West Virginia, wild and wonderful -- the highest sections look unscathed, but a subtle warning is there

Today, I did a very long “field observation” – in West Virginia, in the highest country.  It was a 16-hour day, “Clear Choice” style inasmuch as I cam e back the same night, no campout or motel stay.

  

I visited the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Greenbank, across the West Virginia Line, behind the “Eastern Continental Divide”, or Allegheny Mountain, which in that area reaches about 4500 feet (US 250 actually climbs to 4300 feet).  Because of a weather pattern with moisture from the Southeast, fog was accumulating on the east sides of the mountains. 

  

The Observatory is run by the National Science Foundation (now in Arlington in Ballston), and the “museum” part would work well in the Rainbow “Reid-ing” videos: “It’s free”.   ("Clear Choice" is not free.)  Federal sequestration doesn't seem to have affected the museum much.
   

There’s a mural of the Drake Equation, which estimates the number of possible civilizations in the universe (or maybe our galaxy).  The NSF analysis seems to suggest that there might be about fifty civilizations as advanced as ours in the Milky Way.  If so, “Star Trek” is for real, and it’s only matter of time.

There is also considerable attention to the nature of radio waves (as a kind of electromagnetic radiation), and at least a hint that in the wrong hands, radio waves could be dangerous (as to power grids), a topic I’ve discussed before. 

  

The countryside around is spectacular.  I saw no mountaintop removal I the highest country, but I did see one quarry on US 220,  and one underground mine south of Richwood, beyond the Highland Scenic Highway (a combination of W Va 150 and then 39/55, with the Cranberry Glades in the middle).  The road is a kind of superior “skyline drive”, rising to 4703 at one point, where a trail goes off to Spruce Knob. 

Cass Scenic Railroad did not seem to be open yet.  It’s not free, though.

NTSB recommendation of lower legal alcohol limit: balancing lives with business

The National Transportation Safety Board has a YouTube video to back up its recommendation that states lower the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers to ).05 (from 0.08 as it is in most states).

The lower 0.05 limit is common in Europe.

Bars and restaurants are going to be opposed, because Americans generally have to drive to their bars and restaurants (outside NYC and a few other in-town areas). In Europe, effective 24x7 public transportation is common. 

A female is likely to be over the limit with just two drinks.  Generally, one would need to wait at least one hour after the last drink, for every drink one had consumed in an evening, before getting alcohol down to safe levels (close to zero).

One idea that can help is after-hours dancing with alcohol prohibited after a certain hour.  In Minneapolis, that time was 1 AM, but clubs were open on Saturday night until 3 AM, giving patrons two hours to process a last drink.  But in 2003, Last Call was extended to 2 AM.

  

In Washington DC, it used to be possible to arrest and charge drivers for DUI if they had any measurable alcohol.  But DUI was a lesser charge than DWI (which required a legal min of 0.08).  

It seems like the NTSB would next turn its attention to draconian curbs on "distracted driving". 

States may be forced to comply by threats of withdrawal of federal funding, if Congress goes along. The GOP might not.  

IRS chokes on the Tea Party; "Family and Faith" announces a "Road to Majority" conference, with Clinton-era rhetoric

I got an email this morning from The Washington Times on a “Faith and Family” conference called “Road to Majority 2013”.  The Eventrbite link is here. 

I had to chuckle at the agenda.  About things like “getting out the vote” and pressuring people to give you money and time, etc.  Where have I seen that before.

  

My own father used to say back in the 1950s, “The Majority has some rights, you know.”

I wonder what kind of logic they will spin now.  People who can afford it not having enough children?  That makes sense.  The economy is hard on families that have children?  Yes.  The whole idea of tax equality fights against disposable income arguments.  We saw this back in the 1990s.  Some social conservatives mourn the loss of the “family wage”.  (Remember Henry Hyde's "Mom and Pop Manifesto" from 1995?)  But it’s the liberals who push for mandatory paid family leave and paid family benefits (which the childless would pay for), as in Europe. 

  

And how about the idea that gay marriage “devalues” traditional marriage?  This has always sounded a bit self-effacing.  Why brag about how weak you are?

  

In the meantime, the Obama administration has egg yolk to mop up after “low level” IRS employees started watching organizations that sounded “ant-tax” or “anti-government”, or mentioned the Tea Party.  The ORS says it was low-level employees. Sure. 

  

CNN’s video above talks about the IRS admitting it’s “mistakes”.   

Carbon Dioxide level passes 400 ppm; Is the Earth going the route of Venus?

The Earth’s carbon dioxide level has passed an unseen milestone, of 400 parts per million. This report is based on a measurement on top of Mauna Loa (over 13000 feet) in Hawaii. 

  

This is higher than the concentration was three million years ago when sea levels were thirty feel higher.
    

The measurement, sponsored by Ralph Keeling, was just 315 ppm in 1958.  The slope of the carbon dioxide concentration is itself increasing rapidly.

  

  

National Geographic has a big story here. 

   

BBC News has a similar story here 

  

It is becoming clear that we will need “policy” decision about living along coastlines – not just volunteerism after big storms (as in my reports about Sandy in the middle of March).

   

We also could find that areas of the country not used to long tracking tornadoes, like the mid-Atlantic, could face them in the coming years much more often.  And events like last summer’s derecho, with amounted to an atmospheric collapse in an extreme heat wave, could become more common.   

Still, the most pressing infrastructure issue in the short term could be power grid security, as discussed in previous posts.  

Texas high school student's classroom rant on teachers who don't teach goes viral

I remember that when I was a graduate assistant instructor at the University of Kansas in the 1960s with a somewhat remedial algebra course, other student instructors said, “If the students didn’t learn, the teacher didn’t teach.”  They said you should even try to sell your subject to the students.  Is that feasible in a “slower” class?

  

Well, ask high school student Jeff Bliss in Duncanville, TX, who ranted at his World History teacher over her not teaching and simply giving them “worksheets”.  I saw a lot of worksheets (video work sheets and reading quizzes) when I worked as a sub. 

  

WFAA (Dallas station) has an interview with Mr. Bliss here.  Apparently, his original video went “viral”.

  

  

I did see some good learning experiences when I was as sub (in northern Va).  In an AP chemistry class, students got to make a short film on the discovery of a new element, “Reltonium”.

  

Visitors might want to check out the book by Arvin Vohra “Lies, Damed Lies and College Admissions”, reviewed April 19, 2013 on the Book Review blog.

  

Teachers used to have a lot of power over students in the way of tests and grades – a “ranking” process, that was especially sensitive during the days of the military draft and deferments.  That may be less so today, with so much more emphasis on standardized tests and team teaching.   

The debt ceiling debate -- IT'S BACK!! (Pay China -- and rich retirees -- first!?!)

Remember the debt ceiling debate?  It’s back. Hopefully without Michelle Bachmann. 

   

This time, the GOP seems more chastened, and is genuinely concerned that it will get blamed for any defaults or disruptions of peoples’ lives that could occur.

   

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post reports  that the House has been moving on the issue, as the debt ceiling holiday comes to an end in May.  The House has passed a bill prioritizing bond holders and Social Security first, according to a story today, link here. There was an earlier story on p. A14 of the Post.
    

But every Democrat and eight Republicans voted no.

  

Actually, it’s likely that the law already requires this prioritization, as some law professors noted on a discussion forum on the New York Times earlier this year.  Social Security is technically a bond holder and could get first in line.  But it could take a federal judge to ratify that unless Congress acts.

  

However, the bill has also been called “Pay China First”.

  

Passing the bill (which will fail the Senate) could send a message that defaulting is somehow “OK”.

  

Actually, the Boston terror attack highlights another point: failing to adopt a budget is downright dangerous to national security as well as the economy.  There are security threats that aren’t talked about much, as I noted yesterday -=- the “low probability, high impact” events.

  

The issues of the past couple of months – North Korea, Boston, crime increases, airline disruptions from sequestration – shows the folly of allowing sequestration to continue, and uncertainty over the debt ceiling to continue.  There is simply no excuse for Congress not adopting a budget now.

  

Aren’t members of Congress no longer getting paid since they missed the April 15 deadline for a budget? 

Update: May 10:

The Wall Street Journal has a different spin, reporting "Falling deficits alter debate; Improving federal finances lessen pressure on Republicans, Democrats to negotiate", link here. 

3-D printers create a conundrum for weapons control, but that's only the beginning of it

Both California and the District of Columbia are introducing legislation to prohibit the personal manufacture of plastic guns manufactured at home from 3-D printers.

   

Huffington has as story here.

Other states will surely follow, as may Congress.

Plastic weapons could be undetectable (possibly even by the TSA) and could be melted or destroyed as evidence after major crimes.

Despite the fact that the parts can be “printed” at home, a lot of skill and assembly is required.  Nevertheless, anyone with military experience could probably do it.

The cheapest printer that I saw on the web sold for $999.  But most larger ones are several thousand.

The media is understandably giving a lot of attention to the idea that people could make untraceable weapons at home from parts that can be printed with directions on the Internet.

Could states or Congress reasonably try to ban possession of 3-D printers at all, citing the overriding concern about this sort of misuse?   It’s a disturbing question. Could it make illegal the posting of assembly instructions on the Internet?  It would simply happen off shore.

While I respect the calls for background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons favored by the president, Piers Morgan, and others (and very much in place overseas), I wonder how effective they can be, as there are far more grave potential threats. 

As I noted in a book review on April 13, some conservative authors and politicians (Michael Maloof) have warned that weapons (RF and "flux guns")  that could disable power grids and electronics over wide areas could be manufactured from parts and directions on the Internet.  These claims may well be exaggerated, as this has not happened in areas where it could be expected (like the Middle East).  The US Army does have and use similar (classified) weapons for use in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.  

  

However, I notice now that NERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, has  posted a webpage about a recent workshop on “low probability high risk events” including electromagnetic pulse. The page is here.  The details are sketchy, but there was a closed meeting with Homeland Security in late 2009.

   

I recently had a discussion with a financial advisor about my own portfolio.  Utility stocks are not favored now, but investor concerns are about short term earnings.  Public policy requirements on utilities to significant harden infrastructure (such as grounding of transformers or ability to replace them quickly) could affect earnings in the short run, but might be necessary to protect basic sustainability of our civilization as we know it.  People who own securities in utilities may have a moral responsibility to become informed on this issue – and that’s not a mentality popular on Wall Street or with investors.  

Update: May 10

ABC News reports that a major website took down directions on how to assemble the 3-D printed plastic parts into a handgum after being contacted by the DOJ and being told they were in violation of an arms control act.  The site had experienced about 100,000 page requests for the directions.  A similar requirement would apply to more unconventional weapons.  The online story wasn't available as of yet, but it was mentioned around 6 PM by affiliate station WJLA in Washington DC. 

Media reports also report a criminal investigation and one arrest on the plant explosion in West, Texas.  That will be addressed later.  

Georgia mother shoots intruder defending home, sharpening debate on gun rights on both sides

The Washington Post on Sunday has a front page story, “To aim and fire”, about how a telecommuting mother in Walton County, GA, on a day her kids were home, shot and intruder how had tried to hide in a crawl space while the sheriff arrived. 

   

The link for the very detailed story by Anne Hull is here.

The story title is “a clear case of sell-defense rallies supporters of gun rights.”  But there are twists and this incident turned into a moral Mobius strip.

The intruder was an unemployed father of six, whose wife works as a school teacher.  He survived wounds and was sentenced to ten years in prison.  But his wife, struggling to make ends meet, wrote to the original mother and said that her husband did not intend to harm anyway.

  

The unemployed man said the thought no one was home.  Instead, he got “caught” and met with potentially deadly force.

The county had tried to implement a rule requiring background checks and fingerprinting of all doorto-door sales people, and found it unenforceable. 

But an insular society, with fewer “real jobs”, has made it harder for people to make a living. In the past, salesmanship in residential areas and solicitation (even for life insurance) was much more socially acceptable (and presented fewer security issues) than it is or does today.

A small town near the Georgia mountains has passed a law requiring every household head to own and be able to use a firearm, but it is not enforced. 

Wikipedia attribution link for north Georgia mountains.  My last visit there was in December, 1985.  

Teen mentorship programs draw demonstration march in Washington DC

NBC Washington reported on a march to sustain a youth mentoring program for Washington DC on Friday, near the Lincoln Memorial. Megan McGrath reported.  The march seemed to be titled “Mentoring Matters”, or “The Pen or the Pencil” (that means, “The Penitentiary or the Pencil”).  The focus of the program seems to be to keep at-risk teens in school.

  

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

>

  

Jay Matthews has a Washington Post story about online mentoring, link here.

  

And “American Graduate” (sponsored by PBS and WETA) explains its mentoring program here. 

Update:  May 9, 2013

The Washington Post, on p. B1, Metro, has an op-ed nu Courtland Milloy, "Filling a void in the lives of Pr. George's boys", link here. The online title is more telling, "Mentoring to Manhood gives black teens in Prince George's a shoulder to stand on".  A couple of direct quotes are in order:  "all the mentors rejected the idea that we succeed in life by individual effort alone."  Later, "Unfortunately, there are some among us who would refuse to help such students, choosing instead to blame their parents -- especially the fathers -- for not doing their jobs,. Mentors, thank goodness, are not so self-righteous as they selflessly step into the breach." CNN Heroes, maybe?

  

Controversy over FACT (Asbestos claims) bill questions concept of tort reform

There apparently are two sides to tort reform –  a progressive idea that libertarians tend to like, as they would penalize frivolous lawsuits that small fry can’t afford to defend against. Tort reform seems very important, for example, in intellectual property law. 

  

Yet in some occupational and health safety issues, it seems as though tort reform could hender protection of industrial or mining workers from protection, or from rehab after injury or illness.  One  such issue is asbestos and mesothelioma, a rapidly progressive lung cancer resulting from exposure. 

  

Apparently the legislation at issue is called FACT, or the Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2012, from EcoWarch, here. 

The relevant bbill seems to be H.R. 982. Govtrack  (Blake Farenthold, R-TX) reference here 

  

For example, the “Pop Tort Conspiracy has an article March 15, 2013 on the matter here. 

  

I was informed about this issue in an email from Susan Vento of “Cancer Victims Rights”.   

This group is called ACVRC, the Asbestos Cancer Victims’ Rights Campaign, link here. 

And here is a perspective specifically for veterans, link.

  

Older homes with basements in much of the US often have some asbestos in construction, which often does not get disclosed unless a buyer asks for an inspection, and could conceivably jeopardize people who work in these homes repeatedly.  The home repair business seems to take a "don't ask don't tell" approach on this one.  

Does our culture fear letting men working with young children; learning babysitting

Washington DC columnist Petula Dvorak wrote a missive Monday that might fit the little Minneapolis-produced indie movie “I Hate Babysitting” fourteen years ago. Specifically, her piece is “Why my male babysitter freaks some people out.”, link (Washington Post) here.

Yes, babysitting sites allow you to specific the gender of the hire (it is perceived as bona fide, I guess), and the whole sordid Penn State mess has consequences and can contribute to fear.

It can also drive men away from considering teaching, especially in lower grades where they are needed as role models.  When I was a substitute teacher, I avoided any “special education” assignment than ran the risk of “intimate duties”, which could happen.  It was not worth “the risk”.

And that of course has downstream consequences for all of us. 

There was an episode on “Modern Family” a few weeks ago where the kindly Dylan winds up helping babysit an infant, who takes to him.  But afterwards he asks (Haley), “Why are we left with taking care of all these kids?”

Certainly Mitch and Cam try to be role models.  “When you see someone in trouble, you help them.”

WE get suspicious of men today, yes.  The media is trying desperately to undo the damage.

  

When I was growing up (in the early 50s), there was a family a mile away with two boys, about 8 and 10 years older than me, who both became Methodist pastors.  And they both babysat me, and learned to deal with my undersized ping pong table (which conferred home field advantage).  

Marriage is seen not as a common good but as a personal "capstone"

Here’s an instructive little soliloquy on marriage, by Andrew J. Cherlin (polic policy and sociology. Johns Hopkins), “In the Season of Marriage, a Question: Why Bother?”, link here. 

He discusses a now well-vetted Pew Research study of marriage and income from 2010. Latest work is on gender roles in marriage, report (Modern Parenthood" as if "modern family" is here). 

It seems like college educated men and women delay both marriage and having children until they have “made it” on their own, and tend to view marriage and family as a “capstone”. Even so, given the prevalence of pre-nups, they seem to have doubts as to whether they can make it for a lifetime.

Less educated or lower income people are more likely to have children because they see lineage as essential.  But they see marriage itself as optional, something that happens later, often not  with the first child.  The so called “marriage penalty” may affect them, as typically everyone has to work anyway.

For years, gays and lesbians (particularly men) were simply outside the box.  But in middle class professional cycles, the greater discretionary income and, sometimes, more time available for overtime (compensated or not) could create tensions.  Did this add to the notion that marriage, maybe even procreation, was “optional” for everyone?  The religious right sometimes says that, although in most work environments people are already set in their lifestyles. 

  

With same-sex marriage there may develop a flip side:  if the need for adoption is so great, maybe same-sex couples will be expected to pick up the slack children born without (straight) marriage.   

Investors should prod utility companies about electric grid reliability, resilience from terror and solar storms

I've discovered some more utility stocks (Dominion Power and Pepco) in my motther’s estate portfolio, and I do see an opportunity to do some good with it.

  

I’ve reviewed a few books recently that raising alarming warnings about the ability of the US and North American power grids to stand up to potential big solar storms and possible terrorist attacks (which would not necessarily require nuclear weapons – see the Books blog (for example, April 13, 2013, Michael Maloof’s “A Nation Forsaken”). 

  

Most of these warnings come from the “right wing” but some sources, such as “college history professor” Newt Gingrich (formerly R-GA, in the House in the 1990s, and a candidate in the GOP primary in 2012) sound more credible and mainstream.

  

Electric utility companies, like any public trade companies in our system, are under fiduciary duty to the shareholders to maximize earnings and profits.  Indeed, they have done well and been stable over the years (not all investment advisers agree with this).  My own father bought a lot of them in the 1950s, and as a result, yes, it was a lot easier to pay for Mom’s care a few years ago. 

  

But utilities have been criticized for neglecting maintenance, leading to longer power outages as residential and commercial real estate development expands, while older neighborhoods are plagued by older and weakening trees.

    

I know that electric power was not as reliable in Arlington VA after I returned from Minnesota in 2003 than it had been in the 1990s.  But in other cities where I’ve lived (Minneapolis and Dallas), systems are newer and problems were much less frequent, despite more severe storms (hint: fewer trees in the Midwest).  I almost got a job with the north Texas utility through a contractor  (mainframe programming) in 1988.  One of the positions related to the Glen Rose nuclear plant being brought online.  I have a feeling that these jobs could have been long term and pretty stable.

  

There is a trade group and company ((the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, link here)  that has sometimes published reassuring statements, but these seem tangential to the most dangerous threats (like electromagnetic pulse (EMP)., or geomagnetic storms associated with solar coronal mass ejections near solar flares). 

  

Some of the concerns (even raised by the Department of Homeland Security)  include the lack of ability to manufacture big transformers in the United States and the time it takes to get them from overseas, difficulty in transporting them by rail or truck, and inadequate shielding or grounding of power system components.   (In 2003, it took ten days for Dominion to move all the transformers it needed to northern Virginia to bring up all power after Hurricane Isabel, which really didn’t do that much damage.)  More attention does seem to have been given to cybersecurity and software reliability.

   

It would seem possible for a shareholder to demand (from Dominion and Pepco) more specific information on what is being done or should be done to counter threats like EMP.  Let’s hear what they have to say. 

Shareholders ought to force this issue out into the open. 

Is shale "fracking" leading to strip-mining?

I got an email from Truthout today claiming that Fracking is leading to more surface-mining for sand in areas like Wisconsin, and claims that sand mining leads to cancer among workers.  “Small farmers who have lived for years in the peace and quiet of the country watch hundreds of trucks roll by their houses every day as bluffs are blasted down to great piles of sand”.

It would help if activist web sites would send me links to published text, not just stories as if I could reproduce them in entirety on my own blogs.  Is that what they want? 

   

I couldn’t find this specific story on Truthout yet, but I did find a page, dated April 25,  2012 “Fracking in Depth”, going to many articles, (website url) here. 

The site seems very slow today. 

When I’ve driven through fracking country, I haven’t seen many fracking wells; sometimes they can be confused with certain kinds of cell phone towers. 

The “jury” is still out this one.  Sand mines and quarries are common; there’s one east of Cumberland, MD on Polish Mountain, visible from I-68;  there’s one near Gore, VA (beyond Winchester), and a lot of them along a stretch of I-287 in northern New Jersey. 

   

The Truthout email came with a desperate plea for donations.  

Suspect in Mississippi connected to "ricin plot" released; defense claims person framed by social engineering; charges dropped

CNN is reporting this afternoon that Paul Kevin Curtis, a previous suspect in the mailings of ricin to some federal officials, including the president, has been released, but possibly with bond. CNN has a preliminary story here.

  

Chris Cuomo (himself an attorney)  on CNN says that he would not have bond if charges were dropped or the wrong suspect.  But a female spokesperson connected to the defense says that he was framed by the use of his pet saying, “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner in its continuance.”  (The longer text is on Wikipedia, here.).

    

ABC News is reporting that federal prosecutors in Mississippi have admitted that they could find no physical evidence of ricin in Curtis’s home or car and no Internet searches related to it on his computer, link [website url] here.)

     

The female “friend” on CNN (with close ties to the defense attorney) was claiming that he was framed by the repetition of his pet phrase in the letters.  It does seem rather frightening how some law enforcement can be fooled by someone with a grudge against an “enemy”, using social engineering and catch phrases – if this woman’s story pans out.  (Maybe she was the attorney.)   It's as if someone grabbed my "Do Ask Do Tell" and wanted to pin it to some sort of crime.   

Update: Later Tuesday

The federal government has dropped the charges against Curtis, and has focused on another man.  The Huffington Post has the story here.  Curtis is said to be writing about about conspiracies, and likes to impersonate Elvis Presley.  There is a Mensa angle to the story, as explained in the Washington Post here. 

This is a rapidly changing story.  Expect more arrest(s) soon in the major media.  

Public debate on post 9/11 security omits many important areas, and it gets "existential" (as Newt Gingrich points out)

Greg Miller and Scott Wilson have an article, “Vulnerabilities persist in a post-9/11 world on the front page of the Washington Post Sunday, link here. 

  

The discussion ranges over a number of issues, including security of large public events, monitoring of disaffected immigrants who travel back and forth, and the expanded use of security cameras everywhere (as in the French film “Paris Under Watch”, Movies blog,  April 19).  There is no question that Americans face impediments to quality of life because of the security issues, at least when traveling and attending events.  On the other hand, many of the privacy concerns (like the current flap over CISPA) seem largely theoretical for most people.  But there remains a troubling question about the role of the Internet – whether it facilitates attacks or facilitates law enforcement more. 

  

There’s one aspect of the big picture that the reporters didn’t take up in the article.  It is true that the weapons in the Boston attack were crude, using technology that might well have worked in the 1950s (it’s not completely clear whether the devices were set off by cell phones or timers).   But there are other weapons, like RF or flux guns that produce an “EMP” effect that could be used in unconventional ways by criminals or terrorists, not mentioned in the article.  I discussed Michael Maloof’s book “A Nation Forsaken” on the Books blog on April 13, where some of these threats are described, and they have been written about by some conservative politicians like Newt Gingrich (who was at least a credible GOP candidate in the 2012 primaries) and Roscoe Bartlett.  Objectively speaking,, it is far from clear that these sorts of dangers are as credible as a minority of engineering reporters claim (otherwise, they would presumably have been used, at least overseas, as in the Middle East). But, as a matter of policy, we need to find out quickly.  Are we doing all we should to protect our power grid, transportation, and even consumer goods (automobiles and electronics)? 

There's also the issue of "radiation dispersion devices" that have not received much media attention in recent years (as they did right after 9/11). 

  

The events of this past week make the focus on "just" background checks and assault weapons bans in response to domestic mass shootings (admittedly, a particular kind of terrorism) rather inadequate in the big picture.  

Are kids getting lazy at solving mathematics problems "on their own"?

This morning, YouTube (because of “tracking”, no doubt) flashed in front of me a recommended 15-minute video posted by David Preston in 2007, “Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth” , in which math teacher and physicist M. J. McDermott discusses the silliness of avoiding the old fashioned methods of multiplication and long division in arithmetic in teaching grade school students.

   

Dr. McDermott vouches for her experience with her own children, and launches into an examination of a couple of grade school textbooks apparently popular in the Seattle area, called “Current Investigations” and "Everyday Math”.   She works through some multiplication and division problems trying techniques like “cluster math”, “partial products”, “lattice method”, and “partial quotients”, all of them based on commutative and associate laws in algebra. But they all avoid the supposed tedium of the usual methods.

Now I never had any problems with the old-fashioned way of multiplying and dividing, somewhere around fifth grade. 

I would wonder about the use of these "evasive" methods in classes where students have to pass standardized tests and teachers are evaluated on student performance.  I would think that teachers would want to stick to drill in the older methods we all learned in the 50s.  They're pretty straightforward.  

  

McDermott also noted that current texts are encouraging the use of calculators, and that kids are reaching college without the comfort in doing computations, or even in working alone on problems.  (Mark Zuckerberg was very much an outlier.)  She also laughed at the way math texts were giving full color world tours.  I noticed when I was subbing that algebra texts were very colorful, with engineering-related maps and pictures of bridges, the Pyramids, sports stadiums, and the like.  I think that sports (especially the geometry of baseball park outfields) offer a lot of math teaching opportunities.   

When I was subbing, most math, physics and chemistry classes used graphing calculators.  Sometimes a calculus test would be in two parts, the first part without calculators, the second part with.  (On my own calculator, above, the battery would always fail in about a month.)

I'll be reviewing a book by math and science educator Arvin Vohra soon. I wonder what how Salman Khan teaches multiplication and division on his informal Khan Academy videos.  I'll check later.  

Gender equality in open society: the issue filters down to something very personal

On Monday morning, April 15, Robert Samuelson offered an op-ed in the Washington Post, “An economy that is tearing our society apart,” link here.  He  mentions the books "Coming Apart" by (libertarian)  Charles Murray (Books blog, March 14, 2012) and a "Third Way" paper by David Autor and Melanie Wasserman, in Third Way "Wayward Sons: The Emerging Gender Gap in Labor Markets and Education", link.

It is true that in the modern economy with the emphasis on information and people skills, women outperform men in many areas.  I can remember that trend all the way back to my own school days in the 50s.  Boys tended to be good students only when the were very good students, sometimes at a price in other areas.  

At lot of his concern boils down to the loss of viability of the one-income two parent family.  That was the “norm” during my tween years of the mid 1950s.  I can remember a Ladies Home Journal article (why was I even reading these?) around 1957 that asked, “Who would you rather have a college degree, you, or your husband?”  Betty Friedan was about to happen. Nobody grasped how quickly women would advance in the workplace, and later the military.   Young men would have  another concern soon.  If they didn’t go to college, they would get drafted, or if they were in the service, more likely to serve as grunts on the front lines.  Korea had died down, but Vietnam was already simmering. And Sputnik had been launched.

In fact, during the policy squabbles of the 1990s and Clinton years, some socially conservative pundits argued for the “family wage”, as in an article, “A Mom and Pop Manifesto” by Henry Hyde in Policy Review in 1995. Still, this sort of thing was usually cast in purely economic terms. Now, the loss of earnings leverage by a primary breadwinner is seen as a chicken and egg problem.  Another sidelight is that the “marriage” penalty would tend to apply more to working couples both of whom earn about the same. Today, we see a growing demographic problem, as women delay commitment for career and both sexes wait until later in life to try to have children. (That is being discussed on ABC's "The View" as I write this.)    

   

But the aspect of this problem that strikes me the hardest is personal.  As a boy, I was not very competitive (either in physical or athletic performance or "attractiveness") as a “male”.  I could not envision how having a female “depend on me” could be sexually interesting.  I was not old enough to grasp the idea of lineage or why having children is important to people.  In fact, I skipped that whole conventional process of emotional socialization. 

  

There’s another corollary of this problem.  Marriage is predicated on the idea that partners will remain “interested” as they both age, but particularly if something unfortunate (medical, accident, natural disaster, war, crime) happens to one of the partners to disfigure that person.  That concern extends further, in the expectation that even those who are at some cosmetic or other disadvantage will find love.  With my own pattern of upward affiliation, that notion is anathema to me. I can see from the accounts of some particular tragedies in the past few years, it seems to be a particular problem for a lot of people (sometimes in conjunction with bullying), sometimes particularly for gay men.   Yet, at an intellectual level, I understand how this capacity “needs to be there” in people for a “free” society to sustain itself; otherwise it can fail to take care of itself.  It does sound like the heart and soul of “family values”.  Indeed, collective smugness can invite enemies.  People typically don't like to see the culture suddenly change the rules that affect their perception of "interest".  This is a troubling area.  

Does the EB-5 program just auction the right to live in the United States? Varying perspectives

To follow up on my story Monday about GreenTech and Watchdog on my main “BillBoushka” blog, I’ll mention an op-ed in the Washington Post on p A17, Tuesday April 16, 2013, “Give me your huddled fat cats”, link here. 

  

It’s not hard to guess the tone of the op-ed, about the EB-5 “visa-for-dollars” program.  He says that it is immoral for the government to sell the right to live in the United States to the highest bidder.  He is also critical of the concept of TEA (“targeted employment area”), which, though supposedly favorable to rural areas (like in Mississippi), is an invitation to pork.  He says that the jobs created tend to be for middlemen and don’t address the real needs of our country’s infrastructure. 

  

The Washington Post, on the facing page, offers an editorial about GreenTech and Vriginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, a perspective  that is more balanced in tone.  It’s important that innovative companies raise the capital that allows them to prove themselves.

  

Remember, as noted in Mark Zuckerberg’s op-ed last week, many high tech executives say they need some of the highly proficient technical talent available overseas.  

Mark Zuckerberg weighs in on H1-B visa debate, and the "mores" of a knowledge economy"

Mark Zuckerberg has an op-ed in The Washington Post today, “The keys to a knowledge economy”, link here.

  

The major political issue that he addresses is immigration policy.  Congress should be more disposed to allow highly educated immigrants to stay because they tend to create jobs, especially in technology, for Americans.  He writes that the supply of H1-B visas runs out very quickly each year once made available.

He also notes that our moral sense has changed.  When, a few decades ago, we had a “resource” economy, we tended to view the world as a zero-sum game (which explains why there is an economic concept called “real estate”).  The world was bound to natural resources, machines, and most of all manual labor, the last of which was a real preaching point from my own father back in the 1950s.  Whole systems of “right and wrong” seemed tethered to this fact.  So were political ideologies, especially Marxism.

  

Mark mentions teaching a class on entrepreneurialship at a middle school.  He says writes that his political activity is bipartisan.  (See coordinated story on “BillBoushka” blog April 3.)