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reading http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961392142/sr=8-1 /qid=1141783044/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2339143-6068702?_ encoding=UTF8
would be a good place to start

I learned asm as my first language. It's better because you are immediately learning the way a computer works internally. Ask any C programmer if it helps to understand how a computer works. Assembly Language Step By Step: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471 578142?v=glance

Also recommended

I agree completely with your assessment.

However, instead of a basic variant, how about scheme?

Especially the combination of PLT Scheme
http://www.plt-scheme.org/
which provides a nice interactive environment,
with the book "The Little Schemer"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262560992/ref=cm _bg_f_2/103-9731106-9419851

The repl can provide you with instant feedback,
you can save code to files and re-run them,
and you can learn about recursive programming!

(display (format "hello world!~%"))

What makes it great for the beginner is that there
are no arbitrary syntax rules to follow, you don't
have to remember the precedence order to decode a***b.

All that will happen is that it will steal a bunch of your farming equipment and run away.

It sounds like you should take a course in Project Management, and get a handle on how people handle budgeting and resource issues for projects, large and small.

Microsoft's Project can do this, but it isn't going to help much if you don't know anything about the project management models. You can even get a PM Certification now, which is in demand these days. While Project is helpful, there still aren't publicly available estimators for IT/IS projects: it's still easier to estimate how much building a skyscraper will cost (cost per square foot) than implementing MS Exchange in terms of cost per client.

In our IS projects, we think in terms of cost per function point, interface, and sync item.

MS Project can export in and out of MS Excel, of course. There are even third-party add-ons for MS Project.

Typical MBA textbook on Project Management:
Grey & Larson

Actually, Java and C# have nearly identical syntax. I would suggest learning Object-Oriented to start, and concentrating on what OO is, rather than all the power of a specific language. OO is definitely the future, but many people who transition from procedural or don't learn the power of objects from the beginning just use Java or C# as procedural languages.

I have found that in programming, taking a class will cut down on the time spent banging your head against the wall because there's someone to answer your questions, even if they're stupid newbie questions. Programming teachers are usually far more responsive than other teachers (systems analysis, database, e.g.) because it's more practical.

If you're just learning how to program, I wouldn't worry about pointers immediately. Visual Basic is powerful in that you can write applications quickly and learn really fast.

Visual Basic: Schneider

Java: Barker

C#: Barker

Whatever your choice, there are free IDE's for all this now from Sun and Microsoft, and part of learning will be learning how to navigate the IDE. It's a great time to learn to program.

Where I live, people can't find enough VB or C# programmers, and not enough Java programmers with a security clearance. Before you buy the hype of the next great programming language, check out the want ads on Monster or Dice and see what people need now.

And remember, the highest-paid programmers (not team leaders)still write COBOL for Mainframes, because nobody else knows how to do this, and the big companies still can't get all their systems off of them.

Actually, Java and C# have nearly identical syntax. I would suggest learning Object-Oriented to start, and concentrating on what OO is, rather than all the power of a specific language. OO is definitely the future, but many people who transition from procedural or don't learn the power of objects from the beginning just use Java or C# as procedural languages.

I have found that in programming, taking a class will cut down on the time spent banging your head against the wall because there's someone to answer your questions, even if they're stupid newbie questions. Programming teachers are usually far more responsive than other teachers (systems analysis, database, e.g.) because it's more practical.

If you're just learning how to program, I wouldn't worry about pointers immediately. Visual Basic is powerful in that you can write applications quickly and learn really fast.

Visual Basic: Schneider

Java: Barker

C#: Barker

Whatever your choice, there are free IDE's for all this now from Sun and Microsoft, and part of learning will be learning how to navigate the IDE. It's a great time to learn to program.

Where I live, people can't find enough VB or C# programmers, and not enough Java programmers with a security clearance. Before you buy the hype of the next great programming language, check out the want ads on Monster or Dice and see what people need now.

And remember, the highest-paid programmers (not team leaders)still write COBOL for Mainframes, because nobody else knows how to do this, and the big companies still can't get all their systems off of them.

Actually, Java and C# have nearly identical syntax. I would suggest learning Object-Oriented to start, and concentrating on what OO is, rather than all the power of a specific language. OO is definitely the future, but many people who transition from procedural or don't learn the power of objects from the beginning just use Java or C# as procedural languages.

I have found that in programming, taking a class will cut down on the time spent banging your head against the wall because there's someone to answer your questions, even if they're stupid newbie questions. Programming teachers are usually far more responsive than other teachers (systems analysis, database, e.g.) because it's more practical.

If you're just learning how to program, I wouldn't worry about pointers immediately. Visual Basic is powerful in that you can write applications quickly and learn really fast.

Visual Basic: Schneider

Java: Barker

C#: Barker

Whatever your choice, there are free IDE's for all this now from Sun and Microsoft, and part of learning will be learning how to navigate the IDE. It's a great time to learn to program.

Where I live, people can't find enough VB or C# programmers, and not enough Java programmers with a security clearance. Before you buy the hype of the next great programming language, check out the want ads on Monster or Dice and see what people need now.

And remember, the highest-paid programmers (not team leaders)still write COBOL for Mainframes, because nobody else knows how to do this, and the big companies still can't get all their systems off of them.

...for a superintelligent white mouse? I want to be able to create my own three-dimensional sculpture with a living element before those things go out of style.

Sounds like these guys need to watch Fear of a Black Hat

Perhaps this is slightly off topic, but Stephen Baxter's novel, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061057088/Voyage , deals with such debate in a very compelling story. It's an interesting, very well researched read that makes you ask questions about NASA's priorities in recent decades. After I finished, I kind of realized, that real science, smart un-manned missions and baby steps towards long term goals are better than flags and footprints.

Thats because you probably have not looked.

For example, you could see how NASA research can benefit you if you are handicapped or as you grow older by reading Robert Heinlein's non-fiction essay "Spinoff", based on his testimony before comittee in Congress. Its found in the collection _Expanded Universe_.

You can read some of it via Amazon.com here.

It starts about page 501.

However, I realised that they're not just cancelling missions that are trying to learn more generally, they're cancelling missions that have immediate and obvious benefits: weather monitoring to try and help avoid natural disasters, studying global warming and suchlike.

The Administration has been saying that they had no warning about Katrina. Why that isn't true, by golly, they'll make sure it is this season!

Also, global warming is a myth. A scifi author told Bush so. See the Administration has been saying that 9/11 was completely unimaginable, but then they read these cool shoot 'em up novels by Tom Clancy. After finishing Sum of all Fears, or perhaps even reading page 1 of Executive Orders, they found an attack suspicously similar to 9/11! So they've obviously learned their lesson and decided to read more books without pictures.

I guess he should have said Peter Iron's A Peoples History of the A People's History of the Supreme Court

Oh, Toronto is a hot spot. The PanChinese lands an asteriod on the city in Scardown by Elizabeth Bear.

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It is presumably a reference to the book, "Who Moved My Cheese?"

It is a motivational book about dealing with change, and is frequently used by managers. It's been around for a while, so it's not the next big thing.

Paul Davies published a book on this a couple of years ago. He believes that Earth may well have been seeded with life from Mars, and we are the last surviving Martians. He's got a reasonable amount of data to support it, too.

Usually it is just the sign of the management style of your manager. The recommendations I could make is to first have an upto date resume. Second, every time you send recommendations and analysis to your manager, do it via email. Third, every time your manager talks to you, send him or her an email with a synopsis of what was discussed and thanking them for their time. Fourth, ask yourself if it is worth it. Finally, read Winning, every person who works in a corporate enterprize needs to read this.

Oral cultures tend to have far better memory in relation to this kind of thing than non-oral cultures (such as ours today) have.

I don't think that this is a very useful argument; you could ask twenty people to tell you the story of Cinderella and they would give you stories that were fairly consistent because Cinderella is part of our tradition, and is a story that has been shaped into one that is easy to pass on. If you were to ask those same people to explain how and why we invaded Iraq, I suspect you'd get twenty different and inconsistent stories.

Your comments on the JFK assassination don't help your case -- it's a well-known fact that eye-witness accounts are notoriously unreliable.

There are a number of scholarly works that look at the Gospels as historical documents (e.g. Robin Lane Fox's The Unauthorized Version being one). You should have a read of one, as they treat these issues in much more detail than is relevant to a Slashdt comment.

That book sucked.

Poster refers to the biblically reported dimensions of the ceremonial basin which sat in front of the first Temple (I'm way too lazy to look up the chapter and verse right now, it's in Beckmann).

Anyways, the bible says that the basin was 10 hands across, and thirty hands around. This is a contradiction, unless you consider that the rim would have to be a certain thickness, thus, rabinnical scholars conclude that thirty hands is the circumference of the inside of the basin, while 10 hands is the width measuring from the outside rim of the basin.

Such heroic scholarship is sometimes required to truly appreciate the bible.

No, it doesn't speak well for the state of our nation that those who are concerned about governments and corporations extended their ability to pry into as well as control our lives are brushed aside as tin-foil hat wearing kooks or terrorist sympathisers (regardless of how moderate and rational they may be) while born-again Christians are taken seriously by the Powers-that-Be.

But in this case, it may be a good thing for both camps. Fear of "The Mark of the Beast" is a big thing to the born again Christian. And it may end up being what keeps America from adopting such things as madatory RFID implants or national ID cards. I'm not even sure such things (at least the latter) wouldn't have been part of the Patriot Act if the fundies didn't have that fear.

By the way, if you want to see a classic 70's "End Times" movie, check out: (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888568003/103-8 720932-4993469?v=glance&n=404272)

Ed Wood quality... And I guarantee you will have nightmares.

It seems like every generation comes up with a sign for the mark. Here is my brief history of the mark of the beast. Feel free to add yours.

Social Security Numbers
Punchcards (They used to be included with your utility bills)
Drivers License Numbers
Credit Card Numbers
Bar Codes
IP Addressess
Bill Gates full name converted to ASCII and summed.
CPU IDs
and now.... RFID (Which is really just a modern bar code.)

I think the "mark of the beast" might be figurative language in the book of Revelation, but talking about apocalytic literature can be like running the Boston marathon is quicksand. It is amazing how a 10 page book of the Bible could be expanded into a 2000+ page box set and miniseries. Maybe 666 is just a number that represents imperfection three times over.... What? I pity the fool that says the mark of the beast isn't a literal number stamped on the forehead... Ow, don't hurt me Mr. T....

The vector is different, but the mechanism is the same. Multicellular life fighting an endless arms race against parasites.

Anyone remotely interested in this discussion who has not yet read Matt Ridley's The Red Queen should try to grab a copy from their library.

More info on the Red Queen Hypothesis at wikipedia.

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Apple screwed the pooch on the iPod Hi-Fi. Sure, it looks all sleek and such, but it's priced WAY too high. $349 will get you a "home theater in a box" that will sound quite a bit better and give you a ton more flexibility, not to mention the ever-elusive AM/FM radio (not that people listen to it anyway).

Just as people who dissed the iPod mini not realizing that it was going after the flash player market, you miss the market Apple is going after with the iPod HiFi - the people that are buying other things just like it, such as the Altc Lansing iPod stereo.

The thing is, most of these devices don't really sound that great. If you just want a simple stereo for a room and not a whole audio system in a box, the iPod stereo is a device that will probably sound pretty good and work well for a customer that wants a little higher level of playback quality.

That said, I probably would not buy one as I'd either buy an Airport Express for a room or use headphones everywhere else. But it doesn't mean it's not a good product that will sell well.

It's my belief that if Apple TRULY wanted market share, they'd follow Microsoft's lead on the Xbox and sell it at a loss but then make it up in other ways. If they sold the Mac Mini for $299 or even $349, they'd sell millions overnight, still make money on dot-Mac, iWork, keyboards, iTunes songs, iPods, etc. And they'd get a hugely larger share of the market.

Isn't it better to capture 80-90% percent of the market while ALSO making a ton of money instead of a loss?

I mean if market share ever started to become even a small concern of Apple they could possibly follow your instructions, but honestly with people beating a path to thier door to buy them at current prices they would have to be insane to take a loss to grab market share they already own.

You must have played a really bad game of Lemonaide STand when you were a kid. "Sure the lemos and sugar cost $0.10 a glass, but I'll sell them for $0.05 on this 90 degree summer day and make it up in volume!"

I think the man should be impeached for all his lies, but at least on this issue, I agree with him. Globalization is a reality. Adapt or get left behind. Read Tom Friedman's book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374292884/qid=11 41416047/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-0508254-23673 29?s=books&v=glance&n=283155The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

They bought four "synfuel" plants in Oct 2001 for $46 million in cash. The next year, those plants generated $159 million in tax credits. So instead of paying an annual income tax of around 36.1%, like they did in 2001, they only paid 6.8% in 2002, "due primarily to the impact of our synthetic-fuel business."

Not bad for "a few pole barns and conveyor belts where coal was sprayed...with small amounts of diesel oil, pine tar resin, and other substances."

After making $370 million in five years, I'd be ready to bail out too. That's just over 800% ROI. Buy low, sell high!

Can you, or someone else, please explain with examples why you have such a negative feeling towards amazon? I haven't really been paying attention to their business practices, but then again I haven't looked up much info on them either.

I know personally that I have never been spammed by them. I have actually never had any qualms with them. I find that they offer much better prices for textbooks than college bookstores and the company has saved me hundreds of dollars that way. Free shipping is nice too.

btw... Borders, one of your less evil companies, is also teamed up with amazon.

You'd think that as soon as the judge permitted the dissolution of the relationship, all mentions of Toys 'R' Us would be gone. But the Toys 'R' section of Amazon's site is oddly still up at this hour.

It seems to me that the only disadvantage with DC has to do with interconnecting it with the existing AC grid. From this wikipedia entry and from reading the book Infrastucture by Brian Haynes, which states "some of the longest, highest capacity power tranmissions lines carry direct current", I get that it is very efficient. It even makes our AC power more stable by linking electricity producing AC grids that aren't in sync. Other advantages are: resistive losses are lower for a given conductor size, and only two wires are need instead of three, thus reducing the materials needed (such as less wire, fewer insulators, and smaller towers) on long runs.

So why do you say that it isn't any good for long distance power distribution?

Do you mean the Terk Technology AM-1000 Advantage Passive AM Indoor Antenna? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000069EUW/ Crutchfield is the store actually selling it.

And for those who are going to say "silly, AM isn't hi-fi," just listen to a GE Super Radio or Tivoli sometime.

Also worth including on that list is the cc radio. I've had very good luck with mine, going on about 4 years now. The digital tuning is a godsend and I can pick up distant (aka our local) TV audio quite clearly, even thought the video is unwatchable on a regular TV antenna.

I didn't know about the SuperRadio before but I'll go check one at at Radio Shack (hopefully they still have radios on display behind the cell phones and batteries).

Also, a good AM Antenna makes a world of distance. I used to have this passive AM antenna that was advertised as designed for folks in Alaska to pull in stateside AM. It really helped pull in a signal, but I haven't been able to find a replacement since it was stolen at college. It was about a foot round with a big dial on the face. Anybody know what they are?

However, I wouldn't characterize what I thrive on as stress, but focus and structure. Nothing makes me happier in the morning than knowing that I can go to work and focus intensely on something all day long, and go home with a sense of accomplishment that I finished it on time.

I would recommend reading Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. You seem to "get it" already, so I think it might be very interesting to you. I promise it's not new agey or anything. I just think it will click with you in a lot of ways.

What the heck you are smoking?
http://www.proactionmedia.com/dvd_replication.htm
http://www.newcyberian.com/dvd9rom.html
These are what small guys get when we ask a replication service which has to make profit
to make these for us. So thats the price for media. Not costs, since big guys have their own printing shops that a lot cheaper than these.

Here:s example of a 5 disc set...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AM6OQC/
Manufacturing cost with all the stuff 5$
DO you pay for media or content here?
The prize for amazon probably is half of the list price.
So basicly it goes about this, media 5$ the content 20$ rest goes to amazon.
Then with OLD content the price is probably 5$ media 10$ content rest goes amazon.

In a week which shall be recorded in Wikipedia infamy (and then vandalized and redirected to clitoris), the oft persecuted and never defeated internet missionaries of the Gay Nigger Association of America struck yet another powerful and telling blow against the powerful forces of bigotry and racism. Most notably, the growing zionist community on renowned internet pissing yard wikipedia.org.

And the records have indeed tumbled, with an unheard of third successful survival from the digital shitheap that is "Votes For Deletion". Coming in spite a heinous act of self promotion and cyber terrorism by Pat Gunn/Improv (formerly known as Aharon Meshenstein prior to his infiltration of the United States), who listed and inspired mob vandalism upon the GNAA's entry.

Fresh from his promotion of Wikipedia's $50,000 fundraiser for arms and supplies to the Jewish state of Israel, Improv launched a series of unprovoked and slanderous attacks against the well loved organisations leadership, all the while using foul and unholy necromancies to enlist the dead themselves to vote the entries deletion. Names such as "Wolfman" and "Demonslave" only adding to the damning list of evidence linking Mr Gunn to the occult.

Though Improv's actions gained him a small majority, a shock last minute intervention from Pope John Paul II spared the pages untimely fate, although as yet unconfirmed reports have indicated that several hundred 8-year old negro children were driven to the Basilica to secure the pontiffs support. Others point towards the black curse cast upon the deletion campaign by the support of infamous Brawl Hall mouthpiece "Yoyo" as the main driving force behind the salvation of the aforementioned entry.

But the details are likely to cause few sleepless nights among the group, only one of whom was willing to speak to the press. Namely GNAA Wikipedia contributor Popeye, who interrupted his drawing of pornography to give a brief dismissal the controversy: "Even with Improv's shady dealings, the sheer size and girth of a swollen GNAA phallus enables it both an identity and a vote of it's own. Making such discussion moot".

About Wikipedia:

Wikipedia, a content-free encyclopedia in many languages, started life in January 2001 and has already risen to the status of the internets premiere "trollpedia".

Currently Wikipedia contains 363950 articles, 10032 of which are genuine, and 343 of them factually accurate. Leaving Wikipedia on an academic par with "Star Wars: Incredible Cross-sections: The Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Vehicles and Spacecraft" and "My First Book of Animals from A to Z".

About GNAA:

GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly

In a week which shall be recorded in Wikipedia infamy (and then vandalized and redirected to clitoris), the oft persecuted and never defeated internet missionaries of the Gay Nigger Association of America struck yet another powerful and telling blow against the powerful forces of bigotry and racism. Most notably, the growing zionist community on renowned internet pissing yard wikipedia.org.

And the records have indeed tumbled, with an unheard of third successful survival from the digital shitheap that is "Votes For Deletion". Coming in spite a heinous act of self promotion and cyber terrorism by Pat Gunn/Improv (formerly known as Aharon Meshenstein prior to his infiltration of the United States), who listed and inspired mob vandalism upon the GNAA's entry.

Fresh from his promotion of Wikipedia's $50,000 fundraiser for arms and supplies to the Jewish state of Israel, Improv launched a series of unprovoked and slanderous attacks against the well loved organisations leadership, all the while using foul and unholy necromancies to enlist the dead themselves to vote the entries deletion. Names such as "Wolfman" and "Demonslave" only adding to the damning list of evidence linking Mr Gunn to the occult.

Though Improv's actions gained him a small majority, a shock last minute intervention from Pope John Paul II spared the pages untimely fate, although as yet unconfirmed reports have indicated that several hundred 8-year old negro children were driven to the Basilica to secure the pontiffs support. Others point towards the black curse cast upon the deletion campaign by the support of infamous Brawl Hall mouthpiece "Yoyo" as the main driving force behind the salvation of the aforementioned entry.

But the details are likely to cause few sleepless nights among the group, only one of whom was willing to speak to the press. Namely GNAA Wikipedia contributor Popeye, who interrupted his drawing of pornography to give a brief dismissal the controversy: "Even with Improv's shady dealings, the sheer size and girth of a swollen GNAA phallus enables it both an identity and a vote of it's own. Making such discussion moot".

About Wikipedia:

Wikipedia, a content-free encyclopedia in many languages, started life in January 2001 and has already risen to the status of the internets premiere "trollpedia".

Currently Wikipedia contains 363950 articles, 10032 of which are genuine, and 343 of them factually accurate. Leaving Wikipedia on an academic par with "Star Wars: Incredible Cross-sections: The Ultimate Guide to Star Wars Vehicles and Spacecraft" and "My First Book of Animals from A to Z".

About GNAA:

GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the first organization which gathers GAY NIGGERS from all over America and abroad for one common goal - being GAY NIGGERS.

Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly

... write an atricle riding on the open source buzz.
Step 2: Get free publicity for consultancy
Step 3: Profit!

It's nothing to do with learning from open source management techniques, it's about employing solid engineering principles. Stating that having good documentation will help a project? Anyone (with a brain) think otherwise?

"Yet it is rare to find a corporate environment where the project team has anything approaching the level of planning, documentation, or review found in successful open source projects."

This certainly doesn't match my experience of corporate projects, but then I may have just been fortunate.

One might equally say "yet it's rare to find an open source project where the project team has anything approaching the level of planning, documentation, or review found in a successful corporate project".

I don't think it's anything to do with whether a project is open source or not .. there are good and bad projects in both the open source arena and the corporate arena. The problem isn't learning from one or the other, it's actually applying the processes and management techniques which are well know, well proved, have been around forever but aren't always employed.

As someone pointed out, Mythical Man Month is a great place to start. I'll take that over 5 pages or general conjecture from any day.

A chap wrote a book called The Mythical Man Month which talked about lots of lessons that IT project managers and others could learn about the successfull delivery of IT systems. Including a very developer focused methodology called "The surgical Team".

Oddly nothing in the article is actually stuff that businesses that do IT well could learn from Open Source, as Open Source has learnt it from people who do IT well. The worst bit is that 30 years on people are still putting forward the bleeding obvious of project management as being "best practice" and most (including this article) don't come close to a book written in the 70s, written by a chap who worked at that ultimate of old school organisations, IBM.

If anyone is working in IT and hasn't read the Mythical Man Month, then you should especially the special edition I linked to, best book in IT ever by a mile.

Good project managers can teach other projects managers lots about running programmes, no matter whether in closed or open source, product or end-user applications. Trouble is too many people go into project management because they don't have the talent elsewhere, that is like having the quarterback as the weakest member of an American Football team.

Not by much, though. Ray Kurzweil makes a good case that the price-performance of computers has been doubling in just over a year, and that the rate of change itself is increasing. So, if simulating glial cells require 100 times the computing power of simulating only neurons, then it should be possible in less than seven years after the first neural simulator would be possible.

Although I don't have a mathematical proof that says it's impossible to have this perfect "god-like" intelligence, I strongly suspect that it is mathematically provable.

While I think you're probably right on that point, I also think that's a straw man. If we're capable of building a computer with 1,000 times the human-style intelligence of a biological person, then sure that would be of interest - even if it weren't actually infinitely smarter than we are. Singularity advocates contend that we only need to build a computer smarter than the best computer designers, and then step back to let the positive feedback loop take care of the rest. I truly believe this will happen in my lifetime, and probably before I turn 50.

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More unfortunately, Adaptive Path, the coiners of the original term/acronym also do not.

Unless I'm missing something...

A DS that doesn't have the construction charactaristics of a device made for 4 year olds.

Now I'll actually buy one.

No, really, I think I'm onto something. I actually don't see what the debate is. Here's how I have reconciled these things for myself, and I try to tell as many people as I can these ideas, to see what they think. I have been honing these arguments for some time, and if I were to die tomorrow, these are the ideas I would like to leave behind.

1) Creation, evolution, origin
Sen. Buttars is offended by the idea that we are "descendants of a 'lesser' life form". Granted, it doesn't appeal to our "On High" sensibilities, does it? But I also find offensive the idea that God clumsily used physical hands (!) to shape Adam and Eve and the rest of the lifeforms on Earth. I think it is a MUCH more beautiful idea, that God created the physical laws of the Universe that allow (nay, encourage) life to eventually exist in its present form. And that God then took a day off, and let things run their course, which might include effects that look a lot like evolution. So they are in fact not incompatible, when looked at in a certain light, unless you believe in spontaneous creation, which I touch on below.

2) Fear of the "Homosexual Agenda" Ruining the Reproductive Capacity of our Children
Wow, what a sticky issue.
I will first shoot down the "it's unnatural" argument. First, I will refer you to the book Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl, which has a pretty solid bank of evidence that most of the species on this planet not only engage in behavior that looks quite homosexual (previously sometimes categorized as "dominance" behavior, etc.), it's a fixed percentage of the population per species, and it never seems to go over 50%. Varies from 2% to 50% or something. This book so effectively shoots down this argument that I'm sure it has been categorized as homosexual propaganda in certain circles. The best part for me was the "devastating examination in chapter 3 of bigotry in the biological sciences in over two hundred years of observations of animal homosexuality" (quote from review). So anyway, then one has to ask, how can this be? How can a behavioral trait that results in no offspring get passed down genetically? Well, the answers from Genome by Matt Ridley seem to suggest, it isn't (that book is incredibly awesome, by the way- VERY RECOMMENDED geek read!). The evidence seems to suggest overall that homosexuality (in a game theory sense) is a "biological cost" side-effect of making the HETEROSEXUAL opposite sexes more attractive to each other. So the net overall effect is that more, and more diverse, children are produced, than if the sexual dimorphism process was not as effective (and creating homosexual children as a side-effect).

Now I will shoot down the "it's disgusting" argument. Let's go back to a time, 1st grade. I started to like girls (without asking why). Yet if someone had told me about heterosexual sex, I guarantee my reaction would have been "I put what where? GROSS!!!! It's stinky down there!" * And, it is ;) But fast-forward a few years, and suddenly all that stuff starts to seem appealing, and I started dreaming about the things that earlier I thought were disgusting. I didn't ask for the dreams, or the inclination- it was just there. And so this is how I think of homosexuality. No gay person decides to be gay- not subconsciously, anyway. Who wants all that extra aggravation in life? Nevertheless they're just drawn to it, as surely as I'm drawn to women, and perhaps just as powerfully. If it is gross to you, it's only because you've been biologically conditioned to think heterosexual sex is not gross. Which, when you really think about it and take away your horniness for a sec, it kinda still is. The best kind, anyway ;)

Lastly, I have a partial answer for "the Bible says it's wrong" argument. Refer to

No, really, I think I'm onto something. I actually don't see what the debate is. Here's how I have reconciled these things for myself, and I try to tell as many people as I can these ideas, to see what they think. I have been honing these arguments for some time, and if I were to die tomorrow, these are the ideas I would like to leave behind.

1) Creation, evolution, origin
Sen. Buttars is offended by the idea that we are "descendants of a 'lesser' life form". Granted, it doesn't appeal to our "On High" sensibilities, does it? But I also find offensive the idea that God clumsily used physical hands (!) to shape Adam and Eve and the rest of the lifeforms on Earth. I think it is a MUCH more beautiful idea, that God created the physical laws of the Universe that allow (nay, encourage) life to eventually exist in its present form. And that God then took a day off, and let things run their course, which might include effects that look a lot like evolution. So they are in fact not incompatible, when looked at in a certain light, unless you believe in spontaneous creation, which I touch on below.

2) Fear of the "Homosexual Agenda" Ruining the Reproductive Capacity of our Children
Wow, what a sticky issue.
I will first shoot down the "it's unnatural" argument. First, I will refer you to the book Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl, which has a pretty solid bank of evidence that most of the species on this planet not only engage in behavior that looks quite homosexual (previously sometimes categorized as "dominance" behavior, etc.), it's a fixed percentage of the population per species, and it never seems to go over 50%. Varies from 2% to 50% or something. This book so effectively shoots down this argument that I'm sure it has been categorized as homosexual propaganda in certain circles. The best part for me was the "devastating examination in chapter 3 of bigotry in the biological sciences in over two hundred years of observations of animal homosexuality" (quote from review). So anyway, then one has to ask, how can this be? How can a behavioral trait that results in no offspring get passed down genetically? Well, the answers from Genome by Matt Ridley seem to suggest, it isn't (that book is incredibly awesome, by the way- VERY RECOMMENDED geek read!). The evidence seems to suggest overall that homosexuality (in a game theory sense) is a "biological cost" side-effect of making the HETEROSEXUAL opposite sexes more attractive to each other. So the net overall effect is that more, and more diverse, children are produced, than if the sexual dimorphism process was not as effective (and creating homosexual children as a side-effect).

Now I will shoot down the "it's disgusting" argument. Let's go back to a time, 1st grade. I started to like girls (without asking why). Yet if someone had told me about heterosexual sex, I guarantee my reaction would have been "I put what where? GROSS!!!! It's stinky down there!" * And, it is ;) But fast-forward a few years, and suddenly all that stuff starts to seem appealing, and I started dreaming about the things that earlier I thought were disgusting. I didn't ask for the dreams, or the inclination- it was just there. And so this is how I think of homosexuality. No gay person decides to be gay- not subconsciously, anyway. Who wants all that extra aggravation in life? Nevertheless they're just drawn to it, as surely as I'm drawn to women, and perhaps just as powerfully. If it is gross to you, it's only because you've been biologically conditioned to think heterosexual sex is not gross. Which, when you really think about it and take away your horniness for a sec, it kinda still is. The best kind, anyway ;)

Lastly, I have a partial answer for "the Bible says it's wrong" argument. Refer to