1. Science is thrilling - except in our schools

Comment #203610 by Mr. Flibble on July 3, 2008 at 8:33 am

This article is dead on. In highschool I thought Chemistry was really fascinating. Then I had to rote memorize the periodic table for exams... and here is the problem. I could not understand why we were using one on a big wall poster, or in our books, and then at a certain point, we had to do all our tests and formulas without access to the periodic table. Everything had to be from memory for a good proportion of the tests from beyond a certain point.

This frustrated me to no end as I am pathetic at rote memorization. I actually failed chemistry to my chagrin, and had to retake it.

When taking Chemistry in College, my instructor announced that the periodic table at the front of the class would always be available for any exam and that the highschool idea of memorizing the table is worthless. Then in the labs, the lab instructor started off by announcing the exact same thing, she stated, "If you need the table over here on the wall, get up and use it, don't try to pull it from memory if you don't know."

I asked my chem prof about this, and his response was that he had most of the table memorized, but this was because he used it every day, and that he just got to memorize it by constant use. But then he also admitted that for certain elements he used rarely he always had to look up the values. Then he added that to try to do a real experiment from memory was absolutely foolish, and he would likely have a negative effect on the experiment by mixing incorrect values. Thus his opinion on the highschool requirement for memorizing the periodic table was in his words: "Bullshit".

I still don't know why I had to memorize the periodic table and do all my exams from memory of the table in highschool chem.

2. Darwinmania!

Comment #195415 by Mr. Flibble on June 18, 2008 at 7:28 am

Dhamma: The loss of your writing is due to HTTP timeouts. It is unlikely that RD.net can change those timeouts unless they have their own dedicated apache server. And even if they do, changing the timeouts can cause performance problems. This is just conjecture mind you - as I am NOT the admin for RD.net. However, I have set the timeouts for other sites. So the timeout values may or may not be within their control.

My solution to this (as I am used to it occurring) is to always copy my text to my clipboard if concerned about a timeout.

However, a better solution is to use firefox, which caches that data. (Use the back button to retrieve it)

3. Physicist Claims First Real Demonstration of Cold Fusion

Comment #187543 by Mr. Flibble on June 2, 2008 at 9:46 am

To quote "Voodoo Science" as I remember it on Cold Fusion, I must ask: "Is the lab assistant dead?"

4. A natural selection

Comment #180334 by Mr. Flibble on May 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm

SharonMcT:

I agree, it is good to see this kind of thing sponsored irrespective of who is the sponsor. I was unaware of the lack of funding as well until I read it here today. I am also fortunate to be working in Toronto for 2 months, as I live in Victoria BC.

Sadly though, as I am out here, Richard Dawkins has been speaking in Vancouver... That I would have liked to have seen as well!

I will say that I got quite a strong feeling of spirituality* from the exhibit. I often get a great feeling of incredible reverence at a museum.

*I should not need to clarify this, but by spirituality I am referring to this use in the same way as Einstein and Hawking and their mention of god.

5. A natural selection

Comment #180009 by Mr. Flibble on May 14, 2008 at 5:22 am

I am surprised that no one here has yet posted about actually seeing the exhibit. I did so 2 weeks ago. In a day of serendipity I was reading The God Delusion again on the Subway as I headed to the ROM to see the exhibit. :)

I took about 3 hours to go through the whole exhibit. It is not very large per say, but I wanted to read every display, and every note laid out. I was surprised at how slowly other people were walking through it, and actually paying attention. It was not lacking in people in any way.

It is not the best exhibit to take the kids to, as I saw a few bored kids (except in the kids section of the exhibit).

The most surprising thing to me though, was the sheer volume of information had collected, and how much work he had done long before the beagle voyage on bug collecting etc.

6. 'Darwin chip' brings evolution into the classroom

Comment #157906 by Mr. Flibble on April 9, 2008 at 5:53 pm

I know the chip qualifies as being ID, and the process inside it is microevolution, I was just trying to be daft. :p

7. 'Darwin chip' brings evolution into the classroom

Comment #157600 by Mr. Flibble on April 9, 2008 at 10:14 am

Would it be wrong to say that this chip is Intelligently Designed?

*ducks*

8. The books that inspire me

Comment #157339 by Mr. Flibble on April 9, 2008 at 12:22 am

I am so pleased to see Demon Haunted world on this list. I was actually introduced to Dawkins through this book, as he has the first comment on the very first page on the "more praise for" section of the book. (In my copy anyways).

Still, Demon Haunted World took me a full 3 months to read. Not because it is long, but because it challenged, and debunked many things that I had previously believed.

As per this list, I will add all those other books to my reading list.

9. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #157306 by Mr. Flibble on April 8, 2008 at 10:01 pm

I agree with Chris on the position of religion, but I agree with Peter on the Iraq war stance. I understand Chris's position on that, but I don't believe that makes him correct on that topic.

All in all, a great thing to watch.