I'm not convinced that mathematics is a science, but the question is one of semantics I suppose. My position is that, string theory's not being a science (which I don't have a strong feeling about either) would not mean that string theory is quackery or some sort of con game, which was the opinion I inferred from the writeup.
I agree that if string theory isn't testable, then it isn't science (yet). However, it IS mathematics (which often isn't science either, often dealing with strange systems which have no basis in reality), and as mathematics it is certainly a worthwhile field of study. (There are a lot of physicists out there who are basically doing mathematics.)
And of course, eventually someone might come up with a way to test the string theories, and then they'll definitely be science.:)
Just in firearms alone it is amazing what people think a gun can do and want to legislate against it (sometimes proposed legislation is *detrimental* to safety)
For our edification as voters, what sort of legislation do you have in mind?
How is attending class an important part of the educational process?
From the perspective of a young college physics professor (i.e., me):
1. With some subjects, in-class discussion IS the learning mechanism; you learn a lot more by participating in discussion than by listening to other people discuss things.
2. In some classes, your absence can be detrimental to the experience of the other students; particularly in discussion classes.
3. Some in-class demonstrations may work a lot better live than on the small screen, even in a large class. I remember a Psych 101 class (100 students) that involved a very effective psychological demonstration, which I don't think would have worked as well.
4. Interaction during class allows professors to gauge how quickly they need to move through the material. If I'm teaching a class for the first time, I have great difficulty knowing how long it will take me to cover the first chapter of the book, for example, because I don't know how much I will have to say so that the students will understand. So I ask questions (using a show of hands or volunteers) during class to gauge their understanding, and adjust accordingly. I can't do that if no one shows up. (Yes, some professors lecture without any interaction, and without any concern for their class's understanding; the good teachers don't.)
5. There are some classes (stadium classes, classes with particularly non-interactive professors) where it probably doesn't hurt at all to watch the class remotely. However, college students are still young, and they can't always be counted on to tell the difference. Podcasts, therefore, may serve as a temptation which a freshman, drunk on the freedom of college (or just drunk), can't ignore. (Too bad for them maybe, but professors tend to care about their students' success a little more than that.) This is not a new practice; teachers often introduce assignments which serve to keep their students working at a steady, responsible pace (for example: writing teachers who require several drafts of a paper, or teachers who give reading quizzes every week, etc.) This sort of stuff tends to fade out in higher-level courses as students become more trustworthy, but freshmen often need a helpful push.
As for when the power goes out, what happens with people in power chairs when the juice gives out? You end up with this heavy-assed chair that's moderately hard...to push.
Yeah, but they're not typically perched in the middle of a stairway at the time.
Pluto does not dominate its orbit around the sun, it shares it with Charon, they spin around each other, one is not a moon of the other.
Does that mean that a pair of gas giants orbiting one another would not be considered planets, simply because they share an orbit? If the Moon were rather bigger, would Earth suddenly lose its planetary status, because it shares its orbit with the Moon? I would rather call these examples "double planets".
The issue of Pluto not clearing its orbit does not refer to Charon, IIUC, but to Neptune, which crosses Pluto's orbit twice.
Hear hear! People who are grumbling about how people are so conservative that they can't stand demoting Pluto, seem themselves to be attached to the idea that there can only be a handful of planets in our Solar System.
I think "dwarf planet" is the right idea, but I would add one change: call the "big 8" something like "major planets", so that the majors and the dwarfs both fit under the umbrella of "planets". That would make the Pluto-lovers happy, it would make those of us who get excited about "new planets" happy, it would make the schoolteachers happy (don't make the kids memorize all the planets, just the major planets).
The only other idea I have is to call Pluto a "honorary planet", like we give people honorary doctorates. It means Pluto won't actually be able to practice law, but it still gets to hang a diploma on its wall.
I don't think it's worse, and it may even be a bit better, for having a tiny little bit of logic on its side. Mind you, we are trying to do a quantitative comparison of evil, which seems to bother some people (including the moderator who marked me flamebait above?;P ) Saying that one behavior is less evil than another does not suggest that it is in any way good, but there are still people who get really upset when one suggests that the terrorists in the Middle East might actually have some valid grievances against the West, even if they go much too far in expressing those grievances.
(Oh, and what other controversial topics can I work into this thread? Maybe I should just shut up now?:)
We don't teach elementary school kids history because we want them to grow up to be historians; we teach it to them to give them a more rounded education, an appreciation of history, a new way of looking at the world, and exposure to a subject which, even if it doesn't become their profession, might at least become a source of fun and an output for creativity.
Teach programming for the same reasons. Computers are everywhere; if people knew how to program they might have a better appreciation of how software works, and they might even enjoy programming for fun, as a hobby. (I know I do.) If they use open-source software, they may be tempted to make changes to improve it: voila! a whole new generation of contributors to the open-source movement. If they get into the habit of it, they will learn to value the ability to see and change the source, which may lead them to spurn closed-source alternatives. (No, I don't mean everyone, but a growing number over time.)
I started learning BASIC at age 8 on my Vic-20, and while I'm not a professional programmer or computer scientist, I AM a theoretical physicist, and the ability to program has been vital to my career. No doubt, the same is true for many other fields as well.
Far-right and far-left zealots have a lot more in common than they like to admit.
Particularly in the case of animal rights and anti-abortion circles. Both believe that a certain group of organisms (animals/fetuses) posess the same rights as humans, a postulate not accepted by the majority of people. Accepting such a postulate, both groups see the mass torture/slaughter of millions of human-equivalents every year, dwarfing (or at least equalling) the number of dead in wars around the globe. If you accept their postulate as true, then animal experimentation / abortion really is a terrible crime, and extreme measures are seen as justified to stop it.
Just a single postulate; unfortunately, those are the hardest to change.
Aye, there's the rub. One place to find people with management skills is at a label. They'll take care of calling radio stations for airplay, sending promotional versions out, arrange tour dates, and getting your name known in the business. All you have to do is be creative.
But surely there exist such people as "agents" in the music business too? (Not rhetorical; I really don't know.) People who will do all the above things, and work for you rather than vice versa?
If not, maybe there will be soon; if so, they might become more dominant as newer, more net-savvy bands avoid the clutches of the MAFIAA.
I'm using iTunes to listen to generic MP3/whatever podcasts which, yes, I can listen to on non-Apple software/hardware. (I only own Apple hardware, but still....) I don't even have to go through the Music Store; there's a menu item called "Subscribe to Podcast" where I type in a web address. Apple could have made a distinction between "podcasts" from the iTMS and, I don't know, "audio stories" from the web. The fact that they call both types "podcasts" suggests an implicit recognition of the term as a generic description. (At least by the software designers, that is; the legal department might have something to say about it, if it's pointed out to them.)
Not the strongest argument in the world, mind you....
Well, iTunes lets you subscribe to "Podcasts" (their word) without an iPod; I don't know if this contradicts your statement or not. If they were opposed to NPR shows being called "Podcasts", they would probably start by calling them something else on the iTunes Music Store.
If someone ever had an interest in underestimating the true numbers and downplaying the magnitude of the Holocaust, it would be the Nazis themselves.
Not if they were proud of the Holocaust (which they probably were), and if they expected no greater sentence for having killed millions of Jews, instead of "only a million" (or whatever).
They only have that control as long as the government gives it to them, and copyright does not grant absolute control even now. For instance, a song, once commercially released, can be "covered" by another band with the payment of a certain set fee; the copyright holder can't prevent the release of the cover song. A similar situation could be set up for these "chop shops", at the least.
Oh, of course...although there are certainly shows and movies out there which I basically enjoyed, except for one or two bits I found repulsive for whatever reason. I'm content to fast-forward or grit my teeth, but I'm not as easily offended.
That's beside the point, though. The thing is, if the MPAA tries to use this ruling to expand their power over copyright, they may find the religious right in opposition to them (whether for a good reason or not), and that would be a battle worth watching.:)
Something tells me the MPAA has an ideal court case for extending their powers, here. I mean, 99% of the population would glance at this case and declare: "Cutting the naughty bits out of movies is bad!" or "Hur hur hur, take dat you stupid rednecks!"
Given the current political power of those "rednecks", I wonder if the opposite won't happen: a group of loud social conservatives voting to protect the rights of parents to protect their children from the naughty bits.
I have suffered from panic attacks in the past, including a week-long low-grade panic during a trip to North Carolina early in my post-doc. It has helped to me to learn as much about panic as I could. I like to think of them as being like a mental cramp, particularly a cramp in a muscle which you can't stretch (I get cramps under my jaw, for instance): there's nothing you can do to stop the cramp, but it won't do any permanent damage, so all you can do is ride it out. Same with panic: you can't fight it, you just have to ride it out. (This article may be helpful too.)
Although I am still an anxious person by nature, I haven't had a panic attack in a couple of years, and I've been off all anti-anxiety medication for the past year. It's not easy, but learning to treat the panic attack like a mere inconvenience is the best way to get over them. There are many techniques which can help you do that, which I won't go into here. If you're of a scientific bent, you might try analyzing the panic attack as an eyewitness in the name of science ("Fascinating, my heart rate seems to have increased...."). A good therapist can help you learn appropriate coping strategies. If you find yourself prone to frequent panic attacks, then a short-term anti-anxiety medication like Xanax can be a huge relief while you develop said coping strategies; said medication is meant for use as needed (like an aspirin, although more addictive) rather than for long-term or daily use.
And, while panic attacks don't have to make sense, it might be a good idea to think about whether there are any big stresses in your life which you may be bottling up. Something to do with databases, maybe? (Maybe you're worried about the U.S. government storing information about you, or the insecurity of credit card numbers in corporations' databases, or something.:)
taking a grand from SCO doesn't have to cost you your integrity. there's no commit to do any development is there? just go through the training. sleep through it even!
Sign a contract with a venemously litigious company like SCO and...SCO owns your ass (and any code you write might well be considered "tainted").
Maybe my mom should sign up: she's not likely to write any code SCO would want (or any code at all, for that matter), and she can sleep through most things.
...today Microsoft announced their plans to open a chain of discount retail stores to compete with companies like WalMart and Target. Tentatively called "WinMart", the new stores will carry a large assortment of grocery, clothing, and electronics items, including all the latest Microsoft software releases. "Businesses have to expand to survive," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "As we already control the operating system and productivity markets, we felt a need to expand into a completely unrelated field. Plus, WalMart seems to be very successful; we'd like to put them out of business as we have done to so many other successful companies in the past."
Microsoft will seek to promote synergy between their software and retail arms. "Using a complex algorithm, our exciting new operating system Vista will be able to learn all about its users tastes and habits, through analysis of their websurfing and other computer activities. We can then send our customers personalized circulars containing exciting and valuable coupons for the things they need to buy most. Plus, if they have a webcam connected to their computer, we will be able to store their likeness in our centralized database, and store greeters will be able to welcome them by name as they enter the store."....
Slashdot Mirror
around here it's blasphemy to admit that you bought a pre-made system rather than building your own.
Hi, my name is LihTox, and I buy pre-made computers. (Or maybe laptops don't count?)
It's important to know that, if you do not build your own computer, then you are not alone. Join the NGEA (Not-Geeky-Enough Anonymous) today!
I was going to say, claiming to have coded html when you were young isn't claiming much in the way of seniority, either.
:P
I code html in vt100 emulation, but I use emacs.
You know, there are folks out there who would call what these hackers are doing an act of terrorism.
And now, with the elimination of habeas corpus, they should probably stay out of the U.S.
I'm not convinced that mathematics is a science, but the question is one of semantics I suppose. My position is that, string theory's not being a science (which I don't have a strong feeling about either) would not mean that string theory is quackery or some sort of con game, which was the opinion I inferred from the writeup.
I agree that if string theory isn't testable, then it isn't science (yet). However, it IS mathematics (which often isn't science either, often dealing with strange systems which have no basis in reality), and as mathematics it is certainly a worthwhile field of study. (There are a lot of physicists out there who are basically doing mathematics.)
:)
And of course, eventually someone might come up with a way to test the string theories, and then they'll definitely be science.
Just in firearms alone it is amazing what people think a gun can do and want to legislate against it (sometimes proposed legislation is *detrimental* to safety)
For our edification as voters, what sort of legislation do you have in mind?
How is attending class an important part of the educational process?
From the perspective of a young college physics professor (i.e., me):
1. With some subjects, in-class discussion IS the learning mechanism; you learn a lot more by participating in discussion than by listening to other people discuss things.
2. In some classes, your absence can be detrimental to the experience of the other students; particularly in discussion classes.
3. Some in-class demonstrations may work a lot better live than on the small screen, even in a large class. I remember a Psych 101 class (100 students) that involved a very effective psychological demonstration, which I don't think would have worked as well.
4. Interaction during class allows professors to gauge how quickly they need to move through the material. If I'm teaching a class for the first time, I have great difficulty knowing how long it will take me to cover the first chapter of the book, for example, because I don't know how much I will have to say so that the students will understand. So I ask questions (using a show of hands or volunteers) during class to gauge their understanding, and adjust accordingly. I can't do that if no one shows up. (Yes, some professors lecture without any interaction, and without any concern for their class's understanding; the good teachers don't.)
5. There are some classes (stadium classes, classes with particularly non-interactive professors) where it probably doesn't hurt at all to watch the class remotely. However, college students are still young, and they can't always be counted on to tell the difference. Podcasts, therefore, may serve as a temptation which a freshman, drunk on the freedom of college (or just drunk), can't ignore. (Too bad for them maybe, but professors tend to care about their students' success a little more than that.) This is not a new practice; teachers often introduce assignments which serve to keep their students working at a steady, responsible pace (for example: writing teachers who require several drafts of a paper, or teachers who give reading quizzes every week, etc.) This sort of stuff tends to fade out in higher-level courses as students become more trustworthy, but freshmen often need a helpful push.
As for when the power goes out, what happens with people in power
chairs when the juice gives out? You end up with this heavy-assed chair that's
moderately hard...to push.
Yeah, but they're not typically perched in the middle of a stairway at the time.
Pluto does not dominate its orbit around the sun, it shares it with Charon, they spin around each other, one is not a moon of the other.
Does that mean that a pair of gas giants orbiting one another would not be considered planets, simply because they share an orbit? If the Moon were rather bigger, would Earth suddenly lose its planetary status, because it shares its orbit with the Moon? I would rather call these examples "double planets".
The issue of Pluto not clearing its orbit does not refer to Charon, IIUC, but to Neptune, which crosses Pluto's orbit twice.
Hear hear! People who are grumbling about how people are so conservative that they can't stand demoting Pluto, seem themselves to be attached to the idea that there can only be a handful of planets in our Solar System.
I think "dwarf planet" is the right idea, but I would add one change: call the "big 8" something like "major planets", so that the majors and the dwarfs both fit under the umbrella of "planets". That would make the Pluto-lovers happy, it would make those of us who get excited about "new planets" happy, it would make the schoolteachers happy (don't make the kids memorize all the planets, just the major planets).
The only other idea I have is to call Pluto a "honorary planet", like we give people honorary doctorates. It means Pluto won't actually be able to practice law, but it still gets to hang a diploma on its wall.
I don't think it's worse, and it may even be a bit better, for having a tiny little bit of logic on its side. Mind you, we are trying to do a quantitative comparison of evil, which seems to bother some people (including the moderator who marked me flamebait above? ;P ) Saying that one behavior is less evil than another does not suggest that it is in any way good, but there are still people who get really upset when one suggests that the terrorists in the Middle East might actually have some valid grievances against the West, even if they go much too far in expressing those grievances.
:)
(Oh, and what other controversial topics can I work into this thread? Maybe I should just shut up now?
We don't teach elementary school kids history because we want them to grow up to be historians; we teach it to them to give them a more rounded education, an appreciation of history, a new way of looking at the world, and exposure to a subject which, even if it doesn't become their profession, might at least become a source of fun and an output for creativity.
Teach programming for the same reasons. Computers are everywhere; if people knew how to program they might have a better appreciation of how software works, and they might even enjoy programming for fun, as a hobby. (I know I do.) If they use open-source software, they may be tempted to make changes to improve it: voila! a whole new generation of contributors to the open-source movement. If they get into the habit of it, they will learn to value the ability to see and change the source, which may lead them to spurn closed-source alternatives. (No, I don't mean everyone, but a growing number over time.)
I started learning BASIC at age 8 on my Vic-20, and while I'm not a professional programmer or computer scientist, I AM a theoretical physicist, and the ability to program has been vital to my career. No doubt, the same is true for many other fields as well.
Far-right and far-left zealots have a lot more in common than they like to admit.
Particularly in the case of animal rights and anti-abortion circles. Both believe that a certain group of organisms (animals/fetuses) posess the same rights as humans, a postulate not accepted by the majority of people. Accepting such a postulate, both groups see the mass torture/slaughter of millions of human-equivalents every year, dwarfing (or at least equalling) the number of dead in wars around the globe. If you accept their postulate as true, then animal experimentation / abortion really is a terrible crime, and extreme measures are seen as justified to stop it.
Just a single postulate; unfortunately, those are the hardest to change.
Oddly enough, yahoo and sex are on par with each other.
Aye, there's the rub. One place to find people with management skills is at a label. They'll take care of calling radio stations for airplay, sending promotional versions out, arrange tour dates, and getting your name known in the business. All you have to do is be creative.
But surely there exist such people as "agents" in the music business too? (Not rhetorical; I really don't know.) People who will do all the above things, and work for you rather than vice versa?
If not, maybe there will be soon; if so, they might become more dominant as newer, more net-savvy bands avoid the clutches of the MAFIAA.
I'm using iTunes to listen to generic MP3/whatever podcasts which, yes, I can listen to on non-Apple software/hardware. (I only own Apple hardware, but still....) I don't even have to go through the Music Store; there's a menu item called "Subscribe to Podcast" where I type in a web address. Apple could have made a distinction between "podcasts" from the iTMS and, I don't know, "audio stories" from the web. The fact that they call both types "podcasts" suggests an implicit recognition of the term as a generic description. (At least by the software designers, that is; the legal department might have something to say about it, if it's pointed out to them.)
Not the strongest argument in the world, mind you....
Well, iTunes lets you subscribe to "Podcasts" (their word) without an iPod; I don't know if this contradicts your statement or not. If they were opposed to NPR shows being called "Podcasts", they would probably start by calling them something else on the iTunes Music Store.
Not if they were proud of the Holocaust (which they probably were), and if they expected no greater sentence for having killed millions of Jews, instead of "only a million" (or whatever).
Just saying....
Of course, MATLAB costs several hundred dollars, if you don't happen to own it already....
They only have that control as long as the government gives it to them, and copyright does not grant absolute control even now. For instance, a song, once commercially released, can be "covered" by another band with the payment of a certain set fee; the copyright holder can't prevent the release of the cover song. A similar situation could be set up for these "chop shops", at the least.
You do have that right - don't buy it.
:)
:P )
Oh, of course...although there are certainly shows and movies out there which I basically enjoyed, except for one or two bits I found repulsive for whatever reason. I'm content to fast-forward or grit my teeth, but I'm not as easily offended.
That's beside the point, though. The thing is, if the MPAA tries to use this ruling to expand their power over copyright, they may find the religious right in opposition to them (whether for a good reason or not), and that would be a battle worth watching.
(Now how can we get Microsoft in on it too?
Given the current political power of those "rednecks", I wonder if the opposite won't happen: a group of loud social conservatives voting to protect the rights of parents to protect their children from the naughty bits.
I have suffered from panic attacks in the past, including a week-long low-grade panic during a trip to North Carolina early in my post-doc. It has helped to me to learn as much about panic as I could. I like to think of them as being like a mental cramp, particularly a cramp in a muscle which you can't stretch (I get cramps under my jaw, for instance): there's nothing you can do to stop the cramp, but it won't do any permanent damage, so all you can do is ride it out. Same with panic: you can't fight it, you just have to ride it out. (This article may be helpful too.)
:)
Although I am still an anxious person by nature, I haven't had a panic attack in a couple of years, and I've been off all anti-anxiety medication for the past year. It's not easy, but learning to treat the panic attack like a mere inconvenience is the best way to get over them. There are many techniques which can help you do that, which I won't go into here. If you're of a scientific bent, you might try analyzing the panic attack as an eyewitness in the name of science ("Fascinating, my heart rate seems to have increased...."). A good therapist can help you learn appropriate coping strategies. If you find yourself prone to frequent panic attacks, then a short-term anti-anxiety medication like Xanax can be a huge relief while you develop said coping strategies; said medication is meant for use as needed (like an aspirin, although more addictive) rather than for long-term or daily use.
And, while panic attacks don't have to make sense, it might be a good idea to think about whether there are any big stresses in your life which you may be bottling up. Something to do with databases, maybe? (Maybe you're worried about the U.S. government storing information about you, or the insecurity of credit card numbers in corporations' databases, or something.
Maybe my mom should sign up: she's not likely to write any code SCO would want (or any code at all, for that matter), and she can sleep through most things.
...today Microsoft announced their plans to open a chain of discount retail stores to compete with companies like WalMart and Target. Tentatively called "WinMart", the new stores will carry a large assortment of grocery, clothing, and electronics items, including all the latest Microsoft software releases. "Businesses have to expand to survive," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "As we already control the operating system and productivity markets, we felt a need to expand into a completely unrelated field. Plus, WalMart seems to be very successful; we'd like to put them out of business as we have done to so many other successful companies in the past."
:)
Microsoft will seek to promote synergy between their software and retail arms. "Using a complex algorithm, our exciting new operating system Vista will be able to learn all about its users tastes and habits, through analysis of their websurfing and other computer activities. We can then send our customers personalized circulars containing exciting and valuable coupons for the things they need to buy most. Plus, if they have a webcam connected to their computer, we will be able to store their likeness in our centralized database, and store greeters will be able to welcome them by name as they enter the store."....
(OK, enough of that.