I’m in Malaysia right now, which is a majority Muslim country. Restaurants and convenience stores sell beer and other alcohol, but I have seen signs in the convenience stores covering the front of coolers saying that Muslims cannot buy alcohol.

I’m not sure how strictly that is enforced, most of the store clerks and waiters don’t seem to care.

Language Transfer . Much better for learning a language than Duolingo.

Just audio. But it is presented in a way that helps you to learn, rather than just remember. If you give it a try, I promise that you will be shocked at how you can retain the knowledge.

It isn’t enough on its own, however. You need to reinforce the lessons by speaking to people, reading, and/or TV and movies.

I have found Duolingo much, much less useful for language learning than Language Transfer. The latter actually helps you learn to think in another language rather than memorize things (which is still useful, but not nearly as much).

Short if total immersion, I have found nothing better than LT.

• Visit the house where Martin Luther lived
• Buy a Perry Rhodan hefte (an SF pulp serial magazine that has been published weekly since 1961) at a newsstand after not reading one for over 40 years
• Eat my first currywurst since I arrived in Germany three days ago

That’s exactly right. The proof is quite simple and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be taught instead of just getting students to accept magic rules.

I went through engineering school, and 20 years of work (not as an engineer), before finding a calculus text that explained why the derivative of x^2 is 2x. Along with many practical applications of calculus.

That book was Calculus Made Simple, published in 1914. Thanks, Project Gutenberg!

Edit: derivative of x^2 is 2x. Got my differentiation and integration confused!

I know someone who works in a university group related to privacy issues. He refuses to have a smartphone because of the ease which which almost anyone can track you and your activities. I think he has an old flip phone.

“Whatabout…”

But how much do IP laws actually protect the little guy? When a large corporation can bankrupt me by prolonging litigation until I have nothing left, what leverage do I really have?

There are certainly cases where small creators and inventors were able to overcome this disadvantage, but I suspect that they are the tiny minority, celebrated when they do achieve it.

I was seeing a lot of crashes two or three years ago, but none in the past year or so.

I guess if you can’t rely on human intelligence, you have to hope that artificial intelligence can do the job.

Lovely troll!

When I was in grade 9, in 1977, my science teacher told us about his solar panels. He was projecting that they would pay off the investment in about 20 years. How much better must that be now (and we are talking about Ontario, Canada, hardly the best place for solar power)?

• We Have Ways of Making You Talk
• Battleground
• The Rest is Classified
• The History of English
• Ehrman Podcast (Christianity from an atheist expert in the New Testament)

Definitely a thing for days like Valentine’s.

I remember a theory that the US government asked Microsoft to purchase Skype and change it from p2p to server-based, so that they could intercept decrypted communications.

Skype was originally made by a European company (Latvian?).

I suspect that it was a defense mechanism due to her experience of many older men trying to hit on her. Better not to even open the door.

My ex, visiting Canada from Japan, once complained that there are too many trees.

Because he has the knowledge and experience to completely understand the final product. It used an approach that he hadn’t thought of, that is better suited to the problem.