Are you really this naive about technology? In five years, 3-d printers will be sold at Wal-Mart; in six years, printable plastics capable of withstanding the explosive forces involved will be sold one of your "myriad websites". Then, everyone will be able to print out as many COMPLETE guns as they want, in one-tenth the time it would take to mill just the lower receiver.
(Not to mention that having access to milling equipment is one thing; having sufficient skill to use it to make a gun part that won't explode the first time you fire the gun is quite another. But 3-d printing a perfect gun will be as simple as pressing Ctrl-P.
I've been teaching freshman-level physics, both algebra and calculus based, for about 15 years. My take (warning: generalities and averages ahead):
Coming into the class, the algebra students absolutely do not care about the theory of the subject. They do not see the beauty of the subject the way that you and I do, or that (to a lesser extend) the calculus-based students do. They have two goals: 1) They want to pass the class, because it is required for their major; and 2) they want to learn the material as a collection of hopefully useful information for their future careers.
Thus, if you can make the information you are presenting be (or appear to be) relevant to them, they will be more engaged with you, and with the class. I don't know what the statistics equivalent of kicking a ball off a cliff and calculating how far from the base of the cliff the ball lands, but whatever it is, I urge you to avoid that at all costs. Find some other topic, or example, that will matter to them. If you present the material intending for them to admire the beauty of the subject, entirely for itself, you will have a room full of bored and sullen (and underperforming) students.
This is NOT to say that these students are less good than the students who take the calculus-based courses; in my experience, they are just as strong academically and intellectually--and in many cases better. They just (again, on average) have very different motivations for taking any particular math or science class.
(If you are lucky, you may get one of them to change majors to a natural science. It's happened to me a few times--a really great feeling!)
So, in yesterday's story about predicting the collapse of civilization, multiple posters snarked about how convenient it is to make predictions about what will happen 30 years from now, 'cause no one will remember you made those predictions--so you'll never be called to account for your oh-so-incorrect doomsday predictions.
I now calmly await for yesterday's posters to issue "I can see now that I was wrong" statements.
No, because the multiple predictions are not random, the way thrown darts are. This is Science 101. Multiple models are proposed to explain and/or predict an observable phenomenon. The model that makes the the most accurate predictions gains credence over the others.
The interactivity is far, far more than simple indexing and glossary-lookup. I downloaded Apple's "Yellow Submarine" book a month or two ago. (Looking back on it, it's obvious that they were putting blood in the water for iBooks Author.) Every page had interactive elements; I could tap on an image and a relevant song would play, or a video, or a picture that was interactive, not static. If I recall correctly, the iPad would have read the book out loud.
I've downloaded iBooks Author and am looking at it now. You can add interactive images, image galleries, movies, audio, review questions, Keynote presentations(!), interactive 3D objects, and HTML.
I'm a college physics instructor; I am salivating at the potential of this for a physics textbook. What if my students could, for example, tap on the each of the terms in a conservation of momentum equation (as an interactive graphical element) and the book would tell them the physical meaning of each symbol, and then run a movie showing (say) a collision of two objects (elastic? inelastic? 1-d? 2-d?). Or have a 3-d plot of an electric field that they could rotate right there in their textbook? How about have the relevant (and CURRENT) Wikipedia article pop up INSIDE their textbook? Did a topic get out of date ("hey, we found the Higgs a week after you published your textbook!") No problem, a quick update and the new info is in the book!
I agree with another poster, at this time I cannot justify requiring an iPad (or anything technological that my school doesn't provide), but I definitely see this style of textbook--on whatever platform--as the future. As long as e-texts are simply photonic versions of paper books, I see little value in them. But add this interactivity, and...the possibilities to really transform student learning are breathtaking.
A major aspect of the show is the fact that it is small-screen. Its roots are in the campiness that the early shows had, and that occurred because of the tiny budget and fast turnaround. The effect of that can still been seen today.
The campiness and fun will be eliminated in a Hollywood blockbuster treatment, and it will turn into just another sex-and-explosions vehicle.
Given the number of true believers here (people I equate with the deniers on the skeptic side), I am wondering how long this post, all of which is factual and can be confirmed with relative ease, will be modded "troll". Seems to happen to all posts that are in any way skeptical.
And you were modded +4 Insightful. Followup comment?
Many people dismiss this book; but, from the wikipedia article:
In 2008 Graham Turner at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia published a paper called "A Comparison of `The Limits to Growth` with Thirty Years of Reality".[5][6] It examined the past thirty years of reality with the predictions made in 1972 and found that changes in industrial production, food production and pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of economic and societal collapse in the 21st century.[7]
It's been a couple of years since I read the 30-year update edition, but I recall being unnerved by how accurate their predictions have been up to that point; and I see no reason to think things will change. It is not going to be pretty.
I sure hope any potential employers google "Robert Soloway" and find "Spam king" high on the results list.
The only way that could happen is if a bunch of people all put the words "Robert Soloway" and "Spam king" together on a major website that Google crawls.
Sorry son, but that's all *you* got out of college. *You* didn't actually learn anything except trivia.
As a college physics prof, I can tell you--I have students *every single quarter* who are motivated, interested, and get a huge amount out of their classes (not just mine). They use their classes as the starting point of their intellectual explorations, not as a barrier.
Oh, and btw: Did it ever occur to you that maybe the reason college was so valueless to you is that you cheated rather than studied?
This would be the equivalent of you bought Twinkies at Whole Foods Market and then they decided they were no longer going to sell them, so they sent people around to all the houses that bought the Twinkies and took them back with out repayment.
This I agree with. Amazon has every right to not sell a book, but no right to take it back without permission or recompense.
I don't like Amazon's decision, but it's their right. They are NOT the government.
I shop at Whole Foods Market. They refuse to sell any products that contain high fructose corn syrup; their business model involves looking, acting, and (hopefully) being healthier than the other grocery chains. Can I reasonably complain that they are attacking my freedom of choice by not selling products that contain HFCS? I have to go to a second store to get Twinkies, but I knew when I went to WF that I would not be able to find Twinkies there.
If you want incest-related fiction, you will have to shop somewhere that sells it. Amazon chooses not to.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you really this naive about technology? In five years, 3-d printers will be sold at Wal-Mart; in six years, printable plastics capable of withstanding the explosive forces involved will be sold one of your "myriad websites". Then, everyone will be able to print out as many COMPLETE guns as they want, in one-tenth the time it would take to mill just the lower receiver.
(Not to mention that having access to milling equipment is one thing; having sufficient skill to use it to make a gun part that won't explode the first time you fire the gun is quite another. But 3-d printing a perfect gun will be as simple as pressing Ctrl-P.
I've been teaching freshman-level physics, both algebra and calculus based, for about 15 years. My take (warning: generalities and averages ahead):
Coming into the class, the algebra students absolutely do not care about the theory of the subject. They do not see the beauty of the subject the way that you and I do, or that (to a lesser extend) the calculus-based students do. They have two goals: 1) They want to pass the class, because it is required for their major; and 2) they want to learn the material as a collection of hopefully useful information for their future careers.
Thus, if you can make the information you are presenting be (or appear to be) relevant to them, they will be more engaged with you, and with the class. I don't know what the statistics equivalent of kicking a ball off a cliff and calculating how far from the base of the cliff the ball lands, but whatever it is, I urge you to avoid that at all costs. Find some other topic, or example, that will matter to them. If you present the material intending for them to admire the beauty of the subject, entirely for itself, you will have a room full of bored and sullen (and underperforming) students.
This is NOT to say that these students are less good than the students who take the calculus-based courses; in my experience, they are just as strong academically and intellectually--and in many cases better. They just (again, on average) have very different motivations for taking any particular math or science class.
(If you are lucky, you may get one of them to change majors to a natural science. It's happened to me a few times--a really great feeling!)
Good luck!
+1 Interesting
To quote Robert Heinlein: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
So, in yesterday's story about predicting the collapse of civilization, multiple posters snarked about how convenient it is to make predictions about what will happen 30 years from now, 'cause no one will remember you made those predictions--so you'll never be called to account for your oh-so-incorrect doomsday predictions.
I now calmly await for yesterday's posters to issue "I can see now that I was wrong" statements.
No, because the multiple predictions are not random, the way thrown darts are. This is Science 101. Multiple models are proposed to explain and/or predict an observable phenomenon. The model that makes the the most accurate predictions gains credence over the others.
This doesn't completely address your concern, but I did run across this statement in the iBooks Author helpfile:
"Note: In iBooks Author, video and audio files used in HTML widgets are not DRM (digital rights management) protected."
FWIW
The interactivity is far, far more than simple indexing and glossary-lookup. I downloaded Apple's "Yellow Submarine" book a month or two ago. (Looking back on it, it's obvious that they were putting blood in the water for iBooks Author.) Every page had interactive elements; I could tap on an image and a relevant song would play, or a video, or a picture that was interactive, not static. If I recall correctly, the iPad would have read the book out loud.
I've downloaded iBooks Author and am looking at it now. You can add interactive images, image galleries, movies, audio, review questions, Keynote presentations(!), interactive 3D objects, and HTML.
I'm a college physics instructor; I am salivating at the potential of this for a physics textbook. What if my students could, for example, tap on the each of the terms in a conservation of momentum equation (as an interactive graphical element) and the book would tell them the physical meaning of each symbol, and then run a movie showing (say) a collision of two objects (elastic? inelastic? 1-d? 2-d?). Or have a 3-d plot of an electric field that they could rotate right there in their textbook? How about have the relevant (and CURRENT) Wikipedia article pop up INSIDE their textbook? Did a topic get out of date ("hey, we found the Higgs a week after you published your textbook!") No problem, a quick update and the new info is in the book!
I agree with another poster, at this time I cannot justify requiring an iPad (or anything technological that my school doesn't provide), but I definitely see this style of textbook--on whatever platform--as the future. As long as e-texts are simply photonic versions of paper books, I see little value in them. But add this interactivity, and...the possibilities to really transform student learning are breathtaking.
From Google Translate: "Customer feedback" --> "Internet shitstorm"
"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman.
Or, "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Hell, anything by Neil Gaiman.
No no no, for the love of God, no!!!
A major aspect of the show is the fact that it is small-screen. Its roots are in the campiness that the early shows had, and that occurred because of the tiny budget and fast turnaround. The effect of that can still been seen today.
The campiness and fun will be eliminated in a Hollywood blockbuster treatment, and it will turn into just another sex-and-explosions vehicle.
And you were modded +4 Insightful. Followup comment?
Read the book "The Limits To Growth--The 30 Year Update"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth
Many people dismiss this book; but, from the wikipedia article:
It's been a couple of years since I read the 30-year update edition, but I recall being unnerved by how accurate their predictions have been up to that point; and I see no reason to think things will change. It is not going to be pretty.
A guy fell off the Empire State Building. As he passed the 30th floor, he said to himself, "I'm okay so far!"
Almost; you'd actually be (1/sqrt(2))*married + ((1/sqrt(2))*single. But, imagine the superpositions!
The only way that could happen is if a bunch of people all put the words "Robert Soloway" and "Spam king" together on a major website that Google crawls.
Doesn't seem likely...
So which is it?
Neither. She was not complaining about her employer, so it is a false comparison./p>
The closest I think you could come to it is that she was complaining about her working conditions. Not the same thing.
So tell me: In your fantasy world, who exactly writes that wikipedia article, the one that makes you an "expert"?
Sorry son, but that's all *you* got out of college. *You* didn't actually learn anything except trivia.
As a college physics prof, I can tell you--I have students *every single quarter* who are motivated, interested, and get a huge amount out of their classes (not just mine). They use their classes as the starting point of their intellectual explorations, not as a barrier.
Oh, and btw: Did it ever occur to you that maybe the reason college was so valueless to you is that you cheated rather than studied?
The inestimable Nate Silver referees:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/how-much-does-bing-borrow-from-google/
This is seriously cool. If they perfect it, the cars won't even need people to be in them; they could drive themselves, and we could stay home!
Sorry, can't help it: "Seminal event". Har!
This I agree with. Amazon has every right to not sell a book, but no right to take it back without permission or recompense.
I don't like Amazon's decision, but it's their right. They are NOT the government.
I shop at Whole Foods Market. They refuse to sell any products that contain high fructose corn syrup; their business model involves looking, acting, and (hopefully) being healthier than the other grocery chains. Can I reasonably complain that they are attacking my freedom of choice by not selling products that contain HFCS? I have to go to a second store to get Twinkies, but I knew when I went to WF that I would not be able to find Twinkies there.
If you want incest-related fiction, you will have to shop somewhere that sells it. Amazon chooses not to.
In the interest of science: http://side6.dk/6-galleri/
Glad to help.
(Personally, I think this material is more appropriate to an android...
Seattle area, iPhone, AT&T, fully satisfied. No problems.
(Plus, the SB baristas all know my drink, so I don't take up time ordering it. :-) )