discipline

Yep, I did. R. Aubry

No, you must be joking. The burden of proof in an argument has to be borne by the one making the claim. If you claim you saw a UFO, the burden of proof is on you. The burden of proof does not fall on everyone else to prove that what you saw could NOT, in any way, shape, or form, possibly be a UFO.

Down in Charlotte, NC area.

To my untrained ear, this sounds like an argument over optimal versus satisficing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing). (I'm just tossing that out there: if this is something you already know about, just ignore my comment. I'll let myself out now...)

Absolutely, and given that Gell-Mann was corresponding in 1978 with editors at the OED, it's likely that said English teacher (if she had an ounce of self-respect (I speak as a teacher myself)) would have had at least a relatively recent dictionary in her possession, and would have found quark in it. Still, kudos to her for at least caring enough to ask the science teacher.

Same here, but in our apartment across the river in Cambridge. Magazine, movie, and Ben&Jerry's. And it was freakin' cold out, close to zero!

MIT graduate I met 30 years ago told me he had a professor tell him that there are 3 things in life:

  1. things divisible by 3 
  2. things not divisible by 3
  3. other things

No Dhalgren or Triton, by Samuel R. Delany?

Yeah, seriously. Also, from the Google web site: "Searching without typing Use it in the kitchen, in the garage or anytime your hands might be full."

Oh, really? I want to see you move your mouse pointer into position and click the microphone...anytime your hands might be full. Silly bints.

Damn them - damn them to hell. The thing that Firefox 3 did in Winidows (XP anyway) that was so useful was that when you deleted trash or spam, it automatically put the pointer on the OK button. Not the OS preference, but a Firefox feature. It didn't work in OS X, but it worked in XP. They took that feature away - I saw it in the beta, but was hoping they really hadn't deleted it. Damn them.

OK, other than that, I like FF4! Just had to vent.

If You Want To Write is way underrated, I agree.

If you're a fiction writer, you do NOT want to miss The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner. The last chapter, Exercises, is a seminar all by itself on what to practice writing, and why.

Here are some [writing exercises](http://www.scottwrobel.com/ADD%20Course/trigger_exercises.ht...)

I've been using SoftMaker Office 2008 for the past 2 months and can't believe how much faster it is than OpenOffice, which is a shame, because I've been using OO for years.

Here's a simpler version. It has only 8 pages, but the pages are somewhat larger and the whole booklet sits flatter in a pocket. Here goes:

1) Fold (8.5x11) sheet of paper in half (like a hamburger, not a hot dog - in other words, don't fold it "lengthwise".)(Make all folds like this).

2) Fold in half again.

3) Fold in half again.

4) Now open (twice), so you're looking at the paper after the first fold. You should be holding it in landscape orientation in front of you. The fold should be at the top and the paper should be open at the bottom.

5) See the vertical line running down the center? Rip (or cut, but ripping works just fine) that line to the halfway mark (the center of the page). (You're almost done.)

6) Now open the paper all the way, and refold it once lengthwise (like a hotdog). You should be able to grab an end in each hand and see an open diamond shape (rhomboid) in the middle.

7) Gently push the two ends towards the center. You'll see the bottom page start to collapse and fold into the page in your left hand. Just keep folding the pages onto each other, and fold the 4th/last one to make the back page/cover. Voila!

Let me know if I need to clarify my instructions.

Did the server go down? I want to play against the machine, all I get is a page not found/404 page. I'm on Firefox.

I upvoted you because I got the humor. Seriously, at this point I am completely willing to accept this is just me, because I have heard no one complain about this but me!

OK, I really need a reality check here. First, let me make it clear - on every reddit discussion about math and about Khan Academy that's I've been involved in, I heartily recommend it. I think what he's doing makes him one of the education heroes of the 21st century, and I'm a public school math teacher! But..."eloquent speaker"??? Khan drives me UP THE GODDAM WALL with his palsy-mousing and repetition while he's thinking on-the-fly. I mean, what amazes me about him is he's able to just sit down and do these videos without any script beforehand, which you can tell because he just starts making up examples while he's explaining things!!! But as a teacher - and professional speaker - and former theatre major - he makes me crazy. EVERY video I've seen goes like this:

"OK, we're going to cover (insert topic here). Now suppose we want to solve 2X=5, that's, uh, 2x, uh twoooo, (wiggles stylus, then writes 2), uh X (wiggles stylus, then writes X, eeeeequals, (wiggles stylus, then writes the equals sign), equals (wiggles stylus, writes 5) five..." Ad nauseum.

I have heard literally NO ONE mention this in any discussion about Khan Academy. Why? I haven't hallucinated this behavior - it's on EVERY video, because, well, it's his STYLE. And I've never seen this behavior at a blackboard by any instructor, no matter how crummy they were (and, whoo, have I seen some crummy ones!).

Please, someone tell me that I've fallen into some universe where I've become the character Monk, and I'm the only one who's bothered by Khan's presentation!

Design, design, design. Oh, yeah, and marketing, too.

Totally anecdotal, but I thought I'd pass this on.

Whenever I use Goog 411 or Dragon, my results improve if I speak like a standard radio announcer. You know, that kind of jokey, fake lilting voice that they use on car commercials? I hate doing it because I sound like such an ass, but whenever I've done so, Google understands what I'm saying. YMMV.

I use http://toread.cc/ for the same purpose, plus I can always search in Gmail for my articles.

Speaking of typing, has anyone here tried out the new Dragon Dictation app? Sounds like a natural for the iPad (I'm waiting for mine - got a preorder of the 3G).

I really wish someone in the know would reply to your post because I think you have the most salient point. In fact, do the same open source advocates decry the Playstation and Nintendo platforms?