Links for 2010-11-30

"About a year ago, I started partitioning up my Calculus tests into three sections: Concepts, Mechanics, and Problem Solving. The point values for each are 25, 25, and 50 respectively. [...]

I did this to stress to students that the main goal of taking a calculus class is to learn how to solve problems effectively, and that conceptual mastery and mechanical mastery, while different from and to some extent independent of each other, both flow into mastery of problem-solving like tributaries to a river. It also helps me identify specific areas of improvement; if the class' Mechanics average is high but the Concepts average is low, it tells me we need to work more on Concepts.

I just gave my third (of four) tests to my two sections of Calculus, and for the first time I started paying attention to the relationships between the scores on each section, and it felt like there were some interesting relationships happening between the sections of the test. "

"What is truly novel is not the information, much of which has been reported before, but the language. Normally poker-faced diplomats are quoted making unflattering and occasionally amusing assessments of their interlocutors. Not all of them are Americans: The Saudi king thinks the Pakistani president is "rotten"; France's top diplomat thinks Iran is a "fascist state"; Britain's national bank chairman thinks his prime minister is "shallow"; and so on.
This is certainly embarrassing for those who made the remarks. I am less sure whether their revelation gets us anywhere: On the contrary, it seems that in the name of "free speech" another blow has been struck against frank speech. Yet more ammunition has been given to those who favor greater circumspection, greater political correctness, and greater hypocrisy."

"The Naked Gun would spawn two official sequels, but more importantly, it would dictate the rest of Nielsen's career. He went on to star in numerous Naked Gun-style spoofs such as Spy Hard, Repossessed, Dracula: Dead And Loving It, 2001: A Space Travesty, and Scary Movie 3 and 4, as well as the live-action cartoon adaptation Mr. Magoo. But even though most of these were terrible, it was hard to fault Nielsen for doing them: He always seemed to be having a blast with his late-career renaissance and kept gamely plugging away in that same spoof genre right up until last year's Stan Helsing and Spanish Movie. It's not getting caught in the gears of a combine or having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, but goofing around is also a pretty good way for a man to die."

"Seth Michaels wants me to republish an old post setting out the top ten mistakes that infest day-to-day reporting of numerical and statistical information. Well, why not? Let's call them statistical zombies so that I can get in on the zombie craze"