Computer collectibles saved from the tip

Oh great, a Boulderite. For those of you that are not familiar with Boulder it is a sort of ultra liberal oasis in the midst of a mostly moderate state. Home to all sorts of elitest snobs. To be fair, they do a good job of protecting the environment with all those growth restrictions. It is only a coincidence that those same restrictions drive the property values up so high that only the well-heeled can afford to live there. A cynic might say that Boulderites are happy to champion the cause of the poor and downtrodden just as long as they don't have to live with them.

Watch ye therefore, and pray alwayes, that ye may be accompted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to passe, and to stand before the sonne of man.

I believe that Stephen Gould and Elizabeth Vrba were correct in proposing exaptation as a missing term in evolutionary biology. I want to make a distinction between adaptation and exaptation here. Again it is about mechanistic differences. An exaptation can be viewed as the acquisition of a new and useful function once the novelty has spread and once the environment has changed.