May 9 2013: ROLE is a conglomeration of mindless popular drivel on what schools should be, stress free, entrepreneurial, self directed, creative, community, etc.
It talks a lot about what to do but not very much on what final results should be.
But that would requirement measurements and measurements are on the bad list.
To me it is a most distasteful pile of flaming dog shit and another in a long series of educational ideas not based on evidence but based on some ideology.
It is gaining popularity in the west because of the inexplicable fear parents and/or teachers have for any form of competition that produces a winner and (horrors) a loser. All of our kids are winners, just some of them are only good enough to work as Wallmart greeters (I'll bet there's even competition for that role).
Actually, most kids before they start school have many of the characteristics that ROLE intends to cultivate. We just have to find a way not to beat it out of them.
That is a function of how good the teacher is, not how you teach the kid.
May 8 2013: Not generation...change
In Britain, the herring gull is a different species from the lesser black-backed gull. The look different and they never interbreed, even though they may inhabit the same areas. We consider them different species.
However, as you go westward around the top half of the globe to North America the herring gulls begin to look more like black-backed gulls, and less like herring gulls, even though they can still interbreed with herring gulls from Britain.
Now go still further via Alaska and then into Siberia. The further west you go, the more each successive population becomes less like a herring gull and more like the black-backed.
At every step along the way, each population is able to interbreed with those you studied just before you moved further west so you are never dealing with separate species.
But, when you get all the way around the world and back to Britain, you find that the herring gull has transformed into a black-backed gull which can no longer breed with a herring gull.
This is an example of genetic changes brought on by changes in the environment and separation by geographical boundaries.
May 3 2013: I would rather not drive in a world of self driving cars and fly in pilot-less aircraft as I don't think we can get the programming correct and/or build the infrastructure that such systems would require to function.
I would be much happier if we created systems that did what computers do well, which is repetitive boring tasks without fail or lagging attention.
A car system that watches are around with visual analysis and radar/sonar and/or watches our behaviour to see if we are intoxicated or just driving bad and warns us of problems and in extreme cases, takes evasive actions to avoid crashes.
That would be enough for me to start with anyways
May 3 2013: I've seen kids in grade 1 reminisce about the good ole' days when they didn't have to go to school and could sit around in their underwear all morning eating fruit loops and watching cartoons.
I told them to hold that thought because they will be able to do that again after they retire.
I think its natural to review our lives to date to help use process the big picture of where we are in the world.
May 2 2013: Once you are inside the black hole event horizon light cones are pointed away from you. The jets of radiation are x-rays that are emitted from the pole of the black hole due to infalling matter.
If you are using Rindler coordinates, it is true that a particle will take infinite Rindler time (T) to reach the event horizon but a finite time in Minkowski time (t) to do so after which it will pass through the event horizon.
From the point of view of the particle entering the black hole, nothing much will change. In fact, it is possible that passing the point of no return would be missed completely (as it is indistinguishable from all other points in time)
The Rindler coordinate system does not extend into the black hole and goes imaginary if you try, its value is in describing the coordinate system, and space energy in an accelerating frame or within a gravity field.
Apr 30 2013: Ted is all about ideas so it's never a bad idea to question anything. On the other hand its never a bad idea to take the opportunity to explain a difficult concept in perhaps a different way than has been seen before.
Apr 29 2013: Einstein showed that space can be curved by gravitational fields. That means that high mass objects can cause light to be deflected from its true course to a new path making things on the other side of the high mass object appear to be offset.
That was shown in the eclipse of 1919 to a very high precision. Over and over again, relativity has been shown to be correct, while perhaps it is not complete due to its ignoring quantum effects, what it does predict, it does so very precisely.
Now, knowing that, you can say, where is the mass such that light from beyond this massive object will be distorted in such a way to give the image that we see.
This has been used to help prove the existence of dark matter and to correctly calculate the orbit of mercury and calculate the orbit of massive pulsars around their companion stars.
And its not just quasars.. Its anything beyond a massive object where the light has to travel close to or through the massive object.
Actually, because we are so close to the sun, the entire sky is shifted slightly due to the effects of gravity on the light falling on us.
You don't need any big mirrors or other tricks, you can do it all with gravity and a little math.
Apr 28 2013: Ummmm - it isn't the same. Each day about there is about a 1 degree shift (360 degrees and 365 days) that alters the orientation of the sky.
The earth orbits the sun (suprisingly 50% of people in the USA get this part wrong) and that means that part of the time the earth is looking one direction at midnight and 6 months later looking the opposite (say you are looking down at the earths orbit from above the north pole of the sun)
Now if you are in the northern hemisphere you can always see the northern stars although they will seem to revolve around the earth if you look at the same time every night, but also constellations near the ecliptic will come into view during winter that are not there during summer. For example, I can only see Orion the hunter in winter.
TEDCred score: +13.10 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.
A comment on Conversation: Results only learning environment
It talks a lot about what to do but not very much on what final results should be.
But that would requirement measurements and measurements are on the bad list.
To me it is a most distasteful pile of flaming dog shit and another in a long series of educational ideas not based on evidence but based on some ideology.
It is gaining popularity in the west because of the inexplicable fear parents and/or teachers have for any form of competition that produces a winner and (horrors) a loser. All of our kids are winners, just some of them are only good enough to work as Wallmart greeters (I'll bet there's even competition for that role).
Actually, most kids before they start school have many of the characteristics that ROLE intends to cultivate. We just have to find a way not to beat it out of them.
That is a function of how good the teacher is, not how you teach the kid.
A comment on Conversation: Why is evolution considered a fact?
In Britain, the herring gull is a different species from the lesser black-backed gull. The look different and they never interbreed, even though they may inhabit the same areas. We consider them different species.
However, as you go westward around the top half of the globe to North America the herring gulls begin to look more like black-backed gulls, and less like herring gulls, even though they can still interbreed with herring gulls from Britain.
Now go still further via Alaska and then into Siberia. The further west you go, the more each successive population becomes less like a herring gull and more like the black-backed.
At every step along the way, each population is able to interbreed with those you studied just before you moved further west so you are never dealing with separate species.
But, when you get all the way around the world and back to Britain, you find that the herring gull has transformed into a black-backed gull which can no longer breed with a herring gull.
This is an example of genetic changes brought on by changes in the environment and separation by geographical boundaries.
A comment on Conversation: Are driverless cars and pilotless aircraft feasible in the mass market? And is the transportation industry likely to make the shift?
I would be much happier if we created systems that did what computers do well, which is repetitive boring tasks without fail or lagging attention.
A car system that watches are around with visual analysis and radar/sonar and/or watches our behaviour to see if we are intoxicated or just driving bad and warns us of problems and in extreme cases, takes evasive actions to avoid crashes.
That would be enough for me to start with anyways
A comment on Conversation: Is reminiscence good for people over the age of 60?
I told them to hold that thought because they will be able to do that again after they retire.
I think its natural to review our lives to date to help use process the big picture of where we are in the world.
A reply on Conversation: General relativity is wrong!
If you are using Rindler coordinates, it is true that a particle will take infinite Rindler time (T) to reach the event horizon but a finite time in Minkowski time (t) to do so after which it will pass through the event horizon.
From the point of view of the particle entering the black hole, nothing much will change. In fact, it is possible that passing the point of no return would be missed completely (as it is indistinguishable from all other points in time)
The Rindler coordinate system does not extend into the black hole and goes imaginary if you try, its value is in describing the coordinate system, and space energy in an accelerating frame or within a gravity field.
A reply on Conversation: General relativity is wrong!
A comment on Conversation: General relativity is wrong!
That was shown in the eclipse of 1919 to a very high precision. Over and over again, relativity has been shown to be correct, while perhaps it is not complete due to its ignoring quantum effects, what it does predict, it does so very precisely.
Now, knowing that, you can say, where is the mass such that light from beyond this massive object will be distorted in such a way to give the image that we see.
This has been used to help prove the existence of dark matter and to correctly calculate the orbit of mercury and calculate the orbit of massive pulsars around their companion stars.
And its not just quasars.. Its anything beyond a massive object where the light has to travel close to or through the massive object.
Actually, because we are so close to the sun, the entire sky is shifted slightly due to the effects of gravity on the light falling on us.
You don't need any big mirrors or other tricks, you can do it all with gravity and a little math.
A reply on Conversation: General relativity is wrong!
A reply on Conversation: General relativity is wrong!
A comment on Conversation: how can it be that we always see the same night sky any time of the year?
The earth orbits the sun (suprisingly 50% of people in the USA get this part wrong) and that means that part of the time the earth is looking one direction at midnight and 6 months later looking the opposite (say you are looking down at the earths orbit from above the north pole of the sun)
Now if you are in the northern hemisphere you can always see the northern stars although they will seem to revolve around the earth if you look at the same time every night, but also constellations near the ecliptic will come into view during winter that are not there during summer. For example, I can only see Orion the hunter in winter.