It doesnt actually matter how many planets or brown dwarfs you think we have missed
There are limits (for very good and well checked reasons) on how much ordinary (baryonic) matter there can actually be
We may have understimated the numbers of extrasolar planets or similar but that still wont account for the vast majority of the missing matter. In any case such calculations have been well looked at for a long period of time and screwed down pretty tight (this is what I did for my PhD almost 15 years ago. Even then it was pretty clear that brown dwarfs were not the be all and end all of accounting for dark matter within galaxies).
Regarding "move beyond the assumption that if we cant see it it isnt there"...surely that is the whole point of dark matter/dark energy. We are confident that 'something' is there, but we cant 'see' it, hence our insistence on using the term 'dark'.
It doesnt actually matter how many Brown Dwarfs we have missed
There are limits on how much "ordinary" (Baryonic) matter there can be, regardless of how much we actually have down on our named list here. So no matter how much we have underestimated the number of Brown Dwarfs (and we have done a pretty good job on estimating those numbers, that is what I was doing for my PhD pretty much 15 years ago and even then it was getting obvious that Brown Dwarfs or similar was not the answer) the fact remains that they cannot account for any significant proportion of "dark matter"
As regards "if we cant see it it isnt there" surely astrophysics actually assumes the opposite. Namely that there definately is something there but we cant "see" it. Hence the term dark.
I enjoyed Syndicate Wars
Syndicate was a proper game and an original one at that, I don't think it has been bettered.
It goes up there in the hallowed hall of fame alongside such giants as System Shock and Chaos.
>However, more worrying is that in my work with schools, I've come across all of the above categories of TEACHER. That's a lot more scary. I regularly see kids told off for daring to ask "Why?" or "Why not?" and, yes, some of them are just deliberately being annoying but I've witnessed no end of kids that are shut out of learning because the teacher "needs" to have a chat, text their husband, fill in paperwork, go to lunch, etc.
Unfortunately, all too often it is because the teacher themselves simply doesn't know (or doesn't really know in enough depth or detail)or simply does not possess the skills to explain to the child.
They all fall into a teaching rut, quoting the same old sentences day in and day out, without really thinking or making the kids think.
All too often it is recitation, not teaching. A crying shame but it does keep me in work!
I agree.. to a point.
That is why teaching institutions exist... if it were all a simple matter of "look this up" I would be out of a job.
I have taught (private tuition) for nigh on 15 years and I have been involved in Scouting for many more, in short I spend almost all day every day working with kids of all ages.
Much of the teaching in schools actually resists kids asking questions. With my classes, I "have a go" at them for NOT asking questions. I teach them not to take everything I say at face value, to question, to ask why. But in order to complete that important part of their education I need to explain why, I need to answer their question, or explain why their question doesn't make sense or doesn't have an answer.
It takes children many many years at school (and university) to learn the schools of research and even then it can be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff without expert knowledge.
Now I have had my fair share of kids that ask why, why, why just to be annoying, but these are easily dealt with. I can bore them back by explaining why, why, why... until it gets to a certain point that is ably demonstrated by something my step daughter and fiance said the other day:
"oh no... quick... stop asking... else I am going to catch his science germs".
Parents who are poorly educated are simply unable to help their kids find answers.
I have had umpteen homeworks handed in that are mere printouts of a webpage. Fine.. nothing wrong with that, in fact I encourage it. But in class the first question I ask them is : "Do you understand this?". The second is: "Can you explain this to me?". If not, I still have a job to do.
Stellar rays prove fibbing never pays. Embezzlement is another matter.