Cap'n Refsmmat

Okay, look. It's clear that neither of you will win and this thread will descend down into the crapper. So can we please rewind to post 84 or so, when the conversation was actually decent, and continue with posts that actually discuss the topic rather than tell each other what would constitute an acceptable reply? ...and a nice simulpost there.

There really is a limit. You can't introduce detail that simply wasn't in the original image. Photoshop could sharpen that image up a bit, but not make a nice image of the attacker's face.

Huh?

First four pages of results turned up nothing. You sure?

I'd be glad to help you with that. If there's an experiment, I want to see it.

Over 100 students in our graduating class of 500 have taken AP Calculus. They actually had to cut down the classes because there were too many people signed up to take it. I agree with Bignose somewhat on this; I think that most people's assessment of "where will I use this skill?" is rather narrow-minded and ignores dozens of everyday possibilities. I use my math skills in unlikely places, certainly. But I think this view is also too idealistic -- a lot of mathematics is learned by students as "this is how I solve this kind of problem" rather than "this is a method I can use to solve all sorts of interesting problems." That's a fundamental flaw that's common everywhere in education.

So I was talking to a chemistry teacher at our high school yesterday and he expressed his belief that high school teaches a lot of the wrong things. For example, he asked "how many people are actually going to need calculus in the real world?" (Engineers don't count because they can learn it in college instead when they specialize.) This brings up an interesting point. School has always seemed to be about cramming as much knowledge as possible down students' throats. While I think it's good for students to know math and science and English and history and so on, school has evolved from "let them know some math" to "let them know advanced calculus very well". The question: does this serve students well? I'm inclined to favor teaching everything possible, simply because I'm a nerd, but it leaves me wondering: do we really need to be teaching detailed world history and physics, or should high school focus more on "what you need to know in the real world"?

One thing you need to remember is that a combination of experience in electrical engineering and business will give you an edge in management in any engineering-related field -- there's nothing like a manager with actual experience in the field he's managing. So you can't just go by the statistics.

Come on, everyone knows that colorful charts and diagrams form the essence of modern science.

What exactly is it that makes gametes have full-length telomeres when they have been produced by an organism that is many years old already? Or do they not?

No, vBulletin doesn't provide for ignoring threads. There might be a plugin for it, of course. Why do you want it when you can just not read the thread?

Tin foil seems like the opposite of what you'd want -- it'd reflect most heat. Black construction paper would do the best job of absorbing heat.

Kara's wishes are irrelevant; she was a minor. You have to realize that government is designed not just to protect people from each other but to protect them from themselves, hence forced institutionalization and other things. We disallow child abuse on the grounds that it harms the child -- that is unquestionable. Suppose the parents believe religiously that abuse is good for the child. Is that an acceptable excuse? Surely allowing a child to die, unable to speak or walk, is close enough to abuse.

For something I'd depend on (medical information), I use a different source. But for general ideas, I try Wikipedia. Your teacher was wrong, by the way: there are hundreds of edits occurring on Wikipedia in a given minute. Statistically, however, the given page has only been edited about 18 times, so it's not that frequent. Most changes are not vandalism but minor tweaks, anyway. You could also present this article about Wikipedia's accuracy. Then compare the costs of Wikipedia to Britannica.

More like Kara grows "so weak that she could not walk or speak." Her parents ignore this and assume she'll be healed by God. Kara dies. Because her parents allowed their child to die, they should go to jail. Your argument seems to be that it's up to the parents' belief of what was the best treatment. If they believed prayer would work, they shouldn't be punished for following that course. The trouble here is that they ignored a lifetime of "See your doctor!" messages and the entire body of medical research in making the decision. Basically, the decision is over whether you can determine the parents "criminally stupid."

Well that's helpful.

You're supposed to support your positions with evidence.

rudolfhendrique, you may speculate as much as you want, but you need to answer questions put forth about your speculations. Were I to say "Pink unicorns exist!" I could say it as speculation, but I wouldn't be saying anything useful unless I could produce a pink unicorn as proof. The same applies here: a useful way to improve your hypothesis is to listen to what Bignose and others say. If you simply refuse to answer Bignose's questions then this discussion is pointless.

Most importantly, don't stand in the middle of the talk thinking "Oh wait, Glider said I should walk around some... am I too monotonous? I wonder if I should stop looking at that one guy in the third row. Maybe if I look over there..." It doesn't really help.

Exploding head syndrome for the loud bedtime noises, perhaps. Good thing I watched House last night.

They do split particles apart, yes, but there's no large lump of plutonium sitting there to facilitate any chain reaction. For an explosion to occur you have to have a critical mass of plutonium or uranium. "Critical mass" meaning one big enough that when an atom inside splits, it can cause other atoms inside to split as well, starting the chain reaction. (When the lump of uranium is too small the pieces might just fly out.) A particle collider would not have a critical mass.

I saw a Dr. Payne's office once and a Dr. Hitchcock's office. Actually I think they were in the same dental practice. Scary.

I dunno. It talked about the prevalence of the parasite in countries like Brazil, which was only colonized a few hundred years ago, not several thousand. But regardless, that's not the point. I'm trying to raise an ethical question, not a "is this parasite changing our behavior" question. Assume the parasite does indeed alter cultures to a measurable extent and that we could in fact get rid of it. Would you want to get rid of it if it were partially responsible for your culture?

Whoopsies. I forgot that the CSS is customized in each. I'll have to fix the other templates later.

Parasitic in origin, I mean. Recently I've read a few articles about how toxoplasmosa parasites might influence human behavior. The author of the linked article even suggests that the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in various countries could help explain certain aspects of those countries' cultures. In other words, a mind-altering parasite might be influencing human culture. I'm not opening this thread to discuss how feasible that is, however. The author of the study admits that this work is preliminary and there's a lot more to be done to prove anything. The thing that got me wondering, however, is this: What if it's true? Suppose we discover that numerous cultural differences are all the result of some parasite. With some medication and better handling of meat we could wipe out the parasite entirely, potentially saving lives (the link points out that toxoplasmosis can cause slower reaction times, and thus more auto accidents). But eliminating the parasite would, over time, change the face of nations around the world. If you were in charge, would you lead a campaign to eradicate the parasite, or would you consider it an element of your culture? On the one hand, you'd eliminate a potentially harmful parasite -- but on the other hand you'd be altering the personality of your nation.