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Physics Forum At Fermilab Bans Powerpoint 181

Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the powerpoint-considered-harmful dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Amanda Solliday reports at Symmetry that six months ago, organizers of a biweekly forum on Large Hadron Collider physics at Fermilab banned PowerPoint presentations in favor of old-fashioned, chalkboard-style talks. 'Without slides, the participants go further off-script, with more interaction and curiosity,' says Andrew Askew. 'We wanted to draw out the importance of the audience.' In one recent meeting, physics professor John Paul Chou of Rutgers University presented to a full room holding a single page of handwritten notes and a marker. The talk became more dialogue than monologue as members of the audience, freed from their usual need to follow a series of information-stuffed slides flying by at top speed, managed to interrupt with questions and comments. Elliot Hughes, a Rutgers University doctoral student and a participant in the forum, says the ban on slides has encouraged the physicists to connect with their audience. 'Frequently, in physics, presenters design slides for people who didn't even listen to the talk in the first place,' says Hughes. 'In my experience, the best talks could not possibly be fully understood without the speaker.'"


by Alsee (#46425729) Attached to: Jewish School Removes Evolution Questions From Exams

Since you are such a rational individual and by no way superstitious, you should have no fear to do the following: reply to this post by stating clearly that you hereby sell your soul to Satan for the price of a bag of Cheetos. If you have balls you will also include in this deal the souls of everyone in your family.

Sure, but first you have to let me take your photograph, to prove that you're not afraid that it's going to steal your soul.



Police Say No Foul Play In Death of Bitcoin Exchange CEO Autumn Radtke 126

Posted by timothy
from the sad-news dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt: "The CEO of a virtual-currency exchange was found dead near her home in Singapore. A police spokesman said Thursday that initial investigations indicated there was no suspicion of 'foul play' in the Feb. 26 death, meaning officers do not suspect murder. The spokesman said police found 28-year-old Autumn Radtke, an American, lying motionless near the apartment tower where she lived. Police have so far classified the death as 'unnatural,' which can mean an accident, misadventure, or suicide." Hat tip to Jamie McCarthy for Slate's thoughtful take on Radtke's death, and the way it's been reported (notably, several sources have speculated that her death was a suicide, with little support).

Comment: Re:Too Bad. (Score 1) 40



Comment: Re:Mobile phones used as tracking devices?? Parano (Score 2) 256

by Catbeller (#46403401) Attached to: In Ukraine, Cyber War With Russia Heating Up

Sure they had such. Well, Iraq certainly did.

We invaded. The "alliance" was a creature we created for our own purpose.

You can't impose a democracy on an invaded people; they get cranky about the invasion and will call anyone who cooperates with the invader a quisling, and justifiably so. They aren't angry because they are illiterate. They are angry because they are living in an occupied country. They have an excellent grasp of current events.

If the US had been invaded by the Taliban because Canada, Mexico and Grenada said it was fine by them, Americans would not cooperate either. People in foreign cultures are no less proud and no more willing to be conquered than we are. The US went insane because 40-odd people scattered around the world (not Afghanistan - they were almost all Saudi) set up 4 plane attacks (they couldn't get manpower to crash the planned 12) and killed 3000 Americans on our home soil. Can you imagine what the US response would be if the Taliban bombed us, conquered us, and tried to install a Muslim government and sneered at our ignorance when we refused?

The Taliban rose to power because the mountain tribal thugs we elevated to power after we used them to fight off the Soviet invaders (who were worried themselves of fundamentalist revolutionaries on their border) were such murderous raping hillbillies that the Taliban was welcomed as a less oppressive solution.

The Taliban never attacked us - they weren't suicidal. Some of the people in the loose thing called the Taliban apparently had granted Al Qaida a place to train fighters - but that wasn't ALL the Taliban, just as the Michigan Militia ain't the United States of America. We bombed the country because they wouldn't give up the AQ boys without proof of guilt - somewhat reasonable, granted their culture and common sense. Bush said no proof - give over or die. They chose pride and we blew them up. AQ - all forty of them - mostly got away for awhile, because we were chasing oil in Iraq, but the people of Afghanistan - and Iraq - were annihilated by our blind rage and need to lash out at ANYthing. Thing is, we blew any goals we had - the bad guy got away, and turned the damned planet against us.

I don't see how it was justified. AQ wasn't the Taliban. We conflated, and still conflate, all Muslims who defy us as AQ. We blew up a country - two countries - that had nothing to do with the attack against the US. This is the cognitive dissonance that Americans won't confront, because then we wouldn't be good guys. We needed their cooperation, and instead turned them into enemies. and once again, the bad guy got clean away.

Comment: Re:victimless crime (Score 1) 205

by Catbeller (#46403051) Attached to: Child Porn Arrest For Cameron Aide Who Helped Plan UK Net Filters

Why do you assume anyone is making new KP for the web? Who tells us this? I'm serious. Who in hell would put it up anywhere? We assume the cops know what they are talking about. But we can't check their claims, because illegal. Is this the commie/witch hunt again, in the sense that no one questions the premise?

Comment: Questions (Score 1) 205

by Catbeller (#46402927) Attached to: Child Porn Arrest For Cameron Aide Who Helped Plan UK Net Filters

Everyone knows the stuff is everywhere.
How do we know this?
They tell us it is.
If no one is looking for the stuff, because laws, how do we know the stuff is everywhere? No one can research it. I certainly don't.
Is it possible it is now so rare that it exists at all because cops and task forces are posting it?
Is it possible this "war" is as real as the one on The Terror? The war is the war because war?
Are we being lied to on a drug-war scale?
Are people being set up?

Comment: some thoughts (Score 1) 205

by Catbeller (#46402851) Attached to: Child Porn Arrest For Cameron Aide Who Helped Plan UK Net Filters

First, sort of reverse projection - I suspect some of the people who are REALLY obsessed with the subject have a not-so deeply buried yen for the forbidden fruit, and sally forth to find and punish the bad people who are likewise obsessed. Denial and reverse projection.

Who the hell else has opportunity to collect but the people who search for people with such images? Where else you gonna get it? Bust a collector, you get the collection.

Since such stuff is hard to find, and harder still to put up on the web, the usual suspects putting the stuff out there... are the cops. Honey pots and the like. And you will find cops who have images and *are immune from suspicion* because of their position. A number of them have to be such. Non-zero number.

If you want to find a witch, look among the witch hunters. That's where the smart witches hide.

Final thought: how damned easy it must be to set someone up. A script to download from a honey pot, or just secret sneak-and-peek to place files on a hard drive. Who would ever believe that the accused pedophile was framed?
