211–220 of 433 posts
"I used to think I wanted to know everything. Now I know I don't." I'd be interested to know what caused the change, and what types of knowledge you'd prefer not having.
What it feels like to be disemboweled?
I'm glad to take his word for it.
Besides being a woman, Marie Curie was the first and ONLY person to ever recieve a Nobel Prize in different sciences. Something her male counterparts have yet to do, so maybe there's something there besides her sex.
Let N be the number of great scientists. It would be sensible for the curriculum to include the n greatest scientists, where n N . Since Marie Curie always gets included in the textbooks, we can conclude either that she ranks as one of the n greatest scientists, even for very small n , or that the reasons for her inclusion go beyond her scientific accomplishments. Considering how few history textbooks mention (for ex…
Oh, and be careful with statements like "almost no one reading this knows who the hell Onsager and Landau are". There's a surprisingly large number of physicists reading this board.
Most lies are of a statistical nature. Moving to the suburbs is a good example. You're seeing lots of true things that aren't statistically representative. The extensive coverage of protected groups in history texts is the same way. Look at some different lies: 1. "Grandma went to heaven." False. 2. "God doesn't kill good people." False, but containing a moral lesson. 3. "Your parents won't die." False, but translate…
"Grandma went to heaven" is not falsifiable. I'd prefer keeping this discussion focused on falsifiable lies. Let those of us who believe in the resurrection of Jesus, the coming of the semantic web, or other supernatural phenomena believe what we want to believe.
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In the notes, he mentions concern for how the readers 100 years from now will view his essays.
Yes I saw that. But how does it follow that he has to point out "in the year 2008"? When not given a particular time period, I always assume an author's example is meant to refer to the present. (Maybe I am not understanding your point).
I think the statement "as a rule people planning to go into teaching rank academically near the bottom of the college population" should really have a source to back it up.
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During Black History Month, children will learn about nothing but black scientists. As far as I can recall, the most important one did something with blood types. >What powerful groups in America wanted a black scientist to be seen on the same level as Einstein? Identity politics runs very strong in classrooms, which tend to be politically controlled by left-wing teacher's unions. I've spent years of my life learning…
not any school I went to did we spend BHM learning about black scientists. That's a very broad brush your painting, and I wonder if you have some actual data to back that statement up, other than you personal experiences learning about Native Americans.
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Growing up in a farming community, death was common and not hidden from children. The more horrific thing for me as a kid was discovering: "Today’s domesticated turkeys are anatomically manipulated to be so heavy and large breasted, because breast meat is the most desirable and therefore commands the best price, that they are now incapable of breeding naturally." So, there are people who have to perform this artifici…
Responding to half your post, there are cultures (such as farms) where death is dealt with more frankly, and it doesn't seem to cause harm to children outside of making them more practical.
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This is basically right. The words are taboo because it's useful to have taboo words, so the culture deliberately makes them so. Taboo words are useful because they transcend politeness. If a normally civil person comes into your dinner party and tells you that the fucking ceiling is about to fall down , you get moving . You don't waste time looking around for the ironic smile. You don't reproach the person for speak…
Interesting. So I wonder if exceptions are the programming language analogue of swearing?