I am an American student studying abroad in Europe, I also work for the office that runs the exchange and we are currently faced with this problem. I study sociology, and among the American students here I am the only person studying science, not studying history or literature. To add, exchanges with students in the 'hard' sciences is practically unheardof.
Why? A lot of it is mentality. When it comes to university level studies in the fundumental sciences, curriculums in the states (or in Oregon at least) tend to be more application-oriented, whereas their equivalents in Europe tend to be more theoretical and abstract-oriented. Like the article indicates, this attitude is reflected in how we spend our public funds. DARPA gets a big Bushy booster shot while the National Science Foundation gets pushed aside.
But there's also the individual level of the students themselves:
Part of what makes fundumental scientific research powerful is collaboration. In Europe, scientists all speak English, and attend annual conferences to meet others in their field and share information. That is done much less back home, where each University tends to be slightly more of an island. Also, students are funneled more in the direction of private research as a career option as opposed to state or publicly-funded research.
As an employee working in a student-exchange environment, I cannot help but think that this brain drain problem has a lot to do with our mentality towards scientists and what opportunities they are given. But hey, if you are a grad student in Chem, BioChem, Physics, Anthro, you can do something about it! Check out the University of Poitiers which is a little town in France that puts out world class research. The Oregon University System is in the process of organizing an exchange where grad students can come for six months or so and work with French and international researchers - in English. And France is a freakin cool country once you get over all the stereotypes =).
The first X-43 vehicle and its Pegasus booster were lost shortly after release from the B-52 over a restricted Navy Pacific Ocean range on June 2, 2001, when the combined vehicles deviated from the flight path and were deliberately destroyed.
I dunno, when I read this, I wonder if the X43 that was 'deliberately destroyed' was unmanned or not. Do we still use test pilots? Did little Mr. Crotch Rocket go kerpow and get forgotten in the PR?
....The CIA managed to engineer a fully humanoid robot capable of cobbling together rudementary phrases in a Texas accent. Unfortunately, the bugger went rampant and ran for president.
1. The article mentions that the home building industry is 'conservative and clinging to tradition.' Well, there's a reason for that, first off, traditional building materials (wood, brick, stone, glass) are traditional because they seem to have a certain 'life' to them, whereas skyscrapers and cubicles tend to lack that life. Christopher Alexander, an architect and expert on 'seeing the life in material objects'has written books and has a website (http://www.patternlanguage.com.)
2. Also, the article says that this new technology will give more power to the architect to design house skins and 'engines.' BULLSH1T! An architect's job is already to design the thing. This article makes it seem like what people will actually do is order the house off of a website and it will be shipped to a location, cutting out the architect completely, replacing him/ her, in fact.
3. The whole premise of making 'customizable' homes has been around since, well, homes WERE BEING BUILT. The House-n is trying to standardize and upgrade the technology in the house. Great, no prob, easy wireless for me. But what house-n is forgetting is the importance of the house's eventual location. Half of a house's job is, afterall, to integrate well with its surroundings. whenever I look at a row of prefabbed suburban houses, I can tell that they were not built with the location in mind, they were designed to be easy to manufacture, and cheap, at the expense of looking unique, original, and full of life.
From the article it seems that Disney REALLY wants to push the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, and Apple is just one of their legal points in support of the act.
But, just think.... if the US Senate DID pass such a law.... it would mean that all of the CD burners and DVD burners which were made before the act would become a valuable commodity! Keep that 2x caddy CDR you bought in 1992!!!! It may be worth something!!
Maybe they won't be screwed, afterall..... on the eastern seaboard, it's after midnight right now, the same day at Macworld. Time Canada probably has an agreement with Apple that it can publish the article on the day of MacWorld...... even though there's like 12 more hours till the official announcement.... that's just a technicality, right??;)
Slashdot Mirror
I am an American student studying abroad in Europe, I also work for the office that runs the exchange and we are currently faced with this problem. I study sociology, and among the American students here I am the only person studying science, not studying history or literature. To add, exchanges with students in the 'hard' sciences is practically unheardof.
Why? A lot of it is mentality. When it comes to university level studies in the fundumental sciences, curriculums in the states (or in Oregon at least) tend to be more application-oriented, whereas their equivalents in Europe tend to be more theoretical and abstract-oriented. Like the article indicates, this attitude is reflected in how we spend our public funds. DARPA gets a big Bushy booster shot while the National Science Foundation gets pushed aside.
But there's also the individual level of the students themselves:
Part of what makes fundumental scientific research powerful is collaboration. In Europe, scientists all speak English, and attend annual conferences to meet others in their field and share information. That is done much less back home, where each University tends to be slightly more of an island. Also, students are funneled more in the direction of private research as a career option as opposed to state or publicly-funded research.
As an employee working in a student-exchange environment, I cannot help but think that this brain drain problem has a lot to do with our mentality towards scientists and what opportunities they are given. But hey, if you are a grad student in Chem, BioChem, Physics, Anthro, you can do something about it! Check out the University of Poitiers which is a little town in France that puts out world class research. The Oregon University System is in the process of organizing an exchange where grad students can come for six months or so and work with French and international researchers - in English. And France is a freakin cool country once you get over all the stereotypes =).
The first X-43 vehicle and its Pegasus booster were lost shortly after release from the B-52 over a restricted Navy Pacific Ocean range on June 2, 2001, when the combined vehicles deviated from the flight path and were deliberately destroyed.
I dunno, when I read this, I wonder if the X43 that was 'deliberately destroyed' was unmanned or not. Do we still use test pilots? Did little Mr. Crotch Rocket go kerpow and get forgotten in the PR?
....The CIA managed to engineer a fully humanoid robot capable of cobbling together rudementary phrases in a Texas accent. Unfortunately, the bugger went rampant and ran for president.
1. The article mentions that the home building industry is 'conservative and clinging to tradition.' Well, there's a reason for that, first off, traditional building materials (wood, brick, stone, glass) are traditional because they seem to have a certain 'life' to them, whereas skyscrapers and cubicles tend to lack that life. Christopher Alexander, an architect and expert on 'seeing the life in material objects'has written books and has a website (http://www.patternlanguage.com.)
2. Also, the article says that this new technology will give more power to the architect to design house skins and 'engines.' BULLSH1T! An architect's job is already to design the thing. This article makes it seem like what people will actually do is order the house off of a website and it will be shipped to a location, cutting out the architect completely, replacing him/ her, in fact.
3. The whole premise of making 'customizable' homes has been around since, well, homes WERE BEING BUILT. The House-n is trying to standardize and upgrade the technology in the house. Great, no prob, easy wireless for me. But what house-n is forgetting is the importance of the house's eventual location. Half of a house's job is, afterall, to integrate well with its surroundings. whenever I look at a row of prefabbed suburban houses, I can tell that they were not built with the location in mind, they were designed to be easy to manufacture, and cheap, at the expense of looking unique, original, and full of life.
just my 300 Yen, err, $0.02
From the article it seems that Disney REALLY wants to push the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, and Apple is just one of their legal points in support of the act.
;)
But, just think.... if the US Senate DID pass such a law.... it would mean that all of the CD burners and DVD burners which were made before the act would become a valuable commodity! Keep that 2x caddy CDR you bought in 1992!!!! It may be worth something!!
Built-in obscolescence has met its foe.
Maybe they won't be screwed, afterall..... on the eastern seaboard, it's after midnight right now, the same day at Macworld. Time Canada probably has an agreement with Apple that it can publish the article on the day of MacWorld...... even though there's like 12 more hours till the official announcement.... ;)
that's just a technicality, right??