... when I was one or so -- because my mother war a bit paranoid, as she had had lots of eye trouble as an infant and I was child no. 1/ The doctor looked at my eyes and told her I had almost perfect vision -- which was actually bad, because it is normal for young children to be far-sighted. One's eyeball gets longer as one gets older, so while "normal" kids eyes would go from far-sighted to normal, my eyesight was fated to go from normal to VERY near-sighted. He was right.

Simak dealt with robot-dog relations long, long ago in his wonderful collection of stories (mostly on a post-human Earth).

... and a very nice man. One of Science Fiction's most elegant and imaginative writers.

... when studying anthropology -- in college and grad school -- the three wave theory seemed to already be commonly accepted. And Eskimos have been recognized as belonging to a separate wave forever (or almost so). This testing may be new and useful because it provides additional confirmation of a long-standing theory -- but it does not amount to any sort of new theory as to the population of the americas from Siberia.

...if I had some mod points.

... are re-classified as no longer needing to be prescribed, insurance companies stop covering the cost of such drugs. Lots of expensive drugs (for allergies, for gatrointestinal problems) once covered by insurance are now totally NOT covered. A big win for insurance companies.

this involves a demand for (at least virtual) teacher burning.

MEK

... my future wife (married in 1976) and I did this. We watched our first opera together -- Don Giovanni on NBC -- she in Wisconsin, I (7 ayears old at the time) in Oklahoma. Of course, it would be a while before we would actually first meet each other. ;~}

MEK

> The only things I buy with an installed OS are notebooks, and I make recovery media
> for my collection then wipe 'em to install Linux.

I bought a laptop for my wife this week (from Best Buy) -- and this is _exactly_ what I did (except I did leave a minimal Windows installation -- just in case).

...report being creeped out by these new procedures.

And lots more buxom younger women are apparently being subjected to thorough full body searches than guys.

MEK

... if you happen to use Tmobile as your service provider. It even seems to work fine on Tmobile's new 3.5 system.

Dell (of all people) had a sale -- and I got one of these at a nice discount. I've been quite pleased with it -- and have barely begun to scrape the surface in terms of what it can do (and the software that is available).

I doubt that there is a better phone that is easier to play with. ;~}

And it works pretty good as a phone.

MEK