I'm delighted to say that the concept of 'productivity' is no longer relevant to anything I do with my time or my life!

Dear Cmdr Taco: The past tense of 'forecast' is just 'forecast.'

If I ask for "citations, please," I hope you will take it not as an expression of skepticism, but rather as coming from a genuine desire to be able to quote authoritative sources for this information.

Great sig, by the way.

The central pit, or courtyard, was standing room only, but it was surrounded by three tiers of stadium seating.

I have read that the largest contributors to the campaign against Prop 19 are the makers and distributors of alcoholic beverages, but certainly the prison industry also has a horse in this race.

But of course U.S. publishers do routinely revise books for the American market. For example, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the U.S. was originally "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in the UK (which makes a lot more sense, if you know any history at all - apparently something the publishers don't expect from American readers).

Not a very good movie? Some people may not have liked it, but it won 6 Academy Awards and was on more Top Ten lists than any other movie in 2009. Whether or not it's your cup of tea, I think it deserves to be taken seriously - none of which is really relevant to the present discussion of piracy.

The whole world watched as 5 Allied divisions landed at Normandy - while at the same time, 120 Russian divisions were aimed at Berlin. And that was only one segment of the Eastern Front!

I would like to point out that 'filthy lucre' is a pejorative term for - money! So, whatever you intended to say, what you actually said was "FUD about schools being hotbeds of sickness and money."

Seriously? The sentence scans perfectly well - puerile refers to style, and the three nouns offered as instances are snark, whining, and fearmongering. It should be easily understood by anyone with a high school education.

Your use of the word 'restore' suggests that you believe that, sometime in the past, China had some form of democratic government. The larger assumption is that the Chinese people, as a whole, *want* government by the people. The historical and cultural evidence indicates otherwise.

Bonch, I don't cite a source because I was there: I experienced it firsthand; I am my own primary reference. Make of that what you will. I sold VCRs when they first came on the market; I remember the introduction of both Betamax and VHS, and I had friends who were starting video rental businesses back when the studios were still trying to prevent them from renting out movies.

This is not as big a deal as our discussions might make it appear. Porn was certainly not the only factor, but it was a strong driving force, and early on a major profit center in my friends' stores. Prior to the advent of the VCR, porn on film was rare and a huge hassle. Just as you say, suddenly it became cheap and easy to produce and distribute, and there was a huge demand. And yes, it was more private - no more stag nights at the men's club.

As for the Internet, I hope nobody is claiming that porn is responsible for the growth of the World Wide Web. But from the days of the first bulletin boards, it made up a substantial fraction of all online content, and that remains true today. It does not drive the development or introduction of new technology, but unquestionably plays a significant role in its adoption.

People have somehow become confused about this over the past three decades. The correct and verifiable historical claim is that porn drove rapid initial adoption of video recorders in general. Porn has been a major factor in the introduction and acceptance of a number of technologies.

So these guys studied a poem entitled "Year of Meteors [1859-60]" which mentions "the strange huge meteor-procession," and were able to determine that it refers to the great meteor procession of 1860? Wow, that is some impressive detective work!