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Education

Putting Time Out In Time Out: The Science of Discipline 323

An anonymous reader points out this story at The Atlantic about new research and approaches in the science of discipline. "At the end of a gravel road in the Chippewa National Forest of northern Minnesota, a group of camp counselors have gathered to hear psychotherapist Tina Bryson speak about neuroscience, mentorship, and camping. She is in Minnesota by invitation of the camp. Chippewa is at the front of a movement to bring brain science to bear on the camping industry; she keynoted this past year's American Camping Association annual conference. As Bryson speaks to the counselors gathered for training, she emphasizes one core message: At the heart of effective discipline is curiosity—curiosity on the part of the counselors to genuinely understand and respect what the campers are experiencing while away from home....She is part of a progressive new group of scientists, doctors, and psychologists whose goal is ambitious, if not outright audacious: They want to redefine "discipline" in order to change our culture. They want to rewrite—or perhaps more precisely said, rewire—how we interact with kids, and they want us to understand that our decisions about parenting affect not only our children's minds, but ours as well. So, we're going to need to toss out our old discipline mainstays. Say goodbye to timeouts. So long spanking and other ritualized whacks. And cry-it-out sleep routines? Mercifully, they too can be a thing of the past. And yet, we can still help our children mature and grow. In fact, people like Bryson think we'll do it better. If we are going to take seriously what science tells us about how we form relationships and how our mind develops, we will need to construct new strategies for parenting, and when we do, says this new group of researchers, we just may change the world."

Comment The *love* of money (Score 5, Insightful) 201

Ethical behavior is incompatible with the pursuit of profit. This is the essence of the old adage "Money is the root of all evil."

The actual quote:

"The love of money is the root of all evil."

This is an important distinction. When a man loves money more than personal morals and ethics, only then does his business become unethical.

Open Source

OpenOffice: Worth $21 Million Per Day, If It Were Microsoft Office 361

rbowen of SourceForge writes with an interesting way to look at the value of certain free software options: "Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 has averaged 138,928 downloads per day. That is an average value to the public of $21 million per day, as calculated by savings over buying the competing product. Or $7.61 billion (7.61 thousand million) per year." (That works out to about $150 per copy of MS Office. There are some holes in the argument, but it holds true for everyone who but for a free office suite would have paid that much for Microsoft's. The numbers are even bigger if you toss in LibreOffice, too.)

Comment I am not getting rich (Score 1) 9

Despite what some may think, this project's success wouldn't make me rich. It will just allow me to spend some focused time on the project away from my full time position. This will require time off, very late nights, weekends etc. I am driven to do it, but I don't want to muddle through forever. I also want to provide support, bug fixes etc. I am committed to spending all the money raised for the project on buying developer time (most likely mine). There is actually something awkward that will happen if the project noticeably surpasses its goal. If that happens, I will have to quit what I am doing for a career andmake this my only work. That may involve a cut in pay or benefits or?? So, radical changes, but then I become something very rare... a funded free software developer.

Comment Ding me for honesty? (Score 1) 9

I have made it clear that I am going to work on the project even if it doesn't get funded. I want to be honest about what I am doing, but many seem to take this as a reason to not fund it, or at least to tell me and others that is a reason to not fund it. With dedicated funds it will get done quicker. I don't want it to muddle along forever, I want it to be done right. Does that make sense?

Comment Best ways to get the word out? (Score 1) 9

I have been doing to campaign by myself (you can probably tell). I have encouraged backers to tell others about the project. The project has gotten on slashdot, walking randomly (a popular blog that often talks about numerical computation software), got noticed on the reddit math and android sub-reddits. Even with those moves it has attracted a fairy small number of users. What do you think could have been done better to get the word out about the project?

Comment How much should it cost to develop this? (Score 1) 9

I have had many people say this could and should be done for much less. The deliverables are found on the project page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/6438588/sombreros-for-the-android-world . How much do you think it would take to have this developed? Now, it has so far been developed for free (well $25 to get on the Android Market), but how much would it cost a professional to do this?
Canada

Submission + - Canadian agency investigates US aircrash (nationalpost.com)

knorthern knight writes: When 2 light civilian planes collide in US airspace in Virginia, the usual response includes calling in the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) to investigate and make recommendations based on their results. But what do you do when the crash involves two planes piloted by a crash investigator with the FAA and the chief medical officer with the NTSB? In order to avoid conflict of interest by American investigators working for these agencies, the investigation has been turned over to to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada as a neutral 3rd party.

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