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Bullshit. The reason those bacterial infections can grow without being disturbed is precisely because your immune system is inactive during stressed periods. See Sapolsky's work, e.g., Why Zebra's don't get Ulcers., or his recent splendid TTC series Stress and your body.

I heard Hazen's audio book on the life's origins a few months back. He discusses how life may have began in an extreme environment( hi P, hi T, hi PH) before migrating to the more mild ecological niches it occupies today. Certain basic reactions that need catalysts/enzymes now may have had less of a need for those in an extreme environment. Then these catalysts which themselves are carbo-proteins could bootstap from other proteins, allowing life to move into the less extreme environments.

I am currently listening to the Teaching Company lecture series History of Ancient Egypt which is quite interesting. Bob Brier is also a fantastic lecturer.

I'm not so sure your post is that OT. The manner is in which ancient/lost civilizations are studied is very process oriented, and of course the study of the languages requires understanding of abstraction and the context in which they were created. I think software development has a number of similarities. Maybe CS 101 should be the study of an ancient language. Egyptian writing would actually be a great candidate.

The Teaching Company is a great resource for lifetime learners. I've used a fair number of their products over the years and they have a lot more positives than negatives. The only thing I dislike about their course offerings is there is too little to acquire with regards to MBA-style courses, but that's neither here nor there.

I think the two courses you want are:

Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips by Dr. Bruce Edwards, and

Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition by Dr. Michael Starbird

I have the second course and although I haven't gone through it yet, it does not look too shabby.

You might also do well to consider a calculus book by Schaum's.

The Teaching Company is a great resource for lifetime learners. I've used a fair number of their products over the years and they have a lot more positives than negatives. The only thing I dislike about their course offerings is there is too little to acquire with regards to MBA-style courses, but that's neither here nor there.

I think the two courses you want are:

Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips by Dr. Bruce Edwards, and

Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition by Dr. Michael Starbird

I have the second course and although I haven't gone through it yet, it does not look too shabby.

You might also do well to consider a calculus book by Schaum's.

The Teaching Company is a great resource for lifetime learners. I've used a fair number of their products over the years and they have a lot more positives than negatives. The only thing I dislike about their course offerings is there is too little to acquire with regards to MBA-style courses, but that's neither here nor there.

I think the two courses you want are:

Understanding Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips by Dr. Bruce Edwards, and

Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition by Dr. Michael Starbird

I have the second course and although I haven't gone through it yet, it does not look too shabby.

You might also do well to consider a calculus book by Schaum's.

isohunt.com and a search for "The Teaching Company" - free

Or, if you prefer not to steal copyrighted materials, you could pay the company for the excellent products they provide, and even get a nice companion book to go with the audio:

The Teaching Company

The adult learner does have resources available to them to learn and become educated... it's just that a degree does not follow the course.

Here's a plug for my favorite "Listen to a highly rated professor" series: The Teaching Company

Unfortunately there is a problem with science known as the knowledge problem. Philosopher and historian of science Steven Goldman points this out very clearly with (roughly) the following:
---
If we have a theory that predicts that outcome Y follows directly from event X, and we note in reality (once or several times) that Y follows X, we wrongfully conclude that X necessarily leads to Y.

For example, If I consistently wake up before my alarm clock goes off (because my internal clock works well), I wrongfully conclude that waking up causes my alarm clock to go off.
---

Theories and facts are in different classes. Theories do not become facts after people accept them. The "Theory of Relativity" is still a theory. Theories explain facts.

However, I must point out that since the discovery of molecular information, information theory has been applied to evolution by random mutation and natural selection brilliantly by Perry S. Marshall at http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com/atheists_riddle.htm

Don't believe that cells have information? Believe Professor Stephen Nowicki, Duke: 'Starting with the theme of "Information and Evolution" (Lectures 1-24), you investigate how information about the structure and organization of living things is found in the DNA molecule, how this information is transmitted and modified, and the implications of these processes for understanding life.' ( http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=1500 )

DNA contains an encoding decoding system. Our bodies contain about 1GB of information. Evolution by natural selection acting on genetic variation caused by mutation and sexual reproduction does amazing things. It helps organisms adapt to their environment, it allows diversity of species and it adds diversity within a species. These are fairly well accepted parts of evolutionary theory.

Molecules to man evolution is having a tough time currently. Mathematics (information theory) shows that cellular operating systems (encoding decoding systems) do not arise through natural processes.

Of course they still try. There is a one million dollar prize for the discovery of a natural mechanism (no reason to believe it exists, but whatever): http://www.us.net/life/

As Perry Marshall says: "No one has punched a hole in this argument."

Oh, there is also a quarter of a million dollars up for proof that we should act on global warming: http://ultimateglobalwarmingchallenge.com/

So far there are only comical entries to that challenge.

Kip Thorne (whom I've frequently heard called the greatest black hole theorist alive, Hawking not withstanding)

It is ridiculous to classify people's intellect by their skin color, but if we are doing that, what about S. James Gates? I found his "Superstring Theory" series of DVDs to be well over my simpleton head. I look forward to working my way through the series again.

Already been done. Check this site: http://www.teach12.com/store/courses.asp?t=&sl=&s=905&sbj=Literature%20and%20English%20Language&fMode=s I've listened to some of their recordings and they were pretty good.

Try the Teaching Company. They offer high-school level math. I have thoroughly enjoyed the many classes I have purchased from them.

• Basic Match
• Algebra I
• Algebra II
• Geometry

• Basic Match
• Algebra I
• Algebra II
• Geometry

• Basic Match
• Algebra I
• Algebra II
• Geometry

• Basic Match
• Algebra I
• Algebra II
• Geometry

I think it was Joy of Science from The Teaching Company.
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?c id=1100&id=1100&pc=Science%20and%20Mathematics
Look in the library; you probably don't want to buy this one. ($300 as downloads is the cheapest other than transcripts)

Technology cannot. The system is broken from the implementation. I wish I had the reference material with me, but as explained in this TTC Course on Economics the American system is set up to charge too much for services. The professor of those lectures recommends the German system over all other popular systems for being most efficient and manageable. He also suggests that the Canadian system is broken (which I use) but it is not currently as badly broken as the US system.

Technology is not a solution for all problems. In this case, the underlying system and procedures are flawed, and technology will not fix those problems.

Hello,

I recently finished a lecture by Stephen Nowicki ( http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?c id=1500&id=1500&pc=Science%20and%20Mathematics ).

In it, he spoke about how one of the ideas about why there is coal/oil is that during the carboniferous period there were no heterotrophs at the start of the period, and none for about 60MY afterwards. Since they couldn't decompose the biological material, it simply all "pooled up".

I find this idea spectacular and was wondering if the amount of preservation could possibly be used to reenforce/disprove this idea by identifying heterotrophs or the lack thereof?

Do not hold it to that standard.

I stole that piece from wikipedia to save time and effort, not because it is an authority. Refute the statement, not the source.

My knowledge of economic history comes from, among other places, sources such as this, taught by this guy

Every command economy discussed in this lecture (Soviet Union, China, India, etc) was a complete failure. They have all to some extent abandonded them, and their economic success is in direct porportion to how close to a free market they went. (China more, India less, Soviet union - depends on what part. None as far as the US which has also deregulated a lot in the same time-frame.)

Could you point out any references to your claim that unregulated markets are all failures? And were any of these unregulated markets also free markets? (need I repeat that they are not always the same thing?)

T

Do not hold it to that standard.

I stole that piece from wikipedia to save time and effort, not because it is an authority. Refute the statement, not the source.

My knowledge of economic history comes from, among other places, sources such as this, taught by this guy

Every command economy discussed in this lecture (Soviet Union, China, India, etc) was a complete failure. They have all to some extent abandonded them, and their economic success is in direct porportion to how close to a free market they went. (China more, India less, Soviet union - depends on what part. None as far as the US which has also deregulated a lot in the same time-frame.)

Could you point out any references to your claim that unregulated markets are all failures? And were any of these unregulated markets also free markets? (need I repeat that they are not always the same thing?)

T

Try this:

The Teaching Company -- http://www.teach12.com/

Why is this news? Just a heads-up, The Teaching Company has been around for years selling lectures by top rated professors from America's best universities. They sell Audio-only or DVD video. The lectures are professional quality shot in a studio.

Their website:

http://www.teach12.com/

It's not free, but you might enjoy this anyway.
Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology

I've listened to lectures from the teaching company. They're very good. The only question I'd have is at what level are these lectures being presented. Usually, these courses are introductory or of a survey nature at best.

Also, these courses are free as well:
an introductory anatomy class from Berkeley

video lectures from "The neuronal basis of conciousness" course at Caltech

I know this may not be quite what your looking for. I've found that it's pretty rare for professors to post advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate lectures online.

Here, here's an example of a modern history course taught by a professor of history - it lists as lecture "34 Development Models--Communist China" and then as lecture "35 Development Models--Democratic India". It's a textbook comparison, I didn't invent it. You need to read more.

First, if you really want a good grasp of special relativity without doing a physics degree, get ahold of Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, a lecture series by Prof. Richard Wolfson. He does a remarkable job of relating this confusing subject in terms that anybody can follow.

The bottom line of the equation is that mass and energy are equivalent. It's a result of special relativity. Interestingly, the equation was not part of his original paper on special relativity.

All special relativity really says is that the laws of physics (including the speed of light) are the same for everybody no matter where they are or how fast they're going. Special relativity only deals with the point of view of people going in a straight line at a constant speed with respect to another person who's also going in a straight line at a constant speed (a.k.a. observers in reference frames in relative uniform motion).

Relativity says neither observer has the right to say they're stationary and the other is moving. They're both equally valid points of view. If you and I are both on rocket ships travelling past each other, to me it looks like I'm standing still and you're whizzing past me. To you, it looks like you're standing still and I'm whizzing past you. We're both right. If we, in our rocket ships, do experiments to measure the speed of light, we'll arrive at the same value (C).

If you follow these thoughts out, you come to the conclusion that in order to arrive at the same value of C in all reference frames (which you must because there's no reference frame that's really REALLY at rest), time and/or space must be different depending on your point of view (and there's no point of view that's right because relativity teaches us that all reference frames in uniform motion are equally good for doing physics experiments).

How this all relates to the energy-mass equivalence comes from some formulas that talk about my observations about you (whizzing past me at a speed that is a significant fraction of C) with respect to your length, mass, and how fast I observe your time to be going (remember, you do not make the same observations about yourself. We only make odd observations about each other because we're moving with respect to each other). As you whiz past me, your length looks to be contracted, your time is running slow relative to mine, and (if I could weigh you) you would be really heavy compared to the same volume of matter that isn't moving relative to me.

the fun part is you can make exactly the same observations and calculations about me. It seems like a paradox but it's not. It's too much to go into here but you'll have to trust me on that :)

It's really hard to prove without showing you any formulas or doing any math, but I hope it suffices to say that the differences that I observe about you are due to the difference in energy between our respective frames of reference. And it comes out to be what Einstein predicted. Energy and Mass are equivalent measures with the conversion factor of C thrown in.

It may be of some use to you to know that the idea of energy and mass being equivalent can be derived a number of ways, and actually was derived independent of relativity before and after Einstein.

By the way, this doesn't just talk about nuclear energy. The principle still holds true for non-nuclear energy reactions. If you burn a candle and capture all the soot, carbon dioxide, all the stuff that comes out after the chemical reaction, you will find that it weighs just a tiny bit less than the wax and wick before they were burned. A charged battery has more mass than an empty one, albeit by an extremely tiny amount.

You can also make particles of matter out of energy, and you can make energy out of particles of mass.

To me, the beauty of all of this is it all comes from the single notion that there's no one point that gets to claim that it's really _really_ REALLY at rest. :)

Matt

In addition to those already mentioned, I'd add The Teaching Company at teach12.com, which produces some of the best, most informative spoken word out there.

Alex.

Pretty interesting. Through several lectures professor presents his argument (and counter arguments) as to how a Turing machine inherently can never "understand" the data it is processing, and thus should be disqualified as a model for human intelligence.

The idea that human minds are like computer is so widespread and popularly accepted, and almost religiously clung to, that it seems the idea will be with us a long time even if it is proven false.

Another really interesting observation he makes is that in his long life he has noticed the workings of the brain generally have been compared to and tried to be explained as just about every new technology that has come along... and no doubt it will be in the future as well.

Thanks, Asimov.

Anyhow, pretty good lectures even if one disagrees with his argument... definitely some good points to think about.

On the topic of A.I. it seems to me another really interesting documentary I saw recently is, ironically, Stupidity.

In fact I propose a new Turing test. We can consider a Turing machine intelligent when it can define and accurately identify stupidity. (The first test will identify all of the people who think this is easy... such as, just a problem of mismatched input/output.)

I guess today is the day to finally listen to these...

http://www.teach12.com/ttc/EinsteinLectures.asp?ai =18990

But thinking about it, I found that I'd probably be way too stupid for it - you can't simulate anything. Pretty amazing what these folks did.

I've always hated every moment spent in the car - I see it as completely wasted time and energy. Recently I started listening to audio books and it completely changed my attitude. Now I actually look forward to getting into the car, much as I look forward to resuming reading whatever paper books I am reading.

There is plenty of great stuff on audio cd, but my two main sources have been Simply Audio Books (a sort of netflix for audio books) and Great Courses.

Simplyaudiobooks has a lot of fiction (including the first volume of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, if you can believe that) as well as semi-pop science books like Hawking's the Universe in a Nutshell. You can also get this stuff on Amazon if you prefer to buy.

The Great Courses are basically a bunch of recorded colledge lectures, but (unlike my actual colledge experience) they are mostly pretty interesting. Topics include science, history, math, economics, biographies, and philosophy.

I really like the CDs from The Teaching Company. They offer a wide range of topics that I find intersting and relaxing, which is always good for the long commute.

The Teaching Company

Then there are two excellent "audio lectures" companies that basically record college freshman-level lecture courses on CD. (One of them is called the Teaching Company, and the other, I forget.) Most of these are decent, and some are quite excellent. There are lots of titles available, and if you're like me and have an interest for almost everything academic, you won't run out of stuff.

Now, I hate to say this, but it has come to my attention that many of these recordings are available illegaly through newsgroups and some p2p sources like eMule. I leave it to your conscience what to do with this information (keeping in mind just how many immoral acts are legal and illegal acts moral). If you asked me whether I prefered motorists who enrich their minds with bootleg lectures about the Aneid, Roman history, or Feynman's excellent lectures on Relativity to motorists who adhere religiously to federal IP laws, I must say that I'd choose the former. But don't ask me. I teach ethics at a major university.

If their prices seem high, go to their "On Sale" section like I do.

Try looking at the Teaching company website. My brother got me into this company a few years ago, and I can't get enough of the stuff. Basically, the company finds professors who are renouned for their teaching ability, and pays them to create a 8 - 10 lecture series on their 'bread and butter course'. The subject areas are pretty broad too, from classical literature, sci-fi, philosophy, history (there is a great series on the post 1940 history of U.S. Middle East foriegn policy), all the way to more hard sciency stuff, to business and law lectures. Anyway, the link is:

http://www.teach12.com/


Peter

Check out the teaching company.

http://www.teach12.com/

They have full blown courses from some of the best professors in the country. Not much IT stuff, but lots of other cool lectures.

I'm not particularly religious myself, but the topic is fascinating. I would personally recommend to anyone interested in the historical CONTEXT of the bible (and the various other gospels that didn't make it into the canonical works, not to mention some very interesting heresies) to look up the lectures and/or books of Professor Bart Ehrman (link goes to one example at "The Teaching Company". His "Historical Jesus" lectures were very interesting as well).

No relation or anything, I just like his lectures. Same goes for "The Teaching Company" itself.

Alex (the astron god) also puts out a lecture series provided by The Teaching Company. The price is high but it seems like it's top quality.

Of course you can also see the berkeley webcast archive. be careful because they only show the last two semester's worth of courses. for example the astro 10 I took in 2001 isn't online anymore. also uses real player iirc. astro 10 is taught as a general interest course and is quite interesting even if you don't care about astronomy at all.

How about:

- panel discussions from the H2K2 conference.

- a college course on SF and Fantasy literature.

- the DV Guys focus on the art and tech of video production. (Terrible bumper music. Just suffer through it)

- The Teaching Company has some fantastic for-pay courses on CD and DVD.

- Lastly, I gotta mention The Infidel Guy. The focus is on atheism, so it's not for everyone, but there are some great interviews in the archives with people such as Massimo Pigliucci, Michael Shermer, Paul Kurtz, and Michio Kaku. Lots of contorversial and thought provoking talk on the subject of religion, philosophy, and science.

I began just like you did and made rapid progress, but then plateaued. Here's what works for me now -

a.Skip every other day. The muscles need atleast 24 hours to repair. By working them every day, you are overtaxing them. You will plateau, it is a certainity - ask any fitness specialist or your doctor.

b. When you do run/bike/workout, up the intensity and/or duration. Rather than 30 minutes, shoot for 1 hour, then 2.

c. Best to invest in an elliptical .Since your feet don't touch the ground on an elliptical, you don't bust your knees. At the same time you build rock-hard legs. Plus, you get to vary the intensity on an elliptical by changing the resistance & the incline - very effective.

d. Audio books are a great way to learn something while chugging away on an elliptical. I have loaded up on about 50 hours of philosophy - Locke, Kant, Hume, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Marx, and yes, the usual suspects - Socrates, Plato & Aristotle. As geeks, we are constantly upgrading "tech skills" ( Perl, Java, C++, C# etc. ) while neglecting "life-skills". A sound foundation in philosophy comes in handy like nothing else. Even if you don't care for the subject, you learn things like argumentation, dialectic, persuasion theories, burden of rejoinder...essential skills for making your point when you talk to anybody.

Best elliptical scores so far, at different levels -

3 hours, 19 miles, 2400 calories

1 hour, 7 miles, 950 calories

0.5 hour, 450 calories

Good luck, and watch that caffeine !



They can outsource me, but can they outrun me?:)

I've been doing that for two months now, together with stuff from audible.

try www.teach12.com. they have a bunch of courses taught by well respected professors. i've only bought the humanites stuff but a friend has some of the sciences courses and says they're great too. also make sure you ask them if there's a sale on the phone. usually the web rates are the lowest, but occasionally there's an partially advertised sale they'll let you in on.

I have used the tapes (they now have DVD) from the Teaching Company [ http://www.teach12.com ] very successfully with my middle-school and high-school aged children. They have high-school specific courses as well as more general science and math offerings (as well as others). They go on sale once or twice a year for 50%-75% off. Highly recommended.

And the woman (Monica Neagoy [ http://www.monicaneagoy.com/math.html ] ) who teaches Algebra 1 is HOT! (well, from a geek's POV)

A few other useful web sites for Math and Physics learning (there are tons more):

Drexel Math forum. Lots of explanations, hints, resources, etc. Homework help!
http://www.mathforum.org/

On-line Graphing Calculator (helps to understand interaction of algebra and graphs, etc.). Nice.
http://www.coolmath.com/graphit/

NYS regents exam prep center has some decent tutorials and links to other resources. Some "teaching to the test" but still a useful review, especially when combined with the Teaching Company tapes or other resources.
http://regentsprep.org/

Mathematics Encyclopedia
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/

Math books online (many fairly advanced):
http://www.math.fsu.edu/Science/Books.html

One thing I have not found is a good on-line basic math textbook, but then again textbooks are rarely very good anyway.

You need the check out The Teaching Company. I've gone through a a number of their courses on CD, and they've all been superb. I just recently finished their World War II course, and I'm currently doing the Foundations of Western Civilization. Given you're question, you'd probably want to look at their Science & Math offerings. I did the Joy of Science course last year as a refresher for all that stuff I'd forgotten since high school and college, which sounds kind of like what you're looking for. (I've no affiliation with The Teaching Company other than being a satisfied customer.)

You need the check out The Teaching Company. I've gone through a a number of their courses on CD, and they've all been superb. I just recently finished their World War II course, and I'm currently doing the Foundations of Western Civilization. Given you're question, you'd probably want to look at their Science & Math offerings. I did the Joy of Science course last year as a refresher for all that stuff I'd forgotten since high school and college, which sounds kind of like what you're looking for. (I've no affiliation with The Teaching Company other than being a satisfied customer.)

You need the check out The Teaching Company. I've gone through a a number of their courses on CD, and they've all been superb. I just recently finished their World War II course, and I'm currently doing the Foundations of Western Civilization. Given you're question, you'd probably want to look at their Science & Math offerings. I did the Joy of Science course last year as a refresher for all that stuff I'd forgotten since high school and college, which sounds kind of like what you're looking for. (I've no affiliation with The Teaching Company other than being a satisfied customer.)

You need the check out The Teaching Company. I've gone through a a number of their courses on CD, and they've all been superb. I just recently finished their World War II course, and I'm currently doing the Foundations of Western Civilization. Given you're question, you'd probably want to look at their Science & Math offerings. I did the Joy of Science course last year as a refresher for all that stuff I'd forgotten since high school and college, which sounds kind of like what you're looking for. (I've no affiliation with The Teaching Company other than being a satisfied customer.)

You need the check out The Teaching Company. I've gone through a a number of their courses on CD, and they've all been superb. I just recently finished their World War II course, and I'm currently doing the Foundations of Western Civilization. Given you're question, you'd probably want to look at their Science & Math offerings. I did the Joy of Science course last year as a refresher for all that stuff I'd forgotten since high school and college, which sounds kind of like what you're looking for. (I've no affiliation with The Teaching Company other than being a satisfied customer.)

You need the check out The Teaching Company. I've gone through a a number of their courses on CD, and they've all been superb. I just recently finished their World War II course, and I'm currently doing the Foundations of Western Civilization. Given you're question, you'd probably want to look at their Science & Math offerings. I did the Joy of Science course last year as a refresher for all that stuff I'd forgotten since high school and college, which sounds kind of like what you're looking for. (I've no affiliation with The Teaching Company other than being a satisfied customer.)