In her essay, which was written for a contest, Williams reflected on what Douglass heard his slave master, Mr. Auld, telling his wife after catching her teaching Douglass how to read. “If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him,” Auld says. “It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
Williams wrote that overcrowded, poorly managed classrooms prevent real learning from happening and thus produces the same results as Mr. Auld’s outright ban. She wrote that her white teachers—the vast majority of Rochester students are black and Hispanic, but very few teachers are people of color—are in a “position of power to dictate what I can, cannot, and will learn, only desiring that I may get bored because of the inconsistency and the mismanagement of the classroom.”
Instead of truly teaching, most teachers simply “pass out pamphlets and packets” and then expect students to complete them independently, Williams wrote. But this approach fails, she concluded, because “most of my peers cannot read and or comprehend the material that has been provided.” As a result, she continued, not much has changed since the time of Douglass, “just different people, different era” and “the same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man.” Williams called for her fellow students to “start making these white teachers accountable for instructing you” and challenged teachers to do their jobs. “What merit is there,” she asked, if teachers have knowledge and are “not willing to share because of the color of my skin?”
via A 13-Year-Old’s Slavery Analogy Raises Some Uncomfortable Truths in School – Education – GOOD.
In the Philippines, a Rant Against Birth Control – NYTimes.com
He also refuses to explain how his wife’s oral contraceptive killed their son in 1975, when that pill wasn’t even on the market until 1978 and was released in Asia only in 1985.
via In the Philippines, a Rant Against Birth Control – NYTimes.com.
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? | This is A Crazy Planets | SPOT.ph
(SPOT.ph) THAT we have lying, thieving morons still in our midst and noble, dedicated, decent men tragically snatched away from us seems like proof of an absurd universe. And that the only way to deal with such senselessness is suicide, so said some smart French writer who died—tragically, as well—in a car crash. A few days after Robredo’s confirmed death, the national consciousness was gripped with one question: “Lord, Bakit siya pa? Bakit hindi na lang si (INSERT NAME OF MOST HATED POLITICIAN)?” We all have a list of names that we’d like to see get involved in ghastly vehicular mishaps. Except that we seem to have already resigned ourselves in the belief that the assholes of this world live eternally.
via Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? | This is A Crazy Planets | SPOT.ph.
Remembering Bill Thurston, Mathematician Who Helped Us Understand the Shape of the Universe – Edward Tenner – The Atlantic
Mathematicians can cite many other examples of surprising applications. Could the 19th-century founders of mathematical logic have imagined where Alan Turing would take their new field a hundred years later? With the computer science that Turing founded, the once-abstract field of number theory became a foundation of cryptography. The mathematics of origami have contributed to designing solar sails and automotive airbags. In the 1980s, the topological subfield of knot theory became a powerful tool in particle physics. Symposia have already been held on applications of topology to the design of industrial robots. I’ve even read the statement — but haven’t been able to find the reference again — that every significant pure math idea has an application. We just haven’t discovered some yet.
All this is timely, because in some quarters of neo-mercantilist, managerial academia, some mathematics is considered too pure for the national economy, especially in the UK.
In a famous paper on the uncanny way that math describes reality, the physicist Eugene Wigner concluded:
The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We should be grateful for it and hope that it will remain valid in future research and that it will extend, for better or for worse, to our pleasure, even though perhaps also to our bafflement, to wide branches of learning.
Bill Thurston was one of the great bestowers of that gift.
via Remembering Bill Thurston, Mathematician Who Helped Us Understand the Shape of the Universe – Edward Tenner – The Atlantic.
Dont Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice | Kalzumeus Software
If you really like the atmosphere at universities, that is cool. Put a backpack on and you can walk into any building at any university in the United States any time you want. Backpacks are a lot cheaper than working in academia. You can lead the life of the mind in industry, too — and enjoy less politics and better pay. You can even get published in journals, if that floats your boat. After you’ve escaped the mind-warping miasma of academia, you might rightfully question whether Published In A Journal is really personally or societally significant as opposed to close approximations like Wrote A Blog Post And Showed It To Smart People.
via Dont Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice | Kalzumeus Software.
Sad State of PAGASA
It seems the employees of PAGASA after 5 months of keeping silent have all but lost hope in their sad plight.
It seems because of lack of fnds their SALA (Subsistence Allowance and Living Allowance) and Hazard pay has not been given to them.
This effectively reduces their gross pays by about 10-35% according to reports on TV.
This is sad because highly specialized/ highly skilled individuals like those of PAGASA really can walk away and transfer to other nations where they probably will have a better career and life in general. As is apparent from their muted protest and a marked guilt in protesting the people of PAGASA are doing this with a heavy heart.
I hope the good people of the DBM find ways to make the plight of their fellow government employees better.
I hope we can find a way to help our government scientist and specialist continue serving our country while not causing a disservice to their families.
Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? – NYTimes.com
As external conditions change, it becomes tougher to meet the three conditions that sociologists since the 1950s have considered crucial to making close friends: proximity; repeated, unplanned interactions; and a setting that encourages people to let their guard down and confide in each other, said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology and gerontology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is why so many people meet their lifelong friends in college, she added.
via Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? – NYTimes.com.
The alternative to boycotting China | Inquirer Global Nation
“Even though I was also born in San Francisco, I feel the same burning love for the Philippines that my father had,” said Rudy, the Executive Director of the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center and the Commander of the Bataan Post of the American Legion.
via The alternative to boycotting China | Inquirer Global Nation.
rePost::Learning to breathe underwater
Every problem contains within itself the seed of its own solution. The solution to flooding is really very simple: Give the excess waters a place to go. That is the function of wetlands, ponds, and lakes.
But what have we done? We have paved with concrete all available lands – including wetlands, low-lying, and flood-prone areas – and turned them into housing subdivisions and commercial centers. In other words, where there used to be water, we built our human settlements. And then we complain that there is water in the form of floods. Sino ang tanga d’yan? Ang tubig o ang tao?
via Learning to breathe underwater.
Designing Applications for the Power Macintosh
Here’s a summary of the tips we’d like to pass on; we’ll look at each one in more detail below.
1. Tackle expensive computations when they can improve the interface.
2. Eliminate dialogs and command lines in favor of direct manipulation.
3. Drop old assumptions and idioms. Use the processing power to explore new interfaces.
4. Provide a starting point for exploration.
5. Avoid programming cleverness. Instead, assume a good compiler and write readable code.
6. Invest development time in user-centered design.
7. Learn the new rules for performance.
8. Design tiered functionality: take advantage of whatever hardware you’re running on.
9. Test on real users.
via Designing Applications for the Power Macintosh.