Just how in the hell is it correct to attribute this to "Chinese mathematicians?" Everything indicates that the proof was successfully completed by Perelman. Whether or not Perelman's proof is difficult to understand doesn't make a flipping bit of difference -- this was a millenium problem for a reason! It's therefore reasonable to expect that the proof might necessarily be tricky to comprehend.
What's more, it's math. No wishy washy bullshit involved (cue "obviously you've never studied postgraduate mathematics.") If Perelman is correct, he and only he deserves credit. Whether or not he was clear does not farking matter.
This has probably already been mentioned, but...
I like how the graph titles say "price / performance" while the graphs themselves display performance / price (example at framerate/$).
Did you read Jeremy's tirade about iPod + iTunes in his M5 review?
Hammond and May both have iPods. Not that they have any say when it comes to refrigerators.
If you're looking for a good example of the right way to teach religion, you should check out the UCSD MMW (Making of the Modern World) program. http://provost.ucsd.edu/roosevelt/mmw/
Undergraduate general education requirement for Roosevelt college at UCSD. We study fscking EVERYTHING under the sun, and being an engineering student I absolutely hated every minute of it. I value it now though. Perhaps it was more of a guilty pleasure....Okay, so I lied, I liked it. But it was a ton of work.
It's 28 units of anthropology, a complete history of the world crammed into two years of study. It's very aggressive, but it's also taught very well and could easily be repackaged for high school consumption. Professors come from all sorts of different departments - history, English, theology, philosophy, etc. Oh, and anthropology.
When I say everything, I mean everything. From pre-history to the modern day. IIRC the breakdown is:
MMW 1: pre-history to neolithic MMW 2: neolithic to classical antiquity MMW 3: classical antiquity to medieval era (or as Eddie Izzard calls it, the "stupid fucker" period) MMW 4: medieval era to ~1600 MMW 5: 1600 to 1800 MMW 6: 1800 to modernity
A favorite theory of mine posited by my MMW 1 professor is that agriculture came out of the discovery of grain fermenting on river banks, in other words, proto beer;)
Another interesting theory is that the "virgin" birth was a mistranslation into Greek - the Greeks didn't have a word for "young girl," the closest thing was "virgin," and that's what got used.
One element of our study of the bible was that of who wrote it - the author of the book "Who Wrote The Bible" is a professor here at UCSD. Very interesting. Turns out there were four authors or so over a period of time, and that the whole thing is very political. Go figure.
The idea here is that this is all crap I absolutely never would have known without taking MMW.
Every major religion throughout time is studied, including the oddball ones - we don't stop at Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. We read parts of the Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, all sorts of stuff. We're taught the beliefs and values, and investigate how these have effected history and decision making, why people might be fundamentally at odds, that sort of thing. But there's never any suggestion that something is right or wrong - that much is left to the student, and essays are graded on the strength rather than the slant of one's argument. Professors aren't looking to make students think a certain way, but instead simply to make students think. Far more valuable if you ask me, and what the author of the book in the OP is fighting for.
What makes it even more interesting is that it isn't particularly Euro-centric, and actually, one of the main themes of MMW 4 is the question "why Europe?" After all, China had gunpowder first. We read all sorts of crazy stuff too - Xenophon, Confucius, the salt and iron debate, the code of Bushido, the tale of Maruf the cobbler, Ibn Batuta, Newton, Treitschke, Ike, Hitler, Bob Dylan, and on and on and on. Contemporary accounts of every event we study, as well as op-ed type stuff. Very interesting.
Just don't ask me to remember any of it;)
I've suggested that the lectures be made available on DVD to alumni of the program...I really hope something comes out of that.
Slashdot Mirror
Just how in the hell is it correct to attribute this to "Chinese mathematicians?" Everything indicates that the proof was successfully completed by Perelman. Whether or not Perelman's proof is difficult to understand doesn't make a flipping bit of difference -- this was a millenium problem for a reason! It's therefore reasonable to expect that the proof might necessarily be tricky to comprehend.
What's more, it's math. No wishy washy bullshit involved (cue "obviously you've never studied postgraduate mathematics.") If Perelman is correct, he and only he deserves credit. Whether or not he was clear does not farking matter.
This has probably already been mentioned, but... I like how the graph titles say "price / performance" while the graphs themselves display performance / price (example at framerate/$).
Because the mods are elitist pinhead fucktards. It's that simple.
Did you read Jeremy's tirade about iPod + iTunes in his M5 review? Hammond and May both have iPods. Not that they have any say when it comes to refrigerators.
Blizzard Entertainment announced today that Diablo II composer Matt Uelmen has been let go.
If you're looking for a good example of the right way to teach religion, you should check out the UCSD MMW (Making of the Modern World) program. http://provost.ucsd.edu/roosevelt/mmw/
...Okay, so I lied, I liked it. But it was a ton of work.
;)
;)
Undergraduate general education requirement for Roosevelt college at UCSD. We study fscking EVERYTHING under the sun, and being an engineering student I absolutely hated every minute of it. I value it now though. Perhaps it was more of a guilty pleasure.
It's 28 units of anthropology, a complete history of the world crammed into two years of study. It's very aggressive, but it's also taught very well and could easily be repackaged for high school consumption. Professors come from all sorts of different departments - history, English, theology, philosophy, etc. Oh, and anthropology.
When I say everything, I mean everything. From pre-history to the modern day. IIRC the breakdown is:
MMW 1: pre-history to neolithic
MMW 2: neolithic to classical antiquity
MMW 3: classical antiquity to medieval era (or as Eddie Izzard calls it, the "stupid fucker" period)
MMW 4: medieval era to ~1600
MMW 5: 1600 to 1800
MMW 6: 1800 to modernity
A favorite theory of mine posited by my MMW 1 professor is that agriculture came out of the discovery of grain fermenting on river banks, in other words, proto beer
Another interesting theory is that the "virgin" birth was a mistranslation into Greek - the Greeks didn't have a word for "young girl," the closest thing was "virgin," and that's what got used.
One element of our study of the bible was that of who wrote it - the author of the book "Who Wrote The Bible" is a professor here at UCSD. Very interesting. Turns out there were four authors or so over a period of time, and that the whole thing is very political. Go figure.
The idea here is that this is all crap I absolutely never would have known without taking MMW.
Every major religion throughout time is studied, including the oddball ones - we don't stop at Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. We read parts of the Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, all sorts of stuff. We're taught the beliefs and values, and investigate how these have effected history and decision making, why people might be fundamentally at odds, that sort of thing. But there's never any suggestion that something is right or wrong - that much is left to the student, and essays are graded on the strength rather than the slant of one's argument. Professors aren't looking to make students think a certain way, but instead simply to make students think. Far more valuable if you ask me, and what the author of the book in the OP is fighting for.
What makes it even more interesting is that it isn't particularly Euro-centric, and actually, one of the main themes of MMW 4 is the question "why Europe?" After all, China had gunpowder first. We read all sorts of crazy stuff too - Xenophon, Confucius, the salt and iron debate, the code of Bushido, the tale of Maruf the cobbler, Ibn Batuta, Newton, Treitschke, Ike, Hitler, Bob Dylan, and on and on and on. Contemporary accounts of every event we study, as well as op-ed type stuff. Very interesting.
Just don't ask me to remember any of it
I've suggested that the lectures be made available on DVD to alumni of the program...I really hope something comes out of that.
Who the hell cares if girls are interested in computer science? I sure don't. And if they write code anything like they drive, we're all in trouble.