Can anyone remember the Star Trek novel that explained that it was the voice of Number One (played by Barrett) that became the voice of the Enterprise computer?
You mention a "crude compromise" as if it were a bad thing. Letting people hammer out their differences by ramshackle compromises is preferable to any other system of government that I can think of.
Although our own founding fathers used the term democracy to describe the system, they knew they were abusing it. We are not a democracy, but a republic. At risk of being pedantic, we are actually a democracy within a republic, meaning that we have legislators vote in our place, but we at least get to elect the legislators. (At least in most cases -- the Illinois debacle being a glaring exception.)
The separateness of the electoral college from the legislature emphasized that the president is not a first among equals, or merely a prime minister. Rather the presidency is a separate and co-equal branch of government.
Although recent elections have been close in both popular and electoral college terms, one interesting effect (some would say advantage) of the current system is that it can create an impression of an overwhelming mandate for the victor. For example, IIRC, Mondale carried only a single state out of 50, which pretty much gave Reagan enormous honeymoon capital.
Have frequent one-on-ones with the architect (or tech. lead). Be frank.
Defer to the architect on technical matters, in the same way you would expect her to defer to you on matters of scheduling and task assignments.
Conflicts are inevitable. Whatever you do, don't let them fester. As the leader, communication failures are your fault by definition. Remember that humility is a virtue.
...to have been surprised by the effectiveness of Mathematics. The universe is too -- I'm searching for the right word here -- grand for there not to be something like Mathematics. In other words, how could something so rich as creation not have room in it for effective ways to describe it?
What should have surprised him is that Math is accessible to the descendants of feeble-minded creatures that spent all their time looking for food while trying not to get eaten. It's not that Math exists that is unreasonable... It's that we can do it!
Don't forget to take care of your physical health. Excercise! Avoid bad foods, play, try to be fit. You wouldn't expect your legs to carry you very far if you didn't take care of yourself, and so it goes with your brain.
I'm in my 40s and have recently lost 30 pounds. My mind functions better lately than it did ten years ago. Or at least, it's malfunctioning in a way that makes me think so.
The most eye-catching line in Mitra's paper is towards the end. He claims that string theory is having trouble admitting black holes, so folks are trying to fudge it.
"However, ironically, string theorists, at this moment are guided by the erroneous notion that GTR yields BH with M>0, and are struggling to wiggle out of this result by modifying the definition of event horizon into the socalled "stretched horizon"."
Before Hubble (the astronomer, not the satellite) claimed to have observational evidence that the universe is expanding, Einstein produced equations that showed that the universe had to be expanding (or contracting). But, big Al didn't have the courage to trust the mathematics, and he introduced the "cosmological constant," a fudge factor to allow a non-expanding universe. After Hubble later released his results, Einstein called the cosmological constant his greatest professional mistake.
It seems that string theorists may have been introducing fudge factors of their own to allow singularities. Wouldn't it be neat if they should have just trusted the mathematics, too?
Upon re-reading this post, it seems to be hard on Einstein, but it's not intended to be. He's the man!
Slashdot Mirror
Can anyone remember the Star Trek novel that explained that it was the voice of Number One (played by Barrett) that became the voice of the Enterprise computer?
You mention a "crude compromise" as if it were a bad thing. Letting people hammer out their differences by ramshackle compromises is preferable to any other system of government that I can think of.
Although our own founding fathers used the term democracy to describe the system, they knew they were abusing it. We are not a democracy, but a republic. At risk of being pedantic, we are actually a democracy within a republic, meaning that we have legislators vote in our place, but we at least get to elect the legislators. (At least in most cases -- the Illinois debacle being a glaring exception.)
The separateness of the electoral college from the legislature emphasized that the president is not a first among equals, or merely a prime minister. Rather the presidency is a separate and co-equal branch of government.
Although recent elections have been close in both popular and electoral college terms, one interesting effect (some would say advantage) of the current system is that it can create an impression of an overwhelming mandate for the victor. For example, IIRC, Mondale carried only a single state out of 50, which pretty much gave Reagan enormous honeymoon capital.
Have frequent one-on-ones with the architect (or tech. lead). Be frank.
Defer to the architect on technical matters, in the same way you would expect her to defer to you on matters of scheduling and task assignments.
Conflicts are inevitable. Whatever you do, don't let them fester. As the leader, communication failures are your fault by definition. Remember that humility is a virtue.
http://scratch.mit.edu/
...to have been surprised by the effectiveness of Mathematics. The universe is too -- I'm searching for the right word here -- grand for there not to be something like Mathematics. In other words, how could something so rich as creation not have room in it for effective ways to describe it?
What should have surprised him is that Math is accessible to the descendants of feeble-minded creatures that spent all their time looking for food while trying not to get eaten. It's not that Math exists that is unreasonable... It's that we can do it!
Don't forget to take care of your physical health. Excercise! Avoid bad foods, play, try to be fit. You wouldn't expect your legs to carry you very far if you didn't take care of yourself, and so it goes with your brain.
I'm in my 40s and have recently lost 30 pounds. My mind functions better lately than it did ten years ago. Or at least, it's malfunctioning in a way that makes me think so.
yes, according to the book, he perishes.
The most eye-catching line in Mitra's paper is towards the end. He claims that string theory is having trouble admitting black holes, so folks are trying to fudge it. "However, ironically, string theorists, at this moment are guided by the erroneous notion that GTR yields BH with M>0, and are struggling to wiggle out of this result by modifying the definition of event horizon into the socalled "stretched horizon"." Before Hubble (the astronomer, not the satellite) claimed to have observational evidence that the universe is expanding, Einstein produced equations that showed that the universe had to be expanding (or contracting). But, big Al didn't have the courage to trust the mathematics, and he introduced the "cosmological constant," a fudge factor to allow a non-expanding universe. After Hubble later released his results, Einstein called the cosmological constant his greatest professional mistake. It seems that string theorists may have been introducing fudge factors of their own to allow singularities. Wouldn't it be neat if they should have just trusted the mathematics, too? Upon re-reading this post, it seems to be hard on Einstein, but it's not intended to be. He's the man!