I lost it at "I've already spent my per diem for the day". An accounting wonk who doesn't know what "per diem" means? Guy needs a new job.

As others have observed, it's not just about exercise; it's about diet too. The particular form that each takes doesn't matter as long as you do the math to make things balance out.

A typical adult male will burn ~2000 calories a day just sitting there staring into space (give or take a few hundred depending on age and weight). Now look at the calories of your favorite fast food and snacks and drinks -- a few hundred here, a few hundred there, and suddenly you're eating 4000 calories a day while still only burning 2000.

It takes 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound. If you eat 3500 calories more than you burn, you're up a pound. Eat 3500 calories fewer than you burn, you lose a pound. It's that simple. The hard part is counting calories when no nutritional information is available, and working out how many calories you actually burn for any given activity. The Compendium of Physical Activity is a great start if you want a more precise DIY formula tailored to your exact specifications, or there are any number of websites that will let you plug in your age and weight and amount of time at a standard activity, and spit out the calories burned. I keep mine on a spreadsheet, with the most frequently consumed foods in a quick table along with the most frequent physical activities. At the end of the day I get the difference between the two and know if I went overboard and need to starve myself for a couple of days, or if I can step on the scale with pride.

Now, a bunch of folks have recommended specific activities - run! go to the gym! ride a bike! Feh. *ANYTHING* you do that keeps your body moving so your heart rate goes up and you burn more calories than at rest is a good thing. Unless you're specifically targeting a muscle group for development, you will be equally successful whether you walk, run, do calisthenics, or have a marathon session of great sex with a gymnast. Personally I avoid running; my older brother ran religiously for 30 years and now his knees and ankles are completely shot and useless. It takes longer walking 3-4 miles and hour to burn the same calories you would running, but your body will thank you in 20 years for the lower-impact activities.

On the diet side, don't feel like you are doomed to never eat a pizza again. It's all in the math. When I can't stand going another day without ice cream or pizza, I have a serving or two and damn the calories. Then I just eat much lighter (all vegetables instead of meat and starches) for a couple of days to pay back for those extra calories, and/or do another 2-mile walk (250 calories).

Did it work? See for yourself. In August 2009 I was over 260 pounds. I started walking -- just a block or two and I was winded and in pain -- and watching my calories, and by July 2010 I was down to 160. That was actually too extreme; I gained 30 of that back and I no longer look so skeletal. But I can walk 2 miles without stopping to rest, and 4 miles with resting. That may not sound like much to people who still go snowboarding and have marathon sessions of great sex with gymnasts, but for me it's literally the difference between life and death.

{shrug} depends on your definition of "win". For us, rampant drug use, chronic bullying, and overemphasis on sports at the expense of academics were all important reasons to homeschool our hatchlings. So from my point of view, this news is indeed *another* win.

The best part would be near the end, where you watch a video of yourself watching previous moments of your life; before long the camera would catch up to the present again and you'd watch a video of yourself watching a video of yourself, etc.

I actually agree with you, but unfortunately my inner Responsible Adult who deplores this act for exactly the reasons you cite is having a loud argument right now with my inner child who is laughing his head off. I'm still not sure who is winning.

Shop smart... shop S-Mart!

While we were not required to do anything but announce our intention to homeschool and provide (without requiring approval) our curriculum for the year, we did give our homeschooled kids the Stanford Achievement Test each year. Not for any reporting requirements, but to see where we were failing as teachers.

The result? Daughter got a full ride scholarship, and son got about half his tuition paid by scholarship. Of course neither one of them has any friends or knows how to have a conversation or play games because it never occurred to us to socialize them under any circumstances. I kid! They've both done much better socially than I ever did, even given the handicap of inheriting my F&SF/gaming/comics/Monty Python genes.

Belial6, it's worth noting that standardized testing may not be required in YOUR state, but the laws vary wildly from state to state. Some places the rules are so strict you might as well not bother homeschooling for all the freedom you have to shape your child's academic plan; others (like Wyoming where we live) are extremely laissez-faire.

I think I'm gonna go back through the last 18 years of school projects and LEGO models, and copyright them all in my name.

Whoosh. No worries, AC, *I* got the joke.

Add another to the chorus of Tracfone users. Until my wife suddenly got the tech bug and couldn't stand to be without a smartphone, that's all we used... it cost us maybe $15 a month for two phones and more minutes than we could use each month (she's also extremely quick to take advantage of all the "double minutes for life" and other offers). Of course it helps that I'm an old geezer who thinks that I have better things to do than be talking (or texting, or app-ing) on the phone when I'm out with friends or at a movie or at a restaurant; I *only* have the phone on and near me when I'm out traveling, and then *only* because my wife gripes if I don't have a way for her to reach me in an emergency. Everything else can wait until I'm home and use the landline (VoIP) or email.

Before Wordstar, there was Electric Pencil. I also compared Apple Writer II vs. Wordstar for a technical presentation in some college class in 1982; I declared at the time that Apple Writer was far and away the most advanced and user-friendly WP on the market.

I find it amusing that some 30 years later, some of the old Wordstar keyboard shortcuts are still used in some programs today -- notably alt-X, ctrl-Y, and F1 still do essentially the same things they did in Wordstar.

I think someone else mentioned Colossal Cave, and yes indeedy -- CC begat Zork which begat the rest of Infocom's amazing library, which I still play from time to time today. My 20-something daughter just the other day complained about the difficulty of getting the babel fish in your ear! Tell me, Microsoft, what games of YOURS are still being played 20 to 30 years later?>

So that's the only standard by which decisions should be made, whether the foundations of society will crumble? Well, let's see. Will the foundations of society crumble because I set fire to your house? Nope, nothing to worry about there. Will the foundations of society crumble if police are allowed to set up cameras and record anyone in their homes without a warrant? Ehhh, a few people might complain but no crumbling going on here.

Dismissing a concern on the grounds of ridiculous hyperbole is about as rude and ignorant as you can make yourself. How about "will society benefit from wider access to creative works that might otherwise be forgotten?"

If you have an objection or disagree with a concern that's being raised, how about putting some effort into a counterargument with some relevance and at least a shred of understanding of the issues involved?

At my company it came to a head several years ago when somebody complained about a perceived threat to her territory -- missing red stapler, missing chair, something like that -- and sent it out to the group for the entire company -- I mean *entire* company, at the time about 1000 folks including all top executives, offices in several cities around the US, etc. Of course the flames rose higher and higher, culminating with a bouquet of roses sent by way of apology from our San Francisco office for the abuse they heaped on the girl who started it all.

Yeah, good luck with that. Might as well say he plans to fund the project by buying lots and lots of lottery tickets.

In addition to the points others have made, the big issue is interactivity. If I am confused by an explanation, I can't stop the Khan Academy video and ask it "Wait, what about...?" Likewise any other static media. Oh, I might be able to find a website where I can ask my question and if there's enough traffic I'll probably get an answer in a few days or weeks, and if I'm really lucky one of the people who answered actually knows what he or she is talking about... although since I don't know the answer myself, knowing which answers I got are correct and which aren't is a bit of a gamble.

Until technology can assess a student's problem areas and provide on-the-fly additional material to strengthen those areas, AND identify the most effective method for delivering that information (some students learn best visually while auditory information goes in one ear and out the other; some process auditory information best; others don't really grok it until they get their hands on it), we need real teachers.

Finally, there's the less tangible value of social interaction. Even if an automated teaching system managed to understand my questions about a specific point and produce an explanation that addresses my confusion, a human teacher provides affirmation and encouragement in a uniquely human way that no computer ever can; this is particularly important in the early years when "you're doing great!" can do more to inspire a student than "No, that's wrong. Try it again." A smile, a touch... we jaded cynical self-starters may think that's irrelevant to education, but to a six-year-old struggling with addition they can make all the difference in the world.

When I google someone, I cross-check the results against what I do know about them and/or include things I know (such as the city where they currently live) in the search terms, and I filter out anyone that is obviously not the person I am stalking... I mean, getting to know better. As often as not I have an email address, and I simply google that.

Ten years ago, I wouldn't find much if anything, except for the few people who had a blog. Now, it's almost always their Facebook page.

When does it cross the line? I wish I knew. I'm not trying to dig up dirt; I'm genuinely interested in knowing more about the people I meet and I figure if they posted it in public it's not meant to be a secret. But I think I disturbed someone the other day when I blurted out "So, you're a Canuck!" at a meeting -- I also was born in Canada and her Facebook page (which she does not limit to friends) mentions a school in Ontario she attended. I've sent her a few emails since (including one that explained why the subject came up) and she has not responded to any of them. oops.