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Magpie
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Quote: Originally posted by DougTheMapper  |
My favorite part by far is Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory; from my childhood I remember quite vividly looking at all the glass jars full of
chemicals and shelves stocked with apparatus and vowing that one day I would have a lab like that.
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That lab is on my bucket list. Last year I visited Edison's chemistry lab at West Orange, NJ. They have no roped off areas and you can get right up
to the apparatus and reagents for a close inspection. Is that true at the relocated Menlo Park lab? Or is it roped off so you can't get up close?
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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neptunium
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| Quote: Originally posted by DougTheMapper |
It's a shame that these things are in steady decline - not only from the economy but simply lack of interest. Where I want to high school, more money
and effort is pushed into the school football team than the Science Olympaid team and chemistry department combined! Sad.
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you nailed it! nothing against sport (although..) but when it becomes a money making machine like it is now , its way over the top.
I just wish (as you said) more attention and money would be invested in getting kids interested in science, critical thinking and skepticism like we
were..
[Edited on 9-3-2012 by neptunium]
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tastyphenome
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The only, ONLY thing i enjoyed about school before quitting/being expelled was the FIRST robotics competition. i learned more from that that any other
single experience in my life. did it for 3 years, and will regret not becoming a real engineer/chemist the rest of my life. but i tell you what, FIRST
also made me the best damn chef i could be. everything is engineering and chemistry.
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Morgan
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Presentation is everything.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/girl-drinks-gasolin...
[Edited on 10-3-2012 by Morgan]
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White Yeti
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YES, television is stupid. I can't agree more. But it is our choice as consumers to choose what we watch and don't watch, what we consume and what we
don't consume.
A lot of people are complaining about how the canyon between the rich and the poor is getting wider and wider, but I will take a bold step and argue
that the gap that separates the smart from the dumb is also getting wider and wider.
There are a whole bunch of factors that affect the intelligence of members of a society, but schooling is definitely key. The role of the school
system should be to give the tools to succeed to those who are motivated and interested.
The present school system is based on a "no child left behind" ideology, but this does not work in the least. Effort wasted on those who don't want to
learn is seen as a asset rather than a setback while in reality it's quite the opposite.
Consequence: those who are motivated must take classes 2-3 years in advance! I think it's the schooling system that is going down the drain. Science
is seen as a subject you have to take, get a good grade on (85+). I see science as a different way to look at the world and how it works.
Society is harsh, but quite frankly, the best way to educate people is to take the cream of the crop and leave everyone else behind. It's what they do
in Europe and it works like a charm.
This all stems back to cherished American beliefs of equal opportunity, majority rule and democracy. The consequence is that the media is now geared
to the masses, not the knowledgeable people.
"Ja, Kalzium, das ist alles!" -Otto Loewi
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neptunium
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dont forget parenting ! it is a key as much as schooling and education.
if you let your kids watch dumb shit on TV all day after a good day of learning at school ,you cancelling out everything they might have learned!
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White Yeti
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Ahh,
How could I forget! Parenting indeed affects child development as much, if not more than schooling, for better or worse. Neighbourhood and wealth also
affect people's tendencies.
I'm a high school student, and I can't help but to think about all the people who fall into addiction and other bad habits. I didn't realise until
recently that I go to school with relatively privileged people, whose parents are pretty well off.
And yet I go to school with people who whine about the ills of society and how everything they teach at school is wrong, and that you can be
successful without going to school. They don't realise that by whining, they are not improving the situation and that they're making it worse. They
also don't realise that they've got everything they need, they have a roof over their heads, they have food to eat they have money (which they spend
foolishly), they have computers, iPods, iPads etc...
Wanting an escape from it all, they take on marijuana and other drugs that can destroy a brilliant mind beyond repair. A friend of mine was a top
student sophomore year and the year after, he dropped from being one of the best to one of the worst as he took up marijuana and who knows what else.
This shows that you don't necessarily need to live in a cut-throat neighbourhood to be pulled towards drugs and crime. In some ways, there are some
very intelligent people who come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, they seek personal betterment through hard work and education.
Maybe the wealth of the previous generation is simply spoiling this one. They've got every comfort they could ever want, and they want more, but they
want it handed to them on a silver platter. They cannot work even if their lives depended on it, which sooner or later will be the case.
The media is oriented towards those people, they generate the demand for stupidity, TV simply fills the vacuum.
"Ja, Kalzium, das ist alles!" -Otto Loewi
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Morgan
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"The most important lesson"
http://i.imgur.com/uWfrU.jpg
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tastyphenome
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im pretty sure that show is fake....
but regardless, i read alot about Hg a week ago and came across a huge school HG contam that was caused by kids not knowing what Hg was... i mean
hell, i knew when i was like 6. who DOESN'T get excited by liquid metal? jesus...
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Magpie
lab constructor
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Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.
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| Quote: Originally posted by White Yeti |
Maybe the wealth of the previous generation is simply spoiling this one. They've got every comfort they could ever want, and they want more, but they
want it handed to them on a silver platter. They cannot work even if their lives depended on it, which sooner or later will be the case.
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Perhaps these people should be required to spend a month in the slums of Calcutta, or The Gulag Archipelago, every summer.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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White Yeti
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| Quote: Originally posted by Magpie |
Perhaps these people should be required to spend a month in the slums of Calcutta, or The Gulag Archipelago, every summer. |
It wouldn't be a bad idea. Some people have lost touch with reality and then they are surprised when bad things happen in the world. They are
devastated when celebrity_______(fill in the blank) gets a divorce, but an earthquake in an underdeveloped country doesn't strike a chord at all.
People are not only becoming increasingly arrogant, but indifferent to everything that doesn't affect them directly. Our shallow mass media has a part
to play. The media has filled our desire for flashes of information with no deeper meaning or any lasting significance.
I wonder if our attraction for instant and brief information has any evolutionary ties.
Interesting off topic side note:
I recently found out why most of us hate silence. Our disdain for complete silence traces back to our cavemen ancestors, who saw complete silence as
an ominous sign of danger. Some even think this is why we have an "inner voice", when everything really was completely silent, your inner voice would
fill the void and help you stay sane.
This may also explain why some people leave the TV on constantly, regardless of what program is on
[edit]
Found it! Wikipedia entry on how your inner voice keeps you sane in times of silence:
Evolved to avoid silence
Joseph Jordania suggested that talking to yourself can be used to avoid silence. According to him, our ancestors, like many other social animals, used
contact calls to maintain constant contact with the members of the group,[5] and a signal of danger was communicated through becoming silent and
freezing.[6] Because of our evolutionary history, prolonged silence is perceived as a sign of danger and triggers a feeling of uneasiness and fear.
According to Jordania, talking to yourself is only one of the ways to fill in prolonged gaps of silence in humans. Other ways of filling in prolonged
silence are humming, whistling, finger drumming, or having TV, radio or music on all the time.
[Edited on 3-11-2012 by White Yeti]
"Ja, Kalzium, das ist alles!" -Otto Loewi
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Endimion17
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Holy fuck, that's like one of the weirdest things I saw in the last year.
And I don't mean the gasoline girl, but the girl with the creepy doll head. "Smells like marshmallows, mmmmm oh, yeah"
The gasoline girl could be fake. If it isn't fake, she'll end up with cancer soon. Gasoline has relatively lots of benzene inside.
I've seen weird shit like this, so a dumbass drinking gasoline doesn't surprise me much.
But the creepy doll head girl... Damn. I hope that doesn't give me nightmares.
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tastyphenome
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I think now you guys are just glorifying the past..... Selective remembrance is a hell of a thing... People have always been stupid, apathetic, and
shallow. similar to how people at renaissance festivals glorify one of the more putrid era's of our past.
"Maybe the wealth of the previous generation is simply spoiling this one."
i agree with this^
" They've got every comfort they could ever want, and they want more, but they want it handed to them on a silver platter. They cannot work even if
their lives depended on it, which sooner or later will be the case."
But i am young and this does not apply to me. nor a good deal of the 'dumb' ppl i know. however i do agree with magpie's reply.
all generations are guilty. technology has just sped it up.
EDIT: gasoline girl(lmfao) is prolly the MOST believable thing ive seen on that show out of the 4-6 segments ive seen.
[Edited on 11-3-2012 by tastyphenome]
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Morgan
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Just a few other contrived shows ... (yawn)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is
"Did you catch that? The house hunters aren’t actually house hunting in some of the episodes because they already bought one. The producers show
them two other houses and they pretend to consider them. Then they pretend to deliberate, and pretend to choose the house that they already chose from
the beginning."
http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/06/02/the-truth-about-house-h...
http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2010/12/surprise-cash-cab-is-f...
http://www.infobarrel.com/Reasons_Why_Pawn_Stars_Is_Fake_And...
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neptunium
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its always staged !!!! it always is!! are you just now realizing it? where have you been?
not much on TV is genuine anymore..and i refuse to pay for nonsenses and stupidity
[Edited on 12-3-2012 by neptunium]
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Pulverulescent
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Mencken was sooo right!
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"
A Einstein
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Pulverulescent
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I mean, why toss gems their way when you know the swine can't differentiate between them and stinking turds?
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"
A Einstein
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AndersHoveland
Hazard to Other Members, due to repeated speculation and posting of untested highly dangerous procedures!
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| Quote: Originally posted by White Yeti | Parenting indeed affects child development as much, if not more than schooling, for better or worse. Neighbourhood and wealth also affect people's
tendencies. I can't help but to think about all the people who fall into addiction and other bad habits. I didn't realise until recently that I go to
school with relatively privileged people, whose parents are pretty well off.
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While there certainly is a correlation between the circumstances of ones childhood and the outcome of their future life, this correlation is not
necessarily a direct cause and effect relationship. I tend to think the this correlation may have more to do with genetics. Parents with a
predisposition to be more responsible and have a higher level of intelligence (and ability to concentrate in school) are more likely to live in the
higher income neighborhoods. And so the children who live in higher income neighborhoods are more likely to do better in school and not develop
detrimental habits.
| Quote: Originally posted by neptunium | its always staged !!!! it always is!! are you just now realizing it? not much on TV is genuine anymore..and i refuse to pay for nonsenses and
stupidity
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This is why I got rid of my televission. It seems nearly every story shown on the news was craftily chosen to subtly alter the social and political
opinions of the viewers.
And the fictional dramas are just packed full of attempts to alter perceptions. This is completely inconspicuous until one understands exactly what
they are trying to do. What one sees on televission, even in the news, is not a realistic depiction of reality. There are all sorts of poverty
and crime related problems that are purposefully not depicted, or avoided, on televission. And some of the most important issues, immigration
and government spending, recieve very little serious attention. Most people would likely not believe to what extent the middle class is taxed to
subsidise large business interests. Here is just one example:
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The federal government continued its effort to boost agricultural commodity prices today by announcing it will purchase an additional $25 million
worth of pork. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also said it will buy $60 million of turkey, and $2 million of lamb. Last week, the USDA bought
approximately 200 million pounds of nonfat dry milk to help the dairy industry.
Pork farmers have been losing an average of $20 on each hog marketed since October 2007, according to the U.S. Pork Producers. And economists have
said dairy producers are losing an average of $3 per cow per day.
The U.S government indirectly subsidizes the meat industry. The cost of a common hamburger would be $35 and the cost of one pound of beefsteak would
be $89 if water was not subsidized by taxpayers.
federal and state governments subsidize the meat industry's water consumption at every stage of the process. Confined Animal Feeding Operations
(CAFOs) consume particularly egregious quantities of water.
Cornell economists, David Fields and his associate Robin Hur, have studied the fiscal consequences of water subsidies to the meat industry: “Reports
by the General Accounting Office, the Rand Corporation, and the Water Resources Council have made it clear that irrigation water subsidies to
livestock producers are economically counter productive. Every dollar that state governments dole out to livestock producers, in the form of
irrigation subsidies, actually costs tax payers over seven dollars in lost wages, higher living costs, and reduced business income."
Economists Fields and Hur calculate the overall price of subsidizing the California meat industry’s water to be 24 billion dollars.
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http://www.lawschoolblog.org/blog/2011/oct/11/subsidizing-ob...
[Edited on 13-3-2012 by AndersHoveland]
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Bot0nist
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Do you think maybe you are predisposed to blaming genetic over environmental influence do to your, um, beliefs Anders? What about children that are
orphaned and put in an abusive, or otherwise hostile environment? Despite there genetic predispositions, I feel that their environment is a HUGE
factor. Look at all the cases of people being abused as children (not by parents, to avoid genetic issues) who grow up to perpetrate upon others the
very abuses that they had to endure?
U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!
Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
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neptunium
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the old nature vs nurture conendrum..its a little bit of both i think.
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Bot0nist
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As do I. I would never dispute genetic inheritance, but we also can not refute learned behavior and environmental impact.
U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!
Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
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White Yeti
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| Quote: Originally posted by AndersHoveland | | While there certainly is a correlation between the circumstances of ones childhood and the outcome of their future life, this correlation is not
necessarily a direct cause and effect relationship. I tend to think the this correlation may have more to do with genetics. Parents with a
predisposition to be more responsible and have a higher level of intelligence (and ability to concentrate in school) are more likely to live in the
higher income neighborhoods. And so the children who live in higher income neighborhoods are more likely to do better in school and not develop
detrimental habits. |
Anders, most of the time I hold you up to high standards, but bluntly stating that genetics influence intelligence is a huge misunderstanding.
Having experienced this indirectly, I know that intelligence and self fulfilment stems from two things, a stable childhood sheltered from the ills of
society, (but NOT from failure) and secondly, inner motivation and drive for success.
All too often I see people with very high IQ wasting their potential, not because they were abused as children, but because they do not have innate
motivation.
Nature vs. nurture debate....
I have no intention to start a whole discussion (although I might have just now) on whether genetics play a major role on the intelligence of
children.
What I know for sure is that we know too little to truly state where intelligence comes from and even what it really is. However, I think intelligence
leans more on the nurture side of things because many mental illnesses stem from abnormal conditions surrounding children at a young age. We are
trying to find a genetic basis for everything, even autism.
If you look at intelligence, one might say it's an emergent property of the human brain, to which there is very little genetic basis. Neural pruning,
which occurs during childhood is influenced by EVERYTHING including the media and of course TV....
"Ja, Kalzium, das ist alles!" -Otto Loewi
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AndersHoveland
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I believe it is a complex interaction between genetics and environmental conditioning.
A parallel to this is trying to understand the causes of homosexuality.
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In a 1991 study of gay twins, Bailey and Pillard found that when one identical twin had a same-gender attraction, the other twin had a 52% probability
of also having same-gender attraction.
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As identical twins essentially have an identical genetic composition, it can be seen that the causes of homosexuality are about half genetics and half
environmental influence. It may likely be that, as with many other diseases, certain individuals are genetically predisposed to vulnerability towards
certain negetive environmental conditions.
Perhaps Roscoe Bodine will have a few comments to say on this topic...
[Edited on 13-3-2012 by AndersHoveland]
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Polverone
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| Quote: |
The U.S government indirectly subsidizes the meat industry. The cost of a common hamburger would be $35 and the cost of one pound of beefsteak would
be $89 if water was not subsidized by taxpayers.
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The authors of the $35 per hamburger estimate are either innumerate or disingenuous.
Americans consume about 40 billion hamburgers and 3.9 billion pounds of beef steak per year. At $32 per hamburger and $80 per pound of steak in
subsidy that's 1.5 trillion dollars a year. By this reckoning beef subsidies must be the single largest expenditure in the US federal budget, more
than the Department of Defense and Social Security combined.
Now the government does fund public works projects to provide water and arbitrates in disputes over water rights. Suppose there were no government to
enforce law or solve collective action problems. In a lawless land where every water dispute is settled with violence, maybe a hamburger does cost
$35, mostly from amortizing the mercenaries' bill over the surviving head of cattle. But this is a vacuous and disingenuous reason to call beef
subsidized: every product would be ridiculously expensive in the absence of stable government. Imagine trying to operate a business in
Somalia.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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watson.fawkes
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You forgot "... or
stupid". There's always stupidity. Even amongst the numerate.
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