It is rare for the assigned textbook to have been written by the professor. Even in the exception, professors are unlikely to receive more than a couple of dollars for each book sold, or say $100 for a typical class. That's not a large supplement to a professor's salary, especially given that it takes a year or more to write a book.

As a WoW player, I know many players who have hanging on "til BC is out." I suspect many of those folks will leave the game until the expansion is released, but I do not think it will be a large enough number to matter in the scheme of things.

It should come as no shock for those who know Blizz that BC is delayed though!

I used to consider myself an agnostic, until a philosophy professor asked me if I believed that Santa Claus might exist. Since then, I've discovered that I'm a weak friendly atheist. Strong atheism denies the existence of any god, while weak atheism denies the existence of a particular god. Also, unfriendly atheism denies that rational bases for religious belief exist, while friendly atheism admits of possible rational bases for religious belief.

A few years ago, I would have denied that anything existed beyond the physical world. I've since become less dogmatic. Who knows what strange mysteries the universe might hold?

I agree with you completely. Personal information - your preferences and shopping habits, for example, should remain your own. There is too much potential for abuse, as you've aptly demonstrated. I certainly do not wish to be pigeon-holed by a company because some marketer has decided that it is statistically likely that I fit profile xyz. The area where profiling concerns me most is the online news media. It does not bother me so much that media outlets would like to find out what their customers are reading and with what frequency. When they start requiring me to provide information such as my sex and age on sign-up for their paid services, however, I start to become leery. How long until I start being provided with the "service" of seeing different news than people who fall into different marketing groups?