Many times I'd like to see my password in clear text (like when entering new passwords, to make sure they're correct). It would be convenient to have some way to temporarily turn off asterisk masking.

Thanks for the translation. TFS was like trying to read a telegraph message.

You would be surprised.

I run a conference with contributed one-page abstracts. I allow contributions either in (preferrably) LaTeX, or (grudgingly) DOC formats. Despite providing templates for both systems, contributors still find many ways to intentionally or unintentionally screw things up.

You can only say so many times "DO NOT CHANGE PAGE WIDTH OR FONT SETTINGS," or "DO NOT CHANGE INTERLINE SPACING." The problem with both systems for that sort of application is that the programs do now allow locking-down of formatting. You can tell the users not to screw things but, but they will. Invariably.

If anyone has a good solution to this problem, I'm very very interested to hear it!

One is your health, the other is merely your dignity. No question there, I opt out and try to rise above the groping every time.

Not only awe-inspiringly large, but filled with optically clear water. Those NASA folks can be really impressive.

Since astronauts are well-known to be more adept and quick-thinking than most of us, I'm wondering why your family friend wasn't able to use her breath to move faster to the edge of the structure than airflow from the A/C would afford. I'm thinking that a series of well-aimed inhales and exhales would do the trick. No?

For-profit and open-access are orthogonal characteristics, not opposite ends on a spectrum. You can find plenty of for-profit journals that are open access. Open access is a whitewash term to make the author-pays business model sound all warm and fuzzy.

The purpose of the electoral college was to ensure that whoever won would win by a massive landslide so that there would be no impetus to question the results.

A government only stands when the people follow its leadership. When the US was new, they needed to be sure that elections were definitive to hold the nascent union together.

Today, although the country has established a certain modicum of stability, we still need the amplification of small differences, despite those who whine about the popular vote, for more-or-less the same reason. A US president cannot rule if the other branches of government do not recognize his authority, and nothing gives the appearance of a weak office than victory by a few tenths of a percent. From my personal experience, Nixon won in 1968 with a 5% margin in the popular vote; think of it this way, our of a group of 40 people, 21 voted for him, and 19 against. That's pretty damned close to even. But the electoral college amplified that small difference into a massive landslide because he carried EVERY SINGLE STATE (except Massachusetts and DC). We can debate whether having put him in office was a good idea in the end or not, but the result of the election was a clear mandate. When you have a huge, modern, diverse country, that's what you need to get everyone going in the same direction.

This -- this exactly -- is why all of the Hollywood producers and script writers should be banished to some remote, cold place and left to die a slow, rotting, and painful death.

To the parent poster, the US has nowhere near the level of gun violence you suggest. It's also a huge, vast place that's more accurately compared to all of Europe put together, rather than just one city in a smallish country. Use your powers of reasoning to figure out why integrating over so many people might make it look like there's daily gun violence on every street corner.

One of the authors of the pigeon study was an invited speaker last summer at a conference I organize. I have not yet read the paper, but the presentation was arguably the best recieved of the 23 oral presentations, generating vigorous, positive discussion that spilled into after-hours interaction. Very, very good stuff.

While it may also be true that pigeons also navigate by polarized light, the evidence presented for a magnetic sense is overwhelming.

When it is cold outside, mucus membranes (in the nose, most importantly for this discussion) go into overdrive. We get sniffly noses, whether we have an active nasal infection or not, and sniffle more often than in the summer. Much more often.

So, if someone who has a sniffly nose happens to wipe said nose with their hand and then immediately touches something else, say a doorknob, or a light switch, or a keyboard, or the cup of coffee the barrista just handed you, or a hand in a handshake, then, there's a higher probability that you'll do the reverse, and touch your nose, eyes, or mouth, closing the transmission path. This transmission path happens at a certain rate during the summer, but it happens more often during the winter, just because our noses tend to be sniffly from the cold.

Even ignoring variability in viral reaction to relative humidity, I've always thought that the variation in transmission probability due to outdoor temperature was enough to drive the seasonal variation in colds and the flu.

Yes ... except the spring constant of the crank has been changed. What I can't figure out by inspection of the photographs alone is if the change would be sufficent to explain the perceived differences. As you pedal around that nice, big L shape is going to distort slightly, even though it appears to be designed not to, storing some energy by folding up a wee bit during some parts of the cycle, and releasing it by unfolding during others (or vice versa). Or heck, maybe it opens up, rather than folds in. At first blush, it probably isn't a big enough effect to explain things, but an L-shaped crank is going to tend to be more flexible than a straight-arm crank.

Keinesis contoured keyboards. A little relearning necessary, but much faster in the end. You can even get them with DVORAK layout, I believe.

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/

They sell lots of ergomatic stuff. Look for the keyboards with two wells of keys, one for each hand.

To see the relevent bit of that nice interview, seek to about 30:00.

Same thing happened with Made in Japan: decades ago, you were better off saving your pennies for good old American stuff because the Japanese equivalents were horrible. Nissan's first imports to the US (when they were known as Datsun) were a joke. So were Honda's. But now, the Japanese imported goods are top-notch and deserving of hard-earned respect. Korean goods followed the same path. Taiwanese, to a certain extent, although they don't seem to have fully realized their potential, yet. Chinese goods are just starting to get better as they, as a country, learn manufacturing. Given that they have vast resources to throw at the problem, I fully expect Made in China to, within a decade or so, mean something is quality goods, and we'll be looking to Made in Viet Nam, Made in Thailand, Made in North Korea, or Made in Kazahkstan with derision.

Off the top of my head -- heat of accretion, radioactive decay, partial nuclear ignition delaying cooling, tidal heating from it's previous orbit before it was ejected, . . .

But that's all speculation rather than applicable knowledge.