16 APR 2018 by ideonexus
A Student's Skill-Level Should be Private
A student's skill level should be a private matter, between him and the teacher, and students who are behind should be able to work comfortably, without embarrassment. "They know they should know more. They know they should not be working on tens and ones when their friends are doing division and fractions and all that, and there's no shame in working on it with the computer." Actually, the same principle applies to kids who are off-the-charts advanced: if they just want to relax and do high-...Folksonomies: education personalization
Folksonomies: education personalization
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notes24 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Card Trick Involving Chance
A good card magician knows many tricks that depend on luck—they don’t always work, or even often work. There are some effects—they can hardly be called tricks—that might work only once in a thousand times! Here is what you do: You start by telling the audience you are going to perform a trick, and without telling them what trick you are doing, you go for the one-in-a-thousand effect. It almost never works, of course, so you glide seamlessly into a second try—for an effect that works... 1 notes
notesThe idea is to rely on probability, have several tricks where the odds get better and better until p=1.
04 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Mark Lynas Admits His Error Concerning GMOs
I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.
As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not hav... 1 notes
notesFormer anti-GMO crusader admits that with a scientific understanding of GMOs, he came to understand how they can benefit the environment.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Criticism is Doing You a Favor
[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. ... But you don't reply to critics: "Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I'm very fond of it. It's done you no harm. Please don't attack it." That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.Folksonomies: peer review criticism
Folksonomies: peer review criticism
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notesValid criticism frees you of the chains of a bad idea.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Science Works from Approximation to Approximation
I have no patience with attempts to identify science with measurement, which is but one of its tools, or with any definition of the scientist which would exclude a Darwin, a Pasteur or a Kekulé. The scientist is a practical man and his are practical aims. He does not seek the ultimate but the proximate. He does not speak of the last analysis but rather of the next approximation. His are not those beautiful structures so delicately designed that a single flaw may cause the collapse of the who... 1 notes
notesGetting better all the time.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Take a Break to Find a Solution
If a solution fails to appear ... and yet we feel success is just around the corner, try resting for a while. ... Like the early morning frost, this intellectual refreshment withers the parasitic and nasty vegetation that smothers the good seed. Bursting forth at last is the flower of truth. Folksonomies: investigation working
Folksonomies: investigation working
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notesWhen dealing with a complicated issue and you feel you are on the verge of a breakthrough, take a break and the solution will come to you.
06 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Romantic View of Birth
You're lying in bed in the labor room of the hospital and you're about as exhausted, as utterly worn out, as you'll ever be. Giving birth is this peculiar combination of determination and compulsion. It's you pushing, and you push in a more concentrated, focused way than you've ever done anything, but in another sense you don't decide or try to push or even want to. You are just swept away by the action. It's like a cross between running a marathon and having the most enormous. shattering, ir... 1 notes
notesA beautiful description of the idealized version of labor and bonding with the newborn.
08 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Discard Bad Ideas
the hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. The British physicist Michael Faraday warned of the powerful temptation
to seek for such evidence and appearances as are in the favour of our desires, and to disregard those which oppose them . . . We receive as friendly that which agrees with [us], we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the...Folksonomies: empiricism peer review
Folksonomies: empiricism peer review
1 notes
notesIt is difficult to do, but we must put our ideas up for criticism.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Written Worlds May Not be Memes
Think of the number of things you are likely to say to someone else today -- or the number of words you will hear other people speak. You might listen to the radio, watch television, have dinner with other people, help your children with the homework, answer the phone to people far away. Most of what is said in these conversations will never be passed on again. Most of it will not reappear as 'Then he said to her...' or 'And did you know...' Most will die at birth.
Written words may not fare ...Folksonomies: memetics
Folksonomies: memetics
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notesSome examples of ideas that won't become memes, with the surprising inclusion of books.
