The use of RFCs as ways of managing best practices not only has a long and honourable history but is codified in a series of RFCs specifically marked "BCP" (Best current practice). Check it out yourself at RFC-Editor.org

accelerometers and audible cues: bah!

Tie a thread or string to your lapel or sleeve and have the conductor hold the other end. At the right point of the stroke you'll feel a tug -- at which point the conductor can let go anyway.

Cost of materials: a couple of pennies at most
resolution: pretty much whatever desired
calibration: just practice a couple of times together and you'll have it.

Actually, Google bought the original Google Maps too.

It appears the French are reproducing faster than you can reprocess or bury them. So I'm not convinced you have a good strategy.

In Germany, "Kindergarten" refers to what is known as nursery school or preschool in the USA. "Vorschule" is literally "pre school" or "preceeds school" as the first day of the first grade is celebrated as the kid's first day of school.

Interestingly I just read that it was german immigrants to the east coast who introduced the idea of institutionalised learning before 1st grade to US schooling, back in the progressive era (early 20th century).

Yeah, I'm amused when educators and politicians proclaim that current schooling is out of step with the 20th century. They are right, though not for the reason they way (they inevitably mean more "skills" and/or more "Technology" by which they mean electronics -- apparently there are no other technologies). But in fact the current model of schooling is designed to socialise the kids for industrial production (just as the calendar is still structured for an agrarian society).

Regardless, since nobody knows, except at the grossest level, what works and what doesn't, I think almost anything should be on the table.

(and sadly, the one very important lesson your daughter is learning is: sometimes you just have to buckle down and do what The Man says.

Your example shows how hard it is to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Here's a "counter"example (I say "counter" in that that doesn't invalidate yours): my kid went through the German system. German schools rank much higher than US schools on the PISA international comparison. Vorschule (in the US, called kindergarden) was still devoted to playing, socialising, napping etc. His class was not expected to even learn the alphabet until the first day of the first grade. But by the end of the calendar year (about three months in) all the kids could read. In simple German and simple English.

Does it mean these kids are "smarter" or that the school system is better? I don't think so; rather it means that we really have little idea what works or even what "works" means since we don't know what outcome we really want, 20 and 50 years later. Oh, and it shows that international comparisons like PISA are probably impossibly difficult to make, in a large part for the same reasons. People are so different that it's presumably a unique combination of circumstances for each kid that luckily or unluckily combine to give you the outcome you need. Yes, you can see emergent trends, but only at the grossest level.

I very much agree that airline ticket and phone contract pricing policies are abusive. But it turns out there is a sensible logic to the US practice of advertising the untaxed price.

There are two important factors. One is that the US does not have a uniform taxing policy; it is even more federated than the BRD. In California where I live the tax vary by county (basically Landkreis) and even by the city you live in. You pay the tax on where you live (technically it's a "sales and use" tax) so, for example, when I bought a car a few towns up, the seller collected the lower tax that applied to where I live. For smaller items the shop will just charge the local tax. I consider having towns able to set their own taxes more democratic.

The second factor is that, by making the tax explicit, people know that they are paying a tax. There have been a couple of studies showing that sales tax regimes are lower than VAT regimes (apologies, can't find the refs easily right now). You can make the argument that US taxes are too low (I happen to think so, at the moment) but it is important that taxes be explicit. Hidden taxes and fees can, and do quietly rise.

I'm glad you continued your comment after this line. I read "NRPGA" as a merger of the National Rifle Association and the Pro Golfing Association and immediately wondered:

• New kind of rifle-skeet (like in The Jimmy Stewart movie "Winchester '73")?
• Only professionals would be able to use rifles?
• Propellant-assisted golfing?

The possibilities are fantastic!

But your hell would be to be forced to listen to people like him!

His heaven would presumably being able to perpetually proselytise to people like you!

We are running this experiment now and the results aren't good.

We force greater and greater disclosure, to the point of being punitive, on politicians, so they only ones who become politicians are ones who don't care about their privacy. And so when they pass laws they pass ones that have no respect for privacy either.

There are a lot of important reasons for sunshine laws, but seriously, releasing your tax returns???

They didn't want their evil plot revealed. Probably they just did some genetic engineering on the virus to affect the researchers' judgement. There's plenty of evidence the cats have this capability. I used to find stray bird parts and decapitated rats disgusting. Now I consider them "cute".

I like this quote, but personally would not attempt to use it when talking about Van Jacobson

That is quite funny, but in fact in those days RMS had quite short hair. He didn't begin to grow it out until the summer of '84. In fact he dressed in the usual nerd look of the era: flannel or other collared shirt, short hair. Oh yeah, and an "impeach god" button at parties -- ok, not completely the "usual nerd" look.