With pleasure and sweetness - 27 August 2008

[silveradept]

Big meeting day today at work, professional self got lots of yummy data, information, and practice. And two juicy tidbits that may be of interest to the professionals at work (one came through e-mail, the other might go out through it tomorrow), both running on a similar track as the ban on television under three enacted by France. First, an opinon that the MPAA should loosen its "no-smoking" stance and permit it in pictures, so long as anti-smoking messages come before the picture that has puffing in it, as an apparently-effective way of countering the research-supported effect that indicates more exposure to smoking in movies makes kids more friendly toward smoking. How’s that for fun? The other item is Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell's opinion that Senator Obama's plan for universal preschool is a sure disaster, because test scores haven’t gone up in the K-12 system in places that have “universal preschool”, which I guess means a compulsory preschool, Head Start gains disappear over time, and lots of school time makes for more aggressive, hyperactive, and anxious kids. The solution is, of course, vouchers coupled with reform of the current school system so as not to be “dysfunctional”. I’m curious whether Senator Obama’s “universal preschool” is “compulsory preschool” or means “everyone has access to preschool that wants it”, because the two are quite different. This preschool information also was accompanied by my perusal in the local paper of the pass rates of Washington State’s WASL. Statewide, in writing and reading, numbers start high, in the 70 and 80 percent pass rates in 3rd grade, and continue to maintain their status through the 10th grade tests. Maths and sciences, however, start abysmal, at 50 to 60 percent pass and plummet over the years to a 40 to 50 percent pass rate. I wonder whether the MEAP results look similar.

Now, I wonder how much of this is the prevailing attitude in the country’s schools that skills at maths and sciences often come with a price of being socially ostracized, are the domain of men, combined with the attitude that Joe American has about those who make their careers in maths and sciences - the “eggheads” that create distrust through their intelligence and ability to analyze problems and think critically, and how much of this is ineffective teaching methods, interference from nonscience trying to get themselves taught as science, and factors such a social promotion that only put the student further in the hole for the next years concepts? If the basic four-function stuff doesn’t make sense, algebra isn’t going to clear it up, and since the later echelons of maths and sciences are equations-and-problems solving, even if the logic makes sense, when it comes to calculations, things stall out and frustration appears.

[Edited in days later]Hey, look! some of the data cited is being looked at in a pretty view askewed way, and even the Journal itself notes new studies on the way will provide different conclusions.

Internationally, we’ll start with something cute - Rabbit-kun, a trash bag designed to be fashionable enough for people to want to take home and toss.

Unfortunately, then the bad news begins. The Taliban in Afghanistan are stepping up the ferocity of their attacks. Additionally, the Afghan government is trying to regulate the United States' troop presence and airstrike frequency after United Nations investigators concluded one of the U.S.'s recent airstrikes killed 90 civilians. And tensions go up in Pakistan as a diplomat escapes an assassination attempt, while the resignation of political parties generates instability and cries of “worst timing and squabbling ever” from the WSJ Asia. Plus, more Russia-Georgia kerfuffle, protestors still in the prime minister's office in Thailand

Asia is not getting all the love and crime, though, as United Kingdom police detain a fifth man alleged to be part of a plot to kill the Prime Minister.

Africa joins in as well with the opposition parties giving Robert Mugabe a Bronx cheer and them some as he opened Zimbabwe's parliament after the highly contested elections earlier in the year.

Domestically, congratulations to Senator Obama on becoming the Democratic Party's official candidate for President in the upcoming general election. Let the fury and accusations of the mainstream media doing everything they can to ensure an Obama victory (is this before or after the lack of story about the way Senator McCain continuously shows his unfitness for office? If nothing else, the MSM should be good at trashing both candidates equally. Fair and balanced, y’know.) fly. Depending on how it turns out this all, we’lll see more or less of the "should've nominated Clinton" camp (John Fund points out that it was an excellent speech for Mrs. Clinton, both in getting the supporters to rally around Obama for this round, and for laying groundwork for her own campaign the next time it goes for the Presidency).

Not wasting time from there, the Obama campaign and several other Democrats are not wasting time tagging Senator McCain for his professed elitism, with his wildly high definition of “richness” and his inability to remember just how many houses he owns, and his striking inability to remember the year 1989, according to the Slacktivist. Fox News attempts to strike back, adding Senator Biden with Senator Obama in the "secretly aiding Muslim fundamentalists" rhetoric... but failing miserably at their task. Some Republicans may feel they’ll find anti-Obama gold in the nearly 50,000 documents in a University of Illinois-Chicago special collection that detail Senator Obama's assocations with Bill Ayers. Other conservatives will continue to point at unions as a major source of influence on Democratic Party politics, with some figures that say all the planned union things are bad for the economy,

Also, rather important, the Diebold machines that kept returning "wrong" votes - the error that causes this has been part of the software for 10 years now. Yet Premier Election Systems/Diebold says it’s the fault of the anti-virus software... then the humans... and now are forced to eat their words after extensive testing determines that it is a programming problem. Is there any way we can decertify every Diebold machine in existence and use something else until they are replaced by a reputable vendor?

An account of how far the transformation of some segments of the army into an army of Christian zealots has gone, from one who went through officer training courses and felt subsequently shunned and without any recourse to complain and try and make things right, even though he tried to contact the right people to get the situation corrected.

In science and technology, a new experimental extension for Firefox that would allow someone to highlight an item, type a command, and have Firefox pull up the requested resource , such as a map or a definition of the highlighted item, which is way cool. Also, Google now has Google Suggest, which will provide a dropdown box of potential searches, so as to assist users in finding a query that works for them.

Also, storing wind power as compressed air for later usage, looking forward to the future where stem cells encouraged to grow in specific diseases will generate medicines and therapies for those diseases, Bell Laboratories ceasing to do research on the fundamentals of physics, and did you know that computer viruses work just as well on space station computers?

Last for tonight, a challenge - bradhicks challenges us to rack our collective brains and see if we can come up with any war's conclusion that was hastened because of large public demonstrations and protests.

Comments

[wanderingbhikkh.livejournal.com]

"Now, I wonder how much of this is the prevailing attitude in the country’s schools that skills at maths and sciences often come with a price of being socially ostracized, are the domain of men, combined with the attitude that Joe American has about those who make their careers in maths and sciences - the “eggheads” that create distrust through their intelligence and ability to analyze problems and think critically, and how much of this is ineffective teaching methods, interference from nonscience trying to get themselves taught as science, and factors such a social promotion that only put the student further in the hole for the next years concepts? If the basic four-function stuff doesn’t make sense, algebra isn’t going to clear it up, and since the later echelons of maths and sciences are equations-and-problems solving, even if the logic makes sense, when it comes to calculations, things stall out and frustration appears."

The answer to your query is, in short, Yes.

[silveradept]

In situations like these, that answer almost guarantees little will be done about it, because it implies a complex solution to a complex problem, and most people want simple sound-bite "do this, and the problems magically melt away" when it comes to these issues. Not to mention, changing the attitudes of the populace toward a needed segment of learning is not going to be the easiest.

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

Now, I wonder how much of this is the prevailing attitude in the country’s schools that skills at maths and sciences often come with a price of being socially ostracized, are the domain of men,

People do love believing women can't "do" this stuff. It's horribly depressing, but I have a friend who got a degree in physics, then left and ended up working as an administrative assistant for a pharmeceutical company because she got sick of being treated like shit by her fellow male classmates/professors. :(

[silveradept]

It's really weird. In the "male" jobs, females who are competent get treated like they're pretenders and objectified to the point that nobody really seems to respect them. In "female" jobs, males who are competent are welcomed as peers, integrated into the work system, and generally consulted on all issues that aren't specific to female anatomy. What gives?

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew. :(

[silveradept]

Me, too. Of course, this is about the time I remind myself of the eternal steamroller of progress, and that most places that were considered boy's clubs are getting women inside who can handle themselves, and this is probably going to continue, until there are very few of them left that aren't expressly created for such a purpose (and are willing to take the accompanying heat for it).