My (graduate level) organic professor told us that the only thing we needed to remember was that "electrons flow from the electron source to the electron sink".
By and large, he was right - and organic made a lot more sense than it did to me as an undergraduate. Undferatanding HOW the reactions worked was easier than memorization dozens of twisty little reaction types, all alike.
But if you're taking about sophomore level organic - come on, is there really THAT much stuff to memorize?
> What exactly do you like more about Mozilla than > Firefox?
One other thing. Is it just me, or is Firefox's UI slower than Mozilla's. I have both installed on my laptop (Fedora Core 3 / p3-800 / 640MB RAM), and using edit/preferencesin Firefox sometimes borders on painful. A few of the panels actually take several seconds to display when clicked on, while Mozilla's appear instantly.
> Okay, so right click on the toolbar, hit > customize, and drag the search bar up onto the > line where the File/Edit stuff is.
It still not quite the same (I've done that in Firefox already). I just happen to prefer the Mozilla layout and operation because that's what I'm used to.
And I was replying to someone who was asking why someone might prefer to use Mozilla to Firefox, so I think listing a personal preference is valid.
> What exactly do you like more about Mozilla than > Firefox?
One thing I like is searching or entering URLs in a single large bar. By default, Firefox has separate search and URL bars on the same line, which mean you can see less of the search term/url you're entering.
My wife says that it's easier for her to open tabs with the mouse from mozilla (the new tab button is immediately obvious to her in Mozilla, but not in Firefox).
> $4.2 million dollars to analyse incoming data? > You could employ 80 PhD astrophysicists for a > year for that much. Surely there's not so much > information coming back as to require that much > computer time?
Much of that cost likely has to do with the fact that the Voyagers are REALLY FAR AWAY, and that it's difficult to pick up their signal in the first place.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_dsn.ht ml
> Now look at how many trees are being saved as > a result of e-mail, the web, IM, and other > collaborative technologies.
I'd like to see some proof of that. At every place I've worked, the more computers we have, the more paper we print out.
If anything, our computers make it EASIER to use more paper. I get a rainforest or three in my inbox every week.;)
Now, should electronic paper come out that is just as sturdy and easy to read as old-fashioned paper/ink, I'm sure people would start to rethink printing all that stuff out. Maybe.
> My guess is it will lock our remotes out for > twice as long... and it's probably only > going to get worse.
Standard movie-watching practice in this house (since we moved to DVD from laserdisc) is to put the disc in a few minutes before actually turning the rest of the home theater on.
We don't watch the warning(s), the annoying previews, etc. Wake me when the movie starts.:)
> If you have a legitimate gripe, by all means get > it out there however you can (including > communicating with the prof), but presume that > slamming the guy in a personal and general way is > really public discourse.
This point bears repeating. Most professors actually do care about whether the students are getting something out of the course and are receptive to students telling them about things that aren't coming across clearly.
All students have to remember to do is be polite. The prof isn't typically trying to "trick you" or "fail you" or anything similar.
Profs generally don't like being called "bipolar paranoid schitzophrenics" either, but I think most folks knew that.:)
> They don't want anyone making lecture notes > available outside the classroom. They won't > change aspects of their class that students > and/or administrators dislike.
Someone has some rage issues here. Did you do bad in a class last semester?:)
Anyway, some of us profs actually post our lecture notes on the Web *ourselves*. Imagine that!
> Why the double standard? Teachers get to grade > students. Teachers get to write reports and > give labels to students such as ADHD, or > whatever. Why the hell cant students do the > same? In a fair system they can.
Are teachers allowed to post student grades by name on the web (or anywhere else, for that matter) for all to see? No? Exactly what double standard exists, then?
(FYI - Profs aren't allowed to post grades even by SSN anymore, though many turn a blind eye to the practice.)
In my humble, not-speaking-for-my-employer opinion, I think students would be a lot more motivated if we DID post their grades by name.
> Actually, from my experience most teachers that > don't teach and hand out A's don't get high > marks from the students. By the time students > reach college most students really want to get > the education they paid for.
Many students are on financial aid, and are not paying for their education. If they're on loans, they may well pay for it later, but students on loans don't usually think about their educations as "Hey, this is something I'm *paying* for".
Actual student comment I overheard the other day: "Oh, are you taking [subject] next semester? Make sure you get [teacher]. He lets you redo your tests over and over again until you get the answers right. It's an easy 'A'."
> The students that just want to skate are in > the minority by college.
Sorry, but if you're talking about your average American college, you're way off base here.
> additionally, most hydrogen fuel cell designs > involve storing the hydrogen in some stable form, > such as chemically bound to a metal compound. When > a small electric current is run across the metal, > the hydrogen is released in small amounts. Its not > like the back of your SUV would have a huge > compressed hydrogen tank in it. > [...]
The concept cars the automakers like to show often DO run on tanks of compressed H2.:)
As of three years ago (when I still worked in that particular lab), the lack of a way to efficiently and cheaply store hydrogen for fuel cells was probably the biggest problem for mass commercial adoption of hydrogen fuel cells (that and the fact that the best proton transfer membranes didn't have terribly good mechanical stability).
> Hydrogen is not that explosive, maybe, but it is > highly flammable.
It's not the flammability that's the hazard associated with pressurized gas cylinders (like hydrogen). It's the pressure. Heck, a *helium* cylinder can kill you if mishandled.
> Riddle me this. How is it that Texas has some of > the best and largest public universities and yet > imposes exactly zero state property or income tax?
Property and income taxes aren't the only taxes you have to pay. There's also the sales tax which seems to provide the state of Texas about 70% of its revenue. The prestigious universities also get some amount of money from industry (research) and federal grants.
Higher education (at least the type that industry likes) isn't just limited to four-year schools.
What are the sources of funding for the community colleges, which generate a whole bunch of the type of people that industries are actually looking for?
> What crapola! New York City public school system > sucks, but the workforce is excellent - because > the city is attractive for adults who work as > opposed to kids who don't.
I was not aware that the New York City public schools were considered "higher education".
> Maybe it's time to hold children accountable > for what they know, and what they don't know. > If they can't pass a test, they don't pass the > grade. Period. I don't see what's so hard about > that. If more than 50% of the class doesn't pass a > test, then fire the teacher.
Let's play "spot the flaw" here. Here's a hint - we already do something similar to the above. (If too many students don't pass, school funding gets reduced and teachers get fired. The "success percentage" the schools are after, too, is greater than 50%).
The problem is teaching to the test. If YOUR job security was based solely on your pupils' ability to pass a certain test, wouldn't you teach them exactly that and the heck with the rest? Sure ya' would!
> No more teacher's unions and whining about > money.
Because no one has the right to ask for a salary increase, you see...:)
> There are PLENTY of people out there looking > for jobs as teachers that would be more than > happy to show you how much children can learn.
Then explain the constant shortage of math, science, and computer teachers in school districts - even when the economy's not doing so well.
> Or were you hoping that the state would raise > everyone ELSE's taxes so that you could get a > raise? The difference in the long run is that > you might loose your job, but the rest of > the residents of NM won't be titheing to the > state to support you.
That's "lose", by the way.:)
Slashing higher education in a state basically amounts to telling companies "Nope, you won't find an educated workforce HERE!". Companies that offer good jobs requiring educated people will simply move on.
If the only employers you want to come to your state want only unskilled labor, then I suppose that's fine - until their jobs are shipped off to Mexico or China and your state is left with... nothing.
> there is a lot of in-lecture IMing and > conversation -- but none of it really pertains to > the lecture. Most students who do this are too > busy doing personal browsing and conversing to > pay attention to the lecture.
[Yoda]That is why you fail...[/Yoda]
Speaking from the lecturer's side of the fence here - I used to find it annoying that some students weren't paying attention to the lecture. These days, as long as they're *quiet* and not annoying someone who *is* paying attention, I figure the tests will sort 'em out.
Chemistry isn't easy, and the people that don't keep up crash and burn.
> Ever browse Ebay? So many items are "Will Ship > To Continental U.S. Only"
The main reasons that lots of Ebay folks won't ship outside the US are:
1) Customs hassles. I hate those d&#$ forms. 2) High rate (80% for me until I stopped shipping internationally entirely) of non-paying bidders. International bidders don't seem to understand that shipping a 25 pound home theater amplifier airmail will cost more than $5.:) 3) Lost packages= lost $$$. 4) We don't want to wait fricking forever for payment.
I can completely understand why Joe Average US Citizen on Ebay doesn't want to deal with the hassle of shipping outside his own country.
REplying to myself here, but pork isn't mentioned in the linked article.
HOWEVER, the pork thing might not be entirely made up. An airline reservation company (Sabre Group) *was* prohibited by a Swedish court from transferring information about "whether a passenger is Jewish and prefers a kosher meal" to the USA. This might be the source of the submitter's "pork" comment. This was a Swedish law, but it's similar to the EU guidelines.
This sounds like the movie _Airplane_, in which the search was on for a passenger who could not only fly a plane and land it, but who also didn't have fish for dinner.
If only *this* were a movie, I might find it funny.
Slashdot Mirror
My (graduate level) organic professor told us that the only thing we needed to remember was that "electrons flow from the electron source to the electron sink".
By and large, he was right - and organic made a lot more sense than it did to me as an undergraduate. Undferatanding HOW the reactions worked was easier than memorization dozens of twisty little reaction types, all alike.
But if you're taking about sophomore level organic - come on, is there really THAT much stuff to memorize?
> What exactly do you like more about Mozilla than
> Firefox?
One other thing. Is it just me, or is Firefox's UI slower than Mozilla's. I have both installed on my laptop (Fedora Core 3 / p3-800 / 640MB RAM), and using edit/preferencesin Firefox sometimes borders on painful. A few of the panels actually take several seconds to display when clicked on, while Mozilla's appear instantly.
> Okay, so right click on the toolbar, hit
> customize, and drag the search bar up onto the
> line where the File/Edit stuff is.
It still not quite the same (I've done that in Firefox already). I just happen to prefer the Mozilla layout and operation because that's what I'm used to.
And I was replying to someone who was asking why someone might prefer to use Mozilla to Firefox, so I think listing a personal preference is valid.
> If you don't like it, stop whining and rewrite
> it yourself.
You must have a strange definition of "whining". Or did you mean to reply to someone else's post?
> Whats wrong with middle mouse button?
She wants to open *empty* tabs. (Don't ask me why.)
> What exactly do you like more about Mozilla than
> Firefox?
One thing I like is searching or entering URLs in a single large bar. By default, Firefox has separate search and URL bars on the same line, which mean you can see less of the search term/url you're entering.
My wife says that it's easier for her to open tabs with the mouse from mozilla (the new tab button is immediately obvious to her in Mozilla, but not in Firefox).
> $4.2 million dollars to analyse incoming data?
t ml
> You could employ 80 PhD astrophysicists for a
> year for that much. Surely there's not so much
> information coming back as to require that much
> computer time?
Much of that cost likely has to do with the fact that the Voyagers are REALLY FAR AWAY, and that it's difficult to pick up their signal in the first place.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_dsn.h
> Now look at how many trees are being saved as
;)
> a result of e-mail, the web, IM, and other
> collaborative technologies.
I'd like to see some proof of that. At every place I've worked, the more computers we have, the more paper we print out.
If anything, our computers make it EASIER to use more paper. I get a rainforest or three in my inbox every week.
Now, should electronic paper come out that is just as sturdy and easy to read as old-fashioned paper/ink, I'm sure people would start to rethink printing all that stuff out. Maybe.
> But, computers minimize the use of paper,ink etc.
...
:)
If I had moderator points, this one would definitely get my +1 Funny
Oh, and you owe me a keyboard.
> My guess is it will lock our remotes out for ... and it's probably only
:)
> twice as long
> going to get worse.
Standard movie-watching practice in this house (since we moved to DVD from laserdisc) is to put the disc in a few minutes before actually turning the rest of the home theater on.
We don't watch the warning(s), the annoying previews, etc. Wake me when the movie starts.
> If you have a legitimate gripe, by all means get
:)
> it out there however you can (including
> communicating with the prof), but presume that
> slamming the guy in a personal and general way is
> really public discourse.
This point bears repeating. Most professors actually do care about whether the students are getting something out of the course and are receptive to students telling them about things that aren't coming across clearly.
All students have to remember to do is be polite. The prof isn't typically trying to "trick you" or "fail you" or anything similar.
Profs generally don't like being called "bipolar paranoid schitzophrenics" either, but I think most folks knew that.
> They don't want anyone making lecture notes
:)
> available outside the classroom. They won't
> change aspects of their class that students
> and/or administrators dislike.
Someone has some rage issues here. Did you do bad in a class last semester?
Anyway, some of us profs actually post our lecture notes on the Web *ourselves*. Imagine that!
> Why the double standard? Teachers get to grade
> students. Teachers get to write reports and
> give labels to students such as ADHD, or
> whatever. Why the hell cant students do the
> same? In a fair system they can.
Are teachers allowed to post student grades by name on the web (or anywhere else, for that matter) for all to see? No? Exactly what double standard exists, then?
(FYI - Profs aren't allowed to post grades even by SSN anymore, though many turn a blind eye to the practice.)
In my humble, not-speaking-for-my-employer opinion, I think students would be a lot more motivated if we DID post their grades by name.
> Actually, from my experience most teachers that
> don't teach and hand out A's don't get high
> marks from the students. By the time students
> reach college most students really want to get
> the education they paid for.
Many students are on financial aid, and are not paying for their education. If they're on loans, they may well pay for it later, but students on loans don't usually think about their educations as "Hey, this is something I'm *paying* for".
Actual student comment I overheard the other day: "Oh, are you taking [subject] next semester? Make sure you get [teacher]. He lets you redo your tests over and over again until you get the answers right. It's an easy 'A'."
> The students that just want to skate are in
> the minority by college.
Sorry, but if you're talking about your average American college, you're way off base here.
> additionally, most hydrogen fuel cell designs
:)
> involve storing the hydrogen in some stable form,
> such as chemically bound to a metal compound. When
> a small electric current is run across the metal,
> the hydrogen is released in small amounts. Its not
> like the back of your SUV would have a huge
> compressed hydrogen tank in it.
> [...]
The concept cars the automakers like to show often DO run on tanks of compressed H2.
As of three years ago (when I still worked in that particular lab), the lack of a way to efficiently and cheaply store hydrogen for fuel cells was probably the biggest problem for mass commercial adoption of hydrogen fuel cells (that and the fact that the best proton transfer membranes didn't have terribly good mechanical stability).
> Hydrogen is not that explosive, maybe, but it is
> highly flammable.
It's not the flammability that's the hazard associated with pressurized gas cylinders (like hydrogen). It's the pressure. Heck, a *helium* cylinder can kill you if mishandled.
> Riddle me this. How is it that Texas has some of
> the best and largest public universities and yet
> imposes exactly zero state property or income tax?
Property and income taxes aren't the only taxes you have to pay. There's also the sales tax which seems to provide the state of Texas about 70% of its revenue. The prestigious universities also get some amount of money from industry (research) and federal grants.
Higher education (at least the type that industry likes) isn't just limited to four-year schools.
What are the sources of funding for the community colleges, which generate a whole bunch of the type of people that industries are actually looking for?
> What crapola! New York City public school system
:)
> sucks, but the workforce is excellent - because
> the city is attractive for adults who work as
> opposed to kids who don't.
I was not aware that the New York City public schools were considered "higher education".
I learn something new every day!
> No other country spends as much money on
:)
> education as the U.S. does, so, by your
> logic, we have nothing to worry about.
If you mean as a percent of GDP, we rank something like 47th in the world. I'd say we're getting a bargain.
I'm not entirely certain what your point is - could you clarify?
> Maybe it's time to hold children accountable
... :)
> for what they know, and what they don't know.
> If they can't pass a test, they don't pass the
> grade. Period. I don't see what's so hard about
> that. If more than 50% of the class doesn't pass a
> test, then fire the teacher.
Let's play "spot the flaw" here. Here's a hint - we already do something similar to the above. (If too many students don't pass, school funding gets reduced and teachers get fired. The "success percentage" the schools are after, too, is greater than 50%).
The problem is teaching to the test. If YOUR job security was based solely on your pupils' ability to pass a certain test, wouldn't you teach them exactly that and the heck with the rest? Sure ya' would!
> No more teacher's unions and whining about
> money.
Because no one has the right to ask for a salary increase, you see
> There are PLENTY of people out there looking
> for jobs as teachers that would be more than
> happy to show you how much children can learn.
Then explain the constant shortage of math, science, and computer teachers in school districts - even when the economy's not doing so well.
> Or were you hoping that the state would raise
:)
... nothing.
> everyone ELSE's taxes so that you could get a
> raise? The difference in the long run is that
> you might loose your job, but the rest of
> the residents of NM won't be titheing to the
> state to support you.
That's "lose", by the way.
Slashing higher education in a state basically amounts to telling companies "Nope, you won't find an educated workforce HERE!". Companies that offer good jobs requiring educated people will simply move on.
If the only employers you want to come to your state want only unskilled labor, then I suppose that's fine - until their jobs are shipped off to Mexico or China and your state is left with
> there is a lot of in-lecture IMing and
...[/Yoda]
> conversation -- but none of it really pertains to
> the lecture. Most students who do this are too
> busy doing personal browsing and conversing to
> pay attention to the lecture.
[Yoda]That is why you fail
Speaking from the lecturer's side of the fence here - I used to find it annoying that some students weren't paying attention to the lecture. These days, as long as they're *quiet* and not annoying someone who *is* paying attention, I figure the tests will sort 'em out.
Chemistry isn't easy, and the people that don't keep up crash and burn.
> Ever browse Ebay? So many items are "Will Ship
:)
> To Continental U.S. Only"
The main reasons that lots of Ebay folks won't ship outside the US are:
1) Customs hassles. I hate those d&#$ forms.
2) High rate (80% for me until I stopped shipping internationally entirely) of non-paying bidders. International bidders don't seem to understand that shipping a 25 pound home theater amplifier airmail will cost more than $5.
3) Lost packages= lost $$$.
4) We don't want to wait fricking forever for payment.
I can completely understand why Joe Average US Citizen on Ebay doesn't want to deal with the hassle of shipping outside his own country.
REplying to myself here, but pork isn't mentioned in the linked article.
HOWEVER, the pork thing might not be entirely made up. An airline reservation company (Sabre Group) *was* prohibited by a Swedish court from transferring information about "whether a passenger is Jewish and prefers a kosher meal" to the USA. This might be the source of the submitter's "pork" comment. This was a Swedish law, but it's similar to the EU guidelines.
More info: link
This sounds like the movie _Airplane_, in which the search was on for a passenger who could not only fly a plane and land it, but who also didn't have fish for dinner.
If only *this* were a movie, I might find it funny.