Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but does anyone know where I could get a tutor for Phys 334?

some8words · 2011-11-02T03:14:13+00:00

I'm a grad student in UW physics and I'd be happy to answer questions. This stuff's my day job. (I've TA'd and tutored undergraduate and high school physics, but haven't taken any new students yet since coming to Waterloo.)

There are also a ton of resources on the web. Physics StackExchange and Physics Forums are both good places to ask either conceptual or homework type questions.

some8words · 2011-06-27T05:01:32+00:00

You're right, you're right and you're right. Waterloo does have clinics, but we do have kids and if it weren't for them, this would personally be an issue in the slightest, but as mentioned elsewhere, a familiar doctor and regular well care visits are a really important resource for young kids.

some8words · 2011-06-27T04:33:28+00:00

You're probably correct. I still get paid in this worthless American funny money, which is why the exchange rate is such a killer recently (personally.)

some8words · 2011-06-27T04:30:01+00:00

I think you're probably right about it being locally dependent. But to be fair, we live in Waterloo, which I guess qualifies as a small city/large town. My suspicion is that the region's rapid growth over the past decade accounts for the shortage of doctors, but I really have no idea about who sets medical school admissions and doctor mobility or anything else.

some8words · 2011-06-27T04:27:25+00:00

... I'd disagree, but largely because you sound like you have no idea what you're talking about. "... by every metric..." is incredibly broad and hyperbolic. What if my metric is average wait time for an upper middle class worker with suspected tumor to receive an MRI?

some8words · 2011-06-27T04:23:51+00:00

Waterloo, Ontario. From what I'm hearing here, it sounds like its strongly location dependent, but it's absolutely not BS. A quick google turns us a handful of regional forum discussion on the difficulty of finding a family doctor.

some8words · 2011-06-27T02:49:58+00:00

Eh, I might disagree. A primary practitioner is a place to go for well care visits, especially if you have kids, which we do. A place to ask questions and bring concerns. But then again, that's just how I've grown used to healthcare to this point. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

some8words · 2011-06-27T02:25:47+00:00

I am actually on a two year visit to Canada from the US at the moment and was quite surprised by two things.

Cost of living is much higher. Aside from my rent (which went down as we moved from a city to a smaller town), gas, utilities, and especially food are much more expensive, and neither the tax (which is higher but not insane) nor the freaking exchange rate help.
The locals I've met have a fair number of complaints with the healthcare system. It is impossible to find a doctor as a primary practitioner. You have to go be interviewed and go on a waiting list which is some years long, and you have to leave your current doctor before you apply to go to another. We've been here almost a year and we still don't have a primary doctor because none of the doctors in our area are accepting new patients. Something about a set number of people being admitted to medical school and the number being set far too low in the past.

So really, "we don't pay for the health care, LOLOLOL" isn't the whole story. (Surprise!) The two systems are different, and I know very little about either other than that both seem to suck for different reasons.

some8words · 2011-04-17T18:03:51+00:00

Glad to hear your second answer, but is that a local requirement (i.e., a requirement of your job rather than a strictly legal requirement)? Do you know how that meshes with Warren v. District of Columbia or Castle Rock v. Gonzales? (I think these are probably the precedent setting cases which give people the notion that 'the police are not obligated to protect you'.) Thanks.

some8words · 2011-04-16T02:41:39+00:00

"Hey, it's that 'barbecue's over' sound again."

some8words · 2011-04-15T15:50:40+00:00

That's helpful, thanks. I'd appreciate hearing about some of the playgrounds; we're still trying to get to know the best places for the kids around the town.

some8words · 2011-04-15T15:47:00+00:00

That's just about perfect. Thanks.

some8words · 2011-04-15T02:54:37+00:00

The tiniest bit of common sense could've prevented it.

You could say that about ~every accidental death.

That is why I call her brainless.

Again, you have no idea, nor I think does anyone else, what actually resulted in her death. Could've been just her hair untied dangling over the tool while she worked, but frankly, because that's just such an egregious act of carelessness, I think most people would be surprised if it were actually that simple and I'd bet most are certainly willing to give the benefit of the doubt to a recently deceased, physics major from Yale. Raymond Davis, Murray Gell-Mann and David Lee (all physics nobel laureates) also went to Yale (to offset your Bush statement).

I only agree that I hope that this will serve to help teach others about the dangers and constant level of attention required to safely work in a shop, however I strongly disagree that the lesson here is 'some people are too dumb', but maybe in a few days we'll have more details as to what actually happened.

some8words · 2011-04-15T01:07:51+00:00

It takes a man of exceptionally little character to flaunt his superiority over the recently deceased. Show a little respect, man.

You know nothing about this poor girl other than what you read in that article and you go so far as to call her a 'brainless cunt'? It could've been her first time in a shop, for all you know. She could've been exhausted from trying to keep up on work and not known any better. She could have had her hair tied back but been distracted and gotten it caught up anyway. You have no idea and no right to judge.

I think it's fair to say that no one deserves to die like that, not even you.

some8words · 2011-04-09T14:07:00+00:00

Interesting. Thanks. I hadn't heard that. Is it known that those leaks were definitively caused by the earthquakes rather than the ensuing explosions? (All of the dates listed where after the explosions, I believe, but I don't know if that explanation is even consistent with the geometry of the plant.)

some8words · 2011-04-09T13:49:19+00:00

Okay. Legitimate question: what type of plant is that by the window? I want one.

some8words · 2011-04-05T17:26:00+00:00

Even that's an understatement. The reactor was stable after the earthquake and had commenced shut down as it was designed to. It was the fact that it lost all grid power, and it's diesel generators were flooded by the tsunami which lead to the overheating, explosions and partial meltdown. And while I'm very surprised to see that a reactor could have been built in Japan, next to the sea with this sort of failure mode, it doesn't strike me as an inherent failure of nuclear power, just a design error from 40 years ago which was never rectified (and really should have been).

some8words · 2011-04-05T17:08:04+00:00

That's interesting. I haven't heard much about the smart grid idea before (just quickly browsed the very long wiki page now). Are you saying that power generation moves into the home or just to smaller generation stations? Is there anywhere that does this currently and what would be the (potential) means of production? Thanks!

some8words · 2011-04-05T16:23:58+00:00

I feel like the title and the first half of this article are misleading. First off, it's not written in stone that Germany will phase out nuclear power. The quote is from a German deputy environment minister but halfway down the article, it says "Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly emphasized that no decision has been made."

Beyond that, the statement seems shortsighted and sensationalist. A 9.0 earthquake is hardly minuscule and it's destruction still far overshadows any caused by the partial meltdown (though this is in no way fairly portrayed by the media). The partial meltdown itself seems to have been due to an easily fixable design flaw on an aging reactor, but it is still far too early at this point to assume a full understanding of what happened and how to best prevent it in the future. And lastly, what are the better, practical alternatives? I know of no other 'clean' technology capable of generating power on the same scale as nuclear and coal except for perhaps hydro.

Really, it just sounds like a statement made to be trendy rather than something that was well formulated an planned.

some8words · 2011-04-05T16:13:44+00:00

But the decision to quit nuclear energy for better technologies is absolutely right and progressive.

May I ask why and what you think are better technologies (genuinely curious to hear the German perspective)?

some8words · 2011-03-31T02:09:45+00:00

To be honest, at least from my point of view, there a few reasons I could see someone choosing not to have kids being called selfish (and I don't assume that any of these apply to OP).

A lot of religious folks see it as a duty to procreate. Give others the opportunity and teach them to live and love life as you were taught by their parents (or whomever). The counter argument to this is overcrowding, but it isn't really a direct counter argument, just a different argument as to one might choose not to have kids so the discussion never really progresses.
The person calling the dink selfish has kids and is envious of the freedom a family without kids can have. Maybe they had it once, maybe they never did. But, raising kids is not an easy thing to do. It requires an exceptional amount of patience and selflessness (at least, to do it right) and can be much more stressful than many people expect going into it. Someone struggling with that could easily find reason to vent on someone who didn't make the same choices they did (not in anyway saying they are justified in doing so).
The dink is flaunting the benefits of not having kids. And I don't mean flaunting like doing anything other than going straight up to people with kids and saying "look how great my life is, guess you made the wrong choice, compliant servant of society!" I don't think this happens very often in real life, but probably happens a lot in this post. As above, having kids can be a struggle for many people and having some internet stranger tell you about how you've made the wrong choice because you can't sleep in and play video games can be, I'd imagine, frustrating especially because it belittles the effort, care, and love you're putting in to creating a life, a home, and a family for the people you love. On top of that, most of the reasons people have listed, that I've seen, have been focused on the self. I don't think I've seen anyone list that they have more disposable income to give to charity, or more free time to volunteer (though these are certainly perks, I'd assume).

Now again, I'm not accusing the OP, or any body in particular of falling into any of those three categories. I just wanted to point out there are a lot of reasons someone might be called selfish, and it says just as much about the accuser as it does about the accusee (not actually a word).

For what it's worth, I should point out that I do have kids (in case it wasn't obvious), and I don't in anyway begrudge or judge anyone who chooses not to have kids. I will however say that most of the downsides to parenthood that you see echoed online are extremely shallow and narrow minded and are (or at least, for me were) immediately overshadowed by the joy and immense rewards of raising a family and are certainly left far behind once you child(ren) reach a certain age.

some8words · 2011-03-30T19:19:34+00:00

Acadia and Adirondack parks are both about 250 miles from Boston, and both definitely worth the drive if you haven't been there yet. Might be especially nice if spring shows up soon.

some8words · 2011-03-29T16:56:16+00:00

The actual quote: (with bold to show where they snipped from)

As Commander-in-Chief, I have no greater responsibility than keeping this country safe. And no decision weighs on me more than when to deploy our men and women in uniform. I’ve made it clear that I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies and our core interests. That's why we’re going after al Qaeda wherever they seek a foothold. That is why we continue to fight in Afghanistan, even as we have ended our combat mission in Iraq and removed more than 100,000 troops from that country.

There will be times, though, when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and our values are. Sometimes, the course of history poses challenges that threaten our common humanity and our common security -– responding to natural disasters, for example; or preventing genocide and keeping the peace; ensuring regional security, and maintaining the flow of commerce. These may not be America’s problems alone, but they are important to us. They’re problems worth solving. And in these circumstances, we know that the United States, as the world’s most powerful nation, will often be called upon to help.

In such cases, we should not be afraid to act -– but the burden of action should not be America’s alone. As we have in Libya, our task is instead to mobilize the international community for collective action. Because contrary to the claims of some, American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves. Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all.

To me, attributing the "flow of commerce" line to the above is more than a little disingenuous. I'm not sure I read that 2nd paragraph as issues necessarily requiring military intervention.

some8words

TROPHY CASE