What have you done today?

[Pyraxis]

Its not the quantity of facts that a present, but the number of facts you retain. Even more to the point, its what and how much you can do with them after the event (be it reading an article, watching TV or going to the speech). You could watch a news bulletin or read an article and it be a complete waste of time. For a speech that you have paid to go to, its likely you will have gone away and have learnt something useful. Even better you can return inspired.

Hold on, are you telling me people can't be inspired by the written word?

I agree that the number of facts retained is more relevant than the number of facts present, but you've given no evidence that people retain more facts from listening to a speaker than from reading an article (to simplify the issue grossly). Why is it "likely that you will have gone away and have learnt something useful"? You've just rephrased your argument.

Do a little research on learning styles - the methods by which people retain the most facts vary person to person.

[Parts]

Insulated

[odeon]

and you haven't? 

i've done more or less fuck all today, due to a pooter which decided to be ill, and the only way to make it better was to sit and wait for it to run a program which took forever, and didn't work for the first FIVE goes.  and then my nice neighbour wanted a letter typed, and it took over an hour, by which time, i had to plan my seminar for tomorrow, needed to eat and have a sleep.  so, i still have 14 bags of stuff i don't want cluttering up my house and getting in the way, still have to go out and get petrol and various other stuff, wash my hair and stop panicking.

i fucking hate days like this.   

  ?

Just returning the favor!

thanks, hon.   

what's your PhD in?

Doctors Unite! 

After a year in the program I had to leave after knocking up the old ball and chain. It will someday be Physics. I still keep in touch with my advisor and recently we discussed having me come back, finally, next year. Barring a bunch of family medical, or other, issues like I’ve had this year.

Do Maths! Its so much easier...

Do Physics and you can do both!

[Peter]

The benefits aren't necessarily in factual data. We're most of us hardwired to respond emotionally to human nonverbals. So yeah, it's going to feel richer and more meaningful, whether or not it actually is.

In other words, you're paying more and/or expending more effort for a medium in which the facts are more likely to be obscured by appeals to emotion.  Hitler's political rallies would have been far less effective if he'd merely distributed the material in written form, to be scrutinised by sober minds, but with banners, flags, uniforms and throngs of people standing shoulder to shoulder and gazing up into a pulpit, he was able to bypass people's critical faculties and sell them a load of bullshit.  Perhaps the only real value to be gained from going to these things is that you can meet potentially useful people there, introduce yourself and swap contact information, which is marginally more difficult to do without a face-to-face meeting.

[ozymandias]

Had a nice discussion with my guitar teacher and Amber's guitar teacher about guitar strings and the ideal way of when and how to change guitar strings.   Decided to buy new strings and recommit myself to learning to play acoustic guitar. 

[Christopher McCandless]

Its not the quantity of facts that a present, but the number of facts you retain. Even more to the point, its what and how much you can do with them after the event (be it reading an article, watching TV or going to the speech). You could watch a news bulletin or read an article and it be a complete waste of time. For a speech that you have paid to go to, its likely you will have gone away and have learnt something useful. Even better you can return inspired.

Hold on, are you telling me people can't be inspired by the written word?

I agree that the number of facts retained is more relevant than the number of facts present, but you've given no evidence that people retain more facts from listening to a speaker than from reading an article (to simplify the issue grossly). Why is it "likely that you will have gone away and have learnt something useful"? You've just rephrased your argument.

Do a little research on learning styles - the methods by which people retain the most facts vary person to person.

Having someone in person tends to be more inspirational than simply reading articles by them, well for most people anyway.
 
I have actually read up on learning styles - well its a little lie, in fact I downloaded a load of audio programs recently. The thing with an article is that it only caters to one type of learner - the visual type. In order to learn really you should be combining several types of learning, and above all you learn best when relaxed and engaged. A targeted speech has so much more of an effect than an article which may or may not have relevant facts in. Especially if its one of several 100 you need to read.

One big thing I have missed off though is the conversation you get with fellow delegates/audience members. Again, they aid the learning process.

[Pyraxis]

Having someone in person tends to be more inspirational than simply reading articles by them, well for most people anyway.

A more accurate comparison than an article would probably be a book by a good author vs a speech by a good presenter. An article is more on the level of an audio recording.

But this is beside the point. The emotional appeal behind something has little to do with the factual content. So sure, hearing something in person may be inspiring, but that doesn't make it more factually accurate. Retaining information won't do you much good if it's not accurate information. Especially when it comes to political speeches, you have to take inspiration with a major grain of salt.

[Christopher McCandless]

Having someone in person tends to be more inspirational than simply reading articles by them, well for most people anyway.

A more accurate comparison than an article would probably be a book by a good author vs a speech by a good presenter. An article is more on the level of an audio recording.

But this is beside the point. The emotional appeal behind something has little to do with the factual content. So sure, hearing something in person may be inspiring, but that doesn't make it more factually accurate. Retaining information won't do you much good if it's not accurate information. Especially when it comes to political speeches, you have to take inspiration with a major grain of salt.

Emotion is key to learning, the same middle brain that manages the hormone system and emotions is responsible for controlling learning.

As for political speeches, I tend to be very critical when listening to them. Though I prefer to sit and absorb a little more when its a speaker I already know that I ideologically agree with for the most part.

[ApotheosisIV]

Having someone in person tends to be more inspirational than simply reading articles by them, well for most people anyway.

A more accurate comparison than an article would probably be a book by a good author vs a speech by a good presenter. An article is more on the level of an audio recording.

But this is beside the point. The emotional appeal behind something has little to do with the factual content. So sure, hearing something in person may be inspiring, but that doesn't make it more factually accurate. Retaining information won't do you much good if it's not accurate information. Especially when it comes to political speeches, you have to take inspiration with a major grain of salt.

Emotion is key to learning, the same middle brain that manages the hormone system and emotions is responsible for controlling learning.

As for political speeches, I tend to be very critical when listening to them. Though I prefer to sit and absorb a little more when its a speaker I already know that I ideologically agree with for the most part.

Humour is the key to learning, it's been proven by science.
As for political speeches, all you need to know is know when they are lying: the way to spot this is watch for when they open their mouth.

[Pyraxis]

Emotion is key to learning, the same middle brain that manages the hormone system and emotions is responsible for controlling learning.

As for political speeches, I tend to be very critical when listening to them. Though I prefer to sit and absorb a little more when its a speaker I already know that I ideologically agree with for the most part.

Okay... so what exactly is your point here? That you are critical of those you disagree with and accepting of those you agree with? This is true of most people actually and is one of the keys to bias. You'd stand a better shot of developing your thinking by critically examining the positions you already accept.

At any rate it doesn't demonstrate that you are learning anything new at a political debate you are attending in person. If you already ideologically agree with the speaker, you're there for the entertainment and inspiration.

[Christopher McCandless]

Emotion is key to learning, the same middle brain that manages the hormone system and emotions is responsible for controlling learning.

As for political speeches, I tend to be very critical when listening to them. Though I prefer to sit and absorb a little more when its a speaker I already know that I ideologically agree with for the most part.

Okay... so what exactly is your point here? That you are critical of those you disagree with and accepting of those you agree with? This is true of most people actually and is one of the keys to bias. You'd stand a better shot of developing your thinking by critically examining the positions you already accept.

At any rate it doesn't demonstrate that you are learning anything new at a political debate you are attending in person. If you already ideologically agree with the speaker, you're there for the entertainment and inspiration.

I already more or less have my ideology sorted, so in many cases I go just to pick up ideas and material to support my own views and help me argue them better.

[DirtDawg]

......... 


I already more or less have my ideology sorted ...

[Peter]

I let the khat in.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[ApotheosisIV]

I let the khat in.

 
What's it like?

[Peter]

I let the khat in.

 
What's it like?

I don't know.  I've been carefully nurturing this one, and it's had a few nasty bouts of mites that nearly killed it and required pesticide treatments, so I've not had an opportunity to sample it yet.  I won't harvest anything from it until it's quite a bit bigger and healthier, and given the lack of light over the winter, it's not going to grow much for the next 6 months.  I've got some seeds, but I've not been able to germinate any so far.  I got this one as a live plant about a year ago.