What do we actually learn/supposed to learn from college?
You can learn how to work with people, especially those who are different than you. You can learn to operate under deadlines and present deliverables. You can learn to articulate yourself, both in speaking and writing. You can learn how to solve difficult problems using a combination of intuition, innovation and creativity.You can connect with people with shared interests and do something that one cannot do alone. You can go intern, study abroad, or travel. You can meet people and learn from them, hear their stories, and appreciate their backgrounds.You can learn how to learn. You can learn how to always be improving oneself, and always be open and receptive to new ideas.College is much more than just what you learn in your classes. Make sure that you learn not only from your professors but also your peers. College is very much about the people you're around.Make the most out of it. There won't be another time in your life when your sole duty is to learn and explore.
Can someone actually learn as much as going to an online college than as to going to an actual college?
Thinking about this globally, I think on-line is a much narrower experience than engaging with one’s education alongside others in a physical college. Having said that, consider the analogy of subscribing to National Geographic Magazine versus actually traveling around the world to see what you could see. The magazine distills experiences into its pages that would be unavailable to the casual tourist. So, what about the non-casual traveler … like Darwin on the Beagle? Moreover, I think (settling even more firmly on my first conclusion) that college’s distill human knowledge professionally to great effect and have electronic media available for those presentations that benefit greatly from them. I vote for the social experience with many voices present to offer nuance and perspectives.
Can someone actually become smarter by simply being around smarter people all the time?
Yes. The brain, like any muscle, improves with exercise. Use it or lose it.You will have to work hard to understand what they are saying in order to exercise your mind.Your brain makes new neurons all the time. If you are under knowledge stress, also called learning stress, these new brain cells will have something to do and will stick around to help store all that new knowledge. If you aren't learning anything, they get bored and die.
Is there anyone who actually learned a language with apps like Duolingo?
I’ve used Duolingo over a course of two years. I had huge gaps due to other obligations, but I always went back. Now I understand Brazilian Portuguese to an extent that I can follow a conversation, read a magazine article and speak a little. I still don’t get slang or Portuguese that is spoken too fast. I once managed to help some Brazilian tourists and I can communicate my wishes to my cleaning lady. (Disclosure: I had studied other Romance languages for a while. This is an advantage.)I haven’t become really fluent, and certainly not proficient, and this won’t be the case until I spend some serious time with native Portuguese speakers or in language classes, either in Brazil/Portugal or anywhere else.What can you realistically expect from Duolingo?If you do a whole course within 3–6 months on Duolingo, you’ll likely become a “functional mute”, as I remember one guy who finished several courses stating it. You’ll understand formal language okay, but you won’t be able to say much.Duolingo is not sufficient to master a language, consider it a stepping stone for further learning. You’ll be exposed to about 2000 words and quite advanced grammar. Speaking is not that well covered and no one will correct you on pronunciation or if your accent is too thick.To sum up:Duolingo offers you an opportunity to get a basic understanding of a foreign language for free and you can decide when and how much you want to study. It has forums and people who are willing to help you. This is a big plus.I think that I have learnt sentence structure and vocabulary quite well from doing the exercises. It helps me build sentences quite easily.On the negative side, lessons can become a bit boring after a while and a lot of practice sentences are frankly idiotic (For instance: O tubarao bebe suco. → The shark drinks juice.) Though maybe that’s the point, they are more likely to stick.I recommend you giving it a shot or trying any of the other alternatives (Babbel, Busuu) and pick what suits you best.
Can hypnotic spirals actually hypnotize someone?
I was just wondering if just a video of a hypnotic spiral spinning around in a circle could actually hypnotize someone. And if you could, please give me a link to a video for a hypnotic spiral. Ill choose you as the best answer if you do. (^_^) And if you could, tell me how to create a video of a hypnotic spial with words in the backround. My girlfriend keeps telling me it works if you do that, but I don't think so, so I want to make one and test it out on her. And if you are going to tell me, tell me how to do it on a mac, not a PC.
Can someone really read binary computer code?
Absolutely.Several years ago, my wife bought some pillows and a blanket from ThinkGeek that looked like this:(Note: Pictures thanks to Google Image Search.)One day, I walked in the spare bedroom where we were using these, and noticed a pattern. I realized the binary code on there was ASCII, and I started reading aloud…. ‘P’… ‘I’… ‘L’… ‘L’… “Oh wow, that pillow actually says ‘PILLOW’.”My wife, who was also in the room with me, looked a little surprised: “Did you just read that?” “Yep!”(And in case you’re wondering, the blanket reads “blanket” in lower case.)ASCII in particular is pretty easy to read in binary form, at least for digits and alphabetic characters. (Punctuation, not so much.) Digits 0..9 all start with 0011 followed by 4 bits for the digit:00110000 is 000110001 is 100110010 is 2…00111001 is 9.Upper case alphabetic characters start with 0100 for A through O, and 0101 for P through Z. Or, another way of thinking about it, if you assign the numbers 1 through 26 to the letters A through Z, then the letters all reside at 0x40 plus the letter number.01000001 is A01000010 is B…01001111 is O01010000 is P…01011010 is ZLower case alphabetic characters work similarly, only starting with 0110 and 0111.Once you remember those patterns, reading ASCII from a binary dump isn’t actually that hard at all. Try it on those photos above.Of course, pure binary dumps aren’t really common. More commonly, we deal with hex dumps. I can still recognize machine languages for certain machines from their hex dumps. For example, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View has a large poster with a bunch of hex code on it. I identified it as 8080 code before I noticed the little plaque next to it that indicated it was a hex dump of a portion of the original Microsoft BASIC for 8080. :-) I can also read small bits of 6502 this way.And, every so often, some binary / hexadecimal sequences become a “secret handshake” of sorts. I remember literally laughing out loud when I saw this:(This is my own photo, taken at the Vintage Computing Festival.)If you’re wondering why this made me laugh, perhaps this source code might give a hint. (Scroll down to READ.) Or, if you just want the answer, the BMOW guy who owns the disk explains it on his blog. I didn’t need the explanation… I recognized it on sight. :D You might say Woz left his signature and his autograph.
Can someone please give me a summary of the musical/film/novelization of West Side Story?
You should really watch the movie, if you don't want to read it. It is fantastic, and a little weird, since the Jets and the other gang actually dance their fights. It is an excellent story. You shouldn't try and get the quick version of this story. You could actually learn alot from it.
Can patience actually be learned or is it hereditary?
Of course you can! Don't you know that half of your characteristics are learned from the environment you are raised in? This means you can change anything about yourself! It's not all hereditary. We are not animals, thankfully! (: Now all you have to do is research some methods on practicing patience, and find the best one for you. No one here can do that for you. (: God Bless Angel
Do you actually learn applicable knowledge in college?
That depends entirely on you. If you consistently try to apply the knowledge that is being presented to you to real-world situations then the knowledge will be applicable. If you are too lazy to actually engage in your courses, and think that it is somehow the fault of the instructors if you come away from your experience without have gained any applicable knowledge, then that’s all on you. However, it is also worth noting that in an informal survey of about 20 of my classmates at our 50th college reunion, when asked what they took away from their experience at Princeton, 75 percent of them talked about learning how to break a problem down into its parts and then come up with a solution – that answer was independent of whatever field they had been in, from mechanical engineering to Chinese history – which may be different than “applicable knowledge.” That’s an applicable skill, rather than learning the specific gravity of molecular components or in which dynasty China extended its reach internationally. But in the end — at 18 you’re considered to be a mature person, ready to start making your own way in the world. If you can spend four years in an institution of learning, with complete freedom to learn important things from knowledgeable people, and you don’t learn anything that is applicable to your life, then, friend, it’s all on you.