You can also think about it this way. If this was conclusive evidence of the axion, it would have been published in Science or Nature. At a minimum, it would be worth a Physical Review Letter. However, it was published in the Journal of Physics G which is somewhat less prestigious.
This is even worse than the pentaquark. The pentaquark might not exist, but at least it was mentioned in Science.
I would maintain that the LOTR movies stayed very faithful to the spirit of the books, while I'm sure that many others would complain about various perceived omissions.
I agree with you that the LotR movies captured the spirit of the books. There were omissions and changes that were not welcomed be all, but hey, you're making three 3.5 hour movies of three incredibly detailed and intricate books.
In Hitchhiker's, one expects the plot changes. Every incarnation of Hitchhiker's is different but they all have an underlying spirit. Clever humour and language rather than slapstick comedy, for example. Excerpts from the long review, however, indicate that the cleverness of Adams has been lost. Getting slapped in the face with a rake? I expect that from The Simpsons, not Hitchhiker's. The review gives many more examples of beautiful humour that has been gutted for the sake of nothing at all.
It's not the plot changes that are unsettling, it's the loss of the original's spirit. That is what makes this criticism different from the LotR movies.
I read both the long review with spoilers and the review you suggested above. They flat out contradict each other. The long review makes specific claims and gives examples, which are unfortunately spoilers, about how the movie does not conform to the spirit of previous incarnations. The review you cite makes the following statement: "[The movie is] almost shockingly eccentric and manages to stay very faithful to the spirit of all the previous incarnations of the story while alsocontributing some fascinating new ideas to the overall mythos."
Unfortunately, the long review is specific enough that while I do not agree with all his points, I fear that the spirit of Hitchhiker's has been left out of the movie.
HS was fun and I did enjoy a select few classes but for the most part everything else was a waste of time generally designed to prepare students for the years ahead...
In my opinion college was even worse.
Maybe you should have gone to a tech-school instead of college. A university is not a vocational school. Computer science, for instance, is the science of computation. At its best it is essentially applied mathematics. However, many people think that it is Java/C# vocational training. Herein lies the problem. Universities should be teaching people to be well-rounded in their knowledge and be able to apply diverse areas of knowledge to solve problems. Notice the trend over the last decade or so to multidisciplinary programs, such as bioinformatics. However, most undergrads resist being well-rounded and just want to 'get a job' after graduating. Maybe they should be going to tech-schools rather than universities. Then maybe universities could stop wasting their time training employees and concentrate on training problem solvers.
Prepared properly? I just buy a bag at the store, and while I'm at home, I grab one from the bag and eat it.
Absolutely! The only thing better is a carrot straight from my garden. Given that I live in western Canada, I have to settle for the store bought carrots this time of year.
Just because one event happens after another does not mean that event 1 caused event 2. I know, it is a necessary evil to have limited size studies, but after hearing the 10th or 11th flip-flop over if eggs are going to kill me or save me, I can't put too much faith in this.
This is one of the major problems between communicating science from scientists to lay people. For instance, I have two rather large binders sitting on my desk. These binders are filled with journal articles from 1949 to the present and are all concerned with a nuclear measurement of Helium-4. After 55 years, there is less than a consensus. If you approach each article and read about the experimental set-up, how the experiment was performed and the statistics used, it makes sense. However, to put it together with the big picture requires much interpretation. The interpretation of the results seems to change about every decade or so.
This is the way science is really done. There's no factual certainty in current research. There is only interpretation.
...that an educated population, will produce more people believing they are competent to lead.
It's also a major theme in the book Brave New World. The book suggests that one cannot have a society of only alphas. You need the betas, gammas, deltas and epsilon-semi-morons.
But for the whole open source movement? Please. The only thing the top downloads shows is that people would rather pirate good windows games than bother downloading free mediocre games.
Why do we Americans always seem to assume that we're somehow that much smarter than everyone else, and if we keep our research secret then the Chinese, or Indians, or God forbid, the Canadians won't figure it out on their own?
I really liked your post, but I wanted to add just one thing. In today's scientific world, it's not possible for one nation to 'go it alone' on large projects. Look at the ISS or ITER. They survive because they are international projects. National projects, like the Superconducting Supercollider, have a habit of getting cancelled.
Well, it is simple: They will carry a card with them.
Only if it takes a reasonable amount of time to get a card (less than 4 months). My group sends undergraduate and graduate students to the US for experience and collaboration. An undergraduate assistant or master's student is only around for 4 months to 2 years so if the process takes too long or is too difficult, then we will have to collaborate elsewhere.
Your historical examples are fine and good. However, they correspond to times that had a beginning and an end. The war on terrorism may go on indefinitely.
If you're a foreign researcher or student, photo ID includes the passport from your country of origin. PIV requires going to wherever they give these out, supplying an array of biometric information, submitting to yet another background check, etc.
This bites. I am a Canadian graduate student and my group collaborates with a DoE lab in the United States. Already, this lab has had problems with foreign collaborators who are not from Canada, Europe or Australia being denied entry to the country. This lab has already lost some of its top people due to Homeland Security kicking them out (i.e. not renewing their visas). Furthermore, they have had problems bringing in collaborators with unique expertise required to upgrade laboratory equipment.
Our Canadian group sends undergraduate and graduate students to this lab to gain experience through our collaboration. We have a large stake in this lab, and have a lot of equipment there. If we can't send our undergraduates and master's students, because of the long wait times to go through the background check, then what is the point of collaborating with the US? We'll have to pack up our equipment and send it to our collaborators in Germany or Sweden.
Nuclear Reaction produces heat
Heat produces steam
Steam turns turbines
Turbines make power
PROFIT!!!
Nasty alphas/betas/gammas/neutrons from radioactive waste
????
Steam turns turbines
Turbines make power
PROFIT!!!
If you can fill in the ????, then you have it made. Radiation such as that from nuclear waste does a much better job of shredding your tissues than it does boiling water.
But anything that suggests that the US is anti-science and politically vindictive automatically gets a +5 insightful.
It is true. The new draconian security-based policy over the last few years has had a large, direct and negative impact on my colleagues in the United States, and therefore on my (Canadian) research as well. The policy may be designed to stop terror, but it is also causing serious and possibly devastating problems for legitimate foreign (i.e. other than Canada, Australia, Japan, western Europe,and don't forget about Poland) collaboration.
Liza Frulla, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
It's even free (in Canada) if you make sure you put the "MP" someplace on the envelope. E-mails are great but snail-mail gives that nice official touch that says I took the time to fire up Word or OpenOffice and print off a letter that I then mailed on my way to work.
While you're at it, e-mail Paul Martin and tell him you support/oppose missile deffence, gay marriage or whatever issue is burning you:
Right Hon. Paul Martin, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
A PC user uses his machine to perform a task and thinks little of the machine itself. A Mac, on the other hand, is a key component of an integrated lifestyle.
I wish someone had told me this BEFORE i bought my iBook last week... If I had known that it would require a lifestyle change, I'd have gotten another thinkpad.
I wouldn't worry about the sheep. That's what TLD's(thermoluminescent dosimeter) and graduate students are for.
The sheep are actually there to detect neutrinos.
[A] long-anticipated program meant to encourage companies to provide the federal government with confidential information about vulnerabilities in critical systems...
We will know for sure if supersymmetry holds it's ground by 2007, when the Large Hadron Collider will commence operation.
We'll know for sure that supersymmetry holds it's own when we find an selectron. However, I find it odd that we have a standard modle full of particles, but yet have not found any of their sparticles. Is it that sparticles are beyond the range of todays accelerators or is it that they don't exist? The only thing for certain is that it will ensure employment for a few particle physicists.
Slashdot Mirror
You can also think about it this way. If this was conclusive evidence of the axion, it would have been published in Science or Nature. At a minimum, it would be worth a Physical Review Letter. However, it was published in the Journal of Physics G which is somewhat less prestigious. This is even worse than the pentaquark. The pentaquark might not exist, but at least it was mentioned in Science.
I agree with you that the LotR movies captured the spirit of the books. There were omissions and changes that were not welcomed be all, but hey, you're making three 3.5 hour movies of three incredibly detailed and intricate books.
In Hitchhiker's, one expects the plot changes. Every incarnation of Hitchhiker's is different but they all have an underlying spirit. Clever humour and language rather than slapstick comedy, for example. Excerpts from the long review, however, indicate that the cleverness of Adams has been lost. Getting slapped in the face with a rake? I expect that from The Simpsons, not Hitchhiker's. The review gives many more examples of beautiful humour that has been gutted for the sake of nothing at all.
It's not the plot changes that are unsettling, it's the loss of the original's spirit. That is what makes this criticism different from the LotR movies.
I read both the long review with spoilers and the review you suggested above. They flat out contradict each other. The long review makes specific claims and gives examples, which are unfortunately spoilers, about how the movie does not conform to the spirit of previous incarnations. The review you cite makes the following statement: "[The movie is] almost shockingly eccentric and manages to stay very faithful to the spirit of all the previous incarnations of the story while alsocontributing some fascinating new ideas to the overall mythos."
Unfortunately, the long review is specific enough that while I do not agree with all his points, I fear that the spirit of Hitchhiker's has been left out of the movie.
Maybe you should have gone to a tech-school instead of college. A university is not a vocational school. Computer science, for instance, is the science of computation. At its best it is essentially applied mathematics. However, many people think that it is Java/C# vocational training. Herein lies the problem. Universities should be teaching people to be well-rounded in their knowledge and be able to apply diverse areas of knowledge to solve problems. Notice the trend over the last decade or so to multidisciplinary programs, such as bioinformatics. However, most undergrads resist being well-rounded and just want to 'get a job' after graduating. Maybe they should be going to tech-schools rather than universities. Then maybe universities could stop wasting their time training employees and concentrate on training problem solvers.
Absolutely! The only thing better is a carrot straight from my garden. Given that I live in western Canada, I have to settle for the store bought carrots this time of year.
This is one of the major problems between communicating science from scientists to lay people. For instance, I have two rather large binders sitting on my desk. These binders are filled with journal articles from 1949 to the present and are all concerned with a nuclear measurement of Helium-4. After 55 years, there is less than a consensus. If you approach each article and read about the experimental set-up, how the experiment was performed and the statistics used, it makes sense. However, to put it together with the big picture requires much interpretation. The interpretation of the results seems to change about every decade or so.
This is the way science is really done. There's no factual certainty in current research. There is only interpretation.
It's also a major theme in the book Brave New World. The book suggests that one cannot have a society of only alphas. You need the betas, gammas, deltas and epsilon-semi-morons.
Personally, I'm interested in who funds them. It's easy to buy scientific disinformation if you have the resources of an oil company.
Shh... don't give it away. We still have to keep it a secret for another 70 years so we can work out the bugs.
All you Sarge users say it with me:
apt-get install bzflag
But for the whole open source movement? Please. The only thing the top downloads shows is that people would rather pirate good windows games than bother downloading free mediocre games.
While it may be true that open source games lag proprietary ones, Battle for Wesnoth and Freeciv have taken on lives of their own. They beet out BZFlag on the happy penguin top ranked games.
I really liked your post, but I wanted to add just one thing. In today's scientific world, it's not possible for one nation to 'go it alone' on large projects. Look at the ISS or ITER. They survive because they are international projects. National projects, like the Superconducting Supercollider, have a habit of getting cancelled.
Only if it takes a reasonable amount of time to get a card (less than 4 months). My group sends undergraduate and graduate students to the US for experience and collaboration. An undergraduate assistant or master's student is only around for 4 months to 2 years so if the process takes too long or is too difficult, then we will have to collaborate elsewhere.
Your historical examples are fine and good. However, they correspond to times that had a beginning and an end. The war on terrorism may go on indefinitely.
If you're a foreign researcher or student, photo ID includes the passport from your country of origin. PIV requires going to wherever they give these out, supplying an array of biometric information, submitting to yet another background check, etc.
This bites. I am a Canadian graduate student and my group collaborates with a DoE lab in the United States. Already, this lab has had problems with foreign collaborators who are not from Canada, Europe or Australia being denied entry to the country. This lab has already lost some of its top people due to Homeland Security kicking them out (i.e. not renewing their visas). Furthermore, they have had problems bringing in collaborators with unique expertise required to upgrade laboratory equipment.
Our Canadian group sends undergraduate and graduate students to this lab to gain experience through our collaboration. We have a large stake in this lab, and have a lot of equipment there. If we can't send our undergraduates and master's students, because of the long wait times to go through the background check, then what is the point of collaborating with the US? We'll have to pack up our equipment and send it to our collaborators in Germany or Sweden.
Look, it's raining nuclear waste all over North America because the rocket blew up! TLD's (Thermoluminescent Dosimeters) for everyone!
Nuclear Reaction produces heat
Heat produces steam
Steam turns turbines
Turbines make power
PROFIT!!!
Nasty alphas/betas/gammas/neutrons from radioactive waste
????
Steam turns turbines
Turbines make power
PROFIT!!!
If you can fill in the ????, then you have it made. Radiation such as that from nuclear waste does a much better job of shredding your tissues than it does boiling water.
But anything that suggests that the US is anti-science and politically vindictive automatically gets a +5 insightful.
It is true. The new draconian security-based policy over the last few years has had a large, direct and negative impact on my colleagues in the United States, and therefore on my (Canadian) research as well. The policy may be designed to stop terror, but it is also causing serious and possibly devastating problems for legitimate foreign (i.e. other than Canada, Australia, Japan, western Europe,and don't forget about Poland) collaboration.
Not legal. A bill to decriminalize (not legalize) marijuana has been re-introduced to the house. May pass, may not.
Canada legalized gay marriage.
Only legal in some provinces. However, unless our minority government collapses, it will likely be legal very soon.
euthanasia
Not even close. However, there was recently an interesting case concerning assisted suicide in BC.
You can also mail Liza Frulla at:
Liza Frulla, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
It's even free (in Canada) if you make sure you put the "MP" someplace on the envelope. E-mails are great but snail-mail gives that nice official touch that says I took the time to fire up Word or OpenOffice and print off a letter that I then mailed on my way to work.
While you're at it, e-mail Paul Martin and tell him you support/oppose missile deffence, gay marriage or whatever issue is burning you:
Right Hon. Paul Martin, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
A PC user uses his machine to perform a task and thinks little of the machine itself. A Mac, on the other hand, is a key component of an integrated lifestyle.
/
I wish someone had told me this BEFORE i bought my iBook last week... If I had known that it would require a lifestyle change, I'd have gotten another thinkpad.
Integrated Lifestyle=
| lifestyle dMac
/
I wouldn't worry about the sheep. That's what TLD's(thermoluminescent dosimeter) and graduate students are for. The sheep are actually there to detect neutrinos.
[A] long-anticipated program meant to encourage companies to provide the federal government with confidential information about vulnerabilities in critical systems...
You can find the vulnerabilities in my systems at http://www.debian.org/security/.
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
This may be just the beginning of a mad rush to drop a registration gate on the major news sites.
It'll be a mad rush when and only when the Onion requires a subscription.
We will know for sure if supersymmetry holds it's ground by 2007, when the Large Hadron Collider will commence operation.
We'll know for sure that supersymmetry holds it's own when we find an selectron. However, I find it odd that we have a standard modle full of particles, but yet have not found any of their sparticles. Is it that sparticles are beyond the range of todays accelerators or is it that they don't exist? The only thing for certain is that it will ensure employment for a few particle physicists.