University
jonnyfish
near future. I want to do something in mathematics, but I'm having a lot
of trouble deciding just what exactly. For the longest time I wanted to
do computer science, but my biggest fear is that I'd just be another
code monkey. Now I'm considering applied math/mathematical physics and
maybe pure math. The trouble is I really don't know anything about
career options/wages in those fields other than professor (I do plan on
getting a PhD, so it's not out of the question). Realizing that I
honestly don't know what I want to do has been the most awful experience
I've ever had.
Herman Rubin
Even worse, it is unlikely that you have an idea of what
pure mathematics is. This is very unfortunate; learning
the abstract stuff first really helps in understanding.
It also reduces the time needed.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Deptartment of Statistics, Purdue University
hru...@stat.purdue.edu Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
PoorRichard
"jonnyfish" <jonn...@gdnmail.net> wrote in message
news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
Have you tried LSD yet?
Zachary Turner
"jonnyfish" <jonn...@gdnmail.net> wrote in message
news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
Then you're asking the right person. I had the same problem when I was
graduating from high school. I chose the computer science route, because of
the money. It worked well for a while, I got a few years experience and was
making $75k by the time I was 21. Eventually though it got really old. The
problem with programming is that it is an art, and people don't treat it
like an art. You have these people who have no idea what they're doing
walking around making a mockery of software development. You wouldn't
believe some of the ridiculous things I saw people do with their code. The
problem is, they work really hard and so the management loves them. So they
blame everything on everyone EXCEPT the people who the blame needs to be
placed on. So basically the short version is that the way to succeed in
programming is to suck, but work really hard. I just got tired of it. I
got tired of people desecrating my code, I got tired of trying to convince
people to actually _learn_ something about programming. And this wasn't
just one company either, it was many companies. They're all the same. So
one day I just up and quit, and now I'm going back to school full time
taking 23 hours per semester towards a PhD in math (I'm still an undergrad).
I'm not making a cent, and it's the best decision I ever made. Like you, I
_still_ haven't decided specifically what field I'm going to go into, but it
doesn't really matter. If you like math, just go and start taking math
courses. It's _impossible_ to know what field of math you want to go into
if you don't even know what fields of math exist to begin with. For
example, differential geometry, functional analysis, analytic number theory,
algebraic topology, complex analysis, modern algebra, etc. I could name
probably 20 other distinct branches of mathematics. You're not _expected_
to know which field you want to go in, because alot of the above you
probably don't even know what they are. The way you find out is to just
start taking classes. Take every class you can, and decide which ones you
find interesting and which ones you find boring. The fact that you even
posted this message means you _do_ know what you want to do. You want to do
math. So just go and start taking every course you can take.
David C. Ullrich
wrote:
You don't have to decide what you're ultimately going to do with
your PhD before you even get to college. Go to a place with a good
math department and learn some math. Meanwhile pay attention to the
things people say about various sorts of careers - you still have
plenty of time to adjust course once you decide what to do.
David C. Ullrich
David C. Ullrich
<NO*zturner0826*SP...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>[...] So basically the short version is that the way to succeed in
>programming is to suck, but work really hard.
I wonder who's going to be the first to say that explains a lot?
David C. Ullrich
Moufang Loop
Oh come on Herman! Say something positive to cheer the fellow up! If
PU, or any other place that you're familiar with, has suitable courses,
then recommend them.
I hope I'm not being over-familiar in addressing you as "Herman", but
"professor Rubin" sounds over-formal. You are a Rubin of Rubin & Rubin
"Equivalents of the axiom of choice" aren't you?
ML
Moufang Loop
>
> ... Realizing that I
> honestly don't know what I want to do has been the most awful experience
> I've ever had.
My, you're lucky. Wait til your girl friend chucks you.
Gerry Myerson
=> I'm a Grade 12 student and about to apply to university very soon in
=> the near future. I want to do something in mathematics, but I'm
=> having a lot of trouble deciding just what exactly. For the longest
=> time I wanted to do computer science, but my biggest fear is that I'd
=> just be another code monkey. Now I'm considering applied
=> math/mathematical physics and maybe pure math. The trouble is I
=> really don't know anything about career options/wages in those fields
=> other than professor (I do plan on getting a PhD, so it's not out of
=> the question). Realizing that I honestly don't know what I want to do
=> has been the most awful experience I've ever had.
A few people know from age 8 what they want to do. A few people turn
60 and still haven't figured it out. Most, like you, are somewhere
in between. My advice would be to take all the math, computing, and
physics on offer at university & see where it leads you. Get to
know some of your lecturers & when it comes time to make decisions
you'll have someone to go to for advice.
--
Gerry Myerson (ge...@mpce.mq.edi.ai) (i -> u for email)
flip
news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
> do computer science, but my biggest fear is that I'd just be another code
monkey.
What make you believe you will not be a below average math instructor with
no real contributions, bitter and blaming your students for your lack of
"art"?
Don't think for a moment that the math world is different than any other
profession with all of the nonsense involved. Life and careers are what
"you" make of them.
Also, if you want to feed the family, being an engineer or a computer
scientist goes a far way. Having a math degree is "great", however it does
not imply you will be making a "good" living. Many of my friends are
teaching and they are not so happy about that either. It takes a lot of
time to write "papers of use" as opposed to publishing the same paper ten
times over a two year period.
Many of them feel like they have become "paper monkeys" (to borrow from
another poster) since they are required to generate papers regardless of
their merit.
I don't want to dissuade from getting a math Ph. D., just don't be fooled
into thinking that it is the best thing around as it stinks the same as the
rest of the things out there. It is no better and it is no worse.
Most of us who do math just love math, period.
Zachary Turner
"Moufang Loop" <Moufan...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:3DE14BAE...@btinternet.com...
lol, I just checked that book out from the library Friday
jonnyfish
while ago, and it really does help me. I know I want to do math, but I
don't yet know what I want to do with it.
The universities I'm looking at are Toronto and Waterloo (I want to stay
within Canada), and their applied math is looking very appealing. Any
opinions?
Moufang Loop
It's twenty years since I looked at it, but, iir, it's a good read.
Another reason for calling professor Rubin "Herman": if you've read (and
enjoyed) a fellow's books you feel that you know him.
ML
David Kastrup
> Then you're asking the right person. I had the same problem when I
> was graduating from high school. I chose the computer science
> route, because of the money. It worked well for a while, I got a
> few years experience and was making $75k by the time I was 21.
> Eventually though it got really old. The problem with programming
> is that it is an art, and people don't treat it like an art. You
> have these people who have no idea what they're doing walking around
> making a mockery of software development. You wouldn't believe some
> of the ridiculous things I saw people do with their code.
Programming, like any art, is a handicraft. Computer science is a
science. College teaches the capabilities for art critics. The
interesting thing is that computer scientists do not see the
connection between their criticism and their creative skills.
Job at an engineering letout concerned with mapping: large maps are
digitized, terrain data gets assembled, tens of thousands of line
pieces from height contour lines. A rasterized height map has to be
created. Method: for every raster point, look into directions N S E W
NW NE SE SW for the next contour line, calculate a weighted average
(yes, this may be suboptimal because of discontinuities, and near
misses, but let's adopt it as a working scheme). On medium sized
maps, computing power has grown to two days. So the computer
scientists start optimizing their algorithms, cutting computing time
in half. I get the task to further reduce it. After fighting the
code and the opaque "optimizations", I decide to start from scratch.
I am just Brezenhamming all contour line pieces and record the points
of intersections with a rectangular N S E W grid and a rectangular NW
NE SE SW grid (modulo some coordinate transformations). Each grid
line gets organized as a binary tree of intersections (no balancing,
figure this ought to be good enough). I have not really understood
the computer scientists' code, but I know they know all the
heuristics, and how to analyze hashes and trees and complexities and
stuff, so I know the task is hard and try to code well for efficiency.
After debugging has progressed far enough for a few toy examples to
get through and the code appears well-behaved enough, I let loose on
the first serious map that took a day to complete. Uh oh, about three
minutes later my program terminates, claiming to be finished. Time to
start serious debugging. About an hour later, I still have not found
the problem. Finally I take a look at the output. Looks reasonable
enough. Compare with the output from the computer scientists. Rather
few differences. After still more hunting and analyzing, it turns out
some of their optimizations were not entirely valid.
Appalling. It appears that teaching people the intricacies of
criticism does not make them artists.
> The problem is, they work really hard and so the management loves
> them. So they blame everything on everyone EXCEPT the people who
> the blame needs to be placed on.
You can't blame people for being incompetent if they have done
everything reasonable to get an education. You can blame them for
being lazy.
Real artists tend to be perfectionist: you have to wrench their work
from their hands if you want to get a hold of it at some time.
Good management consists in seeing those details, and matching the
grinders in a manner with the artists that result in reasonablt good
work getting cranked out in reasonable time frames.
Universal geniuses are rare, and so is good self-judgment. It is the
task of the management to organize work in a manner that exploits the
individuals' strengths and minimized the impact of their weaknesses.
Unfortunately, managers with a clue and the conscience to recognize
project problems as shortcomings in their own job nowadays are even
more rare than good programmers.
--
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
Zachary Turner
"David Kastrup" <David....@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:x5vg2m6...@lola.goethe.zz...
degree? I beg to differ. A degree means nothing. Well, I take that back.
It means you can perservere at something. As far as having knowledge, a
degree says nothing about how much knowledge you have. For example, when
you're using C++ on your project and the programmers write something like
the following:
class A
{
public:
virtual void f() {((B*)this)->g();}
virtual void g() {/*do something*/}
};
class B : public A
{
virtual void g() {/*do something else*/}
};
You've really got to wonder whether or not they've made an effort to learn
_anything_. Fortunately, this is the single most ridiculous example of
anything I have ever seen, so it's not like I would see stuff like that
every day, but the point still remains. Stuff so incredibly stupid was
getting done that I really don't think these people _did_ make a reasonable
effort to learn anything. And when you try to explain to them "hey, this
might be a better way to do something" or "hey, maybe you could use a
std::vector instead of a char*" then they get offended because they look at
it as a personal attack on their intelligence, rather than as an opportunity
to actually _learn_ something.
And what's worse, imagine you were the author of class A, and your company
institutes a policy whereby the author of a file puts his or her name at the
top in a comment. So your name is at the top of the file, then someone
lunatic comes along and pisses all over your class by doing something like
the above. Whose fault does it look like? It would be like if Picasso
submitted a painting to a museum and before the painting was displayed, and
before anyone had ever seen it except the person at the musem whom he
arranged the deal with, the museum guy went and painted a big mustache on
the guy in the painting or something.
Zach
Alonzo
"jonnyfish" <jonn...@gdnmail.net> wrote in message
news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
Now, as I understand, the NSA and big business loves to gobble up
mathematicians. As I understand, it's hard to find an unemployed
mathematics major. This is hearsay, though, I've received it by means of a
graduate student mentor of mine.
So he tells me the anecdote: A friend and himself were drinking
and got his father, who worked for the government, to drink a bit too. When
his father got a bit tipsy and after cracking a few cheap dirty math jokes,
the friends asks "So, father, c'mon, tell me what you *really* do at work."
His father, who was already rubicund from the drinking turned blazing red in
anger and shouted in his paternal tone "Son, don't *ever* ask me that again"
storming out of the room in rage.
If secrecy isn't a problem with you and you have a knack for
algorithms I'm sure that it may call your attention. It would seem that
genuine ingenuity, talent, and art are of more value than brute force
(something that I think would interest someone who doesn't want to be a code
monkey).
A fellow potential math major,
Alonzo
Bob Pease
"Alonzo" <goto@mysite:AlonzoRios.com> wrote in message
news:TYfE9.1792$Go1....@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
>
> "jonnyfish" <jonn...@gdnmail.net> wrote in message
> news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
> | I'm a Grade 12 student and about to apply to university very soon in the
> | near future. I want to do something in mathematics, but I'm having a lot
> | of trouble deciding just what exactly. For the longest time I wanted to
> | do computer science, but my biggest fear is that I'd just be another
> | code monkey. Now I'm considering applied math/mathematical physics and
> | maybe pure math. The trouble is I really don't know anything about
> | career options/wages in those fields other than professor (I do plan on
> | getting a PhD, so it's not out of the question). Realizing that I
> | honestly don't know what I want to do has been the most awful experience
> | I've ever had.
> |
>
There is only one good reason for majoring in Math, Physics or whatever.
It's part of who you are to know as much as possible about these things.
RJ Pease
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.419 / Virus Database: 235 - Release Date: 11/13/02
Paul Sperry
Don't worry about it. It is not critical; you have plenty of time to
decide. Pick something. With the options you are interested in, the
first couple of university years will be pretty much the same no matter
what you choose. Consider a double undergrad major. I'm sure you will be
assigned an advisor - consult him/her. After you have the basics, you
can try some more advanced courses in each field and see what you like.
You might add statistics to your list - it is not as dull as you might
think and I think it has more job opportunities than math/physics.
--
Paul Sperry
Columbia, SC (USA)
Joona I Palaste
My, you're lucky. Wait until you realise you're halfway across your
twenties and still have no girlfriend.
--
/-- Joona Palaste (pal...@cc.helsinki.fi) ---------------------------\
| Kingpriest of "The Flying Lemon Tree" G++ FR FW+ M- #108 D+ ADA N+++|
| http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste W++ B OP+ |
\----------------------------------------- Finland rules! ------------/
"Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schitzophrenic and so am I."
- Bob Wiley
Charlie
"jonnyfish" <jonn...@gdnmail.net> wrote in message
news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
Have you looked into actuarial science ? Actuary is consistently in the top
rankings of jobs in the USA. The pay is very good, but the job security may
fluctuate as the insurance merger activity kicks in.
A degree in math is probably the preferred avenue, unless you go for an
actuarial specific degree. Studies related to investments can also help you
get your foot wet.
www.soa.org
www.beanactuary.org
www.actuary.ca
http://www.soa.org/links/links.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes your best move is blocked by your own checkers.
Randy Poe
Waterloo is certainly at the top in many computer-related
areas. I've heard their name in many connections. So if
you went there and took a combination of courses in math
and computer science, you'd have a first rate education.
- Randy
Randy Poe
> So he tells me the anecdote: A friend and himself were drinking
> and got his father, who worked for the government, to drink a bit too. When
> his father got a bit tipsy and after cracking a few cheap dirty math jokes,
> the friends asks "So, father, c'mon, tell me what you *really* do at work."
> His father, who was already rubicund from the drinking turned blazing red in
> anger and shouted in his paternal tone "Son, don't *ever* ask me that again"
> storming out of the room in rage.
Heh. I used to live not too far from NSA and would run
into NSA employees occasionally. But they would never say
where they worked. If you asked, they'd pause, look a little
nervous, and then blurt out, "Department of Defense".
Since any other civilian employee of DoD tells you the
office where they work, this was always a dead giveaway.
- Randy
Nico Benschop
> "jonnyfish" <jonn...@gdnmail.net> wrote in message
> news:w_aE9.15132$wy.13...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
> >
> > For the longest time I wanted to do computer science, but my biggest
> > fear is that I'd just be another code monkey.
>
> What make you believe you will not be a below average math instructor
> with no real contributions, bitter and blaming your students for your
> lack of "art"?
>
> Don't think for a moment that the math world is different
> than any other profession with all of the nonsense involved.
>
> Also, if you want to feed the family, being an engineer or a computer
> scientist goes a far way. Having a math degree is "great", however it does
> not imply you will be making a "good" living. Many of my friends are
> teaching and they are not so happy about that either. It takes a lot of
> time to write "papers of use" as opposed to publishing the same paper ten
> times over a two year period.
>
> Many of them feel like they have become "paper monkeys" (to borrow from
> another poster) since they are required to generate papers regardless of
> their merit.
>
> I don't want to dissuade from getting a math Ph. D., just don't be fooled
> into thinking that it is the best thing around as it stinks the same as
> the rest of the things out there. It is no better and it is no worse.
>
> Most of us who do math just love math, period.
I second (and third;-) all of that:
sound & balanced advice (especially [*]).
..."The other side of the hill is seldom greener..."
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 08:52 PM, jonnyfish <jonn...@gdnmail.net> said:
>I'm a Grade 12 student and about to apply to university very soon in
>the near future. I want to do something in mathematics, but I'm
>having a lot of trouble deciding just what exactly.
There will be time to think about that after you learn enough
Mathematics to know what your options are and what interests you.
>For the longest time I wanted to
>do computer science, but my biggest fear is that I'd just be another
> code monkey.
Are you interested in programming, or just considering it for the
money? I'd advice you to think about what you would enjoy doing first,
then look for careers that would let you do it.
>Now I'm considering applied math/mathematical physics and maybe
>pure math.
Why? Those are all good fields if you are interested, but you haven't
said whether you are.
>The trouble is I really don't know anything about
>career options/wages in those fields other than professor
Will you be in it for the work, the money or both? That affects what
your best options are. Chances are that any of those will prepare you
for a career, but you might not be doing exactly the type of work you
want to do.
>Realizing that I
>honestly don't know what I want to do has been the most awful
>experience I've ever had.
That's the crux of the problem. My advice is to explore your options
and not to commit yourself until you have a better handle on what is
involved and what you like. A double major in Mathematics and Physics
would leave you with a lot of flexibility, but you will need to start
specializing once you are in graduate school. Good luck.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
Atid/2, Team OS/2, Team PL/I
Any unsolicited commercial junk E-mail will be subject to legal
action. I reserve the right to publicly post or ridicule any
abusive E-mail.
I mangled my E-mail address to foil automated spammers; reply to
domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+news to contact me. Do not
reply to spam...@library.lspace.org
jonnyfish
> Mathematics to know what your options are and what interests you.
> That's the crux of the problem. My advice is to explore your options
> and not to commit yourself until you have a better handle on what is
> involved and what you like. A double major in Mathematics and Physics
> would leave you with a lot of flexibility, but you will need to start
> specializing once you are in graduate school. Good luck.
I've been getting this advice a lot, and it pretty much solves my
problem. My main concern was that undergraduate studies would limit my
options, when I should have known that undergraduate studies give me
options.
> Are you interested in programming, or just considering it for the
> money? I'd advice you to think about what you would enjoy doing first,
> then look for careers that would let you do it.
> ...
> Why? Those are all good fields if you are interested, but you haven't
> said whether you are.
I started programming as a hobby when I was 13, so for the longest time
I just assumed I'd take computer science and never really thought about
it. Now that I actually have to make a decision, programming just
doesn't seem all that interesting anymore. Math, on the other hand, is
something I've always loved and always been pretty good at, so it seems
a natural choice.
> Will you be in it for the work, the money or both? That affects what
> your best options are. Chances are that any of those will prepare you
> for a career, but you might not be doing exactly the type of work you
> want to do.
Exactly what I want to do is a decision I can't make right now. My worry
was that a bachelor degree in math would prevent me from going into
other areas like computer science or physics in graduate studies, which
it won't (unless I've been grossly misinformed, in which case please
tell me!).
Zachary Turner
You haven't been misinformed. As a former software developer, I can tell
you that only about 50% of the people had degrees in computer science.
Everyone else was Math, Electrical Engineering, Physics, MechE, etc etc.
Even a Psychology major.
Chergarj
>was that a bachelor degree in math would prevent me from going into
>other areas like computer science or physics in graduate studies, which
>it won't (unless I've been grossly misinformed, in which case please
>tell me!).
Some physical science or math students do very well combining all three; major
field in one, heavy study of the other two included. If your major field is
physics, this study will rely heavily -- heavily -- very heavily on
mathematics. You will also benefit academically and technically if you can
apply computer programming to your physics and math work. Mathematical skill
is very useful in computer programming, which is actually an understatement.
On the other main-interest major field of study; if you try for a bacalaureate
degree in Mathematics, you will adequately master the MAJOR language used for
managing physics, meaning at least that you will be more comfortable and
skillful with the subject than if you study less math.
G C
Michael Anttila
> For the longest time I wanted to do computer science, but my biggest
> applied math/mathematical physics and maybe pure math.
Here is an easy answer for you: Study pure math (or do a combination of
pure math & computer science). If you can get through a pure math degree,
then you can basically do anything, and employers will recognize this. If
you also have a minor, joint or double in CS then that is just icing on
the cake.
I have known pure math majors who had trouble finding work, but in every
case it was because they didn't know much about computer programming.
All of the companies I've worked for valued pure math degrees over
computer science degrees, even for their code monkeys.
If you plan on going to grad school, then that is great. You can study
math and use your CS skills to pay your way through university. Once you
finish your undergrad, there is no reason why you can't apply to grad
school in another field. There will be plenty of chances for you to
change your educational focus in the future, provided you give yourself a
good start in one subject.
HTH,
-Mike
(Joint Honours Pure Math & Computer Science @ University of Waterloo)
maky m.
this brings up an interesting point, interesting to me anyways. in
another discussion i am carrying the topic of whether math degrees are
getting employed is being analysed. my question to you, in cases where
math degrees compete vs computer science degrees how do they fare?
Russell Easterly
>
>
> You haven't been misinformed. As a former software developer, I can tell
> you that only about 50% of the people had degrees in computer science.
> Everyone else was Math, Electrical Engineering, Physics, MechE, etc etc.
> Even a Psychology major.
Some of the best programmers I know have degrees in music.
I have even met people that majored in math and minored in music.
Russell
- 2 many 2 count
Zachary Turner
"maky m." <mman...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:188f56bf.0211...@posting.google.com...
myself as an example since I didn't know anyone elses salaries. I didn't
even _have_ a degree to begin with, and I was making $75k. All I had was
experience. I got lucky enough to find an internship with a very small
company when I was 17, and from there went on to work for a local game
developer in town. After that I had about 3 years experience, and I got an
offer for 75. That's it. You don't even _need_ a degree to get a job doing
software development, much less make alot . All you need is a brain. If
you don't have _any_ degree, then you'll probably need some experience.
Basically the point is that the experience makes up for the degree about
99%. Getting the experience without the degree is the tricky thing, best
bet is probably to start like I did, making $8-$10/hour and keep working
your way up. If you have a degree, regardless of what it's in, you can
probably start off between $40k and $55k depending on what part of the US
you live in as well as how much you know about the technology you'll be
working with. As for whether or not a CS degree will take preference over a
non-CS degree, I would say only in very rare situations where the work is
very specialized. Even then as long as you can demonstrate the same or
better knowledge than a CS major you'll always win the competition.
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 12:57 AM, "Zachary Turner" <NO*zturner0826*SP...@hotmail.com>
said:
>Only one thing matters. How well can you program.. That's it.
That's important, but it is far from all. I'd hire a merely competent
programmer with good communications skills in preference to an
excellent programmer that couldn't document or couldn't work with
other people.
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
at 12:08 AM, "Zachary Turner" <NO*zturner0826*SP...@hotmail.com>
said:
>Even a Psychology major.
I hired one, as a trainee systems programmer. It's not as odd as it
sounds.
Brian Quincy Hutchings
the "emmissions-trading scheme" that is the centerpiece
ot the Kyoto Protocol, being given an Oscar
for Best **** in the Guise of a Love-story), or behinds (?),
statistics could be your route to employment
at the 'WAND' Corp.; y'know,
the last place that John worked, before his resume ended,
til that prior award!
fine advice, mister Sperry (not his real name,
of course .-)... seriously,
I wish folks could go a lot further toward a "classical" curriculum, or
what was formerly known as "liberal arts" (that is to say,
not a dummied-up textbook thing for geometry & sciences, nor
having any latter-day baggage from "British Liberal Free Trade"
[a.k.a. imperialism, or the British re-definition
of "capitalism," which is a striclty technical term
taht was divized by Gauss], nor
from the so-called Republican definition, Lib-uh-ral,
nor the current "Blue Dog" manifestation of same)....
that's why I just ran for the local schoolboard; that,
and to expose the British Xian cult of Harry-the-Potter and
the Lord of the Rings (and Austin Powers, Baby),
the former of which is read in class in the 3rd grade --
all four extant books of the Ne'er-ending story [NB:
there are 25 books in the Middle Earth syncretic mythology,
taht *I* know of, all of this a promulgation of Oxford,
most especially Dame Jo's open-ended production) ... and
to out-and-out get rid of Oxford's "A History of US,"
at the core of which is a pile of slim "graphic novels"
of so-called American history. not that
I'm really against the comicbook approach *per se*, but
one must put his foot down, when the Encycl.Brit. is used
for any thing but every thing *other* than history:
it's already *quite* too much the case,
in our awful textbook approach. (the "Scholastic" promotion
of Harry Potter, the epigone of the kind of school
that Tony Blair is a product of
-- known in England as Publick Schools --
is just a glaring example.)
Paul Sperry <plsp...@sc.rr.com> wrote in message news:<plsperry-070323...@news-server.sc.rr.com>...
> Don't worry about it. It is not critical; you have plenty of time to
> decide. Pick something. With the options you are interested in, the
> first couple of university years will be pretty much the same no matter
> what you choose. Consider a double undergrad major. I'm sure you will be
> assigned an advisor - consult him/her. After you have the basics, you
> can try some more advanced courses in each field and see what you like.
>
> You might add statistics to your list - it is not as dull as you might
> think and I think it has more job opportunities than math/physics.
--A church-school McCrusade (Blair's ideals):
Harry-the-Mad-Potter want's US to kill Iraqis,
so does Usama's MacJihad:
"HEY, GEORGE; LET'S YOU & SADDAM FIGHT."
http://www.tarpley.net/bush25.htm ("Thyroid Storm" ch.)