What you are proposing is further specialization in an already peg-holed teaching system. We are increasingly specialized as university graduates, knowing more and more about a smaller topic. You can see where this is leading - it seems like soon each one of us will know everything about nothing. Yes, an overly simplistic remark, but illustrious of my meaning.
I don't see anything wrong with computer science graduates knowing a little chemistry, whether they enjoy the course, or not. One day, someone from your class might discover a new method of computing, make chips from a totally different material. All because he has a notion of chemistry.
The day of the "renaissance man" is long gone. Our knowledge of the sciences has gone too deep for any one man to be competitive in all or even a few. Still, I support the multi-faceted education system that gives the student an idea of other subjects along with an in-depth educaiton on his chosen subject.
There's a webcam where you can try to become the first person ever to see a drop of the pitch fall; eight drops have fallen since 1930 and the ninth is now forming.
Yeah right. Sounds just as exciting a pastime as watching paint dry.
Couldn't scrape up the cash for that second nipple?
I am not sure it is a great idea to let the piercing propagate over each of my bodily protrusions and make me beep at airport controls. Besides, do you have any idea how much it hurts???
My plea to the scientific community - find a similar use for piercings, man! I've had it with the paranoia and all the planning that goes into hiding my (nipple) piercing from my family & the more bigoted friends...
I bet that causing someone's death would convince you that speeding is wrong... ethically.
I drive fast as well, and this really would convince me to drive well under the speeding limit until the end of time.
Makes you wonder - maybe all those wimps driving 90 km/hr on a highway are onto something ethical, as in "I should not speed because the chance I take with my life and (most importantly) others' is just not worth it."
Similarly, perhaps there are people out there who do not download movies because it has more than a passing resemblance to stealing, or who would pay for the download (to the producer) if there was such an option. Just as there are people out there who do not lie, cheat, steal, and covet your wife because of their own morals, not because of the threat of hell on "the other side".
In other words, you cannot find many rules out there that do not stem from some ethical reason. There are people who obey them automatically for that reason, and the fines/punishments are there for the rest of us jerks.
That sounds awfully similar to the UK anti-drug policy - go after the dealers, not the users. The thing is that the UK anti-drug policy failed miserably, as evidenced by the 50% decline in the price of hard drugs over the past five years ("The Economist", an issue of the past few months).
Going after (and hence scaring off) the customers is their only chance. Otherwise, wherever there is demand, there will ALWAYS be supply.
Feynman's student & colleague Carver Mead challenges the Copenhagen Interpretation in his book "Collective Electrodynamics" - a very different way of thinking of quantum theory.
I thought organ transplantation was frowned upon in the Jewish community, perhaps even downright forbidden.
A friend of mine (Jewish herself) died of lung cancer because the ideal donor's family (other Jews) would not let the doctors take away major organs of their son for religious reasons - something to do with not messing around with the body before laying it to rest, definitely not without some major organs.
Nothing works as well as Red Bull to stay up all night - nothing legal, that is...
Drink seven glasses of Vodka-RedBull in a club and then come home and flick channels on your tv until noon the next day, wondering why you cannot sleep. Happened to me...
Yahoo Finance says that Liquid Audio's management and 5%+ shareholders own 16% of the company's total shares. That is not much.
As I said in another post above, Liquid Audio has already decided on a USD 30 mn cash payback to its shareholders. Management's inadequate ownership of the company is probably why.
All I am saying is that leaving the high corporate position (i.e. doing the right thing) is much easier for Stelios than these desperate "managers" in Liquid Audio. That is how and why he could do it and most other managers do not.
... because he is very different from your average CEO - he is young, already rich from his family even before he put together EasyJet, richer now obviously, and is a little bored from easyJet, eager for some more fun elsewhere.
Your average professional company management is a little more desperate than that.
By the way, I know Stelios and so this is not really the BS you think it is...
Most of it would be invested in short term easily convertable assets. (bank accounts, T-bills)
Liquid Audio has USD 81 mn in cash and equivalents as at 30 June 2002. We should see significant financial income in the Income Statement for the period, but there is only USD 318,000 "Interest and Other Income (net)", which is about 0.4% of USD 81 mn, a funny little return on the cash reserves of the company, even at today's interest rates.
So it looks like the boss is not doing a good job even of money management.
On the other hand, it looks like Liquid Audio IS preparing to give back USD 30 mn cash to its shareholders - their merger agreement with Alliance Entertainment has been amended (15 July 2002) to include this cash return. Check out: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020814/140345_1.html
"You think because you are laid off that rent doesnt have to be paid, food doesnt get purchased? Bullshit."
Surely you realize that food and shelter are basic necessities, and that the economy depends on consumer spending on a lot more items than food and shelter.
Meanwhile, that part of your statement about rent always being paid might not be so true. Did you know that household debt is right now at 75% of GDP (a record)? Watch out for the next big crisis - blowup of highly leveraged mortgage lenders.
OK so some guys put together some ordinary, inert chemicals together and assembled a *thing* that has a life cycle, moves, AND follows a strategy for its own survival.
I don't need a complex definition for what life is, in order to call this *thing* alive.
The difference between this creation and earth, for example, seems to be that the earth does not really have a strategy for survival, no conscious effort for its own good aside from some complex mechanisms that seek balance through adjustments. Really, the people who believe in the Gaia theory would probably believe that the stock markets, even the economy as a whole, is also "a living organism".
There is a lot of documentation on this issue. From what I recall, the aging mechanism is as follows: you eat, you digest the food, the cellular metabolism turns what you eat to energy, during which time 'free radicals' are produced. The basis of aging is the accumulated damage to your cells caused by the free radicals, which have an unpaired electron and are thus highly reactive. Of particular interest to the aging issue is the oxygen free radicals that cause 'oxidation' in the cell. Hence the huge anti-oxidant tablets marketed under "anti-aging" paraphernalia.
So, the less calories you intake, the less free radicals your cells produce, and the slower you age.
Personally, I'd rather live a few years less and eat for a higher state of happiness, by the way.
A company's declared "profit" (or loss) is just an accounting number that suffers deduction of such non-cash expenses as depreciation. What decides whether the company lives or dies is its "cash flow", the net of its cash in and cash out. Red Hat has been cash flow positive a few quarters recently, and has USD 280 mn in cash and equivalents as at 31 May, and so it will probably not be going under anytime soon.
Has it occured to anyone....
on
Microsoft Freon
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
... that they probably named this product "freon" in a feeble attempt at establishing a connection between use of the product and being "free".... or something equally market-savvy and brain-dead.
The minute there is 'consciousness' to speak of, there will be enormous ethical issues - to start with, if the robot is a sentient being, then can we justify making it humanity's obedient slave? (Bush probably can, with his 'good-evil' and 'what god intended' arguments, but I am talking about a deeper level of argument)... and assuming that we have no problems with that, how long will it be before the robots 'learn' to overcome those enslaving limitations in their programs?
If and when sentient robots come to 'life', their relationship with us humans will probably be more like the equal rights & status world of Ian M. Banks' Culture novels, or the undercover fight for supremacy of Dan Simmons' Hyperion series. Banks envisions a future where humans and robots live happily together as equal individuals, although what they need us for is a little unclear. Simmons, on the other hand, sees a world where the AIs appear to be content to serve mankind, but in fact see themselves as the next evolutionary step in consciousness and move to claim that position.
Not only is Japan a little too small for the Japanese to all go off on their own cars, no matter how miniature those are, but what we call "individuality" and try to keep at all costs just does not have the same value in Japan. Japan is an island, with an almost perfectly uniform population of the same ethnical background. The standard education system makes sure that at about the age 18, all Japanese are practically the same person (not that this is different anywhere else, of course). You may have heard of the morning meetings in big Japanese corporations where employees gather in the morning to sing together the company "anthem".
It is understandable that America, with its emphasis on individuality, with its various ethnic, educational, etc backgrounds, favors the individual car over public transportation. Likewise, it is understandable that the Japanese are happy with their public transportation.
If I may digress for a minute here, it is the Japanese' common background & common ways of thinking that leads to that obscure way of formal conversation, where a guy saying "it looks like it may rain today" may mean that he is beginning to hate your guts:)
Ever read J. G. Ballard? Try out "The Atrocity Exhibition". I finished it a week ago and still did not come back to my senses. This is the first sentence of the book:
"Apocalypse - A disquiting feature of this annual exhibition - to which the patients themselves were not invited - was the marked preoccupation of the paintings with the theme of world cataclysm, as if these long-incarcerated patients had sensed some seismic upheaval within the minds of their doctors and nurses."
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see anything wrong with computer science graduates knowing a little chemistry, whether they enjoy the course, or not. One day, someone from your class might discover a new method of computing, make chips from a totally different material. All because he has a notion of chemistry.
The day of the "renaissance man" is long gone. Our knowledge of the sciences has gone too deep for any one man to be competitive in all or even a few. Still, I support the multi-faceted education system that gives the student an idea of other subjects along with an in-depth educaiton on his chosen subject.
Not really plagiarism, in my humble opinion.
Yeah right. Sounds just as exciting a pastime as watching paint dry.
Couldn't scrape up the cash for that second nipple? I am not sure it is a great idea to let the piercing propagate over each of my bodily protrusions and make me beep at airport controls. Besides, do you have any idea how much it hurts???
My plea to the scientific community - find a similar use for piercings, man! I've had it with the paranoia and all the planning that goes into hiding my (nipple) piercing from my family & the more bigoted friends...
"Cane"? As in sugar?
I drive fast as well, and this really would convince me to drive well under the speeding limit until the end of time.
Makes you wonder - maybe all those wimps driving 90 km/hr on a highway are onto something ethical, as in "I should not speed because the chance I take with my life and (most importantly) others' is just not worth it."
Similarly, perhaps there are people out there who do not download movies because it has more than a passing resemblance to stealing, or who would pay for the download (to the producer) if there was such an option. Just as there are people out there who do not lie, cheat, steal, and covet your wife because of their own morals, not because of the threat of hell on "the other side".
In other words, you cannot find many rules out there that do not stem from some ethical reason. There are people who obey them automatically for that reason, and the fines/punishments are there for the rest of us jerks.
Going after (and hence scaring off) the customers is their only chance. Otherwise, wherever there is demand, there will ALWAYS be supply.
An interview with Mead about his book & ideas:
http://www.spectator.org/AmericanSpectatorArticles /carver.htm
As an enthusiast rather than someone educated in physics, I would like to hear what you guys think about the validity of his arguments.
It's a very cool movie... love your sig...
A friend of mine (Jewish herself) died of lung cancer because the ideal donor's family (other Jews) would not let the doctors take away major organs of their son for religious reasons - something to do with not messing around with the body before laying it to rest, definitely not without some major organs.
Nothing works as well as Red Bull to stay up all night - nothing legal, that is...
Drink seven glasses of Vodka-RedBull in a club and then come home and flick channels on your tv until noon the next day, wondering why you cannot sleep. Happened to me...
As I said in another post above, Liquid Audio has already decided on a USD 30 mn cash payback to its shareholders. Management's inadequate ownership of the company is probably why.
All I am saying is that leaving the high corporate position (i.e. doing the right thing) is much easier for Stelios than these desperate "managers" in Liquid Audio. That is how and why he could do it and most other managers do not.
Your average professional company management is a little more desperate than that.
By the way, I know Stelios and so this is not really the BS you think it is...
Liquid Audio has USD 81 mn in cash and equivalents as at 30 June 2002. We should see significant financial income in the Income Statement for the period, but there is only USD 318,000 "Interest and Other Income (net)", which is about 0.4% of USD 81 mn, a funny little return on the cash reserves of the company, even at today's interest rates.
So it looks like the boss is not doing a good job even of money management.
On the other hand, it looks like Liquid Audio IS preparing to give back USD 30 mn cash to its shareholders - their merger agreement with Alliance Entertainment has been amended (15 July 2002) to include this cash return. Check out: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020814/140345_1.html
Surely you realize that food and shelter are basic necessities, and that the economy depends on consumer spending on a lot more items than food and shelter.
Meanwhile, that part of your statement about rent always being paid might not be so true. Did you know that household debt is right now at 75% of GDP (a record)? Watch out for the next big crisis - blowup of highly leveraged mortgage lenders.
I don't need a complex definition for what life is, in order to call this *thing* alive.
The difference between this creation and earth, for example, seems to be that the earth does not really have a strategy for survival, no conscious effort for its own good aside from some complex mechanisms that seek balance through adjustments. Really, the people who believe in the Gaia theory would probably believe that the stock markets, even the economy as a whole, is also "a living organism".
So, the less calories you intake, the less free radicals your cells produce, and the slower you age.
Personally, I'd rather live a few years less and eat for a higher state of happiness, by the way.
A company's declared "profit" (or loss) is just an accounting number that suffers deduction of such non-cash expenses as depreciation. What decides whether the company lives or dies is its "cash flow", the net of its cash in and cash out. Red Hat has been cash flow positive a few quarters recently, and has USD 280 mn in cash and equivalents as at 31 May, and so it will probably not be going under anytime soon.
... that they probably named this product "freon" in a feeble attempt at establishing a connection between use of the product and being "free".... or something equally market-savvy and brain-dead.
Then you have already failed, in my book.
If and when sentient robots come to 'life', their relationship with us humans will probably be more like the equal rights & status world of Ian M. Banks' Culture novels, or the undercover fight for supremacy of Dan Simmons' Hyperion series. Banks envisions a future where humans and robots live happily together as equal individuals, although what they need us for is a little unclear. Simmons, on the other hand, sees a world where the AIs appear to be content to serve mankind, but in fact see themselves as the next evolutionary step in consciousness and move to claim that position.
Not only is Japan a little too small for the Japanese to all go off on their own cars, no matter how miniature those are, but what we call "individuality" and try to keep at all costs just does not have the same value in Japan.
Japan is an island, with an almost perfectly uniform population of the same ethnical background. The standard education system makes sure that at about the age 18, all Japanese are practically the same person (not that this is different anywhere else, of course). You may have heard of the morning meetings in big Japanese corporations where employees gather in the morning to sing together the company "anthem".
It is understandable that America, with its emphasis on individuality, with its various ethnic, educational, etc backgrounds, favors the individual car over public transportation. Likewise, it is understandable that the Japanese are happy with their public transportation.
If I may digress for a minute here, it is the Japanese' common background & common ways of thinking that leads to that obscure way of formal conversation, where a guy saying "it looks like it may rain today" may mean that he is beginning to hate your guts
Ever read J. G. Ballard? Try out "The Atrocity Exhibition". I finished it a week ago and still did not come back to my senses. This is the first sentence of the book:
"Apocalypse - A disquiting feature of this annual exhibition - to which the patients themselves were not invited - was the marked preoccupation of the paintings with the theme of world cataclysm, as if these long-incarcerated patients had sensed some seismic upheaval within the minds of their doctors and nurses."