So Kivrin Engle would indeed survive? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Book_(novel)

The Littles always cite the Black Death and 1918 pandemic [wikipedia.org] as if that's what we could expect from a pandemic today--all without noting the MASSIVE improvements in sanitation, medical science, vaccine research, etc. that make this scale of pandemic highly unlikely in the modern era. Black Death -- bacterial -- likely not a big deal in the age of antibiotics. 1918 pandemic -- viral -- the healthier you are, the more likely it is that your own cytokine storm will kill you -- might be even more of a big deal today, especially with jet airplanes helping to spread the disease.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that, based on too-simplistic assumptions, when just 10 percent of the population in their model holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society in their model. 'When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent [in our model], there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority [in our model],' said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski. 'Once that number grows above 10 percent [in our model], the idea spreads like flame.'

I try to be prescriptive in my use of language but descriptive in my acceptance of language, along the lines of the data processing principle of producing well-formatted output but accepting a wide variety of input formats. (Occasionally, though, I fall behind the progress of the language as it is used, such as the development that "electrocute" can apparently now mean just "injure with electricity", according to most dictionaries, with the apparent exception of the one I checked before criticizing that use of "electrocute".) My advice for trying to be prescriptive is to say irrespective instead of "irregardless".

I tried the hand scanner a few times, but gave up the first time something went wrong and I had to re-scan everything in my cart. It would take a very, very low failure rate for the time saved on each occasion that the hand scanner works to be worth the time wasted on occasions that the hand scanner doesn't work.

This is the Slashdot homepage of the juror on the case who posted heavily in the Slashdot thread about the verdict in the criminal trial of Terry Childs.

It was tacitly condoned, but the document itself does not even have the word "slave" in it.

Hairsplitting, since it has "other" [than "free"] "Persons" in it. Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

"Electrocute" means "kill by electricity".

Wait -- you can get good Yorkshire pudding in the UK? Where? Recommendations wanted...

Signed, an American who has only ever had homemade (delicious) Yorkshire pudding

Team Newt is driving hard to brand Newt as the "intellectual" candidate.

I abhor Gingrich's politics. I'm not impressed by his treatment of his ex-wives, though I care relatively little about "character" issues that are largely irrelevant to job performance.

But it seems quite fair to me to brand Gingrich as "intellectual". Ph.D. in history from Tulane, eight-year college professor, plenty of intellectual achievements in the years since.

I don't think "pretends to run" was an unfair characterization of the 2008 campaign; see this excerpt from 20 September 2007:

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he still might run for president in 2008, but he wants his supporters to cough up some cash to help him.

Gingrich wants his backers to pledge 30 million dollars by November. He says that's what he would need to compete with Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has raised the most money, so far, for the GOP presidential race."

http://www.mysouthwestga.com/news/story.aspx?id=52130

Also, Tigran Petrosian, World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969, was Armenian.

Somehow this escaped notice in the article, but surely Garry Kasparov's legacy is part of the Armenian psyche, as he is half-Armenian.

Adding on, from 438 BC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcestis_(play)

Here's a Slashdot story about fungus on Mir: http://slashdot.org/story/00/10/02/191229/Space-Fungus-Eating-Mir-Really Here's a mirror of the article linked there: http://www.rense.com/general8/mir.htm Consensus on Slashdot back then seemed to be that the fungus was only growing on the inside, and that dublin's "both inside and outside" summary was mistaken.