Oh crap

I just realized that the character "Moist" from Dr Horrible is in fact Howard Wallowitz. What a pro.

In other news, I have a 6 page paper due at 11 today. I have a para of it done >_>

This initially began as a response to Brian's latest post on education: http://adeadhamster.blogspot.com/2009/10/information-is-not-knowledge.html

However, it overflowed so here it is:

____________________________________________________________________________________

The post discusses incorrect learning, not lack of motivation, so we'll stick with the premise that people can be motivated. Given this, is your problem primarily that people aren't stopping to examine their learning more deeply? Certainly this would make their experience more worthwhile. However, I feel that the issue is even simpler than this. Perhaps I'm not qualified to comment (after all, those faulty red moppers are certifiably better than me =P), but it seems that its misconception about what needs to be learned in the first place. Here's an example: in complex, Dr Osborne would have test reviews, and during the reviews, the most common questions was "Are there gonna be proofs? What proofs might be on there?" and he would tell us, and most of the class would go home and memorize the damn proofs. So it's no surprise that when you ask a student to prove the thing a month later, they can't do it. People don't understand that they're supposed to be learning different approaches to proving certain kinds of results and, more generally and more usefully, how to think about different problems. You might think that massive proof based classes in college cure this. False. For the most part, what happens is a few students who like math and have grasped the concepts do the problems and explain the proofs to the others, who write the proofs down, are told what proofs are on the tests, and never take a math class again. The kids who continue to take math are those who have grasped the concepts anyway, so effectively the problem hasn't been cut down at all. In fact, the problem here in particular seems 10 times worse than at TJ. The problem is most visible in math, but it's actually present everywhere. The kind of thinking we need in doing math is in fact the kind of thinking that creates progress in all fields, and yet only in math and physics is there even an attempt being made to promote it.

All in all, I feel that while this is a huge problem, it's not all that hard to tackle. However, this post has gone on for a while, so I'll stop now and finish my HUM paper (whatever MIT might call these terrible classes, certain things don't change in my book =P).

~jnub

It's hard to express how at peace I am with the world right now. The reason for this, however, is much more tangible:

My laptop screen is finally fixed!

I didn't realize just how much of a pain depending on the external monitor was until just now. It feels so good to look straight and not have to try and guess which field the cursor is in when I forget to plug in the external monitor. Also, now I have the option to dual screen =P.

Yea this is pretty content devoid, but that's ok. There's actual stuff which I'll fill in tonight.

Life

This previous Saturday, my roommate Ray decided to clean out his frog tank. The occupant of the tank, one Gordon, had been purchased at the start of term. He was our constant companion in all endeavors, and better still, he looked like a cartoon frog.

With our assistance, Ray poured out the water and frog from his tank into a plastic cup and then set about cleaning the tank. As he was cleaning, Gordon, in a stroke of inspiration, realized that there was no longer a ceiling above his head. The sky was the limit, and he was going to reach for that. With amazing strength, he leaped out of the cup and landed.......

on the floor. At this point, Gordon goes, "Shit. I am an aquatic frog." Gordon begins hopping feebly across the floor as his lung thingies dry out. Luckily, we notice his escape and deliver him back to the cup. Ray fills the tank quickly with tap water and puts Gordon back in.

It was too late. Gordon had had a taste of freedom and, despite (or maybe because of) the deoxygenation he must have suffered the first time, Gordon was intent on escaping. He swam repeatedly to the top of the tank, every time being pushed back by the cold, hard ceiling. Finally, in a fit of exhaustion, Gordon drifted slowly to the bottom of the tank, never to rise again.

Gordon's passing was a sad moment for all of us, and we felt we had to give him a proper goodbye. My roommates, my neighbors and I headed off with Gordon to the nearby bathrooms for the funeral service. However, when we saw that the bathrooms were occupied, we spontaneously decided to run to the Charles River. There, from atop the bridge, we spoke solemn words over Gordon's body and poured it into the Charles.