Links for you. Science:
Steam Punk
“What’s in the Beef?” Survey Results
Genetics study reveals 79 potentially new species of sharks and rays: what does it mean for science and conservation?
The World’s Best Innovation That Isn’t Worth Investing In (that would be genomics; the issue isn’t investing in technology but its application)
Other:
Founding fathers quotes you probably haven’t heard
Shit Boston Cops Say: The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association maligns blacks, Muslims, gays, and women — in plain sight, backed by some of the region’s wealthiest brands
The myth of “they weren’t ever taught….” (I put this and the next link for discussion, since I’m not sure how they jibe with the increase in NAEP scores)
Why the kids don’t know no algebra
Islamist fighters in Timbuktu continue destruction of city’s mausoleums, heritage
The Great American Toothache
Anderson Cooper Has Been Gaycasting On Your TV For Years
How the Recession Made Me a Gentrifier in My Home Town
What Doesn’t Belong? Or, that Awkward Vacant Condominium on My Block.
Inflating the regulatory state: TSA and border security account for almost all the increase in regulatory staff since 1980
Amber Waves of Green
How Democrats fall into the welfare trap
Cranky Uncles, for Better or Worse, Will Lurk in More Exam Rooms
Dear Internet Don’t Do This
Vote For Me
If Colleges Want Federal Funds, They’ll Have to Prove Students Get Jobs
The Rwandan example
mikethemadbiologist
I recognize that people differ in cognitive ability. But I’m also concerned about placing too much emphasis on cognitive ability when trying to figure out why large groups of students fail, especially those who are in disadvantaged groups, because it’s all too easy to just conclude that marginalized groups are simply not smart enough to make it, in large part, without addressing some of the other really pervasive things that can cause school failure, like poverty. It can be pretty hard to learn algebra or pre-algebra if you don’t know when you’re getting out of the homeless shelter or couldn’t get any sleep last night because from all the noise in the shitty apartment complex you have to live in because your parents can’t afford a better place.
It’s just a matter of emphasis. We should be trying to make it easier for people to rise into the middle class and not fund schools by property taxes, which institutionalize the pattern of good and bad school districts, so that everyone can get a baseline equal education. After that, we can chalk up student failure to individual intellectual inadequacy.