Great Scientist ≠ Good at Math

2013-04-08 Thread Craig Weinberg
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323611604578398943650327184 WSJ Article "Fortunately, exceptional mathematical fluency is required in only a few disciplines, such as particle physics, astrophysics and information theory. Far more important throughout the rest of science is the ab

Re: Scientific journals

2013-04-08 Thread Russell Standish
On Mon, Apr 08, 2013 at 01:55:22PM -0400, John Clark wrote: > > > You want to bet? I mean it, I'll bet you that there is a 50% chance that at > least one of the next Nobel Prizes will be for work first publised in > Science or Nature and a 0% chance it was for stuff published in PLoS ONE. I will

Re: Scientific journals

2013-04-08 Thread John Clark
On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 Russell Standish wrote: > The top two journals have a policy of not even sending out half of their > submissions to peer review. Is it really only half? There are so many science articles written and so many are crap I would have thought it was a lot higher than half; I gue

Re: NDE's Proved Real?

2013-04-08 Thread John Clark
On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 Telmo Menezes wrote: > What I'm trying to say is that I believe you do not distinguish: > A) Science the method of inquiry > from > B) Science the human institution > And I am saying is you do not understand that only one of the following is true: A) Science can sometimes

Re: Free-Will discussion

2013-04-08 Thread Craig Weinberg
On Monday, April 8, 2013 8:53:58 AM UTC-4, stathisp wrote: > > On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 11:35 PM, Craig Weinberg > > > wrote: > > >> It does mean you could replicate World War II if you replicate the > >> complex arrangement of matter. It does not mean you would necessarily > >> understand it

Re: "Any human who has played a bit of Arimaa can beat a computer hands down."

2013-04-08 Thread Craig Weinberg
On Monday, April 8, 2013 7:42:22 AM UTC-4, telmo_menezes wrote: > > On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 11:50 PM, meekerdb > > wrote: > > On 4/4/2013 3:35 PM, Telmo Menezes wrote: > >> > >> On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 11:44 PM, meekerdb > >> > > wrote: > >>> > >>> On 4/3/2013 2:44 PM, Jason Resch wrote: >

Re: Free-Will discussion

2013-04-08 Thread Stathis Papaioannou
On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 11:35 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: >> It does mean you could replicate World War II if you replicate the >> complex arrangement of matter. It does not mean you would necessarily >> understand it if you replicated it, any more than a photocopier >> understands the image it is c

Re: Scientific journals

2013-04-08 Thread Craig Weinberg
On Sunday, April 7, 2013 7:24:12 PM UTC-4, Russell Standish wrote: > > On Sun, Apr 07, 2013 at 11:38:24AM -0400, John Clark wrote: > > > > > > But why do you agree with the odds? If a very low ranking journal got > > astonishingly lucky and published a paper of HUGE transcendental > importan

Re: "Any human who has played a bit of Arimaa can beat a computer hands down."

2013-04-08 Thread Telmo Menezes
On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 11:50 PM, meekerdb wrote: > On 4/4/2013 3:35 PM, Telmo Menezes wrote: >> >> On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 11:44 PM, meekerdb wrote: >>> >>> On 4/3/2013 2:44 PM, Jason Resch wrote: You're making the same mistake as John Clark, confusing the physical computer with the

Re: NDE's Proved Real?

2013-04-08 Thread Telmo Menezes
On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 4:38 PM, John Clark wrote: > On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 Telmo Menezes wrote: > >> > Last week PLoS ONE received its first impact factor — a stunning 4.351. > > > Stunning? Nature = 51.15 Science = 47.72; and you're bragging about a > 4.351? > >> > This puts the open access jour