Really hard question?

Nikola Tesla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Guglielmo Marconi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi

Tesla is a great example, as Marconi is a hack that used Tesla’s (patented) work to invent the radio and then used money and political power to have the patent office reverse Tesla’s patents – thereby ensuring that Tesla was unable to profit from Marconi’s success. Of course, the Supreme Court overturned Marconi’s patents, albeit after Tesla’s death.

In literature you can add John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald and any of the other Lost Generation writers.

@shared3? Have you been asking a lot of questions relating to your homework or term papers? If you have raised these issues out of plain old cool intellectual curiosity, then my apologies. But I do wonder who should get the A.

Are there rules against that? I thought it was an interesting question.

@Glial: no rules, but often it doesn’t help the student much…I looked back at a number of his (her) earlier questions and got curious. In the past, people have veered away from answering “homework” questions.. But it is true, times have changed.

It is an interesting question. I agree. I would call the 20s the Flapper Era as well (until the Crash on Wall St.) My mother was a teen then and has lots of stories.

I think it’s ok to ask for the name of an interesting person. If shared3 asks us to write the paper, that’s different. =]

@Allie; I agree, but wouldn’t it be really simple to find some names?

If you know what to look for. I’ve spent forever researching some topics because I had no idea where to start. Just recently, my sociology professor told us to write a paper about the dynamics of the family “since the beginning of time” and to discuss how it has changed. The topic was so broad: Do I start at cavemen? Ancient Greece/Rome? Victorian Era? He wouldn’t tell us any more when we asked and basically sent us wandering into the world wide web with no clue about where to begin. Basically, what I’m saying is that if you can get input from other people, then do it. Your peers are resources, too, right?

<sigh>

@gailcalled: Lol, it seems that whenever I ask any kind of educational question, a debate in the comments gets started. Probably because since I mark all such questions with the tag of education, school, etc, my other questions show up in the “siblings” section. If one actually looks at most of those questions, they are all related to a really interesting aspect of chemistry and were in the space of a couple days, and thus all like a month old. As evidence, I offer up the “siblings” section. While there are indeed three questions one could construe as possibly “homework”, when one stops to think logically, one would realize that using fluther as a homework resource for three questions probably isn’t the most productive/easiest way to complete my homework. Even assuming I only have one question I need answered per homework, what are the chances that all three questions would be in the space of a week and how would I get through the rest of the school year without asking any more? My latest question is actually here: http://www.fluther.com/disc/11752/affirmative-action-yes-no-somewhat/

I’m being kinda longwinded here, but I plan to link to this post if this comes up in the future, so I will try to be as comprehensive as possible so I don’t need to explain myself over and over again.

Firstly, I’ve never seen any rules against questions about homework, and while some of the chemistry questions could be homework questions, they are not, and I don’t really see how reading the answer on the internet vs. a textbook (though, I guess the internet could be wrong) would be any different. Wouldn’t I not learn anything either way if I just copied it down? And this could just be me, but as a high school student, I think those questions are pretty advanced stuff that (at least mine) my chemistry course never covered. It seems that for example, here: http://www.fluther.com/disc/9455/why-dont-refrigerated-foods-spoil-as-quickly-as-food-at-room/

These kind of questions would be unlikely to be asked as homework, and if anything, would be discussion questions, which I can’t exactly predict…?

As for this particular question, if this was homework, I could just google British war poets or something, and I already came up with some. I just wanted to learn about some that are lesser-known. I am looking for an essay topic where I can discuss stuff like the significance of _____, and I don’t want to do whomever everyone else is doing.

In conclusion, if I wanted answers to homework, I would probably just copy off my friends, I wouldn’t only ask one possibly homework related question a month, I wouldn’t tag all such posts with the same tags, and as for term papers…unless you think my affirmative action question was a topic for a term paper…well…it isn’t and I’m pretty sure if one looks at my own answers for that question, you will see that I myself am quite knowlegdeable about the topic, and can use google and other resources (look at the statistics I quoted). This question can’t be a term paper topic either, because even if I were to talk about significance or something, I can’t write a term paper on it, maybe only a short essay…

I’m not mad at anyone, but this is the third time this has come up, and I really don’t wantto have to resort to mistagging my posts, so nobody sees the “siblings” section…

P.S. When I was looking for past questions as evidence for this post, I had to resort to looking through my lurve and the activity I’m following. Is there any other way?

Just wanted to add: I just checked and saw a couple more “homework” questions, but I also noticed something else. These are mostly related, like sometimes when an answer led to another question. I also always almost offer my own guess on the answer, and before someone jumps on me for using fluther to check my answers…once again, I submit that firstly, I could ask a friend, secondly, I could check the textbook (ok, maybe not feasible if the answer isn’t back there), thirdly, I could ask the teacher, and fourthly, many of my classes go over homework questions anyway during class.

Once again, I’m not mad or directing this at anyone in particular, numerous people have commented on my “homework” questions in the past, and frankly, I don’t want to have to defend myself every single time I have a question that has anything to do with an academic subject. After all, someone could be asking stuff for home ec. everytime they ask a cooking question, or for a computer class when they ask help with technology, etc.

@shared3; very fair responses, I must say. Just use different tags; “education,”“school,”
“high school,” “college” and “university” seem to tell us something that you do not mean..“World”, “war”, “architecture”, “trivia” and “art” really don’t describe your question and are misleading and *really broad. What about “History,” 1920s”. That says it all in order to hook the reader.. Then you can be more specific, as you were, in the details

(And please note that I did apologize in my first response to you..I was curious since the “do my homework for me” has occured before. I tried to make my response sound like a query rather than an accusation. Sorry that I failed.

(Wouldn’t the wonderful Brit. war poets be in the 1914–1918 period, by and large?. Sassoon, Owen, etc?)

Okay, just accidentally stumbled upon how to see past questions asked. If anyone else was wondering, just click on your name and scroll down. Or you could just manipulate this url: http://www.fluther.com/users/shared3/ (just replace my username with yours). And that link can also be used to see just what kind of questions I have asked, ;) (quick count is 8/21 “homework”, but might be off my a couple)

And I suppose about the war poets, though I think that they didn’t really distribute their works until later. You might be correct though.

P.S. Just wanted to add, seriously, I’m not ticked off. That long post was just for future reference.

Oh, and about the tagging thing, yeah…I’m not that good at tagging. I personally don’t use the tags much, because I just browse the front couple of pages, but thanks for the advice.

@allie: “my sociology professor told us to write a paper about the dynamics of the family “since the beginning of time” and to discuss how it has changed.”

That is really an unfair topic and unworthy of a good teacher! “Since the beginning of time…?” Ask him to define “the beginning of time.” The Big Bang?” Early Man? Recorded Records? Can the entire class ask him to please rephrase the question? Or perhaps go to the chairman of the Soc. dept. and ask him nicely what that question means. Does your prof. expect you to write an 800 p. book?

Yeah, it would be hard to write that paper concisvely. I’ve read long, long treatises (at least, for a high schooler) on how the status of women have changed from hunter-gatherer societies, to agrarian societies, etc, but if one goes as indepth as each different society in the world…. o.O

Abraham Maslow

How about John Scopes, the Tennessee science teacher that was charged with a crime for teaching evolution in public schools in 1925? His trial was argued by Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan and it is still debated today.

Hell yea! John Scopes is really easy to write a paper about, too. I did one last semester actually. =]

Thanks guys, lots of cool suggestions! Keep them coming!

I’m scared to suggest anything. The Fluther police may ask me to justify my response and trust me…I smell bacon.

Don’t forget the artists. Marcel Duchamp and Frank Lloyd Wright were both hugely influential in their respective realms.

Lenin

Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and many of the other big industrialists were still around in the 1920’s – it was towards the end of their careers, so most of their big accomplishments were earlier than that, but depending on how broad your paper topic is, one of them might be an interesting choice. From what I remember, the Age of Anxiety had a lot to do with the increasing industrialization, so you might be able to do something interesting with them (although, you’ve probably written your paper already, so maybe it’s a moot point!) =)

Frederick Nieche (sp?). He seemed kind of tense, preaching about being numero uno and all. How about Ayn Rand?

@shared3 I enjoyed your long explanation and laugh at the need for it.

How about HP Lovecraft? A pioneer of horror and science fiction that pretty much only wrote about the futility of human life in the grand cosmic scheme of things.

You can use my Gramma. Gramma Stroomer. But she’s daid.

doh! @scamp beat me to it. I love Tesla

Tesla had much more than his dealings with Marconi. Everyone needs to read his biography. If it weren’t for the greedy power mongers at that time, we’d be enjoying ‘free’ electricity. Guess he was green before green.