Category: Links Dump

What the research says | National Numeracy The Skills for Life survey (2011) measured the numeracy levels of 16 to 65 year-olds in England, finding that: 22% of the population (7.5 million adults) are working at Level 2 or above – roughly equivalent to A*-C at GCSE – compared with 26% (8.1million adults) in 2003.… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-05

When There’s More To Winning Than Winning : NPR When last we left the NCAA, it was February madness, colleges were jumping conferences, suing each other, coaches were claiming rivals had cheated in recruiting — the usual nobility of college sports. And then, in the midst of all this, the men’s basketball team at Washington… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-04

Making Light: Whisperado: Video! Release party! Free association! Now available on YouTube: the video for Whisperado’s “Teenage Popstar Girl.” Song written by Sobel / Nielsen Hayden / Mills. Video concept and direction by Dan Azarian. Whisperado does not normally perform in black suits and ties. Contents may settle during shipping. Contains nuts. On Making Yourself… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-03

UPDATED X 6: YOU’RE RUINING NATHAN FILLION FOR ME, NATHAN FILLION. Alternate title: But I forgive you. — TheBloggess.com Conversation with my friend, Maile… me: Sooo…Nathan Fillion is making me doubt my own existence. Maile: Um…what? me: I’ve been asking him for a picture of himself holding twine for almost a year now, and he… Continue reading Links for 2012-03-02

scott_lynch: Against Big Bird, The Gods Themselves Contend In Vain I was a hard-core Sesame Street viewer from about 1979 to 1984, and my memories of the show are the sort of deep nostalgic tangle you’d expect, with a great deal of idiosyncratic noise blended into the signal. So, for many years, I carried around… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-29

Religion News Service | Blogs | Mark Silk – Spiritual Politics | Santorum v. JFK But if, as Santorum suggests, you do go on and read the speech, you will discover that Kennedy never said that people of faith have no role in the public square or that faith is not allowed there. He did,… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-28

In the genes, but which ones? | Harvard Gazette “It is only in the past 10 or 15 years that we have had the technology for people to do studies that involved picking a particular genetic variant and investigating whether people who score higher on intelligence tests tend to have that genetic variant,” said [Union… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-27

Experimental Theology: The Bureaucrat The second most common question I get is this, “Do you like being a Department Chair?” My answer is complicated, a yes and a no. On the one hand I don’t like managing the administrivia of a bureaucracy. I struggle with this part of the job. Plus, I keep waking up… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-23

On How Not to be Foxhog College | Easily Distracted Excessive hedgehoggery makes it impossible to talk of change except as loss and violation, makes all planning into trauma. But a blithe fox, in love with his or her own humbuggery, tramples on the passions that sustain scholarly research and focused teaching, and doesn’t seem… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-23

Astro-Physical Calculator A JavaScript calculator with all manner of physical constants already programmed in, in different systems of units. College Misery: I’m Baffled At My Students And Their Inability to Conquer “Some” Technology. My students are whiz bang on all their electronic gear, flashing their digits and emails wirelessly from phone to phone, downloading first… Continue reading Links for 2012-02-22