conuly

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:59:37 GMT

Apparently, it's news how companies deliberately add extraneous steps to boxed food products so that people feel they're actually cooking, kinda like how people prefer stingy antibiotics for cuts to painless ones. I thought everybody knew that already.

http://on.wsj.com/17nbZOu

It's still a fascinating insight into the human mind, though : )

On a similar note, fast food companies are currently working to make their food look more raggedy and less perfect so people will think more highly of it. There is something disturbing about that, I must say.

http://bit.ly/17mO0z3

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You know, it's amazing to me sometimes to read comments about education.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:00:43 GMT

Everybody is convinced that things were better when they grew up, and they use the most ridiculous ways to prove it. Inevitably, in some conversation about phonics, somebody who vaguely knows "phonics are better" but has no idea what that means will say that they know phonics are better because back in the 50s everybody learned from Dick and Jane and nobody of that age is illiterate today! And when talking about math, every single time, a dozen people will falsely proclaim that nobody was poor at math back when they or their grandparents grew up (whenever that was!) and that THEY certainly learned the traditional way - like everybody did up until ten years ago! (Some people never heard of New Math?)

Today I read one that made me roll my eyes. This kid was given two numbers - say 13 and 22 - and told to estimate the answer. She added the numbers, got 35, and was predictably marked wrong. This infuriated her father, as he commented, because "schools are just teaching kids what they'll never use instead of what they need to know!!"

I would've marked that one wrong too! She didn't do what was asked, which is round each number and THEN add. And I don't know about him, but I use estimation all the time. I certainly don't add up every single penny as I shop, I go to the nearest quarter. And I always find a reasonable range before adding (though if its only two numbers I do it without thinking) so that if I get a VERY wrong number I can tell before I check! But it's something about asking kids to estimate (never mind that, if my education was typical, most parents of my generation were formally taught to do that too) that seems to irritate people. People get irritated about lattice multiplication, but they get incensed about estimating and rounding. I just don't get it!

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sigh

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:32:18 GMT

It's nearly 90 today, so when I picked up Evangeline I suggested we go to the beach as soon as homework was done. It's the end of the year, teachers don't care about homework anymore either, so it's nothing.

As we waited for Ana, I noticed a few clouds gathering.

As we walked home, the girls eagerly chattering about the beach, I noticed it was getting darker, with those few clouds now taking up ever more space.

I checked the weather forecast - no rain until seven!

As we fetched our bathing suits, though, I heard thunder. Turned off the fans. Still heard thunder.

Now the rain is actually coming down, and it's only been half an hour since I got Ana! 45 minutes ago, it was sunny! It's just not fair!

Ugh. Well, with any luck tomorrow will be sunny. (Hah! Now that I've said it, we're sure to get hail.)

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Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:55:19 GMT

Boy Scout's Policies Benefit Alternate Groups

http://nyti.ms/15wJKIl

( Read more... )

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So, I'm making my summer calendar.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:52:25 GMT

And do you know what movie the historical museum is showing at the end of July?

NEWSIES!

(This week is Muppets Take Manhattan, also a good choice.)

I am so there.

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I picked up a set of polyhedral dice for math practice this summer.

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:36:53 GMT

They came with a red warning label stating that they are a choking hazard (duh) and thus not suitable for anybody under the magic age of 8. Eight! Sorry, Eva, I guess it's more worksheets and definitely no more Parcheesi until October!

I don't know where they get these ages from. Doesn't it occur to anybody writing warning notes that if your kid is still inappropriately putting things in their mouths at seven that eight isn't going to be that much better? And of course the end result is that people just generally disregard warning labels altogether - even if they really ought to follow them! But how can anybody be expected to sift through all the warnings to find the useful, reality-based ones? Easier to assume they're all good and stifle your kids, or they're all nonsense and actually put your kids at risk on the rare occasion where reading the warning was a great idea.

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We are in the middle of an extremely wet and cool June.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:03:23 GMT

Honestly, I wish the furnace was on! (But it's not. The month is June. Having the heat on would be ridiculous and also pricy.) Poor Eva had her field day moved indoors, and was moaning about it yesterday. Ranting, really. I finally managed to say that really, it wasn't her teachers' fault that the weather is so miserable lately.

Eva: What do you mean, miserable? How do you know the weather is miserable? Did you ask him? No, you did NOT!
Me: Well, I, um... What do you mean "him"? She could be miserable!
Eva: Why she?
Me: Clearly, the weather is just as likely to be a girl as a boy.
Eva: No, has to be a boy. Girls don't burst into tears every day for no real reason.

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A while back I came across a discussion of the Don - Dawn merger.

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:02:14 GMT

Not that the participants on that message board used that term, because none of them had the requisite background to use terms like that. They understood it was a dialectical thing and that some people could distinguish the relevant phonemes while others couldn't, but those without the merger had no way to explain the distinction to those with it. (And for your edification, the two sounds are formed very similarly, but the aw in dawn has rounded lips.)

When I was little, I had speech therapy. The first year I had a teacher who really knew her stuff and showed me diagrams of how to position my tongue and lips and all to make specific sounds. I remember sitting in that stuffy little room on the sixth floor of a building that really only had five floors (and one little room halfway between the top floor and the roof) pondering the fact that you couldn't make a short e before a nasal. (I didn't know other people could or did!)

All the other years were mostly wasted. Straight-forward, explicit teaching was what I needed. But even just the idea that you could take the sounds in words and tell other people in clear language how to make them was revolutionary to me!

We keep trying to hone in on where on earth Eva's spelling issues come from. Recently I realized that she doesn't consistently hear a distinction between s, sh, and ch. Well, I'm pretty sure she can hear the difference between sue and chew, but if you throw shoe into the mix she's bound to get confused, especially if the words really are lease, leash, and leech. Once I realized that, I realized that she often (not always, but often) makes all those sounds with some sort of indeterminate mumble. And then when she spells she never knows which letters are possible! Well, it's a fixable problem, even if its hard to get the school to provide actual speech therapy. Luckily, I do know you can find a clear way to describe every single phoneme, even the impossible sounding ones.

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Wow.

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:57:42 GMT

It would be worth putting in the effort to learn to ride a bike (I fell down enough on my two feet as a kid, let alone two wheels!) just to use one of these things!

http://www.dannychoo.com/en/post/26963/Japan+Underground+Bicycle+Parking+Systems.html

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Device From Israeli Start-Up Gives the Visually Impaired a Way to Read

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:38:59 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/science/israeli-start-up-gives-visually-impaired-a-way-to-read.html

( Read more... )

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I'm not sure if this is awesome or just amazing

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:54:51 GMT

http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/about/

But look - vintage-style radio shows that are all the same brand new! How cool is that? How often do I get irritated watching TV because I can't *watch* it all the time but action happens that you have to see to understand? (I constantly have that problem with Switched at Birth. I watch TV while playing games on the iPad, but half the dialog there is in ASL. By the time I realize they're not talking aloud, three sentences have gone by.)

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Amazon reviews, an endless source of amusement.

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:11:22 GMT

Today it was one concerned parent who didn't like a book on puberty she had bought for her nine year old because...

1. There were pictures of the male and female external genitals with "everything labelled!"
2. There were diagrams of the reproductive system on the inside, like "a textbook!"
3. It mentioned that sex and birth control exist, and that people have sex because it feels good. ("I don't want to give her ideas! What if she tried it out?")
4. It mentioned tampons. Yes, tampons. Nine is too young to know they exist. At this point, I'm rather puzzled as to what sort of information she DID want included!

Another reviewer was incensed because the book mentioned both homosexuality and abortion and didn't immediately label them as evil. "I just wanted the facts, not indoctrination!" (and unlike the other quotes, which are really paraphrases, that one IS a direct quote.) I want to sit him down with a dictionary and make him copy out the definition of "fact" and "indoctrination" five times each.

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Found keys!

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:11:19 GMT

Lost metrocard. Found other metrocard, which had been bent before it got lost. *sigh* I've had forgetful, losing-everything periods before, but this is getting ridiculous! Also, now I need a new metrocard that isn't bent.

Took the nieces to Coney Island for Brooklyn Day. (That's not a real holiday, it's just a day off of school.) Trucked out sand toys and a metric ton of leftover sand and towels and suits and all, but it stayed so cold and cloudy and windy that we never made it to the beach part of the beach. We did go on two solitary rides around the historic "carousell". To the delight of the operators, Ana requested they turn off the music the second time around, and since it was just us they were thrilled to oblige. Going around on a silent carousel is a surreal experience, never doubt it! Ana was happy, though, and they got to spend as much time as they liked picking out their horses.

On the way out we passed two people getting strapped into the "Boardwalk Flight". No wonder those rides are so pricey, they wouldn't be profitable with the lengthy safety procedures otherwise! The crowd of kids at the fence didn't expect those two to come soaring out over our heads! Next time we go the nieces want to go on some of the costlier rides, and I said yes so long as they forgo the Luna Park wristband. It's one or the other!

Even though the weather was semi-miserable, our yearly trip was worth it. Monday is a half day, so maybe we'll go to the beach near us then.

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Hopefully the last letter of the school year.

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:49:32 GMT

They're improving. No italics, and even though their use of quotation marks is still odd and they are apparently conflicted about whether it is "the fifth grade" or "grade five" that will be graduating (not to mention whether that illustrious event occurs in the PS ## lunchroom or instead simply the lunchroom), it's pretty much readable.

Then I got to the personal note.

I want to thank all of you for another wonderful year! Working together we have made a huge difference in the lives of all our "dolphins". We have seen them grow both academically as well as socially as we prepare them to be the "future productive, law-abiding citizens of our society".

Is it just me, or does the high hopes that the students will be law-abiding sound like really, really faint praise? (Plus, is that even a goal? I want the nieces to act ethically and follow their consciences. In some circumstances, that may require breaking the law. Schools aren't big on civil disobedience, generally, but... really?)

Still, it's better than the note about Pennies for Patients, which informed us all that we were donating money to cure "leukemia". Their quotes, definitely their quotes. I'm far from the only one to routinely snark on these notes.

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I still hadn't found Ana's keys or my glasses.

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:25:59 GMT

So I went to tidy her room a bit while looking for them.

Moved the bedding off the bed and shook it out. No glasses. Got all the stuff out from under the bed and either tossed it or moved it into the laundry. No glasses. Moved the books off the floor. No glasses.

Finally I gave up and decided to move my bed. I hadn't found the glasses, but maybe I could find my keys, right?

I didn't find my keys, but guess where I found the glasses? Of course, that raises so many new questions.

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Evangeline and I saw a woodpecker this morning as we walked to school!

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:34:06 GMT

You can hear woodpeckers often enough, but I've never been able to see one before, so that was something special!

Lots of mockingbirds this year as well, and google agrees with my perception that their population in this area is increasing. They certainly are pretty, if noisy.

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I lost my keys last week.

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:56:21 GMT

I forgot to take them out of the pocket when washing my pants, they were very hot so I put them down somewhere while I put my pants on, and then... nothing.

I found them after realizing that really, the only place they could be was under the mattress.

Today it was very rainy in the morning. I got home, took off my pants, headed to the dryer, remembered how I lost my keys last time, and cleverly took them out of the pocket in advance.

All well and good, but now where the hell did I put them? They have the library card on them!

Also, somewhat more pressingly, what on earth did Ana do with her glasses, and where are they?

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Oh, wow!

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:21:47 GMT

I'm always a sucker for unscripted video or static images from the past.

Amazing Time Capsule Video – 1939 New York City In Full Color
Posted on June 2, 2013

http://www.xtraneus.com/new-york-city-1939-full-color/

I think I've played in that very same sprinkleriffic playground, too!

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First, this Cheerios ad is adorable.

Fri, 31 May 2013 13:13:27 GMT

http://gawker.com/cheerios-ad-starring-interracial-family-predictably-sum-510591871

Secondly, the throwbacks are out being their bigoted selves complaining about ONE ad, out of THOUSANDS, that shows an interracial couple. Nevermind that about 8% of all US marriages are interracial.

I'm reading the comments and taking names. Everybody saying something racist is going on the big list of "who gets eaten first if we happen to all be trapped on a desert island". They may as well contribute positively in some way. (They're also on the "not if we were the last two people on earth" list. The species can just go extinct.)

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An editorial on everybody's favorite prison

Thu, 30 May 2013 18:01:16 GMT

Guantánamo Bay
Enough to make you gag

http://www.economist.com/node/21577065

( Read more... )

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Thu, 30 May 2013 16:24:23 GMT

With Money at Risk, Hospitals Push Staff to Wash Hands

http://nyti.ms/ZcRm1K

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Task Forces Offer Hoarders a Way to Dig Out

http://nyti.ms/18t4uSZ

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Summer’s Steeds, Back Home

http://nyti.ms/10Z5vNk

It has pictures of the carousel horses!

http://nyti.ms/13MnGdi

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When Hollywood Wants Good, Clean Fun, It Goes to Mormon Country

http://nyti.ms/12vrWLn

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An article on the testyourvocab site.

Thu, 30 May 2013 14:44:19 GMT

http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/05/vocabulary-size

They now have results!

Interesting thing here. At the end of the article, the author mock-complains that everybody bragged last article about their purported vocabulary size, ignoring the warning that it is "naff" to do so. Definitely his word, I'm pretty sure I only learned it in the last few minutes. One commenter jokingly (?) suggested that maybe they ignored the warning because "naff" isn't in their vocabulary!

It's the sort of comment you see all the time, that a book or movie uses words the commenter "doesn't know". Do people really not teach students to wiggle out the meaning of a word via context anymore? I see that all the time, and I *know* that is a skill we were explicitly taught!

(Then again, we were also explicitly taught that c always and only makes the s sound in front of the letters e, i, and y, and yet if you look up any information about phonics instruction you'll find page after page of people saying they only learned that rule as an adult, and now they're a convert on the subject. I find that a nifty way to sort out who had only whole word instruction as a child. Point is, sometimes people aren't taught basic information when they should be. That's not their fault.)

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WE HAVE RADISHES!!!

Thu, 30 May 2013 14:38:12 GMT

And my potatoes, peas, and lettuce are doing great! My tomatoes, watermelon, and cauliflower are doing okay, the carrots and beets aren't coming up at all. I improved the soil drainage a bit too much, and now I have to back up and improve water retention. Sigh, sigh, sigh. Now that the weather is warm, though, I can finally plant my corn plot and my okra.

I wasn't sure how I'd tell when the radishes were ripe, but it turns out they poke out of the soil. That's convenient! It was so much fun finding and pulling them I'll probably plant some more.

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Getting to Know Our Microbial Roommates

Wed, 29 May 2013 14:22:50 GMT

http://nyti.ms/13VsIEC

Interesting fact: our pillows contain the same sort of microbes as our toilet seats. Usually I tell people that your phone is dirtier than any toilet seat, but I think I'll start using "pillow" instead. If it deters hoverers, so much the better!

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Next to You on the Subway

http://nyti.ms/10YnFOd

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Linkety link!

Mon, 27 May 2013 19:28:19 GMT

The Health Toll of Immigration

http://nyti.ms/10ZZR28

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Wily Cockroaches Find Another Survival Trick: Laying Off the Sweets

http://nyti.ms/12Q9xL5

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Young Americans Lead Trend to Less Driving

http://nyti.ms/YSaUKM

( Read more... )

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