cantrip: (kän´ tRip), n. (Chiefly Scot.)

1. a magical charm or enchantment; 2. an elaborate deception or prank.

corpus: (kôr´ pus), n., pl. -pora,

1. a complete set of writings; 2. a dead body.

Standard C++ and C++ Library Architecture.

I've participated in the ISO/ANSI C++ Standard committee since 1993, and designed the components found in Chapter 22, Localization. I've worked on most other chapters of the library, and am also to blame for one new keyword in the core language: explicit.

More about C++.

Unschooling

An essay, The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto in the Whole Earth Review,  finally clarified for me why the American way of schooling is necessarily such a spirit-crushing experience, and suggested what to do about it. If you are a parent, you need to read this before it's too late.

Here is an interview. A later issue of WER [issue #64] had an article by Mary Pride and reviews of books on how to get kids out of the system and onto the alternatives. One such alternative is home-schooling, which (despite what you may have read) is not just for wackos. It's not the most interesting alternative, but it's well-documented.

Consensus Trance

Many years ago (c. 1976-78) I used to experiment with hypnosis. I had since wondered how such a thing could be possible -- how could a capacity for hypnosis evolve? The solution appeared, finally, in an interview with Charles Tart. (Charles Tart is a Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Davis.)

Essentially, hypnotic trance is not so unusual; it's the usual condition of almost everybody, almost all the time. A hypnotist only nudges you from one trance to another. What most people describe as "awake" (and thinking about money, football scores, the drug/ terrorist menace, or TV), consciousness researchers call "consensus trance" -- a common agreement about how to interpret the world. We don't notice we're hypnotized because people around us are hypnotized the same way.

So why not really wake up? Easier said than done, but better said than forgotten. Read.

Free Software

I've been using practically nothing but Free Software, principally Debian GNU/Linux, since 1994. For me, it's been "ready for the desktop" all along. (Where else would you put the keyboard?)

Other:
Building the Bomb on a Budget.
Carlo Cipolla's Laws of Stupidity
They're Made out of Meat.
A Gamers' Desiderata