chalimacos

If you want to hear how it sounds, Spanish National Radio (RNE) has a podcast in judeoespañol:

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/emision-en-sefardi/

The criteria of "usefulness" is a slippery slope. Books like The Iliad are completely devoid of any practical usefulness, they would have been discarded centuries ago by the librarians at Alexandria. I've seen libraries in Spain throw away good novels, even excellent novels, to make room for the latest potboiler.

What some people who don't see the need to preserve languages are missing is that each living language is in itself a Noah Ark that preserves lots of dead languages and world views. English preserves latin, greek, yiddish... Consider the word "consider". It comes from latin Considerare (cum + sidera) 'to consult the stars'. Each language that dies is a tragedy that kills many precedent languages. Moreover, current status is no guarantee for the future, even English could one day be at risk. I am a Catalan speaker, a language that once ruled the Mediterranean and now is struggling.

If they had devoted all this effort to beating the MLB they'll be rich.

This a misleading article. Ford didn't graciously concede the 40 hour week. Moreover, it is an insult to the memory of all the workers that fought and died for it (like in the Haymarket massacre).

The US should get rid of its Old Testament vengeance mentality. You cannot lock away social problems.

I translated the Spanish version:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Como-Vivir-Veinticuatro-Horas-melusi...

There is a (unfounded) rumor that Google is the client behind the test:

http://ecatinfo.com/e-cat/e-cat-info-hints-sat-google-being-...

In mobi format:

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Harvard_Classics_Available_a...

Regarding lists, this one by Fadiman&Major is one of the most compact and pertinent I have seen:

http://interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtfad4.html

This is very good for activists.

What about geniuses that didn't enjoy a supportive environment? Dali's father has an accountant radically opposed to his painting career. They broke relations. At 26 he had surpassed all his teachers in the most prestigious classical art academy and refused to be evaluated by them, consequently he was expelled and got into surrealism.

Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in 6 weeks. That's genius.

Some answers here are striking coming from users of a site called "Hacker News".

"We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. "