Alert: explosives may have been placed at Harvard

December 16, 2013 — xanthippa

Breaking news:

Alert: 12/16/2013

10:40am EST

As you learned from the MessageMe alerts this morning, the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) received an unconfirmed report that explosives may have been placed in four buildings on campus: the Science Center, and Thayer, Sever and Emerson halls. Out of an abundance of caution, the buildings have been evacuated while the report is investigated by the HUPD and the Cambridge Police Department.

Access to Harvard Yard has been restricted to residents of the Yard with Harvard ID. As of the writing of this message the report remains unconfirmed and the HUPD has no reason to believe there is a threat to any other site on campus.

Harvard’s focus is on the safety of our students, faculty and staff. We will continue to update the community via MessageME and through messages posted here and on the University’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.

 

Could this be related to the finals?  I knew of one journalism prof who threatened to fail his whole class if at least one bomb threat were not called in during finals.

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Why do people laugh at creationists? (part 40)

November 29, 2013 — xanthippa

Thunderf00t at his best:

 

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Milton Friedman – Lessons Of The Great Depression

November 18, 2013 — xanthippa
Posted in economy, education, politics, society. Tags: , , , , . 3 Comments »

Thorium Powered Car, Drive 100 yrs on 8 grams of fuel!

November 15, 2013 — xanthippa

There is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’!

Now, don’t get me wrong – Thorium is awesome.  Just that if something sounds too good to be true, you should get your BS detector out.  As Bill Nye The Science Guy (who recently had a cameo on The Big Bang Theory) says:  extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof!

Posted in education, science, scientific fraud, society, technology. Tags: , , , , , . 2 Comments »

John Stossel – The School Revolution (with Ron Paul)

November 14, 2013 — xanthippa

I had seriously considered home schooling my kids, but was advised against it on the grounds that as an Aspie parent of Aspie kids, I would not be able to teach them the social skills they needed to get along with the mundanes neurotypicals.

This was, indeed, true – to a degree.

‘School’ did not give my kids ‘education’ as the educators would have perceived it.  Every day, I would tell my kids that even though they are not learning new ‘material’ in school, and that while ‘learning new material’ is the goal for most kids going to school, they, as Aspies, were in a slightly different category.  Obviously, the material would not be new to them, nor difficult to master:  their one and only goal in going to school was to learn how to ‘present’ their knowledge, how to PROVE to the mundanes muggles neurotypicals that they indeed have mastered that knowledge.

So, that is why my kids were not home-schooled.

Well, when I say they were not home-schooled, I do mean they attended actual official schools – from Montessori (I really, really do not recommend this for Aspies) to highly structured, incredibly expensive private schools, to public schools.  They still learned most things at home long before they encountered them in school because I firmly believe that many concepts cannot be fully assimilated and become ‘natural’ unless they are taught at a much, much younger age that at which they are introduced in any formal schooling setting.

The best results we have found were actually in the ‘gifted’ program in the public schools.

Having an Aspie kid go to a Montessori school means he will learn everything about his narrow field of interest, but his horizons will not have been broadened.

Having an Aspie kid go to the most expensive private school meant that he was bullied by really rich people’s kids – so rich and influential (from politicians to the Russian mob) that the school was afraid to tell the parents their kids were being bullies.  Sure, the classrooms were small – but that only meant that there were fewer kids willing/able to stand up to the bullies in defense of the Aspie.  And, it meant a much more intimidated faculty…

Having an Aspie kid go to public schools means that they can see there are kids with much greater learning challenges than their own and makes them protective of their teachers.  From other, less disciplined kids.

Actually, the ‘gifted program’ in the public schools has been the best, most accepting, environment for my kids.  The kids who were not in the ‘gifted program’ in grade-school would not dare to bully the ‘gifties’ because they knew these were going to be their future bosses.  As a matter of fact, girls from the non-gifted classes saw it as a status symbol to be seen with a boy from the gifted class…and it worked for the gifted girls, too. So, there was a lot of tolerance to accept the ‘differentness’ of the smart students by everyone else in the school and this worked to let my kids learn and grow to their best potential.

Sure, most new material was learned at home, years before it was introduced in the school.  It was the social aspect, the ability to present their work in a way that neurotypicals would accept and to interact with other neurotypicals on the school playground that was the important lesson my kids went to school for.

But, had they been born with  these neurotypical abilities, had I and my sons been more comfortable interacting with neurotypicals, I suspect I would not have wasted their time with the academically slow and questionable public schooling.

 

Posted in Aspergers, education, politics. Tags: , , , . 8 Comments »

Quantum Mechanics 9b + c – Photon Spin and Schrödinger’s Cat

November 13, 2013 — xanthippa

 

 

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Aspergers, Signs and What ‘Things Actually Mean’

November 5, 2013 — xanthippa

It is a source of deep frustration for me that so often, signs are interpreted wrongly by the neurotypicals – who read meanings into them that simply are not there!  And, they get indignant when others, with better knowledge of either grammar or logic (or both), act in accordance with what the sign actually says instead of what they erroneously infer it says.

Let me give you an example:  outside of one of the parking lots at my son’s high school, there is a sign:

STAFF ONLY

PLEASE

In one way, this sign is pretty clear:  it is a request that only staff members enter the area.

It is not a statement of a rule, nor an order, because it includes the word ‘PLEASE’ – this clearly indicates that this is a request, something that is being asked of me…and therefore within my power to either grant or reject.

Right?!?!?

Yet, when I drove into the parking lot not with the intent to park there, but simply to drop my son off at the door closest to his locker, two different school employees told him off for my perceived transgression.

Outrageous!!!

The sign never stated that non-staff members are forbidden from even entering, not just parking in the area.

Of course, I am presuming that there ought to be a comma after ‘only’ and before ‘please’.  As is, the sign is a sentence fragment which indicates that the staff is in the process of pleasing some exclusive element, but does not define whom the staff are in the process of pleasing, why, or how one can get on the list of those to be pleased by the staff….much less imply any rules about the area in question!

Now, if one were to interpret the sign as meaning ‘only staff members are allowed in the area’, why are students permitted to walk there?  And, for that matter, if only staff are permitted there, why would the staff members presume that their vehicles are allowed there as well?  It certainly does not state that vehicles owned by staff members are permitted to be driven/parked there.

Really, think about it:  it says ‘staff’ – not ‘staff and their vehicles and students who are walking but not getting out of vehicles”.

I am not being silly here – this is something of a serious issue for us, Aspies.

We take a sign – or an instruction – at its literal meaning.

We do not see any ‘implied’ other meaning – yet, we are the ones who get yelled at or laughed at if we truly follow what the sign actually says.  That only ads insult to injury…

Let me give you another example, from a math test:

“Write the 3 forms of a quadratic relation that you have learned in this course this far…”

It seems obvious that if you have learned any or all of these 3 forms of quadratic relations before you started this class, they are not eligible to be put down for the answer here.   In other words, if you are good at math and already knew them, the only accurate and correct answer is to leave this blank or say ‘none’!

The corollary is that if you are still ignorant of these forms because you are bad at Math and have learned nothing in this class, your answer of leaving this blank or saying ‘nothing’ is also 100% correct:  the question does not ask what was taught, or what material was covered, but what you had actually learned.  If you had learned nothing, then your answer of ‘nothing’ would indeed be factually correct and deserving of full marks!

Yet, if you, as a student, try to point this out to a teacher, you will not be commended for your accurate interpretation of the question.  You will be singled out, put down and even perhaps punished for some trumped up ‘disrespect’ charge…

To an Aspie, this is very, very confusing.

I know – I’ve been there…

Posted in Aspergers, education, language. Tags: , , , , . 4 Comments »

“Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought” (with comments by Greg Lukianoff)

November 1, 2013 — xanthippa
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Fighting for Freedom of Speech

October 23, 2013 — xanthippa

A young man I know well is taking a Civics class in High School.  For his ‘Civics’ project on how to improve our society, he had chosen to seek to raise awareness of the importance of Freedom of Speech.  He chose to do this in two ways:

1.  Following the example of FIRE, he considered setting up a ‘Free Speech Wall’ at his school.  He asked for and received a meeting with his Principal where he proposed the idea.  Due to School Board constraints (High School kids are still minors), this was deemed not possible.

However, his Principal was very supportive of his overall goal and they did agree that a ‘Freedom of Speech Page’ in the school’s newsletter would be a good idea:  all students would be encouraged to write why Freedom of Speech is important to them.  Since this high school has students from very diverse backgrounds, it might help to be inclusive for students who have come to Canada recently from more oppressive countries to be encouraged to share their stories of what life without freedom of speech was like and why we, in Canada, must protect this most core of our civil liberties.

He is still negotiating with the teacher in charge of the school newsletter, but he has volunteered to do the work on it and is hopeful that this will become a reality.

2.  Drafting and collecting signatures on a petition to ask our legislators to strengthen the legal protections on Freedom of Speech.  He had sent me the petition and the accompanying letter:  I have taken the names out of it and turned it into a template that each and every one of us can use, collect signatures on the petition and present our own MPs with the demand to strengthen or Free Speech protections!

The accompanying letter:

Petition to strengthen freedom of speech in our laws

To: ___________________________

Member of Parliament of Canada

Dear _________________________:

In the most recent Throne Speech, our Government stressed its committment to the protection of our core rights and fundamental freedoms. The most fundamental of these is the Freedom of Speech, without which no other right or freedom can be defended. There have been many attacks on freedom of speech as of recent, and despite it being the most crucial human right, many people see it as an optional bonus, despite how important it is.


Our Canadian laws are not in line with other democratic countries, like Australia and the United States of America, and make it very easy for unscrupulous people to abuse our laws to chill legitimate political debate. This type abuse was happening under ‘Section 13’ of the Human Rights Code, and you, our lawmakers, have listened to us, the citizens, and repealed that section. Thank you for that!

However, our other laws are now being similarly abused and I would like you, and all our lawmakers, to take steps to pass legislation to strengthen our freedom of speech!

Sincerely yours,

The petition:

This is a petition to my Member of Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, to ask that our law-makers pass federal laws strenghtening protection of the freedom unpon all our civil liberties depend, the Freedom of Speech, from attacks by those wishing to silence political discourse, so that Canadians within all of Canada would have better protections under the law for our most fundamental freedom.

SIGNATURE                                             NAME (Please Print)                       City, Postal Code

1. ______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

2. ______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

3. ______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

4. ______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

5. ______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

6. ______________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

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10. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

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14. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

15. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

This is a petition to my Member of Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, to ask that our law-makers pass federal laws strenghtening protection of the most fundamental of all of our civil liberties, the Freedom of Speech, from attacks from all directions, so that Canadians within all of Canada would have equal protections under the law for our mos fundamental freedom.

SIGNATURE NAME (Please Print) City, Postal Code

16. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

17. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

18. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

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25. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

26. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

27. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

28. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

29. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

30. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

This is a petition to my Member of Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, to ask that our law-makers pass federal laws strenghtening protection of the most fundamental of all of our civil liberties, the Freedom of Speech, from attacks from all directions, so that Canadians within all of Canada would have equal protections under the law for our mos fundamental freedom.

SIGNATURE NAME (Please Print) City, Postal Code

31. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

32. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

33. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

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40. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

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42. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

43. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

44. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

45. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

This is a petition to my Member of Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, to ask that our law-makers pass federal laws strenghtening protection of the most fundamental of all of our civil liberties, the Freedom of Speech, from attacks from all directions, so that Canadians within all of Canada would have equal protections under the law for our mos fundamental freedom.

SIGNATURE NAME (Please Print) City, Postal Code

46. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

47. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

48. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

49. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

50. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

51. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

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60. _____________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________

If you would like to receive these files as an attachment to an email, where the formatting is properly done up, please, drop me a line in the comments and I will be happy to send it to you.

Posted in education, freedoms, politics, society. Tags: , , , , , , , . 5 Comments »

Quantum Mechanics 9 – Photon Spin and Schrödinger’s Cat

October 23, 2013 — xanthippa

 

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