# What is your last study ?



## toast (Dec 2, 2003)

Most of us are students or former students. We are all studying something at the moment, or have been quite recently. I'l just being curious: what are you studying right now ?

This could be a class you like or dislike, a book you (have to) read, an article, a survey, anything.

Here's my own timetable. I'm studying an presenting in class the following things n the next two weeks (I already started working on them, don't worry):

- *French parliamentary commission simulation*, where I play the role of ... Apple Inc. French director !  I have to write a review about the iTMS commercial impact and law implications.
- *John Rawls: egality or equity ?* (I personnally find the question so badly formulated I told my teacher about it)
- *Thomas Risse, Tranforming Europe*, chapter 12 presentation (on europeanization and constructivism - sounds complex, it's not).
- Finally, *train tickets*. I'm figuring out the best and cheapest way to go to Venice with my g/f. 

What about you all ?
Trolls: of course you could spoil this thread by answering nonsense or telling us you hate studying and about your fascinating nerd life. But please don't.


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## Darkshadow (Dec 2, 2003)

Hmm, I don't go to school, but I'm always learning something new.  Currently, I'd say I'm working on programming.

Hmm, I'm also reading stuff on string theory.  Chevy's post got me interested.


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## mr. k (Dec 2, 2003)

french - I'm going to stay for two weeks through my school this spring.  And I am definitely not fluent.
web design with xhtml and css - I need to get the whole design thing down, the xhtml and css get rocked by me.
among others, of course.


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## RacerX (Dec 2, 2003)

As always, I'm doing what I can to keep up with both the Mac and SGI platforms, but additional current projects include researching _must have_ applications for NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP and Rhapsody for an article I was hoping to add to the next issue of the _NeXTeZine_, and on the side I've been reading _Introduction to Graph Theory_. It has been quite fun playing with these apps and as most require NEXTSTEP or OPENSTEP, I've been playing in an environment that I haven't spent that much time in over the last few years. I forgot what I was missing.

I also set aside sometime each day to keep up with news events. Right now the primary story I've been following is the SCO cases (favorite site for stuff on that topic is Groklaw, plus I usually do a Google Search each day).


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## Zammy-Sam (Dec 3, 2003)

Doing PHD in bioinformatics.
Right now I am trying to predict interface residues from folded protein-protein complexes just by their amino acid sequence without knowing the folding and structure. That might be interesting for drug design. Unfortunately I am not the only one trying to develop a method for this. That's why I am slightly under pressure. But hey, I am using a mac! One HUGE benefit toward the other groups. 
Beside that I am also collecting informations about protein-protein interfaces. Just some statistical analysis..


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## JohnnyV (Dec 3, 2003)

I'm a freshmen at OSU currently majoring in Engineering Physics.  I'm taking Chem 121, Engineering 181, and Calc 151, all of which I have finals in next week :-\.  Next quarter I'm taking Physics 131, Engineering Graphics 167, English 110, and Calc 152.


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## Zammy-Sam (Dec 3, 2003)

Guess I must be stupid, but what do those numbers mean?


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## Cat (Dec 3, 2003)

I've just finished a course in "Memory and Language" for my master in Cognitive Artificial Intelligence.
I'm also preparing a PhD research proposal in philosophy on Husserl's "Logische Untersuchungen".
I *should* work on a long due paper regarding "Husserl and AI" ... maybe if I have time during the holidays ... 

EDIT: If you're really curious, also check my homepage, which is totally messed up in IE/Win, but should work fine in every other browser ... which is why I am "studying" XHTML/CSS ...)


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## bobw (Dec 3, 2003)

What do you mean by study, what the hell is that?


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## RacerX (Dec 3, 2003)

Zammy-Sam said:
			
		

> Guess I must be stupid, but what do those numbers mean?



Most schools assign numbers to different courses (at least here in the US). These are the courses (numbers and titles) of some of the courses I took while at UCSD:

Math 100A-C Modern Algebra (groups, rings, fields, vector spaces, Galois theory, etc.)
 Math 117 Geometry and the Imagination (introduction to topics in geometry, topology, knot theory)
 Math 140A-B Foundation in Analysis
 Math 150A Differential Geometry (classical differential geometry)
 Math 150B Calculus on Manifolds (techniques in differential forms)
 Math 151 Topic in Geometry (Lie Geometry)
 Math 151 Topic in Geometry (Clifford Algebras) 
 Math 190 Introduction to Topology (geometric and point-set)
 Math 191 Topics in Topology (aspects of Homotopy theory)
 Math 200A Algebra (more of the same)
 Math 210A Mathematical Methods in Physics
 Math 250A Differentiable Manifolds
 Math 250B Riemannian Geometry
 Math 250C Integration on Manifolds
 Math 251A Lie Groups
 Math 251B Lie Algebras
 Physics 100A Electromagnetism
 Physics 110A-B Mechanics
 Physics 162 Galaxies and Cosmology
 Physics 225A General Relativity
Every school labels them differently, but usually there are equivalent courses at most schools.


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## Arden (Dec 3, 2003)

I'm currently taking Math 134: Intro to Statistics, Hist/Econ 115: Economic History of the US, Compsci 204: Intro to Computer Science, and Spcom 102: Intro to Human Communication just ended.

Besides school, I recently installed Cinema 4D CE, so I'll be learning to model in 3D, and I plan to start learning to code in PHP as well.


			
				bobw said:
			
		

> What do you mean by study, what the hell is that?


Heh, I don't do nearly enough of it, despite my classload.


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## chemistry_geek (Dec 3, 2003)

I'm reading a couple of books on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for my new *REAL JOB* (finally) at Pfizer Global Research & Development.  The books that I'm reading go pretty in depth into the theory of NMR, how the instruments work, and how to elicidate a chemical structure from the spectra.  Other than that, just finishing up the masters thesis and poking my nose every once in a while into two books: "Consciousness Explained" and "The Mind's I" by David Hofstadler and Daniel Dennette.


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## eph115 (Dec 3, 2003)

I be taking stuff; 

IDT 501: Information Design Theory
IDT 535: Typographic Design
IDT 585: Seminar in Emerging Technologies
COM 320: Desktop Publishing


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## Harvey (Dec 3, 2003)

I am studying for the Japanese Proficiency Exam, learning about "Free Schools" in Japan cause it's interesting, and I'm gonna go to India soon so I've been reading up. 

Also recently I am hooked on wireless! If you saw the thread where I screwed up my WLAN haha. 

For more info about my Japanese stuff.
JapanNewbie.com 

for free school stuff
http://www.shure.or.jp/ biggest in Japan
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/indexgo.html most famous in Europe


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## Cat (Dec 4, 2003)

chemistry_geek: also try "Mind and World" by McDowell and "Matter and Consciousness" by Churchland.
Dennett is a very good author, i really enjoyed most of his articles and books. 
In the next semester I'll be doing preliminary research on (the ultimate unfeasibility of) reductionism in philosophy of mind, so I'll be digging into Dennett, Churchland etc.


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## toast (Dec 4, 2003)

Parenthesis: I'm glad to see this thread extrapolates to books and lectures


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## ora (Dec 4, 2003)

Well....
Right now I'm working on semiotics (which i can barely stand), philosophy of science, media construction of the news (I met one of the Cardiff media group last night!!) and also the MMR debate (also just met Andrew Wakefield) all as part of MSc in Science Communication . Also trying to keep up with Life Sciences stuff (Did a Biochem BSc) with particular interest in neuro stuff.

Currently reading:
Communicating Uncertainty: Media Coverage of new and controversial science by Friedman, Dunwoody and Rogers.
Representing and Intervening by Ian Hacking (V good intermediate philosophy of science with particular reference to scientific realsim)
Introduction to Communication studies 2nd ed by John Fiske
Power without responsibility:The press. broadcasting and new media in Britain by Curran and Seaton.

For fun
Into the silent land by Paul Broks. (Is kind of half science half philosophical musings all about neuropsychology and how it feels to have different brain problems.)
Rereading a bunch of Haruki Murakami novels.

Keep on studying....

ora


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Dec 5, 2003)

Heh... I'm in my ninth year of college now (well, actually, third -- I took a few years off from my first semester in 1997) and I'll just list the classes I'm taking, 16 hours total:

CS 1721 (Computer Science, Data Structures)
CS 1723 (the lab that goes with 1721)
CS 2511 (Computer Organization I)
CS 2513 (the lab that goes with 2511)
PHY 1904 (Technical Physics I)
PHY 1911 (Physics lab)
STA 3513 (Probability and Statistics)

...and all this toward a Computer Science degree with a focus on Java programming.  Fun, fun, fun!


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## guapagirl (Dec 5, 2003)

wow! what a load of brainiacs!!!!!!!
I'm doing the community care act  ::sleepy::   and research project on inclusion in secondary (high for you yanks) school, which is ok.  for fun I'm reading Grease the play (for part time job in school) and the label on my anadin box  
love xxxxxxx

ps harumi murakami...read wild sheep chase yet?  i love it


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## nb3004 (Dec 5, 2003)

next semester looks fun for myself, i finally get to go into some electives and fun courses instead of dull crap, 

Film as Literature
Modern Architecture
2D Animation
Interactive Multimedia
World Cinema


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## ora (Dec 6, 2003)

guapagirl said:
			
		

> wow! what a load of brainiacs!!!!!!!
> I'm doing the community care act  ::sleepy::   and research project on inclusion in secondary (high for you yanks) school, which is ok.  for fun I'm reading Grease the play (for part time job in school) and the label on my anadin box
> love xxxxxxx
> 
> ps harumi murakami...read wild sheep chase yet?  i love it



hey guapagirl,  
Yes, have read Wild sheep chase, in fact, think i've read all his books that are out in english (waiting for kafka on the shore). Even managed to get the two prequels to wild sheep chase: Hear the wind sing (bought over ebay) and pinball 1973 (have as text file), though it took me many months. Was lucky enough to see the man speak last year in london as well. and he was amazing. Very humble and very funny. He read one of his short stories in japanese, and though i couldn't understand it, the rhythm of his words was very familiar and comforting.
Think my favorite of his books is probably Underground, the non-fiction one about the tokyo gas attack. Its an amazingly emotional book, and really tries to find out why those Aum folk did what they did. Have some personal experience of such dodgy, cultish yoga/philosophy groups, and I thought he really got to the heart of the issue.

A note for others - If you haven't already, try reading some Haruki Murakami, it's awesome. With all you mac folks, the best one to start with is probably Hard Boiled Wonderland and the end of the World- is Chandler meets William Gibson with Raymond Craver's amazing insight into the mundane.

Happy studying, happier reading

ora


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## chemistry_geek (Dec 6, 2003)

Cat said:
			
		

> chemistry_geek: also try "Mind and World" by McDowell and "Matter and Consciousness" by Churchland.
> Dennett is a very good author, i really enjoyed most of his articles and books.
> In the next semester I'll be doing preliminary research on (the ultimate unfeasibility of) reductionism in philosophy of mind, so I'll be digging into Dennett, Churchland etc.




Cat,

Thank you for the suggested reading.  I've been searching Amazon.com for some other books on the topic of consciousness.  I suppose "Consciousness" is my new topic to understand in depth.  Dennett was suggested as good reading by someone on Slashdot.  Ever since I got the books they've been difficult to put down.  A few movies have sort of touched on the subject: Stanley Kubrick's "Artificial Intelligence", and I thought it was interesting how David Bowman's life progressed when he was absorbed into the Monolithe in "2001: A Space Odyssey".  Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data, a sentient robot also is interesting.


Best regards,
chemistry_geek


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