How do you keep your privacy while using Google? You don't.

I think Dave Gorman's quote about trying to write a novel is quite apt:

I'd love to hear how other people work around this. Personally, I get almost all my fiction writing done using an eee PC while I commute to work and back by train. Using text mode only (vim in FreeDOS), my text editor takes up the full screen so there are no distractions.

For what it's worth, according to his book In The Beginning... Was the Command Line, Neal Stephenson said he used a BeBox for a while.

He's also used emacs. Personally, I like the idea that anyone can download it for free and be on an equal footing with someone who's used it to write such great novels. Isn't that inspiring?

The Natural History Museum and Science Musuem are practically next door to each other, and are both essential to any good trip to London. Google Maps link

If you're in the UK and you want to show politicians you're against this, feel free to sign a petition saying so. Thank you.

If any UK citizens wish to protest this, feel free to take a look at my petition to legalise filesharing. Thanks.

...then food could possibly one day be copyrighted on the genetic or even molecular level. I wrote a story which hints at this a short while ago.

If anyone's interested, Charles Darwin's book The Voyage of the Beagle is available from Gutenberg, free in both senses of the word.

If you're concerned about copyright and live in the UK, please take a look at my petition. Thanks!

How about the even more simple explanation of just being distracted by the beautiful woman and imagining her naked with her legs wrapped around you is taking up all of your resources? "Trying to impress" doesn't need to come into it at all

Wait a minute, is that what men do when distracted by a beautiful woman? I'd assumed it was just infatuation, but do you actually picture such scenarios whenever you talk to someone you're attracted to? That sounds like an awfully resource draining thing to have to do all the time.

I know a lot of women who dumb themselves down in the presence of a man they're interested in because they believe that men are intimidated by smart women.

Ah, but that's pretending to be less intelligent rather than genuinely being forgetful because you're besotted by someone.

Oh, yes, hormone therapy, sex reassignment surgery, hair removal, voice exercises are all choices. But it's not like we have a relaxed attitude about it, like it's equivalent to a career choice or migrating or something like that. The transsexual suicide rate is apparently about 31%, which I believe is the highest amongst a minority group. (Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong here.) It's a serious medical condition.

"Unlike trannies (no offense intended to any TG folk reading this), we intersexed people do not choose to be in the situation we are in."

I'm not sure if you're using those phrases to refer to just cross dressers or to transsexuals as well... but I can tell you for a fact that transsexuals don't choose to be in the situation they're in. (I gather cross dressers don't either, but the main difference here is that with transsexuals, your brian and body actually don't match, so it's to do with your gender and your physical sex, not at all about your sexuality. A better analogy might actually be comparing transsexuals to people who feel they should be amputees. It's all about the brain's genuine self-image.)

I'm probably not that articulate about this right now, but I've written a personal piece about this, Transitioning, and a story about it, Identity.

In addition to names of the people themselves, can anybody recommend any good science documentaries/talks/books? I'd recommend the following:

• David Attenborough
  • Life In... series (TV shows, 1979 - 2008)
  • Planet Earth (TV show, 2006)
• J. Bronowski
  • The Ascent of Man (TV show, 1973)
• Bill Bryson
  • A short History of Nearly Everything (book and audiobook, 2003)
• Brian Cox
  • [Various documentaries] (TV shows, 2005 - present)
• Richard Dawkins
  • The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: Growing Up in the Universe (TV show, 1991 - 1992)
  • Root of All Evil? (TV show, 2006)
  • The Enemies of Reason (TV show, 2007)
  • The Genius of Charles Darwin (TV show, 2008)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • Death by Black Hole (book and audiobook, 2007)
• Michio Kaku
  • Visions of the Future AKA 2057 (TV show, 2007)
• Carl Sagan
  • Cosmos (TV show and book, 1980)
  • Pale Blue Dot (book, 1994)
  • The Demon-Haunted World (book, 1996)
• Various
  • The Amaz!ng Meeting (symposium, 2003 - current)
  • Beyond Belief (symposium, 2006 - current)

  If anyone can add to this list, I'd appreciate it. It'd be nice to seek out more science shows and related things.

  I'd also recommend the following on YouTube:

  • Neil deGrasse Tyson - Stupid Design
  • Tim Minchin - Storm
  • Dawkins vs. Tyson

  (And now I need to ramble on for ages because Slashdot's software claims I have too few characters per line... A curious requirement. Just ignore this paragraph, it contains absolutely no meaningful information at all. Seriously, though, check out the above YouTube clips if nothing else. Really, Cosmos and A Short History of Nearly Everything should be given to everyone at birth...)