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One of my non-geek friends got an Aspire One. It hasn't exactly been plain sailing.

The Aspire One runs Linpus Linux, it's a Fedora variant but they've modified lots of packages, and there's no online repository for their custom RPMs, and the changes weren't fed upstream. There are some major problems: "yum update" (either global, or anything that touches the modified packages) will replace the custom packages and break stuff, mplayer has very few codecs (no xvid), installing vlc requires manually linking directories, the menu system is non-standard so installed software isn't in the menu (in fact, the custom openoffice packages do set up menu entries, but if you update them to the fedora packages they break), and you can't update to firefox 3 without major hassles.

A hacked up Chinese Fedora clone isn't exactly a great example of a fluid Linux experience - stock Ubuntu would have been far preferable, and saved me from all those "this is Linux? I thought you said it was better than Windows. This would've been far easier in Windows." comments.

I posted this on the reg but may as well put it here too: a week before Bear Stearns totally crashed, someone made an insane bet by putting $1.7 million in put options that were below 50% of where the price was trading at. The options had only 10 days until expiration. However, in only a week the price dropped that 50% and the owner of those options made over $270 million dollars. This type of play is senseless, even impossible without insider information, conspiracy, or time travel.

http://stockbee.blogspot.com/2008/08/bear-raid-on-bears-stearns.html This blog post has a majority of the original Bloomberg article which has since been moved/removed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=afzzM6PgwfH8 This Bloomberg article mentions the same event but in a more convoluted and passive way. Also, for some reason this article forwards me to a malware site every so often, so beware.

Linux never has or will catch on! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

if you're a power user, though, XP -> Vista is still easier than XP -> Ubuntu

I don't agree. XP has menus. Ubuntu has menus. Vista, IE, and MS-Office have moved away from menus. Most computer users understand and rely on menus a lot.

The more relevant comparison would be between Ubuntu and Vista. Anecdotally, a friend of mine just got a tablet PC running Vista that she is about to either return or try to talk the OEM into installing XP on it. This is an English teacher with no love for geekiness what so ever. She is going to have to go through the pain and agony of all of this because her wireless doesn't work on Vista. This is a known and well documented issue that neither Microsoft nor HP has gone to the trouble to fix.

According to the judge in EMI's case against mp3tunes.com he now operates mp3tunes.com and sideload.com.

This is just another chapter in this administration's plan to "restore power" to the executive branch.

http://fracas2008.blogspot.com/2008/06/terrorism-executive-power-grab-and.html

Once again, they've used fear (quite effectively) to push their agenda. This $700B will go fast and won't "fix" the crux of the problem: overvalued housing. Expect to see still more legislation, more fear-mongering, and more of Paulson's buddies pocket's lined with cash....this is just getting started.

Let's not lose sight of the forest for the trees.

The University of Oregon and the Oregon Attorney General did a great, great thing here.

1. They were the first institution of higher learning to actually make a motion to quash an RIAA subpoena.
2. Their motion papers and their reply papers were both fantastic.
3. Other colleges and universities emulated their motion papers and made similar motions.
4. They made the all important point about how the RIAA's "evidence" does not point to a copyright infringer, and the Judge -- despite the irrationality of his order -- recognized that.
5. They made the all important point about MediaSentry operating without a license, a point which has been taken up by many other people in many other jurisdictions, leading to investigations of possibly criminal conduct in North Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. (And PS-don't be surprised to see such an investigation launched in Oregon, since the Oregon Attorney General has gone on record with this issue.)
6. The motion overall was extremely beneficial to the students; had the motion been granted, that would have been the end of it -- 17 RIAA victims would have been spared further persecution.
7. The misjoinder of John Does issue, and the illegality issue, and many other issues, are still preserved for the John Does to raise, so they haven't lost anything.
8. Other colleges and universities, based upon the Oregon AG's papers, have taken a second look at their policy of RIAA appeasement, and some are showing recalcitrance for the first time in 5 years.

So in my book, the Oregon AG and the University of Oregon did a great thing. My hat is off to them. And I think history will show that they were right, and that they made an important contribution.

Let's not lose sight of the forest for the trees.

The University of Oregon and the Oregon Attorney General did a great, great thing here.

1. They were the first institution of higher learning to actually make a motion to quash an RIAA subpoena.
2. Their motion papers and their reply papers were both fantastic.
3. Other colleges and universities emulated their motion papers and made similar motions.
4. They made the all important point about how the RIAA's "evidence" does not point to a copyright infringer, and the Judge -- despite the irrationality of his order -- recognized that.
5. They made the all important point about MediaSentry operating without a license, a point which has been taken up by many other people in many other jurisdictions, leading to investigations of possibly criminal conduct in North Carolina, Michigan, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. (And PS-don't be surprised to see such an investigation launched in Oregon, since the Oregon Attorney General has gone on record with this issue.)
6. The motion overall was extremely beneficial to the students; had the motion been granted, that would have been the end of it -- 17 RIAA victims would have been spared further persecution.
7. The misjoinder of John Does issue, and the illegality issue, and many other issues, are still preserved for the John Does to raise, so they haven't lost anything.
8. Other colleges and universities, based upon the Oregon AG's papers, have taken a second look at their policy of RIAA appeasement, and some are showing recalcitrance for the first time in 5 years.

So in my book, the Oregon AG and the University of Oregon did a great thing. My hat is off to them. And I think history will show that they were right, and that they made an important contribution.

The way you discourage illogical, indefensible decisions like this is to (with due process of course) impose sanctions against such judges and/or conduct independent investigations into whether there is anything that remotely looks like the judge is receiving money or other favors from the RIAA. If this is possible at all, it should be easy considering that this will not be the first time that the RIAA's tactics have (I'll be nice and say) been questionable. You then follow up by conducting an investigation into the RIAA's tactics, including whether or not the likes of MediaSentry are in fact breaking the law by acting like unlicensed private investigators (why is this not a completely separate issue from the lawsuit at hand?) because as those in power so enjoy telling us, "they shouldn't care if they have nothing to hide". I felt that way when I first saw this summary but I am certainly not a lawyer and so I do not feel that I am qualified (without doing lots of research at any rate) to say whether this judge's actions are illogical or indefensible in the context of legal proceedings, in the sense that many perfectly legal practices are complete unenlightened bullshit to me, but now that a lawyer such as yourself has cleared that up for me the rest seems quite simple. Yes I know that as someone who does not understand the nuances of law as you do, I very well may be coming off like a complete armchair amateur so if you point that out, I'll understand, but either way I am grateful for people like you who can be a part of the system without also being blind to things about it that probably need to change. I wish that insiders with your honesty were not the small minority that they seem to be.

What about the judges on the editorial board of the American Bar Association's "The Judges Journal", who invited me to write an article about the unequal access to justice in these cases? They're "insiders".

Yeah because republicans always get reamed by the media when they say stupid and offensive things. Why don't we stop pretending that Republicans get all the flak while Democrats get off without even a warning?

Do things slip through the cracks with regards to mainstream media reporting things? Of course, nobody is going to argue that. But to pretend one party has been issued a pass while the other is being heckled at every step is just ridiculous. Hell, it wasn't even too long ago that the media couldn't shut up about that Reverend everyone kept hearing so much of, and that supposed tape of Michelle Obama yelling about "whitey".

Yeah because republicans always get reamed by the media when they say stupid and offensive things. Why don't we stop pretending that Republicans get all the flak while Democrats get off without even a warning?

Do things slip through the cracks with regards to mainstream media reporting things? Of course, nobody is going to argue that. But to pretend one party has been issued a pass while the other is being heckled at every step is just ridiculous. Hell, it wasn't even too long ago that the media couldn't shut up about that Reverend everyone kept hearing so much of, and that supposed tape of Michelle Obama yelling about "whitey".

I'm sorry Ray, but just how does an outside observer not draw the conclusion that the legal system is inherently corrupted? I know you can't answer the question (at least not publicly) and I and many others support your valiant efforts. However, its hard as someone from outside the US to not see your country as just the world's biggest banana republic. Where the law has the appearance of granite and the firmness of quicksand. A legal system whose flexibility is only ever exercised to the favour of power, never the other way. As an amateur student of early American history and the founding of your nation, I just find the underlying hypocrisy galling and the fall of the republic utterly disheartening.

I'm not here to be an apologist for erroneous decisions like this. In my blog post, after reporting the facts, I then wrote this editor's note:

Is it just me, or does this decision make no sense whatsoever? The Judge recognizes that the RIAA's investigation is insufficient to actually point to a copyright infringer, and that the only way to determine that there was a copyright infringement is to conduct a further investigation....but is directing the University, anyway, to turn over names of people who the Court recognizes may be completely innocent?

And I wrote a lengthy article for The Judges Journal, the quarterly publication of the American Bar Association written for the judges' section, for publication in its "Access to Justice" issue, in which I criticized this type of poor judicial work as creating an uneven playing field, and made 15 specific suggestions as to what judges like this needed to do that they were not doing.

The difference between you and me is that I can't afford the luxury of getting 'disheartened'. But I do get angry. And an illogical, indefensible decision like this one ticks me off.

I'm sorry Ray, but just how does an outside observer not draw the conclusion that the legal system is inherently corrupted? I know you can't answer the question (at least not publicly) and I and many others support your valiant efforts. However, its hard as someone from outside the US to not see your country as just the world's biggest banana republic. Where the law has the appearance of granite and the firmness of quicksand. A legal system whose flexibility is only ever exercised to the favour of power, never the other way. As an amateur student of early American history and the founding of your nation, I just find the underlying hypocrisy galling and the fall of the republic utterly disheartening.

I'm not here to be an apologist for erroneous decisions like this. In my blog post, after reporting the facts, I then wrote this editor's note:

Is it just me, or does this decision make no sense whatsoever? The Judge recognizes that the RIAA's investigation is insufficient to actually point to a copyright infringer, and that the only way to determine that there was a copyright infringement is to conduct a further investigation....but is directing the University, anyway, to turn over names of people who the Court recognizes may be completely innocent?

And I wrote a lengthy article for The Judges Journal, the quarterly publication of the American Bar Association written for the judges' section, for publication in its "Access to Justice" issue, in which I criticized this type of poor judicial work as creating an uneven playing field, and made 15 specific suggestions as to what judges like this needed to do that they were not doing.

The difference between you and me is that I can't afford the luxury of getting 'disheartened'. But I do get angry. And an illogical, indefensible decision like this one ticks me off.

New punctuation update "~" at the end of a line to indicate sarcasm. http://harns.blogspot.com/

That's a great idea! ~

Whoops! That link will take you to a page full of entries. Here is the direct link to the specific entry:

http://kevincarmony.blogspot.com/2008/07/michael-robertson-speaks-intentions.html

...other than the caption in the article, "Michael Robertson - Greedy, crook or just incompetent?"

Then I found this earlier entry: http://kevincarmony.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-07-12T08:40:00-07:00&max-results=7

It gives details on the company's structure and what Roberts was doing to steal money from the company. Interesting stuff.

Let's just remember a few points. 1. The construction of a Toyota Prius and its battery unit consumes more resources and generates more pollution than a Hummer. 2. Base load electricity is generated by coal, natural gas, and nuclear. All of which will be required as solar doesn't perform very well at night. 3. Any hybrid is subject to cost benefit analysis versus the price of gasoline. 4. Wide-scale use of batteries require a thorough and thoughtful recycling plan, including more than one plant in Italy. If energy Independence is the goal, the US should utilize all of its resources: Wind, Solar, Coal, Natural Gas, and Nuclear. If lower hydrocarbon use is the goal, perhaps considering hydraulic hybrids, which only use a battery to start the car is the way to go. Check out "Hybrid Hummer Hums" at http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2008/07/hybrid-hummer-hums.html

The Cell is a perfect example of how not to design and build a multicore processor. It's a powerful processor but it's a pain in the ass to program. The worst thing that a multicore designer can do is build a processor before the programming model is designed and tested and all the chinks ironed out. But Sony and IBM are not alone. Intel is making the same mistake with Larrabee. AMD is soon to follow suit with its Fusion hybrid. It's enough to make a grown man cry. The truth should be clear to everyone by now. Heterogeneous processors are not the way to go simply because there is no easy software model that makes them easy to program. GPUs are not the answer either because they lack universality. As Tim Sweeny said recently, what is needed is a homogeneous processor. It will do wonders for productivity. Homogeneity and universality is what is called for. The Cell is anything but.

In my opinion, both the CPU and the GPU are doomed for the simple reason that they are not universal. There is only one type of parallel processor core that can handle anything you can throw at it and that's a pure MIMD vector core. None of the multicore vendors have one none are planning to build one. Why? Because they don't have the right programming model. Unless they see the error of their ways, some other organization will do the right thing and rocket past them. They won't know what hit them until it's too late. The writing is on the wall.

They should show a picture and ask if it's two people looking at each other, or a candlestick.

Or if it's and old woman looking down or a young woman looking back.

http://magictricks101.blogspot.com/2008/05/optical-illusions-4.html

We laugh at you freaks! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

You don't need this crap if you have Vista and 80 gig's of memory. http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

Especially since Google pumped some funding into the Wine project to ensure that Photoshop was supported.

I like Gimp, but if somebody is busy learning the ropes with Linux, throwing them into Gimp when they already have so much experience with Photoshop probably isn't wise.

For pocket-sized Internet radio, Skype, e-mail not associated with a cellphone. There was a story on one of the eee blogs about Toshiba creating a pocket-sized umpc-type of machine but it was a prototype. So it would not be surprising to see some of the umpc machines morph in this direction. There are Zaurus descendants sold in Japan but they are very expensive to buy in the US and not really made for us.

Western science of course was born out of Christian religion

Nice try. Christians persecuted scientists and others with knowledge. When Queen Isabella told Spanish Moors and Sephardi Jews to convert or leave Spain suffered a massive brain drain, most of the educated in Spain were Jews or Muslims. During the Age of Enlightenment scientific authority started displacing religious authority.

Err, I think you got that confused. How under an atheist world view how does a consciousness (which is usually under such a view a complex anomaly of brain chemistry) live for "all time"?

Under atheism it doesn't but Christians do believe in a soul that is immortal. As one battle cry goes, "Kill them all, let God sort them out." An atheist can't say that, and believe it.

Falcon

Cloud computing is only a return to the computing world of old by having clients act as terminals and use services offered remotely by a mainframe computer. Cloud computing = computer terminals of old. Nothing new!

I wrote more about it here: http://dpru.blogspot.com/

Figure someone needs to make a fuss on here about it;
http://wizards-keep.blogspot.com/2008/09/orphan-works-bill_30.html

people desperately wanting this orphan works bill to go down way differently than it seems to be headed atm.

Once upon a time, Nicky Tesla had a robot submarine. In fact, that's what he invented radio for - to control his robot submarine.

http://www.rastko.org.yu/rastko/delo/10788
http://nicola-tesla.blogspot.com/2007/02/chapter-7-most-unusual-inventions.html

Actually, they did.
The french motto (also from the anthem): "Des Plus Brillants Exploits" means "Our most glorious deeds"

Not that regulations helped this time around since they were neutered by the Republicans

I keep hearing people say this, but I've never seen anyone point to any specific deregulation. Please enlighten me.

It seems to me that this whole mess was largely caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government sponsored enterprises. http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/09/distorting-history.html

I told you so Now What?

I know it seems unlikely Google would just drop a service like that. Except that, well, they already have.

Yeah. All those services that Google already has dropped are exactly like GMail. I remember the outcry when all those people lost all that data when Google Keyboard Shortcuts was taken off line. And who can forget the data armageddon that was the ending of Google Slideshow? It was like Y2K II. Yeah, Google shuts down services and leaves all your data high and dry all the time. Very insightful.

True. But riddle me this: when you get up tomorrow and go to sign in to GMail and all you get is a single page saying "Due to financial constraints and an inability to derive revenue from GMail to pay our bills, we have regretfully been forced to terminate the service.", where are your game serial numbers now and how do you plan on getting at them? I know it seems unlikely Google would just drop a service like that. Except that, well, they already have.

Gmail allows you to download your email via pop3 and imap. You can also set it to automatically all email to another account. There is no excuse not to have a backup of all your Gmail mail. This "it might suddenly vanish" argument is a strawman.

True. But riddle me this: when you get up tomorrow and go to sign in to GMail and all you get is a single page saying "Due to financial constraints and an inability to derive revenue from GMail to pay our bills, we have regretfully been forced to terminate the service.", where are your game serial numbers now and how do you plan on getting at them? I know it seems unlikely Google would just drop a service like that. Except that, well, they already have.

There are a couple things that you are missing that make this particular scheme work.

The first detail is that these guys don't ask for much to unlock your files. I have read they typically ask for $100 or $200. These amounts are is too small for most law enforcement to notice typically.

Another detail here is the lack of reporting. I am sure that some folks just cough up the money to get stuff unencrypted and never report it to law enforcement.

Another big detail is that they are in Russia. If the person making the transaction is in the U.S. for example, there is not much any bank or law enforcement agency can do to recover that money once it lands in a Russian bank, especially when you consider that it is only $100 - $200.

This goes back to the cooperation between the Russian govt. and organized crime that others have pointed out. When you have that kind of setup, money tracing is pretty ineffective as a crime fighting tool.

Here is a pretty good writeup about gpcode:

http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2008/06/whos-behind-gpcode-ransomware.html

ft

Climatologist James Annan has a whole series of blog posts debunking Pielke's claims, e.g. here and here, here, etc. The short answer is that given the large amount of interannual noise present in the data, the 2.5 C "best estimate" trend is consistent with the observed trend, i.e. you can't say with statistical confidence whether the discrepancy is due to statistical fluctuations in weather or is something real in the underlying climate system. Pielke also makes the common mistake of pretending that the model predictions don't have any uncertainty and that you can "falsify" them based on a single best-guess trend. Actually, now that I look at it, he also used the projected 100-year warming rate, ignoring the fact that the warming rate is lower at the beginning of the projection period and higher at the end; this method will overstate the near-term warming projected.

For an actual published comparison of IPCC model projections to observations, try here. (Interestingly, they too ignore model uncertainty except for climate sensitivity uncertainty, although that is the largest uncertainty.)

Climatologist James Annan has a whole series of blog posts debunking Pielke's claims, e.g. here and here, here, etc. The short answer is that given the large amount of interannual noise present in the data, the 2.5 C "best estimate" trend is consistent with the observed trend, i.e. you can't say with statistical confidence whether the discrepancy is due to statistical fluctuations in weather or is something real in the underlying climate system. Pielke also makes the common mistake of pretending that the model predictions don't have any uncertainty and that you can "falsify" them based on a single best-guess trend. Actually, now that I look at it, he also used the projected 100-year warming rate, ignoring the fact that the warming rate is lower at the beginning of the projection period and higher at the end; this method will overstate the near-term warming projected.

For an actual published comparison of IPCC model projections to observations, try here. (Interestingly, they too ignore model uncertainty except for climate sensitivity uncertainty, although that is the largest uncertainty.)

Climatologist James Annan has a whole series of blog posts debunking Pielke's claims, e.g. here and here, here, etc. The short answer is that given the large amount of interannual noise present in the data, the 2.5 C "best estimate" trend is consistent with the observed trend, i.e. you can't say with statistical confidence whether the discrepancy is due to statistical fluctuations in weather or is something real in the underlying climate system. Pielke also makes the common mistake of pretending that the model predictions don't have any uncertainty and that you can "falsify" them based on a single best-guess trend. Actually, now that I look at it, he also used the projected 100-year warming rate, ignoring the fact that the warming rate is lower at the beginning of the projection period and higher at the end; this method will overstate the near-term warming projected.

For an actual published comparison of IPCC model projections to observations, try here. (Interestingly, they too ignore model uncertainty except for climate sensitivity uncertainty, although that is the largest uncertainty.)

Hey. There are different ultimate notebooks in every size category. Jaak http://seoapplied.blogspot.com/

Not before 2011. Im talking about mobile wimax. And still, customers are owned by mobile telco operators. Jack http://seoapplied.blogspot.com/

Well, like anything else in American politics is 90% of one party moving with 40-50% of the other..

Many democrats voted against this but the reason its being pushed by its leadership is because of things like this:

http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/19/congressional-black-caucus-and-its-cozy-relationship-with-fannie-mae.php

And this:

http://nwrepublican.blogspot.com/2008/09/democrats-caught-on-tape-fanie-mae-not.html

--

Many republicans are voting for it because they also know where their bread is buttered..

The two parties really are remarkably similar..

See these:
Venezuela's National Strike
Venezuela Kubuntu -- must read
The Venezuelan Educational System
Venezuela Embraces Linux and Open Source Software, but Faces Challenges
Venezuela - Stepping Forward With Debian
Enterprise Unix Roundup: Oracle's Open World
Trollparty in Caracas during World Social Forum
Free software liberates Venezuela
Free Software: Technological Democratization?
No More Microsoft blood in the veins of the Venezuela
Free Software Developers program continues successfully
Open standard Venezuelan law definition

That's a bit of a bugger - yes - if you don't get FF3 just right and/or corrupt the desktop then things get bad. Best info on FF3 install is below - if you've not found it already. I'm on FF3 right now.

http://macles.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-07-31T01%3A15%3A00%2B02%3A00&max-results=12

I am concerned how even Mobile 6.1 is getting so slow. Pleas more lean and robust systems, less 3d and animation. Jack http://seoapplied.blogspot.com/

Yes, it is. Capitalism *CANNOT EXIST* with free competition in an open market with a free flow of information. (I'm using capitalism in the precise sense, as coined by Thomas Hodgskin in the early 19th century, which is the leveraging of capital to exploit resources and labor for the purposes of generating a profit.) Kevin Carson over at the Mutualist blog has extensive analyses of how labor becomes a scarce and expensive commodity in a free market, as self-employment flourishes, and profits soon take on a wide distribution rather than being centralized in a few hands, which effectively prevents the accumulation of the large sums of capital which are the prerequisite for capitalism as we know it.
  Capitalism can only exist with massive government intervention in the market, which distorts the playing field and favors large centralized businesses owned by those in and around the circle of power, destroying small businesses and individual's self-sufficiency.

Tell you how to use the Internet to make money 1000 U.S. dollar every day

I participated in something called code::XtremeApps:: which is a 24 hour code jam by Google last year. Wrote a Servlet that used Youtube Data API to make Google Map users see videos related to places they search inside a Google Map overlay..

We did not win anything. But Google implemented it in Google Earth soon after that. I think within a week after the results were out: Link

I am pretty sure they are fishing for ideas this time too.

Space travel, on the other hand, is not about cheaper resources. Everything is cheaper on Earth.

Everything is cheaper on Earth, RIGHT NOW.

Everything is more abundant in Space, Full Stop.

When the cost of getting things to orbit gets cheaper, and the technology robust enough to repair en route we will have to re-evaluate the comparison.

And yes I've read Roland Brak's thoughts on Asteroid Mining.

http://ronaldbrak.blogspot.com/2006/02/great-asteroid-mining-con.html

Don't forget there was a time when boats were not so seaworthy, navigation not so advanced and sailors stayed close to the shore. The overland route to Asia was the only sure fire way to get there.

Microsoft and Intel are led by aging baby boomers who have run out of good ideas simply because they are too old and set in their ways. They still think in 20th century mode. They have no clue as to how to solve the parallel programming crisis and they speak about the future as if a solution were a fait accompli. Whoever is the first to come out with the correct solution will rocket right past them and they won't know what happened until it's too late. Personally, I am tired of Windows and x86-based processors. But then again, Linux is just as old as Windows. Doesn't matter. Soon they will all go the way of the Dodo.

I want someone to hit the nail on the head with creationisms, but no one seems to ever do that online so I'll give it my best shot.

Evolution in no way denounces god. Even the Catholic church says the view science has on the universe and evolution are compatible with their faith: http://rellavent.blogspot.com/2008/09/catholic-church-acknowledges-evolution.html And it's pretty easy to reconcile the two: universe created in a big explosion that created light, land and heaven coalescing into stellar bodies, water and land separating as it cools, life slowly taking to the land, and man ultimately being removed from the bliss of the primordial garden by eating the fruit of knowledge. It's god, if evolution happened without his help at all, he set up the universe knowing full well what it would do. ID in the 6k year old vein makes no sense and actually is insulting to the power of god.

This brings up the problem of the creationists. Science as it is written, is not in that strong of a conflict with the bible as it is written, so why do they continue to push it?

we know the symptoms: text books, politicians, online spaming, but what causes the disease? Or to frame it in a more humanistic perspective: what do they gain by perusing their agenda? This should be the prime argument in creationism, not the symptomatic treatment that has been prevalent.

My theory is that creationism is viewed as being linked to a value system that creationists view as being under attack from secular radicals, and evolution is taken as a battle field to fight against this because Evolution is pretty removed from their day to day lives, if they chose to believe fantasy on it they wont hurt them selves like they would if they choose to believe fantasy about refrigeration. Basically they are picking ID as the place to make their stand to defend their way of life.

That brings up the other point, why do they feel their way of life is in danger? It could be politicians playing it up for votes, it could be changing social economics beyond anyones control, it could be pure paranoia, and it could be that people in the cities and scientific community actually attack them. I think its a combination of all those factors, but i also think one of the largest factors is the fact that Secular atheists do actively attack the religious beliefs of others.

I know this from having been to several meetings. The atheist community is one of the most bitter and spiteful I have ever seen and actively wish to see all "non-rational" belief systems torn down and replaced with their "belief" system on a level that matches any religion. Pure tribalism at its best, two sets of group-think throwing stones at each other. the Atheists attack christen beliefs and they attack the atheists through ID.

The solution to the problem is not the one shown on /. of armchair intellectuals decrying the ignorance of the bible belt hicks, while smugly reassuring each other that they have the "best" ideology. It is through an understanding of their actions and why they do them and coming to terms with them. Calling their text book stupid isn't going to get them to stop. I don't know what the solution is, but I know what it isn't.

This is what I thought of as soon as I read the summary.