The wrong type of math

In this three-minute talk, Mathemagician Art Benjamin urges that we change our emphasis when we teach our children math. I couldn't agree with him more. It saddens me to consider the immense amount of self-inflicted damage that Americans could have avoided, if only they were more savvy regarding probability and statistics. For example, very few Americans die of "terrorism," whereas the lives of millions of Americans are severely damaged or destroyed every year by crappy schools, lack of health care (including the failure to obtain colonoscopies), wars begun on the basis of lies, various risky behaviors and many other problems almost too many to mention, all of which leave the actual danger of "terrorism" in the dust. Yet Americans spend a massively lop-sided portion of their tax-dollars each year preventing "terrorism." Each of the serious causes of death we face would be much more preventable if only Americans had a better grasp of statistics and probability.    With better training in statistics and probabilities, Americans could better understand the risks that they faced and the probabilities of success of various proposed "solutions."   With better training, as Art Benjamin suggests, we would be better able to order our national priorities to better prevent the things that are most likely to harm us.

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Since we need to amend the Constitution anyway . . .

Perhaps we ought to follow the example of the government of Taiwan, and carve out two new branches of government.   In addition to three branches of government matching the American branches of the Executive, Judicial and Executive, the Taiwanese have two additional branches of government: 1. The Control Yuan is an investigatory agency that monitors the other branches of government . . . No member of the Control Yuan can hold another public office or profession while serving in the branch (according to Article 103 of the constitution), and members must be able to perform absent of partisan control or influence.  Wouldn't it be helpful to have such an independent branch of government to root out corruption and prohibit pork? 2. The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of civil servants in the Republic of China.  Wouldn't it be interesting to see whether which of the candidates currently campaigning for President of the U.S. could pass a civil service test or, better yet, the U.S. Foreign Service Examination.

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Final Cut Pro X + Izzy Videos = excellent videos

Until last week, I was using Final Cut Express 4 on my iMac. It took me quite a bit of time to get familiar with the many features of Final Cut Express--I struggled so much to remember how to access the many features that I created a single-spaced four-page cheat sheet. Then, just when I finally got comfortable with Final Cut Express, Apple released a new ground-up version of Final Cut Pro (version X). It has major improvements compared to FCE, including background rendering, re-design of the work areas, ability to tag and categorize clips and much more. The previous version of Final Cut Pro sold for $800, whereas the brand new Final Cut Pro X sells for only $300. I hesitated to buy the new version, despite the many improvements, because I didn't want to spend a lot of time training up on a new video  program (as I did when I ditched Adobe Premier Elements (on my PC) in order to move to Final Cut Express on an iMac). Nonetheless, I took the plunge last week, downloading FCP X from the online Apple Store (the only way to buy it). One factor in upgrading was the recommendation of Izzy Hyman, who offers first-rate video instruction at his membership-based site. In fact, Izzy now offers 25 free lessons on Final Cut Pro X at his site (Note: I've written about Izzy once before.).  His lessons cover each of the following topics, and each lesson includes high-quality screencasts: [More . . . ]

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Education Institutions are embracing the Internet

The Atlantic offers this graphic to demonstrate the degree to which schools are now using the Internet to provide education. Speaking of which, have you heard about Khan Academy, an extensive (more than 2,200) free set of educational videos? Check out this TED video featuring founder Soloman Khan:

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Why young Americans passively accept the status quo

I just finished reading Bruce Levine's article at Alternet: "8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance." It is a rare day when I read a detailed article with which I so completely agree. Here are eight reasons why the great majority of young Americans passively accept massive social injustice, incessant warmongering, and a stunning amount of lying and betrayal by most of their so-called leaders: 1. Student-Loan Debt. 2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance. 3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy. 4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” 5. Shaming Young People Who Take Education—But Not Their Schooling—Seriously 6. The Normalization of Surveillance. 7. Television. 8. Fundamentalist Religion and Fundamentalist Consumerism. I highly recommend Levine's article for more details on each of these reasons. I especially agree with his arguments that by fighting back, young Americans perceive that they are putting at risk their chances of engaging in the material good life that they crave.  Fighting back, and even speaking out in person, can destroy one's chances of getting a "good" job. [More . . . ]

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