raz.lite.blog

Co-ed Dormitories (in college)

The spark for this topic is about 10 days old.  I do not recall exactly how we got on this topic, but two students in my class took opposing views.  One thought it was crazy (not sane) to seriously consider co-ed dormitories.  The other took the what's wrong with that position.  I got curious as to what research might be available.  I only found an ariticle from a website called livescience.com.

The Efficient Frontier

This is an very informative set of videos.  No one video will answer all our questions, but this a good set of building blocks to help us understand the efficient frontier.

Only 6 Black girls in the entire U.S. in 2008 got 5's on Physics C

A few years ago, I scolded an advisee of mine for pulling out of a leadership position (house president).  Her reason was that she thought she had no chance of winning.  Only one other person ran---and got the position by default.  My advisee happened to be Black young woman.  I told her that because of the history of our country and some facets of its current state, persons from certain demographic groups do not have the luxury to give up leadership positions.  A few days ago, I saw a similar situation develop, but this time in an Honors Physics class.  Upon researching some statistics, I found an article on "Who Gets 5's on AP Physics Exam" in the blog http://isteve.blogspot.com by Steve Sailer.  (Disclaimer: I take no position on any view expressed by Sailer or his blog.)

No Milk Today

Every now and then, I do try to practice playing my guitar.  I am just good enough to be bad.  I have learned that when I do practice, using a song or music that I actually enjoy works best.  No matter how badly I play it, in my mind, it still sounds like the song I enjoy.  Thus, I have fun practicing.

Recently, I was in the mood for classic 1960's Brittish Invasion Rock-n-Roll.  I found  "No Milk Today" by Herman's Hermits on YouTube:

I used the tab music at tabs.ultimate-guitar.com.  About two weeks later, I ran into this version of No Milk Today by Joshua James & The Forest Rangers, which played in The Season 3 Opener of Sons of Anarchy:

Enjoy.

Can you go for a year without the internet? No texting, either!

A guy names Paul Miller did it and then wrote about it! Well, he did get paid to do it.  You see, he's a writer.  An online 'zine called The Verge was interested in the resulting story.  Miller writes, "At 11:59PM on April 30th, 2012, I unplugged my Ethernet cable, shut off my Wi-Fi, and swapped my smartphone for a dumb one. It felt really good. I felt free."  Miller's story is very interesting.  Here's another excerpt to pique your interest:

In one of the early months my boss expressed slight frustration at how much I was writing, which has never happened before and never happened since.  I lost 15 pounds without really trying. I bought some new clothes. People kept telling me how good I looked, how happy I seemed. In one session, my therapist literally patted himself on the back.

Go read Paul Miller's story about a year without the 'Net!

The world's most sleep-starved students

Single Parent Statistics

I had a very interesting conversation with one of my PreCalculus students.  He had been working on a paper for another course that was investigating the achievement gap in education in America.  He asked me if I had any opinions or thoughts about it.  Of course, I did.  During the ensuing conversaiton, we spoke about the effect of the increasing number of children raised in single-parent homes.  I got curious and later looked up some statistics.

Creating a Bootable USB for OpenSuse

I am about to swap out my motherboard and processor (Intel D955Xcs and Pentium duo).  I want to reuse those in a new computer case.  OS is Win 7 and Opensuse 12.1 dual boot.  In order to be safe, I am creating a bootable USB with Opensuse.

First step is to go see this "silent" video:  http://youtu.be/sRzVxw2tI5o (2:20)

Can't afford college example. What should I do?

I searched ("googled") the pharse, "What should I do if I can't afford college, even with loans?"  Here's a great thread that does not give an answer but certainly raises some points to consider, especially one's attitude.  I found it at CollegeConfidential.com at the following URL: 

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1497004-looks-like-i-cant-afford-college-what-do-i-do.html

This blog is re-born!

I had to delete all posts in order to purge the spam comments!  I had not realized internet bots were such an issue!!

Chrono Crusade

My favorite Anime of all time is probably Full Metal Alchemist.  Anime enthusiasts know there are two versions: FMA and FMA-Brotherhood.  Both are great, but Brotherhood had a complete story, following the original story line of the original author.  More on FMA later.  Today, I wanted to mention Chrono Crusade, the latest Anime I found in my search to find an anime that I enjoy as much as I enjoyed FMA.  You can find episode 1 (of 24) with English subtitles here: Chrono Crusade on YouTube.  Wikipedia has a great summary of everything you might want to know here: Chrono Crusade on Wikipedia.  My review to come later.

Integration Practice

Again, nothing but a few video links.  This is for practice, not the initial teaching of the topic.

Foreign Service - FSOT, PN, OA

According to the Department of State (DOS) website (https://careers.state.gov/office), the mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad.

To become a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) you must undergo three grueling tests or assessments.  Search the internet and you will be find the stories of many who have tried and a few who have tried and succeeded.

General information follows, but please refer to the official DOS website for the latest and official informaiton.  The info below is not guaranteed to be correct and up to date, so use it only as a starting point and for discussion purposes.

Which Groups Have Higher Proportions of Unbanked Households?

PBS's Need To Know re-braodcast on Sunday April 21(perhaps original air date was a few days earlier) presented a program on Financial Literacy.  It highlighted a program in Missiissippi directed at educating kids (as young as 1st grade) and their parents about developing savings habits and the importance of having a bank account.  I got curious about the statistics.  The FDIC published results of a survey in 2011.  The information that follows comes from that survery, which you can find here: 2012 Underbanked Survery (or go to
http://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2012_unbankedreport.pdf  ).

Click for a larger graph.

Magnetic Fields and Forces, step 2

This is the "class 2" on Magnetic Fields and Forces

• Here Derek Owen goes over EXACTLY what we did in the first class on Magentic Fields and Forces!!  Watch and solidify your learning!
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ6m_w0TS_A (9:40)
• Watch the famous Dr Lewin,  but only the first 7:27 !!!!  Here he introduces F = qv x B
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8D3ikuyaGo (0:00 - 7:27)

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday Video

Differential Equations

Before successfully mastering Differential Equations in Calculus AB, you must have ALL the basic derivative/ anti-derivatives form MEMORIZED.

Watching Anime "Live reactions"

A live reaction---at least the version of which I am writing---is a video of yourself "reacting" live and in real-time as you watch an anime.  Others can then play back your live reaction as they watch the anime, and it's is like having you in the room with them.  

L'Hopital's Rule

No explanation.  Just two video links that will teach you L'Hopital's Rule in Calculus AB/BC fashion and even give you some practice applying it.

AP Report to the Nation

Have you seen the College Board's 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation?  The numbers are a bit white-washed and curated.  However, one can gleen some interesting trends.  For examaple, 29.2% of Maryland's high school graduates of 2012 scored a 3 or higher on an AP Exam while 8 States had 10% or less.  The USA average was 19.5%.  Although currently, the College Board is a not-for-profit corporation, its CEO earned over $1 million in 2009.  It is my beleif that, ultimately, this report is about increasing or maintaining the College Board's intake of money.  Still, given that the College Board's standardized exams do act as a gate for access to the best of USA society, being knowledgeable about the demographics of success on these exams is important.  Here's the demographic that I recall the most (click  to see a pop-up larger version):