I guess it would ruin the suspense it if you dropped 'attempt', ie. more accurate to say "Danish sailors make insane harbour entry".

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>> ^Shepppard:

Okay, maybe I'm just completely unfamiliar with anything Nautical, but, someone please explain why this is crazy?

look how close they came at 0:36 to being sucked into that sea wall on the left before riding the wave in.

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Thank you for an intelligent reply. I'm booting this video out of Science. I too work with people with a range of religious beliefs, and agree that the distinction between scientific output by Muslim nations compared to Muslims in general is important to make.

In reply to this comment by no-really:
I like this guy normally, but this train of thought was so retarded that I actually registered in order to derail it. 'Muslim World' is predominantly third world, so not surprisingly, few research papers are published in countries in which there is little money for food, never mind access to journals, infrastructure for equipment, travel grants or salaries for academics.

That academic productivity is linked to resources, rather than philosophy, is supported by the observation that the rate of publication has increased at four times the global average in the middle east in the last 30 years (http://www.science-metrix.com/30years-Paper.pdf), ten-fold in Iran. This is due to resource prioritisation by the administrations of those countries, not the religiosity of the scientists.

A better way of thinking about it would be to look at the number of muslims actually publishing scientific papers globally - loads of muslims live and work in the first world conducting great research that is unbiased by any secret fantasies they (or their theist colleagues) may harbour. I actually work in a lab headed by a Jew and staffed by a few atheists, a hindu, 2 christians, 2 muslims and a few shintos, and there is no correlation between how often anybody prays and their success at work.

The amount of resources or percentage of GDP allocated to science is determined by the underlying philsophy/ideology. Islam simply doesn't value scientific advances. That's why those countries don't contribute.

I've only skimmed the linked pdf but it says that the growth over Middle East countries is very uneven. Most of the growth is from Iran and Turkey and we know all about Iran. This is the country paying the Taliban to kill U.S soldiers. In most other Islamic countries it's stagnant. Iran's increase has it's roots in the war with Iraq and the desire to get nuclear weapons.

The fact is you'll only see projects like the Large Hadron Collider thanks to countries like America and those in Europe.

And BTW, is it possible to drop the use of the word "retarded". I'm happy to see that when I'm watching my Halo 3 montages and the kids are complaining about non-MLG footage, but there's nothing in his argument that is "retarded".


>> ^no-really:

I like this guy normally, but this train of thought was so retarded that I actually registered in order to derail it. 'Muslim World' is predominantly third world, so not surprisingly, few research papers are published in countries in which there is little money for food, never mind access to journals, infrastructure for equipment, travel grants or salaries for academics.
That academic productivity is linked to resources, rather than philosophy, is supported by the observation that the rate of publication has increased at four times the global average in the middle east in the last 30 years (http://www.science-metrix.com/30years-Paper.pdf), ten-fold in Iran. This is due to resource prioritisation by the administrations of those countries, not the religiosity of the scientists.
A better way of thinking about it would be to look at the number of muslims actually publishing scientific papers globally - loads of muslims live and work in the first world conducting great research that is unbiased by any secret fantasies they (or their theist colleagues) may harbour. I actually work in a lab headed by a Jew and staffed by a few atheists, a hindu, 2 christians, 2 muslims and a few shintos, and there is no correlation between how often anybody prays and their success at work.

I like this guy normally, but this train of thought was so retarded that I actually registered in order to derail it. 'Muslim World' is predominantly third world, so not surprisingly, few research papers are published in countries in which there is little money for food, never mind access to journals, infrastructure for equipment, travel grants or salaries for academics.

That academic productivity is linked to resources, rather than philosophy, is supported by the observation that the rate of publication has increased at four times the global average in the middle east in the last 30 years (http://www.science-metrix.com/30years-Paper.pdf), ten-fold in Iran. This is due to resource prioritisation by the administrations of those countries, not the religiosity of the scientists.

A better way of thinking about it would be to look at the number of muslims actually publishing scientific papers globally - loads of muslims live and work in the first world conducting great research that is unbiased by any secret fantasies they (or their theist colleagues) may harbour. I actually work in a lab headed by a Jew and staffed by a few atheists, a hindu, 2 christians, 2 muslims and a few shintos, and there is no correlation between how often anybody prays and their success at work.

I care very little about the argument directly. Most people who care about this argument are just marketing victims and/or pretentious twats.

I'm CONSTANTLY meeting people - often clients unfortunately - who know very little about computers or using computers, but feel very strongly that I should be using a Mac if I'm genuinely creative. And these people are actually ascribing less creativity to me in their internal assessment. I harbour contempt for anyone who expreses this opinion to me. Some people even package it in the form of advice. Beware people of the world: If you have this opinion, you're most likely a fucking pretentious twat. Honestly. It's like caring deeply about what colour lightbulb your accountant uses.

1.1.1 You are correct, some word problems are completely generic and are simply translations of math into English. But the kind we are talking about relate math to the real world. Here is an example:



If you have never had a word problem like this, you had a really lousy education.

2.2.2 We are talking about a math class. Say it with me: MATH. Specifically, geometry. GEOMETRY. This is not the forum to discuss law, history, HBTQ rights, Native Americans, Nürnberg, Pearl Harbour, etc. Those topics are excellent for their appropriate classes, such as history and sociology, not in a math class.

3.1.1 Your example supports my point. You took an immoral topic (the deliberate murder of children), and changed into a moral topic (how much food needed to prevent starvation). You see, killing children is bad, preventing starvation is good. Easy to tell the difference, right?

3.2.1 I'm going to assume you are joking now.

4.1.1 The examples you provided are also completely inappropriate for math class. Those are not "interesting topics", they are traumatic tragedies. They would distract from the lesson rather than encouraging focus.

5.1.1 That is simply not true. A good teacher keeps the class on-topic, or nothing would get done. If a student recently suffered a trauma and was not able to focus on work, they should go to the school nurse or counselor.

5.2.1 If the students are eager to discuss a topic that can be worked into a lesson appropriate to the class, then great, run with it. If it is not appropriate to the class and the teacher runs with it, the students will start to manipulate the teacher into class discussions rather than the necessary lessons. I have seen this happen on a number of occasions, but fortunately the teacher was intelligent enough to recognize what was happening and bring the class back to the lesson.

I apologize if I seem rude, but you seem to lack the fundamental sense of appropriateness for a school lesson. Though it is certainly appropriate to discuss emotionally charged topics in history, sociology, or ethics classes, topics in math classes should be emotionally and politically neutral so that the students will stay focused on the math.

>> ^MaxWilder:

LarsaruS, you are ignoring context. This was a geometry lesson, not a socio-politcal discussion. It was not intended to raise a topic for thoughtful debate. When you put together a word problem for a math lesson, you are implying that the content of the problem is something you might have to consider in real life, and in a fairly trivial manner. It is not appropriate to use immoral acts as the content of school lessons, no matter what the specific act may be. For instance, you would not want a teacher who used an example of how much children eat daily, and how much less they would need if you drowned some of them. You would not want to use the example of how many slaves you would need to buy to get a certain amount of acreage harvested. GeeSussFreeK's example above is funny because of how totally inappropriate it would be in school.
It doesn't matter whether it is a hypothetical. The context implies approval of the activities specified.


Ok, I have a couple of issues with your post.

1: "When you put together a word problem for a math lesson, you are implying that the content of the problem is something you might have to consider in real life, and in a fairly trivial manner".
1.1: No, that does not have to be the case. I never considered word problems in any lesson as something I might have to do in real life (anecdotal evidence but still). There is a skill called critical thinking, you use it to see what the lesson is about, here angles and probably Pythagoras, and learn that not just what the problem's solution is. That way you can apply what you have learnt on many things as you get the principle for how to solve all similar problems.


2: "It is not appropriate to use immoral acts as the content of school lessons, no matter what the specific act may be"
2.1: Umm, what? Not being able to use immoral acts as content of school lessons at all? Seriously? And who decides what these immoral acts are? (Hint: lobby groups) For some being homosexual is an immoral act as it is a choice/lifestyle, ergo no teachers are allowed to talk about HBTQ rights. Equality is therefore gone in school education. For some talking about evolution is immoral so good bye science. The list goes on. If you have an "Immoral list" you can always add more things to it as you see fit until only the things that the people in power wants to be taught can be taught and in a couple of generations all other knowledge will have vanished as the people who learnt it die off.

Also school is to prepare children for adult life. Adult life is filled with "immoral" actions and people. Sending kids out into the real world with a distorted world view is the most immoral act I could ever think of as they will be completely unprepared for real life and hit a lot of pitfalls that otherwise could have been avoided. "Everybody in the world is super nice and you are super special too!" so go with the man who has a rabbit in his cellar that he wants you to see...

2.2: What about classes about law or history? Lessons where criminals, or criminal acts, are discussed would have to go. For instance, lessons about the eradication of the Native Americans would have to go, No Nürnberg trials, no Pearl Harbour or nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki... the list of things which can be considered immoral or that contains immoral acts is endless. We are a violent species.


3: "For instance, you would not want a teacher who used an example of how much children eat daily, and how much less they would need if you drowned some of them. You would not want to use the example of how many slaves you would need to buy to get a certain amount of acreage harvested."
3.1: Kids and food problem: See this.
Also it is simple arithmetic. Example: "You have X food and Y people. Every person Needs Z food per day and you can add F food per day that can be harvested from your farms. How many people can you have without them starving?" What is the problem with a problem like this? Basic civilization survival is based on this formula. Natural resources - consumption/person = Sustainability/Starvation

3.2: Slave problem: Obsolete as slaves are inefficient compared to modern automated machines. Who would use slave labour when you could use a robot that never fucks up (unless you use Windows ofc.), never needs to sleep, never demands pay and never complains? Technological progress FTE (For The Emancipation )


4: "The context implies approval of the activities specified"
4.1: What context and why would it imply approval? That it was a lesson in a school? So if I bring up the attack on WTC in a lesson and how it was executed it means that I approve of the actions? (I guess that Nicolas Cage and a lot of other people who were in the movies about the attacks all support it then?) If I let my students calculate the forces that were subjected on the buildings from the planes mass M and its speed V + the force of the fuel exploding or the McVeigh bombing and the force that X amount of explosives generate I approve what they did? I abhor all use of violence but if I use these examples I approve of them? That makes no sense to me.

One of the best things you can do as a teacher is to ground your lessons in reality and real life events as that increases the motivation and curiosity of the students IMHO.


5: "This was a geometry lesson, not a socio-politcal discussion. It was not intended to raise a topic for thoughtful debate."
5.1: As a teacher, no matter what your subject is, you have to be able to lead discussions on tough subjects as students can come in from recess and something horrible has happened and they need to process it and be "debriefed", think every classroom in the US the hours after 9/11 or after Columbine. If a student is assaulted/gets hit by a car/whatever you have to be able to have a discussion about it.

5.2: If a meaningful debate emerges from any lesson that interests your students you run with it. Simple as that. Learning and developing a lust for learning is the main goal of any teacher worthy of that title in my book.

Wow, that was a serious wall of text. Congrats on getting through it!

*edit for getting the + to show... forgot to put in extra blank spaces...

Thanks a lot for bringing that to my attention. There did seem to be some kind of a kink in our indexer. I did a bit of kicking and smoke started coming out of it, but I think it should be working again.

In reply to this comment by SlipperyPete:
Lucky,
Are videos being properly indexed at the moment? It seems that there's an larger than usual number of dupes these last couple of days, and running searches on terms used in titles & tags don't seem to be generating the results you'd expect.


For example, I did a search for "Travis Pastrana", and neither of these vids came up in the results:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Travis-Pastrana-jumps-269-feet-over-Long-Beach-Harbour
http://www.videosift.com/video/Travis-Pastrana-leaps-into-new-year-with-record-jump

Similarly, searches for terms used in both these dupes failed to generate any results (search term = reality show bus):
http://www.videosift.com/video/ONN-VH1-Reality-Show-Bus-Crashes-Causing-Major-Slut-Spill
http://www.videosift.com/video/VH1-Reality-show-bus-crashes-in-California-spilling-sluts

Lucky,
Are videos being properly indexed at the moment? It seems that there's an larger than usual number of dupes these last couple of days, and running searches on terms used in titles & tags don't seem to be generating the results you'd expect.


For example, I did a search for "Travis Pastrana", and neither of these vids came up in the results:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Travis-Pastrana-jumps-269-feet-over-Long-Beach-Harbour
http://www.videosift.com/video/Travis-Pastrana-leaps-into-new-year-with-record-jump

Similarly, searches for terms used in both these dupes failed to generate any results (search term = reality show bus):
http://www.videosift.com/video/ONN-VH1-Reality-Show-Bus-Crashes-Causing-Major-Slut-Spill
http://www.videosift.com/video/VH1-Reality-show-bus-crashes-in-California-spilling-sluts

wow, I'm pretty impressed that Bill stuck up for alternative medicine. I really expected him to go after it for the crazy crystal strokers it harbours like that repugnant tool penn Gilette and his mute gimp

Sure, the assembly line day laborer may lose his job to the robotic arm, but other jobs will be created to manufacture those arms, write the software for them, service them, etc.

One factory for industrial robots is enough to supply a vast number of regular factories. The whole chain is done in this area, from software development to robot design to robot construction and naturally, it takes less manhours than it saves through increased productivity, or else it wouldn't be done in the first place.

Let's take a look at Volkswagen. Last I heard, they need an increase of 7% in sales just to keep up with rising productivity. 7% more sales or 7% less workers or 7% less wages ... every year. To see the consequences of this, one only needs to take a look at Bremerhaven or any train station along the railroad line from the factories in Wolfsburg, Braunschweig and Hannover (not to mention the ones in southern Germany) to the northern harbours, where the vehicles are brought to be shipped out. Enough bloody cars to fill the English Channel, everywhere you look. That's not sustainable, not in the least. And yet they still want to keep a dying automobile manufacturer (Opel) alive ...

Just a few days, two key railroad switches at Wunstorf were shut down for maintenance, now there are countless car trains stuck at the classification yards, enough to mobilize the whole bloody state. And they are not even back to pre-crisis production levels.

What I'm saying is this: they produce more cars than ever, more than any current market can take, and even though it takes vastly more work to build a modern car than it did 50 years ago, they still need considerably less manhours per car. That includes all the suppliers as well. And they should be damn proud of it, because that's what previous generations worked for. However, it is basically kept alive artificially and has to collapse eventually. That'll be fun. Opel will be the first, 2011 at the latest.

Only completely new areas have the ability to create enough jobs to remotely compensate for the loss caused by increased productivity and saturated markets. Telecommunications was the last one, renewable energy will most likely be the next one.

That said, there will always be endless work that needs to be done, just not jobs that create an income. For instance, the national railroad could use at least the 100k people back they let go over the last 2 decades. Though to get everything done according to regulations, 200k should be a closer bet. But since it's more profitable to cut maintenance personal by another 10%, the status of the infrastructure can only be described as desolate in large parts of the country.

Edit: damn, that's 3/4 just rambling ... sorry.

I live by the sea in england, in the summer there are glorious days of blazing heat, light breeze, and complete solitude in an untapped wealth of beauty. This means that i was able to swim from very young, i know very few people who can't. I feel that this is somehow connected to living by the sea, but it's quite a large target to avoid, so i can't pinpoint why i make this connection.

The seafront is excellent for biking. I'm more of an endurance biker than a mountain biker. When the weather is clement i do 7 miles of biking every day and i maintain a speed as close to 20mph as i can. I used to do 14 but it's no fun to do 2 circuits of 7 miles, and if i go another 7 miles then i have to go through one of the most disgusting tourist towns ever and often have narrowly avoided getting attacked or accidentally knocked off my bike by yobs (former) or pedestrians (latter) who don't realise that they're on a cyclepath. I have been called a psychopath as i was on a cyclepath and the humour was lost on me at the time.

Unfortunately the weather in other seasons is quite poor, living by the sea means it's always windy here and i'm not able to bike so much during those times. I fill that in by swimming 4 times a week but i'm only just starting this. It's so much harder to swim, i only end up doing about 600-700 metres which seems like nothing but is actually quite exhausting over a 30 minute period. But of course i thought that about biking when i first started and i'm pretty handy now. I reckon i could do well in amateur competitions, but i secretly harbour rogue brain cells that tell me i'm not as good as i think.

It's a funny thing about exercise, starting is hard, but once you're really into the mindframe and if you're doing it every day or near enough, then you start to feel bad on days where you don't exercise.

I also enjoy writing which is why i'm prone to bursts of self indulgent attempts at linguistic intricacies! But i never find the time to sit down and properly write. I have ideas and i work on them in my head, but when i sit down to write, i find it so hard. I always want to write every sentence perfectly for a start, and i end up spending an hour working on a paragraph and i'm never happy with it when it's done.

K i've bored myself now