Fascinating Facts and Trivia.

What Are the 88 Most Important Books that Shaped America?

I’m not exactly sure why they chose 88 books, but the Library of Congress has generated a list of the 88 Books That Shaped America:america-the-book_l

“This list of ‘Books That Shaped America’ is a starting point. It is not a register of the ‘best’ American books–although many of them fit that description. Rather, the list is intended to spark a national conversation on books written by Americans that have influenced our lives, whether they appear on this initial list or not,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “We hope people will view the list and then nominate other titles. Finally, we hope people will choose to read and discuss some of the books on this list, reflecting our nation’s unique and extraordinary literary heritage, which the Library of Congress makes available to the world.”

It’s certainly an interesting list, but can anyone really trust list of the most important American books that doesn’t include Emerson?

/by

Do Honeybees and Gangs Divide Turf in the Same Way?

Professor Jeffrey Brantigan thinks they just might:Bee4

Honeybees and hyenas stake out territory over a pretty obvious scarce resource: food. But why might gangs do the same? Brantingham and colleagues Martin B. Short, George E. Tita and Shannon E. Reid suggest in a paper published online this week in the journal Criminology that they’re motivated by a similar limited resource: reputation.

“Ultimately, what’s being competed for is your good name, or street credibility, your street rep,” says Brantingham, who was the lead author of the paper. “If people recognize you as the toughest person around, then that has all sorts of benefits.” (And, of course, more tangible benefits accrue from reputation, too.)

/by

Profiting from a Child’s Illiteracy

Nick Kristof, writing in the New York Times, describes an incredibly depressing aspect of poverty in America—parents deliberately pulling their children out of literacy programs to ensure continued government assistance:

THIS is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability.

Many people in hillside mobile homes here are poor and desperate, and a $698 monthly check per child from the Supplemental Security Income program goes a long way — and those checks continue until the child turns 18.

He continues:

Of American families living in poverty today, 8 out of 10 have air-conditioning, and a majority have a washing machine and dryer. Nearly all have microwave ovens. What they don’t have is hope. You see it here in the town of Jackson, in the teenage girls hanging out by the bridge over the north fork of the Kentucky River, seeking to trade their bodies for prescription painkillers or methamphetamines.

/by

Daily Wisdom: November 21, 2012

It’s Only History

Argument Starter

Since we spent a fair amount of time discussing articles and a film critical of teachers unions, this response from Amy Dean certainly merits conversation and discussion:

Teachers unions have played a critical role in advocating for public education, but you’d never know it from mainstream media coverage. Therefore, there is a great need to lift up this tradition and highlight the efforts of teachers to collectively push for top-notch public schools.

Fascinating Factoid

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which those who lack skills or knowledge believe they are superior to those who actually, are, rating their abilities as much higher than they are. In fact, according to professors Dunning and Kruger, those with the poorest performance are least aware of their own incompetence.  As Chris Lee notes, this becomes quite complex:

The results of research performed by Dunning, Kruger, Ames, and Kammrath tell us something that every one of us has expressed at some time or another. The incompetent are readily able to escape detection by those who count. At its most cynical—though it is also a logically inescapable conclusion—this is best expressed by the Peter Principle: people are inevitably promoted to a position that is just beyond their level of competence.

Word of the Day

OLIGARCHY (ol-i-gahr-kee): rule by the few.
Example: “Back in my country I have many family members, but only my grandparents can make decisions. It’s kind of an oligarchy, but my grandma makes the best pies so it is worth it,” stated Francesco.

[pextestim name=”Quote of the Day” img=”https://quixoticpedagogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chopin_pic.jpg”]”As if a magician’s wand had touched him, the garland of roses transformed him into a vision of Oriental beauty.” Kate Chopin,  The Awakening [/pextestim]

/by

04 September 2012

We’re not quite ready for a full week, but best of luck focusing as we return for four days of education. Given that yesterday was labor day, today’s post focuses on work, even though most of us spent it in vacation.

Poem of the Day

 

Mother Washing Dishes by Susan Meyers

She rarely made us do it—
we’d clear the table instead—so my sister and I teased
that some day we’d train our children right
and not end up like her, after every meal stuck
with red knuckles, a bleached rag to wipe and wring.
The one chore she spared us: gummy plates
in water greasy and swirling with sloughed peas,
globs of egg and gravy.

Or did she guard her place
at the window? Not wanting to give up the gloss
of the magnolia, the school traffic humming.
Sunset, finches at the feeder. First sightings
of the mail truck at the curb, just after noon,
delivering a note, a card, the least bit of news.

[pextestim name=”Sentence of the Day: Martin Luther King, Jr.” img=”https://quixoticpedagogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mlk.jpg”]“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”[/pextestim]

Fascinating Factoid

 

If you are thinking about a career in bank robbery, you may want to think again. Economists studying bank robberies in England found that it just isn’t worth the risk, as John Timmer notes:


The basic problem is the average haul from a bank job: for the three-year period, it was only £20,330.50 (~$31,613). And it gets worse, as the average robbery involved 1.6 thieves. So the authors conclude, “The return on an average bank robbery is, frankly, rubbish. It is not unimaginable wealth. It is a very modest £12,706.60 per person per raid.”

“Given that the average UK wage for those in full-time employment is around £26,000, it will give him a modest life-style for no more than 6 months,” the authors note. If a robber keeps hitting banks at a rate sufficient to maintain that modest lifestyle, by a year and a half into their career, odds are better than not they’ll have been caught. “As a profitable occupation, bank robbery leaves a lot to be desired.”

Worse still, the success of a robbery was a bit like winning the lottery, as the standard deviation on the £20,330.50 was £53,510.20. That means some robbers did far better than average, but it also means that fully a third of robberies failed entirely.

Word Power

 

OLIGARCHY (ol-i-gahr-kee): rule by the few.
Example: “Back in my country I have many family members, but only my grandparents can make decisions. It’s kind of an oligarchy, but my grandma makes the best pies so it is worth it,” stated Francesco.

Events of September 04

  • In 476, the last Western Roman Emperor was deposed.
  • In 1908, the American author Richard Wright was born.
/by