Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 33222
You give me two notes and I'll give you one shiny coin.
Why would something being "well-established psychology" preclude it from being "behavioral economics"?
Because "behavioral economists" are acting like they've discovered something when really all they are is ignorant of what's already been well studied in other fields.
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:27 PM on May 16, 2013
Laptop U
Yeah, obviously giving people knowledge for free is definitely risky for the people who make money charging them for it.
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 9:27 PM on May 13, 2013
There are real questions about how knowledge is supposed to be produced and reproduced after you've blown up our current, robust university system and replaced it with MOOCs.
I would hardly call a system that leaves most of the people who pass through it tens of thousands of dollars in debt 'robust'.
In fact, a lot of colleges have "online only" courses that are effectively no different then a MOOC with fewer... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 10:18 PM on May 13, 2013
The MOOC providers parasitically skim resources that were produced as public goods (by state-run and non-profit universities) and turn them into private profit.
Resources which are in the public domain.
they didn't contribute to the production of the knowledge
Knowledge only needs to be produced once.
intergenerational social compact that makes... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 10:22 PM on May 13, 2013
Because all knowledge stays the same forever. All of it. It never changes and we never want to understand new things about the same old stuff. We can use those lectures forever!
And you think it's fair to force people who aren't you with tens of thousands of debt because you want new information?
If people want new knowledge, to be produced, they can pay for it themselves. It's not like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 10:39 PM on May 13, 2013
There are already public libraries, delmoi. If teaching doesn't matter, and the latest knowledge doesn't matter, these students should be able to get a perfectly great education for free there.
So what's your point?
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 10:48 PM on May 13, 2013
I don't think anyone should have to go into debt for an education.
Well, that's what's happening. If you want to provide a traditional education for people for free, that's great. Most people would probably choose a free traditional education over a free online education.
But that's not what the choice is right now. It's between free, and massively expensive. If you're arguing we need to prevent the free from happening in order... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:06 PM on May 13, 2013
I don't understand why MOOCs started this push to replace local professors. Don't books do the same thing that MOOCs do, indeed do it better? Why didn't the advocates of outsourcing education to MOOCs say, years ago, "hey we can just replace the professor with a book, and let the students read that!"
Reading a book seems pretty much identical -- actually, superior -- to watching a MOOC, a point made in the San Jose letter.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:15 PM on May 13, 2013
If a college were to buy Nagy's course from edX and use it to replace a traditional course in a degree-granting program, it would no longer be free.
How much are they actually charging people for it? If the university is taking free content off the web, and charging people full tuition for it, that's obviously problematic. On the other hand if they're letting students get credit for a free class that's obviously good.
So which... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:27 PM on May 13, 2013
This is explained in the article, but JusticeX is an edX-branded version of Harvard's course,
Except it's not. the edX branded version is also called "Justice". See?
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:43 PM on May 13, 2013
Oh, because your two comments telling me to STFU are such a compelling contribution.
Sandel calls the course "Justice" in his response and that's how it's listed on the website. Maybe they use the term "JusticeX" as a nickname, but that's not the official name.
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:57 PM on May 13, 2013
In my psyche, it's more what you'd call plutophobia. I strongly fear that if you give the rich (and their useful idiot free market ideologues) yet another tool to jack with the people, they will use it. -- Trochanter
It's obvious that it's the other way around. They want to continue to jack students for the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a year. The university system is a massive, enormous wealth transfer system from students to the upper... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 1:17 PM on May 14, 2013
The rich pay pull freight; the poor get Pell Grants. It's the middle that has to take out loans.
If you think Pell Grants will pay your entire tuition, you're out of your mind. The poor can end up with just as much student loan debt as the middle class kids. From Wikipedia:
For the 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 award years, the maximum amount was $5,550.[3][8] President Obama's budget for 2014 plans to increase that amount... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 3:08 PM on May 14, 2013
delmoi, is the root problem then that US college tuition is so high? -- MisantropicPainforest
Primarily. If the universities were free and government supported, then the MOOCs would be no threat to them. The real threat right now that the MOOCs pose is to things like the university of Phoenix and Kaplan "University". It's kind of hard to imagine that a free MOOC from Harvard is much worse then a super-expensive online class from those cheap... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 3:42 PM on May 14, 2013
But it wasn't-- your high school education was paid for through tax dollars through the state, and your textbook was free for you, but only because the school had already absorbed the cost.
As I said, so what? It was free for me. And the actual cost would have been less because the school re-used the books for a few years anyway. It's not like classical physics, or super-basic quantum stuff changes much year to year.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 4:54 PM on May 14, 2013
And for the life of me, I can't fathom how you're going to teach languages properly to 50,000 people en masses. A few students will be fine, but, based on experience, most are going to need help. But maybe we've all decided that we only need a handful of foreign language speakers per region.
Obviously some subjects will be easier to do online and others more difficult. As far as foreign languages go, there are actually systems that hook you up to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 2:29 PM on May 15, 2013
The Fight For Fifteen
Then you find out that a person who picks up a broom and moves it from one side of the hall to another - something so low-skilled that it is often given to individuals who are literally mentally retarded as a way to find them productive employment - makes, or wants to make, the same amount of money that you do. Without any of those opportunity costs that you or your family had to suffer, with a far lower bar.
A lot of people responded to this,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 9:24 PM on May 13, 2013
I think that with a low minimum wage or zero minimum wage, you have more people starting out working earlier - in their teens - at part time jobs for fairly low wages, but enough for pizza and movie ticket money and suchlike. This gives them both experience with work, an understanding that work is a necessary part of life if they want various luxuries
Our economic policy should not be geared toward building character in teenagers. The people working... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 1:32 AM on May 15, 2013
"A serious interference with AP's constitutional rights..."
Use encryption people.
The line between the Valarie Plame investigation and this action is bright, bold and straight.
Oh, because there's no way this would have happened if not for that. It's not like the Obama administration has been clamping down on leakers of all types as hard as possible.
That said, the basic rational is about the same, I think. If you're a journalist and you're... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 3:40 PM on May 13, 2013
I don't think crypto of any kind would have helped: the only information they asked for was lists of "incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call." An encrypted call over the telephone network would leave the same kind of info as an unencrypted one.
Yeah, that's kind of true. But that's not how anyone uses crypto. Typically it's used for email, or at least text chat online. In fact I don't even think it's possible to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 6:58 PM on May 13, 2013
According to five people familiar with the call, Brennan stressed that the plot was never a threat to the U.S. public or air safety because Washington had "inside control" over it....
A few minutes after Brennan's teleconference, on ABC's World News Tonight, Richard Clarke, former chief of counter-terrorism in the Clinton White House and a participant on the Brennan call, said the underwear bomb plot "never came close because they had insider... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 7:01 PM on May 13, 2013
Did the government actually get any useful intelligence out of this?
The fact that the AP is pissed doesn't mean they actually caught the leakers. It's entirely possible the AP was smart about it and the NSA/FBI/whoever didn't actually find what they were looking for. Let's hope none of these reporters were cheating on their wives.
It would certainly be nice if the government wouldn't do this kind of thing. But as to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 7:27 PM on May 13, 2013
The AP wasn't subpenaed, the records would have come from somewhere else (likely a phone company) and it's unclear how they were acquired.
Some states do have journalist shield laws which literally does give some corporations the right to prevent the (state) government from prosecuting "criminals" if the "crime" involved giving information to a journalist. But there's no law like that at the federal level.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 1:02 AM on May 14, 2013
Sorry cons, but you've only got three more years for a real Nobama scandal and this ain't it.
There was a poll recently where the majority of republicans thought Bengazi was the worst scandal in history. Worse then Iran Contra, Watergate, and the Teapot Dome. A lot of them didn't even know what country it was in (IIRC 39%)
The problem is that conservatives and liberals live in two separate worlds. Bengazi is a conservative... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 5:58 PM on May 14, 2013
Oh please, get over yourself corb. The Republican puke-funnel has been running non-stop since a black guy was elected. Your supposedly non-partisan pearl-clutching is precious at best.
Worrying about the administration wiretapping reporters is pearl clutching now? Why on earth do you think anyone who cares about civil liberties or the free press would want to do anything to support anything you think is important?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 12:13 AM on May 15, 2013
You made the fish disappear, you rob the bones of our ancestors
The water being pooled and still in the sun becomes much hotter than it was in the freely-flowing river and I believe the level of the underground water table changes too, which has ramifications for the types of foliage that can grow. This all disrupts the balance between species and how they interact with each other; I think the latter two effects particularly can create a situation where invasive species will thrive much more readily than native ones and choke the native ones out,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 2:38 PM on May 11, 2013
That's what I'm saying; adding a few GW of hydroelectric production, with no guarantee that it will actually be matched with a reduction in carbon emissions particularly
Brazil's carbon emissions are capped by law
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 2:40 AM on May 13, 2013
If we are actually going to have a chance of stopping global warming, we are going to have to switch to all renewable energy in a very short period of time. That's going to require a lot of disruption for a lot of people. The alternative is going to mean a lot more disruption to a lot more people. There's no way this works out with everyone coming away happy.
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 1:20 PM on May 13, 2013
Well, Brazil set a goal, obviously they may not reach it. But they'll be more likely to reach it if this dam is built then if not. Arguing that we shouldn't do some particular thing to reduce emissions because we can't guarantee that other emissions will happen anyway doesn't make a lot of sense.
How about we shut down the mining industry worldwide and subsist entirely off of recycled minerals, mandating that the recycling must occur in the lowest-emissions way... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 8:46 PM on May 13, 2013
nor is it even the method of achieving such a benefit with the lowest average cost per person, it's just the one expected to be the easiest.
per person? Brazil has about 200 million people. If it were possible to build 33 of these at the same cost about $2,640 per citizen. What is the cheaper way and how much would it cost?
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 8:48 PM on May 13, 2013
How about recycling all of the copper in mining machinery and mining facilities and all of the power lines and communication lines that run out to mines?
How much copper would that be? Numbers matter here.
the majority—over three-fourths—of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions are associated with deforestation, agriculture, and land use change rather than with energy consumptionThe dam and the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 7:50 PM on May 14, 2013
Or even offer some measure that's just really burdensome for everyone else, like giving up all air conditioning and refrigeration worldwide that isn't medically necessary - as far as I've seen nothing even at that level is being offered to show solidarity with these people who are being asked to give up their lives for totally-not-just-a-way-to-consume-more-energy, entirely altruistic dam-building purposes.
Because solar powered air conditioning... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 11:50 PM on May 14, 2013
"I hope it helps you to know you have options"
What are the implications in terms of heath insurance if you find out you do carry the gene? If you pony up the $99/$300/$3000 for the test and discover you do in fact have the mutation that carries those incredibly terrible odds, can most people even make the decision she did to have the double mastectomy from an economic perspective? Do you now have such a "pre-determined condition" to the extent that insurance doesn't cover it?
The Genetic... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 12:32 AM on May 14, 2013
O, Canada...you're doing it wrong.
How is this "copying" the US? In the US, one senator proposed a law, and so far it's gone nowhere. In Canada, they actually implemented it.
They may be copying the dumb ideas of the republicans, but this isn't something we are doing at all.
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 7:04 PM on May 13, 2013
I've got to keep breathing.It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't
Well, sure, let's leave some room for unexpected discoveries (warp drive!) that will make travel possible,
How do we need warp drives to get to Venus? Venus may not be terra-formable but there are other places in the solar system with liquid water we could go, like Enceladus , Titan, Ganymed and Europa
And if we don't get off the planet in a billion years, or figure out a way to move it, that's it the end of the human race,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 12:21 PM on May 11, 2013
See this post on Tom Murphy's blog ... Why Not Space?
That post doesn't say much of anything It seems to say:
1) most people don't realize humans haven't been passed low earth orbit since 1980 (irrelevant)
2) It takes a long time to walk around a big scale model of the solar system. (so?)
3) If your space ship broke down in the middle of space, you would die. (duh)
4) We can't stop global... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 2:10 PM on May 11, 2013
Heh, I can see why Elon Musk would have a problem with it :P
“I have spent a lot of time fighting far larger lobbying organizations in DC and believe that the right way to win on a cause is to argue the merits of that cause.”
Well, obviously it would seem that way if you're always on the side that actually has the merits.
I wonder why Zuckerburg is such a fan of dirty energy. Seems like such a strange... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 3:08 PM on May 13, 2013
We want stories, not analysis
Bahahaha. If I could favorite your comment a thousand times, I would. I want to attend law school and become an attorney after I finish my undergraduate in journalism. (Hey, at least there's a higher chance that I'll be employed as a journalist or an attorney than as a food writer, right? RIGHT??)
Huh, why do you think this? The job market for law school grads is horrible. If you want a job get a STEM degree. If you like food you could maybe become a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 1:16 PM on May 13, 2013
From Brezhnev to Blair
What happens after things collapse is something we should all be actively planning and preparing for now. Paying off debts, learning post-consumerism job skills, and gathering real resources are all good ways to leverage wiggle room we now have from the coming age of honest capitalism that will result once the system crashes.
100% pure grade nonsense. Why do so many people think there is going to be some kind of grand reckoning at some point?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 8:20 PM on May 11, 2013
It is my belief that when the petrodollar falls, we'll find that our Gold Reserves have been plundered, and that the BRIC nations have been quietly buying up the worlds gold while our bankers have been playing games to suppress the price in the name of profits. (Making it cheaper for our future to be sold out from under us).
This is insane. Even if it were true there is no explanation as to why it's a 'crisis' would result from the government not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 2:36 AM on May 13, 2013
I Don't Want Your Fucking App
You know (most) sites don't do this because they are stupid, right? It's because they want to establish a communication channel with you over which they have complete control. It's not frustrating, it's terrifying.
And that will let them upload all the pictures you take with your camera, plus give basically full user-level access on the iPhone (on android they may need to ask for separate permissions). What actually requires permission on the iPhone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 2:05 AM on May 13, 2013
One genome, two plants
There are real parasites with much weirder lifecycles than the xenomorph.
Yeah, like isn't there a wasp that injects it's larva into a caterpillar, which then take over the caterpillar's nervous system causing it to crawl to a suitable location for the caterpillar to sit while the larva eats it from the inside out?
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 12:55 AM on May 13, 2013
The end of "blink", the beginning of Blink...
straight, if you implement a master password in Chrome than you either have to encrypt all of the user data on disk -- which may be the right answer, but it's quite an undertaking
No it's not, it's quite easy.
- or you have to explain carefully that the master password doesn't really "protect" your data ... against anybody with a SQL browser and a text editor from accessing their data directly from the files... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 8:55 PM on May 11, 2013
No longer sci-fi: world's first 3D printed (almost) all-plastic firearm.
Interesting. 120.09 refers to "The furnishing to foreign persons of any technical data controlled under this subchapter (see § 120.10), whether in the United States or abroad"
The definition (120.10) includes : (1) Information, other than software
as defined in § 120.10(a)(4), which is re-quired for the design, development, production, manufacture, assembly, op-eration, repair, testing, maintenance or modification of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 3:03 PM on May 11, 2013
The problem with the whole 'gun control stats' thing is that the side that thinks guns = safety also seems to not believe in global warming, evolution, etc. People who don't particularly have a strong reputation when it comes to statistical analysis. But the trick is if you come up with enough bogus stuff people can always say things like "oh yeah? Well this study proves the opposite."
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 7:05 PM on May 11, 2013
It is my understanding that technical data can't be placed in the public domain without ITAR clearance.
Understanding based on what? The plain text of the law says that something is public domain if it's available "(1) Through sales at newsstands and bookstores;" or "(2) Through subscriptions which are available without restriction to any individual who desires to obtain or purchase the published information; " Both of which are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 8:36 PM on May 11, 2013
An investigative reporter investigates
It would be helpful if there were some statistics in this, like "cosmetics increase your risk of breast cancer by x%". There are a huge number of things that may slightly increase your cancer risk from rice to deoderant to cellphones (which I guess have been completely ruled out at this point). There are like a million things.
Just saying and makeup might be one of them isn't really that helpful.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 3:48 PM on May 11, 2013
establishes Kathleen led a wholesome healthy lifestyle by eating unprocessed foods, choosing vegetarian fare, and exercising regularly. The last sentence though seems to be a bit of joke until one considers that the evidence being provided in the second paragraph is evidence that Kathleen lives a virtuous life, not just a healthy one. ... sing cosmetics is a kind of vice comparable to eating HFCS and watching ESPN. As a lifelong habit, Kathleen's cosmetic usage provides the author a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi
at 7:30 PM on May 11, 2013
