When Atlanta was in drought a few years ago they managed to get people to conserve water. Then the city starting crying they were losing income because of reduced water usage, and increased fees on water. Government leeches NEVER back off. If we use less fuel because of better mileage vehicles. government leeches will increase the tax to make up for it. These new regulations will save us exactly nothing, and in fact will almost certainly cost us more because the vehicles are more expensive and the government will raise taxes to make up for the revenue otherwise lost. Only an abject fool would trust the government on an issue like this.

Yes, it's Superdiamond - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal diamonds.

My understanding is that Beethoven held a ruler (or equivalent) between his teeth and rested it on the piano so he could hear it. And it would most likely have been a piano rather than a clavichord, which even in Beethoven's day was considered an old-fashioned instrument. Cristofori invented the piano in about 1707, and the other keyboard instruments (harpsichord, clavichord, virginal, essentially everything except organ) fell out of favor after the advantages of the piano became obvious.

According to TFA: 'In fact, the slugs incorporate the genetic material so well, they pass it on to further generations of slugs." Isn't this the long-discredited (allegedly) Lamarckism? Passing on acquired characteristics to the next generation is Lamarckism. And if this isn't Lamarckism, could someone explain why I am wrong? And how can there be 210 comments and, as far as I can tell, no one else noticed this?

I have a Bare-Eyed Cockatoo, and he dances constantly, all the while chanting "dance dance dance." He also chants "shake shake shake your booty" while dancing. I didn't try to teach him either of these things, he taught himself. Of course I taught him the words, but not on purpose, he just picked them up from me. I take him in the shower with me about once a week, and encourage him to shake off before I take him out of the shower stall by telling him to "shake your little white booty" and singing a bit of KC and the Sunshine Band. He also likes music, especially opera, and will sing along with the women, but not the men. He speaks to me with appropriate responses on a regular basis. If one of my other birds gets off its cage he will say "get back on your cage" at it. They are much smarter and aware than most people give them credit for.

Is no one going to mention Robert Heinlein and Waldo? They don't make nerds like they used to. http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=23

As is so often the case, ridicule and the occasional "fuck you" from typically sharp-witted Slashdotters has caused me to reexamine and abandon my previous position, and reveals that I am completely in thrall to confirmation bias. How could I have been so foolish as to construct my argument in such a way that any exception thereto would disprove it? I wish I had had enough sense not to claim that all people on welfare should be immediately sterilized. And the reference to Stephen Hawking is particularly devastating; who would have thought that a Cambridge Fellow would be on welfare? Mea culpa, my brilliant Godwinian friends, I am covered in shame. Now excuse me while I go discard all my Nazi memorabilia.