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Queue the teachers union to strike/protest.

Which is why there should be a separate union for science and maths teachers.

-CGP

Speaking as a teacher, I agree with this move. The problem with homework (at least in the schools where I have worked) is that it is expected to be graded and counted toward the overall academic progress of the child. This is an issue because as a teacher I cannot trust that the work done at home is the child's own. Aside from the easy things to catch like copying there are a myriad of parents and tutors who will use homework to artificially boost a child's grades.

Homework should be used for practice, but not count for the final grade.

-CGP

There are about 1,300 featured articles. There are also about 1,700 good articles. However, there are currently 1,637,703 articles on Wikipedia. This means that slightly more than 99.8% of all the articles on Wikipedia are not considered well written, verifiable or broad or comprehensive in their coverage.

This to me seems like the old most-blogs-are-terrible argument. I would wager that those 3,000 good/featured articles make up the bulk of what people who go to wikipedia read about.

-CGP

Well, since I have to create an account with Citizendium just to look at the articles, I'm not too worried about it overtaking the Wikipedia just yet.

-CGP

I'm a physics teacher currently teaching about the Big Bang and possible ends of the Universe. I'm just wondering if there are any research physicists in the room who could tell me which theory of the end of the Universe has the most physical evidence to support it at the current time.

Thank you,

-CGP

Decades of teaching to standardized tests and ignoring the thought process in favor of fact regurgitation has led to this

There's a reason why America is so diverse

Fair Use Under Siege "Fair use" is a crucial element in American copyright law-the principle that the public is entitled, without having to ask permission, to use copyrighted works in ways that do not unduly interfere with the copyright owner's market for a work. Fair uses include personal, noncommercial uses, such as using a VCR to record a television program for later viewing. Fair use also includes activities undertaken for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research. Unfortunately, the DMCA throws out the baby of fair use with the bathwater of digital piracy. By employing technical protection measures to control access to and use of copyrighted works, and using the DMCA against anyone who tampers with those measures, copyright owners can unilaterally eliminate fair use, re-writing the copyright bargain developed by Congress and the courts over more than a century.

What bothers me is that things like this cause people to think that there is no such thing as fair use. I work as a teacher and I make a bunch of presentations for my classes. It's school policy that we can't use copyrighted images for any purposes -- even this clear cut case of non-comercial, educational use. This policy is just one of the many in place to eliminate even the possibility that someone may sue for any reason, no matter how in the right we may be. I'd use creative commons images anyway, but this is very frustrating.

-CGP

We shouldn't let people be stupid just so they don't feel bad about themselves.

You, Sir, have clearly never worked in a school. Self Esteem above all seems to be the current rally cry :(

-CGP

I don't presume to know what criteria God uses to decide whether or not to answer a prayer.

I can only assume it goes something like this:

God: I know everything and am all powerful and have a master plan for everything that happens.

Puny Human: Hey! I have a heart problem and don't want to die just yet.

God: ::slaps head:: Whoops! Sorry, I meant to give you a good heart not a broken one. Let me just fix that... ...there we go. Jeez, thanks for reminding me, guy. Really would have fucked up my master plan if you died too early.

-CGP

OK, then riddle me this: How can God know everything and people have free will? If God knew the way everything would play out when he chose to set up the universe the way he did, then we can't have free will.

-CGP

Why do people feel the need to debunk another person's personal beliefs? Especially when it has absolutely no consequence to anyone but that person? If someone's mom or dad is going to have heart surgery where there is a good change they can die, and it comforts them to pray for a good outcome, who gives a shit? I'm not religious, but at the same time I don't get why science always has to have something to prove. It comforts people to pray for their loved ones, and themselves. Why do you give such a shit whether people pray, or believe in Bigfoot, or give money to Miss Cleo?

Go here and scroll down to "View from the end of the world". The long now foundation has some very interesting lectures and this one is on the dangers of religious thought. The two second version is that it is dangerous to have people around who can opt out of logical thinking.

-CGP

OMG NSFW! You are firox0rd! LOL!

-CGP

Odd, I didn't realize that Joe Average was a `low A' student. What are the really bright students getting these days? Do we need to go round the loop and give them Z's?

-CGP

Well actually I do make my photos available under a CC lisence, which makes my above argument a bit theoretical. Anyway, you can use my photos as long as you link to my website: ColinGregoryPalmer.net

Honor Kim Stanley Robinson and don't call it dust, call it the fines.

-CGP

some feel the challenges presented on the moon will be less than Mars.

They feel do they? I'm glad we have people willing to know with their hearts rather than think with their heads.

-CGP

While I do love sites like flickr, I had a bit of a change of heart when they made it possible for others to buy prints of my photos. While I always knew that flickr made money off of my work through their advertising, selling physical copies of my photos made it a bit too real and a bit too obvious. I think that in the future of Web 2.0 the companies should recognize that their users generate their profits and share some of the wealth.

-CGP

not that Verizon, SONY, Apple, et. al., will ever allow that to happen on their watch (literally)

I was unaware that all of life took place on the face of a large watch owned by Sony and Apple. Thank you for enlightening me.

-CGP

Reminds me of a job opening that stated -- literally -- "requires 10 or more years experience administering a Windows 2000 Active Directory domain.". This was back in late 2002, mind you. I actually called and asked about the position just to ask if it was a mistake, but they said the position had been filled. I still wonder who they found....

A lesson hard-learned: Never compete for a job with a swashbuckling time-traveler.

-CGP

Sounds like someone has been reading too much Paul Graham. Don't get me wrong, I really like the guy and his ideas, but I think the get-bought-out-by-a-big-company plan is just a lottery ticket for smart people.

-CGP

Today I saw a license plate with the number 1WX 456! How unlikely is that!

-CGP

You have obviously not met most of those 6 billion people.

-CGP

That's true, but Amazon isn't going to send me to gitmo if they don't like the books I'm reading.

-CGP

Anyone else find it impossible to read an article that has not one, but two sets of scrolling photos next to it? Jeez, I'm trying not to get my work done here, but the distractions are just too distracting.

-CGP

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Your Worth

XXXXXXXXX Your Salary

XXXX Your Worth - Your Salary = Company Profit

-CGP

I was hoping that some slashbot would be able to help me with this question, since no one on flickr seems to be able to.

Is there anyway to sort through flickr by both creative commons license AND by interestingness?

I ask because I spend a huge amount of time on flickr looking for images that I use in my classroom presentations (also CC licensed) and it seems like madness that I have to look at ALL the 'physics' photos to try and find the few good ones.

-CGP314 on Flickr

Just who is running this madhouse, anyhow?

The inmates :(

-CGP

It's one thing if you're picking up a box full of glasses and someone says "be careful with that!" It's another if they follow you around and say "be careful with that!" every time you pick up a pen, a sheet of paper, or a phone.

That's what it's like being a science teacher. Thanks to health and safety I am required to write a risk assessment for anything that requires lifting and my student must have safety goggles on for activities such as boiling water.

-CGP

In a cinema there are often hundreds of people. The chance that at least one person out of those hundreds has an 'emergency' during the length of a movie is significant. This means that any time I see a movie I have to endure a significant chance of it being ruined because of someone else's problem.

Call notification = vibrate. No more problem.

Except, of course, for the selfish jerks who refuse to use this feature.

-CGP

So by the same reasoning would concrete bunkers deep underground be illegal?

-CGP

How To Enable Mom w/ Encrypted E-Mail?

Don't.


-Colin

Foolish yes, but I also sense growth potential for the pharmaceutical industry. I actually know a woman who shares her prozac with her dog during the winter. :\

-CGP

I have no idea why this should be.

Powerbooks look cooler and people are vain.


-Colin

Check out my sig for more info.

Why is your website's mascott a robot with a huge penis?


-Colin

It's a simple matter to go to the embassy, renounce your US citizenship and surrender your US passport if they're not providing you any services.

Right. Except then I will not be able to work in the US if I ever wanted to in the future. It's just a crazy system as the US is one of the only governments in the world that require you to pay taxes even if you don't live there.


-Colin

Hell, I moved out of the US and trained as a teacher in England and now work at a school in London. Can anyone explain to me why I still have to pay income tax to the U.S. government when I don't use any of their services?


-Colin

The prime backers of the war were:
1) US
2) Britain
3) Spain
4) Italy
5) Australia

Don't forget Poland!


-Colin

but at a certain point, the "bush sucks" rhetoric gets old

That point will be when there are no more Bushes in the White House. That means you too, JEB.


-Colin

I mean, who really needs a countdown timer to the next episode of Battlestar Galactica just one keypress away at any moment?

You Sir, have clearly never seen Battlestar Galactica. That being said, I agree with your main point. If it wasn't for my oh-how-long-must-I-wait-before-watching-Starbuck-f ight-the-toasters timer, I wouldn't use dashboard either.


-Colin

Do you think any office worker who puts in a 10-hour day actually does more than 3 hours of work?


-Colin

The fact that it has failed can easily be demonstrated by the fact that there is no major work released under the CC

Whoops, also forgot the BBS: Documentary.


-Colin

The fact that it has failed can easily be demonstrated by the fact that there is no major work released under the CC

Flickr, 4,202,909 creative commons photos as of now.


-Colin

They don't have a message board on their website, and emailed questions are never answered.

No kidding, I've been trying to get an answer to this question for a while. Perhaps someone here can help me out.

I have a question regarding the non-commercial clause of licenses and how it relates to advertising. I am in the process of putting together some classroom resources for teachers using the CC BY-NC-SA license. The resource includes both my own work, and the work of others under compatible licenses (ie BY, BY-SA). Ultimately, I would like to make the materials available on my website -- however, my website does contain advertising. The viewer is not forced to see the ads, and I will make the materials free to download. I am just concerned that the presence of the ads may violate the NC clause of the license.


-Colin

Too much of a good thing is NEVER beneficial.

Money.


-Colin

I AM the IT Manager in a buisness the same as posted. In a small buisness, everyone usually needs to wear multiple hats.

Why do your employees need to wear many hats? Are these hats necessary for the different jobs they do? Or is it a requirement that they use stupid, meaningless business jargon?


-Colin

I dont see the point of a mission to mars, you would need to live indoors.

And how often do you go outside, let alone live outside?


-Colin

It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons.
--Douglas Adams.


-Colin

Rock Concerts!


-Colin

What corporate-loving sadist modded this funny? Better science/technology is supposed to bring us less work, not more.


-Colin