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Comment Re:I'm sure /. will ridicule it, but... (Score 1) 306

A general knowledge of chemistry is not going to tell you what "tocopherols" or "methyl salicylate" are,

A vague hint? Methyl salicylate would be a methylated salicylic acid (which anyone who has taken organic chemistry has heard of), aka an ester, so likely used for aroma/flavor which would be very common in foods and probably nothing to worry about in an ingredient list (though I have never seen it so I assume you are trying to be clever or it has a more common name?)

Ok, of course had to look it up. Wintergreen, eh. I think my above guess was fairly close. And why? CHEMISTRY! So, do YOU know what an ester is? If not, chemistry would have helped you. If so, chemistry DID help you.

Comment Re:I'm sure /. will ridicule it, but... (Score 1) 306

BTW, you call chemistry "basic"? Why is chemistry of any practical use to anyone but anyone but a chemist?

How about reading a basic food label and not being terrified? You wouldn't believe how many people are in favor of banning dihydrogen monoxide. Ignorance is ignorance.

Let's apply that same logic to computer programming. How often are these kids going to be interacting with computers in their lifetimes?

Another poster already made a similar point, but since you used the "let's apply that same logic" argument... do you really understand the engineering behind every technology you use in daily life? Of course not. And most people I assume understand even LESS, but can still use it just fine. Computers themselves are a TOOL used by non-engineers 100x more than by engineers. Learning to use one is like learning to drive, not learning to build a car.

Comment Re:I'm sure /. will ridicule it, but... (Score 1) 306

I was referring to subjects traditionally taught in school, of source. I'm pretty sure everything you mentioned is better learned by just LIVING.

Though I do believe some of those skills ARE improved via a good liberal arts education - as well as, IMO, the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL learned in college: research.

I don't care what your field is, if you have learned to be an expert in researching, you can quickly pick up a huge variety of skills/information you need in order to adapt to your specific job. It's always been important, but now with the Internet this skill has become an almost indescribably important tool.

Comment I'm sure /. will ridicule it, but... (Score 4, Insightful) 306

I mostly agree with him.

I (and I'm sure MANY of us!) didn't learn any programming skills formally until college (and some not even there). I learned basic skills on my own because I thought it was fun, learned more formally in college, and really only made the decision to go into software engineering soon before graduation.

I just think kids are better off learning more general areas - math, physics, chemistry, writing/literature, social sciences, economics, and BASIC (pun intended) computer science/programming. Leave the specialization to a time where they know what that even means.

Comment Re:Races must be competitive by definition (Score 1) 275

That's true if you think the race is "over". But it's basically more like the US won the first lap and decided to celebrate by throwing away its running shoes and binging on donuts for a couple decades. They have basically let China start to catch up and passed (thrown?) the baton to a bunch of 5 year olds hoping one catches it and has any clue which way to run. (ok, end silly analogies :)

Comment Re:We Are Aleady in a Space Race (Score 1) 275

Their proposed time table has them returning moon rock to earth in 2017, launching a space station in 2020, and a moon walk in 2024. So arguably, in a little less than ten years from now, they will have caught up with where the US was around almost two decades ago.

Your point makes more sense in the "race" analogy than you realize. Basically the US won the race handily in its "space technology prime" but now "two decades" later it's 50 pounds overweight and too lazy to train for the next one, while China is putting everything it can into it. Using the moon landings as a bar for progress only makes sense if the US could trivially go back. Which it clearly can't.

Not that I'm arguing the US *should* spend the money to compete with China on another moon landing. It's already been proven the task is just a matter of resource expenditure, so doing it again would be about as interesting as another Rocky movie.

Comment Re:Sounds like upper middle class housing developm (Score 1) 540

I'm thinking "indie" more in terms of distribution not production quality. With his resources his "indie" projects could be equivalent to studio production.

Except that just doesn't make much sense... Lucas has given *no* indication he wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on high end productions and then not distribute it widely. People just don't self-distribute movies these days. In fact, the main point of indie festivals like Sundance is for the filmmakers to try to get their films picked up by a distributor.

On the other hand, he *has* indicated he wants to spend hundreds of millions (actually, billions) on philanthropic ventures. I just don't see any reason not to take his own statements at face value until he actually *does* something to show he has ulterior motives.

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