pentcho valev

http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00000313/ p.4:

"Even deliberate attempts at careful formulation of the Second Law
sometimes end up in a paradox. One sometimes finds a formulation which
admits that thermodynamics aims only at the description of systems in
equilibrium states, and that, strictly speaking, a system does not
always have an entropy during a process. The Second Law, in this view,
refers to processes of an isolated system that begin and end in
equilibrium states and says that the entropy of the final state is
never less than that of the initial state (Sklar 1974, p. 381). The
problem is here that, by definition, states of equilibrium remain
unchanged in the course of time, unless the system is acted upon. Thus,
an increase of entropy occurs only if the system is disturbed, i.e.
when it is not isolated."

Einstein offered much more efficient conundrums, e.g. equivalent to "I
measure your clock to be slower than mine and you measure mine to be
slower than yours but if you go and return you will find mine to be
faster than yours". The secret of such conundrums is that any attempt
at disentagling them intensifies the destruction of human rationality.
Intelligent students abandon science, less intelligent students
discover the equation

science = learning by rote

However conundrums develop (the progress of science cannot be stopped)
and in the end even learning by rote becomes too difficult. At that
very moment the University and College Union (UCU) declares
"potentially irreversible decline of UK science that could soon see
parts of the UK unable to provide courses in both science and maths":

http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/education/higher-education/higher-education/ucu-report-reveals-that-latest-physics-closure-part-decline-in-uk-science-$458709.htm

Pentcho Valev

sue...

<< Top performing countries at the eighth-grade level:

Math Science

Singapore (605) Singapore (578)

Korea, Rep. of (589) China (571)

Hong Kong (586) Korea, Rep. of (558)

China (585) Hong Kong (556)

Japan (570) Japan (552)

Top performing countries at the fourth-grade level:

Math Science

Singapore (594) Singapore (565)

Hong Kong (575) Japan (543)

Japan (565) Hong Kong (542)

Netherlands (540) England (540)

Latvia (533) United States (536)

Other key findings from TIMSS 2003 were:

· Ten of the 12 point gain by U.S. eighth grade scores
came between 1995 and 1999;

· The average score for African American students was 40
points higher and 36 points higher for Hispanic students,
relative to their 1995 scores;

· U.S. boys continue to outperform girls;

· U.S. students score higher in life sciences than in
physics and chemistry.

For some education professionals and policymakers the
performance of the Asian countries is not at all surprising.
Familiar explanations include: teachers in other countries
benefit from more professional development and preparation;
students in other countries are more likely to be taught by
teachers who majored in the subject they're teaching; and
the top performing nations teach subjects like algebra,
chemistry, and physics before high school. >>
http://www.aapt.org/Policy/TIMSS.cfm

-----
Sue...

autymn d. c.

how about isolationism and a lack of war?

mike

Politicians are never surprised.

Bull, I wish Uncle Al was here to tell you why. These nations have no
tolerance for low performers and low IQ students. They have no equal
opportunity rulings that affect the level of education, students or
teachers. They know this can only result in a leveling of standards.
They stick with the bright and let the less bright follow alternative
paths very early on including not attending school at all. These
countries have no low education immigrants whose only effect is to drag
the rest of the classroom down with them.

More importantly, these countries seem to assign a high priority to
education than, let's say, to human personality...

Mike

chip

you stooopid fool

show me even one mothofaka not being immigrant

i thought they were joking, but you are indeed a fool

mike

YOU ARE, you sound like one, you talk like one and you behave like one.


Idiot, how mamy immigrants per year Korea gets?

Mike

mangoa

wahaha, and yuour not

all organik life imigrate, you fool, then you imigrate more then anybody else

even the koreans are imigrants you fool, the fact that they
draw some boundery lines on a piece of papere doesnt make
them nonimigrants

arent you descend from that black women from africa like
us everybody else?

noe tell me that you are a fokn fundamentalist chr not even
descendend from this planet

you fool, shame on you, i thought you had brain but you have shit not brain