The school systems are experiencing problems that are institutional and profoundly anti-educational. I don't believe the problem with schools is funding or ability. I think the problem is that they are not really interested in improving their methods or looking too closely at their results.
The people generally in charge of a school system are usually people who did well in that or a similar school system. They have no interest in changing things, because that's what worked for them.
... it takes a moderate or right-wing news source to critically look at public education, the Unions and administration. Reason will look at it, so might the Atlantic but the New York Times sure isn't going to.
... In retirement, he divided his time between California and Bolivia, where he complained that several schools were named after him but had given him no money for the rights.
One reason why they usually wait until someone dies to name something after the person.
As an aside, Purdue University was named after John Purdue, and not only did the state of Indiana not pay him anything for the name, he had to bequeath many acres of land to get them to put his name on it.
We have the "speed warning" signs in the US, at least in Virginia. Some are permanent, some are on mobile platforms. I think they'd have more effect they all *looked* like they had cameras.
Herndon Virginia had traffic lights that switched to red if you were speeding. AFAIK, they've removed them, but I don't know why. Given the way Virginians drive, the light was probably always red until traffic backed up past the sensor.
The misguided part of all this is going after Gamestop. The fault lies with the publisher advertising free dlc and requiring payment. Gamestop is just a store who sold you the used game.
And if Gamestop altered the box to match reality, they could be sued by the publishers for messing with their trademarks or somesuch. i.e. Some people legally bought Barbie(tm) dolls, modded and sold them. Mattel(tm) sued because they didn't want BDSM Barbie.
They *paid* money to someone for their invention. Someone, supposedly,
figured out something interesting, and, for whatever reason, decided
to take his money and run rather than let the invention stagnate.
Did they pay more than the cost of getting the patent in the first place? Can someone make a living selling patents to companies like IV?
Why this matters: If you can make a living creating stuff, then selling the patents to people who actually build stuff, then the patent system mostly works. If they are only finding almost dead patent holders, crushed by the system, offering them pennies on the dollar, then the system could use some tweaking.
An amazing number of inventors died penniless and insane. Even Thomas Jefferson died deeply in debt. What does that say about our society that the people who make the most profound impact on our lives are often the least rewarded.
Whenever a capitalist talks about "adding value" or "creating wealth", they're really talking about creating scarcity.
Yes, that's true for companies that build "brands", rather than making a better product.
But, for Adam Smithites, anything you do to a product to make it more salable is "adding value."
For instance, you could grow trees, but most people don't have a use for a full grown tree. If you cut it into firewood, you've added value to the tree, and more people will pay you more money for the firewood, than for a full sized tree. If you instead turn the trees into fine furniture, you can get paid even more.
The problem with taking it to court is that it is very expensive.
Enter the patent troll. If they can make threatening you, and having you pay them cheaper than you defending yourself in court, they win. Since they do this in bulk, they've beat the system.
If you can remember all that, you can remember your password.
On the other hand, if you use the same obfuscation on multiple web sites, then you are protected from the general population, but not from someone who can get ahold of your secret answers from several sites. Rot13 isn't too hard to figure out. Then they can log into all the sites that you've protected this way.
Secret Question/Answer is not a good way to secure a system.
In cars, the problem is that higher temperatures leads to Nitrogen Oxides, which contribute to smog.
Since this thing burns Air and Fuel, he needs some secret sauce to keep the NOx compounds from forming, or some way to break them down after they are created. Perhaps the Nitrogen won't pass whatever barrier that keeps the electrodes apart.
Well, something like 1/4 kids nationwide is on government food aide.
Huh? Where do you live? Zimbabwe?
The USA.
"According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September 1996, 13.8% of Americans live in poverty. Many more are on the borderline. Poverty affects all ages, but an astonishing 48% percent of its victims are children."
22% of Americans under the age of 18 -- and 25% under age 12 -- are hungry or at the risk of being hungry.
Those numbers would have been from the 1990 census.
The USA has a boatload of rich, childless people. (Most rich people with children only have one or two. The poor tend to have many more.)
A peeping Tom would get prison, how is this not the same thing only worse? School administrators should be made to realize that they're not gods, and the kids and their parents have rights.
Back when cars had mechanical locks, most car companies only had about 200 different keys. I've know several people who've unlocked/started the wrong car, including one enlisted guy who drove his Captain's car off base.
"Very badly damaged iPhones draw attention because they turn up in a state that even being driven over by a car or dropped from a tall building will fail to achieve."
Doesn't anyone know how to use static electricity to destroy electronics anymore? 500,000 volts from a Van DeGraff will punch holes in just about any insulator.
"Without a ramjet, you'd probably run out of fuel before reaching 99.999998 per cent of the speed of light."
By the time you can reach the speeds where Interstellar dust and hydrogen are a problem, we'll have the tech to either deflect or scoop it. Right now, we can't do either, but it's not a problem because we can't go that fast.
Seriously, any number of sci-fi authors have covered this problem in enormous detail over the last few decades
Yes, any number of sci-fi authors have handwaved around these problems for the last few years. Actual scientists, not so much. And, as with TFA, the conclusions of the ones that have been less than sanguine. (From the POV of actually doing it.)
Robert W. Bussard (August 11, 1928 – October 6, 2007) was an American physicist who worked primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. He was the recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004.[1] He was also a fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics.
At that point I grabbed my meter and verified it was off and then shorted the terminals with a screw driver to be doubly sure.
Damn straight. Any competent lineman after verifying that the line is dead, puts a shorting jumper across it so that if someone back at the station turns the line back on, the lineman doesn't wind up dead. (except for the crazy-ass guys that are working on live lines)
But back to your original question, why would *I* personally take the chance? Because in my younger days I *liked* blowing things up. (:-) Now, I'm older and wiser and sometimes shutter with an accumulative attack of the willies when I think about the things I did.
I this case, I guess the value of running the lines straight through exceeds the cost of clearing the mines.
5Kg of modern explosive will explode the mine even if the mine's explosives are inert. If there's no secondary explosion, the contents will be dissipated enough to make them harmless.
All surgery has risks. If you are 100% comfortable having anything installed anywhere inside you, you're naive or misinformed. I wasn't 100% comfortable when my daughter had earrings installed in her ears, and that procedure is mostly reversible.
That said, when brain implants are 10x safer than LASIK is now, (and as cheap) I'll go for it.
He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.
So... If you go to hospital, you might be safer with a stoned surgeon, than one who's been up for 36 hours? Strange, the things we make illegal, and the things we don't.
Slashdot Mirror
The school systems are experiencing problems that are institutional and profoundly anti-educational. I don't believe the problem with schools is funding or ability. I think the problem is that they are not really interested in improving their methods or looking too closely at their results.
The people generally in charge of a school system are usually people who did well in that or a similar school system. They have no interest in changing things, because that's what worked for them.
... it takes a moderate or right-wing news source to critically look at public education, the Unions and administration. Reason will look at it, so might the Atlantic but the New York Times sure isn't going to.
The Washington Post can be rather left leaning, but the education columnist, Jay Mathews, wrote a book on Jamie Escalante and often refers to his methods in his column. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033003629.html?sid=ST2010033003904
Then where would you get the money to pay the football coaches?
... In retirement, he divided his time between California and Bolivia, where he complained that several schools were named after him but had given him no money for the rights.
One reason why they usually wait until someone dies to name something after the person.
As an aside, Purdue University was named after John Purdue, and not only did the state of Indiana not pay him anything for the name, he had to bequeath many acres of land to get them to put his name on it.
We have the "speed warning" signs in the US, at least in Virginia. Some are permanent, some are on mobile platforms. I think they'd have more effect they all *looked* like they had cameras.
Herndon Virginia had traffic lights that switched to red if you were speeding. AFAIK, they've removed them, but I don't know why. Given the way Virginians drive, the light was probably always red until traffic backed up past the sensor.
The misguided part of all this is going after Gamestop. The fault lies with the publisher advertising free dlc and requiring payment. Gamestop is just a store who sold you the used game.
And if Gamestop altered the box to match reality, they could be sued by the publishers for messing with their trademarks or somesuch. i.e. Some people legally bought Barbie(tm) dolls, modded and sold them. Mattel(tm) sued because they didn't want BDSM Barbie.
They *paid* money to someone for their invention. Someone, supposedly, figured out something interesting, and, for whatever reason, decided to take his money and run rather than let the invention stagnate.
Did they pay more than the cost of getting the patent in the first place? Can someone make a living selling patents to companies like IV?
Why this matters: If you can make a living creating stuff, then selling the patents to people who actually build stuff, then the patent system mostly works. If they are only finding almost dead patent holders, crushed by the system, offering them pennies on the dollar, then the system could use some tweaking.
An amazing number of inventors died penniless and insane. Even Thomas Jefferson died deeply in debt. What does that say about our society that the people who make the most profound impact on our lives are often the least rewarded.
Whenever a capitalist talks about "adding value" or "creating wealth", they're really talking about creating scarcity.
Yes, that's true for companies that build "brands", rather than making a better product.
But, for Adam Smithites, anything you do to a product to make it more salable is "adding value."
For instance, you could grow trees, but most people don't have a use for a full grown tree. If you cut it into firewood, you've added value to the tree, and more people will pay you more money for the firewood, than for a full sized tree. If you instead turn the trees into fine furniture, you can get paid even more.
The problem with taking it to court is that it is very expensive.
Enter the patent troll. If they can make threatening you, and having you pay them cheaper than you defending yourself in court, they win. Since they do this in bulk, they've beat the system.
Who says the answer has to be 'right'?
Your memory.
If you can remember all that, you can remember your password.
On the other hand, if you use the same obfuscation on multiple web sites, then you are protected from the general population, but not from someone who can get ahold of your secret answers from several sites. Rot13 isn't too hard to figure out. Then they can log into all the sites that you've protected this way.
Secret Question/Answer is not a good way to secure a system.
In cars, the problem is that higher temperatures leads to Nitrogen Oxides, which contribute to smog.
Since this thing burns Air and Fuel, he needs some secret sauce to keep the NOx compounds from forming, or some way to break them down after they are created. Perhaps the Nitrogen won't pass whatever barrier that keeps the electrodes apart.
The state of CA kicks in a few tax incentives and there are Federal incentives.
These are the first. Once production is geared up, the cost will come down, unless they are using unobtanium in the paints on the ceramic plates.
Well, something like 1/4 kids nationwide is on government food aide.
Huh? Where do you live? Zimbabwe?
The USA.
"According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September 1996, 13.8% of Americans live in poverty. Many more are on the borderline. Poverty affects all ages, but an astonishing 48% percent of its victims are children."
22% of Americans under the age of 18 -- and 25% under age 12 -- are hungry or at the risk of being hungry.
Those numbers would have been from the 1990 census.
The USA has a boatload of rich, childless people. (Most rich people with children only have one or two. The poor tend to have many more.)
A peeping Tom would get prison, how is this not the same thing only worse? School administrators should be made to realize that they're not gods, and the kids and their parents have rights.
Seeing as how Zero Tolerance systems are having 12yo kids taken away in handcuff for drawing on desks, I don't see arresting the school board for this kind of behavior is out of line. http://www.themoneytimes.com/featured/20100206/school-girl-arrested-drawing-school-desk-id-1099589.html (according to that link, it was an erasable marker)
Back when cars had mechanical locks, most car companies only had about 200 different keys. I've know several people who've unlocked/started the wrong car, including one enlisted guy who drove his Captain's car off base.
"Very badly damaged iPhones draw attention because they turn up in a state that even being driven over by a car or dropped from a tall building will fail to achieve."
Doesn't anyone know how to use static electricity to destroy electronics anymore? 500,000 volts from a Van DeGraff will punch holes in just about any insulator.
"Without a ramjet, you'd probably run out of fuel before reaching 99.999998 per cent of the speed of light."
By the time you can reach the speeds where Interstellar dust and hydrogen are a problem, we'll have the tech to either deflect or scoop it. Right now, we can't do either, but it's not a problem because we can't go that fast.
Yes, any number of sci-fi authors have handwaved around these problems for the last few years. Actual scientists, not so much. And, as with TFA, the conclusions of the ones that have been less than sanguine. (From the POV of actually doing it.)
Robert W. Bussard (August 11, 1928 – October 6, 2007) was an American physicist who worked primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. He was the recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004.[1] He was also a fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics.
See also, Bussard ramjet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet
Without a ramjet, you'd probably run out of fuel before reaching 99.999998 per cent of the speed of light.
At that point I grabbed my meter and verified it was off and then shorted the terminals with a screw driver to be doubly sure.
Damn straight. Any competent lineman after verifying that the line is dead, puts a shorting jumper across it so that if someone back at the station turns the line back on, the lineman doesn't wind up dead. (except for the crazy-ass guys that are working on live lines)
But back to your original question, why would *I* personally take the chance? Because in my younger days I *liked* blowing things up. (:-) Now, I'm older and wiser and sometimes shutter with an accumulative attack of the willies when I think about the things I did.
I this case, I guess the value of running the lines straight through exceeds the cost of clearing the mines.
Maybe, but why take the chance? If the mines haven't leaked, the explosives inside may be very unstable.
5Kg of modern explosive will explode the mine even if the mine's explosives are inert. If there's no secondary explosion, the contents will be dissipated enough to make them harmless.
All surgery has risks. If you are 100% comfortable having anything installed anywhere inside you, you're naive or misinformed. I wasn't 100% comfortable when my daughter had earrings installed in her ears, and that procedure is mostly reversible.
That said, when brain implants are 10x safer than LASIK is now, (and as cheap) I'll go for it.
From the article:
So he chose to release his findings in the exact form of what was 'overloading people with information'? A printed book?
I presumed that his book was hand written and hand copied. But, maybe not. I'm sure there are blogs that say how blogging will ruin the world.
I still can't imagine how people live that treat technology like magic. "I don't know how it works, I just turn the key and it goes." -- Alf.
He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.
So... If you go to hospital, you might be safer with a stoned surgeon, than one who's been up for 36 hours? Strange, the things we make illegal, and the things we don't.