0. I was surprised that I submitted this link because I typically submit a link not to submit a link but to find the link already submitted. My intent was search not submission.
And the cycle continues swinging back and forth. "Let them eat cake" is not sustainable either. It usually ends in violence despite the rationalizations of the elite.
"In contrast, the doctor has certifications, a professional order, etc. So does the lawyer."
That is the entire point. A Professional Engineer is the equivalent of a board certified medical doctor, or a lawyer admitted to the Bar in a particular state. In Ohio, a Professional Engineer is defined as http://www.peps.ohio.gov/4733/473301.aspx Restrictions are outlined at http://www.peps.ohio.gov/4733/4733021.aspx Note the exception for train engineers. You can use the term engineer as long as you don't confuse anybody into thinking you are a real engineer, i.e. sanitation. I like to call myself the Doctor of Love, but no one is going to think I'm claiming to be a real medical doctor.
There are legal consequences for claiming that you are an engineer when you are not. Check out the 2014 consequences in Ohio at http://www.peps.ohio.gov/NewsReleases/2014.aspx You get your name in print and in public for being incompetent and unethical. It is similar in all the other states.
The disciplines that can become Professional Engineers are listed on the right hand column here http://www.peps.ohio.gov/Exams/ExamDates%7CDisciplines.aspx Unfortunately, software engineering didn't make the list, although, electrical and computer did. I can think of circumstances where you would want software engineers to make the list. This is probably the result of corporate influence. PEs are more expensive. And a blanket Certificate of Authorization (CA) is cheaper. If you are an engineer via a company CA, you are only an engineer while working at that company.
You might claim that this is just rent seeking similar to a barber certificate. Yet, not many people die or have their lives ruined by barbers. You might get lice though.
It is interesting that you can no longer become a PE with a 4 year degree anymore that I am aware of. You used to be able to, although your apprenticeship was considerably longer.
GE has a jet engine plant in Durham, North Carolina that has 170 employees and one boss. It seems to work well. Although I have not heard that the concept has propagated to other parts of the company
The width of your thumb at arms length is a very natural unit of measure. As the article states, it is approximately 2 degrees of solid angle. If you ray trace your thumb at arms length back into your eyeballs, the image of your thumb will cover the fovea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fovea The fovea is the little dimple on your retina responsible for sharp vision. This happens to be the solid angle that is used to define the CIE color charts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space
If I am not misremembering, two degrees solid angle (your thumb at arms length) also covers the angular width of the sun and moon.
It is my understanding that the hard part is when m/n ~1 (P/N~1 in wikipedia terms). Does your O(sqrt(2)^N) algorithm work well for 1000 numbers between 1 and 2^1000. Wikipedia says, "We give efficient algorithms for both small N and small P cases below," which would seem to imply the answer is no.
Regardless, the most interesting aspect of the article to me was the existence of a phase transition between easy and hard parts of this type of problem. I found the reference to Stephan Mertens work relating this computational problem to statistical physics, specifically spin glasses, the most interesting. See samples of his work at http://arxiv.org/find/all/1/all:+AND+stephan+mertens/0/1/0/a...
NPR: you can't beat radio for multitasking.
CSPAN: I like my political news relatively unfiltered.
Hacker News: this is anthropormorphic. if not true, this comment wouldn't exist.
Slashdot: consistent quality. the response of /. on 9/11 made a lasting impression on me.
Google News: general overview.
Rob Malda and the Slashdot crowd deserve kudos for blazing a trail and for sticking to their guns. they seem to have weathered Digg and the like just fine and will most likely outlast them all. I still stop by Slashdot regularly, but haven't visited reddit for almost a year now.
Slashdot seems to have found at least a local minima in balancing editorial selection and audience participation. Firehose, a nod to Digg, is an interesting spin on democratized story selection.
"...then State governments will have to pick up more of the slack."
The sad thing is State governments are doing the same thing. I reference the illusory "let us fund education with lottery money" mentality many states follow forcing universities and colleges to seek funding elsewhere.
Case in point, Truman State University, the university formerly known as Northeast Missouri State University. Several years ago this institution embarked on a re-branding excercise to become a self-proclaimed "little Harvard" in order to survive. From a financial and quality of education standpoint it has been a successful exercise. "Truman State University's quest to become the nation's leading public liberal arts university" is a demonstrable success regarding national ranking and all the metrics that go along with that ranking. It is serving the nation well as an institution of higher learning. I don't know if the same can be said for Missouri's citizens, especially those of northeast Missouri, whose children are no longer admitted.
I predict that education at public universities will follow the path that their affiliated extracurricular sports programs have followed as they compete for corporate largess. Their will be a "Top 20" group of winners and everyone else. Unfortunately, the Top 20 cannot educate all the students in need of an education.
US Public Universities seem to be going down the same path as the US Postal Service (an interesting topic in itself as the USPS is established in the Constitution). The government is cutting them loose. I am wary as to whether this is a good idea or not. Private Universities can take care of themselves, but Public Universities, especially land grant universities (e.g. the entire University of California system), were created for a specific purpose and to serve a specific constituency. It is debatable whether or not large multinational corporations are included in this constituency or if they are appropriate entities that should be driving Public University policy.
Grades do not matter. Accomplishments matter. If you have no other accomplishments, grades will be the default accomplishment that you will be judged against for comparison. So really, you are in complete control of whether or not grades will matter. Of course this means applying yourself.
Likewise, your future degree has an expiration date. I would estimate about a year from walking. Your degree will start to smell if you have no accomplishments to back it up. Each year past graduation, the education section of your resume should be bumped farther down the page. Eventually, it should become a matter of whether or not you have room to include your education at all. Your education should become a trivia fact. A small talk subject before discussing what you have done.
PS: I am of the opinion that anyone completing a four-year degree with a 4.0 grade point average did not get their money's worth out of college.
It seems the break is between redistribution and regulation. They argue that redistribution tend to result in lower regulation.