пятница, 29 ноября 2024 г.
How Couples Met
Today’s daters are taking matters into their own hands. Seemingly no longer satisfied with the potential partners that life throws at them at work, in school and in their circle of friends, an increasingly large number of heterosexual daters is opting to meet their partner online.
Surveys carried out and analyzed by Stanford University show that between 1995 and 2017 the number of heterosexuals who met their partner on the internet rose sharply from 2 percent to 39 percent. With the help of dating apps like Tinder and eHarmony, but also through social networking sites like Facebook, daters reconnected with old friends and acquaintances (8 percent of couples who met online), were introduced to someone (11 percent) or – in the majority of cases – met someone completely new on their own (81 percent).
The authors of the survey concluded that the main draw of looking for a stranger online was a larger set of choices than when leveraging friends and family, which was especially useful when “searching for something unusual or hard‐to‐find.“ In a similar vein, meeting your partner in a bar or restaurant was also on the rise between 1995 and 2017.
Stanford researchers excluded homosexuals from their analysis because they constitute a minority sexual orientation, making meeting someone online a more obvious choice for them than for heterosexuals. These were usually in a “thick dating market” (quote from Stanford) and therefore normally also able to identify several potential mates in their offline lives, according to the research.
https://tinyurl.com/435kd6p5
понедельник, 25 ноября 2024 г.
Study Smarter, not Study Harder
This is a summary of actual things students can do to study smarter and not just look at the same material for longer. Successful students will choose a subset of these suggestions.
As a parent and former college administrator, I cannot count the number of times I heard the expression “I am going to study harder!” in order to get a better outcome on an upcoming test.
But what does that really mean? I observed students who, in response to the above expression, seemed to actually look harder and longer at the pages in the textbook. Somehow, the student actually expected a different outcome from such a repetitive effort. It reminds me of the saying that the definition of a fool is someone who keeps repeating the same task unsuccessfully and hoping that repeating it will result in a different outcome.
So, my advice to students is that if they want a different outcome, don’t repeat the effort previously attempted. Develop a new set of strategies and tactics. Specifically, start with a list of all the possible tasks one could undertake, and rank them by anticipated benefit. Then, chose the top ones that can be accomplished within the time allocated to studying for the upcoming test. Since everyone learns differently, each student’s ranking will be different as will the estimated time expenditure for each task based on the situation.
One could write a lengthy book on all the tasks students could use to improve their academic performance, and I presume there are already many. Here are my suggestions:
Homework
- Homework. Thoroughly complete all assignments.
- Optional Assignments. Complete all optional assignments suggested by the teacher.
- Unassigned Work. Read the unassigned material within the course textbooks, notes, and problem sets available to the student.
- Unassigned Homework. Finish any unassigned questions in the texts, notes, and auxiliary materials.
- Class Notes. Copy your class notes over into well-organized summaries of the material. People who rewrite their class notes and augment them with additional outside-the-classroom studies generally retain the material better and fare better in exams.
Outreach for Data
- Other Teachers and Faculty. Find out what other texts and materials were assigned by other faculty, and review these for similarities and differences. Complete the assigned and optional work for the same course assigned by other faculty.
- Get Class Notes from Others. Review the class notes, and look at other students’ class notes.
- Just Ask. Ask the professor – either during class or office hours or both – what is going to be on the exam. Carefully note the nuances in the descriptions. Repeat with any teaching assistants.
- Tests from Other Sections. Get previous tests by this professor and from other professors for the same course. Take these tests as practice tests in a simulated environment. Analyze the tests for common features, what was hardest, and what questions took the longest in the simulated environment.
- Network. Talk to students who took the course before, and ask them their impression of the tests, what to expect, and what surprised them.
Prediction
- Test Prediction. Use the previous steps to develop a predicted test. Sometimes, tests are available in student resource centers. We used to comb through them and observe the trends and directions.
- Pattern Analysis. Look for repeating occurrences and favorite topics or questions used by the faculty in their tests. Many professors like to teach something in their exams and not just measure what was already covered. What will it be?
- Take Sample Tests. Early in the study process, take the test in a realistic setting with the appropriate time constraint.
- Test Preparation Strategy. Based on taking those sample tests, assess any gaps, and develop strategies to use during the test preparation phase.
- Special Problems for the Professor. Try to predict exam questions that are important to your professor, and develop a strategy to “knock those out of the park!” These could be the extra credit or discovery questions that are used to separate students from the pack. Also, no matter what the overall score, professors admire students who do well on their ‘pet’ questions, the goodwill of which could be helpful in the future.
Test Preparation
- Checklists. Create checklists of materials to be mastered, and assess yourself on the completeness of mastery. Develop a plan and a schedule to improve the mastery of each critical section prior to the exam.
- Classify. Divide predicted tests into easy and hard sections. First, develop confidence in the easy questions, and then create a plan to master the hard ones. Look for the pattern when taking the actual test.
- Shortcuts. Exams are almost always time-constrained. Developing methods for processing questions quickly is a key requirement for good performance. Prepare shortcuts for key sections of the predicted test. In analytical courses, frequently clever shortcuts can be used for recurring mathematical computations. In other types of exams, outlines, bulleted lists, and sometimes even a clever graphic can be used to great effect. Prepare these in advance, and if needed, commit them to memory.
- Exam Study Sheet. Prepare an exam sheet containing useful information, formulae, facts, and relationships. I try to make this graphical and well-organized. Even if the exam isn’t open note, I can recall the material better if I created such a study sheet for the exam. Clearly, if the exam is open note, it will help.
- Drilling Tools. Some exams simply require memorization. Prepare index cards with key formulae, chemistry equations, facts, quotes, and data. Drill yourself and members of your study group so that they are easy-to-access during the exam. I have seen students in Organic Chemistry buy and/or develop drill cards as well as stick models to build key molecules prior to exams.
- Table of Contents. Even for open-note/open-book exams, prepare tables of contents or indexes so that it will be easy to locate the material that is needed for the particular questions. In timed open-note tests, it’s amazing how many students waste time pouring through their texts and notes looking for something relevant during the exam. Those of us with indexes merely consult our index/table of contents and then turn directly to the textbook or notes page for the relevant information.
- Prewrite Essays. Write key essay responses based on the predicted test questions. These paragraphs are especially useful if the exam is open note as you can copy the key paragraphs straight into your answers. However, even for a closed-book exam, prewriting certain key sections will make your essays easier to write and flow together with the facts and language you desire. Some people prewrite their answers and then use a few introductory paragraphs to transition the questions to their answer.
- Purchase Study Guides. Buy study guides for the course. Use those for practice exams and study sheets. When growing up, we had Schaum’s Outlines and Cliff Notes, and I allocated a portion of my limited student budget to ensure I had such auxiliary study material for my key course.
- Favored Question Prediction. Develop a plan for which questions will be welcomed on an exam. My experience is that one’s momentum builds by answering the ‘comfort’ questions first and then allow the remaining time on the exam to maximize the score on those that are challenging. It helps manage one’s energy and morale during the exam.
Teamwork
- Study Groups. Form a study group for the course or courses you are taking. When allowed and/or appropriate, study groups can be used to work on homework together and exchange answers to the toughest problems, predicted exams, and prewritten essays. Help each other see the big picture as well as the details. Everyone can have a different opinion of what is important in the course and what the teacher is likely to ask on the exam. Several times, I participated in a study group that exactly predicted the questions on the exam, and hence, we were all well-prepared.
- Divide and Conquer. Trying to accomplish all the things on this list for each exam is difficult, if not impossible. Use study groups to divide and conquer the list, and then exchange insights and preparation material.
- Teach It. Arrange to teach the material to someone. It requires a higher level of understanding and comfort to be able to teach the material.
Readiness
- Physical Preparation. Develop a plan for your physical state going into the exam so that you will be at peak performance. Everyone is different, so decide for yourself what level of rest, energy, caffeine, and last-minute study is best for you prior to entering the test chamber. For example, as a student, I avoided an all-nighter before but would study until late, get up early, go for a quick jog or bike ride to raise my heart rate, then study for about 90 minutes starting approximately two hours before, grab a bite of food, and take some caffeine just before entering the room.
Summary
It’s important for everyone to develop their own go-to tactics and strategies. But every once in a while, a student should formally consult an extended list like this one and decide if things should be added to their arsenal of tools for an upcoming exam.
Bottomline: Studying smarter for a test, probably, can be best summarized as being able to predict what’s on the test and being in a position to completely answer it within the timeframe given.
https://tinyurl.com/4xt794mh
суббота, 16 ноября 2024 г.
14 Sci-Fi Monsters, Ranked By How Much They Still Make You Shudder
With all due respect to famous slashers like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, the scariest movie monsters in the annals of filmmaking are undoubtedly sci-fi creatures from our favorite horror flicks. There is something more lasting, more primal about these sci-fi beasts that makes them stick in your craw far longer than any typical horror antagonist. Think about the Xenomorphs and Facehuggers from the Alien franchise, Calvin from Life, or the parasites from Cloverfield, and the goosebumps just appear on your skin.
Don't deny it. We hope you're ready for the stuff nightmares are made of, as we're running through the sci-fi movie monsters that make us want to cry for our mommies.
1
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- Alien
- 20th Century Fox
Where Do They Come From: Though Facehuggers are technically Xenomorphs, they warrant an inclusion here because they are just so harrowing. Facehuggers hatch out of Xenomorph eggs. And, if anything, they are even more terrifying than their adult counterparts.
How They Hunt: After hatching, they immediately seek the nearest life-form and, well, hug their face. Violently. It isn't really a "hug" so much as an "assault." They should be called "Faceassaulters," even if it doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely. It would be much more accurate!
Creepiest Feature: Everything about the Facehugger is creepy, but the most bone-chilling aspect has to be the finger-like tendrils that wrap around the target's head. If they are forcibly removed before the Facehugger has done its business of implanting an embryo in its victim, acid will excrete from said tendrils, and that is never good.
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Where Does It Come From: The original tagline of the film was "The ultimate in alien horror." So, you tell us where it comes from. Hint: It's from outer space.
How It Hunts: A shape-shifting parasite, the Thing tries to absorb and assimilate every living thing around it. Since it can realistically mimic each and every life-form it comes into contact with, the Thing can hide in plain sight, which makes it an extremely dangerous foe to come in contact with.
Creepiest Feature: Though it can mimic even the most minute detail of the being it assimilates, the process is very violent and disgusting. The special effects of this 1982 classic are a marvel of revolting imagery as a result. Have you ever seen a man's stomach grow massive teeth and chomp off the arms of another man? The Thing has you covered, if you're interested.
3
Xenomorphs From The 'Alien' Franchise
- Photo:
- Alien: Covenant
- 20th Century Fox
Where Do They Come From: This is a little bit murky, as the Alien franchise's lore is pretty undefined and always shifting. Depending on the various films, comic books, and other media, Xenomorphs could come from the planet of Xenomorph Prime (which has never been in an Alien film), they could be solely created from the Engineers' weird, black liquid substance from Prometheus, or maybe they're just the result of experiments by Michael Fassbender's android David. It really is up in the air at this point!
How They Hunt: For creatures so large and disgusting, the Xenomorphs are experts of stealth. They may not have cloaking abilities like their pseudo-franchise counterparts the Yautja (AKA the species from the Predator series), but they are very good at keeping very quiet and sticking to the shadows while they hunt their prey.
Creepiest Feature: Though Xenomorphs have various disgusting features, including their abnormally long skulls and massive amounts of saliva, their grossest feature absolutely has to be their second mouth. This small mouth shoots out from inside the bigger mouth, and it is very upsetting.
4
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Where Does It Come From: It is unclear if Calvin actually originates from Mars, but the crew of the International Space Station discovers the alien species via a dormant cell aboard soil samples from a space probe returning from our planetary neighbor. What ends up being clear, though, is that Calvin wiped out all life on Mars, assuming there was ever life there in the first place.
How It Hunts: Quietly and aggressively, Calvin hunts each and every life-form aboard the International Space Station. It completely devours a lab rat, jumps down Ryan Reynolds's mouth and eats his insides, and secretly chomps on a paraplegic's leg for a while.
Creepiest Feature: The way it absorbs the organic tissue of other life forms. Calvin sort of acts like a cancer, devouring whatever is in its path to grow bigger and deadlier.
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Where Do They Come From: Like many a movie monster before them, the Death Angels come from outer space. No other explanation is needed.
How They Hunt: As the Death Angels have no eyes, they rely entirely on sound to hunt their prey. They can unfold the various armor platings on their head to expose the massive organ that allows for incredibly sensitive hearing.
Creepiest Feature: The way they run like alien gorillas is pretty terrifying to behold. Their front legs are longer than their back legs, causing them to strut around like skinny, alien apes. It is both memorable and hideous.
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Where Does It Come From: The terrifying mutant bear from 2018's Annihilation is a result of an alien being known only as "the Shimmer." Upon crash-landing on Earth, the Shimmer began to alter the DNA of everything in its immediate area. That included a bear that ended up being transformed into an utter nightmare.
How It Hunts: The Shimmer-bear hunts mostly like a bear if it were more intelligent and stealthy. Think of an intelligent animal with the strength of a bear. Most frighteningly, it's able to emit a cry for help in the voice of one of its earlier targets to trick the people it's hunting. Just imagine a human voice coming from a monster bear and you've got the idea.
Creepiest Feature: The smaller skull that is sticking out of its head by the left eye socket is quite unsettling. It doesn't serve any functional purpose... it's just the kind of imagery that causes you to have night terrors.
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Where Do They Come From: While "Clover," the giant kaiju from the Cloverfield franchise, is undoubtedly the star of the show, the parasites are what make you jump when watching the original film and subsequently haunt your dreams. These parasites came directly from Clover's body, which is creepy in and of itself, but watching these agile monsters work makes it even worse.
How They Hunt: They can climb on walls and ceilings as if they are giant spiders, and if that isn't enough to get your skin crawling, they can also leap great distances in a single bound. Clearly, these alien parasites are taking their cues from the original Superman comic books.
Creepiest Feature: It has to be their bite. Getting bitten by one of these things would be bad enough as it is, but that is just the beginning. Over time, the targets of the parasite's bite will eventually have their stomachs violently blow up, presumably ending them instantly. Is that worse than getting bitten by a zombie, knowing you'll eventually turn? You be the judge.
Where Does It Come From: The Octalus comes from the deepest depths of the ocean, bombarding various seafaring vessels throughout the history of humanity. Little is known outside of this basic information, though the production team behind Deep Rising quite obviously took inspiration from various H.P. Lovecraft monster designs.
How It Hunts: The Octalus uses its huge tentacles to hunt humans throughout Deep Rising's runtime, eventually sucking out all the bodily fluids of its targets and leaving empty husks behind. The tentacles sort of make the giant, Sarlacc Pit-esque mouth of the Octalus pretty redundant outside of its gross, memorable design.
Creepiest Feature: Each separate tentacle has its own mouth that can open and close, which is both very cool and very disgusting. Though the design of the Octalus is hampered by the visual effects standards of filmmaking in 1998, having a tentacle-based monster essentially covered in a bunch of mouths is quite unique.
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Where Do They Come From: The slugs from 2006's Slither are one of the physical forms of the alien known only as the "Long One." It came from outer space on a meteor. That's about all there is to go on.
How They Hunt: They're just larger-than-normal alien slugs who are constantly on the hunt for humans to jump into via swallowing. They are sort of like stealthier versions of the Facehuggers from the Alien franchise.
Creepiest Feature: They are surprisingly fast. Normal, earthbound slugs move pretty slowly; you'll be able to outrun a slug no sweat as soon as you spot it. In Slither, the alien slugs move much quicker than your average slug, which makes them much scarier to think about.
- Photo:
Where Does It Come From: Thanks to the actionable negligence of an American military scientist and his assistant, a massive amount of formaldehyde was dumped into the Han River in South Korea. And, wouldn't you know it, all that formaldehyde mutated a creature in the river into a huge monster known as Gwoemul. To call it a "mutant carp" is kind of an insult to carp around the globe. If you're eating carp that looks like Gwoemul, you need to shop at a different market.
How It Hunts: Much smaller than other kaiju like Godzilla, Gwoemul is very agile and is comfortable hunting on land or in water. It's able to use its tail like a third leg at times and traps victims in its massive mouth before regurgitating them in a gross mucus.
Creepiest Feature: The weirdest thing about this monster is its lack of useful hind legs. Instead of having another set of legs that matches its front limbs, Gwoemul has these odd, small appendages that it doesn't really use. It's unsettling.
- Photo:
- Species III
- Syfy
Where Do They Come From: H.R. Giger, famous for creating the look of the Xenomorphs, brought his A game yet again with his character design for Species. The result of an experiment of combining alien DNA with human DNA, these life-forms kind of look like what would happen if a Xenomorph mated with a human being.
How They Hunt: The females of the species shapeshift into extremely attractive female human forms to seduce men in order to reproduce. This way they can propagate their species and take over.
Creepiest Feature: We're gonna go with the "breast tentacles." They are exactly what you think they are.
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Where Does It Come From: Dren was the result of genetic experimentation by irresponsible scientists Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast in the 2009 thriller Splice. It's like Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm says in Jurassic Park, these "scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." They really shouldn't have.
How It Hunts: Dren doesn't get around to too much hunting in Splice, but it clearly would've been an effective hunter with its wings and tail-like stinger.
Creepiest Feature: It has to be Dren's unsettlingly hand-like feet. It really just looks like someone took human hands, took away a finger, and turned them around to make its feet.
- Photo:
Where Does It Come From: It's unclear where all the various monsters in The Cabin in the Woods come from, but we know they are housed in the Cube Prison of the nameless Facility. After being summoned by a specific item by one of the Facility's chosen ritual victims, each monster is released from the Cube to do its duty.
How It Hunts: Well, it's a merman... it's pretty self-explanatory. Think of Ariel from The Little Mermaid if she was disgusting and liked to eat humans.
Creepiest Feature: It has to be the dude's shank-toothed mouth. Unlike the majority of the monsters from the film that take obvious inspiration from famous movie creatures, the Merman is a wholly unique creation by the production team. As it crawls on the ground, slowly making its way towards Bradley Whitford, bearing those gross teeth, you can't help but praise the design of this disgusting freak.
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Where Does It Come From: Humanity! It comes from humanity! Because we are our own worst enemy! In all seriousness, genius inventor Eron Keen creates this implant that he calls STEM. He then convinces quadriplegic Grey Trace to install the implant on the back of his neck, allowing him to regain the use of his limbs again.
How It Hunts: STEM ends up taking full control of Grey's body by the end of the film after it convinces Grey to allow it to do so in order to get revenge for his wife's murder. So, it's less of a "hunt" and more of a "hostile takeover." Is there anything more frightening than being trapped in your own body by an artificial intelligence?
Creepiest Feature: Grey ends up living in a dream state in his own brain as STEM lives his life for him. Grey doesn't even know he is living a lie. That'll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck... where STEM would be installed!
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