That higher brain functions and analytical capacities develop very, very early on can be illustrated in a manner so dramatical to disgust even the biggest proponent of abortion in a very simple way : a 6-week old baby that's getting aborted FIGHTS the scissors inserted to rip it to shreds, meaning a baby of that age realises what is happening, or at the very least realizes that those scissors are there for a very bad reason, and is capable of enough coordination against those scissors to convince a human (s)he's fighting her abortion.
that sounds interesting, I looked over the internet for what you said but couldn't find anything. the video you linked said nothing about what you claim, do you have a better one? I looked on wikipedia and found that a fetus can't make a fist with it's hand until 10-12 weeks in, most of the bones and muscle tissues have not even developed yet. how can a fetus that can't even make a fist yet be trying to rip scissors into shreds? and plus are you aware that they usually dont use scissors to abort fetus that are younger than 12 weeks? they use a vacuum instead.
now that I did research on what you said, it just seem like you are trolling...
Drop the settings to 'medium,' however, and I can vouch that the average frame rate on the November MacBook Pro rested comfortably in the very playable middle 20s
common now, does anyone seriously believe that a shooting game can be playable with fps in the mid 20s? If it's already stuttering a little when you are running around, add in a few NPCs/bullet sparks/explosions then the game wont be playable anymore
for most of the shooting games I play, I try to lower the settings until the fps is well above 30 so that I wont get stuttering frames when an intense firefight happens
I was in China a couple of weeks ago to visit family and friends. I was in Nanjing and I used the internet to check on the availability of some site that I frequently use.
There are 3 kinds of sites in China in terms of availability. The first is the site with its server in China, these sites are usually fast and reliable. But sometimes you can find a foreign site that responds really fast, like slashdot did for me.
The second are the sites that are totally blocked. Apart from the obvious ones like FalunGong.com I only found sites with satellite images blocked 24/7, such as wikimapia. Google map's Chinese version doesn't have satellite images.
The last group of sites are somewhat in between the first and second. They are not available or unavailable 24/7 but you will loose connection to them at random or their connection will be very slow at times. Sites that go in this category are facebook, sourceforge, youtube, and many of the foreign sites.
Now, it's hard to tell if the government blocked sites in the last group because they work fine most of them time, but all of the sudden the site will slow to a crawl or not show up at all.
Now I know the ISP blocks sites that contain anti-government messages while you are browsing it, but when I looked at my last page before the connection slowed, there weren't any. So as a result most Chinese stick to Chinese forums to vent their frustration about the government or to get news on the newest embarrassing thing they did, because the sites are much faster for them.
I went to China for a visit this summer and there was this interesting Chinese Olympic history series playing on the TV.
Apparently after the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the Chinese considered it to be a disappointing showing because many Chinese favorites did not get a Gold medal. So the Chinese government got some experts together and they came up with a new plan for how the athletes are trained in China. They first listed several sports the Chinese were good at traditionally, like table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, etc. They then established two research facilities for each sport. The purpose of these research facilities were to find more effective methods to train an athlete.
For example, the rowing team was sent to go train in Tibet because there it is at a high altitude. At high altitudes there is less oxygen so it trains the athletes' body to use oxygen more effectively.
While us nerds can't exactly participate in sports competitively we definitely have the skills to improve training and playing methods of a sport =D
I applaud Google for taking the extra step of actually contacting the IOC and asking them if they truly want to pursue this or are they just trying to pander to the Chinese. The Chinese are horrible and sure they can make a pretty show but they have total disregard for human rights...
...and I swear the Chinese's pretty little show doesn't change anything.
Why do you think the Chinese government cares so much about one free Tibet video on youtube? there are already so many other ones uploaded already regarding Tibet and the Beijing Olympics... it would be pretty meaningless.
I don't think teachers are being paid enough and they are certainly not valued enough by the community. Once upon a time, the best and brightest minds went into the teaching profession; it had respect and was highly valued. Now, it's whoever wants to become one, winner by default. The best and brightest need to be attracted back. Why would somebody who has the ability to earn more than four times the national average wage go into a job that earns less than the average wage?
Personally, I don't think the teachers are the problem, at least not entirely.
In high school in Canada, there is no standardized testing unless you plan on going to a university in the US. So your final report card marks of your grade 12 courses become your ticket to the university of your dreams.
Now, there are many high schools in Canada, under different school boards, following different guidelines on curriculum. The marks you would get if you went to a high school in Ontario would differ with the mark you would get if you went to a high school in BC.
These marks are generally treated the same by universities. There are ways to level the playing field a bit by taking your percentile into consideration. Plus if you took an AP, IB, or just a normal course. But many universities (good ones, too.) choose not to use them.
So hearing this news is no surprise to me, Math has definitely gotten easier over the years. This year, high schools in Canada no longer offer Discrete Geometry as a subject, replaced with a dumbed down course called Introduction to Functions that contains almost none of the backbreaking concepts taught in the previous course. (Im not sure if this change affected all schools in Canada, or just the Halton district school board in Ontario)
I'm guessing the root of the problem lies under the fact that universities are taking applicants based mostly on their report card mark in high school. It is not a level playing field and a regional school board would dumb down the curriculum as much as they can while complying to the national standards. This would result in more high school graduates moving to post secondary education and more funding. This is just me guessing here of course, but the problem is there nevertheless.
I would think that after a tragedy, it would better to OPEN the internet as much as possible.
I think this is part of the 3 days of mourning going on in China right now, to raise even more awareness of the quake.
Also, sites regarding the earthquake will stay up. So the websites created by people to track missing relatives, or to gather donations, will stay online. Was this absolutely necessary? probably not. But I don't think this move will hinder the rescue effort at all, but rather raise more awareness of it since earthquake related info is all the Chinese people will get in the next 3 days.
While Comcast hogged most of the publicity in the past regarding throttled P2P traffic, almost all Canadian ISPs limit P2P traffic in one way or another.
Remember the internet attacks on Estonia? The IP Adresses came from Russian so people speculated that the Russian government were behind the attacks for political pressure. But it turned out not to be.
You have to realize that many Chinese youth today feel China is wronged by the West by a double standard, I won't go into the details as you can read them yourself (ex. the fb group "Tibet WAS,IS,and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China"). But the point is, the attack is more likely to be caused by a Chinese citizen than the government itself.
In another story I read this comment by Digestromath (1190577) and it pretty much nails it.
Believe or not, extreme nationalists are willing to do the dirty work for free. It doesn't matter what country your in, you'll find some extreme patriots willing to go above and beyond to silence thier radical counterparts. Some governments do more to stop them, others do less... when it suits them.
Like the parent said, the Chinese government would be stupid to attack these sites right before the Olympics. I read a book called "China Shakes the World" By James Kynge and in one chapter in mentioned how the Chinese government has "nurtured nationalism in the youth into so potent a force that they are about to loose control of it."(remembering from the top of my mind...)For example, Only recently are the Japanese portrayed in a semi-positive light in WWII TV series, which probably explains the large amount of people that participate in anti-Japanese riots.
Of course the Chinese government could do more to stop these attacks, but the political climate in China prevents it from happening. No, I'm not talking about the dictatorship of the people. See, anyone that stands up and say these actions are wrong would be labeled a traitor by both politicians and majority of the citizens alike. So politicians tries to avoid denouncing anti-foreigner actions for the sake of their own skin.
Before everyone presses the reply button and start typing "FREE TIBET!", could slashdotters please read this article first?
Read all three parts of it, the author summarizes both sides of the issue in order for people to see that the Tibet issue is much more than just a communist regime bullying an occupied region, for example:
Another aspect of the Chinese duty in Tibet is the sense that rapid modernization is needed, and should take precedence over cultural considerations. For Westerners, this is a difficult perspective to understand. Tibet is appealing to us precisely because it's not modern, and we have idealized its culture and anti-materialism to the point where it has become, as Orville Schell says, "a figurative place of spiritual enlightenment in the Western imagination -- where people don't make Buicks, they make good karma."
But to the Chinese, for whom modernization is coming late, Buicks look awfully good. I noticed this during my first year as a teacher in China, when my writing class spent time considering the American West. We discussed western expansion, and I presented the students with a problem of the late nineteenth century: the Plains Indians, their culture in jeopardy, were being pressed by white settlers. I asked my class to imagine that they were American citizens proposing a solution, and nearly all responded much the way this student did: "The world is changing and developing. We should make the Indians suit our modern life. The Indians are used to living all over the plains and moving frequently, without a fixed home, but it is very impractical in our modern life.... We need our country to be a powerful country; we must make the Indians adapt to our modern life and keep pace with the society. Only in this way can we strengthen the country."
I know I might be modded offtopic but the discussion of Chinese censorship of Tibet videos will no doubt lead to the discussion of Tibet vs China itself. I'm just asking everyone to please form their opinion after looking at both sides of the issue, and how each side feels about it. Try not to base your opinion solely on just what you hear news.
I'm an admitted Apple fanboy, but I can't say I admire this. I would have thought you all would have appreciated the affectionate satire rather than being unaccountable assholes.
Gary Baldwin
I really do hope this is a joke, Apple doesn't have much to gain pulling a stunt like this...
Jesus Sheildwolf, Im sorry, from the summary it quoted transsexual and said it was spelled wrong. As not a native of English, I simply assumed double s in the word transsexual was the wrong way to spell it, since the article quoted it and indicated that the word was incorrectly written. (I now see why he spelled it wrong, it one s looks much more right than a double s)
I also checked TFA and it's links (also the one to wikipedia) which had the spelling of transexual, which at that moment I thought was the right way of spelling it.
I was just trying to help correct what I thought was a mistake in the summary, and you label me a liar and an idiot? Thanks.
Think about those prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who are imprisoned by the Americans without a trial. Do you think you are any better than the Americans who imprisoned them if you decide not to hear my side of the story and go straight to judging me as an idiot? I understand if you are trying to help clear the issue to are the offensive comments really necessary?
The Tibetan people are culturally and linguistically distinct, and existed as an independent nation.
This is the place where a lot of the Chinese disagree. If you think the Tibetans are culturally and linguistically distinct, then you haven't been China. You see, before Qin formalized the same writing system for China back in 200s BC, China was really a collection of distinct countries. Each with their own language and culture.
Today you can still tell where a person is from just by their accent of their mandarin. Most places in China also have their local dialect, so you won't get far trying to convince a Chinese person that Tibet should be separated because of their distinct language. When I was living in Nanjing, I could drive for about 5 hours in different directions, and I would come to two different places with distinct culture and language.
If I drove east, I would come to Shanghai, they have their own dialect that is very different than mandarin. So different that I still don't understand a word they say, after living in China for 10 years. They are famous for their XiaoChi (street food).
If I drove a little to the south, I would arrive at Zhejiang. People here speak a just as different dialect as those in Shanghai, after visiting every summer (because my father's family is from there) for 10 years I still dont understand it. I was told that this dialect is similar to that of Shanghai, but I can't say for sure because they both sound so different. My mother, who have been visiting since she married my father (around 20+ years ago) can understand some of it, but still can't speak it. People here are famous for their taste in seafood, salting live crabs, for example.
My point is that if you are trying to convince a Chinese person that Tibet deserve to be separated, and used their distinct culture and language as the reason, then by that reason many more parts of China also deserve to be separated. I think most people does not know how diverse in culture and language China is.
Re:No Child Left Behind doesn't matter
on
Failing Our Geniuses
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It's no surprise. Some cultures love their smart people. The Asian's love their smart people. They glorify them, they treat them with a lot of respect, and view them as a source of national pride.
I lived in China for the first 10 years of my life, so I know the Chinese culture well.
You said Asians love their smart people, it's true, but only under certain perimeters. The first problem is how do you define "smart"? Are smart kids the ones with the highest IQ test scores? Are they the ones that get the highest marks in class? Or are they the ones that can sell the most cookies to neighbors?
In China, IQ Scores are redundant and are not paid any attention to by the education system. Here however (In Canada), it is used to determine if a child is able to enter the gifted program in elementary school.
What the Chinese actually value is someone who can learn fast, think fast with flexibility and without making many mistakes. Although one might argue those people can be called "smart", but smart is too general a word in English and could be referring to a wide rage of characteristics. See, the Chinese does not value IQ or "gifted-ness" because it doesn't reflect what a person could accomplish. Instead, to get into the fast-track classes in China a child has to be placed in the top 40 in his or her grade (this is according to the middle school I was going to go to, there were 60 kids per class and 8 classes per grade.) So instead of getting the kids to take a IQ test of which they have no control over the results, getting into the fast-track classes becomes a competition between students so the winners are respected. In Canada, the gifted kids doesn't "beat" others to get into gifted classes, so there is much less of a reason for other kids to respect them.
One type of smart person the Chinese frown upon are people who stay home and study the textbooks all day, but can't carry the knowledge over and apply it to the real life. It wouldn't matter if the person has the highest mark in the class, if he or she can't solve simple social problems then they will receive little respect.
This is very similar to the definition of a Nerd in the western culture. However, one key difference is the clear line drawn between a "nerd" and a smart person in China, while here in Canada it is assumed anyone who has the highest mark in the class must be a nerd.
so if china does it it's shocking, i wonder what it'd be called if you yanks did it
they already have, back in 1985...
This is probably just to justify the increasing military spendings in the US. If anything, the Americans should be celebrating that the Chinese is around 20 years behind in this field of weaponry.
China's destruction of an obsolete weather satellite, similar to past tests conducted by the US and the Soviet Union, exploits this failure. Both China and Russia have for years urged the US to agree to a ban on space weapons and the use of force against satellites, but the US refused to negotiate, instead announcing a policy last year that boldly asserts US national rights in space.
According to Wikipedia, too, China has been trying to negotiate with the US on banning space weapons. Yet the US would rather not do it.
Of course, don't expect any of this to be on your local newspaper...
The US will ignore this for the most part, keep trading with them, and allow corporations to send its citizens jobs to the nation that is attacking it. It makes me sick.
I would rather the US make the Chinese depend on them economically, thus maintaining peace, than to reply with a nuke.
"'The US has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks,' the annual PLA Defense departement report on USA's military warned. At the same, US armed forces are developing ways to protect its own systems from an enemy attack, it said, echoing similar warnings made in previous years."
This leave me wondering with such a NON-news, what sort of propaganda is theUS trying to kick up. Are there commercial negociation starting soon with China ? Are they trying to put some pressure on China for a better rate ?
well said, if a news article like that came out on the front page of a Chinese newspaper, a lot Chinese people would immediately recognize it as propaganda and simply ignore it. Yet here it makes the front page of slashdot.
I'd have to agree with the parent.
stories like these get more attention here than in China, most Chinese people tune out the propaganda in their lives and get on with the better stuff.
(this is from someone who went to school in China in the 90s, born there too)
The system can recognize weapons by their report, and thus ignore friendly fire.
So if any of our weapons fall into enemy hands, this robot will actually hinder handicap the user since they would be ignoring shots from the other side thinking that it's just FF?
Slashdot Mirror
That higher brain functions and analytical capacities develop very, very early on can be illustrated in a manner so dramatical to disgust even the biggest proponent of abortion in a very simple way : a 6-week old baby that's getting aborted FIGHTS the scissors inserted to rip it to shreds, meaning a baby of that age realises what is happening, or at the very least realizes that those scissors are there for a very bad reason, and is capable of enough coordination against those scissors to convince a human (s)he's fighting her abortion.
that sounds interesting, I looked over the internet for what you said but couldn't find anything. the video you linked said nothing about what you claim, do you have a better one? I looked on wikipedia and found that a fetus can't make a fist with it's hand until 10-12 weeks in, most of the bones and muscle tissues have not even developed yet. how can a fetus that can't even make a fist yet be trying to rip scissors into shreds? and plus are you aware that they usually dont use scissors to abort fetus that are younger than 12 weeks? they use a vacuum instead.
now that I did research on what you said, it just seem like you are trolling...
Drop the settings to 'medium,' however, and I can vouch that the average frame rate on the November MacBook Pro rested comfortably in the very playable middle 20s
common now, does anyone seriously believe that a shooting game can be playable with fps in the mid 20s? If it's already stuttering a little when you are running around, add in a few NPCs/bullet sparks/explosions then the game wont be playable anymore
for most of the shooting games I play, I try to lower the settings until the fps is well above 30 so that I wont get stuttering frames when an intense firefight happens
I was in China a couple of weeks ago to visit family and friends. I was in Nanjing and I used the internet to check on the availability of some site that I frequently use.
There are 3 kinds of sites in China in terms of availability. The first is the site with its server in China, these sites are usually fast and reliable. But sometimes you can find a foreign site that responds really fast, like slashdot did for me.
The second are the sites that are totally blocked. Apart from the obvious ones like FalunGong.com I only found sites with satellite images blocked 24/7, such as wikimapia. Google map's Chinese version doesn't have satellite images.
The last group of sites are somewhat in between the first and second. They are not available or unavailable 24/7 but you will loose connection to them at random or their connection will be very slow at times. Sites that go in this category are facebook, sourceforge, youtube, and many of the foreign sites.
Now, it's hard to tell if the government blocked sites in the last group because they work fine most of them time, but all of the sudden the site will slow to a crawl or not show up at all.
Now I know the ISP blocks sites that contain anti-government messages while you are browsing it, but when I looked at my last page before the connection slowed, there weren't any. So as a result most Chinese stick to Chinese forums to vent their frustration about the government or to get news on the newest embarrassing thing they did, because the sites are much faster for them.
I went to China for a visit this summer and there was this interesting Chinese Olympic history series playing on the TV.
Apparently after the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the Chinese considered it to be a disappointing showing because many Chinese favorites did not get a Gold medal. So the Chinese government got some experts together and they came up with a new plan for how the athletes are trained in China. They first listed several sports the Chinese were good at traditionally, like table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, etc. They then established two research facilities for each sport. The purpose of these research facilities were to find more effective methods to train an athlete.
For example, the rowing team was sent to go train in Tibet because there it is at a high altitude. At high altitudes there is less oxygen so it trains the athletes' body to use oxygen more effectively.
While us nerds can't exactly participate in sports competitively we definitely have the skills to improve training and playing methods of a sport =D
I applaud Google for taking the extra step of actually contacting the IOC and asking them if they truly want to pursue this or are they just trying to pander to the Chinese. The Chinese are horrible and sure they can make a pretty show but they have total disregard for human rights...
...and I swear the Chinese's pretty little show doesn't change anything.
Why do you think the Chinese government cares so much about one free Tibet video on youtube? there are already so many other ones uploaded already regarding Tibet and the Beijing Olympics... it would be pretty meaningless.
On the other hand IOC has "long history of overzealously "defending" its trademarks".
Personally, I don't think the teachers are the problem, at least not entirely.
In high school in Canada, there is no standardized testing unless you plan on going to a university in the US. So your final report card marks of your grade 12 courses become your ticket to the university of your dreams.
Now, there are many high schools in Canada, under different school boards, following different guidelines on curriculum. The marks you would get if you went to a high school in Ontario would differ with the mark you would get if you went to a high school in BC.
These marks are generally treated the same by universities. There are ways to level the playing field a bit by taking your percentile into consideration. Plus if you took an AP, IB, or just a normal course. But many universities (good ones, too.) choose not to use them.
So hearing this news is no surprise to me, Math has definitely gotten easier over the years. This year, high schools in Canada no longer offer Discrete Geometry as a subject, replaced with a dumbed down course called Introduction to Functions that contains almost none of the backbreaking concepts taught in the previous course. (Im not sure if this change affected all schools in Canada, or just the Halton district school board in Ontario)
I'm guessing the root of the problem lies under the fact that universities are taking applicants based mostly on their report card mark in high school. It is not a level playing field and a regional school board would dumb down the curriculum as much as they can while complying to the national standards. This would result in more high school graduates moving to post secondary education and more funding. This is just me guessing here of course, but the problem is there nevertheless.
I would think that after a tragedy, it would better to OPEN the internet as much as possible.
I think this is part of the 3 days of mourning going on in China right now, to raise even more awareness of the quake.
Also, sites regarding the earthquake will stay up. So the websites created by people to track missing relatives, or to gather donations, will stay online. Was this absolutely necessary? probably not. But I don't think this move will hinder the rescue effort at all, but rather raise more awareness of it since earthquake related info is all the Chinese people will get in the next 3 days.
While Comcast hogged most of the publicity in the past regarding throttled P2P traffic, almost all Canadian ISPs limit P2P traffic in one way or another.
You have to realize that many Chinese youth today feel China is wronged by the West by a double standard, I won't go into the details as you can read them yourself (ex. the fb group "Tibet WAS,IS,and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China"). But the point is, the attack is more likely to be caused by a Chinese citizen than the government itself.
In another story I read this comment by Digestromath (1190577) and it pretty much nails it.
Like the parent said, the Chinese government would be stupid to attack these sites right before the Olympics. I read a book called "China Shakes the World" By James Kynge and in one chapter in mentioned how the Chinese government has "nurtured nationalism in the youth into so potent a force that they are about to loose control of it."(remembering from the top of my mind...)For example, Only recently are the Japanese portrayed in a semi-positive light in WWII TV series, which probably explains the large amount of people that participate in anti-Japanese riots.
Of course the Chinese government could do more to stop these attacks, but the political climate in China prevents it from happening. No, I'm not talking about the dictatorship of the people. See, anyone that stands up and say these actions are wrong would be labeled a traitor by both politicians and majority of the citizens alike. So politicians tries to avoid denouncing anti-foreigner actions for the sake of their own skin.
Read all three parts of it, the author summarizes both sides of the issue in order for people to see that the Tibet issue is much more than just a communist regime bullying an occupied region, for example:
I know I might be modded offtopic but the discussion of Chinese censorship of Tibet videos will no doubt lead to the discussion of Tibet vs China itself. I'm just asking everyone to please form their opinion after looking at both sides of the issue, and how each side feels about it. Try not to base your opinion solely on just what you hear news.
I really do hope this is a joke, Apple doesn't have much to gain pulling a stunt like this...
Jesus Sheildwolf, Im sorry, from the summary it quoted transsexual and said it was spelled wrong. As not a native of English, I simply assumed double s in the word transsexual was the wrong way to spell it, since the article quoted it and indicated that the word was incorrectly written. (I now see why he spelled it wrong, it one s looks much more right than a double s)
I also checked TFA and it's links (also the one to wikipedia) which had the spelling of transexual, which at that moment I thought was the right way of spelling it.
I was just trying to help correct what I thought was a mistake in the summary, and you label me a liar and an idiot? Thanks.
Think about those prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who are imprisoned by the Americans without a trial. Do you think you are any better than the Americans who imprisoned them if you decide not to hear my side of the story and go straight to judging me as an idiot? I understand if you are trying to help clear the issue to are the offensive comments really necessary?
This is not mentioned in the article, nor appears on the actual wikipedia edit history.
you can try LiquidWars while you wait.
Faster is better now? Then why did they bother to code the defensive personality?
This is the place where a lot of the Chinese disagree. If you think the Tibetans are culturally and linguistically distinct, then you haven't been China. You see, before Qin formalized the same writing system for China back in 200s BC, China was really a collection of distinct countries. Each with their own language and culture.
Today you can still tell where a person is from just by their accent of their mandarin. Most places in China also have their local dialect, so you won't get far trying to convince a Chinese person that Tibet should be separated because of their distinct language. When I was living in Nanjing, I could drive for about 5 hours in different directions, and I would come to two different places with distinct culture and language.
If I drove east, I would come to Shanghai, they have their own dialect that is very different than mandarin. So different that I still don't understand a word they say, after living in China for 10 years. They are famous for their XiaoChi (street food).
If I drove a little to the south, I would arrive at Zhejiang. People here speak a just as different dialect as those in Shanghai, after visiting every summer (because my father's family is from there) for 10 years I still dont understand it. I was told that this dialect is similar to that of Shanghai, but I can't say for sure because they both sound so different. My mother, who have been visiting since she married my father (around 20+ years ago) can understand some of it, but still can't speak it. People here are famous for their taste in seafood, salting live crabs, for example.
My point is that if you are trying to convince a Chinese person that Tibet deserve to be separated, and used their distinct culture and language as the reason, then by that reason many more parts of China also deserve to be separated. I think most people does not know how diverse in culture and language China is.
I lived in China for the first 10 years of my life, so I know the Chinese culture well.
You said Asians love their smart people, it's true, but only under certain perimeters. The first problem is how do you define "smart"? Are smart kids the ones with the highest IQ test scores? Are they the ones that get the highest marks in class? Or are they the ones that can sell the most cookies to neighbors?
In China, IQ Scores are redundant and are not paid any attention to by the education system. Here however (In Canada), it is used to determine if a child is able to enter the gifted program in elementary school.
What the Chinese actually value is someone who can learn fast, think fast with flexibility and without making many mistakes. Although one might argue those people can be called "smart", but smart is too general a word in English and could be referring to a wide rage of characteristics. See, the Chinese does not value IQ or "gifted-ness" because it doesn't reflect what a person could accomplish. Instead, to get into the fast-track classes in China a child has to be placed in the top 40 in his or her grade (this is according to the middle school I was going to go to, there were 60 kids per class and 8 classes per grade.) So instead of getting the kids to take a IQ test of which they have no control over the results, getting into the fast-track classes becomes a competition between students so the winners are respected. In Canada, the gifted kids doesn't "beat" others to get into gifted classes, so there is much less of a reason for other kids to respect them.
One type of smart person the Chinese frown upon are people who stay home and study the textbooks all day, but can't carry the knowledge over and apply it to the real life. It wouldn't matter if the person has the highest mark in the class, if he or she can't solve simple social problems then they will receive little respect.
This is very similar to the definition of a Nerd in the western culture. However, one key difference is the clear line drawn between a "nerd" and a smart person in China, while here in Canada it is assumed anyone who has the highest mark in the class must be a nerd.
I Wonder, why is NCsoft a "heavy backer" for the PS3? So far they've mostly released MMORPGs for the PC...
This is probably just to justify the increasing military spendings in the US. If anything, the Americans should be celebrating that the Chinese is around 20 years behind in this field of weaponry.
Please also look at this article I found:
According to Wikipedia, too, China has been trying to negotiate with the US on banning space weapons. Yet the US would rather not do it.
Of course, don't expect any of this to be on your local newspaper...
I would rather the US make the Chinese depend on them economically, thus maintaining peace, than to reply with a nuke.
well said, if a news article like that came out on the front page of a Chinese newspaper, a lot Chinese people would immediately recognize it as propaganda and simply ignore it. Yet here it makes the front page of slashdot.
I'd have to agree with the parent.
stories like these get more attention here than in China, most Chinese people tune out the propaganda in their lives and get on with the better stuff.
(this is from someone who went to school in China in the 90s, born there too)
that things disregarded by most Chinese as simply propaganda will make the headlines of the western press...
The system can recognize weapons by their report, and thus ignore friendly fire.
So if any of our weapons fall into enemy hands, this robot will actually hinder handicap the user since they would be ignoring shots from the other side thinking that it's just FF?