1,000,000 people? Somebody's been telling you stories.
The only insects/spiders that can kill you in the southern US are:
Black Widow, very rarely
Brown Recluse, also rarely
Mosquito (but only via disease if you get WNV, and most people are ok)
I think 1 scorpion in Arizona, and only if you're a small child
And other than that, there aren't many insects that can hurt you. If you mess with spiders and scorpions, it can be a pain; ants are really the only ones that look for you, but only if you're covered in sugar or camp on their nest. Mosquitoes and a few flies can bite, but almost *never* carry any kind of disease. (When was the last time someone got polio?)
But south of the border, you get all kinds of weird diseases in the jungles/rainforests, and the mosquitos carry malaria and other nasty things. Sometimes you can't even drink the tap water without getting giardia, and the only way you can get that in the U.S. is doing something stupid like drinking unpurified water out of a stream. Also, there are things called "botflies" that plant larvae on mosquitoes, so when they bite you you get a little maggot growing inside of you. And yes, there are parasites in the water that can swim into your weewee. Although there's only one confirmed case of that.
Look a bit lower on the page, they have some interesting stuff on 42.
The Meaning of Life (42) and Pi
(Quoting from Scott Glazer): Trying to come up with a significant number to search for, I thought of 42 (the answer to life, the universe, and everything in Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy.) 42 would be way too common of course, so I went for 424242. Came back that this shows up at position 242423. Add one (for the decimal point, I lamely rationalize here) and you get 242424, the reverse of the original input. Now that's meaningful... or something.
[Editors Note] Amusingly enough, the entire string returned is 242424242. If you disregard either of the ending twos, you find that it's the same position at which you find 42424242. Ahh, the palindromic possibilities inherent in a reversible meaning of life string. --Dave
ever tried inserting text using only a mouse?
Yes, I do it all the time when I cut and paste.
I don't know if it works anywhere else, but in KDE, you highlight text, then middle-click where you want to copy it to. Much easier than bothering with Ctrl-V and the like.
If a burglar broke down my door/smashed my window/tore a hole through my wall, I would want him to pay for it. Bad analogy, man. Leaving security holes unpatched is more like leaving a door unlocked.
North American natives did something similar to open source by sharing their ideas, methods, and beliefs with the Europeans that came to North America, and the Europeans gave them the advantage of metal pots and pans.
Only if our self-replicating Smallpox robots didn't get to them first.
CAD: There's Milkshape. It's game-oriented, though.
Audio: There's Audacity, and Cinelerra is a movie editor with some good audio capabilities.
CGI: Sorry, nothing off the top of my head. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, though.
Test: When did the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock?
Calvin: 1620. As you can see, I've memorized this utterly useless fact long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You've taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.
----------
Why in the world am I waiting in the pouring rain for the school bus to take me somewhere I don't even want to go? ... I go to schoool, but I never learn what I want to know.
Yet my formal math teacher feels that we, as students, need three pages' worth of homework every night, just to understand simple principles of formal mathematics. Yes, it's a core course, and yes, it is important, but for those of us who just 'get it', punishing us with an hour of homework a night is just insane. I mean, I'm *paying* for this, working my way through school, and it irritates me to no end that I'm spending time that I could be spending on other things that I don't understand as well (like kanji for my Japanese classes) on busywork.
Ow.
I feel your pain.
Well, gee, maybe it's not homework that's causing the bad results, but _lack_ of actually _doing_ that homework.
That is correct... If the student is in a home environment that makes it difficult for them to do the homework, and they don't, then they take a 0 grade, which is killer on your average. (I would know)
Yeah, I can see how the Japanese can do better on less homework... if they actually _do_ that homework and _study_ for it. Yeah, big surprise there, than someone on 1 hour a week of maths homework does better than someone who basically did _zero_ hours a week of maths homework.
Let me tell you, it's way easier to get a smaller amount of homework finished than a large amount of homework even started. The large amount seems ominous/forbidding, so there's more apathy about it. (Believe me, I, again, would know.) BTW, I would love to have had 1 hour a week of math homework, instead of 8 hours. Sound reasonable?
Or what's the article's thrust? Basically "but some parents are too busy to help the kid with that homework." Well, gee, maybe it's the _kid_ that should learn how to do some work and study?
Sometimes, kids need help from parents. I was one of the smartest students in my class (got 100's when I actually did my work) but I still needed help from time to time, when I got into factoring. Some kinds of work are more difficult for some people - even though I had help, I nearly failed that semester of math.
Yeah, I can see how 2 hours of maths homework done by the _parent_ still leaves the kid behind someone who did only 1 hour of it, but did it personally.
You've got a point there. But the article isn't saying the parents should do the homework, it's saying the parents should help with the homework.
Or in the article itself, "homework may not be cordially received, especially by parents of small children" or "Parents might sometimes see exercises in drill and memorization as intrusions into family time."
If your kid suddenly had to write a 2-page essay on the Change Over Time between the Han Dynasty and the current Communist regime in China, along with three sonnets written in iambic pentameter for his English class, (That's a lot for a 15 yr old who's not good at writing) on a day you had planned to go fishing/baseball game/paintball/camping/stargazing/whatever; or a whole 10 (double-sided!) worksheets of math problems to do over the weekend for your first grader who you were going to take to his ailing great-grandma's 90th birthday, you would be kind of ticked off too, wouldn't you?
So basically, forget even peer pressure from other kids. The message that the child gets even from the _parent_ is basically "oh, screw the homework, it's just getting in the way of other stuff you could do in that time."
I felt that way sometimes, but never from peer pressure. Don't get me wrong: I had plenty of friends, but they (well, most of them) did their homework.
Well, gee, maybe it's not the homework that's the problem. Maybe what they describe there is a massive cultural failure. It's a culture which basically discourages any attempt at personal responsibility, study, or academic results. A culture where being called "Einstein" in high school is actually an _insult_.
I don't know about what culture your talking about, but my parents always pressed for responsibility and good grades. As for the "Einstein" insult, there are stupid people everywhere that are offended by smarter people.
A culture where (as reflected in another recent/. article), having the genes to be a slightly asocial genius instead of an air-head chatterbox, is proposed as a reason for abortion.
Yeah, that is stupid. There are weird people everywhere.
And blaming homework for the lack of results of people who _didn't_ do that homework... well, seems to me just bloody stupid.
If you're keeping your palms on your desk (or wrist rest in front of your keyboard) you're asking for problems.
Actually, the wrist rest is there so you don't have to exert any effort to keep your hands in the air. (If you don't have one, you have to support the weight of your entire arm. You're not just holding up your wrists.)
The lowered-wrist position is what is bad for your hands, not the fact that they rest on something... if your wrists are slightly elevated, it doesn't matter if they're touching anything or not.
Slashdot Mirror
Except they can't say Cool Shit because they'd get detention.
They can probably say Spiffy, though. They should say Spiffy.
1,000,000 people? Somebody's been telling you stories. The only insects/spiders that can kill you in the southern US are:
- Black Widow, very rarely
- Brown Recluse, also rarely
- Mosquito (but only via disease if you get WNV, and most people are ok)
- I think 1 scorpion in Arizona, and only if you're a small child
And other than that, there aren't many insects that can hurt you. If you mess with spiders and scorpions, it can be a pain; ants are really the only ones that look for you, but only if you're covered in sugar or camp on their nest. Mosquitoes and a few flies can bite, but almost *never* carry any kind of disease. (When was the last time someone got polio?)But south of the border, you get all kinds of weird diseases in the jungles/rainforests, and the mosquitos carry malaria and other nasty things. Sometimes you can't even drink the tap water without getting giardia, and the only way you can get that in the U.S. is doing something stupid like drinking unpurified water out of a stream. Also, there are things called "botflies" that plant larvae on mosquitoes, so when they bite you you get a little maggot growing inside of you. And yes, there are parasites in the water that can swim into your weewee. Although there's only one confirmed case of that.
In Soviet Russia, the Government chooses you!
The thing is, he doesn't. He was making fun of anyone who it was true for.
Not The End! There's gonna be a part II!
Look a bit lower on the page, they have some interesting stuff on 42.
The Meaning of Life (42) and Pi
(Quoting from Scott Glazer): Trying to come up with a significant number to search for, I thought of 42 (the answer to life, the universe, and everything in Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy.) 42 would be way too common of course, so I went for 424242. Came back that this shows up at position 242423. Add one (for the decimal point, I lamely rationalize here) and you get 242424, the reverse of the original input. Now that's meaningful... or something.
[Editors Note] Amusingly enough, the entire string returned is 242424242. If you disregard either of the ending twos, you find that it's the same position at which you find 42424242. Ahh, the palindromic possibilities inherent in a reversible meaning of life string. --Dave
Thanks. I didn't know that before I posted, I normally only use KDE.
...Sterenad!?
ever tried inserting text using only a mouse? Yes, I do it all the time when I cut and paste. I don't know if it works anywhere else, but in KDE, you highlight text, then middle-click where you want to copy it to. Much easier than bothering with Ctrl-V and the like.
Silly mods, "Insightful" isn't for sarcasm.
If a burglar broke down my door/smashed my window/tore a hole through my wall, I would want him to pay for it. Bad analogy, man. Leaving security holes unpatched is more like leaving a door unlocked.
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
How tall are you? How can you fit in a breadbox?!
the PSP trademark has apparently been registered by a small Bristol-based IT and design firm, called Owtanet
Isn't it illegal to do that kind of thing?
Have you tried Classic mod for the second one?
North American natives did something similar to open source by sharing their ideas, methods, and beliefs with the Europeans that came to North America, and the Europeans gave them the advantage of metal pots and pans.
Only if our self-replicating Smallpox robots didn't get to them first.
That says to me you could have a monkey on the stree selling AOL CDs and rake in a couple million...
If the monkey were on a tree, how would customers reach it?
Except he's not on a tree, he's on a stree.
You can turn the sound off on the website by pressing the little speaker icon in the top right.
CAD: There's Milkshape. It's game-oriented, though. Audio: There's Audacity, and Cinelerra is a movie editor with some good audio capabilities. CGI: Sorry, nothing off the top of my head. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, though.
Test: When did the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock?
Calvin: 1620. As you can see, I've memorized this utterly useless fact long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You've taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.
----------
Why in the world am I waiting in the pouring rain for the school bus to take me somewhere I don't even want to go?
...
I go to schoool, but I never learn what I want to know.
Yet my formal math teacher feels that we, as students, need three pages' worth of homework every night, just to understand simple principles of formal mathematics. Yes, it's a core course, and yes, it is important, but for those of us who just 'get it', punishing us with an hour of homework a night is just insane. I mean, I'm *paying* for this, working my way through school, and it irritates me to no end that I'm spending time that I could be spending on other things that I don't understand as well (like kanji for my Japanese classes) on busywork. Ow. I feel your pain.
Well, gee, maybe it's not homework that's causing the bad results, but _lack_ of actually _doing_ that homework.
/. article), having the genes to be a slightly asocial genius instead of an air-head chatterbox, is proposed as a reason for abortion.
That is correct... If the student is in a home environment that makes it difficult for them to do the homework, and they don't, then they take a 0 grade, which is killer on your average. (I would know)
Yeah, I can see how the Japanese can do better on less homework... if they actually _do_ that homework and _study_ for it. Yeah, big surprise there, than someone on 1 hour a week of maths homework does better than someone who basically did _zero_ hours a week of maths homework.
Let me tell you, it's way easier to get a smaller amount of homework finished than a large amount of homework even started. The large amount seems ominous/forbidding, so there's more apathy about it. (Believe me, I, again, would know.) BTW, I would love to have had 1 hour a week of math homework, instead of 8 hours. Sound reasonable?
Or what's the article's thrust? Basically "but some parents are too busy to help the kid with that homework." Well, gee, maybe it's the _kid_ that should learn how to do some work and study?
Sometimes, kids need help from parents. I was one of the smartest students in my class (got 100's when I actually did my work) but I still needed help from time to time, when I got into factoring. Some kinds of work are more difficult for some people - even though I had help, I nearly failed that semester of math.
Yeah, I can see how 2 hours of maths homework done by the _parent_ still leaves the kid behind someone who did only 1 hour of it, but did it personally.
You've got a point there. But the article isn't saying the parents should do the homework, it's saying the parents should help with the homework.
Or in the article itself, "homework may not be cordially received, especially by parents of small children" or "Parents might sometimes see exercises in drill and memorization as intrusions into family time."
If your kid suddenly had to write a 2-page essay on the Change Over Time between the Han Dynasty and the current Communist regime in China, along with three sonnets written in iambic pentameter for his English class, (That's a lot for a 15 yr old who's not good at writing) on a day you had planned to go fishing/baseball game/paintball/camping/stargazing/whatever; or a whole 10 (double-sided!) worksheets of math problems to do over the weekend for your first grader who you were going to take to his ailing great-grandma's 90th birthday, you would be kind of ticked off too, wouldn't you?
So basically, forget even peer pressure from other kids. The message that the child gets even from the _parent_ is basically "oh, screw the homework, it's just getting in the way of other stuff you could do in that time."
I felt that way sometimes, but never from peer pressure. Don't get me wrong: I had plenty of friends, but they (well, most of them) did their homework.
Well, gee, maybe it's not the homework that's the problem. Maybe what they describe there is a massive cultural failure. It's a culture which basically discourages any attempt at personal responsibility, study, or academic results. A culture where being called "Einstein" in high school is actually an _insult_.
I don't know about what culture your talking about, but my parents always pressed for responsibility and good grades. As for the "Einstein" insult, there are stupid people everywhere that are offended by smarter people.
A culture where (as reflected in another recent
Yeah, that is stupid. There are weird people everywhere.
And blaming homework for the lack of results of people who _didn't_ do that homework... well, seems to me just bloody stupid.
And that's an oversimplification.
You shouldn't have done that... Now it says "omg haxtorr?!?!"
*tries it* That works great. Good habit to have. But it's kinda hard to press Ctrl+Z like you say.
If you're keeping your palms on your desk (or wrist rest in front of your keyboard) you're asking for problems.
Actually, the wrist rest is there so you don't have to exert any effort to keep your hands in the air. (If you don't have one, you have to support the weight of your entire arm. You're not just holding up your wrists.)
The lowered-wrist position is what is bad for your hands, not the fact that they rest on something... if your wrists are slightly elevated, it doesn't matter if they're touching anything or not.