tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post2810554284006883540..comments2024-03-29T00:39:31.629-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Why we should ban the undergraduate business major...David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42883686318644043322010-03-15T22:05:34.775-07:002010-03-15T22:05:34.775-07:00Relying on technomagical deus ex machina to bring ...Relying on technomagical deus ex machina to bring about results (or even cause them) is a sign of laziness and sloppy writing and should be avoided when possible. When science fiction shows do their research, it shows with the quality of the episode. When they "make it so" with magical thinking, the episode will most often end up a failure.receive large fileshttp://www.filesdirect.com/signupplanselect.aspxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83999019504790488492009-03-04T13:40:00.000-08:002009-03-04T13:40:00.000-08:00Surpassing U.S. is not the agenda of outsourcing c...Surpassing U.S. is not the agenda of outsourcing companies in Asia, but to give assistance to companies in their business endeavors. Outsourcing has created a way for foreign companies to earn more profit, which benefits them and their clients.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82583945588798295032008-12-04T06:02:00.000-08:002008-12-04T06:02:00.000-08:00A quibble, despite having not read the primary lit...A quibble, despite having not read the primary literature...<BR/><BR/>One should be cautious in ascribing causation to a mere correlation.<BR/><BR/>In the case of Toxoplasma , perhaps it is precisely lower intelligence and "masculine"-stereotyped behavior that increases ones likelyhood of being infested. Perhaps, it is the neurotic behavior of a particular culture that exascerbates the prevalence of dessicated cat scat wafting through the countryside and the populations exposure to such?Enterikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04758515647778280562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3555956105404293162008-11-26T22:16:00.000-08:002008-11-26T22:16:00.000-08:00The business management economics major provides s...The business management economics major provides students who are interested in careers in business or management with a foundation in economics and a selection of applied fields related to business management.However, they are encouraged to develop a strong background in mathematics.<BR/>--------------------------<BR/>kesha<BR/><A HREF="http://www.drivenwide.com" REL="nofollow">Promoter</A>keshacogginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09889235819464436788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1881469794028070652008-11-24T16:17:00.000-08:002008-11-24T16:17:00.000-08:00re: Killing the B.S. in Business Degree.First, yes...re: Killing the B.S. in Business Degree.<BR/><BR/>First, yes, probably smart to remove this from the Bachelor's level curriculum. Along with Economics. It would be better for us all if these students majored in other fields that either required more rigor or more creativity. <BR/><BR/>Second, I disagree on one supporting structure of your argument: That the people w/the B.S. degree caused these problems. If you look close, it's the MBA degree-ed folks who lead us into this mess. Along with the mathematicians/quants who were more interested in solving the problem at hand. <BR/><BR/>Besides, many, many people with very advanced degrees and post-doc work failed us. Our current situation is not because we lacked smart, educated people, it's because these people did not assess the risks in the system properly. <BR/><BR/>Did I hear anybody say, President George W. Bush?<BR/><BR/>My degree: Guess. Or look it up on LinkedIn.Dave Hardwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05315045111530121481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28987091882206267002008-11-23T14:28:00.000-08:002008-11-23T14:28:00.000-08:00Sorry, Robert, I got distracted by the bright shin...Sorry, Robert, I got distracted by the bright shiny light of space opera. I commend your commitment to getting your star to blow up at an actual speed, instead of the traditional "speed of plot".<BR/><BR/>While I don't have any actual knowledge, this link <A HREF="http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/0301.shtml" REL="nofollow">http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/0301.shtml</A> suggests something like two hours ... as the climax of a very exciting process:<BR/><I>"...It is believed that a small fraction of these neutrinos revived the stalled shock and powered the great explosion of the star. By heating and expanding the star and triggering a new flurry of nuclear reactions in its layered interior, the revived shock was responsible for the supernova's optical display. The effect was delayed by about two hours however: the shock had to traverse the entire star before any light leaked out. The neutrinos from the collapsing core easily outraced the shock. Passing through the rest of the star very close to the speed of light, they were the first signal to leave the supernova...."</I><BR/>The whole process seems pretty exciting, with each layer of the stellar onion forming more quickly than the last (imagine the smell as a fraction of the stellar mass turns to sulfur!)rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74073144179842599122008-11-23T09:10:00.000-08:002008-11-23T09:10:00.000-08:00Rob H.Here is a reference that might help:http://2...Rob H.<BR/><BR/>Here is a reference that might help:<BR/><BR/>http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:WxKTFBh3vI8J:crd.lbl.gov/DOEresources/2008highlights/ASCR_accomplishment_Flash_Center.pdf+time+for+a+supernova+to+detonate&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=10&gl=us<BR/><BR/>Looks like in this white dwarf model, the wavefront of the detonation is 1200 miles/sec = < 1% c.<BR/><BR/>If this was maintained, a star with a radius of 10x the sun (sun's radius ~ 0.5E6 miles) would take about 1 hour from start to the point the wavefront would hit the surface.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Soes that help?Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55393028238773004982008-11-23T08:15:00.000-08:002008-11-23T08:15:00.000-08:00But I'm not looking into methods of blowing stars ...But I'm not looking into methods of blowing stars up. What I'm looking into is timing of the supernova. (I've several stellar destruction methods in mind, though I was curious if "dropping" a black hole into the heart of a star might cause one to happen due to <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodisintegration" REL="nofollow">photodisintegration</A>, though the math there is more about the core of an existing star collapsing into a black hole rather than a black hole being "dropped" into the star).<BR/><BR/>Basically, every time we see a star "blow up" in poorly thought out science fiction (Andromeda, Star Trek: Generations, etc.) the detonation occurs almost simultaneously. However, stars are huge. Stars that are large enough to detonate make our own Sol look like a dwarf.<BR/><BR/>With that much mass, and considering how long it takes the energy generated from the fusion of four hydrogen atoms in the heart of a star to emerge from the surface, I have a suspicion (but insufficient math skills or talent to verify that suspicion) that when pair-instability occurs in a star (or when the core collapses directly into a black hole or even when it just finally has built up sufficient iron that the star collapses, starting the supernova process) that the results are not immediately seen. Except through a neutrino burst, if memory serves me right.<BR/><BR/>So then... how long do you have from that initial neutrino burst to the star detonating in the largest fireworks display the universe has seen since the Big Bang?<BR/><BR/>That's what I'm trying to figure out. ^^<BR/><BR/>After all, blowing up stars is all well and fun goodness, but not if you end up with a blackened face when the star you were detonating goes off with you at ground zero. ;)<BR/><BR/>Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30498429869834615762008-11-23T04:57:00.000-08:002008-11-23T04:57:00.000-08:00Pratchett also describes 'inspiratons' ('Wyrd Sist...Pratchett also describes 'inspiratons' ('Wyrd Sisters') that sleet through the universe, interacting with cortical cross-sections to produce ideas.<BR/><BR/>But does he like the curtains? Sorry if my references are obscure (the Larson one, if not the MP) It's no fun explaining jokes... so I won't!<BR/><BR/>Duncan, I would have said that WIP *is* inventory. It's true that current business practice emphasises a reduction in inventory. This reduces the amount you have tied up in stuff you haven't sold yet, or which needs scrapping due to a quality problem.<BR/><BR/>'Zero Inventory Management' is a way of handling budgets that can have some potentially interesting outcomes.<BR/><BR/>However, David is right in pointing out there's other factors in play, and that a balance needs to be struck. These theories, while very elegant, are also very cold and soulless. I half-jokingly referred to 'organic assets' earlier, but the fact is that they are classified as 'overhead', which also needs to be kept to a minimum.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-64685198705352048692008-11-23T00:41:00.000-08:002008-11-23T00:41:00.000-08:00E. E. "Doc" Smith pretty much explored the (fictio...E. E. "Doc" Smith pretty much explored the (fictional) options for inducing supernovae, from (IIRC) ramming a star with an inertialess planet hypertubed in from a dimension where matter can't travel slower than light ( in the last <I>Lensman</I> book ) to the conceptually simpler method of teleporting every star in Galaxy A next to a star in Galaxy B (in the last <I>Skylark</I> book).<BR/><BR/>But as for methods currently within our understanding of the Law, I can only think of this two-step process:<BR/><BR/>A) Find a big enough star<BR/><BR/>B) Wait a sufficient time.rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16325028750723143392008-11-22T19:39:00.000-08:002008-11-22T19:39:00.000-08:00IN the TV series Stargate, in order to induce a su...IN the TV series Stargate, in order to induce a super(?)nova they dialed a stargate to connect a wormhole to a planet close to a black hole, and launched the gate into the star, protected by a force field. When the stargate entered the star in question, the shield collapsed, and a good deal of stellar matter was sucked through the gate, disrupting the star and forcing it to nova.<BR/><BR/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernovae_in_fictionThoughtCriminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11118442743924905296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-38870267653418496782008-11-22T18:23:00.000-08:002008-11-22T18:23:00.000-08:00Regarding "bus graduates" as the cause of loss of ...Regarding "bus graduates" as the cause of loss of innovation.<BR/><BR/>I think you are aiming at the wrong target here.<BR/><BR/>Firstly, management by non-technical people has been going on for much longer than there have even been business degrees. First the sales people took on the top jobs, then the marketers, then the bean counters and now the lawyers. All these cases are examples of management by people unfamiliar with the basic technical aspects of the products their companies made.<BR/><BR/>Many companies today are run for financial reasons, not for making products, which are merely vehicles for the finance. management guru, Peter Drucker had something to say about this before his death.<BR/><BR/>As an MBA with a Masters in Biology too, I can say that I have also sat through decision making meetings where technical managers with no understanding of business have been making business decisions, some of them just plain idiotic. Business is like politics, everyone feels they have a right to make an opinion that they believe is informed, even when it is not.<BR/><BR/>If there is a problem with business degree majors, is that business has become perceived as a way to get ahead and this attracts the marginal sociopaths who want a quick and easy way to make their way. It is not the degree that is the issue, just the people it attracts. But make no mistake, ban the degree and these types will emerge in a different way. The political ladder is now the new way, and we will see the "apparachniks" with political science degrees emerge as the next wave of problem managers.<BR/><BR/>The Stuck paper on innovation was not particularly convincing, especially as the time periods were very short and the 2nd (1997-2003) encompassed the 2000 dot com bust and recession.<BR/><BR/>Some good points are made, of which I think the outsourcing issue of manufacturing and the flow of expertise abroad is most on the mark. Of course the success of Apple Inc is currently based on this model of smart people in the US designing a product for manufacture abroad. Today the focus is on where the value added is (finance, design, etc) but tomorrow will may find that true innovation migrated with the manufacturing expertise and that this is where the true value added will reside in teh future.Alex Tolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01556422553154817988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41116161460349300122008-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:002008-11-22T16:03:00.000-08:00Jester, MP's Holy Grail is my son's favorite movie...Jester, MP's Holy Grail is my son's favorite movie.<BR/><BR/>(And yes, I have promised him that someday the curtains will be his.)<BR/><BR/>No... YOU are missing the comic reference... to a scene in COCOANUTS by the Marx Brothers.<BR/><BR/>Never take on an old-fart master nerd trivia junky....<BR/>;-)David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31025813270623565762008-11-22T15:31:00.000-08:002008-11-22T15:31:00.000-08:00Dr. Brin -A duck, because ducks float.Monty Python...Dr. Brin -<BR/><BR/>A duck, because ducks float.<BR/><BR/>Monty Python reference, not *that* obscure. What kind of nerd guru are you?<BR/><BR/>:DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75745891357008197452008-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:002008-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:00@William_Shatner I'd like to add my own fictio...@William_Shatner <BR/><BR/><I> I'd like to add my own fictional matter/energy term to the fray here; "Fictons"... leave it to fictons to make a room full of intelligent people become attracted to the dumbest ideas. </I><BR/><BR/>HA! Fictons must be the anti-particle of "dust" from Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which interact with all conscious matter and supposedly guide its development.<BR/>_____<BR/><BR/>WRT the power of the LHC, wikipedia states it accelerates protons to a kinetic energy of 7 TeV, and lead nuclei to 1,150 TeV.<BR/>The <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-energy_cosmic_ray" REL="nofollow">highest energy cosmic rays</A> observed are many orders of magnitude more energetic, around 100,000,000 TeV. <BR/>A car at 60 MPH <A HREF="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=((1%2F2)*(1000+pounds)+*+(60+miles+per+hour)%5E2+)+in+TeV&btnG=Search" REL="nofollow"> has even more </A> kinetic energy, at 1 trillion TeV.<BR/><BR/>So maybe something else was being likened to the kinetic energy of a car on the freeway, but it wasn't individual particles in the accelerator. (maybe the whole beam?)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15030764857062052822noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-44764725097404219112008-11-22T07:14:00.000-08:002008-11-22T07:14:00.000-08:00Business Majors are a symptom, not the cause. Go b...Business Majors are a symptom, not the cause. <BR/><BR/>Go back 50 years...most top executives came up through the ranks. But companies compete for managerial talent just like any other resource. Eventually the default career path for executives wasn't so much becoming CEO after 30 years with the same company-- top management was simply part of a free-floating "management caste" that wasn't tied to any particular company. Which all "business majors" aspire to join. <BR/><BR/>This also had the negative effect of transforming exectives' views of the companies they worked for from a community to whom they owed their loyalty to a mere stepping stone to the next job. Which in turn meant that they were focused only on short term profits and not the long term health of the company.<BR/><BR/>The way to solve this is to have businesses promote to the very top levels from within, but given the entrenchment of "MBA culture" I doubt this is possible.<BR/><BR/>Noelnoelenergyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03596819351097108235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48160412960861895412008-11-22T06:18:00.000-08:002008-11-22T06:18:00.000-08:00Partly because we have the hockey and curling rink...Partly because we have the hockey and curling rinks - sometimes in the same facility - as alternative options, as well as the odd softball diamond for the warmer months. Multiple options help.Dwight Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14389833479219422837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56445667073367702602008-11-22T06:12:00.000-08:002008-11-22T06:12:00.000-08:00But ponder the vast open spaces in the US. Most sm...<I>But ponder the vast open spaces in the US. Most small towns are FAR from cities. The ONLY cultural center they have is the high school. Friday night football games aren't just events. They are the only thing holding some communities together.</I><BR/><BR/>In Canada, football and high school sports aren't nearly the fetish they are in the US. Yet we still have small towns that manage to hold together quite nicely :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-66447025507367382072008-11-22T04:29:00.000-08:002008-11-22T04:29:00.000-08:00From what I understand (and Dr. Brin may very well...From what I understand (and Dr. Brin may very well have said this in language my caffeine-deprived mind didn't pick up), Just-In-Time manufacturing was meant to keep industries from building up an inventory of products and then shutting down its factory and continuing to build products while all of its factory workers are out of work. Thus factories continue to stay in production, workers continue to collect paychecks, and there are no cyclical periods of work and no-work.<BR/><BR/>------<BR/><BR/>Perhaps electrons lack mass because they don't move. Instead, I seem to recall reading somewhere that electrons teleport through short distances. Thus they may not have true motion imparted to them and do not gain in mass.<BR/><BR/>------<BR/><BR/>So... no one knows the timing of supernova (as in how quickly the star goes from the neutrino burst, which would be probably the main warning someone outside the star has before it blows and the actual detonation)? <BR/><BR/>------<BR/><BR/>Lieberman got a slap on the wrist because President-Elect Obama said "we don't want to encourage partisan idiocy by starting purges of the Democratic party. Let the voters take care of him in four years" and the Democratic leadership whispered in some ears and calmed people down. If Lieberman starts moving against the Democratic party's will, and if the Republicans start pulling partisan bullshit to keep Obama's initiatives from occurring, then you'll likely see Lieberman given the boot.<BR/><BR/>Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-65314654896233247642008-11-22T00:48:00.000-08:002008-11-22T00:48:00.000-08:00Duncan, glad you are here. Though I think KS Robi...Duncan, glad you are here. Though I think KS Robinson is readable! ;-)<BR/><BR/>I do believe the breadth requirement is a good thing. On the other hand, I agree that much of America is to sport mad (when you mention it, so is much of the world.) But ponder the vast open spaces in the US. Most small towns are FAR from cities. The ONLY cultural center they have is the high school. Friday night football games aren't just events. They are the only thing holding some communities together.<BR/><BR/>Dave, solid matter FEELS that way because of the electric force, not the nuclear force. The electron shells are what makes silicon act like silicon and neon like neon, as far as their neighbors are concerned, or your hand.<BR/><BR/>The nuclear & weak force actually MAKE silicon and neon nuclei, of course.<BR/><BR/>Actually, Just In Time is a wonderful practice! The Japanese used it in order to make every stopping of the assembly line an Event requiring Study. And those studies aimed to prevent each stoppage mode from happening again. JIT is a great way to force best practices.<BR/><BR/>BUT that does not mean we have to take it to a fetish of insisting on no warehousing! Animals - even efficient ones - carry fat reserves. Stuff happens. Tax laws that punish warehousing are vile inducements for fragility.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14696373030534528692008-11-22T00:01:00.000-08:002008-11-22T00:01:00.000-08:00People are discussing "Just in Time".I have a here...People are discussing "Just in Time".<BR/>I have a heretical view on JIT, <BR/>JIT is sold on reducing inventory and WIP (work in progress)<BR/><BR/>I believe that the manufacturing mindset is immovably set in "make scrap faster" quality gets lip service only.<BR/>The devious orientals then went to JIT - this will ONLY work if quality is high.<BR/>The inventory reduction steals all of the "safety stocks" then if quality is low - the line stops<BR/>This forces high quality - any cost advantages of reduced WIP or inventory are secondary<BR/>Consistent high quality is a lot cheaper than poor quality<BR/>"There is always time to do it again but no time to do it right"<BR/>On the other hand - Quality consultants can do a superb job of ripping you off.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71036787268520312022008-11-21T23:23:00.000-08:002008-11-21T23:23:00.000-08:00Another article about the future of SF Genre at th...Another article about the future of SF <BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.bookslut.com/science_fiction_skeptic/2008_11_013679.php" REL="nofollow">Genre at the End of Time</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32513453367656718392008-11-21T23:09:00.000-08:002008-11-21T23:09:00.000-08:00Thoughts:1) My experience with "just in time" syst...Thoughts:<BR/><BR/>1) My experience with "just in time" systems is that it's mostly just an accounting game, giving short-term paper gain, but actually costing more overall long-term, usually incurred through rush charges when unexpected shortages occur that would have been avoided with prudent extra inventory or production. But it looks good on paper.<BR/><BR/>2) Solid matter only feels solid because of nuclear forces and looks solid because of billions of overlapping circles of confusion.<BR/><BR/>3) The problem with management is that it is controlled by other management, and so is self-perpetuating, without any real way for outside influences to control it (except total failure, which doesnt really do anything but disperse the problem). Perhaps they'd manage better if there were some sort of rule that allowed a yearly "keep or fire" vote by employees, rather than the usual sort of lame "rate your boss" evaluation sheet.<BR/><BR/>4) Lieberman may have kept his seat, but you know he's on a tight leash now. They need him to end filibusters, and the day he fails to end one will be the day he's out of a chairmanship. He knows it, and you can bet everyone else does, too.<BR/><BR/>5) Sorry Shatner, but Heinlein's already claimed "ficton". It was a reality particle that traversed between universes and somehow carried information which was translated into stories (or something like that, it's been a couple of decades). See "Number of the Beast".<BR/><BR/>"ockle" = an eight-dimensional particle useful in story-tellingdaveawayfromhomehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06237313399294302353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-38285716543229413282008-11-21T22:07:00.000-08:002008-11-21T22:07:00.000-08:00Hi,I have just read the New Scientist Science Fict...Hi,<BR/>I have just read the New Scientist Science Fiction features.<BR/>Not impressed, but that may be because the writers were all people that I have learned to avoid purchasing.<BR/>They may write well but not entertainingly, <BR/>I Much prefer Brin.<BR/>If the selection was UK writers then P F Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and Ken Macleod are all much more entertaining (The late Charles Sheffield was even better!)<BR/>On the subject of educational "Breadth" my engineering degree was very broad but all "scientific" subjects - I did not miss not having to do an arts subject.<BR/>But I am very concerned about sport in American education, at Glasgow University there were 10,000 - jocks but no JOCKS<BR/>In the main sport (Rugby) an important game would be watched by fifty people - mostly related to the players - University was for education, when I lived in the USA the local High Schools had superb sporting facilities and no science equipment.<BR/>Comercial level sport appears to me to be a major interfrence with education.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39474737227785908932008-11-21T20:51:00.000-08:002008-11-21T20:51:00.000-08:00In fact, such "breadth requirements" are already t...In fact, such "breadth requirements" are already the chief feature that distinguishes the US baucalaureate degree from the European version. Instead of 3 years of specialization, our undergraduates have an entire added year's worth of requirement to study fields far from their own.<BR/><BR/>Interestingly, when I was a grad student I taught breadth courses from both directions. For the physics dept I taught "Astronomy for Poets" (for arts etc majors) and for the English dept I taught "Science Fiction Creative Writing."<BR/><BR/>There's actual money for the departments, so they are competitive to draw breadth students. Otherwise, most university Lit depts (infested with anti-future crypto Marxists) would never teach SF. (As is, they never give the Sci Fi instructor tenure.) It draws in the nerds.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, the astronomy course is popular to draw in the arts kids... but always comes in 2nd to "Human Sexuality". Who'd a figured?David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.com