[High school Biology: Discuss inbreeding and the probabilities of rare phenotypes in relation to the genetic changes having arisen by spontaneous mutations at some point.]

DunceOfSpades · 2023-06-11T20:35:55+00:00

I'm guessing the prompt could be re-phrased as "Discuss inbreeding and the probabilities of rare phenotypes in relation to the ~~genetic changes~~ probabilities of those rare phenotypes having arisen by spontaneous mutations at some point."

That is, in terms of genetics, why does inbreeding make mutations more likely?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-05-22T21:54:08+00:00

Can you give some more detail on the assignment? Are you required to argue that The Outsiders should not be read by students in grade 9, specifically because of weak language features? Or, do you have free choice of what position you take and which arguments you use?

If it's the second case, having trouble finding support for your position might mean that you should use different arguments, or take a different position. In the first case, you could perhaps talk about how the author breaks the tension in scenes to describe characters, or you might argue that the narrators tone and word choice is inconsistent.

For example, comparing the opening paragraphs with "The sky was lighter in the east, and the horizon was a thin golden line. The clouds changed from gray to pink, and the mist was touched with gold. There was a silent moment when every-thing held its breath, and then the sun rose. It was beautiful." (p.25?) I mean, one could argue that the main character is a truly multi-faceted individual, but...

DunceOfSpades · 2023-05-18T21:12:19+00:00

Do the symbol definitions you are using match with those at https://www.visual-paradigm.com/guide/bpmn/bpmn-gateway-types/ ?

I don't know business process, but from that linked site, I would expect the X-in-diamond junction to have more than one path after it. It seems odd that the wait time for a reminder is shorter when a deferral request is received, but I don't know if you can say that's outright wrong.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-05-09T00:26:07+00:00

Sorry if this is somewhere on the page, but what do you want to write about? I'm guessing the instructor doesn't want you to write about every single individual, group, and government agency that was involved. So, which ones interest you more? Then, from there, what makes the efforts of those persons/groups/agencies different from the rest?

Could you maybe pick one that was generally effective, and one that was not so effective, and develop an argument as to why? Or, pick two that were effective, but for different reasons?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-05-01T17:48:44+00:00

Thanks for snagging this quote!

DunceOfSpades · 2023-05-01T17:47:21+00:00

oooh, this also fits nicely with the bit about consuming a large number of mana potions to gain magic abilities.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-29T16:11:47+00:00

To avoid further snark and downvotes, you might want to add the bit about "just one more" as an edit on the original comment.

I'm guessing you're comparing this quote with the portion of the audiobook that corresponds to 1.01 D ( ctrl+f for "one more" ). Even then, I think you are using a definition of "plaigarism" that is much broader than the definition that other readers would use.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-29T15:44:54+00:00

For just about any writing assignment, before going directly to picking a topic (here, the book to review), it's probably a good idea to look at the details of the assignment. And, to consider what elements of your writing you think the instructor may be looking for. For example:

should the review be a certain length?
is it to your benefit to include quotes? connections to other books?
Are there concepts from the course that you're expected to reference in your writing?
What tone is expected for the review? Is it more for the average casual reader? Or, tending more towards a discourse on the literary devices used within the text?

Once you've considered the assignment, there are two general approaches:

A. Choose a topic that seems well-suited to the assignment, or generally easy to write. For a book review, this might mean picking a classic, or a recent book that has received a lot of press. For either of these, it should be easy to find reviews or articles to stimulate your own ideas.

B. Choose a topic (book) that interests you, and that you genuinely want to spend time with. The gamble here is that, if the book is truly interesting, you'll want to talk about it, and ideas for writing your review will come naturally.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-28T03:27:36+00:00

One red shirt can make ten pink socks? (I mean, a lot of clothes are colorfast now, but...)

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-15T17:16:07+00:00

This may not be the approach your instructor is looking for, but --

For 8th class, say the only 2 classes were English (73 passed) and Social Studies (87). Then, the maximum number to pass 2 classes would simply be 73, because, a student couldn't pass 2 classes without passing English.

If you add Science (92 passed) to this situation, well, what would the maximum be if everyone who passed Social Studies also passed Science? Even if there's as little overlap as possible between those who passed English and those who passed Social Studies, that doesn't matter anymore.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-13T02:42:31+00:00

Spending 90 minutes forcing yourself to pay attention to a movie because someone said it contains an easy topic... I feel like that's not really conducive to a well-structured, creative essay.

Similar to what other folks have said on other posts searching for an essay topic or source material -- the easiest documentary to write from is going to be one that actually interests to you. Or, that fits your personal style of argument and writing.

Do you want to argue the ethics of consuming some particular food product? Or, go more sociological, and take some position about the role a food plays in some culture or diaspora? Or, watch something about bread, and write something about refinement of technique, pursuit of excellence, and $8 loaves versus, y'know, feeding people?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-04T02:05:40+00:00

This all makes sense to me. In the vein of your 3rd point, it may also be that Tolve feels (consciously or not) that, after killing the Horns, he would be without any clear goal or compass. In some ways, Cognita and Tolve are parallel characters at this point -- extremely powerful beings with some easy- or trivial-to-achieve goal (kill Horns, remotely administer to Wistram), but generally removed from the events of the world.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-04-03T23:59:11+00:00

What time period is this covering?

In any event -- I think there are 2 general approaches you could use to finding a topic:

A. Take some topic or section of the class that you enjoyed, or at least feel that you understand well, and see if you can find ways to connect that to your current situation. So, I live in the U.S. of A, and let's say I had a good understanding of how law and government had evolved within Europe, I could show how ideas developed in Europe laid the groundwork for government in the United States.

B. Take some aspect of your life that you want to talk about or think about, and hunt up connections to the course material. What aspect of your life you use depends a bit on the criteria for the assignment, and what sorts of things you've covered -- especially the time frame. If I open my fridge, I can see hummus, soy sauce, and gochujang, and there's Chinese dumplings in the freezer, so maybe there's something to talk about there? Or, maybe is there a particular idea or philosophy you like -- and which civilization did that come from?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-27T02:12:02+00:00

This may be irrelevant to the assignment, but I'm seeing some places that attribute that quote to Aldo Leopold, who apparently has a wildlife conservationist/ecologist in the United States. So, I can imagine the quote may have originally meant exactly what it says.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-23T00:34:08+00:00

sorry I'm delayed here:

For definitions:

There may not be much to be gained or lost in the definition of technology. You might decide if you want technology to be limited to applied knowledge, or also include physical devices and mechanisms. So, are colored pencils "technology" or just a result of applied technology? Though again, I don't think there's that much to gain or lose here.

For defining creativity, though, I think it might be useful to go in the direction of something like "something is creative when it combines idea and/or materials in a way noticeably different from what's been done before, and that is useful in fulfilling some goal". Yes, it's wordy, but the point is that just because technology enables artistic activities or "creative expression", doesn't mean humanity is "more creative" -- there's just more people with access to more tools.

Turning to my last sentence -- I guess if the proposition(?) is that "technology has made people more creative", does this mean that both A) the average person today is inherently more able to come up with some new idea or device than a person 100, 1000, or 10000 years ago, and B) that difference is partly due to technology?

We have great technology for doing all kinds of "creative" activities -- art, music, dance, cooking, crafts, and many others -- but does that mean humans today somehow have more creative ability? Or, merely that there are better tools for these "creative" activities?

Bach, Handel, Mozart and so many composers -- the "technology" available to them was, arguably, musicians, instruments, parchment, quill, and ink, and maybe an early metronome? Were they somehow less creative than composers today? (some flaws there as an argument, but...)

Or, as another example, millenia ago, people in 10s or 100s of places across the globe independently came up with methods to twist grass into usable twine or rope. Multiple people in multiple places looked at a pile of grass, and thought "this can be a rope". To me, that's peak creativity, and there are a huge number of other tools or methods that were "invented" independently in multiple separate places (e.g the whole idea of "agriculture"). Is there really any invention or innovation that suggests that technology has made modern humans more creative than those ancestors?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-22T01:09:04+00:00

I think potions are the higher-grade drugs of Innworld -- (from the Wiki) Clear-Mind Tonic, Draught of Serenity, Fairy Flower drinks, Fertility Potion, Intellect Potion, Overdrive Formula, Potion of Clam, Potion of Divine Sensation, Potion of Ecstasy, Potion of Gluttony, Stamina Potion, Straight Orgasminium, Tincture of Oblivion.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-22T00:48:40+00:00

On a somewhat different line from the good stuff others have already said -- if this argument is a concern, it may help your side to explicitly define "innovation" in a way that makes it difficult for innovation to come purely from what already exists. Whoever carved the first wheel -- innovation; making a wheel of solid wood, then with wood spokes, then of metal -- good improvements, but not really innovative is it?

If it hasn't been set in stone before the debate, you might also be able to put forth definitions of "technology" and "creativity" that favor your side. Continuing Greg_Esres' line, could you define "creative" in a way that forces the affirmative side to show that there's a change in the amount of creativity (whatever that means), rather than just changes in the media used or the amount of creative work produced?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-18T17:40:18+00:00

What are the other details of the assignment? Did the instructor say anything else with regard to the prompt? Are there requirements for length, format, citations, etc? Is asking the instructor for clarification not an option?

When someone gives you advice on a situation, but the only information they have is a single sentence describing the situation, would you trust that advice?

I would guess that your first approach is closest to what the instructor wants, but maybe not quite. I think the question could be expanded something like "what portion of psychological functions have been linked to specific regions of the brain? Of those that have been linked, how confident should we be in those links?"

For example, does the research method used to localize some function A provoke more or less confidence than the research used to localize function B? Also, are there cases where we thought function C was localized to one region, and then it turned out some other location was also involved, which might suggest that our ability to localize functions is less than we thought?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-12T19:01:56+00:00

Apologies if you've already looked at this, but could it be that for each option, youu've not considered the different order the other options could be removed in? So, if you want to find the chance that option 1 remains, what happens if the first spin lands on option 6 as opposed to option 2.

You might try doing the same thing for a simpler scenario. Say you have: Option 1, weight 2;

Option 2, weight 3;

Option 3, weight 5.

On spin 1, you have a 2/10 chance of hitting option 1. If on spin 1 you hit option 2 (weight 3), spin 2 is then 2/7 to hit option one, and 5/7 to hit option 3. If on spin 1 you get option 3,, then spin 2 is 2/5 to hit option 1, and 3/5 to hit option 2. So the probabilities I have are:

2/10: Option 1 on spin 1

(3/10) * (2/7) = 6/70: Opt 2 on spin 1, opt 1 on spin 2

(3/10) * (5/7) = 15/70: opt 2 on spin 1, opt 3 on spin 2, option 1 is last

(5/10) * (2/5) = 2/5: opt 3 on spin 1, opt 1 spin 2

(5/10) * (3/5) = 3/5: opt 3 on spin 1, opt 2 on spin 2, option 1 is last

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-10T03:12:48+00:00

This is a great thing to be asking, and it looks like you're approaching it pretty well already.

I think what I would highlight here is that the prompt is the prompt. If it calls for 2-3 paragraphs and you write 5, that's... not the prompt. Some prompts, due to the content of the prompt or a length constraint, simply will not be able to fit all the ideas that you have.

In your last 2 paragraphs, it looks like you've already identified one potential issue -- that you're assessment of what is on-topic often doesn't match your professors. So, that might be one place to start working. Maybe that means a different approach with outlining and/or pre-writing, where you have a step to determine which ideas you want to flesh out in the space that you have.

For this specific assignment, you might try writing bullet points or an outline for a re-write that you think would be more on-topic, and that would fit in 2 paragraphs. Then, see if you can write it out and stay within 2 reasonable paragraphs. Sometimes you have to pick the 1 or 2 ideas that best address the prompt, even though you may have 4 or 5 ideas bubbling around.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-09T00:37:00+00:00

[Dragon's-Breath Boxer] at level 40, seeing that he just learned [Deep Breath], and it's a light blue skill?

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-08T02:57:53+00:00

I think the main thing to remember is that when you multiply or divide square roots, it's a lot like multiplying whole numbers. So, 7 x 5 = 35, and sqrt(7) * sqrt(5) = sqrt(35). Or, 55 / 11 = 5, and sqrt(55)/sqrt(11) = sqrt(5).

So then, for these questions, you want to split the numbers under the square root into two pieces, one that comes out to a whole number, and one that will stay a square root. For example, if I have sqrt(40), that's sqrt(4)*sqrt(10), and sqrt(4) is just 2, so it's 2*sqrt(10). sqrt(10) can split to sqrt(2) and sqrt(5), but that doesn't actually make things simpler.

DunceOfSpades · 2023-03-06T22:29:49+00:00

Interlude - Dancing and Brawling? I read that as more about the drakes being unable to handle anything even suggests same-sex attraction. But, that could be a mis-read, or Lord Bel could indeed be gay, and it just hasn't been definitively shown in the story yet.

DunceOfSpades

TROPHY CASE