links for 2007-10-07

Cognitive Daily: Casual Fridays: Most citizens don’t pass the citizenship test I aced it, how about you? (tags: politics science US) james_nicoll: Where are the collapsed world-states of SF “Isn’t it a little odd,…, how few SF settings ever seem to have an Earth where a world-government has collapsed into contending states?” (tags: SF) Red… Continue reading links for 2007-10-07

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The Healing Power of Beer

As noted here in the past, I had horrible stomach problems for a good chunk of last year. This was diagnosed as “Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease” or “GERD,” which basically amounts to “Your stomach hurts.” After a number of deeply unsatisfactory appointments with a gastroenterologist, and some tests about which the less said the better, it… Continue reading The Healing Power of Beer

links for 2007-10-06

Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education – Inside Higher Ed :: Early (Encouraging) Data on Early Colleges If you offer college courses to good high-school students, they do better in college. Also, grass tends to be green. (tags: education academia) Improbable Research The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded. (tags: science… Continue reading links for 2007-10-06

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Disappointed by Pop Music

I picked up three new albums from iTunes last weekend (yes, I know, you can buy DRM-free MP3’s from Amazon now, but I have some iTunes credit to use up, and I haven’t steeled myself to download and install the necessary application yet, which I just know is going to irritate me). The three were:… Continue reading Disappointed by Pop Music

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Homework for Parents

The New York Times has a story on a novel approach to teaching high-school English: assigning homework to parents: So far, Mr. [Damion] Frye, an English teacher at Montclair High School, has asked the parents to read and comment on a Franz Kafka story, Section 1 of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and a speech… Continue reading Homework for Parents

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Accountability for Educators, If Not Op-Ed Writers

Inside Higher Ed has a puzzling opinion piece about science and math education by W. Robert Connor of the Teagle Foundation. It’s not his arguemtn that’s puzzling, though– that part is perfectly clear, hard to disagree with: Public and private funders have spent billions of dollars — sometimes wastefully — on education initiatives like those… Continue reading Accountability for Educators, If Not Op-Ed Writers

links for 2007-10-05

Euler’s Constancy A short biography of and tribute to the mathematician Leonhard Euler, who did a bit of everything (tags: math academia physics) Scientists ‘weigh’ tiny galaxy halfway across universe Six billion light years away, 1/100th the mass of the Milky Way (tags: astronomy news science) nanoscale views: Challenges in measurement When expensive equipment blows… Continue reading links for 2007-10-05

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DonorsChoose: Buy This Blog

At the time of this writing, the Uncertain Principles blog challenge stands in first place on the ScienceBlogs Leaderboard, with just under $2,000 in donations so far. That’s almost a third of the challenge goal of $6000 in just three days, which is fantastic. Thank you for your generosity. Of course, that still leaves $4,000… Continue reading DonorsChoose: Buy This Blog