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vocab site for general GRE

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:11 pm
by goodfromfar
http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Not like we really care *that* much about having a high verbal score, but this site donates rice to via the United Nations World Food Program and builds your vocab at the same time!
Basically 20 grains are donated for each word you get correct. Does this site actually do what is says? Yes.
I looked it up here http://www.wfp.org/english/?n=681
and here http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/freerice.asp


And adding to some other things mentioned in other posts: this is exactly why I think everyone should have some form of a liberal arts education. Yes, we could all accomplish much more in our fields if we took 4-6 years of solid physics, math, programming, electrical engineering, etc. But then we'd be stuck in our own ivory tower bubble of academia and probably wouldn't even think of such things as poverty, the AIDS epidemic, political oppression, genocide, and basically anything not mentioned on CNN or digg.

However, I don't think bullshit humanities classes like 'The history of the Simpsons' and 'The music of Bob Dylan' (both offered at my university) are adequate substitutes for 'International Relations' and 'Cognitive Psychology'.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:36 pm
by butsurigakusha
Man, I would love to have taken history of the simpsons instead of the typical humanities classes I took. I wish they offered that at my school!

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:16 am
by fermiboy
No kidding. I would have much rather taken these two courses then Intro to Art and what not. I'm serious.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:55 am
by goodfromfar
*sigh*

We all have an A+ in the simpsons class without even attending a single lecture! Though it would be a much more interesting class than standard psych or art, it doesn't do much in the way of "educational development".

Given a choice, I think every single one of us would choose The Simpsons over the history of genocide in Africa...which illustrates exactly why university students are forced into taking classes they don't want to. I wish I could go back and spend 3 more years taking a whole cornucopia of different things, but when I was 18 I just wanted to take the class with the minimum amount of required writing.

And now, instead of teaching myself all those important world issues, I just watch Red vs. Blue until I fall asleep ...

:oops:

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:44 am
by surjective
http://www.number2.com for GRE general prep. Very good.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:59 am
by twistor
20 grains wouldn't feed a cockroach.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:08 am
by will
answer more questions then, and tell your friends to do the same. A dollar wouldn't buy me a cheeseburger, but if I got one from everyone...

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:16 am
by twistor
Stop fooling yourselves. This type of site provides one type of relief only: your self-guilt for being a greedy capitalist that consumes 95% of the world's resources. 20 grains is a *** joke. Do something that matters.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:10 pm
by will
like make 210 posts on physicsgre.com?

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:29 pm
by quizivex
Now if one of us could write a computer program that answers the vocab questions at an extreme rate... maybe we'd be onto something. :wink:
Do something that matters.
The reason I decided to do physics was so I could do something meaningful that could help the world in some way... I'd make a small but significant contribution to something big...

Unfortunately, for college (undergrad) admissions, they'd rather see a student who did 1000 hours community service at a nursing home (even though he's just doing that to get into Harvard law and will spend the rest of his life exploiting people), than someone who's actually planning a career that will make a difference in the long run. Same goes for the NSF grants, we have to do all this outreach stuff.... our CAREER is our outreach :D

Basically, short term good deeds are nice as long as they don't distract you from more important things... It's a good idea to answer those vocab questions if you're reviewing for the verbal section anyway... as long as the site actually does what it claims to do, you might really have fed someone dinner. I dunno.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:22 pm
by marten
Or you could look at it this way, what is your time worth? Even at minimum wage, if you spend an hour answering questions and donating grains of rice, $5.50 (or whatever it is now) will buy a whole lot more rice. Assuming rice is roughly $1 = 1 pound, (actually 110 pounds of rice in Haiti = $45 USD) you could by over 5 pounds of rice in the hour that you spend donating grains. And that is at U.S. prices, I bet rice is even cheaper when bought in the countries where it is grown and needed.

So send off a check for $5 to some place like MCC (http://www.mcc.org) next time you feel like playing the rice grain game for an hour. Won't learn as much vocab that way, I'll admit, but it'll make a bigger difference.

Marten

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:29 pm
by cancelled20080417
I would send $100 check to what ever place i have to after hearing from at least one good grad school. Then( after hearing from grad school) I can be sure that I will have food on my table for next 5 yrs!! o/w i will have to transfer myself to Darfur or Haiti or middle east.

I hope i din offend anybody.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:33 pm
by goodfromfar
@ twistor (you're going to be getting a lot of ***!)

I do - $1200 in the past four years to support both a little girl in Ecuador and the environment.
I also don't buy crap - don't own a cell phone, or have tv, rarely "go out", buy clothes, or purchase any other *** that no one really needs for that matter. I reuse ziploc bags twenty times, go dumpster diving for bread, and am probably the cheapest/more frugal person you semi-know. I spent a mere 8 weeks working for a non profit trying to get people on the street to sponsor kids in third world countries. It was the worst job I ever had and cried at least once a week from people staring me in the face and blatantly saying "I don't care."

None of us are perfect - what we should all really do is completely shun out society and become forest hippies. But this won't happen. So in the mean time, we can all do tiny, seemingly ineffective things - like voting, donating rice, or giving a dollar when the the checker at the grocery stores asks if you want to donate to March of Dimes. Yes, playing a silly game that donates rice makes people feel less guilty about living in America...but it honestly isn't about us anyway, so why does it matter as long as *something* is being done? Marten brings up a good point - money is actually the best way to help, but many people balk at parting with their hard earned $10...it could be better spent purchasing 3 drinks from Jamba Juice.

Last time I checked, none of us were moving out to Africa for a summer to help build on orphanage...we're all too lazy, too selfish, and too cheap. Sad, but true. So until we end up having kids and teaching them how to give a *** about the world, we can at least do something small.


There is also this sweet site that invests your donation, and then every months sends a check equal to the dividends to the charity of your choice. Pretty awesome concept.
http://www.echodonations.org/index/donor.html

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:33 pm
by twistor
Or you just send $10 and buy twice as much and then get on with your guilty existence.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:43 pm
by twistor
Marten has the right idea. My point is that if you want to go play a game and feel better while doing it, go right ahead. But know that you're not doing anything because you haven't done anything about the REASON those people need rice in the first place.

You might feed a child for a few hours, but you will not make any large scale impact. I'm sure if freerice.com gave two shits about children they would bypass the middle man and just the rice direct. Don't be fooled by false altruism.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:46 pm
by twistor
ike make 210 posts on physicsgre.com?
The difference is that I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'm making a difference by posting here. So if you want to help then go do something that really matters, don't waste your time playing games for grains.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:05 pm
by goodfromfar
ok, a more long term solution would be to donate birth control... that address more of the problem. Seeing as how Bush drastically cut funding for NGOs that provided family planning services overseas, voting would also have a more lasting impact. There are also plenty of organizations that teach people how to cultivate land.
One only needs to do a little research and will find an organization that he feels is making a long term impact. So feeding someone for a day or teaching them to feed themselves...but one requires the other. You can't teach a dead person to farm. I agree that only giving someone rice is not a good solution, but it's a part of a multi step process in trying to alleviate the problem.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:48 pm
by will
don't waste your time playing games for grains.
Nobody was. If you need to study vocabulary though, it's an excellent resource. None of us are patting ourselves on the head for donating a pound of rice, it's just a way to learn that also happens to be providing a social service.

You're tilting at strawmen.[/i]

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:16 pm
by quizivex
I would send $100 check to what ever place i have to after hearing from at least one good grad school. Then( after hearing from grad school) I can be sure that I will have food on my table for next 5 yrs!! o/w i will have to transfer myself to Darfur or Haiti or middle east.

I hope i din offend anybody.
I doubt you offended anyone... since most of the people who would be offended don't have computers and/or can't read.

Ouch, *slap, slap*... I hope I din offend anybody! :wink:

@ goodfromfar

just wanted to assure you that my post against "halfassed community service" does not apply to what you do... you're definitely a genuinely good person and definitely making a difference.
like make 210 posts on physicsgre.com?
I see your point but still, the comments on the forum are a valuable resource to prospective grad students and it's certainly not a waste of time. I've learned a whole lot of important information by reading the threads over the past year.

Even the off-topic posts such as goodfromfar raping RG or RG smoking weed with professors during an interview are giving us all a much needed laugh during a stressful time.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:21 pm
by cancelled20080417
'Even the off-topic posts such as goodfromfar raping RG...... '
hahahahhah, quizivex,
ths is hilarious, where did you read that goodfromnear raped RG!!
goodfromnear this is getting really funny!!
hahahahahaha

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:51 pm
by goodfromfar
hahaha - I don't remember a thing! I must be so traumatized from the rape that the memory has been pushed deep into my subconscious!!!

now we know we can't trust anything that quizivex says! :wink:

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:04 am
by cancelled20080417
hahahhaha, how can YOU be traumatized goodfromnear, coz according to quizivex, your the one who raped RG! :lol:
I guess, RG shud be traumatized instead! What do you think RG? :lol:

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:22 am
by twistor
When this is all over we have a big grad school party at RG's place.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:28 am
by cancelled20080417
I would really love that.
Seriosuly though I really want to meet each and every one of you who I have talked to so far on this forum. This has been really entertaining!

I think I owe sorry to tnoviell coz at some point( many be there were many) I was really rude to him. sorry for that!

I think I had pissed off will too at some point, right, will?

it is very easy to piss off Grae. .........hahahaha.......... just ask her this simple question:
"Can anybody on this forum tell me what GRE is all about?"

hhahahaa
I think she is already pissed off. hahaha
( nothing serious, ok. jus kiddin)

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:23 pm
by twistor
I think all of us who get rejected should band together and start our own graduate school. Is South Harmen Institute of Technology already taken...?

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:40 pm
by marten
Sounds like a plan, twistor. I'll lead a research group on spices.

"It was an explosion of taste! I'm dealing unstable herrrrbs!"


Marten

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:46 pm
by cancelled20080417
my research group will focus on how to cultivate weeds and also design and run experiments that will allow us to distinguish several kinds based on thier smell, taste etc.
( hahahahaah, alrite, people, I am NOT weedoholic and have tried ONLY once when I was home last summer)

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:11 pm
by tnoviell
RG, no worries. It takes a lot to offend me.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:26 pm
by grae313
RG wrote:it is very easy to piss off Grae. .........hahahaha.......... just ask her this simple question:
"Can anybody on this forum tell me what GRE is all about?"
:lol: am I that transparent? :wink:

I agree, party at RG's house when this is over! I'm not raping anybody though...

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:55 pm
by cancelled20080417
hahahahahhaha,... Grae, u don have to do all that to party at my place!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:32 am
by quizivex
RG, I think you also pissed off phoenix at some point, lol.

I compiled a list of hypothetical things we could say to piss off our favorite forum members, including you: :lol:


@ grae313

Hello Sir,

Does student who wish to purse physics PhD in US need a undergraduate degree in physics!!!!!! :?



@ RG

I is international student from China.

My stats are: 950/800/480/3.5
7.8 GPA out of 10 (2nd best out of 35 at my leading Chinese tech school)
3 publications in the wonton journal, one first author

Please give me your best estimate of my probability for admission at MIT, Berkeley and Stanford with a confidence interval.



@ Twistor

I just got out of my "Influence of Shakespeare on Abstract Renaissance Art" class today and I must say it has completely changed my perspective on life for the better. Yesterday I was aimless, confused and depressed, but after sitting through Dr. Ketz's heartwarming lectures about Shakespeare's underappreciated legacy in 16th century ballet dance, I began to appreciate the importance of liberal arts in the science curriculum and my life has turned around. I am still having brain orgasms. 8)


@ goodfromfar

Today I lit a bonfire of uncle ben rice boxes protesting the futility of the freerice cause.



@ will, physicsdude

Today a kid came into the tutor lab and needed help taking derivatives. He couldn't differentiate the function F(x) = 0

I therefore made him eat chalk and threw him out of the room. :evil:



@ Fermiboy

I contacted all the schools that we both applied to and changed my area of interest to condensed matter theory just for the chance to steal your spot, sorry. I won't turn down any of the offers until 11:59 pm on April 15th.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:47 am
by cancelled20080417
quizivex,
I give you an A ( the highest accolade) for this post!
This is probably the funniest post I have ever read on this forum!!!

Grae's part is by far the funniest among the list and then comes twistor's case.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:49 am
by cancelled20080417
but you missed to list your own case!! I am trying to find that out !!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:58 am
by cancelled20080417
"RG, I think you also pissed off phoenix at some point, lol."


hahahaha, yeah, but I already said sorry to her!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:20 am
by twistor
I just got out of my "Influence of Shakespeare on Abstract Renaissance Art" class today and I must say it has completely changed my perspective on life for the better. Yesterday I was aimless, confused and depressed, but after sitting through Dr. Ketz's heartwarming lectures about Shakespeare's underappreciated legacy in 16th century ballet dance, I began to appreciate the importance of liberal arts in the science curriculum and my life has turned around. I am still having brain orgasms.
LMAO

It's funny you should say that, because I was browsing the help-wanted ads today and I saw one asking for "Someone with experience reading Elizabethan prose. Email or fax your resume to Renee at ..." Now that you can finally appreciate Shakespeare I suggest you apply before someone from China with stats like:

"950 on Shakespeare GRE
Top of my class at best literary university in all of India
2 first author publications in the Journal of Shakespeare
I worked with a Nobel prize winning Shakespearean critic drawing caricatures of what people attending his plays might have looked like
Gave a talk at a Renaissance fair on Shakespearean acting..."

takes your job and you are forced to go into physics! Hurry!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:21 am
by twistor
Also, don't ask why someone from China is attending university in India. I never said the world made sense.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:12 pm
by VT
what is LMAO?

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:22 pm
by grae313
laughing my ass off. google would be quicker!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:23 pm
by VT
hahahahhaaaaa, you guys are so funny! 8)

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:15 pm
by fermiboy
Haha Quizivex.

Actually, I'm taking an astrophysics course this semester and I'm really into it. I might do theoretical astro instead. I just emphasized CMT since that's where all my research has been. But I thought this might happen so I made sure to pick schools who were had interesting research in both CMT and astro.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:56 pm
by cancelled20080417
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


''
@ grae313

Hello Sir,

Does student who wish to purse physics PhD in US need a undergraduate degree in physics!!!!!! "


THIS IS HILARIOUS!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I have sarted forgetin garden's post after reading your post quizivex!

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:22 pm
by twistor
How could you forget such timeless wisdom imparted by the true sage of physicsgre.com, garden. He is a garden of wisdom, and I only that one day I will fully understand his great writings. You should be ashamed. In fact, I am ashamed for you, and not just because I am typing this post naked while eating cheese crackers off of a hookers belly.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:10 pm
by cancelled20080417
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahah

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

ahaahhahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahaaahhahahahahahahahaahhaahhahaahahhahahahahhahaahhahaahhahahahahaah



I guess this is enough for now!

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 4:41 am
by quizivex
Actually, I'm taking an astrophysics course this semester and I'm really into it. I might do theoretical astro instead. I just emphasized CMT since that's where all my research has been.
Ah kewl! Hope that works out for ya. Part of me would rather do theory, especially since my research experience has not been very instructive and I'm clueless how to use lab equipment. But considering there's just so few spots in theory and the equations in my "Rudimentary Introduction to the Fundamentals of Basic Statistical Mechanics for Beginners I" are intimidating enough, I just stuck with experiment.
but you missed to list your own case!! I am trying to find that out !!
Ok here's a post that would annoy me:

"My name is Lawrence Author IV. I am interested in theoretical astrophysics. I am pissed that I only scored 570 on the physics GRE. Who cares if I can't do basic problems? I have published 3 cutting edge papers, one first author, in leading journals under the auspices of Professor Xing Xang Xung at my school. Hopefully my research experience will get me into MIT or Caltech. My parents are both physics professors and have had me doing research projects with their colleagues since high school and some of their connections got me an REU after freshman year. I have spoken at 5 conferences. (By speaking, I mean two of the times I read sentences off a poster made by my professor and the other 3 times I was just asking questions to other speakers after their talks but hey the grad schools don't need to know that.) I started college with 5 scholarships, one for a high school science fair project (which I won because a blizzard prevented all other contestants from attending), one for being black (pretending to be), one for being muslim (I converted religions when I applied and have since converted back to atheism), one for being poor (my family temporarily put all of our money into a neighbor's account) and one for doing an essay contest I found on the back of a Kellogs Corn Flakes box. All of this combined with the REU helped me win more scholarships which got me another REU and countless departmental awards and ultimately the Coldwater Scholarshit. *** the GRE."
Gave a talk at a Renaissance fair on Shakespearean acting...
Haha I like that line.
How could you forget such timeless wisdom imparted by the true sage of physicsgre.com, garden. He is a garden of wisdom, and I only that one day I will fully understand his great writings.
Yea nothing will ever top garden's post. I've hoped for so long that he would come back and enlighten us once again. Afterall he probably is in the same position we are and is probably reading the threads... maybe he's just laughing as we inferiors toil in confusion over his epic words.

I still can't forget marcelpopescu's only post:
I' am interesting in this domain and I want to know what are the materials which describes the basic ideeas in this domain.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
@ RG
How did you manage not to double type a single "a" or "h" in this line? AMAZING! :idea:

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:04 pm
by cancelled20080417
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:22 pm
by quizivex
RGRGRGRGGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGR

See, I couldn't do it... the 4th "G" was doubled.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:25 pm
by cancelled20080417
quizivex,
it is time for you to read some solid state Physics than typing stupid RGs on this forum! :lol: