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Comment Re: It was a myth (Score 2) 986

The difference between the corporations who want to control us and the government is that we elect the government and have some say in its operations. Of course, if we're idiots and vote for power-hungry psychopaths based on political advertising and propaganda (Fox) paid for by wealthy individuals and corporations, the government we get isn't going to do a lot of good. Hence the need for controls on campaign financing, etc.

Comment Re:Texas teachers (Score -1) 244

My mother was a teacher and based on her experience, I'd say you are a conservative blowhard. The teachers unions can screw up, but for the most part they have been defending not just teachers, but their students against idiot administrators, bureaucrats, and, worst of all, politicians. Right wingers have succeeded in demonizing the unions as part of their efforts to demonize the teachers themselves in furtherance of their goal to undermine public education.

Comment Cat Videos (Score 1) 199

Years ago my wife bought a VHS tape that was intended to entertain cats. It was all videos of squirrels, birds, and other prey moving around and making sounds. One of our two cats ignored it, but the other was fascinated. He could watch the entire one-hour tape without getting bored. He would occasionally try to move around behind the TV to get a better vantage point. At first he would often swat at the images on the screen, but he learned fairly quickly that he couldn't catch them that way.

Comment Real Education Requires Both (Score 1) 564

You can't call yourself educated unless you have at least some background in both science and the humanities. I would extend the author's argument to go both ways - science majors need humanities courses so they have some idea of the human environment in which science is conducted and which it influences, and humanities majors need science and math courses so they have some of the logical discipline that those courses provide.

I was a humanities major, but I had a strong interest in science. Until I was in college I didn't do much with this interest due to bad math anxiety, but as a soph I decided to extend myself and take some courses in the "science track". We were on the block system, in which we took one course per month. So I spent one intense month learning calculus, and then one very intense month learning classical physics. I was fortunate to have good teachers or this could have been a disaster, but I aced calc and got a B+ in physics. The experience showed me that I wasn't really cut out for the sciences (although I ended up as a software engineer). But it was a good experience that strengthened my ability to think logically, and that increased my appreciation for math and science. Seeing physics laws derived step-by-step on the blackboard (that dates me!) was an incredible thrill, and gave me insight into how the mathematician's and scientist's brains work, and what drives scientists in their work.

I also took, in both college and grad school, some logic, philosophy of science, and statistics courses. All of them led me to a greater understanding of how science works as opposed to how most people think it works.

Getting a mix of science and humanities made me a better person, a person more able to understand issues that affect my life and the life of the community. I encourage students to study both.

Comment Re:For what it's worth (Score 3, Interesting) 57

I beg to differ on I Am Legend. I read the book many years ago and found it suspenseful, engrossing, moving, and, to one willing to suspend disbelief, reasonably plausible.

None of the movies lived up to the original. They went more for thrills and chills at the expense of the humanity of the story.

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