I agree with many of the other letter writers: BASIC is a poor means of introducing children to programming. BASIC is relatively inflexible, encourages a loose, non-functional code structure ("spaghetti code"), and is difficult to debug. More importantly, though, BASIC provides no support for learning fundamental patterns of programming. That is, there are no guidelines built into the language to help beginning programmers understand tradeoffs in structuring their code.

BASIC also tends to encourage a focus on line-by-line semantics rather than more general coding concepts. This is a problem for every beginning programmer, but is particularly problematic for girls. Much of the research devoted to understanding why girls tend not to enter or remain in computer science programs has found that they were turned-off by language-particular tinkering at the expense of a focus on fundamental algorithms. However, this critique is also true of many other suggestions found in these letters (e.g., Perl, PHP). The author seems uninterested in educational programming languages, but some have been quite successful, such as Alice (http://www.alice.org/).

I also agree with other letter writers that it bodes poorly for an article when it begins with such a preposterous opening paragraph -- finding a simple BASIC compiler is trivial.

In sports, the line between the rules of the sport and the rules of law are sometimes blurry. Incidents that otherwise would lead to assault charges are part-and-parcel of sports such as football and rugby. Even in basketball, a "non-contact" sport, there are often inadvertent punches or elbows thrown.

But what is clear is that the behavior of coaches is subject to the rules of law, not the sport.

Bob Knight assaulted this player. This is something that he has done before. That the player and his parents said that this was not an issue is irrelevant -- the state often pursues cases without the consent of the defendant. At the very least, Knight should be suspended. Given that he has a long history of these types of incidents, I think it is time the NCAA ban him from coaching. If the NCAA and school do nothing, the state should charge him.

I played all manner of sports growing up. I understand the need to motivate. But the line is clear.

In what other work environment would it be acceptable for a boss to physically strike an employee against his/her will (whether paid or volunteer)? To apologists: What if Knight coached women's basketball? Would this behavior still be acceptable to you?

Keillor seems to be arguing for a sort of social tyranny of the majority, by which all religious memes other than the current hegemony are, and should continue to be, suppressed. This is that ubiquitous world-as-dichotomy trick that the aristocracy have used from the dawn of civilization to attempt to deflate and demoralize minorities -- you're with us or you're against us, you're pro-Christmas or you're a weaselly, litigious square, etc.

That this comes from Keillor, a salt-of-the earth character, softens the blow and is done in such a way as to also deflate irate rebuttals ("You see, I told you they were squares!"). So it is important to be clear that this article expresses disturbing anti-democratic sentiments.

Berri has responded on his blog to this column, arguing that King uses selective quotation to distort the argument in "Wages of Wins." This was also my first thought when I read this column. The full quote should be (emphasis mine): "Per 48 minutes played, Rodman’s productivity even eclipsed Jordan. Rodman’s WP48 of .0.415 was four times the production offered by an average player in the NBA, and even surpassed the 0.386 WP48 posted by Jordan. Of course when one looks at standard deviations above the average, Jordan was still more productive than Rodman." Additionally, Berri et al. were arguing about only one season, not a career.

However, I agree with King that any analysis that does show Rodman to be better (over a career) does not pass the "laugh test."

Kaufman writes,

"In most cases, though this is less true with Ohio State than with any other team in the country with a dominant player, a team losing its best player is a devastating blow."

In fact, as Ken Pomeroy has demonstrated (http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/hear_this/), the case is exactly the reverse -- OSU is more reliant on Oden than most teams are on their best player.

"The biggest question about Palin, though, is her lack of experience."

Perhaps. But do not forget that she is also under investigation for inappropriately firing a subordinate and could face impeachment:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/palin-ethics-investigation/

I just did not want Lawrence Pelo's comment to be lost in the noise. King saying that it's "daylight second" is ridiculous. Berkman had higher win share, and even a higher WSP than Pujols. I don't know if he should have won it, but he deserved a hard look.

Joan Walsh writes:

"If having a black president and first lady is going to narrow what we talk about, wow, that would be sad."

Much of the backlash against the backlash to this article seems to be focusing on more-or-less first amendment issues -- Salon has a right to print this work and so they should. That is beside the point. There is no shortage of magazines, tabloids, and so on to read about the president's dog, body shape, toothpaste, etc. What we are missing increasingly are editors willing to make the decision to report hard news and analysis and eschew this nonsense. There are now too many Erin Kaplans and too few Glenn Greenwalds.

The Steelers already have a bye. The teams other than the Titans that could match their record are the Colts, Ravens, Jets, Dolphins, and Patriots. The Colts will not win their division and thus are not eligible for a bye. The Steelers hold tie-breaks with the others (head-to-head with the Ravens and Pats and conference record with the Jets and Dolphins).