August 2014 Archives
"In effect, as young math students memorize the basics, their brains reorganize to accommodate the greater demands of more complex math. It is a gradual process, like 'overlapping waves,' the researchers write, but it clearly shows that, for the growing child's brain, rote memorization is a key step along the way to efficient mathematical reasoning...."
"One critic of the government's adoption of 'discovery-based learning,' Ken Porteous, a retired engineering professor, put it bluntly: "There is nothing to discover. The tried and true methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division work just fine as they have for centuries. There is no benefit and in fact a huge downside to students being asked to discover other methods of performing these operations and picking the one which they like. This just leads to confusion which ultimately translates into frustration, a strong dislike for mathematics and a desire to drop out of any form of mathematics course at the earliest opportunity.'"
Via Ace of Spades, who writes: "I think Common Core will fail in teaching kids actual mathematical insight, while simultaneously failing to teach them the memorized facts required to achieve that insight on their own." He also asks, "Why Is It... that everyone recognizes the absurdity of the Music Man's 'think method' of learning how to play instruments, but then decides that such a system ought to work with math and reading?"
Windows defender offline says out of date on one computer but is up to - Microsoft Community
Sometimes you need to run a virus scan at boot time. So Microsoft created Windows Defender Offline: Use an uninfected PC and a blank USB stick to create a bootable USB stick, then boot the infected PC from the USB stick. (You may need to change your BIOS boot order to make this work.) A scan runs from the USB stick, without anything on the infected drive allowed to run.
Here's the rub: The special Windows install on the stick doesn't include a USB3 driver, so while it can boot with the USB stick in a USB3 port, the software can't find the virus definitions. The fix is to boot with the USB stick in a USB2 port.
Who Lost the Cities? by Kevin D. Williamson in National Review Online
"My reporting over the past few years has taken me to Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis and the nearby community of East St. Louis, Ill., Philadelphia, Detroit, Stockton, San Francisco, and a great many other cities, and the Reverend Jackson is undoubtedly correct in identifying 'a national crisis of urban abandonment and repression.' He neglects to point out that he is an important enabler of it."
Brighton Allston Historical Society: The Urban Renewal of Barry's Corner
In the early 1960s, a 9.3 acre, 71-family Irish and Italian neighborhood on the northeast corner of N. Harvard St. and Western Ave. was declared blighted by the City of Boston to make room for a more expensive development. The residents lost, the neighborhood was demolished, the luxury complex was never built -- a vintage 1969 townhouse complex was built instead -- but the neighborhood's protests had an impact.
I used to pass this corner on the way from home to Harvard Yard. Harvard's business school and stadium are nearby, and there are plans for future campus expansion, including the redevelopment of the now abandoned Charlesview Apartments that replaced Barry's Corner neighborhood.
"The BRA's plan called for the demolition of the existing 52 structures, and the construction on the cleared acreage (by well-connected developers), of a $4.5 million ten-story, 372 unit luxury apartment building, to be paid for largely with federal money. The BRA contended that the Barry's Corner structures were blighted, a charge the residents hotly disputed. The authority also noted that the existing neighborhood was yielding the city relatively little tax revenue. The proposed luxury complex would pay $150,000 as compared to the $15,000 the Barry's Corner properties were contributing. The BRA assured the public that 'every effort is being made to assure that the residents now living in the area are provided with suitable new homes.'
"Barry's Corner residents were understandably outraged. The BRA was proposing to obliterate an entire neighborhood, to seize and demolish private homes, so that luxury housing could be constructed, and to pay for this questionable project with public revenues."
MORE about the history of Barry's Corner in the Harvard Crimson.
Daily chart: Urban ideologies | The Economist
Of 67 American cities with a population of more than a quarter-million people, Tulsa and Oklahoma are two of the 13 ranked right-of-center. In order:
Mesa, AZ
Oklahoma City, OK
Virginia Beach, VA
Colorado Springs, CO
Jacksonville, FL
Arlington, TX
Anaheim, CA
Omaha, NE
Tulsa, OK
Aurora, CO
Anchorage, AK
Fort Worth, TX
The ten most liberal: San Francisco, Washington DC, Seattle, Oakland, Boston, Minneapolis, Detroit, New York, Buffalo, Baltimore.
The graphic is an extract from a March 2014 study of studies called Representation in Municipal Government by Chris Tausanovitch of UCLA and Christopher Warshaw of MIT, examining "whether city policies are actually responsive to the views of their citizens" by moving in the direction of the views of their citizens. The analysis is of cities, not metropolitan areas; thus Arlington, Texas, Mesa, Arizona, and Anaheim, California, are considered separately from DFW, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
"However, unlike at the state and national level, we find scant evidence that differences in municipal political institutions affect representation. Neither the choice of mayor versus city council government, partisan or non-partisan elections, the availability of ballot measures, whether or not elected officials face term limits, or whether there are at-large or districted elections seem to affect the strength of the relationship between public policy preferences and city policies."
Tulsa County Fairgrounds (Expo Square) 1964 scans and photos
Photos of IPE building near completion (also showing KELi Satellite, Pavilion, and Bell's Amusement Park) and a twelve-page program from the 15th anniversary award dinner of the Tulsa Exposition and Fair Corporation, held in the fairgrounds cafeteria on June 25, 1964. Photos show the evolution and expansion of the fairgrounds since the board was established in 1949 (over 512,000 sq. ft. of new building space).
1949: Two new 30' x 200' horse barns commissioned in July, costing $18,000, to be ready by September 15.
1950: $112,000 raised in June and July for 13 new livestock exhibit facilities, ready for the fair by September 15, 1950.
1951: 47' x 400' curtain wall on old grandstand, without support, removed and replaced with signboards.
1952: Five new livestock bays to the west of original 13, built for $54,000.
1953: $610,000 county bond issue for new agricultural building office, new 4-H/FFA dormitory. Five horse barns moved in line with other livestock buildings, milking parlor, and four new livestock bays added.
1954: Fair claimed to be fastest growing in the nation.
1955: Six more bays added to livestock building.
1956: National Junior Tractor Operators Contest established.
1957: Controversy over conflicting fair dates with Oklahoma City and Muskogee.
1958: June 8: Old grandstand burned to the ground, destroying 64,000 sq. ft. of commercial exhibit space and disrupting auto racing from June to August.
1959: New 80' x 800' commercial exhibit building near the race track, paid for by $200,000 insurance and $70,000 fair earnings.
1960: Oklahoma FFA Children's Barnyard opened.
1963: $3.5 million bond issue approved to build 456,000 sq. ft. building for the International Petroleum Exposition and other industrial shows.
1964: New administrative office, first unit of 1963 long range building plan, to be completed.
San Francisco Residential Security Map, 1937
1937 street map of San Francisco (which also shows streetcar and trolley bus lines at the time) was color coded by the Federal Government's Home Owners' Loan Corporation to indicate various levels of perceived risk to property value. These maps, drawn up for cities across the country, are associated with the practice of redlining -- denying home loans to certain neighborhoods, particularly those dominated by disfavored ethnic groups.
MORE:
San Francisco LocalWiki "editathon" on the topic of gentrification
Hoodline: A History of Redlining in San Francisco Neighborhoods
Residential Security Maps for Ohio cities
Home Owners' Loan Corporation: A brochure explaining the purpose and scope of the HOLC. The brochure estimates the total home mortgage debt as $20 billion. HOLC was given $200 million in cash to finance $2 billion in bonds to assist owners of homes worth less than $20,000. Oklahoma had HOLC offices in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Slate: Where to find historical redlining maps of your city
High-res scans of HOLC Residential Security Maps from the late '30s: Also a good source for pre-urban renewal street locations.
Glasgow Herald, Feb. 20, 1956: British Gas Council ad promoting gas-powered home laundry machine
"This gas-heated washing machine is simple to use and smart to look at. Hand or power-operated models available."
"This gas-heated cabinet gives you midsummer drying weather all the year round. Running costs and upkeep costs negligible."
