What’s something that’s a banal observation in your field, but which really blows students’ minds the 1st time they encounter it?
I’ll go 1st—when we talk about how technological history gets narrated & I say "no human being has ever lived in a historical period—they’ve only lived in the present"
I’ll go 1st—when we talk about how technological history gets narrated & I say "no human being has ever lived in a historical period—they’ve only lived in the present"
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We found a book at the library, orientated toward kids, with excerpts of primary sources (in translation, with background).
He was *fascinated* to write about Salah ah-Din (Saladin).
Back in my FB days I made that systems 101 observation in a conversation and someone asked if they could cite me as author to make it into a T-shirt. Despite my protests that I was in no way the originator, she actually did that.
I get what you mean though. Few labs look like cartoon labs. And those who do (had a teacher who studied algae & his lab was full of tubes with green fluorescent stuff) are innocuous.
"Hot glass looks exactly the same as cold glass."
Also cue my favourite earworm girly @flamygrant.bsky.social
Don't worry about the future the future will take care of itself
Drove home drunk hit and killed someone crossing the street at a Red in a crosswalk
Explain your future now 🤔
And that's not a bad thing.
Having it framed like that blew my mind a bit.
I always very much enjoyed telling them that they were walking up a mountain that was over 4 billion years old.
Eyes have evolved independently at least 8 times.
Not my field. I just think it's neat.
Skin is pretty good at sensing dangerous levels of IR light. And our transceiver organs have evolved nicely to perceive radio waves... um,I've said too much.
Human transceiver organs! (Yes that'll do)
True, sometimes we can make really good predictions, with a lot of confidence. But never with certainty. Often, what seems like certainty is really bravado.
current life: every OSHA regulation exists because a worker died; the reason many regulations are counterproductive/ineffective is because corporations have a voice in how they are written
Even for the ancients, there were ancient people.
well, maybe it will.
before that, there would have been charades, maybe or someone reading aloud from a book
in the Victorian era you might have been lucky enough to take part in Tableaux Vivant. ;)
On top of the engineering and supply chain degrees, I have one in "biz" and back in the '90s the teaching was all about the efficiencies and advantages of outsourcing (ugh) and (ugh) and all the bullshit. Anyone able to do math:
1) better profit
2) RISK
Already happening, it seems!
Cemeteries are filled with indispensable men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ
A dismaying number of people can't get their heads around the concept that "technology" is far more than "metal machinery".
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, ...
We too often take "No user serviceable parts" as commandments.
We need more right to repair :-)
Indeed, clothes are still extremely valuable technological products (try doing without them), but as Oscar Wilde famously observed, there is a big difference between value and price.
The US lack of laws and regulations.
We had a theorist visit a few years ago to give a talk on "bad music." I thought this was going to be a thoughtful metacommentary on the subject
He then proceeded to lay out a theory of objectively bad qualities in music
(After Voting Rights Act and the reapportionment cases)
We live in a miasma of bits of other humans and the rest of the world.
[I'm a former accident investigator: engineering & science researcher, teacher]
Humans are crap at risk management.
It's a _big_ book.
Prof. Robson @Dirac Foundation is one of the good guys: did sterling work on Covid epidemiology.
#ElbowsUp
The *funniest* was explaining how the Top Gun movies, Plato, the Iranian Revolution, the song Baby It's Cold Outside and ISIS are all connected.
https://www.quora.com/If-you-can-convert-seconds-to-meters-via-special-relativity-can-you-express-all-units-in-terms-of-length-units?no_redirect=1
(This is from memory, & I read it in French. May have been different in the English version.)
Where does the oxygen come from if not from plants? (Genuinely curious and apologies if the phrasing sounded skeptical.)
(IIRC)
Thanks for the response and the info.
"Celtic" is from Greek Keltoi, Latin Celtae and referred to some European peoples. It was never applied to the population of Scotland, Wales, Ireland etc at the time.
ebooks are scrolls.
We sell codices.
Also, we do not have a warehouse with every book printed, and neither does any other store, publisher, or internet site.
Also, you only have to buy 10,000 copies of a book to make it a bestseller.