Slashdot Mirror

The cause.

The effect.

Is our children learning?

In China, it's traditional to round up a "Gang of Four" when the state sees fit to make some dangerous or rascallian element the object of a show trial.

Not to be confused with this.

This is pretty much the selling point for Microsoft's BlueTrack (video at Amazon) as well. Theirs appears to be based on a blue LED and some optics picking up / processing the scattering, rather than dual lasers, but since they're more or less aimed at the same problem and claim similar success, I'd be curious how they compare.

Amazon.

I first saw the mobility trends mentioned and cited in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Capitalism-European-American-Reality/dp/1930865627 Not sure if it's the same info as parent's post, but it's a well-written book that discusses mobility as a factor in trying to compare US vs European statistics.

(Replying to myself with a bit of historical trivia I remembered.)

At the risk of a tangent, the ancient Greeks actually had a specific derogatory word for people who brought frivolous suits for the purpose of extorting settlements or intimidating their targets: that's what the word sycophant originally meant (it now means something else, more like "yes-man" or "toady"). And there was a considerable debate at the time over how widespread the problem was, and what sorts of legal reform, sanctions, or prosecution of egregious offenders could do something about it.

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/eDork/dp/B000H4TM1W

No it's more like a Far East/Daoism and Bushido. See The Seven Samurai and The Tao of Star Wars

Trailer reflects a lot of different Joe Haldeman books. I see pieces of "All My Sins Remembered," "Forever Peace," and a tiny bit of "Forever War." Ridley Scott's planning to film "Forever War," and he said he was inspired to do it in 3-D after seeing what Cameron had done with Avatar. The avatar thing connects with Haldeman's "Forever Peace" very well.

Wish Taco would avoid the snide comment about the trailer lacking story. It's not like Cameron has proven himself a poor storyteller on his past films. Just because it's CGI and science fiction, doesn't mean this is going to be garbage like Transformers 2 or Terminator 4.

Trailer reflects a lot of different Joe Haldeman books. I see pieces of "All My Sins Remembered," "Forever Peace," and a tiny bit of "Forever War." Ridley Scott's planning to film "Forever War," and he said he was inspired to do it in 3-D after seeing what Cameron had done with Avatar. The avatar thing connects with Haldeman's "Forever Peace" very well.

Wish Taco would avoid the snide comment about the trailer lacking story. It's not like Cameron has proven himself a poor storyteller on his past films. Just because it's CGI and science fiction, doesn't mean this is going to be garbage like Transformers 2 or Terminator 4.

Trailer reflects a lot of different Joe Haldeman books. I see pieces of "All My Sins Remembered," "Forever Peace," and a tiny bit of "Forever War." Ridley Scott's planning to film "Forever War," and he said he was inspired to do it in 3-D after seeing what Cameron had done with Avatar. The avatar thing connects with Haldeman's "Forever Peace" very well.

Wish Taco would avoid the snide comment about the trailer lacking story. It's not like Cameron has proven himself a poor storyteller on his past films. Just because it's CGI and science fiction, doesn't mean this is going to be garbage like Transformers 2 or Terminator 4.

I'm sure Scalzi realizes it's a movie. The article is on AMC, after all. Also, he's written a book about sci-fi movies that includes Episodes IV & V on a list of the most significant SF films of all time. "Ripping apart" the bad science in a science fiction film does not take away from the entertainment aspect of it. In fact, I would argue that it actually adds to the entertainment aspect (at least for those of us who don't turn our brains off when we walk into a theater). My favorite SF film of all time is "Aliens" and that's got some scientific whoppers in it as well. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but some of the logical contortions fanboi apologists are making in this thread are just pathetic.

Read Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea for an interesting introduction to the history of mathematics. Our current base 10 system is mostly cultural. There have been cultures that counted in many different numeral systems. We see some vestiges of this in our culture : a dozen eggs, 24 hour clock, 360 degree circles, etc.

Eats, shoots and leaves.
http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592400876

I think you might want to consider using some more buzzwords. If you need some help try using some Corporate Flashcards. http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Flashcards/dp/B000F0DWFK

Case in point:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DHLV8S/ref=s9_simz_gw_s8_p65_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=10Y89T4V261QMCTNJ4VJ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Oh, sure. I can make a link out of it, which works fine on a web forum, but does not fucking work on a telephone or a newletter or a postcard or...

"Yeah, Jeff. Amazon's taking preorders on Windows 7. Can you believe how much they want for that shit? No, really: Just go to double-yoo-double-you-double-you dot amazon dot com forward slash gee pee forward slash product forward slash capitol b zero zero two dee aitch ell vee eight five forward slash are eee eff equals-sign ess nine underscore ess eye emm zee underscore gw underscore ess eight underscore pee sixty-five underscore eye one questionmark pee eff underscore are dee underscore[...], and see for yourself."

Yeah. Sure. That's so much easier than saying it like "Yeah, Jeff. Amazon's taking preorders on Windows 7. Can you believe how much they want for that shit? No, really: Just go to tr.im/wHMJ and see for yourself"

(I'd write a conclusion here, but really don't think my point needs one.)

I can't believe I'm the only person who finds this to be so.

You're not.

I guess most people didn't catch the significance of Andrews University...

Two of the study's coauthours (Wendi Kannenberg, Gary L. Hopkins) are from Andrews University Institute for Prevention of Addictions. Andrews is a Christian university run by a denomination which doesn't accept evolution. I've spoken to a prof from their biology department, apparently it's a bastion of the Intelligent Design movement. (Here's a book published by Andrews University Press).

I'm not saying that proponents of intelligent design and those around them are incapable of doing serious scientific research. I'm thinking this might partially explain what feels like an anti-gamer bias.

The joys of crowdsourcing...

We need comprehensive data privacy laws...forcing companies to keep it private and delete it as soon as it is no longer needed, and laws giving us the right to delete our data from third-party sites...We need international cooperation to ensure that companies cannot flaunt data privacy laws simply by moving themselves offshore."

Read Cryptonomicon http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/product-description/0060512806 for a much deeper look into privacy issues.

Information alone means nothing without resources. Be they material or intellectual.

Funny that in the same post you say that ...

... both got their hands on some of Nazi V2 rockets and scientists.

... you acknowledge that Soviet and US were advanced by Nazi tech and scientists. It's hard to tell if you're trying to refute my point or make it.

Nazi Germany had resources. In any case, I got the idea from Tongues of conscience: War and the scientist's dilemma by Robert William Reid but I can't find my copy to give a better reference. I will summarize: The Nazis were reluctant to use a Jew's ideas (Einstein) due to their racist ideology. This hampered their attempts to produce nuclear weapons.

So, unless someone can show me that the Nazis embraced Einstein's ideas, that they made no attempt to develop nuclear bombs or that nuclear weapons wouldn't have dramatically helped the German war effort, I don't see what anybody really has to say. If I said that some other rigid philosophy like a fundamentalist religion caused people to be hampered in technological development (If men were meant to fly, ...) I wouldn't meet nearly the opposition here. The failure of the Nazi's was to a large degree caused by their ideology, in part because of ideas (and thus technology) they rejected as a result of racism. Nobody here has given me any cause to back down from that claim.

Tilings and Patterns is my favourite book. Beautifully typeset and bound with excellent illustrations it's also very interesting. And expensive. But you can't have everything.

I've only read the online version of MacKay's book. I'll have to buy a copy.

You were saying ...? This would make it even more extraordinary for Win 7 to be cheaper here, but when I look ...

* Win 7 ultimate (amazon UK), £170 = $280
* ditto (amazon US), $220 -> so only $60 / 27% more and the UK price is a "discounted" one from an RRP (recommended price) of £230

Um?

Did you miss the part in the summary and article where they are talking about the full versions of Windows 7? I know, who the heck buys the full version? But you compared the UK full version price to the US upgrade price. Here's how it should look:

* Win 7 ultimate (amazon UK), £170 = $280
* ditto (amazon US), $320

$29 is for an upgrade from Leopard. Apparently you cannot upgrade straight from Tiger, and it's unlikely to work standalone if that's your idea.

There's a straight upgrade from Tiger if you have intel machine

And it will cost $169 (the same price as previous Box Sets). A great deal, but it's not the $29 OS-only option that Leopard users get.

From Apple's OS X specs page:

• Upgrading from Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.
  If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, purchase the Mac Box Set (when available), which is a single, affordable package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard; iLife '09, with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD; and iWork '09,

Amazon.co.uk: 169.98 GBP/281.66$
Amazon.com: 319.99$/193.11GBP

Not sure if the huge price difference between Home Premium and Ultimate is worth it though.

I think I've read that book.

Carl Jung wrote a book on Flying Saucers based on possible psychological aspects of UFO sightings. Although he was skeptical of UFOs existing at all (this writer is not), I'm sure he was on to something.

What is the real thing? How can it be measured and tested? Couldn't it be used for evil, as well as good?

I just call it 'energy' but nobody I know seems entirely clear on what exactly it is. My guess is that it is simply another variation of the unstable wave forms from which atomic matter is constructed, but that doesn't really help much since the same could be said of anything. It's hard to test for in the kind of way which would establish things once and for all because our technology and scientific understanding of reality hasn't worked out how to define or measure 'energy', and so it is discounted. It also seems to be tightly linked to awareness; if you don't believe it should be there, then it tends to obey. While quantum theory allows some space for such things, more traditional approaches to science have a lot of difficulty accepting that some aspects of reality exist relative to the state of the observer. When concrete examples of such unknown forces which fall into the same category as 'energy' rise, (and they do from time to time; we've had one or two recently), they are often ignored or otherwise awkwardly received and quietly forgotten about. Our public arena scientists simply aren't wise (or free) enough yet to look at these things clearly. Until then, one must test on a person by person basis. Like scientifically proving dreams exist; it can't be done, yet it doesn't make dreams any less a part of the human experience.

Can it be used for Good as well as Evil? Well, since Good and Evil are moving targets, I'd say, "Sure". In fact, I'd suggest that flooding the environment with EM radiation is probably not far from the evil end of the spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum seems to be somewhat related to 'energy' in how it affects certain elements of reality and human awareness.

I'm also not aware of any evidence that this "EM pollution" is harmful, but at least we sort of know what it is, and can measure its effect, so I trust it a hell of a lot more than I'd trust "real" Qi, if you managed to produce any.

No? That tells me a lot about you; Like most taboo knowledge, it's not hidden, it's just not broadcast on prime-time television. You could benefit enormously from doing some rather easy research. I'd start with Robert O. Becker's book, Cross Currents. They have used copies for around five dollars. If you want to know things that the power brokers of the world don't want you to know, then you aren't going to find out by dancing for the little people who are certainly going to laugh at you. You have to put in a little effort and grow a bit of a spine.

Much luck to you!

-FL

Have you ever looked into the prices of these card processors?

Amazon payments is under 3% for purchases over $10. That's better than most credit card processing machines for retail. I'm not sure where you get "astronomical" out of that. Also what alternative do you see that are less than this?

Okay, if you want the real "skinny" on diet, you need to read (or watch the following:

Since I gave up my vegetarian pretensions and went low-carb mid-June, I've lost 46 lbs. and cured my type 2 diabetes. I can testify from personal experience: this stuff works. Do I miss bread? Sure. Do I miss my diabetes? HELL NO.

Click here to see the spreadsheet where I've been recording my weight loss. I'm never hungry, and haven't been doing more than basic exercise. It's all diet, and it's mighty hard to argue with results.

Okay, if you want the real "skinny" on diet, you need to read (or watch the following:

Since I gave up my vegetarian pretensions and went low-carb mid-June, I've lost 46 lbs. and cured my type 2 diabetes. I can testify from personal experience: this stuff works. Do I miss bread? Sure. Do I miss my diabetes? HELL NO.

Click here to see the spreadsheet where I've been recording my weight loss. I'm never hungry, and haven't been doing more than basic exercise. It's all diet, and it's mighty hard to argue with results.

Okay, if you want the real "skinny" on diet, you need to read (or watch the following:

Since I gave up my vegetarian pretensions and went low-carb mid-June, I've lost 46 lbs. and cured my type 2 diabetes. I can testify from personal experience: this stuff works. Do I miss bread? Sure. Do I miss my diabetes? HELL NO.

Click here to see the spreadsheet where I've been recording my weight loss. I'm never hungry, and haven't been doing more than basic exercise. It's all diet, and it's mighty hard to argue with results.

Okay, if you want the real "skinny" on diet, you need to read (or watch the following:

Since I gave up my vegetarian pretensions and went low-carb mid-June, I've lost 46 lbs. and cured my type 2 diabetes. I can testify from personal experience: this stuff works. Do I miss bread? Sure. Do I miss my diabetes? HELL NO.

Click here to see the spreadsheet where I've been recording my weight loss. I'm never hungry, and haven't been doing more than basic exercise. It's all diet, and it's mighty hard to argue with results.

Okay, if you want the real "skinny" on diet, you need to read (or watch the following:

Since I gave up my vegetarian pretensions and went low-carb mid-June, I've lost 46 lbs. and cured my type 2 diabetes. I can testify from personal experience: this stuff works. Do I miss bread? Sure. Do I miss my diabetes? HELL NO.

Click here to see the spreadsheet where I've been recording my weight loss. I'm never hungry, and haven't been doing more than basic exercise. It's all diet, and it's mighty hard to argue with results.

Okay, if you want the real "skinny" on diet, you need to read (or watch the following:

Since I gave up my vegetarian pretensions and went low-carb mid-June, I've lost 46 lbs. and cured my type 2 diabetes. I can testify from personal experience: this stuff works. Do I miss bread? Sure. Do I miss my diabetes? HELL NO.

Click here to see the spreadsheet where I've been recording my weight loss. I'm never hungry, and haven't been doing more than basic exercise. It's all diet, and it's mighty hard to argue with results.

You left off several "citation needed" items in that statement, right out of a paragraph labeled "Controversy". One might argue that should be the default state of a human.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis#Controversy

I can't say one way or the other on it, but I'm in the middle of Gary Taubes book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It isn't as much a diet book as a study on the science of diet. It has been an interesting read, and very disappointing in terms of the junk science and politics involved. I intend to spot check resources when I'm done to verify some of his claims, but feel free to weigh in.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Gary-Taubes/dp/1400040787
http://a.abcnews.com/GMA/NewYearNewYou/story?id=3654291&page=1

I would assume he's pretty anal about his personal security; political wingnuts usually are.

That's part of what makes this man so dangerous. He's such a fringe character with such extremist views, he doesn't have anywhere else to go politically. He probably doesn't even want to advance that way. He is in a position where he can surround himself with extremely loyal yes-men and function with little oversight.

It's typical small-town-sheriff garbage, except for this guy has amassed a lot more power than the typical southern headcase. If he ever does retire he'll probably write some kind of self-serving fluff piece, blaming his sadism on Mexicans and pot heads and justifying it in any under-handed manner his ghost writer can dream up. Oh, wait! He already did. http://www.amazon.com/Joes-Law-Immigration-Everything-Threatens/dp/0814401996/

I've totaled up at least $20million in settlements the county's had to pay out.

But... but... according to the laudatory blurb for Sheriff Joe's book Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else That Threatens America , the taxpayers are saving money: "By eliminating all comforts for his inmates, he has managed to shave $500,000 annually from the cost of keeping prisoners."

I mean... I mean... what's a few million a year in net expense due to lawsuits, compared with the vicarious thrill of humiliating them... the lawless tide of miscreants who defy society's mandates by excessive speeding, possessing marijuana, having the poor judgment to get arrested without the withal to make bail, etc., etc. For this small investment, Maricopa County enjoys the best Security Theater in the known world, with 5 publicists to assist the indomitable Sheriff Joe in his crusade against "Everything That Threatens America"!

And where will sociopaths in Maricopa County find legal, fulfilling employment if they can't get a job with the Sheriff's Department? Did you think about that? Huh?

The crux is that you really can't teach programming. A good programmer has an intuitive feel for how to solve a problem. You can't get that from lectures and books.

You can kinda sorta, but you're still missing something. You have to choose your books carefully.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Style-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0070342075
http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Computer-Programming-Silver-Anniversary/dp/0932633420
http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959

programming is a lot like art

Very much so. Those with a passion for it always rise to the top. (I know I'm quoting you out of context, you were right before you added in all the weasel language).

in the end, practice is the only way to get anywhere.

Exactly. But isn't that true with anything worthwhile?

What you're missing is that writing new code is only a tiny facet of being a Real Programmer. Requoting:

A good programmer has an intuitive feel for how to solve a problem.

I add: and can get an intuitive feel for how a body of code does (or needs to) work.

Unless you're just a hit & run coder, you'll spend the majority of your career doing software maintenance or be dealing with some different aspect of the software life cycle. Developing the ability to fix issues in software that you haven't written, quickly, is the ticket for always having people willing to pay you for doing what you want to do in the first place.

The crux is that you really can't teach programming. A good programmer has an intuitive feel for how to solve a problem. You can't get that from lectures and books.

You can kinda sorta, but you're still missing something. You have to choose your books carefully.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Style-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0070342075
http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Computer-Programming-Silver-Anniversary/dp/0932633420
http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959

programming is a lot like art

Very much so. Those with a passion for it always rise to the top. (I know I'm quoting you out of context, you were right before you added in all the weasel language).

in the end, practice is the only way to get anywhere.

Exactly. But isn't that true with anything worthwhile?

What you're missing is that writing new code is only a tiny facet of being a Real Programmer. Requoting:

A good programmer has an intuitive feel for how to solve a problem.

I add: and can get an intuitive feel for how a body of code does (or needs to) work.

Unless you're just a hit & run coder, you'll spend the majority of your career doing software maintenance or be dealing with some different aspect of the software life cycle. Developing the ability to fix issues in software that you haven't written, quickly, is the ticket for always having people willing to pay you for doing what you want to do in the first place.

The crux is that you really can't teach programming. A good programmer has an intuitive feel for how to solve a problem. You can't get that from lectures and books.

You can kinda sorta, but you're still missing something. You have to choose your books carefully.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Style-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0070342075
http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Computer-Programming-Silver-Anniversary/dp/0932633420
http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959

programming is a lot like art

Very much so. Those with a passion for it always rise to the top. (I know I'm quoting you out of context, you were right before you added in all the weasel language).

in the end, practice is the only way to get anywhere.

Exactly. But isn't that true with anything worthwhile?

What you're missing is that writing new code is only a tiny facet of being a Real Programmer. Requoting:

A good programmer has an intuitive feel for how to solve a problem.

I add: and can get an intuitive feel for how a body of code does (or needs to) work.

Unless you're just a hit & run coder, you'll spend the majority of your career doing software maintenance or be dealing with some different aspect of the software life cycle. Developing the ability to fix issues in software that you haven't written, quickly, is the ticket for always having people willing to pay you for doing what you want to do in the first place.

frankly, I doubt it fulfills its supposed purpose at any length.

Your post is a perfect example of what happens when someone bases their entire opinion on anecdotal evidence and things that they believe to be true, without bothering to actually verify them. If you look around you will see very many cases of work being created because of the profit incentive, which is possible because of copyright. Go to Barns & Nobles sometimes and count the number of books that you think wouldn't have been written if it weren't for the profit motive. There are a lot of them. And some of them are actually quite good.

I will give as an example, Born to Run. It is an excellent book and the best book about running I have ever read (although frankly, the quality of a book is quite often a subjective matter). In the back, the author states quite clearly that wouldn't have been able to write it without support (financial and otherwise) from Men's Health magazine. There are many more examples. Do research before forming your opinions, it will make you sound a lot smarter.

Beggars in Spain is an interesting sci-fi trilogy that begins with an exploration of what life would be like if you didn't need to sleep.

For starters, it's a LOT cheaper to mine, refine, and launch material for space-based industry on the Moon than on the Earth.

You are missing a smiley here :-) It is definitely cheaper to launch stuff from the Moon if you have a cat-a-pult already. But where do you see metal ores on the Moon? Some refining processes require amazing quantities of energy, water, oxygen and other very specific ingredients that I'd be amazed if they just sit on the surface. And how do you "spiral out" a construction of a steel mill that weighs a few million tons and measures power in gigawatts? It can't be built without all the supporting industries being already in place.

Mining on Earth is already dangerous and difficult even though we don't need to do it in spacesuits. On the Moon the vacuum will be a major killer because an accident that on Earth leaves you with a minor wound will puncture your spacesuit and you'll be dead as a mummy before anyone can pull you to safety. There are all kinds of costs and dangers associated with Moon mining and refining, and it is absurd to suggest that they can be done there cheaper than on Earth (unless we terraform Moon or Earth.)

All the talk about cybernetic mining machines is just talk until I see a herd of them here, on Earth, mining something useful (like Uranium ore) completely autonomously and with minimum maintenance. If you need a spare part it will cost $50 million per delivery. Let's see how that helps to make Moon mining cheaper.

In my personal opinion, humankind will not get anywhere until a new propulsion method is discovered. Chemical rockets barely can lift a handful of people onto LEO. Nuclear rockets using something like water as reaction mass may be usable, but water is precious in space. Physics research does not go any faster if a Moon colony is set up (unless you expect to find some ET cache of knowledge.) NASA funding would be better spent on basic science, and whatever remains can be used to send cheap but resilient robots to neighboring planets. This is similar to space travel - a ship sent 100 years later will overtake the ship sent earlier earlier because it will move faster due to advances in propulsion methods.

Sure you can.
http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B0026RHR6K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250253207&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B001993Y2C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250253207&sr=1-2

Sure you can.
http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B0026RHR6K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250253207&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B001993Y2C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250253207&sr=1-2

Perhaps innovator would be a better term. No doubt, I am sure that folks were making hollow acoustic guitars with electric pickups before the solid-body electric guitar. Some sources do claim that Les Paul did, in fact, invent the solid-body electric guitar some time between 1939 and 1941. A story on NPR claims it was a collaboration between Les Paul, Paul Bigsby, and Leo Fender. According to some other sources I found via google. It seems that until Les Paul sawed his spanish-style hollow guitar in two and glued the front and back pieces together to create a solid-body, many musicians would stuff socks or towels into the cavity of the guitar to muffle the feedback loop created on the electric guitar of that time. I suppose, I am going to have to pick up a copy of this book, referenced in that article, and find out the whole story.

The grandparent's point remains that the solid-body electric guitar has brought us a great deal of enjoyable and creative music over the years, such as this. The grandparent poster was not contending what type of guitar Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock, or that Fender produced and sold the first mass-marketed solid-body guitar. Les Paul was certainly an early innovator, and had a hand in making the modern guitar what it is, even if it was a small part. That, however, is the difference between invention and innovation, small increments and changes in a design can have a large impact on the way something works.

By some measures, the U.S. government is the most corrupt in the world. For example, this Rolling Stone article about the extreme financial corruption in the U.S.: The Great American Bubble Machine. (The full article is in the paper edition, available at any library.)

The U.S. government spends more money on surveillance and war than any country in the history of the world. That taxpayer money partly helps those who want corruption to profit, and hurts U.S. taxpayers, and the entire world. For just one example, see the book, House of Bush, House of Saud.

The U.S. government has invaded or bombed 25 countries since the 2nd world war. Most or all of the interference was for profit. Quote: '... although nearly all the post-World War II interventions were carried out in the name of "freedom" and "democracy," nearly all of them in fact defended dictatorships controlled by pro-U.S. elites'. The dictators pay the corrupters. In Iraq, those who control the U.S. government want control over the oil, and don't care how many people they kill. In Afghanistan, the corrupters want to build an oil pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to a port where the oil can be delivered.

The U.S. government has a higher percentage of its people in prison than any country ever in the history of the world, over 6 times higher than in Europe, for example. Wikipedia quote: Approximately one in every 18 men in the United States is behind bars or being monitored.

U.S. citizens don't want to believe that their government is as corrupt as it is, even though the recent financial corruption has made many of them poor.

"I have never seen open textbooks work in a subject area that requires frequent updates, such as fundamental computer concepts, or modern application software (office suites...)."

Hopefully this will change. I've contributed a lot of my learning materials for OpenOffice.org to the Documentation Project (documentation.openoffice.org/conceptualguide) under an open license, including an eBook version of my paperback title (ISBN 978-0-9778991-6-6), Moodle Course Package complete with quizzes, exams, test bank, exercises, etc. and supplementary materials. With the limited financial and human resources I have to work with, I would say that it has been successful in providing schools the materials they need to consider alternative, open source applications for instructional use.

Best regards,

Gabriel Gurley

Contributor, OpenOffice.org Documentation and Education Projects

They've been losing a lot of popularity for a reason.....

Bestsellers in Video Games

3 Madden NFL 10 XBox
4 Madden NFL 10 PS3
16 EA Sports Active Wii
18 The Sims 3 Windows
58 Madden NFL 10 Wii
60 Dragon Age Origins XBox
64 NCAA Football 10 XBox
68 Madden NFL 10 PS2
70 Beatles Rock Band XBox

The Amazon list ranks bestsellers in hardware and software. With the exception of The Sims, all titles are pre-orders.

It should be obvious at a glance that fans of Madden and the Sims are loyal.
 

My mum just left a copy of the book Where Did I Come From? on the bottom shelf in the living room. I used to love that book (and the sequel "What's Happening to Me", about puberty) when I was a little kid - the pictures are adorable and it's pitched at a good level.