great teachers

Good teachers are gifted at making valuable, lasting impacts on their students’ lives, and there are quite a few traits that research suggests many of our favorites share. In honor of World Teachers’ Day today, we’d like to recognize what it takes to be an outstanding educator — and maybe even encourage you to give the profession a try yourself.

Great Teachers Are Skilled Communicators

Sure, teachers need to know what they’re talking about when it comes to handing down lessons, but they must also relay that information in ways their students can understand. Additionally, strong educators deliver clear feedback, motivate their students, and listen to their questions and concerns (after all, listening is half of effective communication).

They Have Piles of Patience

Kindergarteners may need help staying quiet during class, high school students may need that tenth daily reminder to get off their phone … the list of reasons teachers need patience (in droves) goes on. And according to teacher and author Richard James Rogers, skilled educators recognize that it may take some students longer than others to achieve their academic goals.

“Sometimes our students just seem to ‘grow’ into achievement. Some grow slowly and steadily like a plant that is regularly fed and watered,” he wrote on his website. “Some shoot up in a surprising spurt: defying everyone’s initial predictions. I believe strongly in the power of patience when working with students. This takes emotional control on the part of the teacher, but the reward is well-worth the wait.”

Good Educators Treat Others With Respect …

Great teachers understand the value of respect to cultivate an environment in which students feel safe to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and be themselves. “Respect is a very important foundational factor in the development and maintenance of a healthy learning environment. It is respect that opens space for the development of trust and learning,” educational leaders Jill Berkowicz and Ann Myers wrote for Education Week, noting, “Dignity is a human right, essential for all in schools.”

… And Pivot When Needed

It’s important, of course, for great teachers to thoroughly understand their subject matter — but it’s also essential that they’re able to think on their feet. Educators may need to pivot their lessons depending on their students’ learning styles and situations that arise in their classrooms. And to do so, they need to be adaptable.

“Perhaps one of the most important, but hardest to define, skills is teachers’ decision-making capability. Knowing what to do or say next during the flow of instruction is never easy, partly because there’s no ‘one best way’ to engage students, present content, or address a student mistake,” Harvard teacher learning and practice professor Heather Hill wrote for The Harvard Gazette, adding that the best teachers “can respond smoothly in the moment when students don’t understand material or get distracted.”

learn anything faster

Science proves there are six ways you can learn and retain something faster.

1. TEACH SOMEONE ELSE (OR JUST PRETEND TO)

If you imagine that you’ll need to teach someone else the material or task you are trying to grasp, you can speed up your learning and remember more, according to a study done at Washington University in St. Louis. The expectation changes your mind-set so that you engage in more effective approaches to learning than those who simply learn to pass a test, according to John Nestojko, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology and coauthor of the study.

“When teachers prepare to teach, they tend to seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure,” Nestojko writes. “Our results suggest that students also turn to these types of effective learning strategies when they expect to teach.”

2. LEARN IN SHORT BURSTS OF TIME

Experts at the Louisiana State University’s Center for Academic Success suggest dedicating 30-50 minutes to learning new material. “Anything less than 30 is just not enough, but anything more than 50 is too much information for your brain to take in at one time,” writes learning strategies graduate assistant Ellen Dunn. Once you’re done, take a five to 10 minute break before you start another session.

Brief, frequent learning sessions are much better than longer, infrequent ones, agrees Neil Starr, a course mentor at Western Governors University, an online nonprofit university where the average student earns a bachelor’s degree in two and a half years.

He recommends preparing for micro learning sessions. “Make note cards by hand for the more difficult concepts you are trying to master,” he says. “You never know when you’ll have some in-between time to take advantage of.”

3. TAKE NOTES BY HAND

While it’s faster to take notes on a laptop, using a pen and paper will help you learn and comprehend better. Researchers at Princeton University and UCLA found that when students took notes by hand, they listened more actively and were able to identify important concepts. Taking notes on a laptop, however, leads to mindless transcription, as well as an opportunity for distraction, such as email.

“In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand,” writes coauthor and Princeton University psychology professor Pam Mueller. “We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.”

4. USE THE POWER OF MENTAL SPACING

While it sounds counterintuitive, you can learn faster when you practice distributed learning, or “spacing.” In an interview with The New York Times, Benedict Carey, author of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, says learning is like watering a lawn. “You can water a lawn once a week for 90 minutes or three times a week for 30 minutes,” he said. “Spacing out the watering during the week will keep the lawn greener over time.”

To retain material, Carey said it’s best to review the information one to two days after first studying it. “One theory is that the brain actually pays less attention during short learning intervals,” he said in the interview. “So repeating the information over a longer interval–say a few days or a week later, rather than in rapid succession–sends a stronger signal to the brain that it needs to retain the information.”

5. TAKE A STUDY NAP

Downtime is important when it comes to retaining what you learn, and getting sleep in between study sessions can boost your recall up to six months later, according to new research published in Psychological Science.

In an experiment held in France, participants were taught the Swahili translation for 16 French words in two sessions. Participants in the “wake” group completed the first learning session in the morning and the second session in the evening of the same day, while participants in the “sleep” group completed the first session in the evening, slept, and then completed the second session the following morning. Participants who had slept between sessions recalled about 10 of the 16 words, on average, while those who hadn’t slept recalled only about 7.5 words.

“Our results suggest that interweaving sleep between practice sessions leads to a twofold advantage, reducing the time spent relearning and ensuring a much better long-term retention than practice alone,” writes psychological scientist Stephanie Mazza of the University of Lyon. “Previous research suggested that sleeping after learning is definitely a good strategy, but now we show that sleeping between two learning sessions greatly improves such a strategy.”

6. CHANGE IT UP

When learning a new motor skill, changing the way you practice it can help you master it faster, according to a new study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In an experiment, participants were asked to learn a computer-based task. Those who used a modified learning technique during their second session performed better than those who repeated the same method.

The findings suggest that reconsolidation–a process in which existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledge–plays a key role in strengthening motor skills, writes Pablo A. Celnik, senior study author and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

“What we found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master,” he writes, “you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row.”

-- from the Feeding Curiosity newsletter, 5/19/24

7 Books that Will Change How You See The World

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

On The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche

Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Taleb

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil

The Denial of Death by Ernest Becke

-- by Mark Mason

[OK, seven more to go...]

Friends of the Library online

Foodies and home cooks can have a field day perusing the online catalog of cookbooks available from Friends of the Library of Hawaii, not just for recipes but nostalgic glimpses into different circles of community life.

It seems every group in Hawaii, from the Koko Head Elementary School A+ program to the Junior League to the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin has put out a cookbook at one time or another.

“The local cookbooks sell very quickly,” said executive director Nainoa Mau. “People are looking for family recipes.”

These community cookbooks usually are published in small quantities by churches, clubs and organizations, which make them hard to find. Most are inexpensively bound with plastic spines and covers, illustrated by hand, and average just $3 to $5. In fact, everything for sale by the Friends goes for a mere fraction of the cover price, and less than at other second-hand sources.

Normally, most of these books would find new homes through the Friends’ annual book sale, a colossal fundraiser usually held over 11 days in June at McKinley High School. The sale was canceled this year due to COVID-19. That means 150,000 items (including CDs and vinyl records) are still taking up space at the Friends’ Halawa warehouse.

But the books are all still available to the public via the nonprofit’s website, he said. More than 26,000 titles of all genres have been uploaded to the site, with lots more added every day.

“We have tons of great stuff here,” said Mau, standing among rows of shelves and boxes of books piled halfway to the ceiling at the warehouse. And frankly, he and his volunteers are getting a bit anxious. “We’re packed to the gills,” and every day more book donations pile up.

They need to move a lot of merchandise, or he and his staff of volunteers soon won’t be able to walk in between the rows.

Cookbooks in general are the most popular of all genres with 10 categories, from Asian to holiday, from baking and desserts to beverages.

“There was panic in the beginning,” Pat Oshiro, a four-year volunteer, said. People were coming every 15 minutes for weeks to drop off books after the first stay-at-home order ended in June. The warehouse was closed during that shutdown, a period many people seem to have spent culling their bookshelves. “All the cleaning they did came over here!” Oshiro said.

Mau’s 75 regular volunteer helpers are trying to sort, price and post books online, and get them ready for pickup as fast as possible. “The volunteers are so amazing, so dedicated,” he said. “Some come daily.”

Yet only 10 volunteers, about half the usual number, are allowed into the warehouse at a time, due to coronavirus precautions. “It’s like operating an Amazon with manual labor,” he joked, with Oshiro adding, “No robots.”

Oshiro, a retired social worker and administrator, said she’s loved going to the library since she was a kid on Molokai, so she revels in being surrounded by books three days a week.

Although her favorite books are mysteries, she’s been in charge of the cookbook section the last three years. Still, if a book with an unusual title or subject catches her eye, she’ll take a few minutes to thumb through it.

“I also like looking at recipes and cookbooks for different cultures and will sometimes make something inspired by a new discovery,” she added.

“At the big book sales, I saw many people crowded around the local cookbook section looking at the recipes, page by page. Some are excited when they see these books and will buy five to 10 of these books.” Oshiro said.

Very popular are collections issued by the Honpa Hongwanji and major organizations like Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Electric. While there are plenty of books by well-known chefs and food columnists, selections also include small publications like the “Noelani Class of 1991 Cookbook” or the “Unbearably Good! Mochi Lovers’ Cookbook” from 1999.

“Cooking with Sadie and Friends,” by the Hawaii Canines for Independence from 2007, is a typical conglomeration of favorite recipes with local, mainland, multi-ethnic influences, including dishes (for humans) like Makena Hash Browns, Peggy’s Party Punch, Fast-Kine Chinese Chicken Salad and Mike’s Leg of Lamb. And (surprise!) it also includes a recipe for dog treats.

Vintage treasures include the “Hawaiian Cook Book” by Helen Alexander, published in 1938, although that sold quickly, even at a higher price of $9. It offered recipes for haupia, smoked fish and breadfruit poi, with black-and-white illustrations.

Mau said the books for sale online are all in acceptable, if not good, condition.

“The funds we raise support all 51 public libraries and their programming,” Mau said of his 140-year-old nonprofit. It pays for librarian training, technical upgrades and offerings such as author presentations and the Summer Reading Program.

But the Friends’ revenue has been severely reduced with the cancellation of the McKinley book sale, its biggest fundraiser, and two other regular sales, in November and January, are also unlikely to be held.

Still, the Friends’ are scheduled to move into a bigger warehouse in Iwilei by the end of the year. Mau is looking forward to having more space in the 11,750- square-foot building (the Halawa site has just under 8,000 square feet). The new location next to the Iwilei Costco will be much more convenient for donors to drop off books, pick up orders and for Friends volunteers to commute, he added.

Rare deals

Since 2012 Friends of the Library has opened some of its inventory to global access via Amazon.com, selling about 3,000 books through the online retailer so far.

The Friends earn about 70% of all sales.

To browse these titles, go to 808ne.ws/librarybooks (some of the prices might surprise you).

A sample of what’s available now:

>> “Hinode Rice Cookbook,” published for Territorial Savings’ 70th anniversary in 1992, going for $39.50

>> “The When You Live in Hawaii You Get Very Creative During Passover Cookbook,” released by Congregation Sof Ma’arav in 1989, $65

>> “Cooking With Hari and Muriel,” from 1994, by Hari Kojima and Muriel Miura, $34

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY

>> Warehouse: 99-1132 Iwaena St.; 536-4174

>> Online sales: Visit friendsofthelibraryofhawaii.org; click on “Online Bookstore.” Curbside pickup.

>> To donate books: Call for an appointment. Books are accepted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.

>> Also: Manoa Public Library holds pickups and dropoffs on Thursdays.

How We Learn

Book Review: 'How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens' by Benedict Carey

Carey’s book has four sections. It begins with an introduction of the biological function of the brain and the cognitive science of learning, which are the theoretical foundation of later sections. The second part of the book deals with retention tools and the third part deals with comprehension techniques. The last part of the book explores how we can improve learning subconsciously, or “learning without thinking,” as Carey describes it.

To me, the most useful information of the book is about the common learnings strategies that are now proven less effective.

For instance, it’s widely accepted that it’s better to find a quiet place to study and we should go to this place all the time – making it a routine. Well, according to Carey,

“scientists have found that we work more effectively when we continually alter our study routines and abandon any ‘dedicated space’ in favor of varied locations. Sticking to one learning ritual slows us down."

Take another widely-accepted practice - devoting a dedicated black of time to repetitively practicing a skill (such as long division) is the best way to master a particular skill. Carey points out that this is also wrong as

“studies find that the brain picks up patterns more efficiently when presented with a mixed bag of related tasks than when it’s forced-fed just one, no matter the age of the student or the subject matter area."

Another example comes from digital distraction such as Facebook Twitter and WeChat, which is blamed by many as the biggest hurdle to focus (including myself). While these distractions do harm our ability to focus, they may help (only a brief distraction) “when we’re stuck on a math problem or tied up in a creative knot and need to shake free.

Carey also offers a very interesting theory – the Forget to Learn theory. This theory suggests that “forgetting is the best friend of learning, rather than its rival.” First of all, forgetting acts as a “spam filter.” By filtering out information that we might need, forgetting allows the brain to focus. Another benefit of forgetting is that normal forgetting is helpful for subsequent learning. Carey uses the muscle-building metaphor to illustrate this point – some breakdown must occur for us to gain muscle. Similarly, some breakdown must occur for us to strengthen learning.

It’s good to know that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to forget.

Retention and comprehension tools:

The first principle theory of memory is an enormously important theory, which is “shepherded” by UCLA’s Robert Bjork and his wife Elizabeth Ligon Bjork. The theory says that

“any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength. Storage strength is a measure of how well learned something is. It builds up steadily with studying and more sharply with use. Storage strength can increases but it never decreases. Retrieval strength is a measure of how easily a nugget of information comes to mind. It,too, increases with studying, and with use. Without reinforcement, however, retrieval strength drops off quickly, and its capacity is relatively small. At any time, we can pull up only a limited number of items in connection with any given cue or reminder. Compared to storage, retrieval strength is fickle. It can build quickly but also weaken quickly.”

An-equally important principle is called the principle of desirable difficulty. The principle states that “the harder we have to work to retrieve a memory, the greater the subsequent spike in retrieval and storage strength (learning).”

Fortunately, Carey has offered us some great retention techniques that can help us learn better.

First of all, “having something going on in the study environment, like music, is better than nothing.” Because the experience of studying has more dimensions than we notice, some of which can have an impact on retention. Subconscious contextual cues such as music, light, and background color are valuable when it comes to retention. It we can multiple the number of perceptions connected to a given memory, we’ll do better. And it’s not that hard. We can switch places – just go to another Starbucks. We can listen to classical music today and jazz tomorrow.

The second technique Carey shares is the distributed learning, or the spacing effect. The spacing effect basically says we learn just as much but retain it much longer when we space our study time than when we concentrate our study time. Studying a new concept right after you learn it doesn’t’ deepen the memory much but studying it an hour later or a day later, does. Scientists have helped established both “minimum intervals” and “maximum intervals” required to keep newly learned facts accessible.

Carey sheds some light on the spacing effect with his own experiences. He used to study difficult materials for an hour and return the next day practically remembering nothing. But now he utilizes the spacing technique – he would treat the first encounter as a casual walk through for about twenty minutes. Then he’ll go through round two and round three with the same material later, each twenty minutes. He hasn’t used more time but he remembers more.

I’ll pause here and share the rest of my notes in the upcoming articles.

a lesson from Quora

I learnt (learned) one common thing about human nature, across nationalities, races, professions, and age groups.

“Give a man a mask and he will show his true face” - Oscar Wilde

Quora has reassured my faith in it. The answers that come from anonymous handles (accounts) are more likely to be relatable and real. People, no matter how honest they are, will play it safe and modify the story a bit (even if a tiny bit) to show them in positive (or less negative) light if their names appear with the answer.

Sumeet Kr Sinha

parenting technique

What is the most unique and effective parenting technique you've used or seen used?
Jenni Claire, Have alot of adult offspring
Updated Sat

My older sister has three kids. When my daughter was born, I never wanted to put her down, but I was afraid I'd spoil her. My sister said :

“Just remember, you spoil kids by giving them too much stuff, but you can't spoil them with attention. You can never spoil them by giving them too much affection”.

Best advice anyone ever gave me: Love before stuff.

That's nearly 30 years ago.

Her kids turned out well. Mine have, too. Partly that's just good luck and good circumstances, but partly it was, I think, her excellent technique.

Bill Gates summer reading list

Last year, there was only one book on my summer reading list that you could reasonably call a beach read. This year I tried to pick a few more things that are on the lighter side. Each of these books made me think or laugh or, in some cases, do both. I hope you find something to your liking here. And if it’s not summer where you live, this list will still be here six months from now…

Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh. The book, based on Brosh’s wildly popular website, consists of brief vignettes and comic drawings about her young life. The adventures she recounts are mostly inside her head, where we hear and see the kind of inner thoughts most of us are too timid to let out in public. You will rip through it in three hours, tops. But you’ll wish it went on longer, because it’s funny and smart as hell. I must have interrupted Melinda a dozen times to read to her passages that made me laugh out loud.

The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford, has a gift for making science enjoyable. This book is as accessible as the TV series Cosmos is for younger audiences—and as relevant for older audiences. It’s an engaging, well-illustrated science textbook offering compelling answers to big questions, like “how did the universe form?” and “what causes earthquakes?” It’s also a plea for readers of all ages to approach mysteries with rigor and curiosity. Dawkins’s antagonistic (and, to me, overzealous) view of religion has earned him a lot of angry critics, but I consider him to be one of the great scientific writer/explainers of all time.

What If?, by Randall Munroe. The subtitle of the book is “Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions,” and that’s exactly what it is. People write Munroe with questions that range over all fields of science: physics, chemistry, biology. Questions like, “From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground?” (The answer, it turns out, is “high enough that it would disintegrate before it hit the ground.”) Munroe’s explanations are funny, but the science underpinning his answers is very accurate. It’s an entertaining read, and you’ll also learn a bit about things like ballistics, DNA, the oceans, the atmosphere, and lightning along the way.

XKCD, by Randall Munroe. A collection of posts from Munroe’s blog XKCD, which is made up of cartoons he draws making fun of things—mostly scientists and computers, but lots of other things too. There’s one about scientists holding a press conference to reveal their discovery that life is arsenic-based. They research press conferences and find out that sometimes it’s good to serve food that’s related to the subject of the conference. The last panel is all the reporters dead on the floor because they ate arsenic. It’s that kind of humor, which not everybody loves, but I do.

On Immunity, by Eula Biss. When I stumbled across this book on the Internet, I thought it might be a worthwhile read. I had no idea what a pleasure reading it would be. Biss, an essayist and university lecturer, examines what lies behind people’s fears of vaccinating their children. Like many of us, she concludes that vaccines are safe, effective, and almost miraculous tools for protecting children against needless suffering. But she is not out to demonize anyone who holds opposing views. This is a thoughtful and beautifully written book about a very important topic.

How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff. I picked up this short, easy-to-read book after seeing it on a Wall Street Journal list of good books for investors. I enjoyed it so much that it was one of a handful of books I recommended to everyone at TED this year. It was first published in 1954, but aside from a few anachronistic examples (it has been a long time since bread cost 5 cents a loaf in the United States), it doesn’t feel dated. One chapter shows you how visuals can be used to exaggerate trends and give distorted comparisons—a timely reminder, given how often infographics show up in your Facebook and Twitter feeds these days. A useful introduction to the use of statistics, and a helpful refresher for anyone who is already well versed in it.

Should We Eat Meat?, by Vaclav Smil. The richer the world gets, the more meat it eats. And the more meat it eats, the bigger the threat to the planet. How do we square this circle? Vaclav Smil takes his usual clear-eyed view of the whole landscape, from meat’s role in human evolution to hard questions about animal cruelty. While it would be great if people wanted to eat less meat, I don’t think we can expect large numbers of people to make drastic reductions. I’m betting on innovation, including higher agricultural productivity and the development of meat substitutes, to help the world meet its need for meat. A timely book, though probably the least beach-friendly one on this list.

[via twitter]

STEM majors

The differences in starting salaries for STEM majors versus those who study the humanities have been widely publicized. Now a new study looks at how those differences add up over a lifetime of earnings – and the results are staggering.

The lowest-paid graduates, early-childhood education majors, earn just $39,000 annually midcareer, while the highest-paid, petroleum engineering majors, make an average of $136,000 per year. Over a career, that difference amounts to more than $3 million, according to the report The Economic Value of College Majorsby economists at Georgetown University.

Among the major fields of study, architecture and engineering students earn highest average salary -- $83,000 per year -- and education majors earn the lowest -- $45,000 per year.

The study finds that generally it’s still worth it to go to college. The average bachelor’s degree holder makes $1 million more over a lifetime than a person with just a high school diploma.

A separate report released last fall by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the value of a bachelor’s degree has reached an all-time high of around $300,000. Researchers found that it takes about 10 years to recoup the cost of a degree, a historically low level, down from close to 25 years in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Stan Freberg

Stan Freberg, who skewered pop culture with satirical records and did cartoon voices for nearly six decades, died today. He was 88. His son Donovan confirmed the news in a Facebook post but offered no details.

Freberg began his six-decade career doing impersonations on Cliffie Stone’s radio program in 1943. Soon after he began voicing characters for the now-classic Warner Bros cartoons, working with the genre’s king, Mel Blanc. He voiced Junyer Bear, Beaky Buzzard (“A-nope-nope-nope”) and Tosh, one of the two Goofy Gophers opposite Blanc, but perhaps the young actor’s most enduring portrayal was the seemingly slow Pete Puma. Said cat famously was asked by Bugs Bunny how many lumps of sugar he wanted in his tea. “Oh, three or four,” Pete drawled — before Bugs’ numerous shots to the melon with a mallet produced said lumps.

He scored a national No. 1 hit in 1953 with “St. George And The Dragonet,” a riff on Dragnet that was the first track on the genre-spanning 1977 triple LP 25 Years Of Recorded Comedy and enjoyed a second wave of popularity decades later on Dr. Demento’s radio show. He also hit the pop charts with such tracks as the seasonal chestnut “Nuttin’ For Christmas,” “Banana Boat Song” and “Wun’erful Wun’erful,” a spot-on slap at The Lawrence Welk Show. Freberg did a typically flawless impersonation of the polka-drenched host, who implored on the record: “Turn off the bubble machine! … Help! The whole ballroom is shoving off to sea!” Later in the decade, rock ‘n’ roll became a favorite Freberg target. In 1999, Rhino Records issued a box set of his recordings titled The Tip Of The Freberg: The Stan Freberg Collection 1951-1998.

Born on August 7, 1926, in Pasadena, Freberg would amass dozens of movie and TV credits including Lady And The Tramp (1955) and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). He also was a regular on the 1958 summer replacement series The Chevy Show. In the early 1960s, he launched a successful career in advertising, winning more than 20 Clio Awards for his TV spots and earning the Los Angeles Area Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2006.

***

I remember Aku used to play some his records on his show.  One I remember was Elderly Man River.  He's also in the documentary I Know That Voice (which is currently on Netflix).  Looking at youtube, I remember another one was Banana Boat (Day-O).

Fox News: most trusted network (and least trusted)

Fox News has the most trusted network and cable news coverage in the United States, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday. But network TV is much less trustworthy than it was in the days of Walter Cronkite, American voters say.

In comparison rankings, 29 percent responded that they trust Fox News the most. CNN follows with 22 percent, CBS News and NBC News are at 10 percent, ABC News at 8 percent and MSNBC at 7 percent.

Among Republican voters, 58 percent say they trust Fox News the most, with 13 percent favoring CNN, 7 percent for NBC and CBS, 5 percent for ABC and 2 percent for MSNBC.

With Democrats, CNN is the top choice with 32 percent, 15 percent for NBC, 14 percent for CBS and MSNBC, and 8 percent for ABC. Only 3 percent trust Fox News most.

***

Of the Fox News Republicans, 0% (zero percent) approve of the way Obama is handling his job as President.

***

Here's another take (consider the source): The new poll is even more of a tragedy when one considers that FOX viewers are the most ill-informed of all mainstream news viewers. According to a survey conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, FOX News viewers are “significantly more misinformed than consumer of news from other sources. What’s more, the study shows that greater exposure to FOX News increases misinformation.”

Bill Gates Annual Letter 2015

We're putting our credibility, time, and money behind this bet — and asking others to join us — because we think there has never been a better time to accelerate progress and have a big impact around the world.

Some will say we're irrational to make this bet too. A skeptic would look at the world's problems and conclude that things are only getting worse. And we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that a handful of the worst-off countries will continue to struggle.

But we think the next 15 years will see major breakthroughs for most people in poor countries. They will be living longer and in better health. They will have unprecedented opportunities to get an education, eat nutritious food, and benefit from mobile banking. These breakthroughs will be driven by innovation in technology — ranging from new vaccines and hardier crops to much cheaper smartphones and tablets — and by innovations that help deliver those things to more people.

The rich world will keep getting exciting new advances too, but the improvements in the lives of the poor will be far more fundamental — the basics of a healthy, productive life. It's great that more people in rich countries will be able to watch movies on super hi-resolution screens. It's even better that more parents in poor countries will know their children aren't going to die.

[via twitter]

[1/23/15] How to narrow the gap of inequality

the death of the Saturday morning cartoon

The era of the Saturday morning cartoon is officially over. This morning, The CW’s Vortexx programming block is airing episodes of Cubix, Sonic X, Dragon Ball Z and Kai, Digimon Fusion, Yu-Gi-Oh! and more for the very last time. Next week, The CW is parting with its animated block, signing on for One Magnificent Morning, a live-action block filled with educational shows for kids. This made today the last day to catch cartoons on a network station with your kids.

Over the years, The CW has changed up its Saturday morning programming block more than once. Two years ago, Toonzai became Vortexx. On October 4, Vortexx will become One Magnificent Morning. A changing of the guard signifies different programming, but this time around, there will be no cartoons. One Magnificent Morning and Vortexx are, in fact, quite dissimilar. While Vortexx was mainly for kids, One Magnificent Morning is being billed as family-friendly programming. The new block will feature five hours of live action, educational programming like Dr. Pol, a new show that will follow a farm veterinarian taking care of animals, and The Brady Barr Show, which will follow Barr as he gets up close to wild and dangerous creatures. The move toward educational (and assumedly cheaper) programming has been coming for a long time. The programming is put together by Litton, an entertainment group that also runs Saturday mornings on several of the other big networks.

In 2008, Fox cut cartoons from Saturday mornings. In 2011, ABC signed over its former “One Saturday Morning” block to Litton. Then in 2013, Vortexx became the only non-educational, non-live action programming block geared towards kids on Saturday mornings after This TV shut down its early morning cartoons. Now, Vortexx is gone, too.

For years, from the 1960s into the 90s, Saturday mornings were made for cartoons. Several generations of kids wearing footie pajamas and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle print pjs would clamor in front of the television on early Saturday mornings, savoring hours of programming geared just toward them. Unfortunately, like the prize at the bottom of the cereal box, network cartoon blocks have disappeared.

That doesn’t mean cartoons are disappearing everywhere. The cable networks are doing fine with animated fodder geared toward kids, with Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network leading the charge. Disney XD, too, has done well with cartoon programs, including the popular Phineas and Ferb, Avengers Assemble and the upcoming Star Wars Rebels already receiving plenty of buzz. Streaming services are also offering plenty of alternatives to the traditional Saturday morning fodder, and as a bonus, you can watch whenever you want.

With cable stations and more picking up the slack where the networks left off, it’s not surprising that the major stations would replace early morning weekend programming with new entries. It’s sad, though, that an entire generation of kids is missing out on lazy Saturdays filled with excellent cartoons like The Smurfs, Muppet Babies, Recess, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, Pepper Ann, and much, much more. Replacing them with cheaper, educational content was bound to happen, but a little magic has been lost in the process.

History useless?

In last week’s Poll, two of the five people quoted say that history was the most useless thing they learned in school. How sad. After all, history is current events seen in the rearview mirror, and studying history helps one to interpret the present and prepare for the future.

Just for World War II, listen or read Winston Churchill’s speeches, read Ernie Pyle’s dispatches from London and the battlefields, read Pegasus Bridge (glider pilots) and life in Hawaii during WWII. Read these and tell me that history is “useless.” As George Santayana said, “If you don’t know history, you are doomed to repeat it.”

History useless? Not on your tintype.

Arg Bacon
Honolulu

another way to go to college

I can't count how many roundtable discussions I've heard asking whether college is still worth the cost. They are important debates; college can be expensive. But most leave out an important point: There is more than one way to go to college.

Tradition says you graduate high school at age 18 and head straight to a university. I've found that less than 30% of 18-year-olds are emotionally prepared for college, and a smaller percentage have a reasonable idea about what they want to do for a career.

This sets legions of new students on a devastating path: Start college at age 18 studying your childhood dream. Change your major at age 19 when you realize it requires too much math. Change it again at age 20 when you encounter a mean professor, and once more at 21 to match your boyfriend's class schedule. Eventually stick with a major at 23, graduate at 24, and at 26, finally figure out what you really want to do for a career, which invariably has no relation to your degree.

I can't offer individual advice, because everyone has different goals, backgrounds, and financial means. What worked for me might not work for you, and what works for you might not work for someone else.

But if I had to come up with a blanket college plan for the average non-rich American graduating high school, it would look like this.

The Men Who Built America

I happened to catch a few episodes of this series on the History Channel and it caught my interest.  The portrayals of the motivations behind the men profiled made me wonder about the current men in power.

I saw the Blu-Ray on sale yesterday at Costco and was tempted to buy it.  However looking at some of the comments at Amazon and these reviews, it appears some of the events did not have occurred as they showed it.  (And so the motivation of the creators of the series have been called into question by some.)

Still it was interesting.  I guess one might have to take it more like a movie based on historical events.

Despite the faults, I might get the DVD set one day anyway, if I can get it cheap.

Hey, here's episode 4 on youtube.  Probably won't last long.

To satisfy myself, I can probably DVR this, then record it.  (And not watch it.)

Maybe these videos might be more accurately historically:

Cornelius Vanderbilt
John D. Rockefeller
Andrew Carnegie
J.P. Morgan
Henry Ford

Wow, The American Experience in its 25th season.  Where have I been?

***

After watching this (or least part of it), I'm not a little curious about another series from The History Channel called America: the story of Us.

Hey part 1 on youtube.

Criticism?  Naturally.  Notably some complained why celebrities such as Margaret Cho, Sean Diddy Combs, Sheryl Crow, Michael Douglas et al were chosen to appear in history documentary.

*** [4/20/14]

Still looking to get the series on DVD, but now I notice it's on Amazon Prime.  And some of it has been uploaded to dailymotion.

Here are the descriptions on Amazon Prime.  There are 8 episodes, whereas they were shown on TV as four (combined) episodes.

1.  A New War Begins
2.  Oil Strike
3.  A Rivalry Is Born
4.  Blood Is Spilled
5.  A New Rival Emerges
6.  Owning It All
7.  Taking the White House
8.  The New Machine

And here's the episodes on dailymotion

1_6: William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie
2_6:  Theodore Roosevelt
3_6: J.P. Morgan (I notice this was only 25:28)
4_6: Johnstown 1889
5_6: Carnegie rethinks
6_6: electricity (Owning It All)

And I see it uploaded on youtube (will probably be taken off soon enough).

Part 1
Part 2 Bloody Battles
Part 3 Changing the Game
Part 4 When One Ends Another Begins

And the whole series in one file

And another uploader

1 of 8 - A New War Begins
2 of 8 - Oil Strike
3 of 8 - A Rivalry is Born
4 of 8 - Blood is Spilled
5 of 8 - A New Rival Emerges
6 of 8 - Owning It All
7 of 8 - Taking The White House
8 of 8 - The New Machine

So the options are: view the pirate videos, buy the DVD, buy the Blu-Ray, subscribe to Amazon Prime, buy the seasons on Amazon ($12.99 for SD, $18.99 for HD).

I see the America: The Story of Us and the Mankind: The Story of Us are also on Amazon Prime.

Maybe I'll just wait.  It's on my list at swapadvd.

[1/24/15] Now streaming on Netflix!

single-gender education

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - David Chadwell believes boys and girls can get through the awkward middle school years better when they're separated, learning in classrooms tailored to the learning styles of each gender.

As the country's first and only statewide coordinator of single-gender education, Chadwell is helping to make South Carolina a leader among public schools that offer such programs. About 70 schools offer the program now, and the goal is to have programs available to every child within five years, he said.

The theory is that by separating girls and boys _ especially during middle school years typically marked by burgeoning hormones, self doubt and peer pressure _ lessons can be more effective because they are in unique classroom settings.