Kottke has a post today wherein he shows how little space would be required to house the United States' entire population if it were packed as densely as The Bronx, Manhattan, or Manila?

I decided to ask the question from the other angle: What would the population of the US be if the entire area were populated as densely as The Bronx, Manhattan, or Manila.

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There are new reports from humanitarian organizations regarding the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The reports from organizations are sketchy, and somewhat inconsistent, but it appears that prisoners are being subjected to Perl. Some of the reports tell of prisoners being forced to write Perl. Others say that some prisoners have been forced to debug someone else's Perl code. But that is not the most alarming report. Some of the prisoners have been subjected to the shrill, repetitive, vacuous cacophony of parroted Perl criticism. Those prisoners, who are enduring the worst kind of torture, are in our prayers.

Some people continue to misunderstand a previous post on a specific pair of vegans (Stupid Fucking Vegans) as being an indictment of all vegans. I can understand how the title and the language at the end might lead some people to believe that. However, the bulk of the post is clearly referring to a particular couple. And this couple killed their own infant by feeding it a vegan diet. Those two people are stupid fucking vegans. That does not mean that all vegans are stupid. Only the ones who put misguided ethics above the welfare of their children are stupid. I have no problem with people who choose to eat differently than I do. That would be truly ridiculous.

If you've looked at what the iPhone has to offer, and you want to buy one, that's super. Go ahead and make your purchase. But, seriously, waiting in line for hours and hours? Your purchase of an iPhone certainly is a status symbol, but not a good one. It merely puts your insecurities on display. Now, we all have insecurities, so I can't mock someone for that. But I can mock someone for putting pictures of their vulgar display of insecurity on the web.

Death by Veganism (nytimes.com) Some stupid fucking vegans decided to put their infant child on a vegan diet - excluding apparently even breast-milk (but I can't confirm that last part). Stupid fucking vegans. Poor malnourished child. If, as an adult, you want to starve yourself, that's your choice. Don't even bother trying to justify starving your children, though.

Look at your teeth. Thirty-two teeth, four canines. Your diet should be approximately 1/8 meat, you stupid fucking vegan. * end rant *

I was watching The New Yankee Workshop the other day. I'd really like to be (half) as good as Norm at carpentry. Building something solid with my own two hands looks to be a really gratifying experience. I've had ideas for projects for many years, but never the tools. I live in a small apartment and there's just no place for a table saw. (That sounds like it could be the setup for an episode of $sitcom.) That's what Norm was talking about when I was watching - the table saw. He was going over all the different things he does with it, the attachments that can be used, and how to use them. He even showed how he makes his own attachments. While I was watching I noticed just how many tools he has to use. Clamps, saws, measures, glues, woods, screws, and on, and on. Norm has achieved mastery not only in the use of each tool, but also in knowing which tool is best suited for a task. And he knows how bring together a variety of tools and materials to get the job done. I wonder if there's anything from Norm's mastery of tools that I can apply to my day job as a software engineer?

The best choice isn't always the right one, and the right choice isn't always the best one. And that means you have to pick between the two sometimes. People, I think, naturally try to find a balance between the two - finding compromises that aren't quite the best, and aren't quite right, but are close enough. Situations arise, however, where the right path must be followed, even if it's not the best, and even if it's the worst. The same does not hold for the best path. To be sure, best can be chosen if it's neutral. But once the choice crosses over to wrong, it doesn't matter if it's the best - it must be abandoned.

Every time I read something about PHP, Python, or Ruby, I'm confronted - by myself - with a question: Why don't you learn one of those? The answer is always, "I know Perl."

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via reddit found Why "Nice Guys" are often such LOSERS. interesting rant. interesting article. they kinda buy into the whole dichotomy thing, though. and ... heartless? i'm curious why heartless over and above just being bitches? i don't think i'd want to be associated with heartless people. perhaps they're being hyperbolic. or they're being that other thing - the thing with the name i can't remember.

I don't think they should be allowed to call the field 'Artificial Intelligence'. They haven't actually created anything that fits the title, so why should they get it. It's a pretend field, like Warp Field Physics. They should only be allowed to call it 'Artificial Stupidity', or somesuch.