At least in my job -- call center management -- people need to learn how to use spreadsheets effectively, as well as simple coding techniques (for scripting). It is endlessly useful to me that I can do those things. I've personally automated a lot of our current systems and saved endless man-hours.

It's very difficult to communicate with someone when their livelihood is dependent on not understanding.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/08/court_orders_ts.html Nothing to see here.

I honestly can't say why people are pissed off about it. I had a Kindle 3rd gen keyboard and now I have the Fire. I'm extremely pleased with it. I admit, the power button is awkward (particularly since its close proximity to the USB and headphone jack make it difficult to plug in my headphones at the same time as the other two), but really? It certainly isn't an instantly returnable product by any means. If people expected it to be exactly the same as an iPad, that's their fault. I played around with it at Best Buy for a while before I bought mine and had no illusions about how well it would perform. I wonder how many people have done the same that then downrated it significantly.

Instead of lots of /opinions/ on the matter, how about someone do a study to find out which language actually does turn out the highest quality programmer. That's the only way this question will ever get settled.

I've always had trouble getting decent(ly priced) copies of old philosophy books and this would help me a great deal. I just wish they were testing this in the US...

So how does this affect anything? Last I heard, what we called "choosing" to do an act was very specific and has nothing at all to do with brain states. That these states correlate with decisions are... accidental. I may be Wittgensteinizing here, but what it means for me to choose to do something is not the same as what it means for some sort of activity to be present in my brain. That both situations are called "choosing" may present some confusion, but they don't appear to have much to do with one another otherwise. This kind of article seems to be much hype over absolutely nothing...