Posts by BenWilson
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Field Theory: All Blacks v South Africa…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
and wearing tube tops? Slappers!
I kept wondering if the collars could be seized and yanked whether the entire thing would come off without slowing the player down. And whether such a design would have even had rugby in mind.
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Enjoyed the game. Loved Carter's fend that actually accelerated him into a gap, it was as if he slowed down for it almost like a surfer taking the drop, put his hand out and his feet up and let the tackler explode him forward, emerging from a melee as if it were a tube he deliberately slipped back into for extra points, and the whitewater snapping at his heels something to look for an easy dismount on.
I'm expecting a great season, if the All Blacks play like that, and the other teams lift to the same level, it could be some of the best rugby we've ever seen. I would not be surprised if there are quite a few upsets this year.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
The bulk of what is available in NZ is done that way, I'm told. But there are reasons that go beyond yield efficiency. If you grow from seed you have to plant a lot of plants to get a much smaller number that you will keep. If you get caught, they count up the plants and bust accordingly. Cuttings will turn into plants whose qualities are reliable, so a much smaller number is needed. It's less legally risky. I don't think considerations like that come up with corn.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Lilith __,
Or "how small a hole can it get through"
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....
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Sacha,
the closest to the front end of the project you get, the more experienced and better paid the people tend to be
I bet frontline tech support folk wish you were correct about that
They're one of the main groups I'm talking about, although I think I expressed it badly. I meant the front end in the dimension of time. Tech support are there at the end.
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Che Tibby,
It's not so much that I objected to my brother's tax, it was more that it actively discouraged me from saving. If the money had been placed beyond his control, I think I might have thought it a better idea. I didn't know about bank accounts at the age of 6.
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Che Tibby,
my own rite was standing in a kitchen till 2am, dishes piled higher than my 11-yo backside, then taking the money home for the family. sure learned the value of a dollar, and that being a man is nothing but hard work.
Working for money seems like an important rite too. If it came with sound advice about investing it, that could be extremely useful, but unfortunately, most adults don't have a fucking clue about that either. I'm no exception. I did learn a rather bad thing about money quite early on - having saved up my pocket money for a week, I had twice as much as my brother. He then took my money and his and divided it in two. That practically killed my interest in saving for at least 20 years. I think there's a deep metaphor in there for NZ society.
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Hard News: Science: it's complicated, in reply to Steve Reeves,
But even getting to talk to people who manage projects in the companies we're interested in proves to be really difficult.
This is where the great science communicators come in. The natural story tellers. Also, just out and out salespeople and marketers. I have a lot of respect for people who can generate interest in something, even if their own knowledge of that something is not deep. It's really hard work. Once you're in the door, you bring your boffins.
These ideas are quite formalized in software, the gradual blur from the people marketing the company to people analyzing whether they could do something for a client to people actually designing it, to those who have to make it, and test it, and support it. Everyone should be able to do some of all of it, but people do tend to specialize. I've noticed that the closest to the front end of the project you get, the more experienced and better paid the people tend to be. The very front, the face of the organization, are people that might not have done any actual coding for a very long time.
I don't know if the same goes for more conventional science. Are project leaders typically experienced older scientists, who will seldom be found in the lab actually playing with the rats or peeping down the microscope, or working the spreadsheets?
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Che Tibby,
Yes, I was deeply jealous of a kid I was at intermediate school with, who was from Niue. He told me that he had gone through a rite of passage recently, something that was culturally important and recognized as such by his people. It involved an exciting trial - he had to singlehandedly navigate an outrigger across the ocean to a neighboring island, a trip that took 2 days, given no provisions, so he had to fish to get anything to eat. I believe he also had to camp out for a bit too at the other end.
After that, he was acknowledged to be a man. This was a 12 year old. My respect for him grew immensely, and I did notice that he acted a lot more grown up than everyone else too.
Whilst that particular trial is perhaps more appropriate for a different time and place, I do think that symbolic rituals involving a display of independence and character are a fantastic social mechanism. I fully intend to use those ideas with my own children. They might involve something like navigating alone across the city, using public transport. Or arranging to meet an important stranger and interviewing them. Getting a driver's license is a particularly important rite of passage in NZ.
They need not be particularly difficult things. The main thing is the symbolism of marking the occasion, and laying out the new rights, but also responsibilities, of that milestone.
There is a danger, of course, that some may fail these tests. However, being able to redo them is good. I distinctly remember failing the final test when I went to get my motorbike license in Australia. It was galling. However, when I went back they presented all of us first-fails with a very curious statistic - having failed the first test, we were statistically far less likely to die on a motorbike. The humiliation was an important lesson in itself.
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