Slashdot Mirror
Nobel Prizes Awarded
imrdkl writes: "Looks like Cisco has done a deal with CNN to present a nice overview of the Nobel Prizes this year. The Science awards that have been presented so far include one for singing atoms in Physics, as well as others linked from the URL above for medicine and chemistry. It's worth noting that the physics article was already covered here on slashdot, but now it's official for all."
The Nobel prizes are useless, the real stuff is here :)
I think we could think about getting a Noble Prize for Math and Computer Science, Environment Defense, Cultural Heritage Defnse,...
What do you think? Any suggestions?
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
I'm so excited about Annan winning the money. It always amazes me how much money the Nobel is: a million dollars! Take a look at last year's winners, Arafat and Rabin. Together, they shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in the Middle East. Admittedly, each of them only pocketed half a million apiece, but that's still some serious dough.
And Annan's work has been every bit as effective as theirs! The Nobel comittee has done a great job picking the best representatives of peacemaking in the world.
I hope Arafat still has some of his money, so he can use it to build a house which is impervious to helicopter-mounted missiles. It isn't always easy being a Leader of Peace. But you know what they say: one step forward, one step back, but the Path to Peace is still on track!
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
The Independent also published an article by Will Hardie. There's an opinion I don't particularly agree with about signing atoms at Jang.com.pk. Good reading nontheless.
What do you think of MusicCity now?
As someone who works with Bose-Einstein condensates all I can say is that I've never heard one sing. Since they're kept under vacuum I can't hear them scream either. Pity.
I'm not sure I'd want "computers that rival the brain in ... storage."
My experience is the brain has an exceedingly high rate of data loss =)
A Nobel Prize for first posts. That would be SWEET!
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
The Maths equivalent of the Nobel prize is the Fields medal.
... but I suspect that's just a rumour put about to make maths look interesting :-)
My professor at university claimed that there isn't a Nobel prize for Mathematics because Alfred Nobel's wife ran off with a mathematician
Nobel's direction for his money was pretty clear so it's unlikely there will ever be new prizes. But Math has the Fields Medal and CS has the Turing Award. I'm guessing you're just trolling about the other two.
Just goes to show how stupid ans VERY VERY self serving these awards are. Under Annan the UN has been useless (not that that is a bad thing) and ineffective. Rwanda, Yugolasvia, Iraqi weapons inspections and countless other places. Annan has been incapable of producing lasting peace anywhere and he's going to try holding back American efforts to do so (yes... properly applied American force results in peace. See: Germany and Japan).
:P
And Arafat? What's the deal with that? He has the chance to make peace with Israel but he threw it away. Israel was going to end the so called "occupation" and share Jerusalem with a Palestinian state. Insted Arafat chose the way that the Arabs did in the 60's when Israel defended itself and kicked some sandy ass. Oh yea... and they then turned around and GAVE BACK all of the Sinai peninsula to Egypt and left Syria!!!!
Bush and Blair deserve the peace prize. They are taking drastic action to put an end to terrorism. Annan deserves to go back to his precious Africa... a continent that hopefully will soon be free of waring peoples and ripe for the picking. White men didn't cause the problems in Africa. Colonial rule has been over for some time. It's time for all of them to choose to cilvilize and live or continue to live no better then their ancestors that sold their people into slavery and die.
But I digress... the enlightened minds in the global community must know best..
Sure... more self serving awards. How about "Nobel prize for giving the most lip service to some feel good cause without actually doing anything to help"
I like the awards for science and the arts but for peace and some cultural heritage or environmental defense junk? I don't think so. Scientists actually do good and have something to show for it. These other people just try to set some pathetic global agenda in the spirit of communism usually.
Oh, great, just what we need at this time of year: your entire home not only being bombarded by the songs of carolers, but also caroling itself.
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
Although all of the Nobel Prize laureates have accomplished tremendous technical achievements, I have to question the relevance and importance to the world today.
Both the medecine and the chemistry prizes were awarded for proprietary research done in the interests of multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Although some of it is already being used in treatments, they are not affordable to the vast majority of the people in the world, and even to many of the people whose national research labs have put so much into the corporate pockets.
As for the economics award, the world has no use for a science dedicated to depriving people of freedom and controlling them.
The only awards that I can inequivocably agree with are the literature and peace awards. The United Nations has done a lot of good work, and it is a shame that the American government is blind to the advantages of supporting it completely.
What the world really needs are awards that recognize the value of freedom. The contribution that a person makes is much less valuable when the information is locked up so that people can not excercise their fundamental freedoms to use it.
Open Source is not Free!
The Maths equivalent of the Nobel prize is the Fields medal [st-andrews.ac.uk].
The Fields Medal has a different purpose than the Nobel. It's Prize for young scientists. It's a Prize for guidelines.
The Nobel Prize has a more broad ideals, and it's far more known
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
It may be worth noting that Norway recently set up a rather large fund for an international mathematics prize, in memory of mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. Information here.
Nobel create the prizes for what he think was the most important thinks at that time. Nowadays people thing different about thing. Environment and Cultural Heritage is a very serious issue.
Math and Computer Science have a very importante Awards very well known in theirs fields but not known outside their borders. I guess you should promote more those Awards, gave them the same status that of the Nobel.
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
*cough*Urban Myth*cough*.
Its a nice story, but Nobel died a batchelor.
"This is a Hollywood movie: when it comes to the Laws of Physics, they're lucky if they get Gravity!" --- my wife
Environment Defense and Cultural Heritage Defense are big sciences. Like you can see whem you read a National Geographic Magazine or go to a Camp Site of Maya Culture. Or Study the Congo Rain Forest or The Amazons.
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
One assumes there was slightly more to their theories than this!
More worryingly, why does one of the recipients look exactly like Steve Martin?
I'm not sure if I'd be so happy that Arafat won the Peace Prize. As part of his resumption of violent protests. (Mere weeks after being offered all of the West Bank, Gaza, and Arab neighborhoods of Jeruslalem by Barak) he released hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists from jail. As Abba Eban said, the Palestinian leadership has never lost an opportunity to loose an opportunity. Or worse.
---As for the economics award, the world has no use for a science dedicated to depriving people of freedom and controlling them.---
This is an extremely unfair assement of the field of economics. Just because you may not like the some of the thrust of a social science is no reason to charge it with evil motives. And I would guess from your characterization that your sense of an "economist" is a boogeyman out of the Wall Street Journal, not a brilliant and thoughtful man like Joeseph Stiglitz. Indeed, the general thrust of academic economics is almost entirely the OPPOSITE of what you describe: it's normative goals are everywhere and always to maximize things like choice and social welfare.
Obligatory Futurama reference ("Mars University" episode):
Professor: "It's a little experiment that may well win me the Nobel Prize."
Leela: "In what field?"
Professor: "I don't care, they all pay the same."
and i hope it doesn't also follow that only about 20% of it could actually be used
chiefly economics, for consideration of the Nobel prize. Look throughout the history of the Nobel prize in economics and you will find a great deal of signficant mathematical research, partiuclarly in operations research.
...regarding where the Internet might take us in the next 20 years.
More information can be found here.
-k
he died a batchelor becuase his fiance ran off with a mathematician.
You aren't Richard Stallman!
See the real Richard's post about you.
And his profile
Conman!!
Balderdash. In a few years generic versions of these drugs will be available at low cost. Thats about as good as you are going to get - if you cut the money out of the commercial drug business, you won't get any drugs for rich or for poor, as the generics manufacturers simply don't spend the research dollars necessary to develop the drugs.
As for the economics award, the world has no use for a science dedicated to depriving people of freedom and controlling them.
Thats odd, Milton Freidman is renowned for his award winning thesis that political freedom and economic freedom are closely related.
The only awards that I can inequivocably agree with are the literature and peace awards. The United Nations has done a lot of good work, and it is a shame that the American government is blind to the advantages of supporting it completely.
Yes, how could Americans not see the value in a bloated bureaucracy that is not elected and is accountable to no one? I thought there was a revolution fought over those same principles...
I'd like to hear about the good work the UN has done. It seems to me that they have been involved in enough boondoggles that their win-lose percentage can't be greater than 50%--a number easily reachable by a blind rhesus monkey throwing darts at a "Yes/No" decision board.
While you're helping me out here, I'd like to hear some of the advantages America would gain from supporting the UN.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
Well actually, the medecine prize was given to 2 people who work for the Imperial Cancer Research Foundation which is a UK based charity, and one person who works in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center which is also a non-profit organisation.
You are of course, free to air your opinion. I am also free to disagree wholeheartedly. The worth of someone's work is wholly separate from their motivation for doing it. If I find a cure for cancer, it doesn't matter whether I did it for the money or to save the world; I still did it.
First of all, Arafat won the Peace Prize in 1994 for negotiating and signing the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
Secondly, Barak never offered all of the West Bank, Gaza, and Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. He offered most of the Gaza strip (I don't have an exact number), ~80% of the West Bank, and left Jerusalem for "final status negotiations," making no concrete offers regarding it. See here for some maps of Barak's offers in the West Bank (from Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace-advocacy group).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by people who run the country.
/. is read by clueless screen gazers that have yet to learn that it takes more than a half-baked opinion and routine typing skills to run a country.
2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however, like their smog statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave L.A. to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parent used to run the country, and they did a far superior job of it, thank you veddy much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care, as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped, minority, feminist, atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be
illegal aliens from any country or galaxy as long as they are democrats.
10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
11. The Spokane Spokesman-Review is read by people who need high grade tinder to fire up their woodstoves, and can barely get their cars running in this cold.
12.)
It's true that the Fields is more or less the equivalent; however, it is only given for ground breaking research done before the age of 40! If you're 40 or older and solve the most important problem in Mathematics (like Andrew Wiles did) you're out of luck!
Note: They gave Wiles a "special" award because they couldn't give him a proper Fields Medal.
who won the nobel prize for "attempted chemistry"?
The prizes were dictated by Nobel, and are awarded from the interest on his estate. So, if new prizes were created the money would not exist to pay them, unless other prizes were reduced (not likely, each comes to less than a cool million, and is usually split more than one way), or another prize would have to be eliminated. Let's see, trade peace for maths, or maybe advancements in medicine.... Nobel's priorities are stagnant, and thus is the prize.
Getting diabetes AND salmonella would be a bad weekend.
This doesn't follow. The economics prize of sort of new. You could imagine something similar happening with math, for example.
Not that it's necessary, mind you, because there's no real need for a math Nobel prize at this point...
Come on, give it up, that's
Down's Syndrome is actually an experiment by our DNA looking for the 'common' theme human. Someone with Downs is not 'broken' or a genetic error...they are heralding the future of mankind, and we should revere them.
Have you ever even been to Europe? Have you experienced their culture first hand? Have you ever even left your room or your computer desk for that matter? You my friend are the type of person that ruins the image of americans for the rest of them. It is that exact type of stereotypical bullshit drivel that drives the rest of the world to think of Americans as nothing more than concieted and rude assholes. Now I don't think this because I have been to the States and I met people. That is the same reason I do not agree with a single comment in your original post. I have travelled Europe and the range of views from country to country and even person to person are so vast that they cover the entire spectrum! Instead of makeing snap judgements why don't you go *outside* (I know that may scare you) and actually *talk* to people (this may scare you to and after not useing your voice for such and extended period of time you may find speach difficult at first but it will come with practice).
Good for you, you found the cure for cancer. Most of the world can't afford to buy your cure, but that's ok, because your work is important. Really, you should feel proud of what you've achieved. Nobody will get to use it, but thats ok; You still did it.
(same AC not that it matters)
It actually does follow.
The economics prize is not a true Nobel prize. It's "The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel" and NOT funded out of Nobel's estate. Bank of Sweden put up the money. However, the same organization to award the other prizes was given control of handing out the economic prize.
And singing, what's up with that?
Perhaps we could suggest some advantages the WORLD would gain from having the US support the UN.
That's easy--the WORLD gets the US'S DOLLARS.
What does the US get out of that deal, other than a "warm fuzzy" for shovelling out piles of tax money?
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
dups and repeats are the result of a router storm that happened the day /. went up. There was a time-warp caused by repeated pressing of the reset button on the back of said router.
/. staff keep getting complaints, over and over....but there's nothing they can do.
You don't see dups, actually...you're in the time loop, and you simply reread them, over and over...and
I think the initial poster WAS being sarcastic...
And I would note that Arafat is not the only one to release terrorists from jail. Israel actually did exactly this when they tried to assinate Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, who was in jail at the time, serving a 12 year sentance imposed on him by the Palestinian Authority. Instead of killing him, however, they killed 11 of his guards and set him free. Their later success in killing him last November is what touched off the recent wave of bombings.
What is sort of tragically hilarious about this situation is that Israel's major complaint was that Arafat wouldn't jail terrorists. This is just a little hypocritical considering the fact that they BLEW UP THE JAIL Arafat was holding this particular terrorist. If they hadn't, he never would have escaped to plan the assisination of that Israeli minister in the first place.
A few points. Rwanda and Yugoslavia occured when Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the sec-gen of the UN. In these cases, and to a lesser degree that of Somalia, much of the blame should be placed on the tendeancy of member-states, especially the US, to ask great things of the UN while not offering the required personnelÂ& equipment to get the job done, while at times - most nauseously in the case of Rwanda - actively blocking any efforts to restore peace. During the same period, the UN succesfully oversaw the restoration of democracy in Cambodia, the return of order & democracy to Haiti, and the maintenance of peace where there were peacekeepers, as well as several other operations I have forgotten. Under Anan, East Timor was governed by the UN until self-government could be established (which it now has been), Kosovo was and is under a similar arrangement, and peace negotiations were overseen & peacekeepers installed between Ethiopia & Eritrea, as well as many other things I'm forgetting.
I'll leave the mideast to someone more brave than I, but your last paragraph.. I most seriously suggest that you educate yourself on the current state of affairs accross Africa. First off, Anan - like many others - is doing much to improve the state of affairs in Africa, just as he is also doing much to improve the state of affairs on every other continent on earth. To insinuate he has no place on the world state because he is African, or because he spearheads initiatives like UNAIDS (which is a global program in any case) is ignorant, myopic, racist and contemptable. Few would seriously claim that 'white man' is the cause of all problems in Africa; likewise, few would claim that 'white man' is blameless for the same. The very idea of 'white man' s a reducto ad absurdum whose only valiidity arises from mindsets like yours in history.
Some corrections. First of all, Israel would never "assinate" anyone: I didn't mean to insinuate that they were that barbaric. I meant "assassinate," of course.
Secondly, I probably should have mentioned more specifically that their assassination attempt was via bombing.
There's a good page on AOL with a history of the Nobel Prizes all the way back to their origin. Check it out here.
although you're basically right, remember that we define each national stereotype by the silliest people in each country. We only find European stereotypes funny because there is a grain of truth in the stereotype. You have to find it hilarious that the French would create laws that can prosecute you for working too many hours when the office is supposed to be closed. You have to find it hilarious that most folks from the US simply won't believe that normal European vacation policies even exist. I mean, there ARE a lot of socialists in Europe, and there ARE a lot of folks who believe that not wanting to do a lick of work shouldn't prevent you from being cared for from cradle to grave, so long as you're prepared to vote with the majority.
I'm an Europhile, and I have little patience for the stereotyped 'ugly American'; but remember that, for the same reason that HE is funny, the stereotyped European is funny.
whatever...
but maybe the world gets less war and more adhearence to international law and treaties?
the parts of the world the us finds interesting/useful seem to get us dollars anyway so what changes? maybe, the us gets some respect and improved international relations. (which == $ if i need to spell it out)
but it's academic anyway... the punters don't like it, so it won't happen.
It has been done before, so why not?
The prize in Economics wasn't there from the begging...
Bank of Sweden ("Riksbanken") donated a huge amount of money back in 1968, that's why the Nobel Prize in Economics is called "Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel".
So basically, you could donate $5000000 and ask the Nobel Foundation to award "The Slashdot Award in Computer Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel".
Fun-fact: The Computer Science Students' Association at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm have a special permit to wear their official color, pink (cerise), to the Nobel Banquet.
And singing, what's up with that? Johnny Vector
I love the idea that, with the right spin, and sufficient charm, you can get particles to sing. I just hope they're not segregated based on color -- otherwise there'd be charges pending, a matter of real gravity. But fortunately there are strong forces in our society that would prevent such waves of abuse (although sometimes we fear that they seem like particularly weak forces). Anyway, I'm sure you get my point, which although not singular at least should come out on top -- or near the horizon at any event.
-- We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of other people. La Rochefoucauld
Well, actually, the first guy wasn't so far off the mark. Economists do have a lot of incentive to accomodate meddling politicians when they are out to ``help'' us. The economist who mentions Hayek's and von Mises' work, and reminds us that interference in a market economy leads us inexorably towards socialist ruin, is not going to be popular with politicians or bureaucrats, and is not going to find it easy to get grants, fat government-affiliated jobs, and so on.
There are economists who tell the truth (I'm thinking of Friedman, but of course there are many others), but there are a lot who choose to see the truth the way brilliant and thoughtfull men like Joseph Stiglitz do: if supporting government meddling buggers things up in the long run, well, that's job security for us economists.
Macro and general equilibrium theory are always about maximizing social welfare, choice simply isn't an issue. Indeed, I've never seen choice in the utility function in a macro model. The problem with maximizing ``social welfare'' is that it neglects individual welfare. It leads to depriving people of their freedom and controlling them, to keep the little bastards from maximizing their own welfare rather than society's. This leads, ultimately, to the cultural revolution, the killing fields of Cambodia, the current mess in Zimbabwe, the Nazi death camps, and so on.No economist ever calls for such things (I hope), but if we start maximizing social welfare, that is the logical final step: if they won't do what we say is best for them, we'll make 'em ... if they resist, we'll kill 'em. After all, we know so much more than they do.
One hundred years ago, this line of thinking was called ``the White man's burden''. Today, we call it social planning. ``The intellectual's burden'' would fit better. There is a tremendous lot of arrogance in this view of the world, whether we call it the ``Whiteman's burden'' or ``addressing market failure''.
See what I've been reading.
The beauty of /. - everyone gets their say. I personally think that your post is pure crap! Beeing Swedish myself, I like the way you just turned about 22 million people into tree-huggers.
I think you should loose karma for you post. Not because of your opinions, but because you fail to understand that the entire population of Scandinavia isn't the ones that decide the nobel prize winner (nor are we all tree-huggers).
I have never agreed with all winners of the nobel prize. Still, I think the nobel prize is a great thing. It shows that your work is beeing noticed and that it means something.
All I know is that about half the used cars for sale are lemons, worth nothing, and about half are good ones, worth $15,000. I have no way of knowing which is which. On average, if I buy a bunch of these cars, I'll be ok if I pay $7,500 each.
If you sell your good car for $7,500, you get screwed.
If no-one will sell good cars for less than $15,000, then I know that there are no good cars for sale, and I don't buy at all.
Both these outcomes are market failure due to imperfect information. Neither version is likely to last for long in the real world: some third party will come along and sell inspections (i.e., information) for a big chunk of the profits we are loosing.
Of course, this is just the beginning. Take a look in Mas-Colell, Whinston and Green's Microeconomic Theory for more. I don't think Varian has it.
More worryingly, why does one of the recipients look exactly like Steve Martin?
Obviously, one of the economists who got the Nobel prize was wearing a Steve Martin mask, trying to pose as a celebrity. Some people will do anything to be noticed.
See what I've been reading.
Which he has yet to live up to, even before the current unrest he had violated many of it's contents; especially in the case of stopping terrrorism (sentencing some terrorists to "community service" in the Palestinian "Police" force (!))
I'm refering not to the written agreements, but to what Barak presented to him immediately before the current unrest in final-status type negotations which Clinton was pressuring upon both parties. My facts are straight, and it's a commentary on how misunderstood the peace process is by observers that Gush Shalom would make this error. Clinton, however, did not make this error; he said that Israel showed to Clinton an astonishing amount of "flexability" that the PLO didn't during these key negotations. Clinton, unlike Gush Shalom, is considered an impartial observer closely familiar with the peace process, something the dreamers of Gush Shalom do not have a reputation for being.
Since the UN played a major role in the Vietnam conflict and the Korean war, not to mention Kosovo, Yugoslavia in general, and at least a finger in every conflict since the 1950s, I'm unsure as to how you derive "less war" from the benefits.
It's academic because the UN is a poorly thought-out idea, a poorly run implementation of said idea, and a generally terrible concept to begin with. We're lucky as hell that it hasn't been more successful than it is now.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
My professor at university claimed that there isn't a Nobel prize for Mathematics [almaz.com] because Alfred Nobel's wife ran off with a mathematician ... but I suspect that's just a rumour put about to make maths look interesting :-)
You're right to be suspicious.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
regarding: "Looks like Cisco has done a deal with CNN..." - Don't you think it would be nice if the advertising implicit in this statement had been screened out before the story was accepted?
- In a knowledge based industry your main asset will always be people -
Has anyone noted that the MIT presence among the Nobel laureates this year is particularly strong? 8 of 14 had some MIT affiliation.
I think without meaning to, you supported the previous point exactly. Is the world going to be changed by singing Bose-Einstein condensates? No. Is Physics? Perhaps. The Nobel isn't about who changes the world, or who does it the most altruistically, or who gives away everything they do. It's about who contributes most significantly to their field. Recognition of action, not motivation. Separate the two.
Case: Who deserves more recognition for their _accomplishment_, not their modus operandi? The doctor who makes $100,000/yr and finds an effective treatment for Alzheimers, or the doctor who barely pays rent and volunteers at a clinic for the elderly? They are both commendable and important ways to go about one's life, but one has a lasting, significant, technical achievement where the other does not. Don't pretend that just because someone makes money for what they do that it's worth less.
Gush Shalom did acknowledge, if you'd read the page, that Barak made more extensive offers in his final days in office. However, these were not taken seriously by any sides, as it was doubtful that Barak, well on his way out of office, would be able to live up to his end of the bargain - he hadn't even presented the concessions he was supposedly offering on their behalf to the Israeli public, and Sharon, leading by a large margin in the polls, indicated that even if Barak signed an agreement, he would not honor it.
And the concessions still were not the ones you are claiming. They were more, but still not "100% of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem" - for example, Barak still did not offer a withdrawal from the largest Israeli settlements, those on the outskirts of Jerusalem, such as the contentious neighborhood of Gilo (built on land seized in the 1967 war but since unilaterally annexed by Israel).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I of course meant "East Jerusalem," not "Jerusalem."
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
"My professor at university claimed that there isn't a Nobel prize for Mathematics because Alfred Nobel's wife ran off with a mathematician ..."
Wow.. I've never heard THAt one before, but it sounds plausible.
However.. I think Nobel's idea was to reward discoveries and inventions witch benefited mankind in it's implementation, not the teory behind it. There might be a lot om mathematical discovery but they are rewarded when it's implemented, and it becomes economics, physics and/or chemistry. I wouldn't be surprised if a mathematical breaktrough was rewarded i conjunction wih it's implementation in some other science.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
In conclusion, _most_ western europeans are weak and lazy.
No, they just realise that there is more to life than work. Hence the large amount of vacation days. Remember, you are not your job.
They changed the "rules" after the economy prize brouhaha (having all those neoliberals from Chicago subscribe to it didn't go over well here in Sweden), so that no new categories will or can be added.
/mill
I am not entirely sure that I didn't just sleep through this but when did Washington's capital change to Seattle?
Medicine Award
"Hartwell...works at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, capital of the north-west U.S. state of Washington."
I could be wrong
I know everyone thinks it should be, but is that any reason to push it this way.
The UN is an international, democratic and very open organisation that is accountable to each of its member states, the government of those member states and ultimately the people who elect those governments. The US representative to the UN is an ambassador, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, just like any other official in the administration. In fact, you can read all about it on the section of the UN website maintained by the Department of State. Of course, reality is not as interesting as conspiracy theories about how the UN is hell-bent on conquering the world and taking away your right to bear arms.
-Earthling
"I'm sorry, I had to; the irony was just too thick."
Of course... this is why I said the economics prize is "sort of" a new one. But like I said, you could imagine something similar. The U. Stockholm math department, or the Mittag-Leffler Institute (if there is such a thing) could start offering a math prize, and then eventually this could be subsumed into the Nobel prize ceremony. Philosophically, we could argue whether or not this is a "real" prize, but I'd take it...
Anyway, I think it's unlikely that this will happen, because, as I said before, there is no perceived need for a math prize. But it's possible even in keeping with the Nobel tradition. It's a good question about math. For example, there is the Fields medal, which is sort of like a math Nobel, but it is different in certain ways, and rewards different kinds of work. The tradition is not to give it to a mathematician over 40 (which is simply ridiculous... e.g. Andrew Wiles didn't get one for proving Fermat's Last Theorem, because he was in his early 40s. If there were a Nobel in math, he would have gotten it.), and it tends to reward "foundational" work as opposed to one big result, as the Nobel focuses on.
Ehh...
Come on, give it up, that's
I watched this program on BBC World last night, latest for an hour and was actually very good.
Pretty sure it was the same one, since it said "this program is sponsered by cisco systems".
I read CNN's page about the Medicine prize, and all I got was that the winners had something to do with cancer. For real "in-depth" information on the prizewinners and their discoveries, forget CNN and go to the Nobel site at http://www.nobel.se/ (Click on the category then laureates) They have the presentation speeches and other content for those of us who can read above the 6th grade level. The illustrated presentations are especially cool.
If he really do his job as a peace keeper, why during the very same year he got the prize, US get successfully attacked? Not just any attack, but calculated attacks that were aimed at the symbolic centres on the country that has the most weapons. That clearly proves that Annan had failed to do his job, otherwise the whole incident would not have happened, and Bush surely would not have terrorists groups to deal with. This also shows Nobel award system has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with a person's technical abilities. Even Bush did a better job to keep peace than Annan ever capable of.
2) POTUS appoints members of his administration.
3) Senate committee confirm the nominations.
4) New administration officials, while not elected into office, are nevertheless accountable to the citizens of the United States.
Now lets look at the following:
1) U.S. citizens vote to elect the President, Senators and Congressmen.
2) POTUS appoints ambassadors, one of whom will be to the United Nations.
3) Senate committee confirm the nominations.
4) The new U.S. ambassador to the UN gets one (1) vote to cast, in a democratic process, on all matters brought forth before the General Assembly. This include the election of the Secretary General to represent the United Nations.
Care to explain to us the differences between the two?
And just in case you didn't notice, no nation on Earth, with the possible exception, to some extend, of Switzerland, is a participatory democracy.
-Earthling
"I'm sorry, I had to; the irony was just too thick."
Did any one ever win them all?
You're not a mathematician, are you?
It goes "You are not your f**king khakis" :)
Hello? It's "offtopic" to clarify some things in my ontopic post?