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cultural
literacy
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teaching
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late April 2015 |
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Messenger set to crash into Mercury, Thurs 4/30/15 (NY Times) 10-year mission to end with a bang New Horizons' first color picture of Pluto (Earth & Sky) still three months and 0.75 au from July-14 encounter Dawn photographs Ceres' north pole (Earth & Sky) Dawn moves to the light.... after a month on Ceres' dark side |
Hubble's 25th anniversary (Hubble) starts midnight 4/20/15... with free ebooks and other stuff Hubble: from techno-turkey to icon (NY Times) Hubble's greatest hits (NY Times) with commentary Hubble: powerful & dominant (Washington Post) and stranded in space |
Ancient galaxies die inside out (Sky and Telescope) star formation stops in the central core before on the outskirts... not yet clear why Alien civilizations absent from 100,000 nearby galaxies? (Scientific American) based on the absence of Dyson spheres |
Does dark matter feel a dark force? (Scientific American) that non-dark-matter doesn't (but even the paper's authors are somewhat skeptical) and BBC overstates the case Is the CMB 'Cold Spot' the largest structure in the universe? (Discovery) or just a mistake? Finding dark matter at the LHC, parts 1 and 2 (Matt Strassler) 1) how to detect weakly-interacting matter 2) how to distinguish between dark matter and neutrinos... and a bonus: why the LHC is incapable of resolving the dark matter issue |
Bernie Sanders for President (Vermont Public Radio) and saving us from both the GOP and Hilary Clinton why Sanders is different (Rolling Stone) Putting jobs first (Raleigh N&O) paying a living wage in only a start The real reason poor kids perform worse in life (Washington Post) an exhaustive study, but 'real' seems to end discussion of causes A rare science-based defense of GMO food (Forbes) but, isn't this all really just about money? (i.e., placating the consumer) The most racist places in America (Washington Post) according to Google and searches for the N-word Nobody said that (apparently) (NY Times) those GOP claims of Obamacare causing "rate shocks", "a death spiral", "more people losing care than gaining it"...? now Republicans are denying they ever said such things Elizabeth Warren, the virtual candidate (New Yorker) The joke was Obama was not joking (Vox) the White-House Correspondents' Dinner The end of avocados? (NY Mag) along with a history of the avocado It's Alive! (Washington Post) the Yellowstone National Park volcano ... and if it erupts, 1000x more material than Mt. St. Helens It's not alive, yet, but soon? (Washington Post) the woolly mammoth ... entire genome has been sequenced Zombie ideas and Republican presidential candidates (NY Times) why won't they stop? American Politics: Why the Thrill is Gone (New Yorker) and 8 wishful (but unlikely) scenarios to turn things around The Machines are Coming (NY Times) and the consequences will not be good Americans no longer think health care is a 'right' (NY Times) thanks to Obamacare (and to old people) NC politics Governing by mendacity (Gene Nichol, Raleigh N&O) how it's done by the NC Republican legislature the non-comeback 'Carolina Comeback' (Raleigh N&O) the sad story of decreasing income and lost wages in NC A liberal uprising in NC? (Charlotte Observer) we can only hope -------------------------- Republicans unable to follow own advice (Raleigh N&O) maybe their backward-looking vision will drive them to extinction Food for thought during tax week Americans taxpayers spend $153 billion per year to subsidize McDonalds & WalMart (Washington Post) to pay for food stamps and health care for their low-wage workers and reinforcement from a UC-Berkeley study: Working full-time but still needing federal assistance (NY Times) State taxes in 13 maps & charts (Washington Post) How to create a permanent aristocracy (Washington Post) Republicans' plan to eliminate the estate tax for the super-rich ------------------------ Facebook and Google: wrong (again) on how to arrange offices (Washington Post) the 'open office' is 'like being in middle school with a bunch of adults' |
A is for Affluent, in education (Raleigh N&O) Steven Weinberg's 13 best science books to read (Guardian) the ones since 1976 are decent, but why would anyone (now) read Newton's Principia? an alternative 13 (Forbes) and another (Guardian) Are you smarter than an 8th grader? (NY Times) Why can't US kids be as good at math as kids from Singapore, Turkey, Ghana, Armenia, Indonesia, Palestine...? College for the Masses (NY Times) combating the canard that 'college isn't for everyone' Pearson's wrong answer, and why it matters in the era of high-stakes testing (Washington Post) what happens when you never get to see the test nor the answers |
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early April 2015 |
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First color map of asteroid Ceres (Earth&Sky) suggests an active geological past Mars has glacier belts (Neils Bohr) at mid-latitudes in both Dates when sun enters each zodiac constellation (Earth & Sky) for improving your astrological calculations? ... and what constellation does the sun enter that's not in the zodiac? Eclipse of the Moon, April 4 (Earth & Sky) partial eclipse begins at 6:16 am EDT, ends at sunrise, when the moon sets (at 7:35 am, which is 37 min after sunrise) but, unfortunately, showers are likely that morning in Durham The 5 visible planets in April (Earth & Sky) Venus and Jupiter in the early eveing; Saturn, late night and early morning |
Complex organics found in disk around young star (ESO) methyl cyanide (CH3CN) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) Witnessing a massive star's birth (NRAO) a lot can happen in 18 years |
Dark Energy Survey experiment releases first data (BBC) dark matter (sic) distribution matches prior expectations: it lies near the galaxy clusters (or is it vice versa?) Watch a dust cloud pass in front of Milky Way's supermassive black hole (ESO) its survival in orbit indicates it might be a protostar Phantom objects near dead quasars (Hubble) images of quasars past A SMBH caught stopping star formation (ESA Herschel) by driving large-scale molecular outflows (first-ever example) |
Burning Rings of Fire (Scientific American, April issue) black-hole firewalls are still unknown territory (appropriately behind a paywall?) Black holes don't erase information (U Buffalo) another shot in the never-ending battle Dark matter's weak interaction is weaker than thought (Hubble) based on 72 galaxy collisions (and providing the strongest evidence yet for the reality of dark matter) |
Will the NRA ever stop lying? (Daily Beast) We're Number (NY Times) US is 30th in life expectancy, 38th in saving children’s lives, 55th in women surviving childbirth, 38th in the education equality, 49th in high school enrollment... all the numbers are here Inequality threatens Triangle's rise (Raleigh N&O) rising poverty, increasing inequality, ill-prepared job seekers The rush to humiliate the poor (Washington Post) Calling Out High-Tech Hypocrites (RCP) Facebook, Google, Apple.... are the new robber barons Global-warming deniers in retreat? (Washington Post) wish it were true, but not if you read The Federalilst or The National Review or Redstate The unending problems in the Middle East (NY Times) how does this not end badly? Does climate change mean we don't have to conserve anymore? (New Yorker) the other cost of climate change the RFRA affair Fix it Now (Indianapolis Star) says its front-page editorial Why the backlash against Indiana's law when 19 other states have one? (Washington Post) it's about both timing and content (7) Questions for Indiana's critics (NY Times) a thoughtful article (from a conservative, no less) about where freedom ends.... why Indiana deserves the scorn it's getting Time it's like establishing Sharia law in America New Republic it lets Big Business discriminate why it doesn't NY Times politeness is better than compulsion National Review it's important to preserve the majority's right to intolerance |
Is it Nature or Nurture that makes kids love school? (New York mag) research says it's even more genetic than cognitive ability (or eye or hair color) .... so let's stop blaming (or rewarding) teachers for something out of their control Children with low self-control are more likely to be unemployed later (Pacific Standard) is this generic too? Why I quit teaching in NC (Raleigh N&O) 13 reasons What UNC professours actually do (Raleigh N&O) NC legislative proposal to demand UNC faculty to teach more... another day, another attack on UNC Your baby is doing physics experiments (Washington Post) they test gravity, states of matter, ... Charter Schools, High Scores, and Polarizing Tactics (NY Times) The Real Reason College Costs So Much (NY Times) it's the ballooning of administrative positions, and NOT a drop in public spending |
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late March 2015 |
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Jupiter's 'Grand Attack' on the inner solar system resulted in a small Earth (UC-Santa Cruz) it destroyed the super-Earths that formed before Earth and left us no planets really close to the sun and expanded commentary from Astronomy A new theory to explain Stonehenge (Washington Post) the missing altar wood is the key Not traveling to the Arctic sea for the March 20 solar eclipse? watch it live: via Slooh starts 4:30 am EST 3/20 via Virtual Telescope starts 4:15 am EST 3/20 |
Supernovas and the origin of dust (Astronomy) dust can indeed survive the supernova shock wave |
Searching for life on exoplanets by looking for the colors of life (Max Planck Institute) Are exoplanets more likely to be water-rich? (Astrobites) |
Ripples and Rings in the Milky Way (Renssalear) our galaxy may be 50% larger than thought... with a 20-minute and 50-minute videos |
How income inequality benefits everyone (Washington Post) as usual, the always- unreasonable George Will confuses cause and effect iEverything: (Robert Reich) is income redistribution inevitable? |
America's obsession with STEM education is dangerous (Washington Post) what's really dangerous is a person with a minimal STEM education writing about things he knows nothing about The Deconstruction of the K-12 Teacher (Atlantic) if kids can get lessons from the Internet, what's left for a teacher to do? The Death of Textbooks (Atlantic) does it matter that there is no evidence that students do better with online materials? 'The End of College' onslaught How a University priced itself to higher rankings (NY Times) George Washington U: a case study Goodbye SAT (Washington Post) how on-line courses will change college admissions Revolution in Higher Education? only when online degrees happen (NY Times) What free Higher Ed looks like (NPR, Fresh Air) with 30-minute audio and the backlash Techno Fantasies (Inside Higher Ed) how Carey misrepresents on-line education success Higher Education isn't in crisis (Washington Post) from Janet Napolitano, UCal President ------------------------ The End of College (Washington Post) get an education, not a degree The real value of higher education (Raleigh N&O) UNC president Tom Ross takes on the latest education fads & follies A revolution in teaching? (Guardian) 'great teacher are made, not born' ... 'teaching is a performance art' The absurd college admissions mania: Where you go is not what you'll be (Diane Rehm show, 1-hr podcast) what? really? |
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| early March 2015 |
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Underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede? (Hubble) from gravimetric analysis: 60-mi thick, under 95 miles of ice Enceladus: first evidence of hydrothermal vents beyond Earth (Nature) unexpected silicate particles in geysers Nature research article Dawn at Ceres (NASA) Dawn in orbit as of March 6! the best photos of Ceres by Dawn (NY Times) 3-minute aurora video from Manitoba (Earth & Sky) why must auroral videos have music? Ancient Mars had an Atlantic-size ocean (NY Times) so say (some) scientists Oceans from the skies (Scientific American, March issue, courtesy of author) what's the source of Earth's ocean water: comets, asteroids, or something else? Methane-based life forms on Titan? (Cornell U.) |
Watching a supernova explode again and again and again and .... (NY Times, with video) with the help of gravitational lensing Unexpected star formation found at the top of the thick-dust layer in Milky Way halo (Sky & Telescope) 16,000 cyrs above the plane |
An exoplanet with (NASA JPL) although you would only see 3 from the planet Life beyond Earth? Do we want to know? (Washington Post) the battle over whether we should actively search for ET |
dwarf galaxies: 3 new neighbors of Milky Way found and maybe 6 more (Earth & Sky) it's like waking up one morning and noticing for the first time the three new houses adjacent to yours... except they've always been there and why is one of them emitting x-rays? (NY Times) hints at the origin of dark matter?? A Dusty Galaxy at the Time of Reionization (Nature) it's surprising that a moderate-size galaxy should have a significant amount of heavy elements & dust only 700 Myr A.B. commentary by National Geographic) and Sky and Telescope An interview with Jamie Bock, of BICEP2 (Preposterous Universe) The Universal Attraction of Black Holes (OnPoint) 1-hr podcast from WBUR, prompted by the recent discovery of giant black hole already existing in the early universe |
LHC 2.0 what to expect in the reboot of the LHC (Nature) what kind of Higgs? last gasp for SUSY? & known unknowns |
Lies that go unpunished (Raleigh N&O) yet Americans remain caught up in the frivolous McCrory's blind spot on ethics (Raleigh N&O) Wall Street, where the average bonus is 3x the average American household income (Washington Post) and what is it that they actually do again? Wikipedia sues NSA (NY Times) to stop spying on its users Robots vs. the Underclass (National Journal) not only fewer jobs for the underclass; fewer for everyone States of Change: the demographic evolution of the American electorate (American Progress) Intend to be alive in 2060? here's what the country will look like color, perception, & science black, blue, gold, or white? (Tumbler) it's clearly black and gold The Science (Wired) How color tricks the eye (Washington Post) 12 optical color illusions |
An F for NC's school letter grades (Raleigh N&O) by a long-time Durham p.s. teacher How parents create narcissistic children (New York magazine) The War on Science (National Geographic, March issue) why we have such a hard time believing research-based results above author et al. on Why we doubt scientific findings (Diane Rehm show, 1-hour podcast) Room for Debate: What Makes a Good Teacher (NY Times) well, 4 of the 5 had something intelligent to say US millenials 'abysmal' at tech skills compared to foreign peers (Washington Post) the one thing they're supposed to be good at Failing to invest in NC Schools erodes our very foundation (Raleigh N&O) NC funding per pupil has decreased by 14.5% since 2008... anyone paying attention? |
