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Print Story It's finally getting chilly here.
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By gzt (Sat Oct 27, 2012 at 04:26:01 PM EST) gzt, steven king, rosetta stone, esperanto, fringe, theory, global warming, doom (all tags)
But at least we don't have DOOOOM. All the best, East Coastians.

So I have to figure out some data set to fiddle with and do data visualizations and whatever with. I also have to find a partner in the class. I'm thinking about maybe working with HADCRU (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/data/current/download.html) or something else off of the NOAA (http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/), but those could be either too simple or too involved depending on the exact data set. I'll figure it out.

The election will be exciting, though unskewedpolls.com has it being a landslide for Romney. That would be boring. I'm quite curious how the local congressional election will work out. This is the guy running: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/21/steve-king-immigrants-dogs_n_1998007.html I haven't seen a new poll since the end of September, when there were like 4. No indication of what is going to happen. As I'm sure I've remarked earlier, though I would probably identify with political solutions further "left" than the political consensus in America, I don't particularly mind Republicans per se if they get things done, but this man ought to be unelectable. Much like Bachmann. http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/steve_king_didnt_build_that/

Since it will be consistently cold, I think it may be time to put up the plastic on the windows. Sigh.

I have another theory test on Friday. This should not be too bad. I am still undecided about what elective to take next semester. Given how much I hate methods, I've been idly looking at the math and CS departments to see what their co-major PhD thing is like - that's one way to get out of doing the PhD-level Methods in statistics, see. But the CS seems to require too much extraneous CS and the math requires too much extraneous math, so, nuts to that.

Still idly doing Esperanto on my commute.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/whats_the_secret_to_learning_a_second_lanuage/ Something I learned: the US Army got rid of their contract with Rosetta Stone because they realized, like everybody else, taht it sucks. There are plenty of reports like this: http://www.casl.umd.edu/node/919 and http://www.casl.umd.edu/sites/default/files/Nielson08_RosettaStoneEval.pdf

We're thinking of giving up on Fringe. We've been watching Elementary because of a dedication to Holmesiana - it's not spectacular.

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Related Links
- DOOOOM.
- http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/data/current/download.html
- http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/21/steve-king-immigrants-dogs_n_1998007.html
- http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/steve_king_didnt_build_that/
- http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/whats_the_secret_to_learning_a_second_lanuage/
- http://www.casl.umd.edu/node/919
- http://www.casl.umd.edu/sites/default/files/Nielson08_RosettaStoneEval.pdf
- gzt's Diary
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It's finally getting chilly here. | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 hidden)
Did you like the UK Sherlock that by ambrosen (2.00 / 0) #1 Sat Oct 27, 2012 at 05:12:39 PM EST
Elementary was based on?

much much more by gzt (2.00 / 0) #2 Sat Oct 27, 2012 at 05:32:52 PM EST
c'mon, though, they're not based on each other at all. there have been 100 different sherlock adaptations over the years. even though this is a modern setting like sherlock, it really is going for a different take.

we're also watching a bit of the jeremy britt one. it's better than elementary, too.

[ Parent ]
Rosetta stone by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #3 Sat Oct 27, 2012 at 10:20:08 PM EST
I can imagine it helping for languages similar to your own where you're likely to be able to pick up the grammar.  But I got the Japanese version, and it would have been utterly useless if I wasn't also getting direct detailed instructions in the grammar.  Knowing the grammar and having had instructions in the writing systems, I saw many places where the Rosetta stone lessons were outright misleading about why an answer is "right" .
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman
yeah, perhaps helpful as vocabulary drilling... by gzt (2.00 / 0) #4 Sat Oct 27, 2012 at 10:30:05 PM EST
...but not for, um, whatever it claims about itself.

[ Parent ]
what's with all the rosetta stone bashing? by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #5 Sat Oct 27, 2012 at 10:59:44 PM EST
i learned a lot from rosetta stone products, almost as much as i learned about computers and the internet from the video professor products i purchased after seeing them advertised on cable news. just goes to show you can learn a lot from watching the o'reilly factor. 

[ Parent ]
It doesn't teach grammar by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #6 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 12:21:06 AM EST
Rosetta stone goes by the theory that you can learn grammar entirely by example, without being explicitly taught the rules.  That simply does not work for languages where the grammar has rules that have no analogues at all in the language you know. 

For instance, for many relations, Japanese has two entirely different words based on who is talking.  "Mother" can be "okaasan" or "haha" depending on whether you are talking about your mother or someone else's or more confusingly, whether you are talking about your mother or addressing her.  How on Earth are you going to explain that to an English speaker in pictures alone?  Rosetta stone's pictures on the subject at best lead you to think one is what a child uses and one is what an adult uses, which is of course completely wrong.

Also, I find it hard to believe that anyone would ever correctly grok that the Japanese 'r' and the Japanese 'n' is pronounced differently from the English one simply by hearing it.  I honestly never heard the difference until I was explicitly told it was there.

It certainly did help me with vocab, but only as a companion to real lessons and lots of books on grammar.

I would imagine that it would work better with European languages, where the differences are lessoned.  The links gzt pointed to certainly confirm my suspicions about how good it would be for Arabic and Chinese, which are as different from English as Japanese is.
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman

[ Parent ]
all i'm sayin' is if it's good enough for the CIA, by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #7 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 12:37:46 AM EST
it's good enough for me. 

[ Parent ]
cia doesn't need grammar by gzt (2.00 / 0) #8 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 09:05:42 AM EST
the CIA is the world's premier culinary college, they can get by with melon ballers and garlic presses.

[ Parent ]
Pretty sure by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #9 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 12:30:05 PM EST
The CIA uses the DLI.
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman
[ Parent ]
Good enough for the CIA by Herring (2.00 / 0) #10 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 04:25:42 PM EST
because they have never failed to predict bad things ever.

You can't inspire people with facts
- Small Gods
[ Parent ]
support the troops, bro. by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #11 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 04:52:52 PM EST
 

[ Parent ]
I do support the troops by Herring (4.00 / 1) #12 Sun Oct 28, 2012 at 05:11:50 PM EST
Keep them somewhere safe from being shot. Or failing that, the US.

You can't inspire people with facts
- Small Gods
[ Parent ]
It's finally getting chilly here. | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 hidden)

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