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LOL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

Lipstick on a pig.

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Non-professional, same as me, Shawn Halayka,

"Prestige is a mental illness..." Or, prestige is earned, deserved, and reacted to graciously by the earner who may exhibit one or more positive traits that produce results that empower others. What is clear is that it is bestowed upon one by others. Those others must ultimately include professionals.

James Putnam

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Learn how to embed links.

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The answers you need are all pretty much outlined somewhere in the 1994/1995 volumes of Dr. Dobbs. Look for cubes. I assume you're not too proud to read something low-brow like a comp sci magazine.

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Hi Anonymous,

Thank you for the critique. Unlike the physicists, your comment has actual substance -- congratulations.

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You are presumptuous to think that I am not a physicist.

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Hi James,

Believe it or not, this isn't actually personal, or wasn't in the beginning anyway -- I'm more referring to the prestige attached to culture, more so than prestige afforded to any one human individual. The difference is subtle.

I mean, when I get junvenile comments from others that imply that I'm somewhat jealous of the prestige afforded to other individuals, I have to wonder if they're really so blind to think that I'm somehow brown-nosing? Yeah, that's it. All I care about is these people cleaning up their toys, because the sad, sorry state of it is indeed totally screwing over everyone who is beyond minimally trans-human (and that's a lot more people than you think). Oops, did I ruin my chance for a grant? Aw, shucks.

I know that some people here think that I'm singing off key, but fortunately I have the future on my side and all they have is extinction. Aw, shucks.

- Shawn

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You're presumptuous to think that you just didn't prove my point.

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LOL. The Wikipedia page on trans-humanity makes it sound like a physicist and an anthropologist cracked the concept of trans-humanity wide open in 2007.

Maybe if they were low-brow enough to read the newspaper, they would have read about it in The National Post's Saturday arts section in the late, late 1990s... Like I did, when I was making a living at dishing out the best ice cream cones north of the border, evar.

What a bunch of posers.

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The mathematical notation is to save paper and ink, to reduce redundancy.

We don't need actual paper for this kind of work, for one. Plus, you can keep the redundancy (or lack thereof) as is. When you read a "paper", you should be able to rip apart the equations and tinker with them, right on the spot. Right now when you click on a formula in a paper, you don't get this kind of exploratory power.

Object-oriented, relational, standardized data isn't just about slapping your code into some classes and writing your text in Unicode. It's about utterly destroying all of the book-centric thinking that doesn't provide any actual benefit in a connected, electronic age. The current topology is not appropriate. Increasing the complexity of the topology doesn't need to amount to utter chaos if proper standardization is applied.

We can work on eliminating "natural" languages later. Baby steps.

There are people who are perfectly intelligent and capable, but they are being thwarted by the state of things. It's pretty much like trying to pick your nose while wearing boxing gloves. No wonder why most people give up, and take pleasure in announcing their mathematical illiteracy -- they're not masochists. You can label them all you like as "crackpots", or "lazy", or just "downright intellectually inferior", but you're not really fooling anyone over the age of 30. The prestige that you afford yourself, while pretending to be an innovator in public outreach, is simply insulting. It's just the same old blah blah blah.

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    Maybe if the federal government tossed $100 million into my lap I'd feel responsible enough to do it myself (after I hire an army). And here you're making excuses. It's utterly insulting. WE paid you orders of magnitude more than what was required to improve the world, so do it.

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    This is the part where you say "we're already aware" and dismiss this as a triviality, thus yet again exposing the fact that the only thing you care about is buffing up your pension.

    Hey, maybe some genius new wave wanna be band can write a song about that.

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    Hey ZOMG, you could even use something like this to point out self-plagiarism in physics AND music, because we all know that's utterly despicable, don't we?

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    Shawn,

    At home there are a couple of music programmes that allow input of samples of music and the modification and combining of them in various ways. Sounds can be customised to personal preference but it is too easy. It does not give the pleasure and immersion of playing a musical instrument, though that takes dedication. We also recognise that kind of 'cut and paste' or generic 'cloned' music when we hear it, it is superficial, malnourishing.

    Sometimes things are written in a particular way for a particular purpose and to tinker with it is to make it into something entirely different, not necessarily better, that it is not. The trouble with the written word or equation is that it does not change but that is also its strength. Papers have margins for a purpose, (that are missing in the electronic form).I like playing with ideas but I can't actually change someone else's work into my misunderstanding of what it should be. It has its own integrity, to be valued and respected, even if personally disliked as it is.

    I think that there is a danger in a free for all where there is no respect for the integrity and value of the original, unique innovation or creative excellence, and instead endless pop rehashing of the old or 'formulaic' repetition by anyone talented or not. All of the paintings in the kindergarten are beautiful.

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    Oops, programs : )

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    Why do anonymous cowards think that they're clever, fishing for comments? I'm not going anonymous because I'm expecting privacy -- I'm doing it to mock you. Of course, if you we're paying attention, you'd already know that -- kind of like how you'd already know that I've been working on this project for years. Sorry that I've got other stuff to do too, but at least I've recognized the problem.

    Perhaps you can prove your cleverness by formatting your comments in LaTeX; pretend that you're Don Knuth.

    Apparently you're missing all the other comments from the actual kids?

    Try not to misinterpret me too much, k?

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    Hi Georgina,

    This is why the unit tests are important. I'm not suggesting a Wild West free-for-all, but entirely the opposite. Surely, as a professional teacher, you know that children learn best by tinkering and learning from mistakes that are clearly outlined -- in case you don't read the pop sci blogosphere, mistakes equal "mental deficiency", so clearly they're doing it wrong because they're doing it exactly oppositely from how it should be done.

    Have you read Three Roads to Quantum Gravity? Look for Shannon in the index, then please re-state your comment about integrity and respect in a way that matches reality.

    Apparently my comment re: Minute Physics got axed. The kids are not impressed; I couldn't possibly be making up such a bizarre disaster situation.

    This is not about disrespecting the elderly, because I'm just as much to blame -- which is why I'm busting my rear to fix it, in many ways (this negative babble on FQXi barely scratches the surface of what I'm doing altogether about it).

    I appreciate your calm demeanour, and I know that you're not intentionally trying to misinterpret my comments. That is deeply appreciated, even more so than the totally awesome links that you post. :)

    - Shawn

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    Who is 'your':

    "You're presumptuous to think that you just didn't prove my point."

    If it is me, say so!

    James

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    See 'Open Letter to the President: Physics Education' by Minute Physics.

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    Hi James,

    I was replying to the anonymous comment when I said that. Apologies for the confusion. I do appreciate your input, unless you two are one and the same. :P

    - Shawn