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The Case Against Algebra 908

HughPickens.com writes: Dana Goldstein writes at Slate that political scientist Andrew Hacker proposes replacing algebra II and calculus in the high school and college with a practical course in statistics for citizenship. According to Hacker, only mathematicians and some engineers actually use advanced math in their day-to-day work and even the doctors, accountants, and coders of the future shouldn't have to master abstract math that they'll never need. For many math is often an impenetrable barrier to academic success. Algebra II, which includes polynomials and logarithms, and is required by the new Common Core curriculum standards used by 47 states and territories, drives dropouts at both the high school and college levels. Hacker's central argument is that advanced mathematics requirements, like algebra, trigonometry and calculus, are "a harsh and senseless hurdle" keeping far too many Americans from completing their educations and leading productive lives. "We are really destroying a tremendous amount of talent—people who could be talented in sports writing or being an emergency medical technician, but can't even get a community college degree," says Hacker. "I regard this math requirement as highly irrational." According to Hacker many of those who struggled through a traditional math regimen feel that doing so annealed their character while critics says that mathematics is used as a hoop, a badge, a totem to impress outsiders and elevate a profession's status. "It's not hard to understand why Caltech and M.I.T. want everyone to be proficient in mathematics. But it's not easy to see why potential poets and philosophers face a lofty mathematics bar. Demanding algebra across the board actually skews a student body, not necessarily for the better."
Space

Scientists Find That Conditions For Life May Hinge On How Fast the Universe Is Expanding (sciencemag.org) 86

sciencehabit writes: Scientists have known for several years now that stars, galaxies, and almost everything in the universe is moving away from us (and from everything else) at a faster and faster pace. Now, it turns out that the unknown forces behind the rate of this accelerating expansion - a mathematical value called the cosmological constant - may play a previously unexplored role in creating the right conditions for life. That is the conclusion that a group of physicists who studied the effects of massive cosmic explosions, called gamma ray bursts, on planets made. They found that when it comes to growing life, it's better to be far away from your neighbors - and the cosmological constant helps thin out the neighborhood.

Comment Re:SJWism as an acquired a contagious mental disor (Score 1) 385

Well it's a pretty convoluted train of reflexion, I'm afraid not much of it is sourced. As I mention in my other replies here I was gang-beaten one evening of last century, and healed from that with cognitive behavioral therapy. Following on that I solved anxiety-caused back pain using the research of Dr John E. Sarno (good insight about the probable physiological mechanisms of somatization), and later on I had to confront a couple of people with narcissistic personality disorders (in a professional setting) and wanted to learn more about what make them tick. This led me to current neuroscience of the brain and especially the roles of the amygdala and the various parts of the cingulate cortex - how they manage the perception of threats and rewards to ourselves and to others. I've also been active in a support group for children of narcissistic parents and quite a few of us have noticed strong parallels between the more rabid/crazy of SJWs and the many stereotypical antics of Ns. And now I have a vivid example of a SJW 'cranked to eleven' in my transgender sister and her immediate entourage, who was raised in the same family and environment as I, as an enlightening comparison point.

Comment Re:SJWism as an acquired a contagious mental disor (Score 1) 385

The funny thing is, I'm the one who got gang-beaten, not her. I healed from the trauma rapidly. And then she transitions and develop that unhealthy mentality to the point where she gets 'triggered' over a word. The interpretation I posted above is mostly derived from observing our opposite evolutions, enlightened by running through the process of healing from that sort of damage.

Comment Re:SJWism as an acquired a contagious mental disor (Score 1) 385

Nope, it's done over the internet so the "receiver" of the stimuli is in a safe an controlled environment. It is the perfect setting for desensitization. So, quite to the contrary, getting SJWs all riled up over perceived threats jut by discussing topics that make them uncomfortable can be therapeutic to them.

Comment SJWism as an acquired a contagious mental disorder (Score 5, Interesting) 385

When so many people started talking about the importance of "trigger warnings" and how they had developped "PTSD" from encountering divergent opinions from theirs, I just shrugged and. When my younger brother transitioned to female and started raving hard about all things Social-Justice-y, I was stupefied. When she started talkign about her anxiety attacks over the mere mention of the word "rape" (she has never been sexually assaulted nor witnessed any rape except on TV), I started digging into the science of anxiety fits to see what there really was about it.

It turns out that one can indeed teach one's own brain to develop PTSD over any kind of stimuli at all. All you need to do is to foster a sense of being threatened every time you encounter the stimulus of your choice. For example, you start thinking about people trying to beat you up, of menacing predators pouncing, of natural disasters closing in on you, whenever the stimulus is there. You can also jsut go and read detailed testimonies of aggressions - the more expressive and vivid, the better. You then reinforce and validate this self-inflicted perception of threat by expressing to other people how you feel threatened by the stimulus of your choice, and have the other people agree with you. Basically, this retrains your amygdala into stimulating your cingulate cortex so that it activates the limbic axis for fight-or-flight response. With enough practice, you can push yourself deep into somatization, and develop identical symptoms to that of genuine PTSD-sufferers, to the point where you will have nausea and dizziness just from thinking about the stimulus.

The interesting thing is, it's the kind of the reverse of desensitization therapy for actual PTSD: if you have a rape victim with severa agoraphobia, you can slowly train their amygdala into NOT stimulating the cingulate cortex and thus not triggering panic attacks by desensitizing them to open spaces or the outside, until the link between "outside" and "being attacked" ceases to exist in the brain.

That, IMO, is how SJWs make themselves sick, and make others around them sick, with an acquired mental disorder.

United Kingdom

10-Year-Old Muslim Boy Probed For 'Terrorist House' Spelling Error (bbc.com) 315

AmiMoJo writes: A 10-year-old Muslim boy who mistakenly wrote that he lived in a "terrorist house" during an English lesson at school has been investigated by police. The pupil, who attends a primary school in Lancashire, meant to say he lived in a "terraced house." The boy was interviewed by Lancashire Police at his home the next day, and the family laptop was examined. The 2015 Counter Terrorism and Security Act means that teachers have been legally obliged to report any suspected extremist behavior to police since July. Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK's largest umbrella group for Islamic associations, said he was aware of dozens of cases similar to that of the schoolboy.

Comment Re:He's right (Score 1) 154

The nazis are getting renewed support thanks to the swedish (and to a lesser extent, european) mainstream society turning a blind eye to some of the issues they are at least right to denounce (even if their solutions to those issues are, well, let's keep it civil and stick to 'subpar').

people who are pissed about all the dark-complexioned people invading their lovely field of vision and luring away their women ... they're pissed about not being able to get dates

This right here is part of the problem. If the sane pressure groups don't address the big rape issues in Sweden, they're leaving it to the nazis to rise support with. Dismissing the whole topic derisively is clearly not working.

Comment Re:He's right (Score 1) 154

Just because a regime is brutal, does not make it fascist. For that you would also need the militarization of institutions (like schools and charities), workers' unions being coopted by the state and taking over management of production, and plenty of xenophobic or racist rethoric to establish a nationalistic "us versus them" view.

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