It is insane. Coincidentally, I was just chafing at the restriction at Google Books looking at a novel published in Russia in 1915. A century-old book very few have ever heard of. Not even available as an e-book. If this were a censorship scheme, it could hardly work any better than it does. Maybe there's some danger in reading really, really old books. Maybe it would lead to, oh I dunno, different ways to think about the world or something. Or maybe so many people would read the old literature that it would compete too successfully with whatever you call the garp that's being published these days.

In the US (and I'm sure its the same in most places), free-speech exceptions are far from the only tools of suppression. Fear of innuendo and insinuation are used to discourage even overly candid speech, let alone free speech. The grapevine and badjacketing have long, long been an important social-engineering tool, not just for "authorities" but for society as a whole. Never mind the evidence, never mind the fairness ... many lives are ruined by whispered accusations.

Of course this "feature" of society is completely ignored (in ignorance or deliberation) by the "nothing to hide" crowd. One careless moment of speech, poorly chosen words, a fit of pique expressed online are all engraved here forever. Look to the life of Mario Savio to see what happens to the heroes of "free speech" in the US and almost everywhere else. Online anonymity is essential if open speech is to have a chance.

technology cannot cause unemployment

Yeah? Tell that to the fine people working in the grocery stores I visit, slowly being replaced by machines. Tell that to all the people who would have worked in banks and offices before the days of punch cards. Tell that to the guys who gandy-danced rails into place, and the diggers, and the guys who carried bricks on their backs all day long, and the guys who built cars and machined millions of parts all day long for decades.

Of course economists would say that, they've never left the Ivory Tower to labor in the mills and fields and tunnels and streets. That's the kind of disconnect that got Murka where it's got today, that got our space program where it's got, that creates the 'nutrition' that got us where we are.

Ad hominem attacks are the first refuge of a playground bully (e.g. it's the primary MO of the US Tea Party). That an Ubuntu Manager makes such an attack in a remark on a community-oriented pioneer like Stallman immediately marks the attacker, not the attacked.

Canonical made a big mistake (doing this without a thorough, public discussion), they doubled down on their mistake, and now they're taking cheap potshots at a major community figure. They're hurting themselves and FOS. Unprofessional, uncool, and unhelpful. Bad week.

Ya see?? There's what separates Slashdot today from what it used to be: people aren't afraid to direct attention away from the issues being addressed by drawing attention to the eccentricities of the writer!! Just like it worked on the playground!! And it's marvelous that the carefully-selected Slashdot mods reward Mr. AC for his delightful, acute, sophisticated wit.

Bravo Slashdot! You're not becoming irrelevant like so many of the other decades-old commentary sites!

Not only is LM13 KDE a great distro, it's very turnkey. Audio, second monitor, wifi, usb, mice, touchpads ... all just work. I tried it in August - my first Linux install - and have only visited the previous OS once a month since. WIth dozens of apps added (and some Office grunge uninstalled) takes up a whole 6GB.

Whoever said "The truth will set you free." failed to convey the fine print.

The desire of commercial agencies to cram their so-called information into our consciousness in order to elicit a desired behavior does not abridge our right to filter that so-called information with our brains ... or any tool that we may use to our advantage to keep their ceaseless baying from interrupting our reasoning, productivity and peace-of-mind. Any law that might attempt to infringe on that right richly deserves our loathing and disregard.

WXYZ = The Detroit radio station where The Lone Ranger got his start.

In case that's a clue.

Good luck on that working. Take BoingBoing for example, now writing half of its "articles" about products. No hardware's that smart.

If you can find the assertion in some published book you can cite the book and page number and that is automatically "good enough" for WP. Anyone who tells you different is wrong. For potentially libelous assertions you can - and should- provide two reliable sources. (There are plenty of articles that don't have a single source that good.)

Yes, someone can always come along and take it out ... and if you don't care to dispute it, yes, they win. But that's how life, not just WP, works.

It appears to me that you're passionate enough about Mehdi to start an article yourself.
There are a lot of notable musicians with better qualifications from decades back that are far from finished. So either join the party or get in line.

Thanks a lot for the detailed post. I'm sure I'd enjoy a few hours there w/the OT's. Took me a while to find a bus route (#132 gets to 4th Ave & Michigan) and notice that it's near SCCC Georgetown.

Dear Dad: science courses aren't just about the concrete content. They're also about learning the so-called "scientific method", doing experiments to see what happens and then discussing ways to explain the results. Studying how atoms are structured, how and why they connect, gives insights into many kinds of simple structures with complex side effects. Learning to balance chemical equations exercises math skills as well as teaching the use of explanatory logic.

Professional educators study teaching for a reason: there are many many angles to consider (true for both subject content and students individual differences). A great deal is learned in the process of teaching others, much of it can't be conveyed in words.

I can understand parents who object to mandatory education and slovenly teachers. And I despise curriculums rigged to serve some bone-headed purpose like standardized testing. But when it comes to the values served by caring professionals doing their best under trying and underpaid circumstances to maximize the benefits realized by students? Then parents need to SHUT THE FUCK UP. They wouldn't like it much if someone told them how to do the job they've invested years in either.

Most of what's wrong with education has nothing to do with the kids or the teachers. It's primarily the home environment that decides how well kids do, and the school environment that decides how well teachers do. Keep the parents and administrators out of the classrooms and leave the kids and teachers alone.

Every interpretation of QM I've seen is a "many-words interpretation".

Eddington was *definitely* on to something with his (completely ignored ... so far) "Fundamental theory".