"Just as Exxon-Mobil will gladly sell you hydrogen or biodiesel or whatever else when we migrate off oil..."
But that's beside the point -- if switchover cost is high, and/or profit margin would go down, then they will resist having the switchover product available for as long as possible.
FTA: "Providing API access to DOD is the patriotic and morale thing to do, especially since DOD is opening the door to lots of sales opportunities for both companies. "
Yeah, that's a well-written article. I'm convinced.
"... thinly veiled attempts at painting the man as a terrorist.... "
No, actually Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnel directly called Assange a "high-tech terrorist" on national TV last Sunday morning (via NBC's venerated Meet the Press program).
Geez, I hate to say it, but I think the lesson from Germany is the opposite one. I truly feel like the U.S. is frighteningly like a Weimar Republic these days. I have a hard time seeing how it gets better without the imperial power first entirely falling apart.
China was also the old bogeyman, 2000-2001, before we went drooling and raving for 10 years about guys in caves who got off one lucky, unrepeatable shot.
A thorough Department of Defense analysis concluded -- Wikileaks released no sensitive source information, and to date no Afghans have been harmed or threatened from it.
Also throw in something about "All we have to fear is fear itself" from back when we are actually facing down the Third Reich and a real, global war with multiple empires.
"And to the 82% of people who think this is good, Fuck all of you."
Of course, the 81% number was 2 weeks ago. (CBS poll Nov 7-10). Link.
More recent poll has approval at 64%. (ABC/Washington Post poll Nov-21). Link.
At this rate, expect to have it under 50% by early December. People are rapidly become educated about the absurdity, invasiveness, high cost, lack of security, lack of privacy, and radiation of this procedure.
Do I trust the scanner to: - Actually mangle the image? - Not save a "raw" image internally or transmitted someplace? - Actually be mangled as described in front of out-of-sight invisible surveillance agent?
No, I don't. They've already been caught lying on all these issues, actually.
"... the way math developed and was taught is not the only way to teach "math", this is one thing that I've learned as I've grown up. And I'm still doing much research in this area. There are better ways to teach people how to do those computations..."
My argument: Math is not these computations (arithmetic). Math is communicating patterns; it's abstraction, use of variables, theorems and proofs. So frankly, spending any time at all on improved numerical computations is a total waste in the modern era. We really do have computers for that nowadays.
Care to explain exactly what your "research in this area" is?
On a homework assignment. I considered yelling at everyone, but decided it was cleaner and more direct to just say -- pop quiz, do question #1 (very basic, 2nd week procedure) with any of the materials in front of you right now, and here's a formula card if you don't already have one. If you can't do it, then I'll retract credit for that assignment (everything else in the assignment was built on that initial result).
Now, I don't have a huge lecture hall (N=30), so it's more feasible for me to personally oversee that process. I'd hate to be in that situation, honestly.
"This especially for courses that are just there as a filler and that 95% of the students won't use in their professional life. If the schools realized that it's 2010, not 1810, and if teachers actually were a bit more passionated about learning than a corpse i'm certain cheating would drop a fair bit."
Don't you think that's a two-way street? If I read you correctly, you think universities should have evolved beyond their original purpose and be devoted to professional, vocational training. But of course, the faculty's own professional advancement is not based primarily on in-class teaching, but rather research and journal publication. So if everyone is to be devoted to their own private, professional interest, then the end result is exactly what you describe.
Now, I've reconciled myself to the fact that I'm happier being a part-time college instructor and not advancing past that point, so that I can focus on having rewarding in-class interactions. But a lot of economist-types would call me stupid for having done that.
Replying to myself -- Hate to say it, but the TSA chief in San Diego held a press conference Monday to confirm that the fine (now $11K) is still on the table and they've opened an investigation on this guy:
I think that the $10K lawsuit and arrest was an empty threat, not actually happening. But that's still a pretty dirtbag Nazi kind of thing to threaten somebody with.
I guess I'm constantly surprised that this is received as an amazing innovation. Most math textbooks I see come with a tear-out formula card. I just let everyone use those on my tests (statistics, trigonometry, etc.) I disallow writing anything else on it so it's not a how-small-can-you-write exercise.
But I guess most instructors don't do that... for the life of me I can't imagine why memorizing formulas at that level would be desirable... (sigh)
Replying to myself. FTA: "My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against, that you may not even know exists."
Um, no, actually I can guarantee that no one is using your services for work in my classroom.
"...As long as it doesn't require me to do any math or video-documented animal husbandry, I will write anything."
Slashdot Mirror
"Just as Exxon-Mobil will gladly sell you hydrogen or biodiesel or whatever else when we migrate off oil..."
But that's beside the point -- if switchover cost is high, and/or profit margin would go down, then they will resist having the switchover product available for as long as possible.
FTA: "Providing API access to DOD is the patriotic and morale thing to do, especially since DOD is opening the door to lots of sales opportunities for both companies. "
Yeah, that's a well-written article. I'm convinced.
"... thinly veiled attempts at painting the man as a terrorist.... "
No, actually Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnel directly called Assange a "high-tech terrorist" on national TV last Sunday morning (via NBC's venerated Meet the Press program).
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hjd1ItFL-MxV5D8lRgNQKuPvHgSA?docId=e21254c876f34e67bb5fd6a6d2a7ce47
Geez, I hate to say it, but I think the lesson from Germany is the opposite one. I truly feel like the U.S. is frighteningly like a Weimar Republic these days. I have a hard time seeing how it gets better without the imperial power first entirely falling apart.
So totally agree with that last paragraph. I would give you many mod points if I had them.
FTA: "The mujahideen 'bled Russia for 10 years, until it went bankrupt,' bin Laden said, and they would now do the same to the United States."
"China is the new bogeyman."
China was also the old bogeyman, 2000-2001, before we went drooling and raving for 10 years about guys in caves who got off one lucky, unrepeatable shot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Team_%28U.S._politics%29
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?us_military_specific_cases_and_issues=us_military_tmln_spy_plane_crash_in_china&timeline=us_military_tmln
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Asia/Revving_China_Threat.html
A thorough Department of Defense analysis concluded -- Wikileaks released no sensitive source information, and to date no Afghans have been harmed or threatened from it.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/16/wikileaks.assessment/index.html?hpt=T2
"But even if there is a 'trend' here, it'll get cut right short if this guy gets arrested."
RTFA: Guy's been arrested twice already.
[Applause]
Also throw in something about "All we have to fear is fear itself" from back when we are actually facing down the Third Reich and a real, global war with multiple empires.
That sound you hear is American exceptionalism being flushed down the crapper.
"And to the 82% of people who think this is good, Fuck all of you."
Of course, the 81% number was 2 weeks ago. (CBS poll Nov 7-10). Link.
More recent poll has approval at 64%. (ABC/Washington Post poll Nov-21). Link.
At this rate, expect to have it under 50% by early December. People are rapidly become educated about the absurdity, invasiveness, high cost, lack of security, lack of privacy, and radiation of this procedure.
Oops, I guess it is.
http://www.pixiq.com/contributors/248
Do I trust the scanner to:
- Actually mangle the image?
- Not save a "raw" image internally or transmitted someplace?
- Actually be mangled as described in front of out-of-sight invisible surveillance agent?
No, I don't. They've already been caught lying on all these issues, actually.
"... the way math developed and was taught is not the only way to teach "math", this is one thing that I've learned as I've grown up. And I'm still doing much research in this area. There are better ways to teach people how to do those computations..."
My argument: Math is not these computations (arithmetic). Math is communicating patterns; it's abstraction, use of variables, theorems and proofs. So frankly, spending any time at all on improved numerical computations is a total waste in the modern era. We really do have computers for that nowadays.
Care to explain exactly what your "research in this area" is?
On a homework assignment. I considered yelling at everyone, but decided it was cleaner and more direct to just say -- pop quiz, do question #1 (very basic, 2nd week procedure) with any of the materials in front of you right now, and here's a formula card if you don't already have one. If you can't do it, then I'll retract credit for that assignment (everything else in the assignment was built on that initial result).
Now, I don't have a huge lecture hall (N=30), so it's more feasible for me to personally oversee that process. I'd hate to be in that situation, honestly.
"This especially for courses that are just there as a filler and that 95% of the students won't use in their professional life. If the schools realized that it's 2010, not 1810, and if teachers actually were a bit more passionated about learning than a corpse i'm certain cheating would drop a fair bit."
Don't you think that's a two-way street? If I read you correctly, you think universities should have evolved beyond their original purpose and be devoted to professional, vocational training. But of course, the faculty's own professional advancement is not based primarily on in-class teaching, but rather research and journal publication. So if everyone is to be devoted to their own private, professional interest, then the end result is exactly what you describe.
Now, I've reconciled myself to the fact that I'm happier being a part-time college instructor and not advancing past that point, so that I can focus on having rewarding in-class interactions. But a lot of economist-types would call me stupid for having done that.
(P.S. "impassioned")
Replying to myself -- Hate to say it, but the TSA chief in San Diego held a press conference Monday to confirm that the fine (now $11K) is still on the table and they've opened an investigation on this guy:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/15/tsa-probe-scan-resistor/
Name the ones you think are STEM fields.
Remember, remember the 24th of November, eh? :)
I think that the $10K lawsuit and arrest was an empty threat, not actually happening. But that's still a pretty dirtbag Nazi kind of thing to threaten somebody with.
As linked earlier, here's video of them doing it to a screaming 3-year-old:
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/tsa-screener-terrorizes-3-year-old-girl
Hmmm, maybe there are already computers with software provided to run said hardware, ya think?
I guess I'm constantly surprised that this is received as an amazing innovation. Most math textbooks I see come with a tear-out formula card. I just let everyone use those on my tests (statistics, trigonometry, etc.) I disallow writing anything else on it so it's not a how-small-can-you-write exercise.
But I guess most instructors don't do that... for the life of me I can't imagine why memorizing formulas at that level would be desirable... (sigh)
Replying to myself. FTA: "My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against, that you may not even know exists."
Um, no, actually I can guarantee that no one is using your services for work in my classroom.
"...As long as it doesn't require me to do any math or video-documented animal husbandry, I will write anything."
There you go.