Not just the French think this. Lots of Arabs (I guess I should say Muslims) think this too, but instead of thinking that the Bush administration fabricated it they think Jews did. At least, that's what they were saying on 60 minutes.
I agree. They are called "laws" of thermodynamics -- but that is a misnomer of course. The grand and wonderful universe we live in is not bound to obey the laws we make. These "laws" are merely concise descriptions of observed phenomena. We have observed that water freezes at 0 degrees celsius. We feel confident that if we go ahead and freeze a bucket of water every day it will always freeze at the same temperature. But water isn't freezing at 0 because we told it to. If one day water froze at -10 we'd have to go back to the drawing board and make a whole slew of new theories to explain why. That's what science is about, in a nutshell.
You want cameraderie? Forget firemen -- what about accountants? Take your typical CPA firm. Not only do they refer to their collegues as their "brothers" (or "sisters"), but I've heard a typical accountant will even let his brother accountant borrow his pencil sharpener.
I've always kind of felt this "what's the point" feeling at the prospect of doing research under a prof. I don't know what it's like at other schools, but at the school I went to, it's not like "I'm interested in X, and I'd like to do an independent study in it" -- it was like this: "You want to do an independent study? Well here are your choices: professor X is working on neural networks, professor Y is doing user interfaces" etc, etc. You're just helping them gain more prestige, etc., and in exchange you get your recommendation. I guess it works as a system for producing professors, but it is certainly a misrepresentation -- my idea of an "independent" study would be where you are given some freedom to explore what interests you and go where your mind leads you, whether it leads you further into academia, into the real world, or somewhere else. A system like that, I imagine, wouldn't just produce brilliant professors, but briliant graduates.
Slashdot Mirror
are crap, all of them. Sorry God, we all have failed you.
arrogance
Not just the French think this. Lots of Arabs (I guess I should say Muslims) think this too, but instead of thinking that the Bush administration fabricated it they think Jews did. At least, that's what they were saying on 60 minutes.
I agree. They are called "laws" of thermodynamics -- but that is a misnomer of course. The grand and wonderful universe we live in is not bound to obey the laws we make. These "laws" are merely concise descriptions of observed phenomena. We have observed that water freezes at 0 degrees celsius. We feel confident that if we go ahead and freeze a bucket of water every day it will always freeze at the same temperature. But water isn't freezing at 0 because we told it to. If one day water froze at -10 we'd have to go back to the drawing board and make a whole slew of new theories to explain why. That's what science is about, in a nutshell.
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/thel2.h tml
Wouldn't want to be looking down the barrel of that
How about "Staties"?
You want cameraderie? Forget firemen -- what about accountants? Take your typical CPA firm. Not only do they refer to their collegues as their "brothers" (or "sisters"), but I've heard a typical accountant will even let his brother accountant borrow his pencil sharpener.
I've always kind of felt this "what's the point" feeling at the prospect of doing research under a prof. I don't know what it's like at other schools, but at the school I went to, it's not like "I'm interested in X, and I'd like to do an independent study in it" -- it was like this: "You want to do an independent study? Well here are your choices: professor X is working on neural networks, professor Y is doing user interfaces" etc, etc. You're just helping them gain more prestige, etc., and in exchange you get your recommendation. I guess it works as a system for producing professors, but it is certainly a misrepresentation -- my idea of an "independent" study would be where you are given some freedom to explore what interests you and go where your mind leads you, whether it leads you further into academia, into the real world, or somewhere else. A system like that, I imagine, wouldn't just produce brilliant professors, but briliant graduates.