I long for the day that a Kindle-like app will make things free and universal as the Ipod has. However closer it brings us to that moment- it's not there yet and simply buying the book is a wonderful choice that gets people out of this discussion.

"Compare with the earth being struck by a cataclysmic asteroid. In this case, there's no analogous process building up over time so it is fallacious to conclude that the chances are getting bigger every day that we don't get struck."

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the perfect analogy to the asteroid... They didn't win last year... it doesn't mean they'll be closer to winning next year.

OK back to serious issues: The potential problem is there - how do we deal with it? nothing will help if you are at ground zero of the impact zone or if the solar storm tears through us and peels our atmosphere off (conceptually...). BUT, we should all have that emergency kit ready and food and heat source (for us northern folks...ie buy a cord of wood) and be prepared. It's the best we can do and in fact came in handy when we lost power for 3 days in the blackout in the eastern half of Canada/US a few years back.

And I imagine the recharge time would be quick.

(I also am imagining a charger that looks like a miniature warp engine from the USS enterprise... pulsing along. COOL)

My European grandmother made a cake that could easily withstand the middle stages of a nuclear explosion.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the missing ingredient in making Fogbank was Butter?

Torontoman

I've read the book - (a must read!) Gladwell very actively promotes the idea that it was a lot of circumstance about Gates being able to have access to a computer PLUS a lot of work and effort as well. He could have done anything else with his time but he chose to play with the freely offered computer system.

The hockey thing is fascinating - he focuses on hockey but also references that it shows up in soccer in Europe and South America as well. His point is kids that might only be marginally better at the start become massively better over time because they veered down the path in the first part of their lives and receive marginally better coaching and a lot more ice time from the get-go. He isn't saying "Don't try" he's saying the system is steeped against you if you were born late in the year. Having said that - Sidney Crosby's birthday is August 7th. There's a guy in the OHL named John Tavares who plays for the London Knights who was born in Sept who is slated to go first overall this year. It can be done.

Torontoman

What was lacking here (perfectly visible with hindsight) is critical oversight of what the formula and theory results were really stating. And importantly we have all learned that trying to contain randomness of massively diverse circumstances is probably impossible. I recall a seldom used saying about this - Don't put all of your eggs in one basket - it works for investors still whether people run hedge funds or their own personal finances. Torontoman.

Our country is continuously littered with news of regulators supposedly established to help me 'the little guy' when in fact all they do is help keep monopolies and oligarchies from losing control. In fact the regulatory bodies up here continually vote in favour of screwing the little guy for the big corps.

CRTC Forces us folks to keep lazy and lousy TV content providers in business through fees even though I only watch the Asian/Indian/Far East/5 french channels only for the few minutes per week when my fetish mood kicks in. The CRTC won't even touch the internet neutrality issues up here - 'not our problem' we don't regulate the internet - however they are the ones who require the fees set at X. DNS hijacking isn't our problem etc etc.

Heck - we have a regulatory body that allows a few farmers to charge whatever they want for milk and cheese and butter with NO ability for the 99% of the rest of the country who buy the damn stuff to voice an opinion that we should allow open market forces into the sway. Sounds funny - but since the rural ridings have a disproportionate amount of sway in parliament- the farmers get their way at the expense of the consumers.

Worst of all perhaps is the fact that we have governemtns who regulate the minimum price of beer to help the two large breweries and stifle competition. Enabling fat laziness to take hold in corporate Canada.

I don't imagine we'd WANT the US. We should just keep them down as a country and let the more ambitious folks come in illegally and use them as servants, crop workers and snow shovellers.

I've had a few things land on my computer and the free online scanner at eset.com seemed to pull off the trojan as well as some spyware. Torontoman.