Shigeru Miyamoto made Nintendo what it is.

Maybe important findings get publicity and "breakthrough!" status only if they're somewhat surprising? If folks chip away at a problem for 20 years, even if the result is the same as waiting 19 years and then having a eureka discovery, is it still called a breakthrough?

I wonder the poll just measures how often folks write out the date, and most folks mess up about the same number of times before "oh yeah, it's 2010!" kicks in.

A receptionist, who's scheduling things all the time, might only need one morning at work to make the mental shift. But for me it's ~2 weeks, since I rarely find myself writing out the date.

I wonder if all folks mess up about the same number of times before "oh yeah, it's 2010!" kicks in, and the poll's really measuring how often you write out the date.

I imagine one morning at work is all it would take a receptionist, who's scheduling all the time. But for me it's ~2 weeks, since I rarely find myself writing out the date.

Tz-D-K is a root that means justice. That website just spelled out the letters. And Maimonides - aka Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon - is Rambam (in Hebrew: R-M-b-M). (I agree with you on the Mourner's Kaddish - that website is incorrect there.)

From Judaism 101: "... the nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. The word 'charity' suggests benevolence and generosity... The word 'tzedakah' is derived from the Hebrew root tzadei-dalet-kof, meaning justice or fairness. In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act..."

If tzedakah just meant charity, then American Jews would likely use the English word 'charity.' As a general rule, if a word finagles its way into a new language, it's either:
- a word children learn (mom, dad, grandma, etc)
- a concept that doesn't quite exist in the new language (tzedakah, schlemeil, machatunim)
- a restaurant trying to charge you more for food (aubergine, frites, a la carte) :)

And BTW, Maimonides' ladder traditionally lists the highest form of tzedakah as helping someone become self-sufficient. Double-blind giving is second.

Something about your post is... impossible.

The act is the same by any name - giving to worthy causes - but "charity" has such generous connotations.

I always liked the Jewish "tzedakah." The idea is that whatever you give was never yours to begin with. That money, that effort or time or whatever, is part of the community, part of something larger than yourself. Maybe it's a semantic quibble, but it helps remind me that my accomplishments don't exist in a vacuum.

The word "charity" could use a little humility.

I hope the dictionary works on a sort of democratic principle, where words are defined by their actual usage.

Dictionary editors understand this, but they just don't update enough to make it work. M-W doesn't have the Simpsons' cromulent, but it has Shakespeare's puke and Dr. Suess's nerd. It'd be nice to have a dictionary that evolves as quickly as language.

NCCAM started as a promise to put "complimentary and alternative medicine" (CAM) to scientific scrutiny, with politically predictable results.

As much as I love science (and how!), I'm ambivalent about even the idea of NCCAM. Testing herbal remedies... I don't know, maybe we'll find something great. But testing things like homeopathy, which even NCCAM admits "a number of its key concepts are not consistent with the current understanding of science, particularly chemistry and physics," is just a waste of resources.

I know lots of folks with self-diagnosed H1N1.

That's the problem with vague, let's cover our bases and be inclusive descriptions. Sniffles, upset stomach? Why, that's me!

Um... questioning authority is kinda the hallmark of science. I understand what you're saying - science is underappreciated - but empowering people to seek the truth for themselves is what science is!

The 16th century's Glorious Revolution was society saying "How come we have to believe Galen? I'm gonna dissect some humans myself and see what's inside." We didn't need authority to be our conduit to truth: we could seek truth directly. (At the same time, people were rebelling against needing the Pope as a conduit to God, and voila, Protestantism.)

Seriously, why is overpopulation rarely mentioned by environmentalists? Total human footprint = footprint per person x number of people. Why is all the focus on the first part?

In grade school, we learned that 'tribal peoples' were super environmentalist. Now, in a backlash against the cultural relativism (and historically-based guilt) I grew up in, folks like Dawkins argue that tribal people weren't environmentalists at all - they were just incapable of making such an impact due to their low population densities. But intentional or not, isn't that a killer way to lessen your impact?

It's high time folks stopped applauding huge families (I'm looking at you, religion...).

Yes, the educated benefit from being educated, but everybody benefits from having educated people around. The former is why private schools are seductive to many, but the latter is why we should embrace education as a public good - external to the market - and support/fix our existing socialized system.

So you're right, the problem is the incompetence of public schools. But privatization ain't the solution.

Libertarians, who are often persuasively consistent (and I really do appreciate your consistency), have given monopolies, governments, and other non-market institutions a bad reputation. Even the term for something that doesn't jibe with a market - "an externality" - belittles the importance of things like pollution, basic science, education, overfishing, national defense, a judicial system, national highways, and on and on and on.

Lazy? Really? You're lazy enough to be unsatisfied with inefficiency, but ambitious enough to effect a change. That curious duo is the coal and fire of progress.

I think it's wonderful that you still code after retirement - you probably liked your job. All jobs are somewhat means to an end, but some are ends in themselves as well. You really have a good head on your shoulders.