What you are referring to is "ethos" or character. It also refers to "experts" and how we are more accepting of the opinions of those who are considered "experts" in their field. For some reason you may think that I have a less valid opinion because you do not know what type or number of degrees I hold. You could be right - my opinion may not have any validity - but using ethos and a socially-constructed definition of the education level required for an "expert" is a questionable basis for decision-making, as Rhetoric is not a replacement for Reason. Which is again why the article falls flat.
And FWIW, Rhetoric and Critical Analysis is my field.
Rhetoric is the faculty of observing in any given situation all available means of persuasion. (Aristotle)
This theory (and you) seem to be suffering from a failure to understand what rhetoric is vs what reason is. Reason is the application of knowledge/experience to current or future actions or thoughts - it's cause->effect relationship awareness. You don't reach into the oven and grab a pot because you know it's hot - that's reasoning. Higher-level reasoning would be the use of a pot-holder or other tool to grab the aforementioned pot to prevent burning yourself. (The failure to be aware of and properly apply knowledge/experience and cause->effect is stupidity)
Reason is not related to communication, nor does reason require any type of social construction (except when reason deals with a social construction - such as religion) to exist - burning your hand in fire did not take a committee. They are independent and separate. That's why this "Argumentative Theory of Reasoning" falls flat on its face.
Or maybe there's no connection at all and the author is overreaching for the benefit of sales.
Seriously, Just because we as a people are stupid when it comes to where/how we build (places prone to flooding, wildfire, mudslides, hurricanes, severe storms/tornados) doesn't mean there is somehow a connection to what is essentially "the beginning of the end" in the author's mind.
How is a statistic that takes the entire time period from '81-'05 relevant? Give me something that shows just the last decade please, you know the decade where California ended up owing 78 Billion (at last count) http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/bonds/debt/201008/authorized.pdf (Prior to 2003 California only owed ~23 Bil)
When you eat whatever it is you eat, you're killing something. Just because it's not warm and fuzzy and doesn't have eyeballs doesn't make a damn bit of difference. How do you know if plants feel pain? Cut off a branch of a tree - see that sap that comes weeping out? Are those tears? It's obviously a physiological response to damage. If you're over-emotional and internalize the death of something, that's your ethical problem. As for me I like steak, I like lobster, I like green beans, and I can look all three in the eyes (leaves?) and say "yum."
Now if you want to make cases about treating the animals with at least some semblance of respect, OK. I'm not gonna argue that Japanese harvest of whales is pointless because most of the meat is wasted. Or that the grisly death of male chicks is disturbing. Maybe instead of beating the anti-meat drum and going against the vast majority of the population, instead you suggest that people eat roosters too and find something else for the Japanese fisherman to do with their time.
Complaining about massive drains on resources is illogical when you waste your own resources espousing an ideology which will most likely never ever be accepted by the rest of the world. How 'bout getting off your soapbox and spending time trying to find a "happy medium" that people can embrace instead?
I flew AA to Japan and back earlier this year. The in-flight entertainment systems were spotty and from what I could tell, at least 10% of them didn't work well if at all - including 2 of the 5 nearest me. Touchscreens didn't work, sound plugs didn't work, random resets in the middle of movies (with no recourse but to watch the whole movie over again) or devices that would do nothing but show static. The systems were so unbelievably crappy that it made me wonder how well the rest of the aircraft was serviced.
You mean a few people got arrested for stealing generators, sneaking into the the cordoned area, and a guy with Asbergers got the hell beat out of him for breaking into a house to steal lightbulbs and an antique light fixture. People with fake ID's were trying to get into people's homes as well.
Definitely not the majority, but not the absence of issues you claim.
There are millions actually, most states are experiencing overpop problems. Not to mention the domesticated animals (cows, chickens) roving around the countryside. And since their food supplies will be less affected than ours, the wildlife will likely be better off than the humans are.
And there really wouldn't be a horde of people would there? On the scale of event you seem to be talking about, the city-dwellers likely wouldn't make it out of the concrete jungle, and they wouldn't know where to start in terms of hunting strategy, food prep and storage. The only people who think hunting is "easy" are people who haven't done it. Guns are tools used for more than just self-defense.
Considering there was looting, rape, and murder in Haiti as well as numerous reports of looting and other issues in New Zealand, maybe it's not so silly.
Sometimes it's not the disaster you have to prepare for, it's the aftermath.
Declaring you have the answer; "Atlantis was a story Plato made up in the course of a philosophical discussion." and then backing away from your unfounded argument by trying to spin your opponent's word against himself in order to lay claim to the very argument that called your own into question?
You really are a classics Ph.D candidate. Useless knob.
So did ya find that secret out in his new tell-all book?
Plato used real people in his writings and there's no way to tell at which times is he using their own words and meanings and at which times he's inventing them. The discussion has long gone on and the simple answer is we don't and won't ever know. This is why the words of Socrates are more often credited to Plato - Socrates didn't write anything, so we're taking Plato at his word. Likewise there is no way to tell for certain if references to "lore" such as Atlantis were based on local gossip or were made out of whole cloth.
Your attempt at ethos fails too. Give back your Ph.D.
In my experience, I never heard socialism being criticized in any undergraduate or graduate class, and I remember damn few instances in K-12 where it was even mentioned to be "bad". However it seemed that every month there was a problem with our democracy/republic/constitution/country.
Does that qualify as indoctrination in your mind too?
But the sphere is a lens is it not? How is it different than any of the other (less spherical) lenses that make up the microscope? You're still observing the cell through cleverly aligned lenses...
Stargate Atlantis was campy and fun. Yea there were some odd "that didn't quite make sense" moments, but the Wraith were cool and the team chemistry was enjoyable. In fact I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed the earlier seasons of Stargate:SG1. (The later seasons were just not that great) SG:U was on its way to becoming a fantastic series and had some upcoming plot twists I really wanted to see. (Those little aliens that kidnapped Lou Diamond Phillips, the girl who was slowly turning into an alien...)
Caprica was crap from the start, it was destined to fail after the horseshit last season of BSG.
The Sun is also converting 6.2×10**11 kg of matter into energy per second and radiating it all away. One wonders that there is anything left after all of this time.
Using that number along with the estimated mass of the Earth at 6E+24 kg, it takes the sun 307000 years to burn off one Terra. The estimate for number of Earths that could fit into the sun is 1.3 million (volume, not mass) so it would take 399 Billion years for the sun to burn off an equivalent volume of Earths assuming a similar mass/density.
Show me a peer-reviewed article that specifically proves that digital piracy hurts sales.
Apple and the media companies are raking in huge dollars. Amazon is raking in huge dollars. Studies over the years have suggested that piracy actually helps sell albums, games, and movies (The Japanese just released a study regarding movie piracy.) Avatar is the most pirated movie of all time, but somehow still broke every sales record in the book. How is that possible?
Instead of coming up with a scenario you think sounds right, do some research.
They need to be cut equally. Military corporations and those who work for them are not entitled to continue to suck at the public teat any more than the exploiters of social programs any more than Veterans who weighed the odds and volunteered. Entitlements and wasteful spending must be limited no matter whether you like the group getting the money or not.
"I would like to do all kinds of fun stuff with my kids, but there are two hold ups. The main one, is that kids just aren't that interested in science. They barely pay attention when we have to derive something, they do not know how to study anymore, and if anything resembles hard work to them, they turn away from it."
GIVE THEM HOMEWORK AND LET THEM FAIL. FFS, there's the real problem. Maybe failure will make them realize they have to work and even get the parents motivated too. Instead we make excuses and let these kids skate on through.
"One last item that I'll add, is that educators (in the states at least) do not make enough money to justify the position. The first year I started teaching (just a few years ago), I brought home about $22,000. For what I have to deal with, and the amount I actually work to teach my students, I figured I was almost making minimum wage. I make less than our gym teacher, who sits on his ass all day, and has for the last 10 years while half our students are overweight."
Apparently you failed to do your homework too. That teachers aren't paid well is well known, and has been for 50 years or more. You still chose to go into teaching however...
As for teachers in general, when they continually fail to show enough integrity to stand up to school boards and parents and instead let little Johnny make it to his senior year without being able to read adequately, maybe they are being paid exactly what they are worth. Instead there is this new idea that you have to make it interesting, entertaining, inspiring, etc. Screw that, you're not a dancing clown and you're not a babysitter - give them the material, explain it a couple times on the board, and give them homework. If they can't pry themselves away from the TV or the PS3, THAT'S NOT YOUR PROBLEM. If you accept that responsibility then you may as well pay food and rent for the kids too.
I didn't say anything about this case being justified. I just commented on how deeply we can be attached to using various technologies.
I notice that many of the respondents think that he can just use email/skype/etc, but all those are services controlled by other people too. Yahoo and Skype can cut you off just as easily as facebook can. Many ISPs block the email ports, so you often can't just run your own email service on your own computer, leaving you with limited options. While many seem to laugh about this guy losing his facebook, how many of us would freak out about losing access to our Gmail accounts and all the info stored within?
Do you have family thousands of miles away in a foreign country? 20 years ago instead of facebook keeping you close with your family and friends, you just didn't talk/see them. Going abroad meant saying goodbye. You didn't call them but for holidays if you could even afford it - it cost anywhere from $1-5 or more a minute to call overseas. I was in Petrozavodsk Russia in 1995, at that time it cost about $2.50 a minute to speak to my family in the US.
For most people, facebook is a unique little addition to their everyday life and a way to see what Johnny from 3rd grade is doing these days. For others, it's a lifeline to their family and culture from vast distances away. I think we need to be aware of that when we consider just how much affect the internet and facebook has had on the world.
Are you that clueless? Or are you being deliberately obtuse?
The FCC is appointed by elected representatives of the people, they can be unappointed at any time if the people elect new representatives, or if the people apply sufficient pressure to the existing representatives to act. The FCC gets its mandate from the government.
By your reasoning, the fire department and the police are not "the government" because they're hired positions instead of elected. Besides the Chief/Sheriff/Commissioner in some cities/counties, the rest are all appointed positions chosen by elected officials. Are you saying that police officers have no authority because they were not elected?
Nice cop-out. That position suggests you don't really know how to explain it and rather than admit it you want to be superior. Generally the only other type of people that take that position are successful yet egocentric people who already feel superior and feel that explaining things to the plebes is beneath them.
I'm not a mathematician, I said that early on. However I am well versed in behavioral linguistics.
Add 5 to 0? No. 5x5 is a representation of 5 groups of 5.
An equation is a representation of mechanical action (albeit non-physical)where a number is the material in which we shape and adjust using various tools. (Showing your work in math is key, the complicated equation can be broken down into it's constituent portions, each with a specific mechanical action that it represents) Whenever we deal with an infinite sequence like pi or something else, we truncate the sequence in order to have an "end" to the mechanical action and then come up with a result based on that truncated result.
The problem with moving the decimal is that your not moving it back (from left to right) position, you're moving the entire sequence forward -.9 becomes 9. 0.09 becomes 0.9 - and an infinite sequence will never complete the mechanical action of moving forward without truncation. That's why the proof fails. This issue probably doesn't come up ever except in the situation where one tries to prove 0.9999...= 1. At any other instance, and for all other things we truncate or round an infinite sequence at the decimal place which is most convenient for accuracy.
Slashdot Mirror
What you are referring to is "ethos" or character. It also refers to "experts" and how we are more accepting of the opinions of those who are considered "experts" in their field. For some reason you may think that I have a less valid opinion because you do not know what type or number of degrees I hold. You could be right - my opinion may not have any validity - but using ethos and a socially-constructed definition of the education level required for an "expert" is a questionable basis for decision-making, as Rhetoric is not a replacement for Reason. Which is again why the article falls flat.
And FWIW, Rhetoric and Critical Analysis is my field.
Rhetoric is the faculty of observing in any given situation all available means of persuasion. (Aristotle)
This theory (and you) seem to be suffering from a failure to understand what rhetoric is vs what reason is. Reason is the application of knowledge/experience to current or future actions or thoughts - it's cause->effect relationship awareness. You don't reach into the oven and grab a pot because you know it's hot - that's reasoning. Higher-level reasoning would be the use of a pot-holder or other tool to grab the aforementioned pot to prevent burning yourself. (The failure to be aware of and properly apply knowledge/experience and cause->effect is stupidity)
Reason is not related to communication, nor does reason require any type of social construction (except when reason deals with a social construction - such as religion) to exist - burning your hand in fire did not take a committee. They are independent and separate. That's why this "Argumentative Theory of Reasoning" falls flat on its face.
Or maybe there's no connection at all and the author is overreaching for the benefit of sales. Seriously, Just because we as a people are stupid when it comes to where/how we build (places prone to flooding, wildfire, mudslides, hurricanes, severe storms/tornados) doesn't mean there is somehow a connection to what is essentially "the beginning of the end" in the author's mind.
How is a statistic that takes the entire time period from '81-'05 relevant? Give me something that shows just the last decade please, you know the decade where California ended up owing 78 Billion (at last count) http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/bonds/debt/201008/authorized.pdf (Prior to 2003 California only owed ~23 Bil)
When you eat whatever it is you eat, you're killing something. Just because it's not warm and fuzzy and doesn't have eyeballs doesn't make a damn bit of difference. How do you know if plants feel pain? Cut off a branch of a tree - see that sap that comes weeping out? Are those tears? It's obviously a physiological response to damage. If you're over-emotional and internalize the death of something, that's your ethical problem. As for me I like steak, I like lobster, I like green beans, and I can look all three in the eyes (leaves?) and say "yum."
Now if you want to make cases about treating the animals with at least some semblance of respect, OK. I'm not gonna argue that Japanese harvest of whales is pointless because most of the meat is wasted. Or that the grisly death of male chicks is disturbing. Maybe instead of beating the anti-meat drum and going against the vast majority of the population, instead you suggest that people eat roosters too and find something else for the Japanese fisherman to do with their time.
Complaining about massive drains on resources is illogical when you waste your own resources espousing an ideology which will most likely never ever be accepted by the rest of the world. How 'bout getting off your soapbox and spending time trying to find a "happy medium" that people can embrace instead?
I flew AA to Japan and back earlier this year. The in-flight entertainment systems were spotty and from what I could tell, at least 10% of them didn't work well if at all - including 2 of the 5 nearest me. Touchscreens didn't work, sound plugs didn't work, random resets in the middle of movies (with no recourse but to watch the whole movie over again) or devices that would do nothing but show static. The systems were so unbelievably crappy that it made me wonder how well the rest of the aircraft was serviced.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/asia/new-zealand-police-sickened-at-looting-in-quake-hit-city/425038
You mean a few people got arrested for stealing generators, sneaking into the the cordoned area, and a guy with Asbergers got the hell beat out of him for breaking into a house to steal lightbulbs and an antique light fixture. People with fake ID's were trying to get into people's homes as well.
Definitely not the majority, but not the absence of issues you claim.
There are millions actually, most states are experiencing overpop problems. Not to mention the domesticated animals (cows, chickens) roving around the countryside. And since their food supplies will be less affected than ours, the wildlife will likely be better off than the humans are.
And there really wouldn't be a horde of people would there? On the scale of event you seem to be talking about, the city-dwellers likely wouldn't make it out of the concrete jungle, and they wouldn't know where to start in terms of hunting strategy, food prep and storage. The only people who think hunting is "easy" are people who haven't done it. Guns are tools used for more than just self-defense.
Considering there was looting, rape, and murder in Haiti as well as numerous reports of looting and other issues in New Zealand, maybe it's not so silly.
Sometimes it's not the disaster you have to prepare for, it's the aftermath.
Declaring you have the answer; "Atlantis was a story Plato made up in the course of a philosophical discussion." and then backing away from your unfounded argument by trying to spin your opponent's word against himself in order to lay claim to the very argument that called your own into question?
You really are a classics Ph.D candidate. Useless knob.
So did ya find that secret out in his new tell-all book?
Plato used real people in his writings and there's no way to tell at which times is he using their own words and meanings and at which times he's inventing them. The discussion has long gone on and the simple answer is we don't and won't ever know. This is why the words of Socrates are more often credited to Plato - Socrates didn't write anything, so we're taking Plato at his word. Likewise there is no way to tell for certain if references to "lore" such as Atlantis were based on local gossip or were made out of whole cloth.
Your attempt at ethos fails too. Give back your Ph.D.
The author was Robert Forward. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_Egg
Very clever book. I miss "hard science" fiction like his.
The fact you attacked Mitt Romney for his Mormon religious beliefs pretty much rules you out too buddy.
In my experience, I never heard socialism being criticized in any undergraduate or graduate class, and I remember damn few instances in K-12 where it was even mentioned to be "bad". However it seemed that every month there was a problem with our democracy/republic/constitution/country.
Does that qualify as indoctrination in your mind too?
But the sphere is a lens is it not? How is it different than any of the other (less spherical) lenses that make up the microscope? You're still observing the cell through cleverly aligned lenses...
Stargate Atlantis was campy and fun. Yea there were some odd "that didn't quite make sense" moments, but the Wraith were cool and the team chemistry was enjoyable. In fact I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed the earlier seasons of Stargate:SG1. (The later seasons were just not that great) SG:U was on its way to becoming a fantastic series and had some upcoming plot twists I really wanted to see. (Those little aliens that kidnapped Lou Diamond Phillips, the girl who was slowly turning into an alien...)
Caprica was crap from the start, it was destined to fail after the horseshit last season of BSG.
The Sun is also converting 6.2×10**11 kg of matter into energy per second and radiating it all away. One wonders that there is anything left after all of this time.
Using that number along with the estimated mass of the Earth at 6E+24 kg, it takes the sun 307000 years to burn off one Terra. The estimate for number of Earths that could fit into the sun is 1.3 million (volume, not mass) so it would take 399 Billion years for the sun to burn off an equivalent volume of Earths assuming a similar mass/density.
;)
I don't think you've anything to worry about.
Show me a peer-reviewed article that specifically proves that digital piracy hurts sales.
Apple and the media companies are raking in huge dollars. Amazon is raking in huge dollars. Studies over the years have suggested that piracy actually helps sell albums, games, and movies (The Japanese just released a study regarding movie piracy.) Avatar is the most pirated movie of all time, but somehow still broke every sales record in the book. How is that possible?
Instead of coming up with a scenario you think sounds right, do some research.
They're equally to blame: http://www.federalbudget.com/
They need to be cut equally. Military corporations and those who work for them are not entitled to continue to suck at the public teat any more than the exploiters of social programs any more than Veterans who weighed the odds and volunteered. Entitlements and wasteful spending must be limited no matter whether you like the group getting the money or not.
"I would like to do all kinds of fun stuff with my kids, but there are two hold ups. The main one, is that kids just aren't that interested in science. They barely pay attention when we have to derive something, they do not know how to study anymore, and if anything resembles hard work to them, they turn away from it."
GIVE THEM HOMEWORK AND LET THEM FAIL. FFS, there's the real problem. Maybe failure will make them realize they have to work and even get the parents motivated too. Instead we make excuses and let these kids skate on through.
"One last item that I'll add, is that educators (in the states at least) do not make enough money to justify the position. The first year I started teaching (just a few years ago), I brought home about $22,000. For what I have to deal with, and the amount I actually work to teach my students, I figured I was almost making minimum wage. I make less than our gym teacher, who sits on his ass all day, and has for the last 10 years while half our students are overweight."
Apparently you failed to do your homework too. That teachers aren't paid well is well known, and has been for 50 years or more. You still chose to go into teaching however... As for teachers in general, when they continually fail to show enough integrity to stand up to school boards and parents and instead let little Johnny make it to his senior year without being able to read adequately, maybe they are being paid exactly what they are worth. Instead there is this new idea that you have to make it interesting, entertaining, inspiring, etc. Screw that, you're not a dancing clown and you're not a babysitter - give them the material, explain it a couple times on the board, and give them homework. If they can't pry themselves away from the TV or the PS3, THAT'S NOT YOUR PROBLEM. If you accept that responsibility then you may as well pay food and rent for the kids too.
I didn't say anything about this case being justified. I just commented on how deeply we can be attached to using various technologies.
I notice that many of the respondents think that he can just use email/skype/etc, but all those are services controlled by other people too. Yahoo and Skype can cut you off just as easily as facebook can. Many ISPs block the email ports, so you often can't just run your own email service on your own computer, leaving you with limited options. While many seem to laugh about this guy losing his facebook, how many of us would freak out about losing access to our Gmail accounts and all the info stored within?
Do you have family thousands of miles away in a foreign country? 20 years ago instead of facebook keeping you close with your family and friends, you just didn't talk/see them. Going abroad meant saying goodbye. You didn't call them but for holidays if you could even afford it - it cost anywhere from $1-5 or more a minute to call overseas. I was in Petrozavodsk Russia in 1995, at that time it cost about $2.50 a minute to speak to my family in the US.
For most people, facebook is a unique little addition to their everyday life and a way to see what Johnny from 3rd grade is doing these days. For others, it's a lifeline to their family and culture from vast distances away. I think we need to be aware of that when we consider just how much affect the internet and facebook has had on the world.
Are you that clueless? Or are you being deliberately obtuse?
The FCC is appointed by elected representatives of the people, they can be unappointed at any time if the people elect new representatives, or if the people apply sufficient pressure to the existing representatives to act. The FCC gets its mandate from the government.
By your reasoning, the fire department and the police are not "the government" because they're hired positions instead of elected. Besides the Chief/Sheriff/Commissioner in some cities/counties, the rest are all appointed positions chosen by elected officials. Are you saying that police officers have no authority because they were not elected?
Nitwit.
Nice cop-out. That position suggests you don't really know how to explain it and rather than admit it you want to be superior. Generally the only other type of people that take that position are successful yet egocentric people who already feel superior and feel that explaining things to the plebes is beneath them.
I'm not a mathematician, I said that early on. However I am well versed in behavioral linguistics.
Add 5 to 0? No. 5x5 is a representation of 5 groups of 5.
.9 becomes 9. 0.09 becomes 0.9 - and an infinite sequence will never complete the mechanical action of moving forward without truncation. That's why the proof fails. This issue probably doesn't come up ever except in the situation where one tries to prove 0.9999...= 1. At any other instance, and for all other things we truncate or round an infinite sequence at the decimal place which is most convenient for accuracy.
An equation is a representation of mechanical action (albeit non-physical)where a number is the material in which we shape and adjust using various tools. (Showing your work in math is key, the complicated equation can be broken down into it's constituent portions, each with a specific mechanical action that it represents) Whenever we deal with an infinite sequence like pi or something else, we truncate the sequence in order to have an "end" to the mechanical action and then come up with a result based on that truncated result.
The problem with moving the decimal is that your not moving it back (from left to right) position, you're moving the entire sequence forward -