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Language probably developed gradually over tens of thousands of years. The first words were probably danger warnings, then maybe things related to day to day survival such as words for various foodstuffs. I would not be surprised to find out that Homo Erectus had rudimentary language. Even today various animals have calls that correspond to danger signs, and primates such as chimps seem to be able to communicate fairly well without what we would call acutal language. Communication predates humanity, so it's only natural that apes with big brains (us) would take it to the next level and begin to transmit abstract information using vocalizations.

Wow I feel like a moron for have ever attempted to defend Hans online at all. Like he was friends, and his wife was seeing, a guy that murdered several people.

Now he's just going to fess up to the murder.

I guess this marks the end of ReiserFS. I'm sure no one in the Linux community wants to be associated to that piece of work.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease that affects approximately 2--3% of individuals in the Western world. New data have indicated that a subset of immune cells known as Tregs (which act to prevent other immune cells from responding inappropriately) are dysfunctional in a mouse model of psoriasis and that this dysfunction contributes substantially to the development of disease.
http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/307692504/080602214201.htm

Is it possible to measure the amount of knowledge a person has? I work in geriatric psychiatry, and was idly discussing with some colleagues the possibility that having more knowledge might be good for you. We know that high levels of education and intellectual activity are protective against Alzheimer's disease, but we don't know whether simply knowing more things helps. To find this out we'd have to find a way to compare the amounts of knowledge that different people have. Is this possible?

An anonymous reader writes "According to anonymous reports from the prosecution, Hans Reiser is considering whether to reveal the location of his wife Nina's corpse, in the hopes that it will lighten his sentence. However, the likelihood of the deal still depends on whether an autopsy of Nina's body might reveal evidence of first degree murder, which would have the opposite effect as what he wants. The story is at Wired Blogs."

sysadmin-cum-dungeon-masters

Anyone else have images of S&M runnin through their minds?

Because a business should be accessible to everyone, including people with asthma like me. If a smoker doesn't smoke at a restaurant, store or bar we can both still use that place. If he does, he eliminates me from being able to. Its like saying that a store owner should not be mandated to have wheelchair ramps because then businesses that cater to people in wheelchairs will 'spring up'. It doesn't work that way. In the time before smoking bans in restaurants and bars, it was unusual to see a restaurant or bar that was completely smoke free. Owners want the most customers possible, so they don't ban smoking knowing that non-smokers will often choose to suffer the bad smell to get what they otherwise want.

Its also a worker safety issue. We don't allow employers to have other toxic substances wafting through workplaces, why should we allow that with tobacco smoke? Just because its customer generated?

I can eat my cheese burger in the same room as you and it won't have the slightest impact on you. the same can't be said for your smoking. Not everyone gets addicted to cheese burgers, but everyone who smokes ends up addicted. I can eat a cheese burger now and then and it does me no harm, where there's no such thing as a harmless smoke

3 very good reasons it's being cracked down on.

morrison writes "The 2008 Google Summer of Code is on. We have discussed this four-year-old tradition before (2005, 2006, 2007). Google will once again be hosting a program that gives computer science students a $4,500 stipend to work on open source software projects. Last year, Google funded over 900 students' projects in more than 90 countries. As noted in the program FAQ, this year they hope to do even more. The #gsoc IRC channel on Freenode is already buzzing with activity."

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "We all know that false or misleading science headlines are all too common these days and that misleading media combined with an apathetic and undereducated public lead to widespread ignorance. But the real question is, how can this trend be reversed? At a session at the recent AAAS meeting, a study was discussed indicating that what matters most is how the information is portrayed. While people are willing to defer to experts on matters of low concern, for things that affect them directly, such as breast cancer or childhood diseases, expertise only counts for as much as giving off a 'sense of honesty and openness,' and that it matters far less than creating a sense of empathy in deciding who people will listen to. In other words, it's not enough to merely report on it as an expert. You need to make sure your report exudes a sense of honesty, openness, empathy, and maybe even a hint of humor."

edremy writes "Blackboard, the dominant learning management system (LMS) maker, has won its initial suit against Desire2Learn. Blackboard gets $3.1 million and can demand that Desire2Learn stop US sales. (We discussed Blackboard when the patent was issued in 2006) This blog provides background on the suit. Blackboard has been granted a patent that covers a single person having multiple roles in an LMS: for example, a TA might be a student in one class and an instructor in another. You wouldn't think something this obvious could even be patented, but so far it's been a very effective weapon for Blackboard, badly hurting Desire2Learn and generating a huge amount of worry for the few remaining commercial LMSs that Blackboard has not already bought, and open source solutions such as Moodle (Blackboard's pledge not to attack such providers notwithstanding)."

Ars reports that Starbucks is replacing T-Mobile with AT&T as their wi-fi provider. AT&T broadband customers will be able to access the service for free. Starbucks card users will get 2 hours a day free. 2 hour, daily and monthly rates will be lower than they were with T-Mobile. Starbucks says that their previously announced deal to tie in with iTunes will continue under AT&T.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080211-starbucks-forget-t-mobile-get-free-wifi-with-att.html

BorkBorkBork writes "Say it ain't so. John C. Dvorak, long time Apple troll (or anything troll, actually) was pulled into a story about a Vista laptop gone horribly wrong. The article centers around a PC exorcist who was hired to make it right, but in it was this shocking admission:

I called John C. Dvorak, a prominent columnist for PC Magazine and a podcaster on the Podshow network. "I advise everybody to buy a Macintosh because Apple products are the easiest to use," he said. "If you own a PC, you have to find a local nerd, a kid, maybe a relative. Every family has one unless they've just moved here from a foreign country. That's the only solution."

Did he forget to say "don't publish this" before saying that? Most telling in the article is a line about the exorcist himself from the viewpoint of the PC owner: "He started tinkering with computers during the green-screen era of the 1990s". Oh, wow."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/business/smallbusiness/09pursuits.html?ex=1360299600&en=48c383a28acd60ec&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Employees of the Muncie Sanitary District will get jackets made from recycled soda bottles thanks to $5,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The district will purchase 100-percent recycled jackets, T-shirts and polo shirts for its 140 employees with the grant money. In addition, they have hired Madam Trash Heap to handle all Fraggle/Gorg relation problems.

Just so you don't think Americans are the only people who have no clue when it comes to their history, a recent survey found a fair number of British people believe that Churchill, Charles Dickens, and Mahatma Gandhi were fictional characters. Who made the "real people" list? Over half the people asked thought Sherlock Holmes was real. Many people were surprised to find out that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was not a documentary.