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Comment Re:School = Child Assembly Line (Score 1) 344

You should probably read Gatto's work, it's a good starting point on what is horribly wrong with our schools in this regard.

That said: I remember science labs quite vividly. They rarely asked you to question anything, and mostly involved following a set of instructions with little room for variation or asking "what if." So today we measure the speed of a bb, rather than asking "how might we do that?" and then investigating, most HS labs I've seen say "we do that by..." with a checklist.

Comment Re:other "theories" (Score 1) 344

One thing with the gravity comparison though, is that gravity *is* tested in school. Frequently and empirically. Things of different masses are dropped, times are measured, and constants are calculated. Critical thinking and scientific approach can (sadly not necessary *are*, but they could) be taught using gravity as a backdrop. This is a somewhat different matter from evolution.

Not saying that I do not support said theory, but let's be up front about the difference here.
Biotech

Submission + - End to Stem Cell Harvesting Moral Debate In Sight 1

MikShapi writes: This Just In: Skin Cells can now be turned back to Stem Cells. A genetic modification to four genes using a viral vector reverses differentiating, making the cells revert to a stem cell state, capable for becoming any other cell in the body. Published in Cell and Nature by teams of researchers from the universities of Kyoto and Wisconsin, implications range from uprooting the moral justification for the GWB veto to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research, to an important step in the engineering roadmap to end (involuntary) aging. And, lest it go unmentioned, should this technique be adopted, stem cells will henceforth be abundant, easier and cheaper to come by for research and therapeutic purposes.
Security

Submission + - Using Google to crack MD5 passwords. (lightbluetouchpaper.org) 2

stern writes: "A security researcher at Cambridge, trying to figure out the password used by somebody who had hacked his website, ran a dictionary through the encryption hash function. No dice. Then he pasted the hacker's encrypted password into Google, and Shazzam — the all-knowing Google delivered his answer. Conclusion? Use no password any other human being is ever likely to use for any purpose, I think."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - Apple now sells more than one in six laptops (computerworld.com)

Lucas123 writes: "Apple's share of the laptop market has grown greatly over the past few years and the company is now beating Gateway in sales, according research firm NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, N.Y. "Their sales are continuing to grow faster than the rest of the marketplace," the firm stated. Apple is now in third place behind HP and Toshiba, and their sales are continuing to grow faster than the rest of the marketplace. Next on Apple's plate: a totally refreshed iPod, NPD says."
Links

Submission + - Is Scientific Consensus a Threat to Democracy? (ft.com)

chance_encounter writes: "President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus has published an article in the Financial Times in which he seems to equate the current global warming debate with totalitarian thought control: "The dictates of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else is denounced." He goes on to state: "The scientists should help us and take into consideration the political effects of their scientific opinions. They have an obligation to declare their political and value assumptions and how much they have affected their selection and interpretation of scientific evidence." At the end of the article he proposes several suggestions to improve the global climate debate, including this point: "Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term "scientific consensus," which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority.""
Privacy

Submission + - FBI Finds It Overstepped in Collecting Data (washingtonpost.com)

truthsearch writes: "An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March. The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002. The vast majority of the new violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect. But two dozen of the newly-discovered violations involved agents' requests for information that U.S. law did not allow them to have."
Security

Submission + - Safari 3 Beta Updated, Security Problems Fixed (macworld.com)

Llywelyn writes: Apple has released an update to the Safari 3 Beta. According to Macworld the updates "...include correction for a 'command injection vulnerability,' corrected with additional processing and validation of URLs that could otherwise lead to an unexpected termination of the browser; an out-of-bounds memory read issue; and a race condition that can allow cross-site scripting using a JavaSscript [sic] exploit." It is available through either the Apple Safari download site or through Apple's Software Update.
Windows

Submission + - Apple's Safari on Windows (bbc.co.uk)

comm2k writes: According to the BBC Apple has announced a windows version of its Safari browser.

Apple has launched a version of its web browser Safari for Windows, competing head to head with Microsoft's Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.

Soldiers Bond With Bots, Take Them Fishing 462

HarryCaul writes "Soldiers are finding themselves becoming more and more attached to their robotic helpers. During one test of a mine clearing robot, 'every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.' The man in charge halted the test, though - 'He just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg. This test, he charged, was inhumane.' Sometimes the soldiers even take their metallic companions fishing. Is there more sympathy for Robot Rights than previously suspected?"
User Journal

Journal Journal: AppleTV hits the streets 474

Stories are starting to pop up all over the web about the AppleTV, which evidently means that Apple has set loose the hounds of marketing and the units are (or will be tomorrow) available in Apple stores. Still no word on whether
Robotics

Submission + - Fish-like sensors for underwater robots

Roland Piquepaille writes: "Today, both submarine and surface ships use sonar for navigation. But sonar and other vision systems face various limitations. So why not imitating fish? For millions of years, fish have relied on 'a row of specialized sensory organs along the sides of their bodies, called the lateral line' to avoid predators or to find preys. So engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have decided to build an artificial lateral line for submarines and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The first tests have been successful, and we can now envision a day where AUVs could detect and track moving underwater targets or avoid collisions with moving or stationary objects. Read more for additional details and a picture showing a future model of autonomous underwater robot using a artificial lateral line."

Feed Vista Not Open to All (wired.com)

Citing security concerns, Microsoft prevents Mac users from running the OS on their machines. But is security the real reason here? By the Associated Press


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