Finally, if you want to make your power plant cleaner at some point in the future it is a bit easier than retrofitting a large number of cars.
I think it's safe to say that the replacement cycle on cars is a bit shorter than the upgrade cycle of power plants, so this particular benefit probably won't materialize.
For those who have seen the movie (or play) Proof, you might recall that they mention Sophie Germain, after whom a class of prime numbers is named. However, I'd vote for Emmy Noether as the best female mathematician/geek. Einstein said she was "the most significant creative genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began." [1]. She developed an entire branch of mathematics, and had a genuine following; many of her students turned out to be important mathematicians in the next generation.
[1] As quoted in Gallian's Contemporary Abstract Algebra
The suggestion about not allowing bathroom breaks reminds me of an anecdote about the author Vladimir Nabokov, who taught in the US for a long time. If, during one of his exams, a student decided to go for a bathroom break, upon re-entering the room, Nabokov would dictate an entirely new exam to the student. As I recall, Nabokov, who taught literature, would ask absurdly difficult and seemingly pointless questions; for instance, he would ask about the color of a character's button in one particular scene, even if it was of no relevance to the plot and mentioned only once.
If you'll recall, a similar terrorism futures market was planned by DARPA; it fell victim to political pressure, got deep-sixed, and the proponent, John Poindexter, resigned in a cloud. But the truth is that the idea works well.
Here's a summary of the controversy: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59818,00 .html.
The prolific mathematician Paul Erdos, towards the end of his life, used to say that he was about four billion years old. He explained: when he was a boy, the known of the age of the universe was about five billion years, but by the time he was older, the age of the universe was had grown to nine billion.
Tack on another billion and change for all of us...
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's safe to say that the replacement cycle on cars is a bit shorter than the upgrade cycle of power plants, so this particular benefit probably won't materialize.
For those who have seen the movie (or play) Proof, you might recall that they mention Sophie Germain, after whom a class of prime numbers is named. However, I'd vote for Emmy Noether as the best female mathematician/geek. Einstein said she was "the most significant creative genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began." [1]. She developed an entire branch of mathematics, and had a genuine following; many of her students turned out to be important mathematicians in the next generation.
[1] As quoted in Gallian's Contemporary Abstract Algebra
The suggestion about not allowing bathroom breaks reminds me of an anecdote about the author Vladimir Nabokov, who taught in the US for a long time. If, during one of his exams, a student decided to go for a bathroom break, upon re-entering the room, Nabokov would dictate an entirely new exam to the student. As I recall, Nabokov, who taught literature, would ask absurdly difficult and seemingly pointless questions; for instance, he would ask about the color of a character's button in one particular scene, even if it was of no relevance to the plot and mentioned only once.
If you'll recall, a similar terrorism futures market was planned by DARPA; it fell victim to political pressure, got deep-sixed, and the proponent, John Poindexter, resigned in a cloud. But the truth is that the idea works well. Here's a summary of the controversy: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59818,00 .html.
The prolific mathematician Paul Erdos, towards the end of his life, used to say that he was about four billion years old. He explained: when he was a boy, the known of the age of the universe was about five billion years, but by the time he was older, the age of the universe was had grown to nine billion. Tack on another billion and change for all of us...