now I won't have to miss recess

Avoiding a penalty, neurologically speaking, is roughly equivalent to receiving a reward, if this study is correct.

During the first phase of the trial, 16 participants were presented with two graphical images on a screen. They were taught to recognise some characteristics of the graphics which would be associated with monetary rewards in the next part of the experiment, and those graphical aspects linked to negative outcomes.

In phase two, the volunteers received an endowment of $35. While their brains were scanned, they had to guess which one of two images was linked to a $1 reward and which offered no reward. In subsequent trials they had to choose between sets of two images, one which offered no reward and one that incurred a $1 penalty.

Brain scans revealed a similar boost in activity within the medial OFC of subjects whether they gained a dollar or avoided losing one. “This shows for the first time that [punishment avoidance] seems to be a reward,” says O’Doherty.

I'll save commentary and connection to high-stakes testing and teacher salaries for later. Right now I'm having my orbitofrontal cortex massaged.

answer this survey... or else

The phone rings, and a robot wants to know if you prefer paper or plastic. The man with clipboard and pen approaches you at the food court: fill out a few answers on this survey about nachos and receive a $5 check. At the bottom of your Target receipt, you're offered a shot at a $5000 shopping spree if you hop online and share your thoughts about the jewelry department. (If spam is to be trusted, online survey-taking could replace your day job.) Your opinion matters, and the survey is your soapbox.

Unless you're like most people, in which case a survey is an intrusion on a level of the no-knock raid or a prostate exam.

Skip this survey, though, and you could pay, big-time. It's called the American Community Survey, and if you're one of a lucky three million families, it's headed your way.

Ralph Lee, director of the Seattle Census office, says this survey is mandatory. If you get one of these forms, you are required by law to fill it out and return it. If you don't respond within a month, you'll be sent a second survey. If you don't respond by the second month, the Census office will try to call you. If they don't reach you, they might send someone to your house to try to collect the data.

If you still refuse, you could be fined up to five thousand dollars.

Why no carrot, and such an awfully big stick?

the thrill of a quill

To be precise, a quill printer.

So the Palo Alto Research Centre in California (PARC), run by Xerox, has developed a new type of printer with tiny cantilever arms that flip between an ink reservoir and the paper, picking up and depositing a speck of ink powder or drop of liquid ink.

The cantilever arm is around 2 millimetres long and is flipped using electrostatic forces. The main stem of the arm is coated with Teflon, with a bare metal tip that is slit like a fountain-pen nib so that it picks up and deposits a few pico-litres of ink every time it flips.

(This is for you, bro.)

38th Skeptics' Circle

Cool, crisp, refreshing skepticism served today at Skeptic Rant.

Mariners give Guardado walking papers

Guardado, whose performance this season has been ulcerous, goes to Cincinnati for their tenth-best minor league prospect and "cash considerations."

"a cabinet full of hooch"

Among today's letters to the editor (an interesting batch, including two separate instances of "God bless America" and one "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?") is a gem from Angela Langley of Tumwater. Read it to find out why "...teachers should get a raise - a big one."

judges run amok

Not exactly.

In New York and Georgia, they upheld gay marriage bans. In Florida, they struck down a $145 billion (!) class action lawsuit against Big Tobacco. (Coincidentally, both cases involved Rosenblatts--the New York justice who recused himself, Albert, and the husband and wife suing the tobacco companies, Stanley and Susan. They don't appear to be related.)

Regardless of whether you find the verdicts fair or unfair, welcome or distasteful, it's clear that the heady days of judicial activism are done--because they never existed. (Sorry, Bill Frist.)

the quotable Island in the Sky

A different sort of John Wayne staves off hunger and the cold after crash-landing in northeastern Canada. The film, mostly because of its gritty realism and splendid cinematography, succeeds despite a clunker of a script. Some of my favorite lines, great for all the wrong reasons:

Milk is for babies!

Wowie!

I like chubby girls.

It makes my eyes look Chinese-y.

I was gonna fry you such a beautiful chicken tonight.

Hello, my little kumquat.

I'll just go back and snuggle down with Wilson 'til you're through with the scrapin'.

Island in the Sky would make an interesting double feature with either the original Flight of the Phoenix or No Highway.

man does not live by spades alone

In Wisconsin, Cero Zuccarello (husband of poet Erin Hanusa) earns his daily bread at poker tables real and virtual.

In Washington state, Cero Zuccarello could be arrested and charged with a class C felony.

summer math

In today's letters to the editor, Melinda Mulcahy starts off by making an interesting point about the hours teachers put in beyond the contract day, so they shouldn't feel guilty about taking a long summer vacation. (She doesn't mention summer classes, prep time for a new curriculum, or second jobs to pay the bills.)

But then, in the middle of her missive, something goes wrong.

A teacher in my building works an average of 10 hours per week beyond her contracted time in order to do the job well. Often, even more is required.

So I multiplied 10 hours by 36 weeks per school year, then divided by 5 days per week and divided by 7.5 hours per day and was shocked by my result.

I found that this teacher actually works 9.6 WEEKS per school year without pay.

In my case, I can then divide the result by 0.6, since I am a part-time teacher, and my overtime computes to 16 weeks per school year.

Not much wrong with the first calculation. If we were all technical about off-duty lunch, the number of weeks would only shoot up to ten and some change.

But then Mulcahy makes the assumption that a .6 teacher works ten hours per week beyond the contract, which, speaking as a one-time .6 teacher, isn't a practical assumption. Factoring that in, we get six hours by 36 weeks divided by 5 days at 4.5 hours per day, and, lo and behold, Mulcahy works 9.6 weeks without pay.

(Even if Mulcahy's assumption is right, and a .6 teacher really does work as much beyond the contract as a full-time teacher, the move to divide by .6 and claim to work 16 weeks extra is only going to confuse readers, who will forget that those 16 weeks are composed of 4.5-hour days--and thus the same number of total hours, 360, as the full-time teacher's.)

As teacher advocates, our hearts have to be in the right place--but so do our decimals.

happy 4th

Today my family celebrates independence from George III by hiking to where a bomber lies crashed in the Olympics. Whether celebrating freedom, finding an excuse to burn up your budget, or merely marking the passage of time, enjoy your Tuesday. See you tomorrow.

Superman Returns

Superman was gone?

are you ready for the revolution? part II, the rise of the Google PC

If schools are one day phased out and replaced by individuated online instruction, we'll look back and see the rise of the Google PC as an essential step in the transformation.

Simply put, the Google PC is any PC that will soon be able to access the massive computing power of Google's servers, running network-based software at speeds far greater than allowed by puny Pentiums. As Paul Boutin writes,

You could still run Windows on a Google PC; it just wouldn't matter if you did or not. Most Google PC rumors imagine a low-priced, Windows-less, entry-level computer for the Wal-Mart set. That could be part of the plan, but it would just be one more option. Instead of trying to convince every consumer on the planet to buy a new machine, it makes a lot more sense for Google to build a super-service that you could log into from any computer, phone, or television, or car and airplane seatback. You would be able to access your files anywhere by logging in, calling up your desktop, and popping into Google's array of Gmail-like applications for word processing, photo editing, and anything else you can think of.

At Capital, we use a scaled-down version of this setup. Our computer labs are full of dummy terminals, screens with keyboards and mice that run software from the network server. They have no hard drives, so they're cheap and relatively fast. The Google PC goes a step beyond, so schools wouldn't even have to host software on their own networks.

Are these pie-in-the-sky techno-utopian fantasies? Perhaps. I enjoy teaching in a traditional classroom, with all the advantages and difficulties of seat time and face-to-face instruction, and I'm sure those who are entrenched in that format aren't going to let it disappear without a fight. The technological capability is there, though, waiting for the right social and political context. (As a hypothetical, think how readily people would accept online instruction in the advent of an avian flu pandemic.) When it happens, will you be ready?

Target You!

Relive the glory days of Civil Defense with Target You!, a collection of classic God-help-those-who-don't-help-themselves shorts describing the precautions you can take to avoid immediate death at the hands of an atomic bomb ("or an H-bomb!"). Best entries:

What is Communism?
Commies are lying, dirty, shrewd, determined, godless... "And Godless is probably the worst, because it causes all the others."

Warning Red
The most depressing entry, as a town is destroyed in flames and dazed citizens wander amid the rubble.

Duck and Cover
Learn how to save your life by imitating a talking turtle. In the park, in the halls, in the supermarket, duck... and cover!

Target You
In its most memorable graphic, the crosshairs zoom in from the Free World to Your Groin. Definitely the most heinous plot of the Godless Communists.

My wife and I watched them last night (and a couple this morning) to get into the proper frame of mind for Superman Returns. After all, we needed the Man of Steel to save us from the Man of Steel.

ratings creep, or mission creep?

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. I wish they'd take over for the acknowledged legislators, though, starting with Roy Blunt.

A Christian-themed movie about a football coach's faith in God is finding an audience in Congress, not so much for its inspirational message but for the PG rating it received.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and other lawmakers are demanding explanations after hearing complaints that the movie "Facing The Giants" was rated PG instead of G because of religious content.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims the controversy arose from a miscommunication with the filmmakers.

"This incident raises the disquieting possibility that the MPAA considers exposure to Christian themes more dangerous for children than exposure to gratuitous sex and violence," Blunt said in a letter to Dan Glickman, MPAA chairman and chief executive officer.

Blunt earns a PG for Puffery and Grandstanding. A movie with "gratuitous sex and violence" will get slapped with an R rating--far "more dangerous" than PG. (This isn't the good old days.) Second, even if we grant that the board decided that religiosity was worth a PG rating on face, so what? Christian themes are mature, and not every parent wants their child exposed to religious propaganda--and it's Christian parents who take offense when other worldviews are given favorable treatment. Ted Baehr's Movieguide on Nacho Libre, for example:

Mixed pagan worldview with some strong Christian content/premise and moral values (including positive prayer and references to Christian faith as well as comic hero helps orphanage and woman tells hero to "fight for something noble or someone who needs your help"), but set in a comedic, slightly satirical, goofy, borderline, and (sometimes) possibly sacrilegious sacrilegious, anti-Christian, but comical, way that may turn off some Roman Catholics and other Christians...

Ironically, the only parents I know who would balk at a PG rating are Christians.

That the movie's producers haven't appealed the decision speaks volumes about the non-controversy--but that's not enough for preening moralizers.

"I'm not satisfied," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who attended the meeting with Blunt. "We probably will want to revisit this ratings process to have some commonality in the standards that exist for movies, videos and video games."

Blackburn said she wants the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold hearings on the issue.

Because they have nothing better to do.

are you ready for the revolution?

You're reading a blog, which means you already know how technology is changing the way people interact and learn. But are you ready to upgrade to a new delivery model?

Computer screens in homes across Washington will become classrooms on the first day of school.

Enrollment started last week for a new Washington Virtual Academy, an online K-8 public school in the Steilacoom Historical School District that's now available to students statewide.

"We are pioneers," virtual academy teacher Anna Shaw said at an information session in Lacey. "We really need parents who are going to take the ball and run with it. This is going to be a very important year for all of us."

State legislation passed in 2005 could pave the way for more distance-learning programs statewide.

The legislation broadened student eligibility to enroll in distance-learning programs. It also redefined how students could have direct contact with their certified teachers.

Previously, students in distance-learning programs needed to spend some time in person with a certificated teacher. Now, "direct personal contact" with a teacher can include talking on the phone, e-mailing, instant messaging and more.

turnaround, part II: the Canada Day comeback

A couple days ago I noted that the Seattle Mariners finally look like a winning team. Right after that, they lost 2-0 in a dazzling shutout, for a moment seeming to return to their old loserly habits.

Tonight, as Joel Pineiro got rocked for seven runs in three innings, even diehard fans could smell the first whiff of a losing streak.

But no..

Ichiro Suzuki lined a two-out, two-run homer to right field in the sixth inning, capping the Seattle Mariners rally from a five-run deficit for an 8-7 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night.

Facing reliever David Cortes, Suzuki worked the count full, then hit a fastball from the right-hander an estimated 372-feet into the frenzied crowd in right. It was Suzuki's fifth homer of the season and the first runs allowed by Cortes (3-1) in his last five appearances.

A month ago, last night's loss would have started a six-game skid. Something's different about these M's--and it smells good like garlic fries on a simmering summer night.

ora pro nobis peccatoribus

Graduation: time for Pomp and Circumstance, longwinded speakers, ecstatic parents, beach balls, and lawsuits.

Yep. More lawsuits. This time, it's a student who, along with her wind ensemble, was barred by an overzealous administrator from playing an instrumental version of a classically arranged religious tune.

Several composers have written versions of "Ave Maria." The most well known is the version penned by Franz Schubert in 1825.

The version selected by the Jackson High School ensemble was written in 1964 by Franz Biebl as a choral arrangement for a German firefighters' choir.

The perceived religiosity of the piece derives from the lyrics, which in Biebl's version were taken from a prayer that is recited daily in the Catholic Church.

The Jackson High School wind ensemble planned to play an instrumental version of the piece, however.

The lyrics weren't going to be sung--or even included in the program. Instead of treating music as music, the superintendent worried that its ignorable origin might somehow infect the proceedings, a liturgical rash breaking out in the susceptible crowd.

What if the students had chosen Sibelius's rousing "Finlandia," trying to sneak in the religious message of "Be Still My Soul?" Christian songwriters are a tricky bunch, copping melodies from secular music to subliminally convert the unwitting. Kudos to the superintendent for standing up for the stupid.

$100 million: enough to boost Washington state college enrollment?

After the bluster, the beef:

• Give free tuition for all first-year community college students and a matching financial break to freshmen entering four-year colleges — creating a "K-13" system.

• Raise annual tuition and fees for all state universities to reflect the rates set by nine peer states.

That would make the two research universities — the University of Washington and Washington State University — comparatively more expensive and encourage more students to enter the four other state universities. It also would give universities more money to spend on staff and students.

Tuition would rise about $1,600 at UW and WSU and about $1,000 at the other universities.

Community-college rates would remain the same. Students below median-income levels would get increased aid to offset tuition increases.

• Encourage low-income high-school students to attend college. Students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch in eighth grade would be promised free college tuition if they maintain at least a C average through their senior year in high school. Indiana uses a similar incentive.

• Give extra money to institutions and, in some cases, forgive student loans for those enrolled in high-demand fields, such as computer science and nursing. The goal is to open more enrollment slots as well as encourage more students to enter those fields.

They're just recommendations, though any or all might be taken up by either Christine Gregoire or the legislature. What word is missing, and conspicuous in its absence?

Yep. WASL. You can almost guarantee that if the C-average = free college tuition plan is sent to our lawmakers, they'll change it into a WASL-pass = free college tuition.

(I'm not exactly thrilled about setting the bar at a C average. Why expect only mediocrity?)

Q: who gets hurt from gay marriage?

A: Everyone in the path of the killer quake. Men, women, children, puppies, circus clowns, anesthesiologists, taxi drivers, morticians, presidents, vice principals, bloggers, party poopers, opportunists, parasites, emu ranchers, Zoroastrians, cephalopods, prog rockers, custodial assistants, dictators, phrenologists, masseuses, ex-flames, raconteurs, newscasters, saints, high jumpers, academics, nymphomaniacs, used car salesmen, cherry pickers, mad scientists, jocks, gang bangers, B-list celebrities, ponies, brunettes, televangelists, identical twins, dweebs, long haul truckers, courtesy clerks, and any combination thereof. All God's children get hurt when God gets mad.





[link via PZ. 110th in a series]