The author doesn't claim that the point is to get everyone to love it. The author claims that the point is to get everyone to realize what mathematics really is.
From TFA:
SALVIATI: If everyone were exposed to mathematics in its natural state, with all
the challenging fun and surprises that that entails, I think we would
see a dramatic change both in the attitude of students toward
mathematics, and in our conception of what it means to be "good at
math." We are losing so many potentially gifted mathematicians --
creative, intelligent people who rightly reject what appears to be a
meaningless and sterile subject. They are simply too smart to waste
their time on such piffle.
SIMPLICIO: But don't you think that if math class were made more like art class
that a lot of kids just wouldn't learn anything?
SALVIATI: They're not learning anything now! Better to not have math classes at
all than to do what is currently being done. At least some people
might have a chance to discover something beautiful on their own.
SIMPLICIO: So you would remove mathematics from the school curriculum?
SALVIATI: The mathematics has already been removed! The only question is
what to do with the vapid, hollow shell that remains. Of course I
would prefer to replace it with an active and joyful engagement with
mathematical ideas.
Read "The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher" by John Taylor Gatto.
Gatto is an award-winning schoolteacher in New York State, and he takes much the same anaylsis as Lockhart does for math to the entire industry of education. Only Gatto wrote his piece in 1992.
http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
It would be (al?)mighty interesting to find out what exterrestrial conceptions of God and religion are. How many religions they have (if any), what their worship practices are...... how much their gods like the taste of earthling flesh...
you know, that kind of thing.
Set up a Eucalyptus installation and compete with Amazon.
OK, not really, but you can have an EC2 workalike without the usage charges.
Use this setup as a sandbox to test migrating your current IT infrastructure to AWS.
When it all works, hit the switch and actually make the move to EC2.
Then, sell your no-longer-used hardware.
You just converted Capital Expenses into Operational Expenses.
I watched a few of these with my 10-year old son. While the visuals are nice, the "connections" between the scientific developments are not called out explicitly enough. After going off on four or five tangents, the viewer loses the thread. I which it had been better scripted, to make the connections more cohesive and easier to follow.
I learned programming, and loved it, playing a game on the Apple ][ called Robot Odyssey.
You program robots to help you solve puzzles by wiring digital logic components into circuits that control how the robot behaves. It's hardware programming, but the skills transfer nicely to software.
Man, that invisible-maze puzzle had me stuck for months.
There's a Java-based clone available. Be warned - it's addictive!
Cutting-edge, new information ("news") is rapidly disseminated but very unstable. A solid, expert opinion is not readily available: there has been no time for anyone to develop expertise in the event that is currently unfolding.
After the information has matured, passed across some undefined age threshhold, expertise in the information develops.
So, requiring an "expert" to validate news of someone's death makes no sense - news cannot be "validated", it can only be "corroborated" - vouched for by another witness.
This is the main reason why myspace is the most popular social network. People explore the potential for friendship with others all the time on social networks, and the main focus of myspace is the music its users like. So, naturally, people will flock to the place that best supports socializing based on music.
until they manufacture a drive that doesn't require you to flip the disc in order to burn the label. Eliminating that annoying step would be worth extra $$.
Back in '92 I called MS tech support with a windows com port problem. The guy I got actually knew what he was talking about, diagnosed it in under 2 minutes. I still remember how he would say "hmmm.... baddah baddah baddah...." while he was typing on his keyboard. Anyway, he even called me back on the east coast and read me a "debug" script to nail down the "floating com port" problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals doesn't think humans are animals.
The author doesn't claim that the point is to get everyone to love it. The author claims that the point is to get everyone to realize what mathematics really is.
From TFA:
SALVIATI: If everyone were exposed to mathematics in its natural state, with all the challenging fun and surprises that that entails, I think we would see a dramatic change both in the attitude of students toward mathematics, and in our conception of what it means to be "good at math." We are losing so many potentially gifted mathematicians -- creative, intelligent people who rightly reject what appears to be a meaningless and sterile subject. They are simply too smart to waste their time on such piffle.
SIMPLICIO: But don't you think that if math class were made more like art class that a lot of kids just wouldn't learn anything?
SALVIATI: They're not learning anything now! Better to not have math classes at all than to do what is currently being done. At least some people might have a chance to discover something beautiful on their own.
SIMPLICIO: So you would remove mathematics from the school curriculum?
SALVIATI: The mathematics has already been removed! The only question is what to do with the vapid, hollow shell that remains. Of course I would prefer to replace it with an active and joyful engagement with mathematical ideas.
Read "The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher" by John Taylor Gatto. Gatto is an award-winning schoolteacher in New York State, and he takes much the same anaylsis as Lockhart does for math to the entire industry of education. Only Gatto wrote his piece in 1992. http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
It would be (al?)mighty interesting to find out what exterrestrial conceptions of God and religion are. How many religions they have (if any), what their worship practices are... ... how much their gods like the taste of earthling flesh...
you know, that kind of thing.
Set up a Eucalyptus installation and compete with Amazon. OK, not really, but you can have an EC2 workalike without the usage charges. Use this setup as a sandbox to test migrating your current IT infrastructure to AWS. When it all works, hit the switch and actually make the move to EC2. Then, sell your no-longer-used hardware. You just converted Capital Expenses into Operational Expenses.
"That giant sucking sound you hear is the sound of all US-based internet hosting business moving offshore".
I thought this was covered in Geroge Lucas in Love.
I watched a few of these with my 10-year old son. While the visuals are nice, the "connections" between the scientific developments are not called out explicitly enough. After going off on four or five tangents, the viewer loses the thread. I which it had been better scripted, to make the connections more cohesive and easier to follow.
This means that the Andromeda would never have come back out of the black hole.
I learned programming, and loved it, playing a game on the Apple ][ called Robot Odyssey.
You program robots to help you solve puzzles by wiring digital logic components into circuits that control how the robot behaves. It's hardware programming, but the skills transfer nicely to software.
Man, that invisible-maze puzzle had me stuck for months.
There's a Java-based clone available. Be warned - it's addictive!
Cutting-edge, new information ("news") is rapidly disseminated but very unstable. A solid, expert opinion is not readily available: there has been no time for anyone to develop expertise in the event that is currently unfolding.
After the information has matured, passed across some undefined age threshhold, expertise in the information develops.
So, requiring an "expert" to validate news of someone's death makes no sense - news cannot be "validated", it can only be "corroborated" - vouched for by another witness.
This is the main reason why myspace is the most popular social network. People explore the potential for friendship with others all the time on social networks, and the main focus of myspace is the music its users like. So, naturally, people will flock to the place that best supports socializing based on music.
John Taylor Gatto puts it very nicely in his essay entitled "The Six Lesson Schoolteacher".
http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html
This is why I homeschool my kids.
Can you just imagine what kind of damage would be caused by Unreal Tournament?
User: Who is Canada's Prime Minister?
PIQUANT: WHY DO YOU ASK, USER?
Because I want to know.
WHAT IS THE REAL REASON, USER?
I want to test you.
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU IF YOU GOT TO TEST ME?
It would mean I can determine whether or not you know who Canada's Prime Minister is.
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I COULD TELL YOU THAT?
I programmed you to figure it out.
LET'S TALK ABOUT YOU -- NOT ME.
I want to know the name of Canada's Prime Minister.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE NAME OF CANADA'S PRIME MINISTER?
Are you going to tell me his name or not?
WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN WHETHER OR NOT I AM GOING TO TELL YOU HIS NAME OR NOT?
Stop avoiding the question! Just tell me his name!
NAMES DON'T INTEREST ME.
Fuck you!
TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR OWN PROBLEM, USER.
Shit!
GO ON.
You suck.
YOU'RE NOT REALLY STILL TALKING ABOUT ME, ARE YOU?
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
My favorite one, if only for the title:
KSC-66-5261 erection of S-1C-F on mobile launcher #1
Brings new meaning to the term broadband.
No wonder all our jobs are going to India... their snail-mail is much faster than ours!
Here.
until they manufacture a drive that doesn't require you to flip the disc in order to burn the label. Eliminating that annoying step would be worth extra $$.
Press those buttons? In New York City?
Have you any idea what kind of diseases you'll catch if you touch those surfaces (not to mention subway car straps and handrails) in this town?
Back in '92 I called MS tech support with a windows com port problem. The guy I got actually knew what he was talking about, diagnosed it in under 2 minutes. I still remember how he would say "hmmm.... baddah baddah baddah...." while he was typing on his keyboard. Anyway, he even called me back on the east coast and read me a "debug" script to nail down the "floating com port" problem.
What I wouldn't give for those days....
Something out of a scene in Patch Adams, no doubt.
but it's lightsaber not lightsaver.