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Actually, for the last 3-5 or so years, the seas have been cooling and capturing carbon. In 2005-6 there was a study by someone at the university of Colorado (who monitors a network of Ocean bathythermographs deployed by the Argo program and jason-1 satellite which monitor sea surface temps and ocean level rises). I can't find the study in a non-pay site and I'm not going to link to but anyways, the study showed that all of the claimed warming to date thought to of been caused by the Anthropogenic global warming can be explained by differences in ocean surface temperatures. It said that it didn't rule out Anthropogenic causes but questions the statement of importance.

Your getting the cart before the horse with your assumption that the ocean is warmed by the air. In fact, the ocean has more of an impact on the temps of the air then the air does on the ocean. Just ask the coastal dwellers who get cool breezes coming off the ocean that keep the temps a comfortable level in an otherwise hostile environment. California comes to mind where LA can be 90 degree F and just a few miles away (less then 100) it can be a cool and mild 75 degrees F because of the winds coming off the ocean. Another source for this is the El Nino and la nina effect in the southern pacific oscillations. Of course there are decadal oscillation anomalies in every large body of water. And these vary to such a degree that the IPCC has admitted that their models have problems processing them.

Furthermore, Christopher Monckton has released a study surrounding issues with the IPCC claims which you should read. Some of the key points as outlined elsewhere,

• The IPCC's 2007 climate summary overstated CO2's impact on temperature by 500-2000%;
• CO2 enrichment will add little more than 1 F (0.6 C) to global mean surface temperature by 2100;
• Not one of the three key variables whose product is climate sensitivity can be measured directly;
• The IPCC's values for these key variables are taken from only four published papers, not 2,500;
• The IPCC's values for each of the three variables, and hence for climate sensitivity, are overstated;
• "Global warming" halted ten years ago, and surface temperature has been falling for seven years;
• Not one of the computer models relied upon by the IPCC predicted so long and rapid a cooling;
• The IPCC inserted a table into the scientists' draft, overstating the effect of ice-melt by 1000%;
• It was proved 50 years ago that predicting climate more than two weeks ahead is impossible;
• Mars, Jupiter, Neptune's largest moon, and Pluto warmed at the same time as Earth warmed;
• In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years.

Now keep in mind, this report does not dispute Anthropogenic climate change, it's pointing to verifiable mathematical flaws causing it's over statement by the IPCC. This is also something of a concern when one of the IPCC lead author has recently went on record claiming the science of global warming is too uncertain at this point in time. There is also a Dr. Essenhigh that claims the IPCC models are incorrect too. His Paper is unavailable for non-paying people (or I couldn't find it) but here is an abstract of it and some comment from a notorious denier.

In short, the issue is a lot more complex then you were led to believe and your comment reflects that profusely.

Actually, some male dogs are better "mothers" than the pups' dams are. I've had several that actively parent puppies. This behaviour is most prevalent in smart dogs with more desire to please humans. OTOH, with the more wolflike dogs ... well, I wouldn't let the average male, or worse yet an unbred female, NEAR puppies, if I wanted to keep them alive.

Here's one of my stud dogs (who is from the 10th generation of my own line) with a litter that he mostly raised (other than the feeding part); the pups are about 8 weeks old in the photo. http://home.earthlink.net/~rividh/kennel/litters/sirius_and_his_lambs.jpg

Done

As a resident of southern Maine let me be the first to say thank you for those additions to my childhood. Actually my family made many day trips to NH to experience all that state had to offer. Climbing Tuckerman's Ravine in the middle of a sudden thunder storm was an experience I'll never forget. This is probably off-topic but I don't care. NH is an awesome state.

You can get Earthlink cable internet in Rochester. The pricing isn't as attractive as RoadRunner is now - but maybe it will be after the caps? http://www.earthlink.net/access/cable.faces There is one bit of satisfaction with this though - TimeWarner has to allow the Earthlink traffic over their cables . . .

He posed the question, if you were in the woods with nothing but a hatchet, how long before you could send an email?

As long as it takes for some hiker with a smartphone to come by, plus a few minutes to clean the blood off the hatchet.

This device may not compare favorably with commercially available computing platforms, but having people in our society with curious minds and an ability to make things is invaluable.

Agreed - this is a very cool project.

I have recently been working with amateur packet radio, which is somewhere in between the linked project and modern technology. In addition to a computer you only need a radio transceiver and some simple circuitry connecting it to the audio in/out ports, and you can send email to a similarly-equipped station within the range of your radio (at speeds between 300 and 9600 baud). There are people who build their own radios and adapters but I'm doing it the easy way with commercial units.

As a more serious answer to your "alone in the woods" question, someone with the right skills could actually get a morse code transmitter running with some surprisingly low-tech materials. Look here for example - you don't even need a transistor or vacuum tube.

Also, do not forget that the best way to ensure you will never be promoted, is to make yourself indispensable at your current position.

Egads man! You read what I wrote!

"They're made of meat."

"Meat?"

http://home.earthlink.net/~paulrack/id82.html

Duude, the first one is the Crushinator

>didn't include a microphone
You can buy one that clips onto the athena connector.

Having been in mixed Dvorak, Qwerty, and Abcdefg environments, and having been on a quest for the ultimate keyboard for the past 10 years, I'm pretty confident that Qwerty is *good enough* until something truly different comes along.

Dvorak *can* run a little faster than Qwerty for typing, but not so much that you'd see an appreciably speed increase for nomal use. And as Dvorak has been around for about 80 years now, I don't think anyone is getting in on the wave of the future by using it. Similarly, you'd be surprised how hard it is to use an alphabetized keyboard after years of Qwerty or Dvorak usage. The brain just doesn't change over that easily.

Unless an alternative layout increased speeds 100% or so, I'd keep things accessible. Just use Qwerty, and move on.

In addition to TimeWarner, Earthlink offers cable modem service from Comcast and BrightHouse. I am currently using Earthlink powered by Comcast for my home internet service. As an added benefit to have the account, it comes with 20 hours / month of free dial-up access. For more info check out http://www.earthlink.net/access/cable.faces/ or http://www.dslreports.com/faq/ecable/

That's not a Miata, that's a cheap crossover of a Miata and an Austin-Healey "Frogeye" Sprite.

Obviously being a Biologist doesn't require critical thinking skills. Just because you consider it to be a "frog individual" doesn't make it one. Further corn kernels are actually differentiation cells....
It's morons like you that keep biology from becoming a real science; it's sad they let you teach.

Anyone remember C.S. Lewis's hammer and bell from the Magician's Nephew? Of course a little magic goes a long way but this is a fictional list right?

http://home.earthlink.net/~johnrpenner/Articles/DigorysBell.html

So wrong.....grrr...geek rage....

All the hammer and bell did was wake the witch up. That world was already doomed before the kids got there. It was the deplorable word that wiped out the inhabitants and old age that killed the planet.

Anyone remember C.S. Lewis's hammer and bell from the Magician's Nephew? Of course a little magic goes a long way but this is a fictional list right?

http://home.earthlink.net/~johnrpenner/Articles/DigorysBell.html

More or less agree since the logic is that if you're single, you're somehow worth less than someone who's with someone (i.e. you're a loser). Sort of like if a woman isn't married by 30, she's over the hill.

As far as the money/time/etc is concerned, agreed, it is yours and it is great not having to worry about anyone bouncing a check, spending more than you had planned or a whole host of other things.

The flip side, as you allude to, is that there are those times you want to spend it with someone, whether a football game, a movie or a simply walk in the woods. Then there's the whole human touch thing for those of us who are of the affectionate type. It's especially difficult when you work with a few cuties and your mind has lascivious thoughts of them throughout the day. Not good for work performance.

Then again, dating is like combat so it's not necessarily an easy thing to do.

But then, what do I know? I have an entire region of women who want nothing to do with me unless they want a problem solved.

"I hate tyrants like Saddam, but what you did America was shameful."

WE as a people didn't want to invade Iraq. We didn't get to vote on it.

Make time in your schedule to read about The Project for a New American Century if you haven't already. This will explain a lot about why we invaded Iraq and deposed Hussein, as well as the Neoconservative philosophy of complete world dominance. It's some scary shit. And just so you don't think that the page I linked is some wacko leftist whining, you can visit the Project's website.

As opposed to all those wise people like me who lived well within our means and invested in stocks (!) and earned negative real returns on savings accounts? Yeah, that worked out real well for us, didn't it.

Are you retiring in the next year to two? If not, them you have nothing to worry about.

You just pointed out, then overlooked, one of the biggest reasons to get out while you still can. Boomers are about to start retiring, creating a decade or more of drag on the market when they start trading in 401Ks for Winnebagos. I wish I had a source handy, but I once read boomers accounted for roughly 50% of all 401K dollars out there. Simply put though, you're cherry picking your time periods. There is no such thing as a "can't lose" strategy. Tech was "can't lose" wasn't it. Housing was "can't lose" wasn't it? Long term is not a "can't lose" strategy as you would suggest. Anyone who had money in the market long term between 1964 and 1984 could tell you that.

If you bank on this being over in a year or two, you will regret it. If you're smart, you'll get your cash out before the boomers get what's left.

I discussed this concept of "winning" a year ago. Every time someone talks about "winning" in Iraq, they should be questioned, hard, about what we're winning.

After all, if Joe Biden can be asked if spreading the wealth is a Marxist policy, there is no reason not to ask what we're winning.

Earthlink also uses a DNS error spam page rather than a real DNS not found error. Very, very lame.

They do have a (little known) method for bypassing this, details here:

http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=187117

Basically they give you the IP of a non-fucked DNS server, which you can then program into your router, computer etc.

You have no idea how true that statement is. Going through that nonsensical bullcrap now. I'm going to toot my own horn for a moment and go a bit offtopic but it is relevant.

For over a year I've been trying to move up the food chain, more project management/organization/whatever than the technical stuff. Not that I mind the technical stuff but I've found I'm more suited to the planning, organizational and completing of projects. I can grasp almost any technical subject and don't fear to ask a question for clarification if I'm not sure.

Without exception, every assignment given to me is completed on time (usually early) and correctly. In fact, while others are saying they have all this work to do, I'm free to sit on my fat ass and post here (hey, it's a government job. What can I say?) My yearly reviews are always very positive and tout my contributions and I'm always willing to take on more responsibilities or learn new skills.

Now, based on that, you would think it would be easy for me to move up, having demonstrated my competency and broad range of skills. You would think that but you'd be wrong. Despite practically doing the jobs I'm applying for, here I am, having to deal with incompetence and disorganization on a daily basis from folks higher up who literally can not find their asses. How bad is it? Our CISO (security officer) has forgotten her password to a security program on her laptop at least three times. Twice in one week!

The days of being rewarded for doing your job correctly and being indispensable are gone. As you intimated, the people who act like an asses and can sell ice to Eskimos in January are the ones who get ahead. Here is a column which discusses these matters.

P.S. If anyone is looking to fill an entry-level or mid-level project manager-type position, drop me a line.

Human spaceflight is fascinating, but right now it's utterly useless for exploring our own solar system, let alone further afield. There's just way too much sodding plumbing you have to take along too.

A radiation-hardened processor controlling a space probe is one thing, but the necessary life support mechanisms, living area, exercise machines, lavatory facilities, windows to look out of, paper underpants, DVD players, Tang, freeze-dried noodles and the machinery necessary to reprocess piss and shit into something more palatable... Humans just aren't designed for spaceflight.

Pretty smart political move of Junior, invoking the swiss government like that.

Now look what you've done. Wasn't it bad enough the shuttle burned up? Now you've gone and burned up the server trying to show us pictures of the mangled hard drive from the burned up shuttle.

At least Earthlink gives you the option of using DNS servers that don't do it. I used them until I switched ISPs. http://kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=187117

Apparently, the story can be summarized as:

"But, back to our electric automobiles - in 1931, under the financing of Pierce-Arrow and George Westinghouse, a 1931 Pierce-Arrow was selected to be tested at the factory grounds in Buffalo, N.Y. The standard internal combustion engine was removed and an 80-H.P. 1800 r.p.m electric motor installed to the clutch and transmission. The A.C. motor measured 40 inches long and 30 inches in diameter and the power leads were left standing in the air - no external power
source!"

http://uncletaz.com/library/scimath/tesla/teslacar.html
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Tesla's_Pierce-Arrow
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1062
http://waterpoweredcar.com/teslascar.html
http://www.tfcbooks.com/teslafaq/q&a_016.htm
http://keelynet.com/energy/teslcar.htm
http://keelynet.com/energy/teslafe1.htm

"What utter rubbish"

He was definitely on to something, e.g.:
http://home.earthlink.net/~drestinblack/generator.htm

I am only saying what I said because I am talking about Tesla. If there's one person who could have done it, it is him.

You mean like this and this?

No, what would make you think there is a problem with cables being tangled or mislabeled?

You mean like this and this?

No, what would make you think there is a problem with cables being tangled or mislabeled?

Not worked on but have been the unfortunate recipient of having to use them. First it was SAP. What a horrible piece of shit. Nearly every day we get calls from people who can't access the system and it's because the system can't handle all the requests from people processing travel vouchers, time requests, etc.

Now I have to go through an ERP project in a vain attempt to bring some semblance of organization to our products and how they are delivered. We're at $40 million and counting and I can guarantee there will be numerous problems with our suppliers and clients once it's implemented. But it's only taxpayer dollars so it's not real money.

The rest of your comment is spot on. That is exactly what happened in our current case. That and our CIO is completely incompetent at his job and lacks any semblance of organization. But he can sell ice to Eskimos in January.

That's a trick question but I'll do my best to answer it anyway. IANAS for the record.

Depending on what is being proposed, it may take decades or even centuries to prove or disprove a scientific theory. How long has it taken to prove/disprove some of what Newton and Einstein have proposed regarding gravity? Until recently, frame dragging was not able to be tested due to the limits of our technology. What about the idea that everything is composed of smaller and smaller particles? How long had it taken for Leucippus' idea (as revealed by Democritus) of matter being composed of atoms to be revealed to be true?

The catch with ID is it will ALWAYS be untestable since how does one test for an omnipotent being? Merely saying that things look to be designed does not mean they are. One now has to take the next step and say, "Who designed it and how do we test for this being?" ID/Creationist supporters have never, EVER, said what test they would propose to test for such a being. They simply throw their hands up and say, "God/Unknown Force/Unknown Being did it." That's not science.

And that is the key point. By definition, an omnipotent being can never be known. It is omnipotent and so, according to myth and legend, lives outside what we consider "normal" time.

What ID/Creationists want to do is rewrite science as we know it and say the supernatural, not just the natural, should be included in the scientific realm. As was stated in the Dover trial a few years back, according to the IDers, astrology is a science. If we're going that far, why not move "GhostHunters"* from the SciFi channel to Discovery.

Until ID supporters can provide a means to prove or disprove their idea, ID will always be relegated to a religious or philosophical precept.

*I have written a missive that when people claim they are seeing ghosts, what they are really seeing is a quirk in the time continuum. Read the missive at this link.

Was the episode called "The Frozen Sound"? Originally Aired 7/30/1955 -- A Summary:

THE FROZEN SOUND Voices from 2000 years ago and wire taps without wires confront research scientists. and/or Enemy espionage obtains a record of a physicist's top-secret conversation with the Secretary of Defense in a completely sealed room. The secret of the leak lies in a bottle of ant poison containing a mysterious crystal -- a crystal with the power to record entire conversations! Marshall Thompson, Marilyn Erskin, Ray Collins, Michael Fox.

Here's another TV listing.

master the art of human stupidity.

I did that in 1984 with a program called "Artificial Insanity" on a Timex-Sinclair 1000 with 16k of memory and no hard drive (later ported to the Apple II and then to MS-DOS). Its pre-beta name (Kind of like Microsoft called Vista Longhorn before they called it Vista) was "Artificial Stupidity".

The program was designed to answer any question, in context. Its premise was that humans are stupid, insane, tired, drunk, on drugs, don't pay attention, don't care, are lazy, etc so I made the program to these specifications. So far so good.

It passed the Turing test; one friend argued with it so vehemently that he broke his keyboard! So far so good.

Its purpose was to illustrate that the key word in "artificial intelligence" is "artificial" - you can simulate anything, but simulation is not reality. You can fly your flight simulator all day long and not move a foot. You don't even have to understand the the object you're simulating; I wrote a tanks game for that same Timex (had to hand-code assembly for that one because of teh Sinclair's snail-slow CPU) but I have no idea how a real tank works, but the simulation (3rd person perspective two player game) was realistic enough to be a fun game.

So this was designed to show people that AI isn't really intelligent and doesn't really think. It was a total abysmal failure at this, because people DID believe it can think.

But it can't. With the original only having 16k to work with I had to hack some trickery. I was an amateur magician as an adolescent, and called on that experience.

This four year old TFA refers to is a simple chatbot. The IBM "Rascals" program in yesterday's FA is a complicated chatbot. Neither one of them is in any way intelligent. They are NOT sentient, they can NOT think.

They're not made of meat. (And again, I thank the fellow here at /. who originally pointed me to the linked short science fiction story)

-mcgrew

Funny you should mention those numbers. Virginia finally decided to do something about those idiots.

Needless to say, I can hear the folks on here whining about how the money is just another tax. Which in a sense it is since the fine is designed to add money to pay for road maintenance. But that is beside the point.

There will always be those who feel the rules shouldn't apply to them or that the penalty for endangering someone elses life is too high. Whine, whine, whine. Until it happens to you.

Read more

using a bottle opener to crack open a cold, refreshing brew

Just reminds me ...

"Our hero is Gallegher, an inventor who can only invent when dead drunk. Upon sobering up in this story, he finds himself in possession of a perfectly useless and perfectly vain robot. He has all sorts of contractual obligations that he has to fulfill, but he can't do a darn thing sober, and can't get the robot to help him unless he can figure out what its actual purpose is. (It turns out it's the world's most complex and over-engineered can opener.) Gallegher is pretty much the inverse of the typical science fiction hero, whose superior knowledge of science and engineering and superior rationality will help him win through. Gallegher only wins through when he gets his mind turned completely off with the aid of liberal amounts of booze. It's a fun puzzle story, and Gallegher is a great comic protagonist."
(link, emphasis mine)

Lewis Padgett aka Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore

CC.

"...consider it an adequate defense if the villain should plead that "she did not offer violent physical resistance"?"

The 'Age of Consent Campaign' is just a way out lawing sex outside of marrage.

"Our laws are shamelessly unequal when they make the punishment for stealing away a woman's honor no greater than for the purloining of her wardrobe, or when they give the man who robs her of her character a lighter sentence than he who steals her purse would incur;.... And if it was his own daughter whose purity had been sullied by some wretch who had taken advantage of her ..."

and adolescents make just as good decisions as Adults. Or should I say Adults make just as bad decisions as Adolescents. Adults are just way better at rationalizing thier decisions.

An Empirical Examination of Sexual Relations Between Adolescents and Adults

They Differ from Those Between Children and Adults and Should Be Treated Separately

Adolescent Development: Junk Science Run Wild

and I know TFA was about a 7 year old but her parents have no business on her computer anyway, if they want to monitor her net access don't but her comp in the network or have is logged/filtered on a comp she doesn't have access to.

Once it's on her computer it's to late anyways.

Saying children(and I mean actual children e.g. >10) shouldn't start trying to ACT responsible(not actually being responsible) is like saying "We should do away with Graduated Driver licensing. once they are 18 and pass the tests they should be given a full license. and no driving privileges before that. If they are not Responsible enough to drive full time without a supervisor they have no business driving at all."

Maybe she shouldn't have root. but she should deffinatly have her own acount on her own computer. and all accounts should have a password, and you shoulden't give out your password to other people. argo she should have a account with a password and not tell it to anyone.

How many ISPs do you have to choose from? Unless I go dialup, I've got exactly three.

Ditto. And all three are so cross pollinated with former staff from the others they might as well be the same company.

In my area, the principle provider is AT&T (formerly, Bellsouth). Late in the '90's, the cable company MediaOne was bought by Comcast, which was later bought by AT&T, then re-spun off again as Comcast. A lot of the AT&T management moved to the newly re-structured Comcast. EarthLink's current CEO, is an old AT&T executive, and its current COO comes from MediaOne.

Even though they are still technically three separate entities, these guys are so inbred that I'm surprised the CEO's don't hang out together on bridges picking banjos like the hillbillies in Deliverance - anyone who has ever dealt with either of the three certainly knows how Ned Beatty felt in a certain scene from that movie.

How many ISPs do you have to choose from? Unless I go dialup, I've got exactly three.

Ditto. And all three are so cross pollinated with former staff from the others they might as well be the same company.

In my area, the principle provider is AT&T (formerly, Bellsouth). Late in the '90's, the cable company MediaOne was bought by Comcast, which was later bought by AT&T, then re-spun off again as Comcast. A lot of the AT&T management moved to the newly re-structured Comcast. EarthLink's current CEO, is an old AT&T executive, and its current COO comes from MediaOne.

Even though they are still technically three separate entities, these guys are so inbred that I'm surprised the CEO's don't hang out together on bridges picking banjos like the hillbillies in Deliverance - anyone who has ever dealt with either of the three certainly knows how Ned Beatty felt in a certain scene from that movie.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, those are punchdown boxes you see. It would be horrible to run the cable directly to the switch without having boxes and patch cables on each end.

Alas, I came across the yearning to re-watch some of these demos lately. They're nice, but then you realize nowadays, when one could benefit from learning all these tips and tricks for optimization, the source code's lost to the ether forever.

Not always lost forever... SAM Coupe demo source

Maybe they could have asked this guy for some help: http://home.earthlink.net/~quade/lawnchair.html/

My kids and I built a crystal set and made a cats whisker diode for it using some brass sheet, wire and a lump of galena (from the mineral & crystal shop). Also made a diode with a rusty razor blade and another with a lump of silicon. These didn't work as well as shop germanium diodes, but they still worked. Made our own variable capacitors using paper and tin foil too.

You can even build simple amplifiers etc using tunnel diodes: http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/ntype-nr.htm

most of the debate between science and religion takes place at a very stupid level -- between simple-minded religious zealots and sometimees narrow-minded scientific adherents -- therefore, it is refreshing to have a somewhat more insightful take as given by mr. albert einstein:

"It is, therefore, easy to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion without which pioneer work in theoretical science cannot be achieved are able to grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue.

"What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labour in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics!

"Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious workers are the only profoundly religious people.

"In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this [cosmic religious] feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it. "

(Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, Crown Publishers, New York, 1954)

The human variant that I think is nearly ready for consideration as a new species is still too diverse, but the generalizations that can be made about them are highly suggestive. On average, in gross over-generalization, this group...

• has a larger skull size than the typical form;
• achieves its maximum skull size a full decade before the typical human skull does;
• differs not just in skull size but also in brain organization, showing changes in several brain structures;
• responds differently (usually over-sensitive) to all manner of physical stimuli: sound, texture, light, odor, taste;
• adheres to unusual dietary standards, sometimes with profound alteration in diet necessary to accomodate healthy digestion;
• shows an unusual social instinct, actively avoiding crowds and seeking isolated or sequestered environments;
• rarely displays command of deceptive behavior, instead the individuals often use a single standard for all social engagements (frequently ignoring protocols of social strata or personal boundary);
• sometimes displays assortative mating, with parents possessing less-exaggerated qualities producing children of more pronounced qualities;
• possesses epigentic differences spanning many chromosomes and sites; and
• possesses genetic differences spanning many chromosomes and sites.

If we were talking about some animal other than humans, wouldn't all of these changes (the behavioral and skeletal and biological all taken together) suggest a new species? So when we talk about humans, why suddenly change standards? I think it's time to stop talking of autism as defect but instead as prospective evolutionary path.

A change in fitness criteria does, however, fit into my theory that autism is an "old" evolutionary experiment returned for a new trial run. A physically crowded, memetically crowded human environment might benefit in the long term from an autistic mind. Traits might be useful in that environment that were not so well valued in a sparsely populated, low-technology environment. So what if it takes even longer to produce a well-functioning adult? Humans already officially claim an 18-to-21-year delay in producing adults already, longer than any other animal I know of, at any physical size or social temperament. Perhaps additional complexity requires additional development time, "postpartum".
http://home.earthlink.net/~mellowtigger/evolution.html

I, for one, do see evolution in action. Assortative mating can account for a lot, especially in a world where individuals have opportunity to mate with people in far-removed geographic regions. No, I don't mean silly things like "Gentlemen prefer blondes" or various affinities for certain skin colors. I mean issues of personality, temperament, and intellectual interest. Social reality today is enormously different from what it was just 3000 years ago.

Don't discount chemical changes in the environment either. We've certainly changed it a lot in the last few millenia.

If you enjoy reading quack theories for their amusement value, I posted my own thoughts about autism and evolution earlier today.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mellowtigger/evolution.html

I've had dogs that recognised other breeds. Example: I took an 8 year old Lab to a weekend at the all-breed dog show. This was the first time in his life that he had EVER been around any other breed of dogs (except for my neighbour's Goldens), or even out in public at all. Over the course of the day he picked out five different breeds and did this "daddy, I want one!" act every time an individual of that breed walked by, while ignoring all other dogs (of the couple hundred individuals of 40+ breeds in immediate sight). Not even similar breeds, either -- he wanted a Pit Bull, one of the small hairless breeds (I forget if it was an American Hairless Terrier or a Xolo, but he only liked one of them, and these two breeds look a great deal alike), a Leonberger (huge hairy dog), a Coton (small furry white dog), and I forget what else. It was exactly like a kid in the toy store fixating on one particular toy, then forgetting about it entirely when some other toy catches his eye.

Anyway... it wouldn't surprise me at all if once a dog had the concept of "picture of another dog" it could also sort them by breed, and even possibly by individual dog (since in 3-D life, dogs have no trouble recognising individual dogs by sight, and can readily distinguish among very similar-looking individuals, too).