Sidewalks are actually a quite dangerous place for cyclists. One of the most dangerous interactions between cyclists and motorists is the intersection between sidewalks and parking lot entry-exit. The visibility can be exceptionally poor, the cyclists are going faster than the motorists expect, and sometimes the motorists simply don't look at the sidewalk. This is in addition to the need to dodge bus stops, telephone poles, pedestrians, and other cyclists on a fairly narrow path. Dedicated bike paths are one thing, but run of the mill sidewalks are a poor location for cyclists.

I've been hearing/reading/experiencing a lot lately indicating that steady-state aerobics (i.e. the stuff you can sing while you do) is not nearly as effective or beneficial (or healthy) as shorter high-intensity bursts, the kind that will likely leave you on the verge of breathlessness.

Still agree that it's probably legalistic crap, and you should leave the tech out.

On the contrary... I think PE should stay, but it should not suck. Have PE where the teacher actually, ZOMG, teaches the students how to play sports and do other physical things... all the rules, various techniques for throwing, running, jumping, hitting, kicking, etc. I was incredibly averse to any physical activity we might have been exposed to in school for years, because they would just give everyone a basketball and say, "OK, for the next 45 minutes, you play basketball. Go!" Not knowing the intricacies of the rules, and not having been instructed in how to do things properly, and not having picked any of that up on my own, I quite naturally sucked at it, and ended up hating it. In retrospect, had the teacher attempted to show us the joy of physical activity rather than just providing outdoor babysitting in contrast to the rest of the day's indoor babysitting, it may have done some good.

I say keep PE and music, and cut out the couple of hours you wasted every day watching videos, listening to a book get read at you, outlining criminally dry history books filled largely with anecdotal and questionably accurate information. And for the love of the children, cut out the standardized testing!! I remember my K-8 as having a ridiculously high concentration of hours of extreme boredom. Yes, I was a smart kid, but the, with all due respect, dumb kids were also bored out of their mind and did nothing most of the time.

If anything, the school day can be made shorter, so the kids can spend less time being talked at and more time learning and exploring on their own. Kids WOULD be inclined to exercise on their own if they weren't kept locked indoors during the most beautiful hours of the day and given mindless work to do once they get out.

So I partially agree with you, but don't see PE, music class, and healthy lunches as being mutually exclusive solutions.

That is the result of the poor anti-ergonomic design of most keyboards. Unfortunately, keyboards that don't suck are expensive, as the market hasn't shown them to be a priority.

Given how many people write "alot" (and "anytime," and "everyday" to mean daily instead of ordinary), I'd say that the misspelling makes his point particularly effective, even if not intentionally so. Apparently that 99.99% of elementary school is not particularly effective in teaching proper spelling, as grandparent has nicely demonstrated for us.

You have it half right. On the standard $10 Fry's Special keyboard (or even some of the pricier "natural" options), touch typing is TERRIBLE for your hands. It's the keyboard's fault though. Get something like a Kinesis Advantage (aka the most awesome keyboard ever), and your hands aren't placed at that extremely awkward wrists-rotated angle, your fingers don't move nearly as far to keys, and there's almost no movement at all for ctrl, alt, backspace, delete, etc. Also, don't get me started on the diagonal staggering of keys, a bizarre relic of typewriter mechanisms long gone. The Kinesis is still maybe not as good for your hands as hunt and peck, but a very significant improvement.

I took the GRE 2 years ago. The software is still Win 3.1 era. Accommodating keyboard layouts, somehow, I don't think is any of their concern when they can't even be bothered to provide a box more than 20 characters wide to read an essay.

Perhaps they'll recover from the war-related PTSD, but you've introduced a whole other traumatic situation by bringing Second Life into the mix. How long will it take our brave veterans to get over the horror of bombardment via millions of floating penises?

Are you suggesting... CHEESE TREES????? Someone notify the President!

ZOMG!!! This means there must have once been trees on the moon!!!

Perhaps they'll attach a notice to the Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupon that arrives in the mail on days ending in "y".

An ergonomic mouse is good, but I've found ergonomic benefits that far outperform any change of mouse by learning every keyboard shortcut I can get my fingers on.

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I'm sure there are sound methods involved in this, but it sounds kinda like some lab techs have two dartboards, one labeled "thing to do to mouse" and another labeled "thing to inject into mouse to see if it gets better" and are playing a drinking game.

"Well, the Tide With Color-Safe Bleach injection didn't fix Squeaky's 'beetus. Your turn, Roy!"

My university was laying a bunch of new cable underground, and wanted to know what kind of cable to install that would be useful for the longest time. They asked the networking professor, probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the area on such matters. He told them that the cable type didn't matter, as long as it was installed with some sort of pull-through mechanism so that new cable could be easily installed at any time in the future without digging up the cables.

They ignored his suggestion, and installed whatever was good at the time despite his protests. I think they'll be due to re-trench a couple thousand yards in the not-too-distant future.