February 2, 2012
Category: Politics
Here's Alabama state senator Shadrack McGill explaining why it's a bad idea to raise teachers's salaries:
If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach.
To go in and raise someone's child for eight hours a day, or many people's children for eight hours a day, requires a calling. It better be a calling in your life. I know I wouldn't want to do it, OK?
And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It's just in them to do. It's the ability that God give 'em. And there are also some teachers, it wouldn't matter how much you would pay them, they would still perform to the same capacity.
If you don't keep that in balance, you're going to attract people who are not called, who don't need to be teaching our children. So, everything has a balance.
To answer your obvious question: No, he has no problem with raising the salaries of state legislators:
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 11:01 PM • 11 Comments
Category: Politics
By now I'm sure we are all familiar with the Jessica Ahlquist case in Cranston, RI. The New York Times provides a helpful summary:
She is 16, the daughter of a firefighter and a nurse, a self-proclaimed nerd who loves Harry Potter and Facebook. But Jessica Ahlquist is also an outspoken atheist who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium, where it has hung for 49 years.
A federal judge ruled this month that the prayer's presence at Cranston High School West was unconstitutional, concluding that it violated the principle of government neutrality in religion. In the weeks since, residents have crowded school board meetings to demand an appeal, Jessica has received online threats and the police have escorted her at school, and Cranston, a dense city of 80,000 just south of Providence, has throbbed with raw emotion.
State Representative Peter G. Palumbo, a Democrat from Cranston, called Jessica “an evil little thing” on a popular talk radio show. Three separate florists refused to deliver her roses sent from a national atheist group. The group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has filed a complaint with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights.
Looks like they have some charming folks up there in Cranston.
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 1:28 AM • 18 Comments
January 28, 2012
Category: Mathematics
The Big Sudoku Book has received another review, and in an unexpected venue: The Wall Street Journal! The review is by Keith Devlin, a mathematician at Stanford University and the author of a small library of books of his own. Devlin writes:
The authors show vividly that mathematics is really about the power of abstraction, the push to explain as much as possible in the most compact form possible. Numbers and arithmetic are a part of that enterprise, but there is a lot more besides. “Taking Sudoku Seriously” is an excellent vehicle whereby devotees of the puzzle can come to understand the nature of mathematics.
Score!
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 6:38 PM • 1 Comments
January 27, 2012
Category: Miscellaneous
Over at Talking Philosophy, Mike LaBossiere offers a defense of teachers's unions. He is a bit too tame for my taste, and he is far too respectful towards anti-union arguments that have far more to do with general hostility to public education than they do with measured criticism, but in the end he arrives at the right place:
In general, it would be rather odd if unions did not cause some problems. If they did not, they would be truly unique. However, it seems more sensible to address these problems rather than simply condemning unions. Given the fervor with which these unions are being attacked, it might be suspected that some folks stand to make a profit by getting rid of these unions. But perhaps that is merely cynicism on my part. After all, I am sure that the people funding the attacks on unions and the politicians who will attack them are merely driven by a love of the public good and are doing it for the children.
The simple fact is that as a society we do everything in our power to make teaching as unappealing a profession as possible. In most districts the pay and benefits are laughable compared to other professions. Even worse, there is a deep lack of respect for the work that teachers do. People who haven't set foot in a classroom since their own, typically undistinguished, academic careers, and who wouldn't last five minutes if they ever did enter a classroom, seem perfectly happy to give lectures on how easy teachers have it, what with their nine-month school year and workday that ends at 3:05. Teachers are the only one's blamed for poor student performance. It is never the fault of spineless, unsupportive administrators, or lazy, shiftless students and their irresponsible, enabling parents. The only forces working against all this are the unions, and bless their hearts for doing so.
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 10:18 PM • 12 Comments
January 25, 2012
Category: Mathematics
Well, the BSB (that's the Big Sudoku Book) has now received its first review. It comes from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs an excellent website about mathematical games and puzzles and is very well-known among those interested in recreational mathematics. Did he like the book?
Along with Sudoku Masterpieces and Mutant Sudoku, this is one of the best Sudoku books ever written. And I do mean written/crafted -- too many Sudoku books are computer generated. This book shows a lot of careful craftsmanship.
He did! Go check out the rest of the review. Then go buy multiple copies before they are all gone and you are left feeling silly for not having bought one when you had the chance...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 9:58 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Religion
Since my little break has turned out to be longer than I anticipated, I fear that my blog muscles have atrophied a bit. So let's start flexing them again by revisiting a familiar topic: Adam and Eve.
Over at HuffPo, Peter Enns makes another contribution to the genre that tries to explain why evangelical Christians should not be troubled by the fact that science completely refutes the traditional understanding of Adam and Eve. He gets off to a good start:
Read on »
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 1:33 AM • 68 Comments
January 10, 2012
Category: Mathematics
In honor of the publication of the BSB (that's the Big Sudoku Book, for those not up on the local slang), my coauthor, Laura, and I hosted a session at last week's Joint Mathematics Meetings about the mathematics of Sudoku. I gave the opening talk in the session, an overview of some interesting mathematical questions that arise naturally from thinking about Sudoku. Of course, I had a slide discussing what, until recently, was considered the biggest open problem in this area: What is the minimum number of clues a sound puzzle can have?
Of course, everyone knew the answer was 17. After all, plenty of 17-clue puzzles were known, but despite extensive computer searching no one had ever found a 16-clue puzzle. Still, since persistent failure to find a counterexample does not count as a proof, the problem was open. I had a slide in my talk saying as much.
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Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:27 PM • 8 Comments
January 2, 2012
Category: Anti-Creationism
I have a general policy of not blogging when I'm on the road, but I couldn't resist poking my head up to call your attention to this article, by Paul Wallace, over at HuffPo. Follow the link to see why...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 3:00 PM • 419 Comments
December 31, 2011
Category: Mathematics
Tomorrow I will observe New Year's Day by hopping into the Jasonmobile and driving to my New Jersey office. Which is to say, I will be visiting my parents. Then on Tuesday I shall hop on a train and sally forth to Boston, which is hosting the annual math extravaganza knows as the Joint Mathematics Meetings. Lots of math, lots of socializing, what's not to like? I won't be arriving back in Harrisonburg until Sunday the eigth. Alas, on Monday it's right back into the classroom for the spring semester.
Which is to say, I won't be posting anything for a little while. Now, now, let's have none of that. Show a little dignity.
The spam filters around here sometimes get a little touchy, and a lot of worthy comments end up in my spam folder. During my brief blog break, of course, I will not be checking in very often to clear out the ones that should have gone through in the first place. Sorry about that. If you keep your comments short and without links you should be OK.
So best wishes for 2012! See you in a little bit...
Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 5:34 PM • 0 Comments
December 30, 2011
Category: Evolution
Michael Ruse has written another post about morality. Sadly, he hasn't really clarified much of anything. Throughout this discussion his position has been that there are moral facts that we come to know through non-scientific means. I have been trying to understand how he justifies either part of that, but I'm afraid I still have no idea.
He writes:
First, the complaint that since I think morality is a product of evolution through natural selection, I must therefore be using science to justify my ethical claims. I too am committing the naturalistic fallacy. Not so. Distinguish between an explanation of the origin of something and its justification. Suppose David Barash starts writing columns claiming to be the Queen of the May. We discover that this is because a group of Christian fanatics captured him and, as in The Manchurian Candidate, brainwashed him. That is the explanation for why he now thinks the way he does. It is hardly a justification of the claim--delightful though it would be, were it true--that he is in fact the Queen of the May.
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Posted by Jason Rosenhouse at 8:18 PM • 82 Comments
