Speciation is kind of a tricky idea to pin down. I took some supplemental biology classes a few years back and finally had it explained to me in a sensible way. I'd always heard species defined as those animals that, when bred, could not produce sterile offspring. It always troubled me, though, WHEN does that happen? When one mutation finally pushes an animal over that threshold and it can't breed with the rest of the animals, how would that line continue to develop?

What I learned is that speciation happens by degrees, beginning, typically with populations of animals that can't breed together they are separated. As the animals evolve different structures or behaviours, they WON'T breed together if introduced, even if genetically compatible. And then finally, after many generations, the two populations become so genetically distinct that their mating couldn't produce fertile offspring. Dogs and wolves are probably still the same species and could/would mate if allowed to - but some dog breeds may be too small or have behaviours too different from wild wolves for them to mate. In-vitro fertilization would probably produce fertile offspring even in those cases. Who knows how long it will take for them to genetically diverge altogether.

Yeah, you kind of have me there. Alton Brown is certainly the TV chef whom I would most like to emulate. Still, I think his target audience is more adult than mine would be. It would need to be a little bit more *ahem* bite-sized and I'd particularly like to focus on some fundamentals. Where do various foods come from and how to do they feature in a healthful diet? I'd probably still include recipes but maybe not integral to the program. More like, "If you want to make using , you can find a recipe at our web site." It would be less of a cooking show and more of an educational program focused on the topics of food awareness and nutrition with elements of cooking and home-ec included.

Maybe a lot has changed in the last 15 years but when I was in middle school and high school, cooking dinner a couple of nights every week was one of my chores. In fact, I can look back and cite that as the spark that ignited my passion for cooking and nutrition. It's a chore that a middle-school student can handle and will provide them with the foundation of the very skills that some posters are lamenting that many adults don't have.

I did, in fact, get burned once. It wasn't a hot pot or pan but the toaster of all things. It had jammed and because I had left it unsupervised, it had caught fire. I panicked and touched it to get it out from underneath the cabinets. I called 911 and they walked me through safely extinguishing the toaster fire. There was a follow-up call about 15 minutes later to make sure everything was okay. But was there any action from CPS? As far as I know, not a whisper.

One of my long-term goals is to become the Fred Rogers or the Bill Nye of food television. As with many things, I think that one of the keys to introducing good nutrition and an enthusiasm for preparing one's own food is to begin at an early age.

It would be pointless to forbid Warhammer figures. Some players are more or less serious about supporting the games companies and therefore more or less serious about proxying. I'm sure you'd find, however, that any generic toy soldier models could be printed in quantity. Communities will evolve that use entire proxy sets and just agree, by convention, which generic models correspond to which Warhammer models. Of course, you could do this with ordinary, plastic toy soldiers now but that's not quite as satisfying. If you can replace your copyrighted Dwarven Axe Berserkers with creative commons Dwarfish Adze Maniacs, you retain most of the flavour that makes the original models so fun.

For the same reason why they went to a great deal of trouble to secure a Blackberry for President Obama to use. Professionals of all stripes have become attached to one piece of equipment or another that they depend on to be productive (or more productive.) It's not about "toys" as much as it's about the professional employee trying to retain the tools that help him or her to do the job most effectively. The employer's standard tools might be adequate but if the employee is capable of providing 10% more on familiar equipment, why force the employee to switch? Liability, lawsuits, NDA's, espionage, blah, blah, blah. All of that is a lot of FEAR. I'll admit, my first reaction when I heard about employees bringing their own equipment to work was to think, "stupid employees." But the more I've thought about it, the more that I think that it's about the employee and the employer asking the question, "How can we do the most for our customers?" instead of asking "How can we cover our cowardly asses?"

If I had to do a lot of calculations everyday, I'd probably provide my own calculator. If I were working in a kitchen, I'd probably provide my own knife. If somebody's job requires a lot of communication, why should it seem so strange that they want to provide their own smart phone?

You raise an important point. There are two perspectives here and unfortunately, both of them are correct. Stallman's perspective is that computers are so critical that it's unacceptable that users should be prevented from managing their hardware and software 100%. As you note, however, few users are capable of managing their *ware 100%. It follows, however, that unless the user is 100% responsible for managing their *ware, there's no assurance that the responsibility they've delegated isn't being abused.

One can make the same argument about a number of things. My area of interest is food security. Unless one farms and cooks all of one's own food, one must delegate some of one's food security to others - either in the form of grocery stores, restaurants, or a personal chef, to name a few. How many people could really take 100% responsibility of their own food security? Very few, if you ask me. This is the nature of an interdependent society. Specialists develop expertise in narrow fields and then trade services. It's a cornerstone principle of industrialization and technological advancement. Perhaps Stallman IS correct but here is the tradeoff that must be considered then: If we must retain greater responsibility of our computers - possibly up to 100% control - what expertise or efficiency should we sacrifice instead so that everybody can have that level of responsibility?

For the sake of full disclosure, I could also be misremembering the news report. It was a couple of years ago. The actual figure could have been $2.00 and she might have been comparing to some other vegetable. The essence of the report and my impression at the time stuck with me but the details are hazy.

That's a pretty tall order. I'm actually hoping to spin that very notion into a master's thesis - strategies for analyzing a grocery budget and maximizing nutritional value while minimizing cost. (And if possible, factoring in how appetizing the food is.) I can share a few general tips, though, that will apply for a variety of kinds of diets.

1. Use less salt; use more herbs and spices. While reducing sodium intake is probably beneficial for most westerners, that's actually just a side benefit of this advice. The reason for doing this is to broaden one's idea of what constitutes "flavourful" food. If you're accustomed to using cumin, cinnamon, paprika, black pepper, and ginger then you'll be comfortable with these flavours when you use them to enhance blander foods.

2. Eat less meat; eat more plants. A diet that mixes cereals with legumes can an adequate intake of all essential amino acids without consuming any meat. If your budget, your doctor, or your conscience demands that you eat less/no meat, you can still get sufficient protein. Using seasonings, as recommended above, will allow a relatively small number of plant ingredients take on a large number of flavour profiles. Rice or pasta with cinnamon and ginger is distinct from rice or pasta with cinnamon and cumin.
For example, I've been tinkering a lot with various substitutions for the spices and the chickpeas in Moroccan Spaghetti.

3. Cook foods properly. Another poster mentioned how, while growing up, "vegetables" meant the contents of a tin can warmed up on the stovetop. That will do in a pinch but it isn't very appetizing. Frozen is better than canned. Steamed is better than boiled. When in doubt, it's better to under-cook than over-cook (vegetables only; please don't eat undercooked chicken.) The food will be more appetizing and more nutritious. It's a little bit more expensive but the value of the resulting food is much higher. I know that time is at a premium but spending some of it practicing good cooking technique will often result in more nutritious, more satisfying meals.

The problem is as much one of time and education as of finances. I am studying nutrition and know a lot of recipes that allow me to both to stretch my grocery budget and eat healthful foods. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't have time to cook good food nor do they really understand how plentiful their options are. That ignorance leads people into the "fast food trap," I think. At least it tastes pretty good. Better than eating beans and rice all the time, right? Except with the right seasonings - which you can stretch out for months - beans and rice are pretty darned tasty.

I watched a news report on the affordability of healthful foods and the woman was complaining that she could get two cheeseburgers for $1.50 or buy a bunch of broccoli for $1.50. The news report didn't elaborate though and nobody explained to the poor woman that the two cheeseburgers are one poor meal while the broccoli could be stretched for several meals and mixed with other foods that would make for more nutritious eating for about the same amount of money per meal.

Or similarly, there's a charity called Feed My Starving Children that buys (admittedly in bulk) dehydrated vegetables, rice, chicken-flavoured nutrient powder, and soy protein then blends them together for essentially complete nutrition for 24 cents per serving. I'm not suggesting that anybody eat nothing but reconstituted rations but if it's possible to do that for 24 cents, certainly there must be ways for people in industrialized countries to prepare nutritious foods for $1.00 or $2.00 per serving.

Recall that the effect on the rotation of galaxies is not the only observation ever made that supports the dark matter theory. There was an article on Slashdot a while ago - I couldn't find it here but I found another summary of the same findings. Astronomers observed a region where two galaxies had collided and found gravitational lensing occurring in a region of space where the visible matter was not located.