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Comment And this is why burning Uranium is stupid... (Score 1) 282

The nuclear fuel we have on this planet is our entry-ticket for exploring and colonizing the solar system. The most stupid thing that can be done with it is using it to generate electricity, because that can be done in a number of other ways. At the same time, until fusion takes off (if ever...), fissionable material is irreplaceable and cannot be made artificially.

Comment Re:And the game continues (Score 1) 181

It will go on forever. Just think of comparably stupid things like the "war on drugs". It has been going on since 1920, with nothing to show than massively increased damage, but zero result in consumption. Stupid people stop their fanaticism only when they face overwhelming opposition.

Education

Can Students Have Too Much Tech? 198

theodp writes: In a NY Times Op Ed, developmental psychologist Susan Pinker goes against the conventional White House wisdom about the importance of Internet connectivity for schoolchildren and instead argues that students can have too much tech. "More technology in the classroom has long been a policy-making panacea," Pinker writes. "But mounting evidence shows that showering students, especially those from struggling families, with networked devices will not shrink the class divide in education. If anything, it will widen it." Tech can help the progress of children, Pinker acknowledges, but proper use is the rub. As a cautionary tale, Pinker cites a study by Duke economists that tracked the academic progress of nearly one million disadvantaged middle-school students against the dates they were given networked computers. The news was not good. "Students who gain access to a home computer between the 5th and 8th grades tend to witness a persistent decline in reading and math scores," the economists wrote, adding that license to surf the Internet was also linked to lower grades in younger children.

Comment Re:Physicalist nil-whits at work again (Score 1) 226

The only one here that said anything about "magic" is you. I am merely pointing out that there is pretty compelling evidence that the physicalist model is incomplete and that it is stupid to insists that it is actually complete and accurate, as are the conclusions drawn from it.

Sure, that is a meta-analysis I am doing here, an decidedly not beginner's stuff.

Comment Re:Wrong, IMHO (Score 2) 96

Or in other words: There are a lot of bad scientists around that cling to the little part of science that they thought they had mastered. When it turns out they did not, they turn irrational. Good scientists do not regard it as a loss if a theory they have worked on turns out to be invalid. They are intrigued, applaud the advancement of knowledge, regard their working on the failed theory as getting more insight and skill, and move on.

The sad thing is that Sturgeon's Law applies to scientists as well. It also matches my experience as a scientist, and especially as a peer-reviewer: Good researchers and good research is rare, most do small incremental and usually irrelevant stuff, because they do not have what it takes. Many of these researchers also excel at hindering, sabotaging, ridiculing and stealing from researchers that are actually good at it.

Comment Re:It's called self-interest (Score 1) 181

So for a question of personal comfort ("doing research as you see fit") you are willing to throw the human race under the bus? I call that exceptionally selfish. It is quite enough if those exceptionally gifted are allowed to do self-directed research, an there are enough academic positions for those.

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