Homeschooling came into focus in the late 20th century but is still a relatively seldom used method of educating children. As of 2003, 1.1 million children in the United States are were homeschooled (2.2% of the school age population), up from approximately 850,000 in 1999 (only 1.7% of the school-age population). Those who have been through the homeschooling experience, however, are usually firm defenders of its educational merits and sometimes even have the documentation to back it up. There are those who oppose the homeschool movement, though. Some argue that a responsible citizen should participate in the improvement of the public school system instead of "taking the easy way out" and abandoning it, while others emphasize the professional qualifications of public school instructors.

As both the public/private and homeschool environments implement more of today's technology, which classroom has the upper hand?

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Many artists are finding their place within contemporary F/OSS (Free/Open Source Software) communities. This is a chance for creativity to flourish unbound by the entrenched commercial software model. Here I use the term 'artist' fairly broadly, including visual artists, experimental musicians and those making software-based installations among others.

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When entering a Best Buy store, I'm now `greeted' by a guy in a blue shirt. (Lately they've been changing their shirt color to a Best-Buy yellow, but that doesn't matter.) In addition to loudly bellowing out "Hello!" he also mumbles "...howyoudoing?"

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Given we are now entering the autumn, it seems timely to present a brief guide to one of my favourite seasonal activities for the last 20 or so years; the exciting game of conkers.

Basic Gameplay
Conkers is a two player game in which each player is equipped with a conker (the fruit of the Common Horsechestnut tree, known to some as a "Buckeye") threaded onto a piece of string. The players take it in turn to take shots at their opponent's conker, until one player's conker is destroyed. Conkers is therefore a brutal game where no quarter is spared and the word mercy is unknown. Yet it is also a noble pursuit; when it is your opponent's turn to take a shot, you must let your conker hang at the end of its string at a height of your opponent's choosing. It must remain as dead still as your nerves will allow. Tempting though it might be to whip your pride and joy away before the moment of impact, it is well recognised that to do so would cast a dark stain on the perceived character of the cheat low enough to try it. It is perhaps no accident therefore that conkers is a sport that originated in the home of chivalry itself, England. That said, I have from time to time found the alleyways and playgrounds in which conkers is traditionally played surprisingly windy places at times.

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"It looked just like a scene from Apocalypse Now. The grass was dead, all the trees were down or dead. Everything was covered in mud. Cars were covered in mud, pushed everywhere, on the median, in the yards. Everything that wasn't covered in mud was covered in mold."

--My coworker E, describing his house, which sits about three blocks from where the 17th street canal levee broke in New Orleans

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Never heard of slalom skateboarding? That's not surprising - despite skateboarding being one of the most popular participation sports in the US, slalom skateboarding is almost unknown, even within the skateboarding world. Yet it has a rich history, with roots in the 60s, and a heyday in the 70s when slalom skating was as mainstream as today's kickflips and railslides.

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With the apparent growth in popularity of poker I thought it might be useful to provide some instructions for a couple of simple shuffling flourishes to impress your friends and potential victims with. With enough practice you should be able to absentmindedly shuffle and cut a deck of cards with one hand while sorting your chips with the other. It's also a useful flourish for those interested in card tricks, and just generally for those interested in manual dexterity games.

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I suppose I am twice lucky.

A little over two years ago, a tree fell on my house. I was pretty upset about it at the time, but it really should have killed me and it didn't. It really should have completely destroyed my house and it didn't, and after a few months of inconvenience and a fat check from my insurance company I only had the lack of shade in my back yard to remind of how close I had come to losing everything.

Five days ago hurricane Katrina fell on my city. I'm pretty upset about it, but it really should have killed a hell of a lot more people than it did. My own house appears to be intact, and after a month or two of inconvenience it seems likely that I will be able to move right back in.

But I'm not going to push my luck any further.

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There is no doubt that America has created an empire, with its economic and cultural power greedily absorbed by countless other nations. However, history dictates that all empires will fall, like the Romans and Mongols before them. Who, then, will rise from the pushing and jostling to become the next center of the world? Will it be China?

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In response to criticism from scientists, proponents of Intelligent Design often point out that evolution is itself a faith-based theory, and they are right. In fact, in a certain sense, every scientific theory is based in faith. There is, however, a vast difference in meaning between these two uses of the word 'faith.' In order to resolve this semantic ambiguity, I have kindly volunteered myself to take up the job of forming a clear and unambiguous distinction between 'religious faith' and 'scientific faith,' of carefully defining their respective meanings, and of discussing the relative merits of the two approaches in their ability to uncover the truth about how the world really works.

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