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I don't recall if Thermodynamics was required for a CE degree but there was one more physics class that was required. Now I did have all the math classes needed. However because to get a minor in physics I only needed to take 2 more physics classes and the same for math I decided to take those 4 more classes. So I would have ended up with a degree in CE and minors in math and physics.

Depending on how it's looked at, if I knew in high school what I know now I'd have done better or worse than a major and 2 minors. If I knew then what I know now I'd have done a double major. In high school I wanted to do both computer engineering and a marine science, marine bio or oceanography perhaps. I loved and took classes in both. As part of the marine biology class and club I was in a group of us went to Mote Marine Laboratory on a field trip. Before leaving there a couple of us were pulled aside and asked if we wanted to work there during the summer. We were told that if we did and we wanted to major in a marine science in college they'd help us get in and pay for it. By then I had basically decided I wanted to design computer systems though, so I turned it down.

I considered majoring in music back in high school. I concluded, though that being interested in EE as well I should make that my career path instead. Right now I plan to go for a music minor, though.

Back when, before my accident, spirituality was important to me. Spirituality not religion. And though I still recall what beliefs I had I no longer believe them. As I've said here and other places I am agnostic, "a" without and "gnosis" knowledge. Thing is, with living I always believed and told my family I'd rather be disconnected and have all the lines and tubes pulled so that I'd die if it came to being a vegetable or dying. I don't recall it but one of my sisters' told me that after I came out of the coma I was in in the hospital I screamed at everyone to let me die.

Falcon

It seems that a lot of the people who demand to be allowed to die are the ones who end up making it. :) I agree with you about not wanting to be a vegetable, but I think there's always some hope.

I guess I would consider myself a religious/spiritual person, though it is my own set of beliefs. I haven't been through what you have, but I could see how you would come to your conclusion. I know my beliefs could possibly be rationalizations, but for now they're what I have in the absence of absolute knowledge.

Thermodynamics for a CE? I guess it varies by school but I didn't realize many places had that as a requirement (or still did, at least). You might want to look around, you never know what another school might be willing to transfer.

I don't recall if Thermodynamics was required for a CE degree but there was one more physics class that was required. Now I did have all the math classes needed. However because to get a minor in physics I only needed to take 2 more physics classes and the same for math I decided to take those 4 more classes. So I would have ended up with a degree in CE and minors in math and physics.

Depending on how it's looked at, if I knew in high school what I know now I'd have done better or worse than a major and 2 minors. If I knew then what I know now I'd have done a double major. In high school I wanted to do both computer engineering and a marine science, marine bio or oceanography perhaps. I loved and took classes in both. As part of the marine biology class and club I was in a group of us went to Mote Marine Laboratory on a field trip. Before leaving there a couple of us were pulled aside and asked if we wanted to work there during the summer. We were told that if we did and we wanted to major in a marine science in college they'd help us get in and pay for it. By then I had basically decided I wanted to design computer systems though, so I turned it down.

Obviously people believe a lot of things. Who knows, maybe we do reincarnate? But the truth is the only thing we can be sure of, the thing we don't need to 'believe' in because we know it, is that we're here - 'I think therefore I am.' There's a time and a place for stubbornness, and I suppose when it comes to something like that.

Back when, before my accident, spirituality was important to me. Spirituality not religion. And though I still recall what beliefs I had I no longer believe them. As I've said here and other places I am agnostic, "a" without and "gnosis" knowledge. Thing is, with living I always believed and told my family I'd rather be disconnected and have all the lines and tubes pulled so that I'd die if it came to being a vegetable or dying. I don't recall it but one of my sisters' told me that after I came out of the coma I was in in the hospital I screamed at everyone to let me die.

Falcon

No, he's serious.

This link was provided by a previous poster.

Waldo - along with two other AUVs nicknamed Carmen and Nemo - has been "on the job" for Mote since 2005

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/9/5/where39s_waldo_the_answer_could_net_you_500.html
and
http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=news&submenu=NEWS&srctype=detail&category=Newsroom&refno=295

$500 reward for finding it....

Here in Austin, Texas, kids on the college track are taking classes at Austin Community College during regular school hours and getting credit towards a bachelors degree. My wife, for example, had two years of undergrad credits finished by the time she graduated high school.

Perhaps that's what a friend of mine could have done. But instead when she was in 10th grade she dropped out of school, took her GED then started attending my community college. I don't know if her high school offered college classes though, although she was only a couple of year behind me and lived in the same neighborhood she went to a different HS and mine didn't have college classes. I'd love to have been able to take some, except for math I took as advanced classes as I could. For instance though only a year of bio was required for graduation I took that, half year of Marine Biology, 1 1/2 years of chemistry, and half year of ecology. I also took half year each of Business Law, Data Processing for business, and programming.

I sometimes wish I had gone into Marine Bio instead of Computer Engineering, or did a double major majoring in both. As I said before I didn't believe I could afford to go to college with a CE major without going into the military and saving money first. However as part of the Marine Bio class I took we went to Mote Marine Research Lab on a field trip. While there some of the scientists there ask a couple of us in the class if we wanted to go to college with a major in a related field. They said they'd help us get admitted and pay for it. I guessing our teacher had talked with them before hand because those of us who were asked spent a lot of tyme talking about it and about scuba diving, which we also did, with the teacher.

She then finished her BS degree in two years, followed by her masters a year and a half later, followed by unemployment, because nobody wants to hire a 21-year old masters holder. She's now in her 30s and making masters degree salary, and nobody even knows or cares how she got there.

I don't know if my sister took college classes in HS, she went to the same HS as my friend did because the school board changed school districts, but she got her AA from the community college then transfered to the university. There she got her BA then she Masters in Taxation. Now she's a partner and runs her own accounting business friends of hers and she started.

If you want to put a different spin on it, you could argue that it is actually smarter to go to a Community College for two years, because you pay much less for the pretty-much-useless low-level classes you HAVE to take.

Yeap! That's true. We used to call those "pretty-much-useless" classes weeding out classes.

You'll also be more "grown up" and responsible by the time you hit the meat of your degree plan and have a lower risk of dropping out than had you entered right into the local State (Party) School.

I think that really depends on the student. After having taken calculus and chemistry I tutored them on campus. Most of the students I tutored were sincere about learning, but one of them was a real turnoff and waste of tyme. She graduated that year from HS and her parents were paying her tuition. Because the college was a 2 year community college no alcoholic beverages were allowed on campus, but she always kept a cooler in her car filled with beer and every tyme I saw her she was drunk. After a couple of weeks I had to stop tutoring her.

I know that happens at universities but she wasn't the only alcoholic at the college. On the other hand the average age of the students at the community college was 28/29. After working unskilled jobs for some years many decided to go back to school Working full tyme they'd only take one or two classes a semester. Eventually the college started offering classes on weekend because of this. Then there were grandparents as well. While one of my friends there was working on her degree her mother started taking classes too.

Falcon

The average person here has biceps the size of a match.

I'm rather eclectic and have a wide range of interests. In high school I was torn between majoring in Computer Engineering and Marine Science or Oceanography. I eventually chose to major in CE though I sometimes regret not choosing Marine Science. As a senior the marine biology class I took went on a field trip to Mote Marine Laboratory. There one of the scientists offered me, and a friend, summer jobs. He said if we wanted to he would help us be accepted into college and pay for it with a major in a related field. By that tyme I had already decided to major in CE, if I had known then what I know now I would have done a double major, CE and a Marine Science. I didn't know such things were possible. Coming from a low income family, my dad retired as an enlisted person from the US Air Force and my mom worked her way through a 2 year technical school to become a lab technician in medicine. Not having the money to go to college, and not believing I could get financial aid to go, I enlisted in the army to save money to go to college when I got out.

However me being active in the outdoors didn't start when I went in the army, as hinted at above. I spent a lot of tyme on the beach, coast, and scuba dived. Growing up I also camped at least a couple of tymes a year, went fishing and hunting frequently, and gardened. Also, for physical fitness in high school I was on the swim and dive team and I worked out with the gymnastics team.

From what I heard the main long-term stress on the condition comes from hauling around all that high-tech these days. Is this true ?

I don't know if it's true. I was in the army in the '80s and we didn't have a lot of high tech goodies. About the only high tech stuff we had was the transmitters and receivers we used for mock combat. We'd attach a transmitter on the end of our M16 which when the M16 was fired would send a signal. We'd also wear detectors, which if the alarm went off meant you were shot and you'd have to play dead. Heck in my first unit, at Fort Benning, we didn't even have APCs, Armoured personnel carrier. When we had to go somewhere we either marched or we took duce n half trucks.

I imagine they had less gadgets back then but they didn't have light materials as well ...

Some may think we had to carry a lot but I don't. At least once a year we had to carry 40 lbs in our rucksack along with our M16, canteen, and other things on a 12 mile march. We frequently marched a lot, being a leg unit and not having APCs, so that wasn't a hard thing. Actually when we did the qualifying march, we didn't actually march. Instead we did the march individually, like a hike, and some of us would run it.

Now if you want to talk about carrying a lot of weight, when we trained with the Special Forces their rucksacks weighed at least 90 lobs. To match them we'd put big rocks in our rucksacks but we couldn't get ours to weigh as much because theirs were bigger than ours. They'd let us carry theirs some though, as some would say we were hardcore.

A friend of mine is in the army and he once explained how they had lessons in "dissecting" human faecal matter to establish the health of the opposition.

That came after I got out, we didn't do anything like that.

Falcon

CS is often derided also.

I've seen a lot of that on /.

Does a windows sysadmin really need to study algorithms and discreet math?

I don't know if a Windows sysadmin, or a Mac or Linux sysadmin needs either one. I haven't really been interested in administration. Way back when I decided my major I wanted to research on the design of computer systems and wanted to be an engineer, so I chose Computer Engineering. It was either that or do research in Marine Science, maybe Oceanography. Now I wish I knew then how to combine both computers and marine science. While on a field trip to Mote Marine Laboratory in high school my Marine Biology class took a couple of us were offered summer jobs there and assistance in getting into a related major in college and paying for it. Instead of taking them up on it I chose to major in CE, and went into the Army to save money so I could go to college. I never did finish my major, an accident I had after classes one semester ended that dream.

And then you were either in the top 3% income-wise, will be paying it off for more than a decade, or filed bankruptcy because it's highly unlikely you had a 6 digit amount saved for medical expenses just on hand.

My family, parents, were low income. My older sister and I went into the military, which my father retired from, before going to college. When I went in I signed up to have money deducted from my pay to save for college. When I went in that was the only way I knew of that I could afford to go to college. Well, I knew another way I might of been able to pay, while on a school field trip to a research lab people there offered me a job and to help paying for college if I wanted to go. However it was a marine research lab, Mote Marine Laboratory, and I wanted to major in Computer Engineering. I didn't declare bankruptcy either.

some soldiers signed up for the college money, but trust me, it's not worth it. Take those extra 8-15 hrs a day you work and get a second job.

Not the only reason but one of the reasons I went into the army was to save money to go to college. In high school I knew I wanted to go to college but I couldn't afford it, and I didn't know about financial aid. As a senior there were three options I knew I had, one was not going to college, which wasn't really an option. Another was taking a job I was offered at a research lab. One of the classes I took as a senior was Marine Biology and we went on a field trip to Mote Marine Research Laboratory, and while there a couple of us were offered summer jobs and were told that if we wanted to go to college and major in a related field they would help us get in and pay tuition. The third was going into the military to save money then majoring in Computer Engineering. Being ignorant, I didn't know then that double majors were possible, and wanting to design and work with computers I chose the third option. Regrets are a waste but I now wish I had double majored, in CE and a marine science.

I would have loved to record to reel-to-reel, but I was a starving student and couldn't afford good equipment.

Well I bought my stereo and reel-to-reel while I was in the Army. And I went in to save money to go to college. I hadn't even thought or knew of financial aid. All I knew was that my family was low income and I wanted to go to college. I couldn't afford to pay out of pocket and neither could my family, so I looked at my options.

I had 3, one not go to college, which was unacceptable. Two, I could join the military and save money to go to college when I got out. The third option was an offer a friend of mine and I were given. In our senior year in high school we were offered jobs at a research lab, Mote Marine Laboratory, when we graduated. For a class in Marine Biology I took, we went on a field trip there. There they offered my friend and I summer jobs, and told us that if we wanted to major in a related field they would help us get into and pay for college. Oh, I wanted to take them up on it so much. But I had already decided I wanted to major in Computer Engineering so I turned the offer down. And picked option 2, to go into the military and save money to go to college.

Now, I wish that I took the third option and figured out how to combine Marine Biology with Computer Engineering.

Define "foreign".

Not native, in this case not naturally occuring in corn.

Then study biology.

Though not a biologist I have studied biology. Actually I almost went into biology. In high school some friends of mine and I scuba dived and we were talking to one of the biology teachers who also dived. We asked her about the school offering a class in Marine Biology so she brought it up with the school administration. They told her that if enough students signed a petition to pledge to take the class if it were offered then they'd offer the class. It only took us a few days to get enough students to sign so the following year it was offered. At the same tyme we started a marine science club with the teacher as the adviser. To graduate hs the only science required was one year of bio however I took that, 1 1/2 years of chemistry, the 1/2 year of marine bio, and another 1/2 year of ecology. So I took 3 1/2 tymes as much science, 1 1/2 of which was bio, as was needed. While taking Marine Bio we took a field trip to Mote Marine Lab, where 3 of us including me were offered jobs there. They told us that if we wanted to work there and major in marine biology or science in college they would help us get accepted into college and help pay for it. I wanted to so bad but I also wanted to, and decided to, major in Computer Engineering instead. And while it wasn't required I still took bio in college.

The venom apparatus or "sting" of a stingray is a spine or modified dermal denticle (the scales covering sharks and stingrays) with two ventral grooves filled with venom-producing tissue. The venom apparatus is surrounded by a cell-rich covering or sheath that also may produce lesser amounts of venom. The venom itself is a largely protein-based toxin that causes great pain in mammals and may also alter heart rate and respiration. However, since it is proteinaceous, it can be inactivated by exposure to high temperatures. Because of this, immersion of the wound in hot water or application of a heat compress are recommended as an immediate treatment for unfortunate victims of a stingray injury or "envenomation." Although this may reduce the initial pain of a stingray injury, victims should still obtain medical assistance so that the wound can be properly examined and cleaned to avoid secondary infections or other complications.

As mentioned above, the sting on most pelagic stingrays is situated near the base of the tail. This may discourage predators from biting the animal near its vital organs. In contrast, the sting of most bottom-dwelling stingrays is located further away from the body, making it a more effective and dangerous "striking" weapon. However, it should be pointed out that the sting is purely a defensive weapon only and that the "striking" action is an involuntary response rather than a conscious "attack."

The truth is, most environmental organizations are about as cash-strapped and close to ruin as they can get (discounting the obvious Greenpeace and PETA, which are practically corporations nowadays). Personally, I have trouble thinking of one thing the human race has done to improve the environment, other than fixing its own mistakes. We've got a lot of them to fix, too. I feel my hard-earned money does more work improving the world as a whole when I donate to organizations that follow similar philosophies.

To remain on-topic,
http://www.seashepherd.org/,
http://www.mote.org/, and
http://www.dolphinproject.org/
http://www.tursiops.org/
are good places to start.

I've heard people say that sharks don't get cancer. I always thought that this was probably bullshit but this page seems to have actual evidence that sharks at least have an extraordinarily low rate of cancer.

Sorry about the troll thing, I believe I misjudged you there. Thanks for replying in a calm manner. It's just so hard to separate the decent posters from the morons here.

As for medical benefits from sharks: I have in fact heard (and another poster in this story brought it up) that sharks have some interesting cancer-preventing abilities and quite developed immune systems for a fish. I found a little more info here, which was the first result returned by searching Google for "sharks cancer". Disease fighting chemicals useful against virtually all disease exist in natural genetic resivores; the problem is that we are losing that genetic diversity before we can study the benefits. It may be (mostly) speculation at this point, but that's precisely why we should protect natural diversity: so we have time to research it for useful substances and genes.

As for elasticity of ecosystems, you are correct up to a point. Yes, if we wiped out sharks, other animals would step into their ecological niche. But diversity is the source of this elasticity, and it is not bottomless. If we wipe out too many key species like sharks, the elasticity will disappear and the whole thing will start to break down. At that point a large part of the species in existence will disappear and over millions of years new ones will take their place. This process takes much longer than all of human history so far.

This link has a pretty simplistic discussion on the topic. As for not seeing 100 Million Year Old Sharks, it's a shark eat shark world. Cancer isn't the only thing that kills, you know.