novel of humanity on Titan and other moons of Saturn.

And quite a bit more really.

Also, wouldn't all things in space, including battle, have to be 4D by definition?

I've got just the thing for you.

Actually, I think the most important thing is to understand what you need from a system. For that, I'd recommend Getting Things Done, by David Allen. Very practical, common-sense way to think about all the things that need to be done in your life, and how to actually make them happen. I wish I'd had it when I was an engineering student; when I went into the workforce, and I started to have more "open loops" than I could keep up with, it was a lifesaver.

The book itself is technology agnostic (he actually uses folders and pieces of paper), but there are a number of software products that use the GTD methodology, including GTD self-editing wikis (free) and Omnifocus (which I haven't used, but have heard good things about). Different workflow tools like bug / issue trackers can be set up in similar ways.

You need to read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Management-System-Administrators-Thomas-Limoncelli/dp/0596007833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261000026&sr=8-1

It's for systems administrators, but the rules apply across all jobs and even your personal life. It's helped me out immensely at the office.

You mean something like this - http://www.amazon.com/RichardSolo-1800-iPhone-External-battery/dp/B001LNDXEK [amazon.com] Or these - http://www.batterygeek.net/External-Cell-Phone-Battery-Packs-s/77.htm [batterygeek.net]

Good links thank you for providing them, closer to the second link, about the same dimensions of the the SPPS200 and PPS130 (about the size of a small laptop or netbook), except it was white like a cutting board. With the one I saw, the intention was to have the PC rest on top of the battery in your lap, I assume there was a toggle electric cord going from the back of the battery to the back of the computer. My only concern was potential heat and about that same time I started paying attention to the lap cooling fans. The battery was advertised to get either 12, 14 or 16 hours of DVD player running type of usage out of a laptop. The guy who reviewed it used the battery, playing DVDs on his laptop all the way to Asia on an airlines flight. Sounded great to me. Then all of a sudden I stopped seeing them anywhere.

Do not know if it was because of their price, they were not cheap (my guess) or if there were problems with them. I am thinking they were too expensive for all but the most well off power usage, thus their demise.

You would think that a series of universal external battery packs, different sizes for different devices and varying lengths of battery times, with universal plugs for all the current hand held devices regardless of manufacturer or operating system would be perfect and well worth the money to all.

On that first link, the RichardSolo 1200 for iPhone / iPod ! External battery pack is the idea, see how the white box, I assume the battery, fits under the device, same foot print. Oh ignore the projector looking part of the image, what is that infra-red, blue-tooth-like battery beaming, too funny. I sure hope that battery pack has a cord in the back the flips up and plugs into the device as keeping the device and the battery pack lined up would be a pain.

Unless this computer was retired and moved out of the Whitehouse before the emails were deleted.

The emails accumulated over *years*, and then they all disappeared. Well, I am sure they ended up on several, if not dozens of computers. Even if they were deleted on purpose, there may be computer eye-witnesses that weren't "eliminated". Maybe a hope PC that was used for work - connecting to a VPN, downloading your email, but not really understanding there is a local copy. Then you donate your PC to some charity, and suddenly George, Dick, and the rest of the criminals have sweaty palms.

Regardless, the US political system is dominated by the corporation. I don't have much faith that anything they do is for the common good. See Empire of Illusion, specifically the last chapter.

so that by the time something crawls back out of the muck it will be considerably harder to advance past the club and stick phase.

You're not thinking in the right time spans. Bacteria to Human takes a couple of billion years, give or take. Plenty of time for new mountain ranges to rise and fall, time for continental plates to shift. That will make ore that's currently difficult to access, or currently in the mantle, easily accessible. That's where our current, easy to access, deposits came from.

If you like Science Fiction, check out Brin's Uplift Saga. The sequel trilogy, the Uplift Triology, goes into more details on how a galaxy spanning civilization can cycle worlds in and out of service, giving evolution time.

This is a problem for humans that survive the cataclysm. It's not a problem for lower life forms if humans get wiped out.

so that by the time something crawls back out of the muck it will be considerably harder to advance past the club and stick phase.

You're not thinking in the right time spans. Bacteria to Human takes a couple of billion years, give or take. Plenty of time for new mountain ranges to rise and fall, time for continental plates to shift. That will make ore that's currently difficult to access, or currently in the mantle, easily accessible. That's where our current, easy to access, deposits came from.

If you like Science Fiction, check out Brin's Uplift Saga. The sequel trilogy, the Uplift Triology, goes into more details on how a galaxy spanning civilization can cycle worlds in and out of service, giving evolution time.

This is a problem for humans that survive the cataclysm. It's not a problem for lower life forms if humans get wiped out.

I'm not sure how you could legislate this problem away.

They'll have to force all programing to be compressed as well, ruining the dramatic use of audio.

All because some nitwit said, "this annoys me ... there ought to be a law" instead of buying a $30 volume regulator. That's OK, broadcast should be mostly gone in 10 years.

The hidden communist holocaust murdered about 100 million people in less than 100 years.

Not only does communism not work, but in an effort to make it work they have to murder off the "imperfect" or "those who don't contribute" or "those who are different" or "those who don't worship the state secular religion called communism" because too many people means social programs cost too much. So if they just off the "surplus population" they can hope to make the economics work even if they don't follow logic or reason or any sense at all.

George Orwell warned us about communism and socialism via Animal Farm where the farmer is capitalism and the animals establish a socialist/communist government. In the end they find out the socialists/communists are just as corrupt as the farmer and many animals lose their rights and freedoms and some end up dead.

The Black Book of Communism was written in France and is a picture book, it outlines the camps and the murders, the torture, the stealing, the crimes against humanity and other things that socialism/communism has done.

As an alternative try welfare capitalism or compassionate capitalism where social programs are insurance based, and based on logic, reason, and reality. The person gets out of it what they paid into it via taxes. Which was what FDR and others in the USA used to avoid socialism/communism and the evils that follow them.

Socialism is diet communism, would you like diet fascism or diet Nazism as a viable form of government? They don't work in practice either and are just as evil. Too much to the right is bad, and too much to the left is just as bad, people should really be in the middle.