BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Kyle MacDonald had a red paper clip and a dream: Could he use the community power of the Internet to barter that paper clip for something better, and trade that thing for something else -- and so on and so on until he had a house?

Man using Web to barter paper clip for house - Apr 17, 2006 - CNN.com

I suspect, and I've said this before, that sooner or later the nuclear powers will resort to genocide to deal with problems like the Sunni Triangle. But not any time soon. If Bush was really the fascist liberals make him out to be, I could almost support him -- I mean, if he had the cold, Roman will to just erase the tribe that's annoying us in Iraq. But unfortunately he's nothing like that. He's about lies and failure, not cold, clear Imperial will.

Gary cracks me up.

This Ain’t 1864, Bush Ain’t Lincoln, We Ain’t Winnin’ - By Gary Brecher - eXile - Issue #235 - War Nerd

VYKHINO -- Just as I ended my nearly 24-hour slots machine spree, Vanya, a drunken thug I'd picked up along the way, ran me down on the street. Vanya was a head taller and at least 30 pounds heavier than me. He wanted my last 500 rubles. He knew I had it because I had just split my last 1000 with him, anything to get him off my back. Now he was threatening me, with a crazed gambler's look in his eye. That was when I recalled the pitiful, unthreatening Grigory, and thought, maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Low Rollers! 24 Hours in Slot Hall Hell - By Jake Rudnitsky - eXile - Issue #197 - Feature Story

What is Microsoft Query?

Microsoft Query is a program for bringing data from external sources into other Microsoft Office programs— in particular, Microsoft Excel. By using Query to retrieve data from your corporate databases (database: A collection of data related to a particular subject or purpose. Within a database, information about a particular entity, such as an employee or order, is categorized into tables, records, and fields.) and files, you don't have to retype the data you want to analyze in Excel. You can also update your Excel reports and summaries automatically from the original source database whenever the database is updated with new information.

Microsoft Office Assistance: About using Microsoft Query to retrieve external data

This may be a dumb question but what is the difference between the SKS and the AK 47? I always thought they were different names for the same gun. Which is better as far as accuracy and quality of manufacture? I have always heard that the Russian AK's are the best. They shoot the same cartridge, right?

Have you ever wondered: SKS or AK-47 tonight?

SKS vs AK 47 - Gun and Game Forums

I'm blogging this and I'd just like to say I have no guilt in doing so, as I have personally sent over a thousand dollars Mr. O'Reilly's way over the years. An HTML version of a book is not a replacement of a book, and I would continue to buy books even if all of them were available online. Maybe once adaptive paper screens are widespread, that will change.

This site has the O'Reilly collections on: Java, Perl, Networking, Unix, Web Development, Linux Web Servers and Oracle.

A very, very handy resource.

O'Reilly Reference Library for Free : Ukraine Rocks

The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, which says it has no affiliation with the government, was formed in 2004. Since then Samadi said some 52,000 people have signed up to be involved in possible attacks.

The Sunday Times of London, quoting unnamed Iranian officials, reported Iran had 40,000 trained suicide bombers prepared to strike western targets if Iran is attacked.

Oh jee.

Iranian group signing up potential martyrs - Apr 16, 2006 - CNN.com

You are your own tour guide inside the Gates estate. Simply click on the active areas of the image or use the text links below to navigate.

Was curious.

usnews.com: Technology: Bill Gates' House

Of course, seeing a correlation between fatty acids and nonviolence doesn't necessarily prove that fatty acids inhibit violence. Bernard Gesch, a senior research scientist at Oxford University, set out to show that better nutrition does, in fact, decrease violence. He enrolled 231 volunteers at a British prison in his study; one-half received a placebo, while the other half received fatty acids and other supplements. Over time, the antisocial behavior (as measured by assaults and other violations) of the inmates who had been given the supplements dropped by more than a third relative to their previous records. The control group showed little change. Gesch published his results in 2002 and plans to start a larger study later this year. Similar trials are already under way in Holland and Norway.

Does Eating Salmon Lower the Murder Rate? - New York Times

Overview
Multiple regression is used to account for (predict) the variance in an interval dependent, based on linear combinations of interval, dichotomous, or dummy independent variables. Multiple regression can establish that a set of independent variables explains a proportion of the variance in a dependent variable at a significant level (through a significance test of R2), and can establish the relative predictive importance of the independent variables (by comparing beta weights). Power terms can be added as independent variables to explore curvilinear effects. Cross-product terms can be added as independent variables to explore interaction effects. One can test the significance of difference of two R2's to determine if adding an independent variable to the model helps significantly. Using hierarchical regression, one can see how most variance in the dependent can be explained by one or a set of new independent variables, over and above that explained by an earlier set. Of course, the estimates (b coefficients and constant) can be used to construct a prediction equation and generate predicted scores on a variable for further analysis.

PA 765: Multiple Regression