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Quitting the Graphics Field Over SIGGRAPH
An anonymous reader writes "A Professor at Stony Brook university has quit the field of computer graphics. He claims too much importance is given to one particular conference (SIGGRAPH) and that acceptance of papers in this conference has too much importance in terms of the careers (tenure, grants etc) of a researcher. Furthermore he claims the paper reviewing for SIGGRAPH is not fair and bright and novel papers are summarily rejected because they are either not from a 'hot' field or because the reviewer does not understand the concept and is not willing to spend time understanding it. He has started a discussion forum which has comments from several big names in the field including the papers chair of SIGGRAPH 2007."
I hear the basket-weaving field is fairly decentralized. I'm afraid it won't get you much academic cred though.
Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
As far as I can tell, most of academia is like this. Paper reviews (and conference reviews in particular) are really a bit of a lottery. Since academics don't get paid to review, they will often palm the reviews off to grad students who may or may not have the first clue about the field. And there is generally no rejoinder process for conferences, so you just have to wear it, improve the paper and resubmit it somewhere else. Journals and grant applications generally allow you a right of response, but you are still subject to the lottery of whether the reviewers:
a) know anything about the field,
b) actually read the paper
c) are open minded enough to consider new ideas or
d) have brains at all.
A colleague of mine recently had a brief paper (restricted to a maximum of two pages) rejected because it was too short - at exactly two pages. I kid you not.
Can I have your stuff?
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
It is actually more complicated than whether something is a stimulant or a depressant, because these things are effects.
Caffeine is a stimulant because it binds to adenosine receptors more readily than adenosine, increasing the levels of dopamine and epinephrine. The latter will increase heart rate and blood glucose levels. It also has other effects, like improving mood through increases in serotonin. In chocolate, drinks that use guarana, and teas theobromine also accompanies caffeine and provides an additional mood elevating effect.
Ethanol while GBGA anatagonist and in general an inhibitor of neuron function also increases the levels of dopamine. Which again results in elevation of mood and the production of norepinephrine.
I would expect, though I don't know for certain, that caffeine and alcohol taken together would increase the half-life of both in the system due to increased demands on the liver. I would expect that their euphoric effects would overlap. Your mental acuity would still be impaired by the ethanol. Drinking coffee for example would do nothing to mitigate the retardation of synaptic firing due to ethanol consumption. It might simply make you feel even more euphoric. With the increase in norepinephrine from dopamine metabolism the "jittery" effects should be cumulative.
Taking them together may increase how good you feel, and also decrease your attention span even more. So essentially you can feel good and not pay attention to the conference.