"And you don't REALLY learn much about the mechanisms of mathematics unless you take Discrete Mathematics or Math Theory or some other class that focuses on such things."
And I didn't learn much about the mechanisms of air-breathing turbine engines until I took a class on air-breathing turbine engines.
I think we could agree that there are levels of comprehension of certain subjects that are simply not required for everyday existence. And, for those who do require high levels of comprehension, there are classes (or books) available to teach them.
Heck, I don't think I could "prove" how cross multiplication works, but I can do algebra like a madman.
Which is great, if you're just grading homework. If you're trying to teach somebody how to understand something, you must first understand it yourself.
Well, never mind about that other guy. With your impressive employment of ad hominem attacks, I bestow upon you the title of master debater.
Permit me to reciprocate.
In two words, fuck you. I spend a fair amount of money and effort to be a responsible conservationist, and you denigrate me because I haven't drunk your particular brand of kool-aid. Fuck you, fuck every other sanctimonious pseudo-environmentalist twat you agree with, who thinks that the only opinions are their own, and the wrong one. Small minded pricks, the lot of you. Go buy some carbon offset credits to cover the repulsive outgassing from your ill-mannered pie hole.
Eat my dick, and I'll teach you something about emissions.
Now THAT, my friend, is how you do an ad hominem attack.
OK. Or, in my case, with my iPod, you could have exactly the opposite experience.
I broke my iPod by banging it (hard) into the corner of a desk while it was in my pocket. The clickwheel was cracked more or less in half. The iPod was four months out of warranty. I took it into an Apple store, told my tale, and asked if there was any way I could pay to have it repaired. They told me I could pick up a new one the next day, at no charge.
I'm still using that iPod over a year later.
So, in my experience, Apple customer service is superb. Your mileage may vary.
" we should not bother doing anything until we actually know for certain?"
You really didn't read my post, did you? Do I think we should immediately undertake absolutely any action that may mitigate climate change, regardless of the cost? No. Absolutely not. I think that would be incredibly irresponsible.
Yet that's exactly what people are screaming for. "DO SOMETHING!" cry the people who became environmentalists by watching Al Gore's movie. Thing is, "DO SOMETHING!" isn't good science, or good public policy.
Do the right thing, carefully making sure that the thing you think is the right thing is indeed the right thing. Please don't bankrupt any nations when doing it.
" Just not by you, apparently."
We've already established that. Just because I'm ignorant of this particular subject (and, again, I think this subject is far, far too complex for anybody to be anything other than ignorant on the subject) doesn't make me stupid, or wrong.
'You do the very same thing by asserting that I am wrong without supporting your point.'
Oh, not at all. You might be 100% correct. Of course, you also may not be correct. I assert that I disagree with you. Or, rather, I haven't accepted your argument. I consider myself quite ignorant on this topic. Thing is, I consider anybody who doesn't consider themselves ignorant on this topic to be not terribly credible.
We've never studied a system as complex as the climate. I think any conclusions that are drawn with our current level of knowledge are suspect at best.
I think there are plenty common-sense approaches to minimizing environmental impact that DON'T involve making massive negative impacts on economies.
That's an argument by assertion. You don't support your point, you just take it as read that the other side is wrong and you're right.
You might have published treatises of supporting information, but until you provide them to me, they don't really count (from my perspective).
"do you think the global climate is changing?"
I'd tend to think that change is a key feature of climates.
"Do you think we are having an impact?"
An impact? Everything has an impact. Are humans having a significant, reversible, detrimental impact on climate change? Not sure, I tend to think not.
"Impact or no, do you think we should do anything about it?"
I don't think we should do ANYTHING. I think we should take reasonable measures to minimize our environmental impact, individually and collectively. I think it's a good idea to be good stewards of our environment, minimize pollution and harmful emissions, and generally try to keep as clean a house as is practical without, say, telling everybody that they don't get to drive cars or fly on airplanes anymore.
Do I think that Hurricane Katrina was caused by the popularity of SUVs? No. Not at all.
"The conservative/big oil side of the debate has no viable position left to argue"
Whereas your not-conservative not-big-oil side can just rely on tried and true proofs by assertion! Wow. You're good at debating. As a matter of fact, I might call you a master. Of debating.
OK, by your argument, there should be an awful lot of articles out there about how great the Vista experience is. Can you point me to some?
For one thing, as soon as you talk about upgrading the OS, you're outside of the realm of "the realities of running Vista" for most end users. And, from an experienced computer user's perspective, just getting the OS to boot is pretty irrelevant.
Does Vista give me capabilities that I didn't have before? With the exception of the manufactured incompatibility of DirectX 10, the answer is "no".
"That gives me the impression that they really do want this to be the plane's main black box."
I dunno, that gave ME the impression that the reporter didn't know his ass from his elbow. Flight Data Recorders ("Black Boxes") are one type of digital data recorder. Your consumer-level GPS device is another. Conflating the two would be a lousy idea.
Yep. That was, indeed, a dick move by a very sleazy lawyer.
What does that have to do with the rest of the population of the United States?
In my travels, when I treat people with courtesy and respect, that's what I get back. Clarkson is constitutionally incapable of same (I'm pretty sure his enormous head would assplode), so people treat him like a dick. Which works, because he IS a dick. A sometimes-fairly-entertaining dick, but the man is a still a dick. May and Hammond hang around with him, so they get the same treatment.
(that may be the most times I've ever said dick at the same time. dick.)
Right, because if you spray-painted "Beckham is a Poofter!" on your car and drove it through rough neighborhoods in Great Britain, they'd offer you tea.
I dunno, despite the continuing assault of the wingnuts, public television and radio in the US seems to do pretty well. That reminds me...I need to renew my membership.
Slashdot Mirror
You've agreed to do a job in exchange for a salary. If you can't do the job, why would you expect a raise?
"And you don't REALLY learn much about the mechanisms of mathematics unless you take Discrete Mathematics or Math Theory or some other class that focuses on such things."
And I didn't learn much about the mechanisms of air-breathing turbine engines until I took a class on air-breathing turbine engines.
I think we could agree that there are levels of comprehension of certain subjects that are simply not required for everyday existence. And, for those who do require high levels of comprehension, there are classes (or books) available to teach them.
Heck, I don't think I could "prove" how cross multiplication works, but I can do algebra like a madman.
"How would you feel if your performance was based on your ability to get a bunch of goldfish to do math?"
If you've taken a job as a goldfish math teacher, you better be prepared to deliver some results.
"Teachers have answer books to help them."
Which is great, if you're just grading homework. If you're trying to teach somebody how to understand something, you must first understand it yourself.
"All the evidence I need to know that English teachers have zero command of the language."
Um, your English skills might be up to snuff, but you need to take a remedial logic class.
Sounds like you stand to make yourself $25 if you can put your money where your mouth is.
The silence is deafening. : )
"Another third grader enters the discussion."
Uh huh. With the other poster, I was joking around. You're an asshole.
"Please explain to me your view on the subject."
No. Fuck off. I owe you nothing. I do not have to justify anything to you.
Well, never mind about that other guy. With your impressive employment of ad hominem attacks, I bestow upon you the title of master debater.
Permit me to reciprocate.
In two words, fuck you. I spend a fair amount of money and effort to be a responsible conservationist, and you denigrate me because I haven't drunk your particular brand of kool-aid. Fuck you, fuck every other sanctimonious pseudo-environmentalist twat you agree with, who thinks that the only opinions are their own, and the wrong one. Small minded pricks, the lot of you. Go buy some carbon offset credits to cover the repulsive outgassing from your ill-mannered pie hole.
Eat my dick, and I'll teach you something about emissions.
Now THAT, my friend, is how you do an ad hominem attack.
OK. Or, in my case, with my iPod, you could have exactly the opposite experience.
I broke my iPod by banging it (hard) into the corner of a desk while it was in my pocket. The clickwheel was cracked more or less in half. The iPod was four months out of warranty. I took it into an Apple store, told my tale, and asked if there was any way I could pay to have it repaired. They told me I could pick up a new one the next day, at no charge.
I'm still using that iPod over a year later.
So, in my experience, Apple customer service is superb. Your mileage may vary.
" we should not bother doing anything until we actually know for certain?"
You really didn't read my post, did you? Do I think we should immediately undertake absolutely any action that may mitigate climate change, regardless of the cost? No. Absolutely not. I think that would be incredibly irresponsible.
Yet that's exactly what people are screaming for. "DO SOMETHING!" cry the people who became environmentalists by watching Al Gore's movie. Thing is, "DO SOMETHING!" isn't good science, or good public policy.
Do the right thing, carefully making sure that the thing you think is the right thing is indeed the right thing. Please don't bankrupt any nations when doing it.
" Just not by you, apparently."
We've already established that. Just because I'm ignorant of this particular subject (and, again, I think this subject is far, far too complex for anybody to be anything other than ignorant on the subject) doesn't make me stupid, or wrong.
'You do the very same thing by asserting that I am wrong without supporting your point.'
Oh, not at all. You might be 100% correct. Of course, you also may not be correct. I assert that I disagree with you. Or, rather, I haven't accepted your argument. I consider myself quite ignorant on this topic. Thing is, I consider anybody who doesn't consider themselves ignorant on this topic to be not terribly credible.
We've never studied a system as complex as the climate. I think any conclusions that are drawn with our current level of knowledge are suspect at best.
I think there are plenty common-sense approaches to minimizing environmental impact that DON'T involve making massive negative impacts on economies.
"no viable position left to argue,"
That's an argument by assertion. You don't support your point, you just take it as read that the other side is wrong and you're right.
You might have published treatises of supporting information, but until you provide them to me, they don't really count (from my perspective).
"do you think the global climate is changing?"
I'd tend to think that change is a key feature of climates.
"Do you think we are having an impact?"
An impact? Everything has an impact. Are humans having a significant, reversible, detrimental impact on climate change? Not sure, I tend to think not.
"Impact or no, do you think we should do anything about it?"
I don't think we should do ANYTHING. I think we should take reasonable measures to minimize our environmental impact, individually and collectively. I think it's a good idea to be good stewards of our environment, minimize pollution and harmful emissions, and generally try to keep as clean a house as is practical without, say, telling everybody that they don't get to drive cars or fly on airplanes anymore.
Do I think that Hurricane Katrina was caused by the popularity of SUVs? No. Not at all.
"The conservative/big oil side of the debate has no viable position left to argue"
Whereas your not-conservative not-big-oil side can just rely on tried and true proofs by assertion! Wow. You're good at debating. As a matter of fact, I might call you a master. Of debating.
If you rely on others' incompetence for job security, then you are an incompetent.
OK, by your argument, there should be an awful lot of articles out there about how great the Vista experience is. Can you point me to some?
For one thing, as soon as you talk about upgrading the OS, you're outside of the realm of "the realities of running Vista" for most end users. And, from an experienced computer user's perspective, just getting the OS to boot is pretty irrelevant.
Does Vista give me capabilities that I didn't have before? With the exception of the manufactured incompatibility of DirectX 10, the answer is "no".
What a quaint notion! If it actually worked that way, you might have a point. Me? I can't afford justice.
"These guys are not invincible." No, but they're extremely well funded, which is almost the same thing.
"It's up to us to fight these battles." I sure don't have the discretionary funds to hire a top-flight legal staff. I applaud the people who do.
"creature starts recursively simulating itself"
I did that once. I went blind. Thanks for nothin'.
"That gives me the impression that they really do want this to be the plane's main black box."
I dunno, that gave ME the impression that the reporter didn't know his ass from his elbow. Flight Data Recorders ("Black Boxes") are one type of digital data recorder. Your consumer-level GPS device is another. Conflating the two would be a lousy idea.
Yep. That was, indeed, a dick move by a very sleazy lawyer.
What does that have to do with the rest of the population of the United States?
In my travels, when I treat people with courtesy and respect, that's what I get back. Clarkson is constitutionally incapable of same (I'm pretty sure his enormous head would assplode), so people treat him like a dick. Which works, because he IS a dick. A sometimes-fairly-entertaining dick, but the man is a still a dick. May and Hammond hang around with him, so they get the same treatment.
(that may be the most times I've ever said dick at the same time. dick.)
By that definition, the BBC isn't state-run either. What is your argument?
If it lasted a year, why didn't you make a warranty claim?
Oh, because it lasted LONGER than a year, and you probably did something ill-advised with it, but it's still Apple's fault. Right. Carry on.
Right, because if you spray-painted "Beckham is a Poofter!" on your car and drove it through rough neighborhoods in Great Britain, they'd offer you tea.
I dunno, despite the continuing assault of the wingnuts, public television and radio in the US seems to do pretty well. That reminds me...I need to renew my membership.
Rendering an iPod unable to play music is not the same thing as rendering the data stored on it unrecoverable.