HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta
Subject: Re: Philosophy and Myth  
From: Hakki_Kocabas@kcbbs.gen.nz (Hakki Kocabas)
Date: 8 Apr 92 23:38:04 GMT
Organization: Kappa Crucis Unix BBS, Auckland, New Zealand

> In article <1992Apr3.161924.13687@news.eng.convex.com>, cash@convex.com (Pet
> |> In article <1992Apr3.145149.12810@osf.org> fjc@osf.org (Frank Casper) wri
....  
> 	By the way, could you explain a bit more about this statement of  
> yours?  
>   
> >As for metaphysics, the problem with it is--as Wittgenstein pointed out  
> >long ago (and as I only lately realized)--that it seeks to cast questions  
> >into a scientific form, though they are not the right type of questions for
> >this.  
>   
> fjc  
  
"Philosophical investigations: conceptual investigations. The essential  
thing about metaphysics: it obliterates the distinction between factual  
and conceptual investigations"      L.Wittgenstein.  
  
A Companion to Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations",   
G.Hallett, 1977, p 61.  
  
  
MYTHOLOGY:  
  
"The law always executes him." - What is the use of such a form of  
expression ? - In the first instance, this proposition only says   
that such-and-such is to be found in the law, and human beings  
sometimes do not go by law. Then, however, it does give us a picture   
of a single inexorable judge, and many lax judges. That is why it   
serves to express respect for the law." RMF 35.  
  
a mythological description: suggesting not merely non-existent  
but non-intelligible entities, as did Freud's "powerful mythology"  
LC 51-52;BB 23. "So it really....says nothing at all, but gives  
us a picture" PI352. "This is how it strikes me" PI 219.  
  
Mythology in our language .... MS 213
From: pharvey@mipos3.intel.com (Paul Harvey)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta
Subject: Re: On Philosophy and Mythology, Beyond LogicalPositivism
Date: 7 Apr 92 19:45:13 GMT

OK, maybe some more definitions:

Philosophy: love of wisdom, attempts to answer the great questions
  (through myths or direct dialog)

Mythology: the study of stories that illustrate and aid in answering the 
  great questions. Western people ussually get hung up on this because
  we want to believe that everything is either true or false, (a left over
  from reductionism) when in reality there is a lot of ground in between.

Perenial Philosophy: term coined by Aldous Huxley for the ancient mythologies,
  in particular Indian. (Mahabharata etc.)

Religion: Eastern religions are very mythological and philosophical but
  western religions tend toward the pedantic. Religion seperates from
  mythology when people start believing that the myths are really true.
  Religion differs from philosophy when it becomes rigid and can't be
  questioned or changed or interpreted by the common folk. Religion
  could be called fundamentalist mythology, in other words a mythology
  becomes a religion when you believe the myths are no longer just stories
  but are actually TRUE.
From: pharvey@mipos3.intel.com (Paul Harvey)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta
Subject: Re: Paradoxes: THREE-WAY ARGUMENT
Date: 14 Apr 92 18:38:25 GMT

Clever little story, but it's just a MYTH right? 

Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta
From: litow@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Bruce E Litow)
Subject: Algebra of Need
Originator: litow@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Keywords: sin, addiction, usury, interest, Wm. S. Burroughs, jr.
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 19:02:58 GMT

Sin is not a difficult notion. I conjecture that every culture has a similar
expression for unquantifiable, 
in terms that are conventional w.r.t. the culture,
costs that are paid, with interest, over several human generations. These
costs are the wages of sin. An excellent model of this usury,
quasi-mathematical by
virtue of its cutting out most of the "messy" parameters of living, 
is Wm. S. Burroughs, jr.'s "Algebra of Need". It is his
account of heroin addiction although he generalizes addiction in order
to model important aspects of sin. The core of sin is inversion of living.
That is almost all of the life force (this could be, e.g., topsoil) is
spent very fast in terms of some time scale on which the payback, with
interest, will be exacted. The model does not require an account of
what/who exacts the payback. That is the part that is assigned roles
of different kinds by differnet people. But the reality of sin is
not subject to such interpretation. Myth is the usual medium for conveying
the formal elements of the algebra. 
-- 
Bruce Litow
Computing Services Division
P.O.Box 413, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 53201
414 229 6431    litow@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta
From: pautler@ils.nwu.edu (David Pautler)
Subject: catalog of everyday fallacies?
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 17:57:13 GMT

I'm looking for a systematic collection of everyday fallacies and
convenient fictions.  Here are some examples of what I have in mind:

Fallacies:

        1)  "Among the twenty possible sequences (disregarding direction
        and label) of six tosses of a coin, for example, we venture that
        only H T T H T H appears really random" (Kahneman & Tversky,
        psychologists).  That is, people will say H T T H T H is more likely
        than H H H H H H, although they're really equally likely.

        2)  Centrifugal force.

	3)  Judging one counterfactual situation to be more "true" than
	another might also belong here.  (I know David Lewis has written
	a book on the subject).

Convenient fictions:

        1)  Causality is really just a fiction, based on correlations.
        (This was Hume, right?  What's the citation?)

        2)  The intentional stance (Daniel Dennett).  When we observe
        a sufficiently complex phenomenon, we often imagine it's alive
        or that it's intelligent, although we may know full well that
        it's not.

Please send me any references you think may be helpful.  I'll post
whatever I receive.

I should say that I'm not really interested in debating whether or not
these are really fallacies.  I just want to begin cataloging "folk
beliefs".

I'm also posting this to sci.psychology.  My news system doesn't allow
cross-posting.

        -dp-
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta
From: solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky)
Subject: Re: Grades
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 04:45:33 GMT

In article <1992Apr6.221022.23815@sfu.ca>, palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer) writes:
|> In article <1992Apr5.210854.1282@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W
|> Solinsky) writes:
|> 
|> >Giving grades doesn't
|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education is considered
|> >seperate from and secondary to education does.

That should have read:
|> >Giving grades doesn't
|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education considered
|> >seperate from and secondary to GRADES does.
Newsgroups: sci.edu
From: degroff@tricorder.IntelliCorp.COM (Les Degroff)
Subject: reply to "what on the exam" was re: GRADES
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 23:31:15 GMT

  I havnt been in a position to try them but a tiny bit in the 
capaign for "learning" over "grades", some replys to
"What material will be covered on the exam?"

   Twice as much as I tell you about in class.

   Every thing in all the citations in the bibliography!

   Detailed questions about your life history, your families history, 
   your countries history, paleontology and history of your planet,
   the history of the universe.

   What do you think about the subject, why, how, how long  and the social,
   economic and philosophical consequences.

   You will be required to discover something new in the field and write it
   up for professional publication.... ( :) ok so thats what the whole
   MS or PHd is supposed to cover :))

   Your view compared to three others, the instructors, an expert in the 
   feild (chosen at exam time) and a famous artist or politician.

*********  ?Have there been any good, popular books that explore the 
issue of educating via QUESTIONS  and/or how to keep focus on the 
questions rather than on the facts and current theories?  Any percieved
need for such a book?  Leslie DeGroff  (degroff@intellicorp.com)
Newsgroups: sci.edu
From: mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel)
Subject: Re: Grades
Organization: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 23:24:50 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.110321.17757@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
djiv_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (David Iverson) writes:
>I would suggest that the first year curriculum be strengthened  (I'm sick of
>hearing professors complain about the decline in student knowledge when my
>first year classes were a high-school re-cap).

     David makes an interesting point here.  Most universities I've
heard of have policies with respect to the averages and fraction of
students expected to pass a course.  Instructors who disregard these
guidelines do so at their own peril, hence the bell curves and other
such devices.
     The problem seems to be that universities are afraid of failing
marginal students.  This does incalculable harm.  First, it devalues
university degrees to the point where they seem to be expected, even in
sectors of the economy where they are hardly needed.  Secondly, and more
insidiously, it allows high schools to do an inadequate job of preparing
their students for university.  This of course just feeds into the cycle
of mediocrity which has repercussions at least to the end of second
year.
     My personal opinion is that Canada has far too many universities.
(Americans can comment on their own situation; I really don't know enough to
say.)  I have some sympathy for the argument that some students are late
bloomers and that an early cut disadvantages students who only reach
full intellectual maturity in that first year or two of their
undergraduate studies.  We should not deal with this by offering easy
courses but by offering many alternative entry paths.  Give students
ample opportunity to prove their ability in early studies but do not
admit them to advanced courses unless you think that they will be a
credit to their institution.  The only way to do this is to offer first-year
courses where there is a real possibility of failure, even for students
who would currently settle in the middle of the class.  To echo the
sentiment of other posters to this thread, perhaps we could simplify the
grading system to pass/fail.  If the courses were sufficiently hard that
a pass really meant something, a more sophisticated system would not be
useful.

				Marc R. Roussel
                                mroussel@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
Newsgroups: sci.edu
From: palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)
Subject: Re: Grades
Organization: Simon Fraser University
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 18:41:30 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.044533.1599@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W
Solinsky) writes:
>In article <1992Apr6.221022.23815@sfu.ca>, palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)
writes:
>|> In article <1992Apr5.210854.1282@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu
(Jason W
>|> Solinsky) writes:
>|> 
>|> >Giving grades doesn't
>|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education is considered
>|> >seperate from and secondary to education does.
>
>That should have read:
>|> >Giving grades doesn't
>|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education considered
>|> >seperate from and secondary to GRADES does.

I merely queried the statement; I didn't make it. Makes sense now.

Leigh
From: charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu (Charles Geyer)
Newsgroups: sci.edu
Subject: Re: Grades
Date: 8 Apr 92 23:57:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: news2.1992Apr8.235718.28781
Organization: School of Statistics, University of Minnesota

In article <1992Apr7.044533.1599@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky) writes:
>In article <1992Apr6.221022.23815@sfu.ca>, palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer) writes:
>|> In article <1992Apr5.210854.1282@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W
>|> Solinsky) writes:
>|> 
>|> >Giving grades doesn't
>|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education is considered
>|> >seperate from and secondary to education does.
>
>That should have read:
>|> >Giving grades doesn't
>|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education considered
>|> >seperate from and secondary to GRADES does.

Is this a forgery?  If not, all you seem to have done is make it
ungrammatical to balance the spelling errors.  What are you trying
to say?

-- 
Charles Geyer
School of Statistics
University of Minnesota
charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu
From: palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)
Newsgroups: sci.edu
Subject: Re: Grades
Date: 6 Apr 92 22:10:22 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University

In article <1992Apr5.210854.1282@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W
Solinsky) writes:

>Giving grades doesn't
>prevent learning. Creating an environment where education is considered
>seperate from and secondary to education does.

Huh? (Or as we say in Canada, "eh?")

Leigh
From: solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky)
Newsgroups: sci.edu
Subject: Re: Grades
Date: 9 Apr 92 02:51:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: athena.1992Apr9.025104.8380
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In article <1992Apr8.235718.28781@news2.cis.umn.edu>, charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu (Charles Geyer) writes:
|> In article <1992Apr7.044533.1599@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky) writes:
|> >In article <1992Apr6.221022.23815@sfu.ca>, palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer) writes:
|> >|> In article <1992Apr5.210854.1282@athena.mit.edu> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W
|> >|> Solinsky) writes:
|> >|> 
|> >|> >Giving grades doesn't
|> >|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education is considered
|> >|> >seperate from and secondary to education does.
|> >
|> >That should have read:
|> >|> >Giving grades doesn't
|> >|> >prevent learning. Creating an environment where education considered
|> >|> >seperate from and secondary to GRADES does.
|> 
|> Is this a forgery?  If not, all you seem to have done is make it
|> ungrammatical to balance the spelling errors.  What are you trying
|> to say?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The "is" should not have been removed :-)

Just ignore the sentence, it wasn't all that important to begin with.

Jason W. Solinsky
From: 2frkfloat@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: sci.edu
Subject: <none> is"HELP RUSSIAN STUDENT"
Date: 11 Apr 92 23:50:30 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

I'm sorry ,but the previous news message's is subject

      HELP RUSSIAN STUDENT
           Sergei.
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Friday, 10 Apr 1992 11:19:42 CDT
From: <U58603@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.edu
Subject: Science teaching

 The Chicago Academy of Sciences, a museum and educational
institution seeks information and resources available by the
Internet or otherwise for help in improving two of its programs:

Environmental Issues Forum (EIF) and Science Teaching Network
(STN).

EIF is a series of courses for Chicago Public School teachers on
ecological principles and global environmental problems and
issues.  The four courses--Air Quality Issues, Water Quality
Issues, Land Use Issues, and Solid Waste and Recycling--correlate
with the Academy outreach program, Ecological Citizenship, (Eco*Cit)
for grades  K-8 on environmental issues.

STN is a series of week-long workshops for Chicago Public School
teachers on four science topics--Hands-on Biology, Hands-on
Physical Science, Hands-on Chemical Science, and Hands-on Earth
Science--that correlate with the Academy outreach program,
Science on the Go, (SOG) for grades K-8.

The two programs are designed to produce better science teachers
by showing teachers how they can approach various science topics
in exciting, imaginative ways.  They use everyday, inexpensive,
easy to find items for the experiments.  The teachers don't sit
back and watch demonstrations--they get involved and do the
experiments themselves.

The CAS Education Department would be interested in the following:
What kind of research is being done with teachers--
  to change their attitudes toward teaching science?
  to enhance their abilities to teach science?

What kind of research is being done on outreach programs like
Eco-Cit and SOG?
  What are the ingredients for successful outreach programs?
  How many contacts of outreach educator with school work best?
  Who determines the curriculum?
  How are teachers encouraged to buy in?

What research is being done about Urban Environmental Education?
  What works?
  What are the needs of the audience?
  What programs exist now?

Any and all comments from interested persons and institutions
would be helpful.
Please respond to: U58603@UICVM.UIC.EDU
Thank you !
C. Dunn  Technical Operations Manager
The Chicago Academy of Sciences
2001 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 549-0606
Xref: sparky sci.edu:525 alt.support:722 alt.business.multi-level:131
From: 2frkfloat@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: sci.edu,alt.support,alt.business.multi-level
Subject: <None>
Date: 11 Apr 92 23:29:50 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services


  "Help! I need somebody! Help, not just anybody..."

  To whom might be interested!!!

  My name is Sergei, I'm a student from St.Petersburg,Russia.I used to
 study in St.Petersburg State University. Now, I am studying in the 
 University ofKansas.Unfortunately,I need to go to Russia after the end
 of this semester,if I don't find $ 3000 for tuition.I have already found
 a room to live, so tuition is the only problem for me now.I am majoring
 in business/administr.After graduation I am planning to return back to
 Russia and try to find a job from an American company( in 2.5-3 years). 
 If you can help me, or know any information which could be useful for me,
 please, send me a message.BTW , does anybody know, if it is possible to
 change my tuition status from out-of-state to in-state? I need to find
 this money before the end of May.
  Thank you, if you want to help me.

     Sincerely yours,
      Sergei Emdin.
From: bd670@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Russell I. Dyreng)
Newsgroups: sci.edu
Subject: Science Teachers' Organizations Outside the U.S.
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:41:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: usenet.1992Apr7.214129.1646
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)


I am trying to locate groups similar to the National Science 
Teachers' Association (NSTA) in countries outside of the United
States.  I am particularly interested in finding NSTA-type 
organizations in Canada, Western Europe and the Pacific Rim.

If you are aware of the existence of such a group, I would
appreciate you sending me the name and address of the 
organization via e-mail.

Thank you.

Russell I. Dyreng
bd670@cleveland.freenet.edu
Newsgroups: sci.energy
From: estrak@aix.rpi.edu (Kelvin Rafael Estrada)
Subject: Temperatures in the Mojave Desert
Keywords: Temperature Data, Mojave Desert.
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 16:39:53 GMT

Is there anybody out there who knows how I can get Temperature Data from
the Mojave Desert, CA.
Specifically I am looking for data on July 28, Sep. 15, and Nov. 24 1990
around the Town of Boron (near the Kramer Junction).
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Rafael Estrada,   estrak@rpi.edu
Newsgroups: sci.energy
From: wreck@fmsrl7.srl.ford.com (R. Cage)
Subject: Re: Darrius wind turbines (was Re: Off-shore wind power
Summary: It's been a while...
Organization: Ford Motor Company Scientific Research Labs, Dearborn, MI
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 14:56:12 GMT

In <1992Apr16.012754.26038@tfs.com> kudzu@tfs.com (Michael Sierchio) writes:
>>If memory serves, a Darrius turbine is a couple of hemi-cylinders
>>offset by one radius, which look like this from the end:
>Ha! That's a Savonius rotor.  The Darrieus is the "eggbeater" kind.

I stand (sit?) corrected.  (If I don't read about these things
for a few years, I get all the VAWT's confused.)  One source of
confusion, I think, is that someone put a Savonius starter on
a Darrius to combine the best properties of both.  It'll probably
be another year before I forget which is which again. ;-)

>The propeller-type are still the most efficient, with fewer blades
>being better.  A One-bladed prop might have a balance problem or
>two....

That's what counter-weights are for, and the differential aerodynamic
forces can be handled by coning.  One nice thing about having a
coning hinge is that it could be used to trail the blade mostly
behind the tower in high winds, which requires a lot less material
strength than if it has to stick out and take punishment.

On the other hand, icing would unbalance a 1-blader a lot more 
than a multi-blader...

>Michael Sierchio                               TRW Financial Systems
-- 
Russ Cage              wreck@fmsrl7.srl.ford.com  russ%rsi@sharkey.cc.umich.edu
  *  When Ford pays me for my opinions, THEN they can call them theirs. *

                           _Bad_ cop.  No donut.
From: gph@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Paul Houtz)
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 19:26:27 GMT
Subject: Re: Electric Cars Energy Usage: Summary
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
From: cn0gr8af@hydra.unm.edu (Student Class Account)
Newsgroups: sci.energy
Subject: Re: Electric Cars Energy Usage: Summary  NEW DATA
Date: 16 Apr 92 02:36:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.tlzjv#f
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Apr14.172823.10088@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> bg055@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Stewart Rowe) writes:
>
>In an article dated 4/10 from cn0gr8af@hydra.unm.edu, Rusty 
>provides data on his electric car and recaps data from earlier
>discussions and other sources.
>  He concludes that his experience confirms the energy usage reported
>by SCEdison in their test vehicles. If his data on his car is correctly
>reported, this conclusion is incorrect. His units are reversed.
>  He states that his car got 1.95 miles per kwh of electricity used.
>BUT the SCE data say that their vehicles REQUIRED 1.5 kwh per mile.
>Therefor Rusty's experience is closer to the 0.18 to 0.5 kwh/mile
>reported in earlier discussions by several individuals, and his
>power consumption was about one-third that of the SCE vehicles.

The data provided by SCEdison quotes 2 Miles/KWh for the TeV van, which
is about 0.5 KWh/mile.  So I did not make an incorrect conclusion.

Rusty
From: KASV-EM@finou.oulu.fi
Newsgroups: sci.energy
Subject: Re: FINLAND: LARGE RESERVOIR PLANNED
Date: 6 Apr 92 14:26:28 GMT
 <gilesm.701645822@bird> <11274@augustus>
 <FS_FUCHS.92Mar30183714@rcsw56.rcvie.at>
Organization: University of Oulu, Finland


In article <FS_FUCHS.92Mar30183714@rcsw56.rcvie.at>, fs_fuchs@rcsw56.rcvie.at
(Kurt Fuchs) says:
>
>In the article from 27 Mar 92 15:50:38 GMT
>meier@Software.Mitel.COM (Rolf Meier) writes:
>
>> Experience shows that people are NOT willing to reduce their standard of
>> living to save energy or do other ecologically-sound things.
>
>Reducing the energy consumption does not necessarily mean that one has
>to reduce the standard of living. There are so many simple things

Really| Like living without electricity and tap water. There are lot of us
        who can tell about his own experience in the Finnish Lappland.

When born an grown up in the northernmost Finland I don't know ( neither do my
parents) how to reduce the standard of living any more. Therefore the majority
of us say wellcome to the modern technology. If it is available. We hate the
eco-extremist, living comfortably in southern ( civilized ?) part of Finland,
and telling us to stay as an undeveloped part of the country.
There's a real need to build the planned water reservoir at central Lapland.
Secondly there's no Laps living on that area.

Erkki Maenpaa