The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s observation, not overturning it.”  –Edward Bulwer-Lytton

 

Perspective

From today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal, one more thing for which to be thankful:

 

How Little We Know

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

– F.A. Hayek

 

Americans REALLY don’t know their own religions

A new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life suggests that Americans really don’t know much about their own religion:

More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45 percnt) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. About half of Protestants (53 percent) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation, which made their religion a separate branch of Christianity. Roughly four-in-ten Jews (43 percent) do not recognize that Maimonides, one of the most venerated rabbis in history, was Jewish.

The chart below breaks down the respondents’ accuracy on the Pew quiz:

Amazingly, atheists/agnostics scored higher than anyone but Jewish respondents.

The image at the top of this post came from the article (link below).  It reminded me of this bumper sticker that I recently saw on the web:

Via: http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/blogs/heather-wax/most-americans-don%E2%80%99t-know-much-about-their-own-faith-traditions

 

Check Out a Dog at Yale Law School Library

This is really cool: Yale Law School’s library checks out dogs for 30-minute breaks with students.

And for the students, it’s nothing short of brilliant. Just check out the rest of the entry and tell me that 30 minutes with a nice animal wouldn’t provide a welcome break during study time:

Notes
Monty circulates for 30 minute periods.
Graduate of Puppy School, 2000 (with honors), Certified Therapy Dog, 2010. Distinguishing features: white star on chest. Monty plays well with others and is fond of bacon. (Please don’t feed him hot dogs, that’s just wrong.)
Woof (unknown script).

Subjects
Monty (Dog)
Therapy dogs.
Dogs in libraries.
Stress relievers for law students.

Additional author
Aiken, Julian, owner.

Title note
Full name: General Montgomery

Why do I have the suspicion that this idea came from a librarian who got tired of exercising his dog?  Even so, it’s a great idea.

 

Chem Ph.D. thesis as a dance routine

I love creative ways to convey information.  Linked below is one of the cleverest I’ve seen in a long time: Maureen McKeague—a chemistry Ph.D. candidate at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada—turned her complicated thesis into an easy-to-follow dance routine.

After watching her video, I clearly did not understand the processes involved in “Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment”.  I did, however, have some idea of what she’s talking about, plus a smile on my face.

It’s well worth a viewing.

Via: Chemistry Ph.D. thesis explained via dance routine – Boing Boing.

 

Beautiful Video: Nature by Numbers

A beautiful video on the theme of numbers and geometry in nature.

Nature by Numbers on Vimeo on Vimeo

via Nature by Numbers on Vimeo.

 

America’s First Muslim College to Open this Fall

Located, of course, in Berkeley:

Letters of admission went out last month to the approximately 20 students who will make up the inaugural freshman class of Zaytuna College, which founders hope will become the nation’s first accredited Muslim institution of higher learning.

… Zaytuna will be a Muslim liberal arts college in the same tradition as other sectarian liberal arts colleges that operate in this country. In its early years, Zaytuna will offer bachelor’s degrees in Islamic law and theology and Arabic, according to Dr. Hatem Bazian, a co-founder of the college and chair of its academic affairs committee. As the college grows, he says, it will add majors.

Just how liberal can a muslim college actually be?  Cartoons of Mohammed in art class?  Critical analysis of the Koran in philosophy?

It will be fascinating to see whether Zaytuna College will have to meet the multi-culti standards of political correctness imposed on other colleges, or whether it will get an exemption from all that.  I’m betting on the exemption.

via America’s First Muslim College To Open This Fall.

 

Scientists find how relaxed minds remember better | Reuters

So, where can I get my relaxation pills?

Stronger and more lasting memories are likely to be formed when a person is relaxed and the memory-related neurons in the brain fire in sync with certain brain waves, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers from the United States said their findings could help develop new therapies for people with learning disabilities and some types of dementia.

“This study establishes a direct relationship between events at the circuit level of the brain…and their effects on human behavior,” said Ueli Rutishauser of the California Institute of Technology, who worked on the study.

Synchronization in the brain is influenced by “theta waves” which are associated with relaxation, daydreaming and drowsiness, but also with learning and memory formation, the scientists explained in the study in the journal Nature.

While scientists already know that relaxed minds are better at receiving new information, this study pinpoints a mechanism by which relaxation neurons work together to improve memory.

“Our research shows that when memory-related neurons are well coordinated to theta waves during the learning process, memories are stronger,” said Adam Mamelak, a neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

via Scientists find how relaxed minds remember better | Reuters.

 

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home

According to allegations in a class action suit,

laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools’ administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families.

If true, this is outrageous.

And the school officials are world-class idiots:

The issue came to light when the Robbins’s child was disciplined for “improper behavior in his home” and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.

via School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home Boing Boing.

 

German homeschoolers granted US asylum

A US Immigration Judge has granted political asylum to a German couple who chose to homeschool their children, after Germany’s highest court ruled that social services officials could remove children from their parents.

After that decision, Romeike said, “We knew we had to leave the country.”

“During the last 10-20 years the curriculum in public schools has been more and more against Christian values,” he said of his decision to teach his children at home.

According to Mr. Romeike, when his oldest children were in public schools they had problems with violence, bullying and peer pressure.  The Romeikes took their three oldest children out of public school, for which they were fined the equivalent of about $10,000 over a two-year period.

We didn’t pay it all because we couldn’t,” he said. “We went to court and tried to fight against it – without success.”

Reportedly, the Immigration Judge considered the right to homeschool a fundamental human right, and Germany’s attempt to punish the exercise of that right warranted the grant of asylum in the US.

This will make a very interesting precedent.  And opens the question: What other rights have similar status?

via German homeschoolers granted political asylum – washingtonpost.com.

 

Tech school can’t handle science project

A San Diego school was evacuated  Friday, after a Vice Principal mistook an 11-year-old student’s science project for a bomb.

Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School, grades 6 to 8, which emphasizes technology skills, was put on lockdown while authorities responded.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department,

said the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached. There was no substance inside….

A MAST robot took pictures of the device and X-rays were evaluated. About 3 p.m., the device was determined to be harmless, Luque said.

Luque said the project was intended to be a type of motion-detector device.

Both the student and his parents were “very cooperative” with authorities, Luque said. He said fire officials also went to the student’s home and checked the garage to make sure items there were neither harmful nor explosive.

“There was nothing hazardous at the house,” Luque said….

Luque said both the student and his parents were extremely upset.

“He was very shaken by the whole situation, as were his parents,” Luque said.

According to the report,

The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.

What policies?  And counseling for what?  It sounds as though the Vice Principal needs counseling, or reassignment to a school where the students are less likely to bring science projects to school.

Link: Science project prompts SD school evacuation – SignOnSanDiego.com.

 

. . . vether it’s worth while goin’ through so much, to learn so little, as the charity-boy said ven he got to the end of the alphabet, is a matter o’ taste.”

– Sam Weller, in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers