WB-8 article

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 4:02 pm

ladajo wrote:If anyone wants to talk to Rick, he will be at George Miiley's retirement in April.

Oh poo, now you've probably scared him off...

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 5:28 pm

Doubt it, he and George go way back. I think George is also on the Peer Review panel.

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 5:31 pm

Giorgio wrote:Well, see the bright side of it... at least you didn't waste your time while waiting

pssh, like i was gonna do anything else with the time, a physics degree is practically a license to print money. I can take things as lazy as I want since I'm pretty much guaranteed a job as something. Course I'm going to try getting into the University of Iowa's grad school program first, nab a PhD in plasma physics. Might make a focus of doing diagnostics on dense plasma foci, or IEC reactors.

Giorgio · Post by **Giorgio** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 6:49 pm

Professor Science wrote:pssh, like i was gonna do anything else with the time, a physics degree is practically a license to print money. I can take things as lazy as I want since I'm pretty much guaranteed a job as something. Course I'm going to try getting into the University of Iowa's grad school program first, nab a PhD in plasma physics. Might make a focus of doing diagnostics on dense plasma foci, or IEC reactors.

Lucky you.
Here a Physics degree is practically a way to stay unemployed.....

Good luck with your projects and if you end up in the IEC field maybe you could become a good source of inside info in the future.

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:45 pm

Giorgio, it's a matter of what you're willing to do, the US has a radical shortage on Highschool physics teachers, if you're willing to do that, you'll never go hungry. And the fact that physics is weird enough to most people you can kind of brandish it as this weird badge. If you're friendly enough, it can get the job done.

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:30 pm

Since when has US public education requried an undergrad physics degree to teach physics? Nice to have, but as I recall, not required.

In fact, the trend would seem to be that to be a teacher, you need a teaching degree, not an actual expertise in what you are teaching.

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:14 pm

they're starting to take a lot more slack with regards to science teachers these days. They'll let you earn the teaching degree on the side if you have an actual science degree to waggle.

But the point is, the universe will exist for at least the foreseeable future, people who accept that fact and seek counsel from individuals that understand how the universe works will always do better than those that ignore it and assume that wishful thinking will over write the laws of existence.

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:04 am

Until someone pops out of another dimension, and tells us we've gotten it all wrong

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:19 am

ladajo wrote:Doubt it, he and George go way back. I think George is also on the Peer Review panel.

Excellent! Let's take up a collection and send our most pessimistic and most optimistic forum members (one each) to corner the two Drs. and get some answers!

Nominations for each?

KitemanSA · Post by **KitemanSA** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:40 am

rjaypeters wrote: ...send our most pessimistic and most optimistic forum members ...

Why in the world would you want to send the two nuttiest folks? Wouldn't a pair of undecideds be better?

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:57 am

KitemanSA wrote:
rjaypeters wrote: ...send our most pessimistic and most optimistic forum members ...
Why in the world would you want to send the two nuttiest folks? Wouldn't a pair of undecideds be better?

Good cop, bad cop. The good Drs. might not want to talk to the pessimist, but to the optimist. OTOH, if one or both is feeling combative, the pessimist is the better interlocutor.

We don't want a convincing case, "We want information."

dch24 · Post by **dch24** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 3:15 am

rjaypeters wrote:Good cop, bad cop. The good Drs. might not want to talk to the pessimist, but to the optimist. OTOH, if one or both is feeling combative, the pessimist is the better interlocutor.

We don't want a convincing case, "We want information."

It's a party for a respected professor. Why don't we respect him, and Dr. Nebel, and be patient?

I know, I know, I'm the killjoy.

Giorgio · Post by **Giorgio** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:16 am

Professor Science wrote:Giorgio, it's a matter of what you're willing to do, the US has a radical shortage on Highschool physics teachers, if you're willing to do that, you'll never go hungry. And the fact that physics is weird enough to most people you can kind of brandish it as this weird badge. If you're friendly enough, it can get the job done.

We have a radical shortage of science teachers too, but we are fixing the issue by employing people with humanitarian degree because they cost less. As a result the scientific knowledge of the young people here is becoming more and more ridiculous.

chrismb · Post by **chrismb** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:22 am

dch24 wrote:
rjaypeters wrote:Good cop, bad cop. The good Drs. might not want to talk to the pessimist, but to the optimist. OTOH, if one or both is feeling combative, the pessimist is the better interlocutor.

We don't want a convincing case, "We want information."
It's a party for a respected professor. Why don't we respect him, and Dr. Nebel, and be patient?

I know, I know, I'm the killjoy.

To be blunt, we're waiting so long for results from these people, that they are retiring and dying before we get to hear about any successful progress made! That is not a result!

To be so patient with people that they die of old age before they come up with explicable results that demonstrate progress and justify the public spend is really stretching the notion of being patient!!!

Public results for Polywell, if you please, else the whole calamitous nonsense is, in my eyes, proven to be a big fat dud.

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:05 am

KitemanSA wrote:Wouldn't a pair of undecideds be better?

Perhaps a "Goldilocks" strategy would be useful: "This one is too hot, that one is two cold, but the third is just right." Probably have to select the "The Moderate" by lottery.

Please, everyone, nominate yourselves for "The Pessimist", "The Moderate" or the "The Optimist." We will figure out a questionnaire to distinguish the most pessimistic and most optimistic. If it goes that far, we will need another thread...

Anyone willing to start the donations?

dch24 wrote:It's a party for a respected professor. Why don't we respect him, and Dr. Nebel, and be patient?

You have a point. But our delegates don't have to go to or disrupt the party. Our delegates can be outside, but they must not wait for anything!

chrismb wrote:Public results for Polywell, if you please, else the whole calamitous nonsense is, in my eyes, proven to be a big fat dud.

Which is why I, if may be so bold, nominate you for "The Pessimist."