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Comment correlation is not causation (Score 1) 473

Seems like there's a long list of benefits in education. Not only will you be less religulous, but you will also not fear death as much and hopefully get a more fullfilling job.

An equally valid conclusion is that absence of fear is good, as it enables people to succeed in education.
This conclusion is preferable to that most people are talking about here, as there is a plausible mechanism for it - education usually involves prolonged suffering.

Comment Collective noun problem (Score 1) 150

The scenario

... all of their CEOs had to get into one physical room at the same actual time ....

will never happen. Bankers are cautious of the collective noun "Wunch" becoming common. So they avoid any situation where it may be appropriate.

Comment PoV of Maths Faculty (Score 3, Interesting) 213

I work at a University, teaching Maths across many levels.

Khan's screencasts are nice - patient demos of how to do standard calculations. They are fairly traditional in some ways - 21st century chalk+talk.

They are mostly useful for the "what to do" as even these contain enough of the "why" to put it in context.

They complement what we do in formal classes, so we are happy to informally refer students on to them.

Comment Grant proposal (Score 1) 344

Dear Sir
Please find attached our proposal for the research project "Post facto rationalisation of the value of innovation".
The human ethics application is also attached. Although we will be largely following the standard protocols for using freshman Psychology students as experimental subjects, we have requested permission to exclude subjects for whom "640kB of petrified hot grits in a Beowulf cluster of Natalie Portmans" induces a sphincter contraction.
Yours,
R.E. Searcher, PhD

Comment Re:Units (5core: -15000, f1amebait) (Score 1) 465

Yes, agreed. I was suggesting reasons for the weird options. So (a) relates to it being deliberate and (b) to it being accidental - it's much easier to screw up certain unit conversions if your brain segfaults on 3*22*10*8.
Of course, it could also be a poll where the first few options are designed to catch a large number of people who should truthfully be answering "I don't understand ratios".

Image

Police Called Over 11-Year-Old's Science Project 687

garg0yle writes "Police in San Diego were called to investigate an 11-year-old's science project, consisting of 'a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics,' after the vice-principal came to the conclusion that it was a bomb. Charges aren't being laid against the youth, but it's being recommended that he and his family 'get counseling.' Apparently, the student violated school policies — I'm assuming these are policies against having any kind of independent thought?"
NASA

Simulation of Close Asteroid Fly-By 148

c0mpliant writes "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released a simulation of the path of an asteroid, named Apophis, that will come very close to Earth in 2029 — the closest predicted approach since humans have monitored for such heavenly bodies. The asteroid caused a bit of a scare when astronomers first announced that it would enter Earth's neighborhood some time in the future. However, since that announcement in 2004, more recent calculations have put the odds of collision at 1 in 250,000."

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