Rather then a conspiracy I interpret the US invasion of oil-rich countries as a kind of "blackmail" for other global competitors like China. Something like: "Hey guys, we control most of the oil. Let's sit and discuss it over."
If oil is one thing what the West is after, look, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, and Bahrain have much more oil than Iraq or Libya
How come we don't see the West eliminate the leaders of Saudi Arabia, or UAE, or Kuwait, or Bahrain?
What kind of countries these guys were controlling?
Iraq and Libya - both countries were considered as "Modernized Islamic Countries" because they allow the women to do drive, to work, to do most things men were allowed to do
Why the West targeted Iraq and Libya?
You may not believe in conspiracy theories but there is suspicion that the West doesn't really want the Islamic countries to become modernized
True, both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were despicable despots. Both of them killed their own people.
But then, please tell me which Middle East leader never treat their own people like shit and/or being tyrannical ?
I'm a libertarian at heart but I just can't stand the Democrats anymore - especially the new bunch whose main objective is to restrict every right of everybody on this planet.
And I fully know that the Libertarian party can never garner enough support to do anything significant, that is why I am throwing my support on the Republicans
I know, I know, there are a lot of rotten apples in the Republican camp - but then, there are a lot of rotten apples everywhere, and my main objective now is to stop that bunch of lunatic Democrats who are doing everything to restrict everybody's rights
looks like it will only work with stationary sensors surrounding the swarm
I don't think so
The swarm, for now, may still need a stationary beacon to give them a sense of location, but that does not mean they will forever need to home in stationary beacons to function
The beacon can be anything - and it could even be a UAV which guides them to their destination
The cruelty of future wars will only increase many folds, thanks to the swarming robots, I'm afraid !
There's a fair chance of it being the very same items made in the very same factories, just after hours and off the books.
If you've worked the supply chain you'd know that it's the norm everywhere you look
Vendor A put an order of 2 million jerseys, and somehow somewhere that order self-multiplied throughout the length of the supply chain
And in this worldwide distributed supply chain that we are having right now, it's uncommon that an order placed in HongKong will be sub-contracted to factories in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Vietnam...
At the end, 2.5 to 4 million jerseys would be made and Vendor A will get the 2 million jerseys he ordered.
As for the remainder ? Most of them would be stored in some warehouse somewhere, and part of those merchandises will find their way to the grey market
These "extra merchandises" are of top quality - in fact, they are of the same quality as the jerseys the Vendor A is selling in its authorized franchises.
From watches to jerseys to sport shoes to... just look around your house/office, any of them could be from the 'extra merchandises" category
An "engineer" is somebody who takes the time to understand a problem, and creates something to solve that.
In an ideal world, you bet, the above is true.
But we live in the real world, and in THIS real world that we live in, there are simply too many people who call themselves "engineer" who never take any time to understand any problem
The many years I've lived in this real world tells me that I don't want to be known as an "Engineer" even when I am more qualified than 99.99% of those so-called "engineers" out there
The difference in between a hacker and an "engineer", for lack of a better word, is not "testing method", per se
The difference is that a hacker hack because it's something the hacker WANTS TO DO
The so-called "engineer" ? He or she does something because it puts food on the table
Nothing to do with testing method
Nothing to do with methodology what-so-ever
I've been in this field for ages and I never identify myself as an "engineer" simply because I don't need to do something out of the need of putting food on the table
You think the Iranian are so stupid to hide their nuke facilities under merely 60 feet of concrete?
Plus, in case you guys still don't get it, Iran has developed some of the world's toughest concrete mixture - they actually won the prestigious awards (for several times) from the American Concrete Institute for developing really strong concrete.
The trick is don't do a context switch. Make the brief note taking part of your listening.
I am afraid the human brain is wired in such a way that context switching would occur no matter how brief the note taking is, or how you think you can take part in ACTIVE LISTENING while still able to distill the information and then jot down the essence of what you're listening.
In other words, while you think that making brief note taking part of your listening process involves no context switching, you are wrong.
What you are doing is to slice-up the context switching in thinner slices - that is, instead of the normal context switching, all you are doing is performing "micro context switching" - switching back and forth from listening (ear to brain) to distilling (brain to brain) and to writing (brain to muscle).
What you've pointed out make a lot of sense, if we are talking about structured classroom setting - with textbooks and such
But what if the thing is in a symposium or convention of some sort - where you know they guy who is going to give the lecture is someone who knows what he/she is talking about but you have no textbook to help you to prepare in advance for that lecture?
Here's what I've found works for most people if they're willing to try it. Listen to the lecture and make very short notes about the most important points and/or details that you want to remember.
Hence lie several dilemma:
1. When I take notes, even very very short notes, I have to "switch" my focus from "listening to / looking at the lecturer" to focus on "looking at the stuffs I write on the paper / screen"
In other words, the time I use to write / type in the very very short note is the very time I can't focus on the lecturer
2. How do I judge which information are of "more importance"? Take take judgment call, and in order to make a judgment call, I need to scan the info that are already inside my brain and pick out what's more important
And in doing that, I loose focus on the lecturer and what he/she is telling me at that point in time
Then, fill in additional notes at the end of class (or at the next break). Discuss them with other students if needed to fill in what you may have missed.
Yes, I do find that very rewarding, especially if I can find classmates that have the ability to look at the same subject from a different point of view, and we can exchange our different POV on the same subject and we all learn together
The problem is actually getting through the class in the first place.. not only in terms of being able to keep up. Since everyone tends to fall asleep after 30-45 minutes, we need to have shorter lessons.
My view is that we need to adapt "burst-mode" into the way we teach / learn
Throughout the millennia the patent of sharing knowledge amongst human being has been in a linear scale - that is, bit by bit, at almost constant rate.
That was okay provided there is not much to be learn, (or not much depth) for that particular subject
But today's world we live in, many subjects have accumulated so much in scope - whether we talk about mathematics or chemistry or philosophy - learning knowledge bit by little bit would take too much time - and yes, students do fall asleep in classes
That is why I propose the "burst mode" teaching / learning process, in which, the knowledge is packaged in such interesting / memorable way that we can cramp a lot into our brain in a short while - before boredom sets in.
Note that thereÃ(TM)s a trick implied by Ãoeprovided the retrieval succeedsÃ: You should space your study sessions so that the information you learned in the first session remains just barely retrievable.
And how are you supposed to accomplish that? I'm sure that it really does work in the tests they've performed. But how would you implement that on your own?
What Professor Bjork proposed does work, but only to some degree, based on my own experience
For me, the learning process is a bit like digesting food
My puny little brain just can't process all the new info/ideas/concepts that it has just received, and a lot of those new info ended up somehow cramped up in some secret compartments somewhere
As time goes by, my brain (and this puny little semi-retarded brain of my does not stop working even when I'm asleep) digests the stored information, bit by bit - often without me knowing what's going on
But those bit-by-bit info-digestion do add up, and they contribute to moments of "insights" or "enlightenment" when I encouter some sets of similar but un-related information
Take language --- I am not an English native speaker.
The first time I learned English it took me literary years to comprehend the basics
But when I encounter Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese, Latin in later years I found that I can get along with these language much faster than I first encounter English
It might be that the digestive-process of the English Language in my mind that took decades somehow contributed in my enhance ability to match words (similar but not exact match) and that helped a lot
How do you know that you're about to forget something if you don't recall it within the next 24 hours? Without recalling that you recall it right now?
All I can say is that while our brains may be similar they are still different
Maybe Professor Bjork's brain is much better than mine that's why he could master things that I can't.
And maybe there are people with brains that are much superior than the one in between the ears of Professor Bjork, and they can get instant recall to _every_single_thing, without effort.
That might work for him because his brain has the capacity to recall all the stuffs _after_ the class is over. Not me.
If I waited till the class is over and _then_ started to write down the notes based on what I recall, I probably can recall 15% to 20% of the total thing.
That might be true, right now. How about after a little bit of practice? You might be surprised to find out that it won't take too long for you to be able to improve your after-class recall ability.
What you said makes sense for some subjects but not all.
If the subject at hand is math, or programming, or laying bricks, for example, practicing what I just heard from the class do tend to re-enforce what I recall
But what if the subject in hand is quantum mechanics, or nuclear physics, or subjects that are more conceptual than practical?
Many Slashdot posters, especially those who label themselves as "liberals", do not know shit
Like in this case:
* They do NOT know Indonesia
* They do NOT know that the Muslims in Indonesia MURDER non-Muslims routinely
But still they want to opine, posting messages that they think is cool, in trying to compare the Christian fundies in America with those murderous Muslims of Indonesia
Gone are the days of open-minded geeks who frequent Slashdot to gain knowledge
Nowadays Slashdot is filled with narrow-minded retards trying to impress the world with their asinine postings
Slashdot Mirror
Rather then a conspiracy I interpret the US invasion of oil-rich countries as a kind of "blackmail" for other global competitors like China. Something like: "Hey guys, we control most of the oil. Let's sit and discuss it over."
If oil is one thing what the West is after, look, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, and Bahrain have much more oil than Iraq or Libya
How come we don't see the West eliminate the leaders of Saudi Arabia, or UAE, or Kuwait, or Bahrain?
Look who were targetted by the West ?
Saddam Hussein
Muammar Gaddafi
What kind of countries these guys were controlling?
Iraq and Libya - both countries were considered as "Modernized Islamic Countries" because they allow the women to do drive, to work, to do most things men were allowed to do
Why the West targeted Iraq and Libya?
You may not believe in conspiracy theories but there is suspicion that the West doesn't really want the Islamic countries to become modernized
True, both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were despicable despots. Both of them killed their own people.
But then, please tell me which Middle East leader never treat their own people like shit and/or being tyrannical ?
I'm a libertarian at heart but I just can't stand the Democrats anymore - especially the new bunch whose main objective is to restrict every right of everybody on this planet.
And I fully know that the Libertarian party can never garner enough support to do anything significant, that is why I am throwing my support on the Republicans
I know, I know, there are a lot of rotten apples in the Republican camp - but then, there are a lot of rotten apples everywhere, and my main objective now is to stop that bunch of lunatic Democrats who are doing everything to restrict everybody's rights
looks like it will only work with stationary sensors surrounding the swarm
I don't think so
The swarm, for now, may still need a stationary beacon to give them a sense of location, but that does not mean they will forever need to home in stationary beacons to function
The beacon can be anything - and it could even be a UAV which guides them to their destination
The cruelty of future wars will only increase many folds, thanks to the swarming robots, I'm afraid !
There's a fair chance of it being the very same items made in the very same factories, just after hours and off the books.
If you've worked the supply chain you'd know that it's the norm everywhere you look
Vendor A put an order of 2 million jerseys, and somehow somewhere that order self-multiplied throughout the length of the supply chain
And in this worldwide distributed supply chain that we are having right now, it's uncommon that an order placed in HongKong will be sub-contracted to factories in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Vietnam ...
At the end, 2.5 to 4 million jerseys would be made and Vendor A will get the 2 million jerseys he ordered.
As for the remainder ? Most of them would be stored in some warehouse somewhere, and part of those merchandises will find their way to the grey market
These "extra merchandises" are of top quality - in fact, they are of the same quality as the jerseys the Vendor A is selling in its authorized franchises.
From watches to jerseys to sport shoes to ... just look around your house/office, any of them could be from the 'extra merchandises" category
Or they wouldn't be MAFIAA, would they?
People around the world get cancer
Doctors around the world charge exorbitant fees to treat cancers, often resulting in cancer patients dying from, you guess it, cancer
At least Singapore is doing something right - they develop a device which can cut off the cancer clusters
... the Japanese do not need foreigners to buy up their national debt
Over 90% of their national debt is purchased by the Japanese themselves !
... they really do science !
Unlike the West, the Japanese do know how to focus on the things they do - including Science
... he would be filthy rich - and his offspring will be forever filthy rich as well, thanks to our "perpetual copyright laws"
Unfortunately, he ain't
That is why Beethoven died dirt poor
But on the other hand, the world is far more richer because no one could monopolize the wonderful music of Beethoven
An "engineer" is somebody who takes the time to understand a problem, and creates something to solve that.
In an ideal world, you bet, the above is true.
But we live in the real world, and in THIS real world that we live in, there are simply too many people who call themselves "engineer" who never take any time to understand any problem
The many years I've lived in this real world tells me that I don't want to be known as an "Engineer" even when I am more qualified than 99.99% of those so-called "engineers" out there
The difference in between a hacker and an "engineer", for lack of a better word, is not "testing method", per se
The difference is that a hacker hack because it's something the hacker WANTS TO DO
The so-called "engineer" ? He or she does something because it puts food on the table
Nothing to do with testing method
Nothing to do with methodology what-so-ever
I've been in this field for ages and I never identify myself as an "engineer" simply because I don't need to do something out of the need of putting food on the table
Are you kidding?
You think the Iranian are so stupid to hide their nuke facilities under merely 60 feet of concrete?
Plus, in case you guys still don't get it, Iran has developed some of the world's toughest concrete mixture - they actually won the prestigious awards (for several times) from the American Concrete Institute for developing really strong concrete.
Science failed us?
Nope.
It's us, the human beings, who have failed science.
Science stays the way it is. Scientific principles stay the way they are.
It's us, the human, who have failed to put enough effort to get to know Science and now we blame Science for failing us.
Ridiculous !!!
The trick is don't do a context switch. Make the brief note taking part of your listening.
I am afraid the human brain is wired in such a way that context switching would occur no matter how brief the note taking is, or how you think you can take part in ACTIVE LISTENING while still able to distill the information and then jot down the essence of what you're listening.
In other words, while you think that making brief note taking part of your listening process involves no context switching, you are wrong.
What you are doing is to slice-up the context switching in thinner slices - that is, instead of the normal context switching, all you are doing is performing "micro context switching" - switching back and forth from listening (ear to brain) to distilling (brain to brain) and to writing (brain to muscle).
The first time I learned English it took me literary years to comprehend the basics
You spent several solar orbits reading books?
I do not read books to learn English
I use English to learn English
Very very poor English at first, with all kinds of grammar mistakes
Can't mod you up because I've posted
Thank you for the very informative links !!
What you've pointed out make a lot of sense, if we are talking about structured classroom setting - with textbooks and such
But what if the thing is in a symposium or convention of some sort - where you know they guy who is going to give the lecture is someone who knows what he/she is talking about but you have no textbook to help you to prepare in advance for that lecture?
Could it be sensory deprivation (the lack of the smell of chicken shit) that caused the drop?
Here's what I've found works for most people if they're willing to try it. Listen to the lecture and make very short notes about the most important points and/or details that you want to remember.
Hence lie several dilemma:
1. When I take notes, even very very short notes, I have to "switch" my focus from "listening to / looking at the lecturer" to focus on "looking at the stuffs I write on the paper / screen"
In other words, the time I use to write / type in the very very short note is the very time I can't focus on the lecturer
2. How do I judge which information are of "more importance"? Take take judgment call, and in order to make a judgment call, I need to scan the info that are already inside my brain and pick out what's more important
And in doing that, I loose focus on the lecturer and what he/she is telling me at that point in time
Then, fill in additional notes at the end of class (or at the next break). Discuss them with other students if needed to fill in what you may have missed.
Yes, I do find that very rewarding, especially if I can find classmates that have the ability to look at the same subject from a different point of view, and we can exchange our different POV on the same subject and we all learn together
Since I posted, I can't mod you up. Interesting ideas, btw. Do you have any links that I could follow up with?
I'm afraid this "burst mode learning / teaching" thing is only a propose idea, for now, and I am afraid I ain't brainy enough to structure it properly
However I do encourage others, - especially those with more brain power than me, - to give it some thought / push it further
The problem is actually getting through the class in the first place .. not only in terms of being able to keep up. Since everyone tends to fall asleep after 30-45 minutes, we need to have shorter lessons.
My view is that we need to adapt "burst-mode" into the way we teach / learn
Throughout the millennia the patent of sharing knowledge amongst human being has been in a linear scale - that is, bit by bit, at almost constant rate.
That was okay provided there is not much to be learn, (or not much depth) for that particular subject
But today's world we live in, many subjects have accumulated so much in scope - whether we talk about mathematics or chemistry or philosophy - learning knowledge bit by little bit would take too much time - and yes, students do fall asleep in classes
That is why I propose the "burst mode" teaching / learning process, in which, the knowledge is packaged in such interesting / memorable way that we can cramp a lot into our brain in a short while - before boredom sets in.
Note that thereÃ(TM)s a trick implied by Ãoeprovided the retrieval succeedsÃ: You should space your study sessions so that the information you learned in the first session remains just barely retrievable.
And how are you supposed to accomplish that? I'm sure that it really does work in the tests they've performed. But how would you implement that on your own?
What Professor Bjork proposed does work, but only to some degree, based on my own experience
For me, the learning process is a bit like digesting food
My puny little brain just can't process all the new info/ideas/concepts that it has just received, and a lot of those new info ended up somehow cramped up in some secret compartments somewhere
As time goes by, my brain (and this puny little semi-retarded brain of my does not stop working even when I'm asleep) digests the stored information, bit by bit - often without me knowing what's going on
But those bit-by-bit info-digestion do add up, and they contribute to moments of "insights" or "enlightenment" when I encouter some sets of similar but un-related information
Take language --- I am not an English native speaker.
The first time I learned English it took me literary years to comprehend the basics
But when I encounter Spanish, French, Italian, Portugese, Latin in later years I found that I can get along with these language much faster than I first encounter English
It might be that the digestive-process of the English Language in my mind that took decades somehow contributed in my enhance ability to match words (similar but not exact match) and that helped a lot
How do you know that you're about to forget something if you don't recall it within the next 24 hours? Without recalling that you recall it right now?
All I can say is that while our brains may be similar they are still different
Maybe Professor Bjork's brain is much better than mine that's why he could master things that I can't.
And maybe there are people with brains that are much superior than the one in between the ears of Professor Bjork, and they can get instant recall to _every_single_thing, without effort.
That might work for him because his brain has the capacity to recall all the stuffs _after_ the class is over. Not me.
If I waited till the class is over and _then_ started to write down the notes based on what I recall, I probably can recall 15% to 20% of the total thing.
That might be true, right now. How about after a little bit of practice? You might be surprised to find out that it won't take too long for you to be able to improve your after-class recall ability.
What you said makes sense for some subjects but not all.
If the subject at hand is math, or programming, or laying bricks, for example, practicing what I just heard from the class do tend to re-enforce what I recall
But what if the subject in hand is quantum mechanics, or nuclear physics, or subjects that are more conceptual than practical?
Many Slashdot posters, especially those who label themselves as "liberals", do not know shit
Like in this case:
* They do NOT know Indonesia
* They do NOT know that the Muslims in Indonesia MURDER non-Muslims routinely
But still they want to opine, posting messages that they think is cool, in trying to compare the Christian fundies in America with those murderous Muslims of Indonesia
Gone are the days of open-minded geeks who frequent Slashdot to gain knowledge
Nowadays Slashdot is filled with narrow-minded retards trying to impress the world with their asinine postings