Destroy Multi-Tasking...

Here are some of my favorite student statements:

"I'm just better at writing essays than objective tests." 
"I don't need to take notes"

and my favorite...

"why can't I use my phone/ laptop / mp3 player/ ?.  I can multi-task."

Uh, no, you can't.  And study after study continues to back this up.  A recent article on Slate drives this point home.

Do you tweet?

2/3 of the time, students in the study, when left to their own devices, used their own devices (mp3, phone, etc) with horrific results for comprehension, retention, etc.

This has certainly been my discovery in 10 years of teaching.  I don't want to disparage the attention span of an average 9th grader, but... well...

But where charming Dory gives it her full attention, Students today give the world the opposite of their full attention.  My own anecdotal observations confirm this:  ALL my "MOST" Successful students never have their phone, mp3 player, etc. out.  Never.  

The key to this is that you need to actually focus for chunks of time.  And checking your FB stream while trying to do calculus is a bad move.

“Young people have a wildly inflated idea of how many things they can attend to at once, and this demonstration helps drive the point home: If you’re paying attention to your phone, you’re not paying attention to what’s going on in class.” Larry Rosen, California State University–Dominguez Hills
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But the problem is greater than just in the class room.  PBS, in a Frontline piece entitled Digital Nation  covers the issues here.  In general, we find that self-described "multi-taskers" are usually bad at everything.  Texting while you drive isn't multi-tasking.  It's Russian roulette.  I guess it's more like Russian Roulette on a skateboard.  Well it's more like talking on the phone while you drive. (Insert Dory pic here).  But I've seen people read the paper when driving, etc.  

Stating that "I'm a good multi-tasker" for an adult is just as bad as for a child.  Tailing off in mid-sentence to text, FB, IM, is common amongst even my friends.  I think a cool study would be to test the perceived time of gaps in conversations when people pause in conversations to use media vs. actual time.  

Hypothesis: People who are texting grossly underestimate how much time it takes answering a text takes out of a conversation with a friend.

As an educator, I can monitor technology usage: But can I "Teach it?"  How do I get a student to internalize this lesson, and put away the phone when they are studying.  How do I get them to see the value of turning off the technology when they are in school?
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The scariest thing for me is that my school's plan is to get MORE technology.  The plan is for a chrome book for every kid in the future.  I think that access to technology for an American is as important as access to tools for a carpenter.  But (old curmudgeonly simile here), just as you don't give a power saw to a novice laborer, you don't give unfettered internet access to a teenager and say, "just use this for a shared google doc project on tropical fish."

Morrison Luke Smith

(c) MorrisonLukeSmith

Ah, May Day....

May Day. Straw Hats, Seersucker suits, lemonade, croquet.  The official start of spring.  Or is that Easter.  Around these parts, spring kicks off in late July.  But in Seattle, May Day is the start of Riot Season.

And with Iron Man III dropping tomorrow, what better way to celebrate than Superheroes vs Anarchists!

Anarchists dressed as Clowns that is.  Really: You just can't make this stuff up.  Seattle has a long history of rioting, dating back to the 1886 when fighting erupted between the Knights of Labor, Federal Officers, and hundreds of Chinese immigrants. 

The excitement continued into the 1990's, when the meeting of the world trade organization sparked huge protests and riots memorialized in the movie, Battle in Seattle.  I never thought Andre Benjamin and Woody Harrelson would be in a movie together.  But a quick IMDB check reveals a second film together:  Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell.  I feel we should move on.

This most recent rioting in Seattle started as a protest in honor of May Day, which is some sort of Communist holiday.  Numerous similar events were held around the world.  But, as seems to be the case in Seattle, Black clad anarchists started a Ruckus.  Violence ensued.

But, luckily, El Caballero, Captain Caveman, Spectacularo, and Speed Walker were on the scene to regulate.  Mischief managed?

Which is most likely:
...that Fox News will blame OWS (Occupy Wall Street)?
...that the Protestors will Blame corporate instigators?
...that this will be out of the news cycle in 3 days?

(C) Morrison Luke Smith

...that Fox News will blame Acorn?
...that these people need jobs?
--(oh. wait.  that may be their point)
...that whatever good may have been accomplished with a peaceful march and a protest is completely undone by the violence of a few?

Top Wackos of the world. For April 30.

Top Loons of the World.

Vladimir Putin -- Tiger blood drinker, and also, sensitive guide to lost migratory birds.  So much has been written about this man.  Arm wrestler, judo expert, the man, the myth the legend.  2 time president, intelligence officer, and bear hunter.  And if reports are to be believed, ruthless politician who  ran several false flag operations to cement power.  I'm hardly a 'truther', but the guy that brought up these accusations got poisoned with radioactive POLONIUM.


Kim Jong Un -- Building a "miniature world".  Poor Un.  Living in the shadow of his father for so many years.  Granted, at 4'little, it wasn't a large shadow, but, it was an entertaining one.  I know so much more about dear ole' dad, from his holy birth announcement of earthquakes and rainbows to his great love of movies.  All I know about Un is that he has threatened to destroy Austin, TX with all of his missile. (sic).  Houston scheduled a party to celebrate.  But building a mini world for Un-zilla to terrorize? Well it's that or feed his people.

I don't believe this stuff. But I do look idiotic

"1 in 5 Americans"

...believe the sun revolves around the earth
...can't find America on a map
...are not sure who we declared independence from
...pee in the pool
...believe the lottery is a good investment




Your Intrepid blogger
Morrison Luke Smith

And for Dessert... Mercury?

I look like Clint Eastwood, no?

Note to self, if I ever enter into a business venture with Vladimir Putin, just pass on the soup course.   For that matter, maybe just skip the meals all together.  In the latest news, Akhmed Bilalov was singled out for blame due to the massive cost over runs at the site of the new ski jump for the upcoming Sochi Olympics.  Then he was fired.  Then he was mercilessly ridiculed by uber-stud Russian President-for-life Vladimir Putin.  Then he was poisoned with mercury.

Wait what was that last bit?  He was poisoned with MERCURY?  

Unlike America where it seems mismanagement of major business endeavors generally leads to promotions, or to pleasant retirement to tropical beaches, in Post - Soviet Russia, beaches retire you.  Or something like that.

This is not the first notable Russian Poisoning.  Let's have a quick recap.  Russian poisoning has a long and storied tradition dating back to the days of Rasputin.  We're mainly interested in contemporary, potential Putin Poisonings.

The Boss

There's  Alexander Litvinenko who was fed Polonium - 210.  He must have been one bad dude.  Let's see he... he WROTE A BOOK?!!!  Apparently he wrote a couple of books.  He seems to be sort of a 9-11 truther for the post-Soviet Russian Set.  Something about Vladimir Putin orchestrating some false-flag operations to secure his rise to power.  Well, seriously, do you mess with the boss?

Seriously. No Soup for you.

Let's not forget .  Victor Yushchenko. He had the temerity to run for President in Ukraine, against an old school pro Russia dude.  Taste Russian vengeance Victor.  He was fed Dioxin in his soup, which is some pretty bad stuff that they put in Electric Transformers.  It's generally not to be used as a condiment.

To summarize.  Vladmir Putin = some character from Game of thrones, except he never loses.





Oh.  And a little heads up to Jacques Cousteau.  Remember the time you declined the invite to visit Russia?  Remember those escaped intelligent, commando dolphins?  Well guess who's coming to dinner. (You are Jacques, you are).

Science, Belief, and Hockey Sticks.

I connect to this post on simplistic arguments against climate change to highlight the fun that Phil Plait's BAD ASTRONOMY blog on Slate provides.  The specifics of the post use the tried and true pick-and-choose-clips-to-make-the-victim-look-silly... popularized by John Stewart.

But it raises a big question:  Science vs. Belief.  It's a philosophical point:  Science, whether Newton, or Climatologists use science.  There is an inherent belief that they CAN be wrong, so they use the scientific method.  (All right, linking to mean ole mr. wizard pranking people is cheeky, but not illustrative).  This is funny, but accurate.

The crop of scientists who adhere to the view that "man made CO2 emissions" are adding to an increase in mean temps" use the scientific method.  But, to be fair, there are some scientists who believe either CO2 is not going up, or that it doesn't matter, or that it's not our fault.  Some of these are real scientists.  But the fact remains, the overwhelming majority of peer reviewed studies support man made climate change.

It's possible scientists can be wrong:  It's possible for there to be pseudo science.  But this pseudo science expresses the role that 'belief' has in shaping views about science.  Interestingly, while the vast majority of scientists believe in global warming, a disturbingly large percentage of Americans are less sure.  Rather, only 13% of Americans know of the overwhelming support scientists have for this theory.

It is absolutely possible for the 99% of scientists to be wrong:  Unlikely, but possible.  Science admits this.  But BELIEF does not -- whether minority held scientific view, an incentive driven economic view, or just concern,  the naysayers for the most part, base their view on belief, not science. And, frankly, it's the media's fault.

But, belief requires no such doubt.  And thanks to the internet, the conflict between belief and science can only be reflected in page views and links, not science and study.

ART

All the robots are GRAY?

Traditional journalism requires both sides be presented equally:  In this case, the question is, is presenting alternate views on global warming the equivalent of giving equal weight to people debating the artistic merit of Picasso and Michael Bay's Transformers 2? (Transformers 1 is awesome and will not be mocked in this forum).

Most interestingly, googling "is global warming man made" returns results that have little or nothing to do with science.  Rush Limbaugh, Forbes, a couple looney sites, "occupycorporatism?" No wonder american's don't even know what the scientists think, if the search engines return gibberish.

I'll leave here, as Search Engine Optimization as it relates to this is a whole other can of worms.  But the question is, how can we make good decisions, if we can't find expert information? Most people genuinely want to explore, discover and learn:  But ironically, as more information  becomes available to us on the internet, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish between expertise, and passion.

Morrison Luke Smith

OK, somewhere in Mississippi....

The suspect is dark haired, drives a cadillac, has a fondness of deep fried peanut butter and jelly, studies martial arts, sings, plays guitar, and loves his momma.  This we know.

Suspect two in the ricin mail case has been caught.  This being the South (my ancestral home), it is no suprise that people who poison trees or mail weird stuff to the president seem to have this rather rudimentary understanding of how mail, and phones work, but this is too much.

It's almost as if the first search of tupelo Mississippi, postal mark on the letters, returned, "Elvis Presley", and the game was afoot.  We go from Elvis Impersonator (obvious), to Tae-kwon-do instrutor (Elvis' second love).

Next up, owner of a fried foods street cart, also in Tupelo.

Morrison Luke Smith

Syria: The never ending war to continue?  I'm not really how I feel about this.  Morally, ethically, I think we must engage.  But Blowback is a very real thing.  More to follow