Q: Why do mathematicians, after a dinner at a Chinese restaurant, always insist on taking the leftovers home?
(more…)
June 29, 2011
Postprandial Math Joke
June 28, 2011
Beach Math Joke
Q: Why do you rarely find mathematicians spending time at the beach?
June 27, 2011
Cholesterol, Health, and How Science Should Be Done
Chris Kresser of The Healthy Skeptic interviews Chris Masterjohn about cholesterol and health: The Healthy Skeptic Podcast — Episode 11. Mr. Kresser said:
This week we’re glad to welcome Chris Masterjohn to the show. Chris is currently pursuing a PhD in Nutritional Sciences with a concentration in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition at the University of Connecticut. He writes a blog called The Daily Lipid and is also a frequent contributor on the Weston A. Price Foundation’s blog.
I consider Chris to be one of the foremost experts on the topic of cholesterol and its relationship to heart disease. In this episode, we discuss (among other things):
- the history of the cholesterol-heart disease connection
- misconceptions around diet vs. lipid hypothesis
- finding middle ground between cholesterol skeptics and proponents of the lipid hypothesis
- the LDL receptor and familial hypercholesterolemia and what they can tell us about cholesterol and CHD in normal populations
Copyright © 2011 The Healthy Skeptic
The interview clarifies the role and importance of cholesterol to our health and proper functioning, and gives a good analysis of the science and history of cholesterol research. So the interview is a good way to learn a bit about how science should work and about how we should analyze “scientific” reports.
June 25, 2011
Dealing With Autism
Brandi Milloy has an interesting report, on YouTube and on PJTV, on how ABA (ABA on Wikipedia) and the iPad helped an autistic child, Gage Gilbert.
June 24, 2011
Diet For Health & Learning: A Simple View
Paleo Based Diet/Lifestyle Houston, Tx has a nice, simple, basic presentation of paleo. Check it out. Good for your body, good for your brain.
You might also want to check out their post Starving Cancer — and, in that vein, check out the Primal Parent‘s blog post Intermittent Fasting — Is It Safe For Children?. An excerpt:
Intermittent fasting is almost like a silver bullet against disease and aging. Without any alteration to the types of foods one eats, intermittent fasting has the power to increase longevity and quality of life by reducing brain insulin signaling, lowering triglycerides, fighting cancer cell rejuvenation, stimulating the production of growth hormone, and kick starting cell repair and waste elimination. (Note that calorie restriction produces many of the same affects but is widely shunned. Read more about this in my article about the science behind calorie restriction.)
Despite its many benefits, however, people often dismiss it, thinking they can’t handle the gnawing hunger. Without a doubt, fasting can be challenging for people eating an average modern diet, but it’s actually pretty easy once you’re already benefiting from the metabolic advantage of a reduced carb diet. When our bodies are efficient fat burners we don’t experience the “blood sugar blues” and barely notice the temporary caloric deprivation at all.
Intermittent fasting actually gives me an energy boost. Skipping a meal makes me sharper and more alert. It seems counter-intuitive but ghrelin, the hormone that makes us feel hungry, “enhances learning and memory” while at the same time makes us ready for action. J. Stanton reveals the brighter side of ghrelin in this short article.
As parents, we inevitably wonder if we could offer the amazing benefits of intermittent fasting to our children without harming them in the process. The answer is, yes, actually, we can.
© 2011 The Primal Parent. All Rights Reserved.
June 23, 2011
Memory: Theory and Practice
I have heard that Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer is a good book. Here are some reviews from Amazon:
Moonwalking with Einstein follows Joshua Foer’s compelling journey as a participant in the U.S. Memory Championship. As a science journalist covering the competition, Foer became captivated by the secrets of the competitors, like how the current world memory champion, Ben Pridmore, could memorize the exact order of 1,528 digits in an hour. He met with individuals whose memories are truly unique—from one man whose memory only extends back to his most recent thought, to another who can memorize complex mathematical formulas without knowing any math. Brains remember visual imagery but have a harder time with other information, like lists, and so with the help of experts, Foer learned how to transform the kinds of memories he forgot into the kind his brain remembered naturally. The techniques he mastered made it easier to remember information, and Foer’s story demonstrates that the tricks of the masters are accessible to anyone.
–Miriam LandisThis review is from: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (Hardcover)
After reading the first chapter of this book online, I went out and picked up a copy and read it. I was under the impression from reading that first chapter that this book would be about Joshua’s year of training his memory. There is a large gap between knowing about a memory technique and how to actually use that technique. I was interested in reading about the author’s efforts, problems, and his solutions to those problems. Unfortunately for me, only a small part of this book actually was about the author’s actual training. He does cover a good deal of academic ground on memory. If you have a undergarduate degree in psychology, most of this material will be familiar. The author is correct when he said that this book isn’t a self-help book, but there are a few pearls within its cover. My expectations for this book resulted in my being disappointed with it. That’s my problem. I do consider the book to be a good read and would recommend it to friends and associates.
–Tony R. Vaughan© 1996-2011, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates
June 21, 2011
Math Joke
Q: What do you get if you divide the circumference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?
June 20, 2011
Advice For Writing — and Math. And All Other Subjects.
In “Can You Drop It on Your Foot?” (National Association of Scholars, June 02, 2011), John Maguire says:
Student papers are often unreadable not only because their grammar is bad, and sentences incomplete, but also because they are way, way too abstract. Abstractions really trap students. Assigned to write about some idea, students get caught in the sphere of abstract words and stay there. Abstract words multiply on the page in unpleasant clusters. If you ask freshmen to write about, say, The relationship between wealth and productivity in a market society, watch out. Few will notice that the four abstract terms relationship, wealth, productivity and market society need definition or examples. They will just move those abstract terms around like checkers on a board, repeating them, and hoping through repetition that something will be said. The resulting paper will be mush.
…
An alternate approach might be to start the course with physical objects, training students to write with objects, and to understand that every abstract idea summarizes a set of physical facts. I do in fact take that approach. “If you are writing about markets, recognize that market is an abstract idea, and find a bunch of objects that relate to it,” I say. “Give me concrete nouns. Show me a wooden roadside stand with corn and green peppers on it, if you want. Show me a supermarket displaying six kinds of oranges under halogen lights. Show me a stock exchange floor where bids are shouted and answered.”
…
Students led into writing this way at the start of a course…find it strange at first, but…they will learn after six or eight weeks of practice that it does work; about that time they start to smile because their thinking on paper is clearer, they can see what they are talking about, and their writing has become vivid.© 2011 National Association of Scholars. All rights reserved.
All subjects, from math to physics to chemistry to history to philosophy, should be taught in the same way. Concepts are classifications of real, individual things, and if a student does not know what real things the concepts refer to, he does not know what he is thinking, writing, or talking about; the students mind is then being destroyed and divorced from reality. Not healthy!! Don’t do it, please! In education, as in all else, please be objective: follow a human method (logic) in knowing the facts.
Mr. Maguire’s advice is good advice for the SAT and ACT, too.
“A Father’s Wish” By Edgar Guest
What do I want my boy to be?
Oft is the question asked of me,
And oft I ask it of myself–
What corner, niche or post or shelf
In the great hall of life would I
Select for him to occupy?
Statesman or writer, poet, sage
Or toiler for a weekly wage,
Artist or artisan? Oh, what
Is to become his future lot?
For him I do not dare to plan;
I only hope he’ll be a man.
June 17, 2011
Khan Academy
Some people seem to be sold on the videos of Mr. Khan of Khan Academy. However, in “tutoring” mathematics, Mr. Khan does nothing but deliver the exact same methodology as the texts and as current public education. He is a video version of paper texts, showing, in essentials and fundamentals, nothing original whatsoever. He basically reads from textbooks.
If Mr. Khan comes to grasp his errors, states them publicly, and starts promoting a rational, objective pedagogy, curriculum, and philosophy, then I will give him kudos. Until then, he is part of the problem, not part of the solution, and I recommend against him and his work.
In “The Dangerous Mr. Khan” (National Association of Scholars, June 07, 2011), David Clemens attacks also Mr. Khan’s teaching of history. Mr. Clemens says at the beginning of his article:
So is the Khan video approach a “disruptive technology” which undermines the existing deathbed educational model by doing it faster, better, and cheaper? Mr. Gates thinks so. “It’s a revolution,” he enthuses. “Everyone should check it out.” (www.khanacademy.org) Wearing his education reformer hat, Mr. Gates declares himself “superhappy.”
© 2011 National Association of Scholars. All rights reserved.
Mr. Gates is fundamentally wrong; he certainly knows computer software and business, but he does not know education or philosophy. Khan might do it faster and cheaper, but he does it in the same way, not better. He is in no way different in fundamentals or philosophy from, as Mr. Clemens puts it, “the existing deathbed educational model.” Hence there is no “undermining” or “revolution,” and certainly nothing to be “superhappy” about here; there is merely conformity and agreement, and reason to worry.
Mr. Clemens goes on to say:
Mr. Khan observes that “from FDR’s point of view, Hitler definitely was in the wrong here.” This observation is so odd, that I have to hit the pause button and take a moment to think about it. In Mr. Khan’s History, whether Hitler should have invaded Poland or not is just a matter of viewpoint, wrong in FDR’s (and probably Poland’s) but okey-dokey in Hitler’s. Everything is a matter of viewpoint, perspective, and cultural positioning, therefore nothing is essentially right or wrong, to be applauded or condemned. Here Mr. Khan stands exposed as possessing a historical perspective steeped in academia’s standard issue, postmodern, left-leaning narrative of cultural relativism, multiculturalism, and moral equivalence.
© 2011 National Association of Scholars. All rights reserved.
This is a major criticism. If true (I have not seen Mr. Khan’s history videos), then Mr. Khan is teaching skepticism: the denial of certainty, principle, and timeless truth. No thanks. Skepticism is a major philosophic error, as are moral and cultural relativism, all of which lead to personal and cultural frustration and disaster. And if true, this pretty much trashes Mr. Khan’s videos; they would be of no objective value whatsoever.
Mr. Clemens also wrote:
