On the other hand, let me assure you that there is also a significant movement in linguistics away from Chomsky's theories. The cognitive linguistics community is pretty virulently opposed to generative grammar and "deep linguistics."
There are some difficulties in Chomsky's work that arise from extrapolating general rules from "basic" cases, rather than unusual, abberant cases, and research suggests that other cognitive models shape the way we speak. Many linguists are still very into generative grammar, but it is far from a unanimous conclusion.
Just so you know, you haven't exactly given a correct definition of a partial-birth abortion. You've made it sound like it's something that's done during or immediately following natural labor. Instead, it's a procedure for deliberately induced abortions - the woman's cervix is dilated and the fetus is partially removed from the womb so that it can be terminated (hence the term "partial-birth"). It's a mid-to-late-term abortion technique, banned in cases where they aren't necessary to save the life of the mother in about 20 states. It's also the procedure for removing a dead late-term fetus that isn't miscarrying properly...there's a lot of vigorous debate on the issue of PBAs, which you can read all about.
Yes, autism is a fuzzily defined syndrome, rather than a simple disorder. There's a collection of possible displayed behaviors, any of which can combine to prompt a diagnosis of autism -- if you have a certain number of traits from one category, a certain number from another, and a certain number from yet another, you officially qualify for the diagnosis.
Research tends to indicate that rapid readers do recognize entire words (possibly even groups of words) instantaneously -- but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're processing the sight of each letter individually, in parallel. Instead you're recognizing the shape of the entire word.
Sorry, let me be a bit more accurate. Click on your own name at the top of the page, as I said, but (as doubtless anyone with any actual observation skills, unlike me, could tell) you want to click on "User Info" if you're looking at a comment. Now that I've fully labored the obvious, I'll be on my way.
You can look at your old comments, but only over the last few weeks. Get to your userpage by clicking on your username (as it appears with a comment you posted or at the top of the page when you're logged in, e.g. This page was created by a herd of angry wombats for XX). You can access anyone's userpage this way. A link to each comment appears, along with the comment's moderator rating. It looks like your total karma is also shown there these days.
I agree that it might be nice to get this information going a little farther back, but obviously storage becomes an issue.
It's not actually the case that the people conducting a search are only permitted to collect the items listed in the warrant. I believe that current case law has it that one can collect any evidence one comes across in the course of searching an area where one might reasonably find the listed item(s). That is, if you're supposed to be looking for a body, you aren't allowed to go poking into desk drawers. If you're looking for a particular postcard, though, you can. Then, if you happen to find a baggie of cocaine, there is absolutely no problem with confiscating that and using it as evidence to arrest you for a completely separate crime.
A warrant for some particular snippet of data on your computer gives the police the right to look anywhere on your computer where that data might be hidden, obviously, just as a warrant to search for, say, tabs of acid in your car will allow them to look all over your car. Thus, any sort of incriminating data in those places is up for grabs. Depending on how you look at this issue, you may or may not find this an important distinction, but it is a point worth understanding about search and seizure law.
Uhhh, it is possible to live in Kansas and be too poor to move away or to send your kids to private school. Oh well, poor kids don't really need to learn everything they can about biology, anyway.
I don't own a tv, and I don't especially want one in my house--the tendency to turn it on at the slightest hint of a lull in the conversation is just awful, and I don't want to find out which of my near and dear would do that, given the chance. Further, I think that most of the stuff on the box is drivel. I don't advocate using it as a babysitter. Etc, etc.
However, tv can be genuinely educational. My mother tells me I learned to read (at the age of 2) from The Electric Company. I certainly learned as much basic science from Mr. Wizard as I did in school. Square One, also, I remember as very good. Furthermore, don't discount the value of good, smart satire. It may not come up often in network television, but it does happen, occasionally even in commercials, disturbing though the social/political ramifications of that may be. After all, their production values per second are far higher than those of the programming, and plenty of people in advertising are quite intelligent.
There's no reason why television can't be good; it's just that it often isn't. But do we honestly think that most of the stuff on the Web is brilliant?
I don't know why anyone would want to feel loyalty for AOL.
For my local ISP, however, sure. Yes, if they had terrible service and jerky, unhelpful employees, I wouldn't feel so loyal. But then they don't. And if the service started to slip, I'd hang in for a while--out of loyalty--and try to convince them to improve it which might stand a chance of keeping it better for everyone. I think an element of that kind of loyalty is part of what makes Linux go on improving. People want to stay with it and make it better, not dump it for something else.
Unfortunately, there are often physical reasons why building deep underground isn't practical. But yep, it's all about zoning. If urban planner types prefer big, shiny skylines, zone for above-ground growth. If you want hive-mazes, zone for below-ground growth. It's true that generally zoning rules take height into account from both a safety and an aesthetic/usage concern (you know, no buildings over six stories to prevent an urban-downtown look, or to discourage large companies from settling in an area), unlike the incentives and restrictions on below-ground building.
I think it's fairly apparent that the major labels are the ones really trying to stop MP3s from gaining a foothold. DeSoto, my personal fave label, has been putting up RealAudio files... Hopefully, they'll move to a more MP3-centric format. I mean, if you're staying in business selling your CDs for ten or eleven bucks in the first place, it's not a dramatic change in your business model, is it? (And I thought Neutral Milk Hotel was an Elephant 6 band?)
No, I don't think you're acting in your capacity as a hacker when you're programming at work. As a hacker, you aren't doing it because someone else wants you to, so your boss can make a profit. You're doing it because you were personally inspired to figure out a different/better way to make something work.
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There are some difficulties in Chomsky's work that arise from extrapolating general rules from "basic" cases, rather than unusual, abberant cases, and research suggests that other cognitive models shape the way we speak. Many linguists are still very into generative grammar, but it is far from a unanimous conclusion.
Just so you know, you haven't exactly given a correct definition of a partial-birth abortion. You've made it sound like it's something that's done during or immediately following natural labor. Instead, it's a procedure for deliberately induced abortions - the woman's cervix is dilated and the fetus is partially removed from the womb so that it can be terminated (hence the term "partial-birth"). It's a mid-to-late-term abortion technique, banned in cases where they aren't necessary to save the life of the mother in about 20 states. It's also the procedure for removing a dead late-term fetus that isn't miscarrying properly...there's a lot of vigorous debate on the issue of PBAs, which you can read all about.
Yes, autism is a fuzzily defined syndrome, rather than a simple disorder. There's a collection of possible displayed behaviors, any of which can combine to prompt a diagnosis of autism -- if you have a certain number of traits from one category, a certain number from another, and a certain number from yet another, you officially qualify for the diagnosis.
Research tends to indicate that rapid readers do recognize entire words (possibly even groups of words) instantaneously -- but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're processing the sight of each letter individually, in parallel. Instead you're recognizing the shape of the entire word.
Sorry, let me be a bit more accurate. Click on your own name at the top of the page, as I said, but (as doubtless anyone with any actual observation skills, unlike me, could tell) you want to click on "User Info" if you're looking at a comment. Now that I've fully labored the obvious, I'll be on my way.
I agree that it might be nice to get this information going a little farther back, but obviously storage becomes an issue.
It's pretty easy for someone to misunderstand you there, considering what ISP stands for.
A warrant for some particular snippet of data on your computer gives the police the right to look anywhere on your computer where that data might be hidden, obviously, just as a warrant to search for, say, tabs of acid in your car will allow them to look all over your car. Thus, any sort of incriminating data in those places is up for grabs. Depending on how you look at this issue, you may or may not find this an important distinction, but it is a point worth understanding about search and seizure law.
Uhhh, it is possible to live in Kansas and be too poor to move away or to send your kids to private school. Oh well, poor kids don't really need to learn everything they can about biology, anyway.
However, tv can be genuinely educational. My mother tells me I learned to read (at the age of 2) from The Electric Company. I certainly learned as much basic science from Mr. Wizard as I did in school. Square One, also, I remember as very good. Furthermore, don't discount the value of good, smart satire. It may not come up often in network television, but it does happen, occasionally even in commercials, disturbing though the social/political ramifications of that may be. After all, their production values per second are far higher than those of the programming, and plenty of people in advertising are quite intelligent.
There's no reason why television can't be good; it's just that it often isn't. But do we honestly think that most of the stuff on the Web is brilliant?
For my local ISP, however, sure. Yes, if they had terrible service and jerky, unhelpful employees, I wouldn't feel so loyal. But then they don't. And if the service started to slip, I'd hang in for a while--out of loyalty--and try to convince them to improve it which might stand a chance of keeping it better for everyone. I think an element of that kind of loyalty is part of what makes Linux go on improving. People want to stay with it and make it better, not dump it for something else.
Unfortunately, there are often physical reasons why building deep underground isn't practical. But yep, it's all about zoning. If urban planner types prefer big, shiny skylines, zone for above-ground growth. If you want hive-mazes, zone for below-ground growth. It's true that generally zoning rules take height into account from both a safety and an aesthetic/usage concern (you know, no buildings over six stories to prevent an urban-downtown look, or to discourage large companies from settling in an area), unlike the incentives and restrictions on below-ground building.
I think it's fairly apparent that the major labels are the ones really trying to stop MP3s from gaining a foothold. DeSoto, my personal fave label, has been putting up RealAudio files... Hopefully, they'll move to a more MP3-centric format. I mean, if you're staying in business selling your CDs for ten or eleven bucks in the first place, it's not a dramatic change in your business model, is it? (And I thought Neutral Milk Hotel was an Elephant 6 band?)
No, I don't think you're acting in your capacity as a hacker when you're programming at work. As a hacker, you aren't doing it because someone else wants you to, so your boss can make a profit. You're doing it because you were personally inspired to figure out a different/better way to make something work.