No. The plumber toils with great skill when building a house, yet this not considered art. It is missing both in the expressiveness and the aesthetics department.But suppose a compute/robot generated an image that to the observer was expressive and aestetically appealing...is that art?
Regarding the Colossus you may have a point, but what about "Saturn"? I would hardly want that up in my dining room.
But aesthetics are not all about pretty pictures or even being "visually appealing".
Which of Goya's works is more significant; The Colossus or Family of Charles IV. The rendering of the people in the family portrait is very representational and one could argue "visually appealing"...but one does not have an emotional response as one would have with the dark representation of war and bloodshed in The Colossus.
So, coming to Duchamp's ugly urinal...it still evokes a response the artist intended...a spirited debate into the nature of art.
Is an object a work of art if a person toiled over it with great skill?
The most amusing installation I ever heard of was a urinal. I don't recall all of the details of it, but one of the DADA artists did an installation that consisted of a urinal....that was it.
Left at that people would say, "Anyone can do that!"
The punch line is that after the artist's death someone did some research on the item. It turns out it was not manufactured by anyone. It was a one of a kind hand crafted porcelain sculpture that happened to be in the shape of a urinal. If the same effort had been put forth to craft a dove taking flight or some "beautiful" subject the traditionalists would have appreciated the work as art.
Now the Talliban are shoved underground and replaced by a handful of democratically elected, but essentially under house arrest leaders (outside of capital the same warlords are running the show throughout the country).
The narco-thugs supplying 90% of the worlds opium production no doubt are the largest component of the economy. Until that is addressed, the future of Afghanistani democracy is at the mercy of the American attention span.
I have been since the leader of the free world made his first extemporaneous speech.
Give him a few days at the ranch to practice a highly crafted and focus group tested message... put a blue banner with the word of the day printed on it... and he is a glorious leader indeed...queue hail to the chief.
I am sympathetic to the Cassandra crowd and think some consumption habits need to change (and certainly would do no harm to reduce energy consumption). Statements like this:
The current level is 379ppm, and rising by more than 2ppm annually - so it is likely that the vital 400ppm threshold will be crossed in just 10 years' time, or even less (although the two-degree temperature rise might take longer to come into effect).
Are hard to take seriously. Kind of insults the mathematically literate... you die if you eat a pound of dirt...but 15 oz is no problem?
You're right, we can't blame "W" for anything. It was all Bill Clinton's fault! And it will continue to be so for this and the next 2 or 3 Rove administrations. It took 2 Reagan terms and a Bush term to undo what Carter did in 4 years, so it only fair to give the Neo's 16-20 years to make up for the 8 under Clinton.
Really, some of the key points can come from the modern Hippocratic Oath...
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow. (Science and knowledge are dynamic things that grow over time. Dismissing a theory because past theories were incorrect is dillusional. Shall I dismiss modern medicine because 17th century hacks calling themselves doctors poisoned people with mercury and bled enemics to release the bad blood?)
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science,... (Climatology encompasses a sufficiently large number of factors (e.g. bacterial growth rates in sub-arctic peat affecting global atmospheric CO2 composition) that it cannot always be even 1st order accurate.)
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. (And here is the big one for me. Do we make concessions now emissions standards, fossil fuel utilization etc, or do we wait for a time in which even the oil company apologists have to agree that polar bears are extinct in the wild, Greenland is green, and coastal cities are under water?)
To use the health effects of smaking as a metaphore; would it have hurt people to quit smoking or not start decades ago when there wasn't a "scientific concensus" by both doctors concerned with cancer, emphasema, heart disease etc and "researchers" at Philip Morris?
It is an easier sell to convince a more energetic HS student to do something interesting with their time. Unleash borderline dangerous things on them (e.g. a neon sign transformer (enough voltage to drive a Jacob's ladder), anarchist cookbook chemistry set (in small volumes), lasers (they're a lot cheaper now than when I was in school).
I was lucky in that I did manage to get my homework out of the way and participate in the fun parts of running around with friends. Taking a gut check while hanging out by asking "what do you want to DO" does not have to be a buzz killer.
I bounce around a lot of news organizations -- CNN, Fox, AP, Reuters, NYT, LA Times, OC Register, NPR, and a bunch of others. I even visit Pravda's English site sometimes, if only for the occasional chuckle at the oddities that appear there. Most of the stories are pretty much the same from organization to organization, no matter who originally wrote them, because journalism is, at its core, a pretty basic thing. Who, what, when, where, why, how?
One can gain a interesting insight into news sources when you know a lot about something broadly covered. For example, a decade ago I was the first person to plot the flight data from a 737 crash in PA. The professionalism of the people at Boeing and the FAA is tremendous, and nobody is hasty about drawing conclussions. Before anyone that knew anything had done any meaningful analysis or run a single simulation newspapers and TV had a wide range in coverage. Some stuck to the facts. Others found "experts" that through out wild speculation.
Following the Souix City IA DC10 crash, the silliest bit of journalist turned engineer was in a piece second guessing running the hydraulic lines to the tail through the same area. Kind of like saying the human body is flawed because all blood supply to the brain must pass through the neck. WHERE THE HELL ELSE WILL IT GO!
With these sorts of data points you have a calibrated reference point for other news sources.
If you want to see for yourself, go to a library and look back at 17th, 18th, and 19th century newspapers. Journalism has always been a taudry business.
And in the past there were many (3-4 daily's) news papers in a typcial large city. Now a small handful of conglomerates control print and broadcasting. Then they spend much of their time reporting on each other like a herd of sheep.
The US Energy Policy is an example of localized dimming...If someone buries their head in the sand (or in some other dark place...), their vision is limited.
Not knowing details makes this an armchair quarterback post, but wouldn't they have been better served to have broken their IT needs down to a more granular level?
Imagine the learning curve! Here we have this monolythic blob of stuff that can do EVERYTHING. Here are the 12 billion source lines of code and a make file that takes 3 centuries to run. The project is 4 years behind schedule and we fired the 10,000 coders that were working on it before, but we asked them to comment their code with nice flower boxes.
From my experience, the bigger the project the more likely it is to fail. Making lots of little bits out of one big one may result in some integration hiccups, but at least there will be useful pieces and refactoring can be addressed on a priority basis.
Yes, it is important to keep the dust away from the computer. Bear in mind though that if you have a very dusty shop you are beathing that in too. Over time some wordworkers have developed sensitivity to the dust and need to wear respirators to continue their hobby.
For your health and comfort, spend some bucks on a dust collection system (1.5 HP with good bags or a canister) to connect to tablesaw, planer, jointer etc. Also, an air cleaner to take out the "fines" is important as well. The fines can get pretty deep into your lungs and do cumulative damage.
A healthy environment for you ought to be fine for a PC.
I read a very interesting book about Enron this last year. Actually those folks were brilliant and did very complex accounting to get away with effectively laundering billions. Trouble is if you perpetuate a lie by telling bigger and bigger lies it will eventually all come crashing down.
I think the most important elements to being professionally successful...the right way are:
Problem solving skills (surprising how rare these are really)
An ethical compass (different from a religious conviction although in many it is related)
Communication skills
And above all, an ability to remember the GOAL
The last is critical. So often the easy trap is to loose sight of the ultimate goal. In the engineering world the pitfalls are common.
Focusing on the perfect structural analysis rather than answering a question required to make a design decision.
Coming up with a wonderful fully parametric CAD model for a crappy product.
Designing a software package to do everything under the sun and delivering it 2 years after the most critical 20% of it were needed for the companies new product line.
I agree with you to a point. Although someone demonstrating the ability to apply themselves through 4 years of college shows an ability to manage time, learn new things...etc.
Common sense is invaluable, but it is hard to demonstrate on a resume. If I see someone with a BS degree in engineering from a Big 10 school I can relate to what it took to obtain that degree. The difference I have noted between the formally educated and the informally educated (in general) is in breadth of background. For example, I am an Aerospace Engineer by education. An RC hobbiest may be better at designing, building and flying RC models, but I know why things behave the way they do from a fluid mechanics and stability and control standpoint. Presented with a different problem, say designing a nozzle for agricultural spraying equipment or industrial filtering equipment I would be able to draw from the same fundamental fluid mechanics and math, where the self tought individual would have to slog through a more difficult learning curve.
There are a lot of experimental gadgets coming on the market now. The bad designs will die; some good designs will remain and be improved upon.
I think it is generally the same population exchanging one generation of gadget for the next. I know some that have been through 5 or 6 generations of PDA's. The combination of small and useful is an extremely difficult dicotomy to overcome with a friendly interface. Some products like the ipod have been "killer apps" because they penetrated a new market and have a simple interface.
Actually I have heard Speakeasy is willing to do split billing. Really it is a good business model as mobile as folks are these days one big source of client turnover is people moving.
There is also Destination Imagination, where by the HS level the coaches guidance is pretty minimal. It is not usually high tech...but it can be.
There is a structure challenge where the students design a structure with a particular objective. There are team budget limits so it keeps things under control and adults are not supposed to interfere.
It does tend to attract the already engaged students though and there is enough of a time commitment that parental support is key as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Regarding the Colossus you may have a point, but what about "Saturn"? I would hardly want that up in my dining room.
Have you no shame?
But aesthetics are not all about pretty pictures or even being "visually appealing".
Which of Goya's works is more significant; The Colossus or Family of Charles IV. The rendering of the people in the family portrait is very representational and one could argue "visually appealing"...but one does not have an emotional response as one would have with the dark representation of war and bloodshed in The Colossus.
So, coming to Duchamp's ugly urinal...it still evokes a response the artist intended...a spirited debate into the nature of art.
Is an object a work of art if a person toiled over it with great skill?
Does it have to be beautiful?
Does it have to express anything?
Left at that people would say, "Anyone can do that!"
The punch line is that after the artist's death someone did some research on the item. It turns out it was not manufactured by anyone. It was a one of a kind hand crafted porcelain sculpture that happened to be in the shape of a urinal. If the same effort had been put forth to craft a dove taking flight or some "beautiful" subject the traditionalists would have appreciated the work as art.
Maybe someone is throwing it at him ...Ninja Style.
Why don't they used Compact Flash or Secure Digital rather than the damn Sony proprietary junk?
The narco-thugs supplying 90% of the worlds opium production no doubt are the largest component of the economy. Until that is addressed, the future of Afghanistani democracy is at the mercy of the American attention span.
I have been since the leader of the free world made his first extemporaneous speech.
Give him a few days at the ranch to practice a highly crafted and focus group tested message ... put a blue banner with the word of the day printed on it ... and he is a glorious leader indeed...queue hail to the chief.
The current level is 379ppm, and rising by more than 2ppm annually - so it is likely that the vital 400ppm threshold will be crossed in just 10 years' time, or even less (although the two-degree temperature rise might take longer to come into effect).
Are hard to take seriously. Kind of insults the mathematically literate ... you die if you eat a pound of dirt...but 15 oz is no problem?
You're right, we can't blame "W" for anything. It was all Bill Clinton's fault! And it will continue to be so for this and the next 2 or 3 Rove administrations. It took 2 Reagan terms and a Bush term to undo what Carter did in 4 years, so it only fair to give the Neo's 16-20 years to make up for the 8 under Clinton.
Really, some of the key points can come from the modern Hippocratic Oath...
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow. (Science and knowledge are dynamic things that grow over time. Dismissing a theory because past theories were incorrect is dillusional. Shall I dismiss modern medicine because 17th century hacks calling themselves doctors poisoned people with mercury and bled enemics to release the bad blood?)
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, ... (Climatology encompasses a sufficiently large number of factors (e.g. bacterial growth rates in sub-arctic peat affecting global atmospheric CO2 composition) that it cannot always be even 1st order accurate.)
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure. (And here is the big one for me. Do we make concessions now emissions standards, fossil fuel utilization etc, or do we wait for a time in which even the oil company apologists have to agree that polar bears are extinct in the wild, Greenland is green, and coastal cities are under water?)
To use the health effects of smaking as a metaphore; would it have hurt people to quit smoking or not start decades ago when there wasn't a "scientific concensus" by both doctors concerned with cancer, emphasema, heart disease etc and "researchers" at Philip Morris?
I was lucky in that I did manage to get my homework out of the way and participate in the fun parts of running around with friends. Taking a gut check while hanging out by asking "what do you want to DO" does not have to be a buzz killer.
One can gain a interesting insight into news sources when you know a lot about something broadly covered. For example, a decade ago I was the first person to plot the flight data from a 737 crash in PA. The professionalism of the people at Boeing and the FAA is tremendous, and nobody is hasty about drawing conclussions. Before anyone that knew anything had done any meaningful analysis or run a single simulation newspapers and TV had a wide range in coverage. Some stuck to the facts. Others found "experts" that through out wild speculation.
Following the Souix City IA DC10 crash, the silliest bit of journalist turned engineer was in a piece second guessing running the hydraulic lines to the tail through the same area. Kind of like saying the human body is flawed because all blood supply to the brain must pass through the neck. WHERE THE HELL ELSE WILL IT GO!
With these sorts of data points you have a calibrated reference point for other news sources.
And in the past there were many (3-4 daily's) news papers in a typcial large city. Now a small handful of conglomerates control print and broadcasting. Then they spend much of their time reporting on each other like a herd of sheep.
The US Energy Policy is an example of localized dimming...If someone buries their head in the sand (or in some other dark place...), their vision is limited.
This quote has now accounted for 13.7% of the posts responding to this article.
Imagine the learning curve! Here we have this monolythic blob of stuff that can do EVERYTHING. Here are the 12 billion source lines of code and a make file that takes 3 centuries to run. The project is 4 years behind schedule and we fired the 10,000 coders that were working on it before, but we asked them to comment their code with nice flower boxes.
From my experience, the bigger the project the more likely it is to fail. Making lots of little bits out of one big one may result in some integration hiccups, but at least there will be useful pieces and refactoring can be addressed on a priority basis.
For your health and comfort, spend some bucks on a dust collection system (1.5 HP with good bags or a canister) to connect to tablesaw, planer, jointer etc. Also, an air cleaner to take out the "fines" is important as well. The fines can get pretty deep into your lungs and do cumulative damage.
A healthy environment for you ought to be fine for a PC.
I think the most important elements to being professionally successful...the right way are:
Problem solving skills (surprising how rare these are really)
An ethical compass (different from a religious conviction although in many it is related)
Communication skills
And above all, an ability to remember the GOAL
The last is critical. So often the easy trap is to loose sight of the ultimate goal. In the engineering world the pitfalls are common.
Focusing on the perfect structural analysis rather than answering a question required to make a design decision.
Coming up with a wonderful fully parametric CAD model for a crappy product.
Designing a software package to do everything under the sun and delivering it 2 years after the most critical 20% of it were needed for the companies new product line.
Common sense is invaluable, but it is hard to demonstrate on a resume. If I see someone with a BS degree in engineering from a Big 10 school I can relate to what it took to obtain that degree. The difference I have noted between the formally educated and the informally educated (in general) is in breadth of background. For example, I am an Aerospace Engineer by education. An RC hobbiest may be better at designing, building and flying RC models, but I know why things behave the way they do from a fluid mechanics and stability and control standpoint. Presented with a different problem, say designing a nozzle for agricultural spraying equipment or industrial filtering equipment I would be able to draw from the same fundamental fluid mechanics and math, where the self tought individual would have to slog through a more difficult learning curve.
Note this is in the context of Bionicles...he can HAVE those.... >8p
I could just see explaining vi to the non-initiated, "it just works", Apple target market.
The Lego cross marketing with star wars is certainly nothing new...but it usually is preceded by the movies!
I think it is generally the same population exchanging one generation of gadget for the next. I know some that have been through 5 or 6 generations of PDA's. The combination of small and useful is an extremely difficult dicotomy to overcome with a friendly interface. Some products like the ipod have been "killer apps" because they penetrated a new market and have a simple interface.
Actually I have heard Speakeasy is willing to do split billing. Really it is a good business model as mobile as folks are these days one big source of client turnover is people moving.
There is a structure challenge where the students design a structure with a particular objective. There are team budget limits so it keeps things under control and adults are not supposed to interfere.
It does tend to attract the already engaged students though and there is enough of a time commitment that parental support is key as well.